curious as to which most people prefer. i started off using energy weapons but they are severely gimped compared to the guns im seeing. i keep both gun and energy at fairly close levels and im just seeing much better preformance from guns.

Energy weapons get a lot of perk bonuses at higher levels.

Explosives. The AoE is great.

I prefer guns purely because theirs just more variety with them. Energy weapons pretty much boils down to Laser, Plasma, Gatling. The different variations on those make very little difference to your playstyle, and the difference between a laser and a plasma isn't that great to begin with.

I mean just look at the rifles in game. You've got your snipers, bolt action, lever action, semi automatic and fully automatic. The rifles by themselves feel more varied than all of the energy weapons do combined.

Guns i love to snipe from so far away you can barely even see the mob, and for close up in caves and buildings i like the fully moded 10mm.

In FO3 I kept energy and guns at the same high level, in NV I have just left my energy stat to rot as I have experienced and read that they are pretty weak.
I have found a new liking for unarmed since I found Pushy as well.
Any thing large I can't snipe gets the Assault carbine and if they get too close they get their faces punched in.
I find Pushy actually deals really well with some of the trickier enemies inside caves, you can OHK nightstalkers with it without a stealth kill.

I don't like using explosives purely because they make looting so much harder. Fire a missile into a room full of loot to kill a raider and it scatters all over the place. That nice skill book that was propped up with a light shining on it in the middle of the room on a table is now jammed behind the refrigerator in the kitchen where it's pitch black.

I put my companions on stay and snuck into caesar's camp to reign silent death with my 12.7mm smg..... oh the joy of mass undetected carnage!

EDIT: forgot to mention it has a silencer mod... but that is kinda obvious!

Explosives. The guns and energy weapons are just plain weaker in this game, and with the changes in VATS I find myself using them less and less. I stick with melee or unarmed as my main, and keep around a good selection of grenades to hurl into mobs of enemies.

I am never an explosive guy, I would only really use them for the trophy, but there are some really cool energy weapons, like the plasma caster and the recharger rifle.

wow.........this isnt even close. definitely going to go for pure guns build next playthrough.

2 words: anti-materiel

EW for me. At the moment.

I mean, I have a high Critical build, with meltdown, I carry around the plasma caster, the unique laserpistol of critical amazingness, the unique plasma rifle and a ton of other stuff on occasion (not that I use it often). Didn't have too much problems taking out the deathclaws (level 24), don't have too much problems with anything for the moment.

However, I am considering re-olling a guns build simply due to the variety. Using the same EW all the time gets old really fast.

Also - applied in general to weapons - WHY CAN'T I MODIFY THE UNIQUE/NAMED WEAPONS?! :brokencomputer:

I've found Guns to be the best in look, effectiveness, and feel. However I have a Melee Bomber character in the early stages and it is incredibly satisfying to toss dynamite and watch my enemies suffer a rain of explosions. Now they've become a close contender with firearms for me.

I was all about Guns in Fallout and I'm all about guns in New Vegas. Guns Baby.

Well, I've maxed guns skill, now working on energy weapons...with a gimped VATS, it's not going to make much difference for me I think. Now that my main source of large income is gone with me being banned from most casinos, I'll be throwing rocks at the bad guys I think.

I voted Explosives simply becuase that's my focus rightnow and the result sare quite impressive. No faction is any match for a grenade rifle with 3 Explosives Expert perks backing it up. Cazzadores can be a problem if the first blast doesn't cripple their wing, but EVERYTHING else is simply no match. Deathclaws can't handle grenade rifles.