i've noticed that in fallout 3 rite off the bat guns were clearly the way 2 go, while in vegas the first gun u get is a varmint rifle and the first melee weapon i, personally, found was a rebar club, which dumbshows the rifle. also to jump topics i find myself with far mor caps than i would've had at the same lvl and time as fallout 3. maybe its jus me bein greedy and not buyin but i dont think thats it. to jump topics again, does any1 one else miss fighting supermutants?? i mean the only supermutants i've killed are the ones on black mountain and fighting supermutants was prolly my favorite part of fallout 3. feel free to add or argue my points im lookin 4ward 2 some good conversations

I never played a melee character in FO3 but I can tell you for sure my melee character in NV is having no problems at all. But where did you find the rebar club at the beginning? I'm using a baseball bat.

I find Guns if New Vegas more focused on than the other fighting "styles." Energy weapons for example are nerfed, and melee and unarmed are oddly tied together for certain perks. In Fallout 3 Guns were not as "dominant" compared to Energy Weapons. Now, not only are they much cheaper to use, they are also (in some cases) more effective.

But, despite that, I find Melee much "stronger" this time around despite my lack of Jingwei's Shocksword.

The first melee weapon I got was either the machete or the bladed gauntlet (I'm not sure which came first). My first (and only) PC is now 4th or 5th level and uses the supersledge almost exclusively (when fighting melee). What I have not seen yet is any special attacks. All I get is the same 95% all body target.

**So far... melee seems the same as FO3 to me (though I know there are said to be improvements).

I've noticed huge improvements in unarmed. I have about three special moves outside of VATS and with no certain weapon required. I have one special move in VATS (along with the ability to uppercut or cross hit) and a couple of my weapons have special moves as well.

Is this due to skill thresholds? (I still have pretty low skills).

If you do "Come Fly with Me," you'll find plenty of them. On my second playthrough as a melee character, I ended up doing that quest fairly early. Once you get one, the rest of that quest becomes a cakewalk, and you'll find plenty more to keep it repaired along the way.

The three special moves I got from NPCs. Some things may have a skill requirement. I don't remember noticing the uppercut and cross hit until a certain point.

Yep. I believe the supersledge requires a melee skill of 100 to get the option to do its special move in VATS.

Feel free to join in the discussion for this over http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1138539-new-vegas-comapared-to-fallout-3/