DINKY!

The mixed bag of companions (with their own quests). Nice for changing things up for mulitple playthroughs.
Weapon mods. Weapon mods. Weapon mods. (I'd love to see more of them)
Crafting
While I loved FO3, I didn't like the time spent in vault 101 as a kid. I appreciate the brevity of the starting scenario in NV.
To avoid spoilers, I'll just call it the thing that you pull out of the water for the old guy. That thing completely made the ending for me on my first run.
Putting on Boone's beret... Wow. I even knew it was coming and it still got to me.

Did I mention Dinky?

No more essential NPCs, yay!

It seems like the only people in Fallout 3 who could be killed were nameless schmucks and NPCs that needed to die for various quests. Anyone else, even when it made no sense, were off-limits.

I love having the freedom to do nothing. There are many quests you can simply ignore, groups and factions you can choose to ignore, even if they are part of the main quest line. I love that. And it even affects the end slides. Too many RPGs force you to do quest 1, then 2, then you MUST do 3 followed by 4, etc. FNV lets you do 1 in a half-assed way if you wish, then skip 2 entirely and go right to 3.

The Companions had so some real deep stories behind them, it made me feel good having them with me because I somehow felt attached to them. They felt...real.

And one that hasn't been said....Vault 11 :thumbsup:

1. The Companion Wheel.

2. Ammo reloading / benches / multiple Ammos - LOVE the Ammos

3. The Voice Acting and quality of the actors/actresses.

4. Vault 34.

5. The portrayal of the super mutants - loved how this was done!

This also makes you invincible. As soon as 1hp or more is taken off you, pump yourself up with as many stimpaks as desired and you can no longer be hit. Not so hardcoe anymore!

Just because you do that, Does'nt mean other people do.

This was one thing I did really like.

DeathClaw at the Quarry.

Yeah, I love this.

I just can't kill the vendertron because of that freaking box...

Big Guns being spread out guns and energy weapons. Primarily because I felt that having the Gatling Laser and Minigun under the same skill was redundant.

More realistic loot placement. Generally speaking, I'm not finding 5+ Stimpacks, 100+ Caps & many rounds of various ammo types in an office building. Most of the loot has either been 'prospected' or actually has an owner in the game. In addition to making resources feel more 'scarce', I find I don't have to scour every desk, mailbox & filing cabinet I encounter expecting to find the 'Great Gun of Gore' or some other oddly placed item of value. This improves the scavenging for me as I don't feel I *must* search everywhere in case I miss something significant.

I still don't like this myself. Big guns were high end military, while Small guns were conventional police & Swat style weapons. There is more to the skill than pointing it.
Having the skills split requires the PC to specialize if they want the benefit of that kind of weapon. It prevents the PC from becoming an equal expert with both pistols and miniguns without significant expenditures that affect the non weapon skills. Merging them further breaks the game IMO.

As for Gatling Laser being redundant with Minigun ~I don't see it either. They would have little in common but for their rate of fire and generic "Minigun" appearance; but the skills to aim and maintain would be radically different I'd think.

+1 Also in agreement, and this is one of the few areas in which I think JES didn't get it "exactly right". I say that because I think the vast majority of gun-related stuff was extremely well done and I enjoy it immensely. But where Big Guns were concerned, it seems like they didn't pay as much attention to it.

Miniguns are mechanical machines (by any other name), and require a very specific skill-set to reload, repair and even understand how to correctly fire it. Gatling Lasers are equally different, the concept of Beam weaponry has absolutely _nothing_ to do with a motorized machine gun - the mechanisms would be Totally different. The skill necessary to reload, repair and effectively utilize it in the field would be based alot on beam-angles and an understanding of how lasers work on different types of material, where with the minigun we (should) have more spread and require factors like trajectory and leading the target. Light is instant, there is no leading with a gatling laser.

So definitely agree here, Miniguns and Gatling Lasers should each have their OWN skill. You either know how to handle these kinds of weapons or you don't. I can pick up any pistol or revolver in the world and make it work, in most cases very easily. Same with shotguns and many rifles. The same CANNOT be said of these big guns - I wouldn't have the first clue on how to load or handle either, and I handle guns every day.

But this is a small thing compared to how well designed the Guns were overall - staying in line with the thread. Even this criticism is but a weak whimper compared to how well the entire "Gun Thing" was done in New Vegas. I'm still having a riot with the game.

I would've liked it if they would have stuck with Big Guns but also had it so that if I spent points in Guns then I could use Minigun to perfection.
And have added side-arms and rifles as skills as well so that one can either choose theme oriented skills (explosives, EW, guns) or combo oriented skills (side-arms, rifles, big guns).

This argument could equally applied to seperating rifles from pistols. And automatics from the rest. I don't think narrow specialization by specific weapon group is really desireable.

You do realize you pretty much just argued for these two guns being different skills, right? "radically different"

The redundancy comes from, as a player, the similarities are all the player experiences. That's basically the definition of redundant. One shoots lasers, the other shoots lead. The intricacies of operation are irrelevant when the only operation a player has is holding down the mouse button.

Absolutely ~and it was.
The original game (FO1) had generic 'catch all' skills, but they were still noticeably distinct. Traps and Outdoorsman were not the same, Repair and Sneak were not the same ~nor Sneak and Lockpick.

The two that most mention are First Aid and Doctor (which should never have been merged, and additionally... had at least one game mechanic reason for the separation).

That would be best IMO. Consider Baldur's Gate 2.... There was the skill for short swords and the skill for long swords, and then there was the skill that let you use Katanas. You want to use a Katana you have to commit to the skill.
Both Miniguns should be the same IMO.

I can't agree with that; Miaximus said it perfectly above; they are differing machines and the details matter. The PC would not know both from the same training.

The way they slipped in the music from the first two Fallouts. I have that music embedded in my brain, and every time I hear some of it, I get sooo into this game. It's like a drug. Sometimes it's just a hint of one of the old songs, in an intro, or it only lasts a couple of measures, but quite often it will play the whole song. I'm on the 360, so I can't check the music file, but I know what I hear.

The first time I consciously noticed it was when I first waltzed into Nipton. Anyone recognize this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ-FS9mw7GU? It made that moment intense. I was just stalking Legionnaires out in the hills around Broc Flower Cave and this came on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bNaMuDezzk. It was beautiful. I've heard other songs too. Underground Trouble, Flame of the Ancient World, Metallic Monks, City of Lost Angels. I haven't heard Khans of the New California or My Chrysalis Highwayman yet, I don't think. I hope they're in there.

Anyway, this old music is all over the place in NV, and I think it was a great design choice. Hearing it has made this old Fallout junkie very happy indeed. I never listen to the radio anymore. Why would I?

Mark Morgan was awesome

A toast: (pops open a couple of Gamma Gulp Beers) "to Mark Morgan"! :foodndrink:

*Bump* I know this thread is way old-- almost 2 weeks-- but I just wanted to put in my thumbs-up for how widespread the reputation thing works.

My current lvl 21 character is being pretty good to the NCR and I just walked into a NCR camp in the Northwest. I walked up to the C.O. to say hi, and she said something like,

Same thing with other groups: mild to serious verbal threats depending on how bad you'd been to them, ramping up to attack if you've been vilivfed... wonderful touches.

What an improvement over FO3 where you could be actually working with some group like the BOS Outcasts and they'd still make snotty comments. A very annoying immersion squasher, now improved 100x.

:fallout:

Well, the patch has yet to come to xbox but I'm glad that they decided to give EW it's boost and fix the multiplas and defender's ridiculous ammo consumptions.
But it remains to be seen whether it's balanced or not.
I mean, Max Charge Electron Charge Package does -10DT while Max Charge Microfusion Cell does -10DT?
Seems... Weird... Hope they've tested it enough and it's actually balanced, cause here's the thing, RCW and Gatling Laser are meant to be DPS weapons.
DPS weapons are meant to be used against low DT enemies that come in swarms (cazadors, gecko's, ghouls).
But giving MCECP a -10DT might make them too powerful.
But again, it remains to be seen.

Still, I'm glad they patched this.

I've yet to hear news about Explosives, if they also got a fix, but if they did then I'll come back giddy as a catholic japanese schoolgirl once again.

AGREED! :foodndrink:

When I heard city of Lost Angels I had the biggest grin on my face. It was awesome.

Modoc is one of my personal favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teckDmaZf98

Although it's a mellow tune it always gives me a weird kinda spooky feeling. Such a beautiful yet strange song.


I only tune in to listen to Tabitha's Free Utobitha.

Here's a couple Gamma Gulps for you guys too! :foodndrink: