personally i like it that way itmakes you seem more human and less of a superhuman robot person and its not overly annoying... so good balance i say so at least

Pfft. hardcoe in this game is silly baby mode. Then again this is only a Fallout game. I'm not expecting masochistic gamers here reveling in each and every defeat and going into a fight knowing theres a good chance your going to get your nuts kicked off and the only way to heal it is to get to the doctors and rest halfway across the map in the only safe area while mutant zombies ravage your legs and a nuclear radiation storm brews up. Thus forcing you to fall down a cave hurting and ruining your armor super fast because if your not in cover the storm kills you instantly. Then you find your flashlight battery getting low as you have to crawl through a cave with leaping zombie human mutants with armour on. And since your so wounded you had to drop most of your crap and your low on bullets. Right about then you start worrying this is a pretty [censored] bad situation. Just when it gets bad it get's worse you see the bleeding out icon and you have no bandaids because you broke your arms. Either the mutants are going to get you, or you bleed out in some pitch black cave and die alone.

In contrast in Fallout New Vegas you take a little item in get healed up over a few seconds and go dancing off through the land even though both of your legs and arms are crippled your somehow still firing weapons. That [censored] fun, and funny. Just not difficult.

Fallout New Vegas is a cake walk. It's too damn easy. Fun, but easy. I don't play it for a challenge. Unless your the most inept and casual player ever I think hardcoe mode should be standard mode of operation for your average serious gamer (not casual).

That's for the casual 360 audience that's prong to rage quitting on their first death.

I don't have the game yet, waiting for the Steam unlock. I was planning on starting playing in hardcoe mode right away, I don't mind a bit of extra realism. But then, on the other hand, if I have to crawl half way across the map in order to find a doc to heal my broken legs, I am not sure I'll find this fun.

Now, can you save before a fight and reload in case you get a crippling injury? Does hardcoe mode change the saving system (assuming that FNV kept the save-anywhere/anytime system that was in the TES games and FO3 that is)?

I tried hardcoe for a little, but hated it. It got so boring playing so passive/careful. I'm more of a run and gun, kick ass ask questions when you're dead kind of player. Maybe on a future play-through I'll try it again. For now I'll stick to very hard, hardcoe off.