This was my first play through and I ended up doing the NCR ending sorta inadvertently. I'm thinking of doing a replay (heavily modding the game beforehand) and going indy this time, but I'm tempted to not bother just because the end was a total letdown. It was just a straightforward gauntlet of legion soldiers, most of whom I was able to skip by thanks to a couple stealth boys. There were no interesting twists, side steps, or anything. For as many hours as I put into this game (like, 50, I think) the ending should have been way more elaborate. I spent more time, and had more variety doing stuff like REPCONN or V34 than I did for the end of this game. And nothing looked cool, either, like having that big ass robot at the end of FO3. Even the Boomer barrage was kinda weak.

Let me draw a metaphor here. Just last night I went to a show, a local musician who is a killer guitarist. He was playing a pretty heavy set, and about halfway through, I thought that there's no way that he was going to kick up the necessary notch to have a good finale. But, I was proven wrong when he finished with an incredible cover of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ouPGGLI6Q&feature=related. That's what this game needs, a "Hocus Pocus" ending.

However, throughout the game, the stakes felt so low, partly because there was nobody with whom you could really sympathize. Vegas was run by nouveau riche criminals with an autocrat overboss. Legion and NCR were two sides of the same coin. One oppressed its people with slavery, the other with bureaucracy. There were some smaller groups that were pretty decent (Followers, The Kings, some of the small towns), but they were minor players with no real agency, so they pretty much stayed off the radar. There weren't even any individual characters that were all that well developed (though I did enjoy Lily a bit). With all this, by the last battle I didn't really care who won; they're both twatwaffles. This is the main reason I want to play again; because I didn't like any of the main groups or most of the characters, I want to have an ending where none of them win.

Lastly, there was not a single hard battle in the game. I put all my skill points into non-combat skills and ended up using bottom tier weapons for about 90% of the game. I killed the Ant Queen in a single hunting rifle shot (which was a pretty hard battle in FO3), the Legendary Deathclaw with a single clip. Even in the final "battle", I don't think my health dropped below 50% once, and I was wearing light armor. On top of that, my video card kinda svcks so it made fighting back difficult, but not in a this-is-a-challenging-game kind of way.

And I have an extra bone to pick with the Ant Queen battle. I remember one of them (yes, FO3 had multiple ant queens, too) happening in a factory in FO3, where you could fight from the catwalks, use targeted antenna shots to send her into a frenzy killing the swarm of soldier ants also down there, and I'm pretty sure she spat fire, so you were never really safe even on the catwalks. Still, you could approach the fight creatively. FONV just had a bug in a cave. And the Legendary Deathclaw was a deathclaw in a cave. Oh, and the Legendary Gecko (also a one-shot kill), was just a gecko in a cave. Of course, the Radscorpion queen battle was interesting. Oh wait, it was another bug in a cave. But hey, at least we had the Legendary Caz battle. That, my friends was no bug in a cave. Nay, it was a winged arthropod residing in an enclosed geological formation.

I just don't get what they (Beth/Obsidian) were going for in this game. Anyone have any thoughts?

I thought it was a let down not very fun and the exact same for all 4 playthroughs (more or less ) and wait for the "ohhh fo3 ending was a micheal bay film wannabe ohhh LOL optimus prime pwns awezumz bbq sauce lulz " youl'll hear this quite a lot .Even tho fo3's ending was superior imo.

If by superior, you mean just watching a giant robot, and a team of super buffed BoS paladins kill everything for you then sure. At least in the New Vegas ending you GOT to fight.

Also to the OP i don't really know what you excepted.

If you've only done the NCR ending, do the Legion one next. House, NCR and independent are all the same. The Legion ending was pretty challenging. Loads of tough enemies in close quarters. Much more fun than the other 3.

(On topic)

If you don't care for any major factions go Independent. Its the best outcome for the 'sub' factions.

(Off topic)

I will not bash FO: 3 for I really enjoyed the game. The ending was even great, and I really enjoyed fighting along side the robot during the final fight at night.

That being said I also really enjoy FO: NV... I seem to matter so much more. Its my actions that direct how the Mojave is shaped. I honestly felt during FO: 3 that if my character never existed its very possible the events would have still played out pretty much the same.

I like shades of gray better then black and white. However everyone is different. I went into this game remembering the NCR from FO: 1 and 2, and I was so sure I was siding with them 100%. It was not long before I was disillusioned, and found myself leaning heavily toward the Legion. At least they are doing something...

I never found myself sympathizing with the Enclave in 3. I only questioned my actions once, and that was a deep side quest (Queen Bee, and Robot Man)

I wanted characters that I felt mattered. In FO1, you had to help your Vault and there were a few decent towns worth helping on the way. In FO2, you had to help your village, and the Enclave was bad all around. However, you also had plenty of grey area with various subgroups at odds with each other, though you could usually make a decision and feel like you at least did something for the greater good. In FONV, flat out, there were very few people worth saving and those that are worth saving are bit players in the big scheme of things.



Yeah, that was the beginning, but once you got inside the building, you were pretty much on your own. Even though you "get to fight" in FONV, FO3 had a more challenging ending, IMO.



I don't think I could bring myself to side with Legion. They're way too despicable for me. That's a bummer that the other three are just copies of each other. Maybe another play through isn't worth it.



I agree on both counts. FO3 did have a story that was irrelevant. I also like shades of grey better than black and white, but my impression was that this was all shades of black.



Exactly, the NCR was pretty decent in FO2. IIRC, I went with them with the whole mining town thing. Here, they're just users. I couldn't side with Legion, though. I mean, they enslave women and [censored] them at their leisure. That's no society for me.

Go with the BoS ending... (Requires Dead Money)

Elijah curbstomps them all..

The ending could have been a bit better, I agree. Didn't have quite the same pizazz as Fallout 3 (or 2 or 1's ending, for that matter) due to the lack of a memorable boss figure (whether he be with you or against you). Legate Lanius just isn't quite in the same league as Prime, the Master or Horrigan.

That said, the B-29 bombing run was [expletive deleted] awesome, as was the arrival of the Enclave Remnants. Wasn't quite as epic an ending as previous games, but it was still damn awesome.

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see much of either. Running along the dam, I did see a couple of bombs hit, but they were targets in the far distance, so it looked like a mere scenery effect. I don't recall seeing the Enclave, and I talked BoS into supporting the NCR. Outside of the power plant, there were just a couple spots where maybe a half dozen (tops) legion soldiers came out of those towers to the side of the dam, then that one guard for the Legion camp. Once I got inside there, I could sneak straight up to the final guy and that was over pretty quick with a few speech checks. It was weird, though. It was nowhere near as satisfying as the speech check ending with The Master in FO1. It was just some dialogue with some random [censored] in a mask that I don't recall ever meeting before.

Seriously, for all the [censored]s in this game, it could have done with a real BBEG.



Ok, that was pretty cool. And they all deserved it, too.

So you want to be some low level charecter exploring around and have a legendary deathclaw pop outta nowhere? NAY!
If its not in a a cave it dangerous for low levels...

Yes, I am very let down by the final missions. The closer the game gets to the ends the cheaper it feels. IMO

Yeah, I agree the Big Bad was kinda uninspired. Lanius just didn't have the sheer badass menace of Horrigan or the bizarre yet chilling aura of the Master, and while FO3 didn't have a BBEG per se, Prime more than made up for the lack of one. Lanius was just missing that little "spark" that makes a Big Bad truly memorable.

I really liked Lanius, but he didn't have the proper lead-up, the decapitation of the two Rangers isn't enough, we hardly know or see anything about him before the final battle.

Wandering around the wastes wouldn't be any better. Every legendary creature in this game essentially boiled down to a dungeon crawl. Every single one of them was in a boring cave. In FO3, you had the Marigold queen in the factory with catwalks and whatnot which was interesting because you had the environment to negotiate as well as the enemies. Combat in this game was pretty uncreative and uninspired. Frankly, I'm surprised. I figured with Obsidian on it, things were going to get kicked up a notch.



Yeah, after freeing Benny from Caesar, I pretty much just felt like I was finishing it just to finish it.



I know. I think he might have been the guy in Caesar's tent that teaches you that unarmed move. Other than that, he doesn't really have a presence. Now that I've finished the game, the whole thing just seems kinda thrown together.

I'll tell you, I haven't played anything good these last few years. Bioshock was just ok (though I got bored and didn't finish), DAO was ramshackle, and STALKER was just plain poorly designed blasphemy, especially considering how long it took them to finish development. I don't know, maybe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q37xJtuQ24w.

Probably one of my favorite moments in videogame history, was when the Super Fortress flew over head, followed by the Enclave touching down on Hoover Dam. I've got to admit I got chills seeing the remnants touch down in front of me to rain laser doom upon opposing legionaries. Sure, there were some constraints that made it not as epic gameplay wise, but in terms of atmosphere it felt spot on.

Eh. What I really look for in the ending is the ending slides that show the consequences of what you did in the game. Otherwise, the actual ending sequence isn't really what I care about. I'm much more interested in side quests and other content, and then seeing what those long term outcomes are, the ending sequence is just a means to get to that end.

I've completed two games with different endings and they were both a let down. Not the epicness I hoped for at all. My current game I am going to side with the Legion. We'll see. People poo poo FO3 ending with the giant Robot, but I loved it. It was just fun.

My second game I got the Boomers flying the bomber over head and the Remnants showing up. :shrug: