Whut?

What stops anyone from exploring the scenery? What do you mean with "exploration" that I'm not catching?

I would guess/assume the obvious.... That they were told not to.

They're saving it for the DLC more than likely. You didn't expect to get something like that for free. Not from bethesda no sir

I'm a little annoyed by the empty locked containers (with hard+ locks) too. But mostly the part that annoyed me about it is that I got XP for nothing. XP is WAY too easy to get. I'm leveling like twice as fast as in FO3 and I thought that game was too fast. I'm almost level 30 and I only just got to The Strip. You get xp for discovering locations, for getting achievements, for getting every 5 quests completed, opening containers, etc. Everything gives XP. I mean, I've gotten 2, almost 3, levels once inside an hour because I had 3 quests to turn in from the same location.

All in all, I wish fewer things gave you XP and of those, less significant amounts.

In my locker at work there currently isn't anything in it.
When I go to work I change into clothing fit for working in a kitchen and leave my home-clothes in the locker, when I quit for the day I throw my work-clothes in the laundry basket and change to my normal clothes.
Point is, it's realistic to not find anything sometimes.

You get XP for picking the lock ~not what's inside... Every skilled action is supposed to give XP. (if they did not... then most would be annoyed for not getting xp for successful skill use.) ~though its really not the same anymore since you now automatically succeed for every skill attempt. (something I find annoying)

Come to think of it... if every pointless location ~wasn't; and ultimately gave out XP... PC's would level up waay too fast wouldn't they.

BLABLABLABLABLA

Dude I am SOOOOOO sick of hearing about this.

(no offence)

If you are sick of hearing about certain topics, and you don't want to read the thread, please don't post pointless spam.

It takes far less effort to ignore a thread or topic you have no interest in, than it does to post spam in the thread pointing out that you didn't read it and are sick of hearing about it.

i dont know, i like fallout 3 for some things better but NV is better in different matters... Fallout 3 for me was more immersive and got some of nice "moments" in world environment, some quests feel more crazy or interesting (not deeper, dont know right word in ENG but little bit more like shivering isles quests), next thing i like in fallout 3 was better art design of world and music. NV on other hand is deeper and more realistic but take me more to be svcked into game.

in NV i missing more interesting locations (exploration) as some arguing here but i dont expect armor, weapon nor something fantastics but for example some interesting Notes, some good written story on PC terminal of people who lived there or something like that or more unique buildings, dungeons and terrain locations.

Next thing i was expected (as Blood and Carmageddon lover) from NV or obsidian some more "balls" for this game, i havent played fallout 1 or 2 but i have heard from people that game have some "balls" in content matter so many rumors even leaked or was spread about what will be possible in game, but not much happened after all... just there are more bad words but thats all... everything other which was capable of some potential was cut from beginning like cook-cook ( in this NPC or quest where such potential for something interesting and non-standard), whor*s (you pay caps for it and only what you get is black screen fadeout...), kids (non killable) and karma system. Mostly i was missing more quests with "special" content, story to tell or NPC characters.

so for my self both games are OK, but better will be if some things from F3 where merged with FNV...

But still i missing more depth in quests and NPC personalities, all these games Oblivion, F3 and FNV are somehow superficial and have great base of concept but they dont go deeper (at least not as i expected) but is also question if this game on consoles will be such HIT if higher depth of everything will be added (loose of action gameplay aspect?)

Did you remember system shock ?

Yeah, I think there's slightly less of this NV, fewer audio logs, terminals to hack, radio signals to find, clutter arranged in ways that tell a story, etc. and so on. This is maybe why many wasteland locations seem a little uninteresting.

Fewer optional, non-quest-related dungeons too, though this may or may not be a bad thing depending on your tastes.

I don't get it. You can all say what you want and that's fine. You don't care more about exploring, one of the best things and main things in an RPG, but you find the story in this game in particular to be more important and more fascinating? I just can't wrap my head around that. It's great they made more than one way to finish the story, but the story wasn't even that great to begin with! And these pointless locations that lack so much detail is a prime example of how terrible and how no effort was put into this game. Look at Fallout 3. Honestly tell me you think NV has more content and is better than it. If you say yes you honestly have not played Fallout 3 fully or ... or what? Flame me IDC but how in the heck can you defend this trashy game? I beat it. I did EVERYTHING on multiple playthroughs. I just don't get it.. Whatever, I guess crap stories are better then the backbone of the game.

I can say that I have not played New Vegas fully... The last session ended with the clearing the path of ants for the caravan at the NCR outpost... But I've had FO3 since 2008. Call me poisoned by the first two games, but so far I like NV better. I love Fallout 3's art and landscaping, but the rest of it was not really my cup of tea and I quit playing after freeing James from the simulation.

I didn't read everyone's previous posts so sorry if this was repeated, but for how big the Mojave is, it's pretty blank...allot of emptiness in that map. I think that was one of the major complaints in the reviews, allot of desert, mountains, and very little small towns in the middle of nowhere...Now it's too much of discovered nothings everywhere?? (I know you didn't say exactly that, but I'm sure someone did somewhere). Maybe newer DLC's will fill your Mojave canvass to satisfy your adventurous hunger, you crazy Viking you.

Having unique or substantial loot in every location would end up being annoying so I know that no one is asking for that. The "it's evidence of a world that once existed" is a decent argument, but I still feel there was just a tad bit too many blank locations around. Like not only is there nothing to be picked up, but there's also no props like skeletons lying around or notes, tapes, etc. Nothing to give us the story on the place which is usually pretty interesting and doesn't leave me with that "am I sure I didn't just miss something?" odd feeling.

Having "useless" locations only add to the sense of exploring, it just wouldn't be realistic if every location had something valuable to loot. If you have the proper skills and discovered the schematics/recipes for items, most locations do have pure gold. I generally always pick up Scrap Metal, wonder glue, wrenches, scrap electronics and duct tape so I can make weapon repair kits. They come in handy if you don't have the jury rigging perk, and even if you do it's still useful to keep from using other-perfectly good selling weapons to repair your usual equipment.

Lunch Boxes, pork 'n beans, insta-mash, cram, rad-away makes caravan lunches. Which offer good healing and rad reduction.

I like it.. and it seems more reasonable to New Vegas.. settlements and tribes have been out of the vaults for quite awhile compared to D.C. The scavengers have picked places pretty much clean. F3 had basically two main settlements and everything else was pretty much deserted. New Vegas is populated.. Heck the sewers of New Vegas have more people living in them then there were people living in Megaton.

The only beef I have with the locations is the number of non enterable buildings, I mean theres not many buildings to start with, so would it have been too much to give them an internal cell, areas near new vegas are the most prominant, here you have a location full of fiends, thugs, and settlers, yet the doors are still boarded up?, after all this time the boards would have been ripped off either for looting and/or dwelling, case in point are the chem addicts sleeping out in the open.

The correlation here, Gizmo, is simple and direct. A movie that is only the title and no content is very much akin to a map marker signifying nothing.



We have entirely different views on FO3, but we've all seen it here time and time again ... one person says FO3 was empty and boring and someone says the exact opposite. We're not going to get anywhere on this one.



No, they don't think otherwise, being a simulator is a tongue-in-cheek expression. If it were a simulator, it would be our character sitting huddled in a miserable dirty pit, scraping at the ground and probably eventually dying from malnutrition. I stated the fact that it was not a simulator to highlight the fact that sometimes certain liberties are taken to make sure the game is enjoyable, like for instance, making sure you don't dump the player into a wasteland completely devoid of anything because that might be "realistic". Sometimes, you need to add super mutants and mini nukes to make a game fun, and sometimes you need to make sure that some metal boxes are stocked with stuff and that we gain experience points for murdering Deathclaws in extremely gory ways.



I'm sorry if after you're done shooting giant green mutants with make believe weapons you find a box with stuff still in it to be absurd. Seriously, with all the offbeat, totally weird and outlandish humor and happenings in Fallout 1,2 and 3 you find a medkit with medicine in it just plain unthinkable?

It's really quite simple if you read what the complaint is: There are many "points of interest" that are only really points without the interest. I understand if you find an abandoned tin shack completely engaging, or poignant, or even if you just nod approvingly to yourself that yup, there would definitely be abandoned shacks in the wastes and appreciate that the devs have catered to the abandoned shack with no story and content crowd ... but keep in mind that it's not wrong to want to be entertained or to expect that when a game tells you "Hey! hey! map marker, check it out!" that there might be something there that is more than simply calling attention to a dead brahmin ... especially, when the previous game, that used all the same visual feedback, engine and design elements did it that way.

It takes some getting used to. If people are slow to come around, give it time and understand that not everyone is looking for the same thing in the game. I would like to, however, make it known on the forums for future iterations of Fallout that many folks found the interesting points of interest interesting and that some of us are interested in interesting them in working on that.

Speaking of farms...
You need to check out i was trying to figure out how to

What I find most annoying is finding owned items even when their owners are dead. Ownership should cease on death. Fortunately there's always the console.

I know what you mean. Ive been trying to find all the remaining locations on the map, but really most of them are absolutely empty. If you want a fun time go check out the Mojave drive in! Its got pre-blown up cars and a few empty garbage cans!

+1

(emphasis mine)

Truth...


An added thought, some of the map markers are really just that, map markers... Just because it says you discovered a location, does not mean its in any way obligated for us to find treasure or have anything to do with a mission, it is what it is, a location marker, thats it. Ungrateful gamers.

I miss the +SP books, there was always one in every location and this made them all worthwhile. Granted a lot of locations should be of the barren, lots of skeletons-look but going all the way to the edge of FO to get a SP book from a small manhole that has a visually narrative story or all the way through the maze of DC metro-system to go through the ruins of some building that has been booby-trapped really honed the essence of FO for me. I haven't explored that much in NV so I can't comment, but so far a lot of the places have been a bit empty - in the narrative, meaningful sense.

Reno

Ungrateful? Hardly. We bought a game so woefully infested with bugs and game-breaking problems that people seriously wonder if there was any QC done at all ... and yet we obviously love it and want it to be better. I can (and do) acknowledge that despite all the problems this game has, it's a wonderful piece of storytelling and it's super entertaining. Being a little critical is not being ungrateful. I don't owe anyone anything when I'm buying a game.

But, my previous post was pretty clear on the argument, if you dismiss as being ungrateful that's alright. I don't think it's particularly fair to do though.

Nobody is asking for special weapons or unique items on every location, what we are asking for is a unique and varied experience to better enjoy the game. You spend several minutes walking to a location or seversal seconds sitting bored watching a loading screen then you find absolutely nothing in the location and either go through another loading screen or how to find something less boring by spending several more minutes walking on. In F3 each location didn't need to have some special weapon in it, the devs understood that once you get the weapon that location will never be visited again. Instead they added notes, holotapes, terminals, positioned skeletons or added specific enemies so you could piece together the small story of that location and would continue to think about it as you moved on.

In NV the locations are either map markers with nothing in them and only serve as a waypoint for more fast travel; are occupied by generic npcs who just have to tell you what patrolling the mojave is like every three seconds; have unique loot/enemies which once looted become meaningless or the locations are stealthily part of a quest line and interacting with them will just shorten the game later. The times when something is interesting for its own sake are incredibly rare and shortlived. After four playthroughs I still haven't seen anything on the level of the Dunwich building in F3.

NV also has terrible pacing in how the mojave is set out, in F3 there was always something interesting on the horizon to take a quick sidetrip to but in NV all you see is desert and cliffs for extended periods of time. Those times when you try to convince yourself something interesting must be there usually end in disappointment such as how South of Nipton has a huge expanse of map yet there is literally nothing there and being on the edge of the map, no reason to ever go back. These blank spots are all over the map with it being much smaller than it appears on the pipboy thanks to most of the sides being glorified borders, most of the deserts being blank and most of the canyons being filled with invisible walls.

Even from the start Obsidian drop cliffs to the west, impossibly difficult enemies for a starting player to the north, high level enemies followed by cliffs and invisible walls to the right and the actual path they want you to take south. In F3 the moment you left the vault you could go any direction you pleased and while some areas where too difficult for a starting character they could always go around the threat. NV always puts walls to the sides of what they want you to fight so you have to be able to engage the threat or turn back. This leads to the whole map being one big horseshoe you must follow around and after the third playthrough going through primm, nipton, novac, freeside and New Vegas in that order gets really old.

There isn't any individual reason for NV to feel so much more shallow in exploration but altogether each design choice compounded until NV felt much more like a legend of zelda game in its exploration philosophy than a true sandbox. After I finished my NV playthroughs I put F3 back in and took a refreshing trip straight to Paradise Falls with a side trip to Big Town and it felt good not having Obsidian there waving a turn back sign and a cazador at me.

But you can go around the threats, just not as easily. You are very much capable of going north by avoiding fights (the cliffs can be climbed to avoid the cazadors in the canyon... you can sneak past the fiends and arrive at Vegas without firing a shot - it is more difficult that way, but it is in no way impossible). It is true that going off the critical path puts the player in a situation where running and sneaking is often the better solution than fighting - but, in the end, isn't that how it is supposed to be (low level character -> cannot kill tough foes, at least not easily, and more over, cannot do things as well as character at higher levels)? The main path is easier to give the player more opportunities to progress the character faster and to not overwhelm him early on, but it is not a route one is forced to take just recommended to.

I very much liked how one could walk into some abandoned place in FO:3 and find a sort of story there. A computer with an email that told a story or skeletons laying in a way that told a bit of story of what they were doing when the bombs his. A wife and husband skeleton spooning gave the feeling they died in one another's arms. A note or a collection or toys in the child's room. Some odd little piece of evidence of life before the war. It amused me. In fact there was one military outpost in FO:3 that was like a swat unit just after the war and reading the nurses note of the radiation sickness of her patients she was treating, the other nurses and doctors also dying one by one of radiation sickness and her donning a scarf or hat to hide her own sickness (hair falling out) from her patients that almost brought me to tears. It was those sorts of touches that I miss in NV.

Beyond that and a couple of other things, I find NV a better game in many ways. I find the combat better balanced. I find the stories better written and and I find more humor scattered about. I don't think I can pick one over the other as far as "better". They are both really, really good games. But I can't help now thinking, one would be better with this or that from the other. Thus, I tend to love and enjoy each one on it's own merits. I'm happy we have them both and look forward to the next.

There is nothing wrong with noticing what one likes better in one over the other nor expressing such. It takes nothing away from either great game. And yes, they are both great games.