No, this isn't some moral thing... by using the console to bump up some skills or stats or jump you to some place on the map is going to water down your fallout 3: new vegas experience.

This game is NOT fallout 3... yes.. it looks the same.. plays the same.. built on the same engine. But the "story" isn't told the same way. Fallout 3 had shit for story and was just a game for you want wonder around and do missions for random ppl/groups. Everything leveled up with you so you could almost go any place at any level. This is not how new vegas plays. Obsidian is telling you a story and there is a order to that story   - very broad and open order to the story.. but (for the most part) linked to the overall happenings of new vegas.   The game "feels" like a fallout 3 random type game for the fist 10+ hours - stuff seems kinda random.. oh but it isn't. I took my sweet time getting to new vegas. following the guy the shot to the south... then east.. then up north.. blah blah. By the time i started to missions in freetown and new vegas it hit me. This really isn't fallout 3... this is a "real" fallout game!! (ie, not just   oblivion with guns.) In my mind, this is the true successor to fallout 1 and fallout 2.

You will go to places that will just be too hard for you. The game is telling you.. "hey! come back here later when you are a higher level" (... and there is most likely some quest in there that it part 5 of other quest chain there too)

This is a VERY long game... you will revisit spots.. don't stress that you can't pick some lock... you'll come back to it. (or not it you just “blow” thru the game. RE: GB review)

The core of the game is about doing missions for factions.. so don't piss them off. If you do you, don't get their missions. I'm almost 80 hours in and every faction still likes me.. most of them a lot. *note, if you are still in the early part of the game (like 15-20 hours in) and you pissed either the NCR or the legion off - don't worry, once you   get to new vegas both faction reps can be reset. Also some of your companions can fuck up your factions stuff.. ie, boone will shoot on site any legion peeps he sees. So, not so helpful at staying friendly with that faction... more of   a problem when you are invited to their base ^_^

There are a lot of ways to play the game.. but here are some suggestions that helped me.

·          Do all the faction quests...(there are a TON of them) yes, by the end of the game you'll have to pick a side, but that can be 80 hours in...  

·          There is stuff to spend caps on.. don't stress if you think you have too much. Get some implants, repair stuff, buy better armor and weapons :)

·          Do spend points to up some key skills. speech being the most important - lock picking being second. (I also picked up sneek, and science to max.. but that is just how I like to play. Hrmm.. sneak attack crit)

·          Most of the perks didn't seem so helpful - so i spent most of my level ups on getting more raw stats. agi, luck, per, etc...

·          Get every companion. They all have quests. Some to get them.. some while they are in your party.

·          Companions have perks that are helpful on missions. eg, The doc can help with med check type quests if he is in your party. The BOS chick gets you into their base faster than if you wait to level up locking or for the ED-E quest.

·          Get ED-E and the dog. You can have two companions. A human and a robot-thing.

·          Hardcore doesn't make the game harder... just adds more depth.

·          There are a lot of unique weapons in the game... my favs are pushy, all-american, and .. that plasma experimental one.. which i can't remember the game Q something or other. ;)

·          You can make a TON of caps playing blackjack (till they kick you out) and sometimes they will give you "good" items for being such a winner. I got some sweet combat armor from one of the casinos.  

·          Do all the BOS quests (well.. do all quests...) At the end they will teach you how to use power armor. Once they do, power armor isn't "faction" armor anymore. Meaning, you can put it on yourself and your companions – and not be thought of by others as the BOS. They will also sell you cooler stuff. Like power armor 51 and laser gatling cannons.

·          “WTF, I have to walk around so far to get to point X” – yeah.. but much of the time there is a point to it and you’ll pick up a quest along the way.

·          Karma doesn’t do shit. So steal everything ^_^

·          You should easily level max (30) your guy out before you run out of quests.

·          Your companions are … sometimes not helpful and will just go running off to fight someone. Makes sneak attacks hard and almost makes getting the orbital cannon pointless. Ie, by the time it shoots the fool behind you is already shooting at them – thus making the enemies move. For me this was a huge issue in the many vaults. They run off.. opening doors ‘n stuff. That makes it hard for me to track where I’ve been and what I didn’t search yet.

·          Blah blah

I played the game on my HTPC – with a 360 controller. Yes, I mostly fight in VAT

I7 @ 4.2ghz, 6gigs of game, 4 x vertex 2 120gig SSD (raid), Ati   5870 @ 1ghz.

Ultra settings, 1920x1080 (blah.. they need to make higher rez tvs) ^_^

Good points but once I buy a game I'll play the way I want, so if I want to use console command than so be it...vinny had a great point on the BC, he used console command cause he wanted to play the game how he wanted and not how he thought he had to play

If this game wasn't constructed with duct tape and spare parts then I'd probably have more respect for it and play it "how the creators intended". 
 
 
There are so many fucking bugs in this game. If they are to be considered as part of the experience, then the exploits and mods should also be part of the experience as well. 

I get what you are saying but even after two pc patches there is still a glitch to get infinite exp and some very bad game breaking bugs like ED-E vanishing from existence, ibsen's virus quest getting stuck if you do a science check, crashes to the desktop, lock ups that cut the signal to the monitor, items that fall through the ground and who knows what else. I'm close to the end now and so far I did all the non storyline quests I could, and got to the important point of the storyline ones.It's all been great and thanks to the console I got the most out of dialog and now I'm roaming with 3 other dudes, doing quests, finding easter eggs and just having fun. Also about the story. It seems that there were a lot of different writers who worked on it and for all the good parts there are some lame continuity errors like non feral ghouls being feral at one place, some text is not that subtle when it tries to do satire in comparison to 3 and the overall atmosphere completely lost all the depressing tones. But It's still pretty good, main story is definitely better too.

I guess play it how you want to play it, but people can't really pass judgement on a game if they're choosing to cheat their through it.  Your character's limitations are as important as their strengths.
 
**EARLY - MID-GAME SPOILERS**

If someone has more fun cheating, then they can go ahead and cheat. I don't do it much anymore but I used to find games much more fun with cheats.

People have the right to play the game the way they want since they bought the game, not you.

When will people learn that the story is what you do in the game and how it shapes the world- not some linear bullshit the game forces on you. I honestly prefer the story of 3. At least I can follow it without about 500 different interchangeable factions. This game has nothing on 3.
 
And I'm not reading that damn essay.

It adds more re-playability

As long as it doesn't affect others, they can play the game how ever they want.

So your telling us how to play the game? where do you get off? Not every one  has to play a game how you think it should be played people should be allowed to play it however they want as long as its not affecting any thing else.

First run I doing it normally, and I'm waiting to see if karma effects the ending at all.
 
Also, breaking games makes them more fun. It's a fact.

People paid money for the game. They can play it however the hell they want.

I'm not pulling up the console because mods do it for me.

New Vegas is a single player game, and Vinny's not reviewing it. Why shouldn't he cheat if he wants to cheat?

... people can't really pass judgement on a game if they're choosing to cheat their through it.

I've always considered S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to be the real modern Fallout experience after Fallout 3 disappointed on that front, but - if what you say is true - I may have to find some money to finally play this game.

When companions magically dissapear and you can't bring anyone else into the party, that's part of the experience, don't use console commands to bring them back. 
So OP, people payed for their game and they can play it how they want. Stop being a fucking wierdo.

If its not a hard game Vinny's not really losing anything in the experience by stating up. If the main part of the game is story progression and characters, he's losing nothing playing it how he plays it.

I played the game on my HTPC

I7 @ 4.2ghz, 6gigs of game, 4 x vertex 2 120gig SSD (raid), Ati   5870 @ 1ghz.

Yeah. Well. Its an open world game. Part of the appeal is you can do that if you want. And the game is easy enough to break without ccs. I killed everyone in the Silver Rush with a Power Glove and some grenades. And that gave me the equipment to take out Mr. House, if I wanted to. You can do that, or you can do 15 low tier quests to get to the same spot stat wise.

If someone needs to tell you how to play the game correctly in an open as Hell game, the game probably failed.

" If someone needs to tell you how to play the game correctly in an open as Hell game, the game probably failed. "

" @SethPhotopoulos said:

" If someone needs to tell you how to play the game correctly in an open as Hell game, the game probably failed. "

Do you really consider the developer's console to be a part of the game's experience? "

" But might i suggest that vinny didn't play the game long enough to see how obsidian wanted the game to be played. "

I always always feel disgusted when somebody says F3 story is shit. 
 
Tracking down dad was my favourite part of the experience, and it's simple enough.

I've been using the command to get all the dialog options by upping my skills to the required lvl and no higher.

I've had to cheat because the game has bugged on me 4-5 times. And those times I couldn't continue. 

" I guess play it how you want to play it, but people can't really pass judgement on a game if they're choosing to cheat their through it.  Your character's limitations are as important as their strengths.
 
**EARLY - MID-GAME SPOILERS**

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

I think the game gets a lot better once you're past the 'track down the guy that shot you' part and it opens up.  The start is kinda bad compared to Fallout 3 - all of the companion characters I've met had more interesting back stories than I did (unless it turns out that there's more to it later, but I don't expect it to at this point).  
 
The early game pacing is kinda fucked.  I spent what felt like forever tracking down Benny even though it was obvious where he was going.  Then I finally get to Vegas and think we're gonna get into some substance, but I waltz straight onto the Strip and ten minutes later Benny is dead and nobody seems to care, then ten minutes after that House goes out of his way to let me kill him too, and again nobody really seems to care about that either.  Everything since then has been great, but the whole Benny/House/Courier part just seemed half-assed to say the least.

"

" also if you jump anyplace on the map (via console or buffing yourself to live through areas you'd normally die in) you will truncate missions or miss them totally. If one walked from goodsprings right into vegas.. yeah.. benny will be there.. and you can talk to him.. but you just missed hours of game play that worked up to that. "

I am playing through this game on Hardcore without exploiting it in any way and I feel like I would have missed half the fun if I did. I'm no where near done, but I've maxed out at level 30 and every single time I had to pick a perk, I would deliberate for several minutes on all of my options. I was prevented from going to certain areas for much of the game because of the difficulty of certain enemies (who I'll add, are still deadly motherfuckers in large groups at level 30, Deathclaws and Cazador swarms, I'm looking at you). Between these examples and the late-game choices that dramatically affect your standing with factions (you're not going to be everyone's friend, no matter how hard you try), this is possibly the most thoughtful game I've ever played.

Speech is the most important skill? I find that ridiculously hard to believe. Still, I think you make some good points, and I'm relieved that karma isn't so important this time around. I'm trying to play as the Jesus of the Apocalypse, but I can't seem to keep myself from stealing every cool thing I see. I don't know how I ever managed to resist that temptation back in Fallout 3.

fuck off, ill cheat if i want to

" @Jimbo said:

... people can't really pass judgement on a game if they're choosing to cheat their through it.

I've never quite understood this argument. I can see if someone cheated to make the game easier, then complained about the difficulty ... sure, then I don't think that would be a legitimate judgment on their part. But using the console to cheat doesn't mean the entirety of their judgment about a game is wrong. In many ways, cheating is just offering another easier difficulty level. But you wouldn't say someone who played it on very easy would have a less legitimate point of view about the game compared to someone who played it on very hard. I'm not cheating, but I'm also not playing around much with the crafting system. So I can't really pass judgment on it. Cheating doesn't really alter that equation all that much.
 
And in single player games, like New Vegas, it doesn't hurt you at all for people to cheat with the console. Or to use exploits. Or bugs. And if cheating allows them to enjoy a game they would not otherwise enjoy, what difference does it make to you? Cheating may actually make a miserable gaming experience fun for them. It wouldn't ruin the experience at all.
 
The OP's approach is ... to play every little part of the game. That's fine if that's your thing. But not all of us play that way. Telling people that not playing the game the way you are playing it is somehow wrong or that it's going to "ruin the experience" is a quick way to get slapped around on here. Enjoy the game. Enjoy the way you play the game. But don't lecture us on the right way to do it. "

" @Jimbo said:

" I guess play it how you want to play it, but people can't really pass judgement on a game if they're choosing to cheat their through it.  Your character's limitations are as important as their strengths.
 
**EARLY - MID-GAME SPOILERS**

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

I think the game gets a lot better once you're past the 'track down the guy that shot you' part and it opens up.  The start is kinda bad compared to Fallout 3 - all of the companion characters I've met had more interesting back stories than I did (unless it turns out that there's more to it later, but I don't expect it to at this point).  
 
The early game pacing is kinda fucked.  I spent what felt like forever tracking down Benny even though it was obvious where he was going.  Then I finally get to Vegas and think we're gonna get into some substance, but I waltz straight onto the Strip and ten minutes later Benny is dead and nobody seems to care, then ten minutes after that House goes out of his way to let me kill him too, and again nobody really seems to care about that either.  Everything since then has been great, but the whole Benny/House/Courier part just seemed half-assed to say the least.

"

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Believe it or not, you don't have to kill Benny or House. You CHOSE to end their parts early, but you never have to kill either. Half-assed it is not.

"

"    
 your fallout 3: new vegas

This game is NOT fallout 3... yes..

Like the pointers at the end, thanks.

After S-Ranking the game, I started using the console (and not just cheats but other stuff like changing your default jump height) and there's definitely a lot of fun to be had just running around and doing crazy stuff. Also, as for the enemies, most of them will rank up with you, so by making yourself a higher level by cheating you're not really making the game that much easier (aside from the bonuses you get from extra perks). There's a mod that let's you rank up to level 100, and at that point some enemies become almost impossible to defeat.

" @YoctoYotta said:

" @Jimbo said:

" I guess play it how you want to play it, but people can't really pass judgement on a game if they're choosing to cheat their through it.  Your character's limitations are as important as their strengths.
 
**EARLY - MID-GAME SPOILERS**

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

I think the game gets a lot better once you're past the 'track down the guy that shot you' part and it opens up.  The start is kinda bad compared to Fallout 3 - all of the companion characters I've met had more interesting back stories than I did (unless it turns out that there's more to it later, but I don't expect it to at this point).  
 
The early game pacing is kinda fucked.  I spent what felt like forever tracking down Benny even though it was obvious where he was going.  Then I finally get to Vegas and think we're gonna get into some substance, but I waltz straight onto the Strip and ten minutes later Benny is dead and nobody seems to care, then ten minutes after that House goes out of his way to let me kill him too, and again nobody really seems to care about that either.  Everything since then has been great, but the whole Benny/House/Courier part just seemed half-assed to say the least.

"

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Believe it or not, you don't have to kill Benny or House. You CHOSE to end their parts early, but you never have to kill either. Half-assed it is not.

"

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

It's half-assed because neither of them act in anything like a way that's appropriate for their roles within the game, and because the game world doesn't respond in a believable way on either occasion.  I killed them because the game offered them to me on a silver platter (and to be fair they did both fire first).  They both acted remarkably stupidly for supposedly smart people (to the point of breaking the fiction of the game).

"

I do not understand why Vinny did as he did, i will listen to the bombcast. 
 
I will not do one quest for the legion. Am I a bad person? Worse, am I doing it wrong? Yes, quests can be fun but.. 
 
.the story in fallout 3 had it's highs and lows. I hope this gets a good as FO-3 when it was hitting all cylinders
 
I'm a bit unhappy about all this companion stuff. Boone doesn't let me work! Well, deathclaws are still not happening, but legion has become butter. There ought to be an option to let someone go on friendly terms, not force them to wait, or whatever bad happens. I like Boone, would like to meet up with him later when it gets heavy. Gawd, Fawkes!

" @YoctoYotta: 
 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Benny allowing me to take him somewhere private and then even saying "If you were thinking of killing me, now would be the time to do it!" - thanks for the tip, Benny.  The fact that, apart from his three bodyguards who spawn in armed with pea shooters, nobody else in his casino / gang ever cares about me killing their boss.  His useless security allowing me in armed in the first place - the reception guy (and Benny too iirc) even making it clear that he knew I was still carrying a pistol.
 
House letting me walk into his casino armed to the teeth for no good reason, even though he explicitly never lets anybody else in, ever.  He's supposed to be smart, why didn't he just have Victor (and his entire army of robots) get the chip from me?  I wasn't even intending to kill House (killing Benny seemed reasonable given he shot me in the head), but I refused to hand the chip over and he had his robots attack me.  Well, when I say 'attack' I mean they drove about getting stuck on walls and stairs until they were all dead.  Again, nobody ever seems particularly put out that I just killed the guy controlling Vegas, or curious about who is now controlling the robot army on the street.

"