I tried to play this game at its release- it was up against some crazy expectations and memories I had from Fallout 3- a few hours in I dropped the game. I recently returned to the game with the release of the latest DLC. I decided to dig in and take this crap seriously. I made a crazy old chinese man and stepped out into the wastes.

I realized about 10 hours in that my issue with NV to begin with wasn't any fault of Obsidian's- I was looking for a Fallout 3 in Fallout NV, which just isnt fair. NV will never have the iconic imagery of Fallout 3 as its an actual wasteland. Now months after release I've been able to appreciate the true wasteland experience NV has been able to provide. Characters and communities aren't as obviously bound as they were in Fallout 3 by quests n whatnot, but i think in some ways these connections in NV are more subtle and realistic anyway.

I'm about 28 hours into the game, 1 DLC finished- most of the main story finished- got my foul mouthed shotgun lady and cyborg dog. I've been assaulted by old ladies wielding rolling pins and dudes dressed like roman soldiers. NV's Honest Hearts provided me with some of the more meaningful set of choices in an RPG, and Fly Me To The Moon quest will go down as one of the more memorable once off RPG quests i've completed.

Shockingly the game launcher can still crash and sometimes it hangs when I try to load a saved game- but all of that aside it's clear I owe Fallout NV an apology. Of course I may take that back if I never find a decent way to deal with the deathclaws.

I tried to play this game at its release- it was up against some crazy expectations and memories I had from Fallout 3- a few hours in I dropped the game. I recently returned to the game with the release of the latest DLC. I decided to dig in and take this crap seriously. I made a crazy old chinese man and stepped out into the wastes.

I realized about 10 hours in that my issue with NV to begin with wasn't any fault of Obsidian's- I was looking for a Fallout 3 in Fallout NV, which just isnt fair. NV will never have the iconic imagery of Fallout 3 as its an actual wasteland. Now months after release I've been able to appreciate the true wasteland experience NV has been able to provide. Characters and communities aren't as obviously bound as they were in Fallout 3 by quests n whatnot, but i think in some ways these connections in NV are more subtle and realistic anyway.

I'm about 28 hours into the game, 1 DLC finished- most of the main story finished- got my foul mouthed shotgun lady and cyborg dog. I've been assaulted by old ladies wielding rolling pins and dudes dressed like roman soldiers. NV's Honest Hearts provided me with some of the more meaningful set of choices in an RPG, and Fly Me To The Moon quest will go down as one of the more memorable once off RPG quests i've completed.

Shockingly the game launcher can still crash and sometimes it hangs when I try to load a saved game- but all of that aside it's clear I owe Fallout NV an apology. Of course I may take that back if I never find a decent way to deal with the deathclaws.

Gamebryo will never be crash-free. This is an undisputable fact.

Bugs aside, I thought New Vegas was the much better game. The environment is far more interesting and it feels much closer in style and setting to the original two games. It really feels to me like New Vegas should have been called "Fallout 3" and not considered the spin-off.

Pansy. I uppercut those Deathclaws in the face until they explode from the pain. Melee characters with maximum endurance and strength can really bring it!

On another note, I enjoyed New Vegas a lot more than Fallout 3, and I loved me some Fallout 3. I was lucky enough to play through New Vegas at launch without any bugs, crashes or freezes too.

Since then I've played through New Vegas numerous times, and it's bugged out on me and crashed on me countless times unfortunately. The latest DLC was great by the way.

I hope you'll keep enjoying New Vegas!

Fallout 1 and 2 had quite a few unfinished quests due to bugs, though much less so than Fallout 3 or New Vegas. I do remember playing Fallout 3 at one time, and after a minute or so, every time I'd leave Megaton the game would crash on me. Gamebyro and bugs aside, i do love every Fallout game and New Vegas is no exception. Fallout New Vegas is a lot better in many aspects, but that also depends what kind of game you want. Fallout New Vegas allows you to build a very powerful character, but that character won't be anywhere near as powerful as a level 20 or 30 character in Fallout 3. At the same time Fallout 3 is hands down the bleak world of post-apocalypse, where as New Vegas is rebuilding civilization, with a lot of post-apocalyptic things centered around it.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed the game duder, keep on playing. 

@Galiant said:

Pansy. I uppercut those Deathclaws in the face until they explode from the pain. Melee characters with maximum endurance and strength can really bring it!

On another note, I enjoyed New Vegas a lot more than Fallout 3, and I loved me some Fallout 3. I was lucky enough to play through New Vegas at launch without any bugs, crashes or freezes too.

Since then I've played through New Vegas numerous times, and it's bugged out on me and crashed on me countless times unfortunately. The latest DLC was great by the way.

I hope you'll keep enjoying New Vegas!

Who would you recommend I take to fight them? Lilly?

Is it still a buggy mess?

Not really- in the hours ive played the only issues ive had are with the launcher- basically it throws an error but I believe you can still use the launcher in the background. Still weird. The other problem I had involved the game hanging once in a while trying to load a save. Both bugs are unpredictable. There's also some minor bugs that always come with these games- like how my henchmen will occationally run far away from me for no reason, then run all the way back. wtf is that about? Sometimes when the mysterious strange comes by to plug an enemy after he does his job he'll just kinda hang around and ill have to wait 5 seconds or so before it switches back to real time.

@mrangryface said:

@Galiant said:

Pansy. I uppercut those Deathclaws in the face until they explode from the pain. Melee characters with maximum endurance and strength can really bring it!

On another note, I enjoyed New Vegas a lot more than Fallout 3, and I loved me some Fallout 3. I was lucky enough to play through New Vegas at launch without any bugs, crashes or freezes too.

Since then I've played through New Vegas numerous times, and it's bugged out on me and crashed on me countless times unfortunately. The latest DLC was great by the way.

I hope you'll keep enjoying New Vegas!

Who would you recommend I take to fight them? Lilly?

Well, I gave Boone (the guy in Novac, night-time sniper in the dinosaur's mouth?) an Anti-Materiel Rifle with a load of .50 MG bullets, those Deathclaws don't take kindly to being shot in the face with those bullets. Any melee companion gets their ass handed to them by Deathclaws right quick.

But they're tough, I'll admit. Even with maximum strength and endurance and those perks that do extra damage to certain wasteland creatures, Deathclaws are not to be trifled with.

Boone helps damaging them before they get close enough to slice you up into little pieces.

What difficulty do you play on? Hardcore mode on?

Because in truth, I play on very easy and hardcore mode off. I find the combat in Fallout frustratingly hard for some reason.

I had only one crash in 50+ hours of New Vegas on PC, and that was my only noticeable bug, I feel sorry for all the unlucky souls who had trouble with it and mistook it for a bad game.

@Galiant said:

@mrangryface said:

@Galiant said:

Pansy. I uppercut those Deathclaws in the face until they explode from the pain. Melee characters with maximum endurance and strength can really bring it!

On another note, I enjoyed New Vegas a lot more than Fallout 3, and I loved me some Fallout 3. I was lucky enough to play through New Vegas at launch without any bugs, crashes or freezes too.

Since then I've played through New Vegas numerous times, and it's bugged out on me and crashed on me countless times unfortunately. The latest DLC was great by the way.

I hope you'll keep enjoying New Vegas!

Who would you recommend I take to fight them? Lilly?

Well, I gave Boone (the guy in Novac, night-time sniper in the dinosaur's mouth?) an Anti-Materiel Rifle with a load of .50 MG bullets, those Deathclaws don't take kindly to being shot in the face with those bullets. Any melee companion gets their ass handed to them by Deathclaws right quick.

But they're tough, I'll admit. Even with maximum strength and endurance and those perks that do extra damage to certain wasteland creatures, Deathclaws are not to be trifled with.

Boone helps damaging them before they get close enough to slice you up into little pieces.

What difficulty do you play on? Hardcore mode on?

Because in truth, I play on very easy and hardcore mode off. I find the combat in Fallout frustratingly hard for some reason.

Just layout mines and lure the deathclaws. I had more frag/plasma mines than I knew what to do with in that game, so when I took out the Alpha Deathclaw and the queen in the quarry, I just set up giant piles of explosives and let them come to me.

Sniping also works, you can snipe from a mile off and not have them attack you.

Bugs aside, I thought New Vegas was the much better game. The environment is far more interesting and it feels much closer in style and setting to the original two games. It really feels to me like New Vegas should have been called "Fallout 3" and not considered the spin-off.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

i never understood how to play FO3/NV properly.

Seems like I am getting hit waaay to much and I am relying on the amount of stimpacks I have to complete any quest.

I got it last year and it wouldn't load at an acceptable rate on my 360.

So I bought it on sale this year for playing on the PC. I haven't started yet, but I will. One thing I found funny last year was when I found out how to jump off of the Hoover Dam.

Both of the new Fallouts were better the second time for me.

@nemt said:

Is it still a buggy mess?

That's a stupid question, as it's already been pointed out...

@Example1013 said:

Gamebryo will never be crash-free. This is an undisputable fact.

In my experience, they've patched out a lot of old problems that the game launched with, but it always seems like there are new problems that pop up whenever old ones are fixed.

And to be fair RPGs of this type are so huge that shipping without noticeable bugs would be pretty unbelievable.

I'm replaying fallout 3 (have nothing really to do now but wait for lonesome road, so ya know), and that game crashes a LOT more than NV does. I usually get a crash to desktop every 2-3 hours actually

I couldn't get into FO:NV for the same reason you mentioned, I was looking for Fallout 3. I absolutely loved the capital wasteland. To me the Mojave felt like just like an old west, not the post apocalyptic wasteland I came for. Plus I hated every faction in the game so that didn't help either.

I played a bunch of Fallout 3, but never got NV until the recent summer sale.  Until a couple of days ago, I hadn't played it.  Before hopping in, I decided to get a few mods.  Nothing game changing, just a few visual mods to make it look better.  So far I'm about two hours in and really enjoying it.

Characters and communities aren't as obviously bound as they were in Fallout 3 by quests n whatnot, but i think in some ways these connections in NV are more subtle and realistic anyway.

I think Fallout 3's primary quest chain was more thorough and imo brought into greater focus more often in the game. NV is a game that is sometimes about finding the people that put you in a grave- but most of the time its not actually about that- its about dealing with the various factions and towns that, while affected by some of your actions (solar plant) they aren't as essential to your progress. i.e. the first 20 hours of the game, its about getting to vegas- but sooo much happens on the way to Vegas that isn't exactly relevant to the main quest.

Ultimately that is what I was getting at. In some ways the hands-off approach in NV is more organic/believable, while the approach in Fallout 3 actually appears to be what it is, a game design decision.

fallout 3's primary quest chain was also incredibly retarded and full of plot holes

Probably what happens when you have to spend so much time thinking about a videogame plot lol.

I went from loving it to hating it to not caring about it to appreciating what the devs are doing in terms of patches and DLC. In it's current state, it's a good game and I look forward to the final DLC. 
 
Talking my way out of the ending was awesome and so was the story, but the Mojave doesn't feel like it went through nuclear holocaust like the Capital wasteland did. 

  This played in my head as I was reading your post.

Yeah I had the same problem you did. I loved Fallout 3, but I couldn't get into NV even after a good 15 hours or so. I should really reinstall it and try it again, I am sure if I gave it another chance I would like it.

I really had to sit down and say OK, expectations out the door here I GOOOOO. We're our own worst enemy when it comes to appreciating games for what they are sometimes

Didn't love NV as much for a couple reasons- I thought the urban environments and iconic imagery of the Capital Wasteland were alot more interesting and exciting to play through, and I thought the quests were better integrated and had better storylines. Also, since it was kind of the first one of those you get a newer/fresher experience. That being said, NV does do some things better- the easter eggs from Wild Wasteland are sometimes cool/funny, and the combat is cleaned up alot (ADS big help here)

fallout 3's primary quest chain was also incredibly retarded and full of plot holes

Bugs aside, I thought New Vegas was the much better game. The environment is far more interesting and it feels much closer in style and setting to the original two games. It really feels to me like New Vegas should have been called "Fallout 3" and not considered the spin-off.

Question for people who've played the DLC: are any of them playable in the middle of my playthrough? Was thinking of getting Honest Hearts since I've heard good things about it and some extra loot would be nice. Or maybe OWB if I'm not too low. I'm level 16 at the moment with Boone and ED-E as companions.

@Example1013 said:

Gamebryo will never be crash-free. This is an undisputable fact.

That's not really true. The Gamebryo engine is used in many games besides Fallout and The Elder Scrolls: Epic Mickey, Catherine, Civ IV, Rift, Divinity II, Defense Grid, to name a few. And you hardly ever hear as many complaints about crashes and bugs in these games as you do for Bethesda (or Obsidian) products. I think the developer is more to blame here than the engine itself. It may be as old and outdated as you want, but you can see how other developers manage to use it quite well, given the restrictions.

I've never had any major issue with Fallout: New Vegas, to be honest. Sure, sometimes enemies have clipping issues with the geometry and what not, but besides that, and the occasional crash once in a blue moon, nothing important. I've never lost any of my saves or anything, luckily. The game is perfectly fine, on PC at least.

PS: @Ventilaator wins the thread with the Tim Minchin reference.

I played 76 hours of NV on the PC and it crashed only twice (in game). If you are having problems with the games launcher crashing, go into your steam folder and find the launcher. Right click on it and set compatibility to "Service Pack 3". The launcher will never crash on you again.

@thornie said:

I played 76 hours of NV on the PC and it crashed only twice (in game). If you are having problems with the games launcher crashing, go into your steam folder and find the launcher. Right click on it and set compatibility to "Service Pack 3". The launcher will never crash on you again.

Good to know. I'll give that a shot tonight.

Having trouble hanging with this game, this is kind of same ole same ole after Fallout 3.

I really like new vegas but the PS3 performance issues keep me from loving it like I did fallout 3 (which I played on the PC)

I'm trying to pick this game back up too. All I want to accomplish with this game is to build a melee character strong enough to throw an ax or some other projectile through someones brain. All other objectives are secondary to this.

I've only played through Honest Hearts- I started up Dead Money but i'm not sure its my thing. Thankfully I saved right before entering. Its some weird survival horror with an annoying initial focus on melee abilities- which my character isnt about. Does that change later into the DLC? I have a crappy rifle with like 10 shots and a crappy gun I found in the police station. There's those weird dudes everywhere :(

@mrangryface: Dead Money is probably the most divisive of the New Vegas DLCs. Some people (myself included) feel that the difficulty of the DLC is offset by the quality of its characters and the story it tells. You're right, though, that is seems to favor a certain playing style. Once you manage to get inside the actual Sierra Madre casino the story starts to pick up a bit and the DLC becomes more focused on stealth than combat.

I think i'm in the minority of people that like NV more than 3. I don't know what it is but I find the atmosphere better. Maybe because I live in the Southwest?

@Prince_of_Space: Good to know- I may pass on playing through it then; im sure its fun if you wanna stealth and your character can melee- I did like the whole Dog thing, but if I cant survive even 6 levels above suggested minimum level I dunno.

@TheWyotee93: Thats entirely possible. I tend to prefer F3 to NV, but I think its because I am familiar with the many landmarks in the game via DOCUMENTRIES LOL- and there is a sense of urgency to the idea of D.C. getting reduced to what it is in the game.

In your case you've actually spent a lot of time in the southwest, so your feelings towards NV are probably close, if not more authentic, to what im feeling when I play Fallout 3. NV is a fun game tho- I dont put this much time into ANY OL GAME.

I've only played through Honest Hearts- I started up Dead Money but i'm not sure its my thing. Thankfully I saved right before entering. Its some weird survival horror with an annoying initial focus on melee abilities- which my character isnt about. Does that change later into the DLC? I have a crappy rifle with like 10 shots and a crappy gun I found in the police station. There's those weird dudes everywhere :(