Arcade Gannon is also gay and handled equally well. He just kinda hints at it and the player character can't even comment on it, as far as I remember.

@itwongo: @bacongames: I will get to the DLC soon, I'm still knee deep in the base game :)

@you_died: Initially I thought it'd be crazy and cumbersome to Hardcore a Bethesda-engine game because I expected shitty gameplay, but I'm actually really enjoying the NV combat and controls, so I might just go Hardcore some time down the road.

@herpderp: I will play KOTOR 2 after I start and beat the first KOTOR. One day...

Will do!

There was just too much reading and nothing much else going on, I'd rather continue reading novels to be honest.

@armaan8014: Witcher EE is my all time favorite RPG too! You're alright :D

You should definitely fire up FNV, before playing it I thought the writing was probably overrated and over-hyped, but it really consumes you, it's an amazing experience. I added a list of the mods I'm using to the OP.

And I kind of agree with you, I don't really mind the barren wasteland because it's meant to be this way. It's just that there isn't as much exploration as I would like, but the abundance of quality quests are a perfect alternative.

Really?! Because that's actually that's my only complaint, the side quests are not self contained enough and, by proxy, long enough.. not the quests I've had so far. They're amazing because they include good stories and player interactions with different people, as opposed to PLZ BRING BACK MY DADDY'S SWORD Bethesda side quests, but none of them lasted long enough.

Can you give examples of pre-Strip side quests that were actually that long and inter-connected?

@yinstarrunner: That sounds very tempting, and I remember @arbitrarywater: 's blog about NWN2 saying the same thing. I guess I'll do my best to play my copy on Steam one day soon.. I hope the gameplay won't be too much to endure.

Glad to see you enjoy it so much. If you haven't done so yet, get Fallout 3 as well, the writing is stellar there as well.

@jouseldelka: you've got some great mods already. Depending on your PCs power I recommend some texture packs and some of the major mods from Gopher. He makes mods that emphasizes immersion. As little HUD on screen as possible, all contextual. Gophers profile

Check his most downloaded files and see which you might like. He's also got great YouTube instruction videos for how to install and mod New Vegas, in detail. And if your not using Nexus Mod Manager and BOSS for load order, do it NOW. I'll give you some more pointers when I'm not on my phone. Glad to help!

I'm more of a 3 guy (NV was superior as a game, but the Mojave setting was far less interesting to me), but I still mostly agree. The writing and fiction-building is just superb.

@joshth: @arbitrarywater: @yinstarrunner: @jimbo: @fetchfox: Guys, I need your input and thoughts on a couple of things if that's ok. I've just never played anything quite like this, I'm getting really pumped and overexcited each passing minute!

Basically I'm stunned by the fact that you can actually cross anyone or get on their bad side. I mean I've played a number of RPGs in my time but this game straight up offers the option to go to war with any faction, none of them seem "fixed" to help me or interact with me to progress the game, as if the story can go on realistically with or without any of them. Is it really that complex and amazing? I just went to Hidden Valley to find the Brotherhood and they straight up said cooperate or die, how tough and mindblowing is that?

My actual question though, is to get some clarification on what goes on after I talk to Yes Man in Benny's suite. There are so many angles to this, I'm not sure how to proceed.

So basically:

So much to think about and plan, I'm feeling great uncertainty.

Edit: Also the Speech skill is overpowered up in here. I'm only at 60 speech (level 12) and I'm talking my way into and out of everything.

NV is easily one of my favorite games of all time. I could never get into 3 but there was just something about the setting that really grabbed me.

I have a very fine modded version of Fallout: New Vegas myself. It's fucking grand.

@jouseldelka: I can tell you to look up "the place of no return" and which missions trigger what and so on to get a faction on your side. But thats not that fun and a HUGE spoiler. Follow your gut, and save a lot. If you get on the good side of a faction you dislike (or the other way around) there are usually ways to turn that around. I screwed myself the first time I played New Vegas and never got positive karma with the Legion. Not that I wanted to join, but they've got good loot in their safehouse. Nothing is wrong, but do all missions for a faction or get to know them before making your final choice. Your ultimate goal is to have fun. Don't fret over factions you loose, that's what multiple playthrough's are for. And there are a lot more missions that doesn't involve the factions directly. Explore and you'll find some great ones.

The speech skill is overpowered sure, but also very useful. I suggest taking the lady killer perk and/or similar as well. It'll give you some great dialogue choices now and then.

I regret playing through the main story as fast as I did because the ending soured me to the whole experience. I didn't even wanna go back for the DLC after that. I recommend fully enjoying the world before finishing the main questline.

I tried to jump on the Steam sale for the complete version for $5 but I guess the transaction didn't go through. Next time I went to make a summer purchase, it was still there and no longer such a great deal.

My first playthrough, I borked up by bringing that ranger into Caesar's camp and ended up killing everyone in self defense. It felt like a very broken outcome, so I didn't continue playing. I am hoping to properly finish the game though, as I recall liking it and I feel my memory is growing hazy enough not to become too bored.

My game was glitched so bad that it took me FOREVER to beat the final boss. I would kill him and he would just explode or flail around in the sky and the game wouldn't load the next action. It took me months to beat him.... which kind of made it awesome. Really frustrating but always an intense battle, he was really hard to kill because I went in underpowered, so when I did it felt like a huge deal, but then the game wouldn't recognize him being dead. So I'd just be stuck in that legion camp. Then one day it actually worked properly. Weird stuff.

It's also the last time I play one of those open world Bethesda games on a console. Picked it up a year or so later on PC and it's amazing how much smoother it runs.

I remember reading something about how one of the DLC stories for New Vegas apparently had one of the best (most realistic/accurate, I guess?) portrayals of the Mormon faith in just about any game ever. I believe it was a combination of using actual, specific verses and the writers' discipline to include a deeply religious missionary without taking the easy route of making him a 1-dimensional zealot.

I thought that was kind of interesting.

@claude: @jouseldelka: Would you kindly post a list of mods that you're using and where you got them (Nexus I assume)? I've been eyeing this game up for when I wrap up FarCry 3.

Dude, I got a lot of shit from these videos. I bought the Ultimate Edition of course. But yeah, Nexus and mod manager and so on...

@bbalpert: The Burned Man is an amazing character, who has a conflicting moral compass and at points questions himself and what he is doing. He can turn out to be a 1-dimensional zealot if you don't convince him of another path. He is the reason why Honest Hearts is my favorite DLC.

Gem.

I have actually began playing New Vegas again. And yeah, Obsidian's writing and world building is miles ahead of their competitors. The NPCs you meet both are archetypes and have their own original perspectives on any question you ask them, it gives the player information about something they need to know more about, in addition to a collection of opinions.

Furthermore, I find their vision of the post-apocalypse to be the one most likely based on human history and anthropology. In more obscure or out of the way places you'll see a devolution into more tribal setups, but you're going to see a New California Republic, you're going to see people imitating western liberal democracy, and you're going to see the large swallow the small, just like has happened again and again since time immemorial.

@fetchfox: Thanks for the perspective!

Such a beautiful game. I just went through a valley crawling with Stalker-like creatures, in the pitch-black darkness holding nothing but a flashlight, trying to find the bodies of a group that never came back. My two companions took care of the shooting while I walked aimlessly looking for the bodies' shining armor.

Then I ran the hell out of there, and a crazy white storm hit..

I bought it on Steam sale recently and now I can't wait to play it! And thanks for the mods list!

*cough*

awesome, great to hear. I just got all the DLC from the Steam sale and I'm about to jump into it about 2 weekends from now. Thanks for the mod list.

Nope sorry, New Vegas is still garbage. Try again

All told, New Vegas is a solid candidate for my favorite game of this generation. The core story is good, the sidestory threaded through the DLC is great, but most of all, the world is amazingly well-realized. F3 is pretty hard to play afterwards. I don't personally find mods to be terribly helpful, and certainly not necessary.

It's worth looking up some of the things that didn't make it into the final game. There was a great deal of work that they were planning for Caesar's Legion, in particular, which would have fleshed them out as a more complete society.

It's a more intricate game than Fallout 3, with more interesting characters and better writing, that much is hard to disagree with, but there was something about the setting and the overall vibe of 3 that was more appealing to me.

Both games are great for very different reasons.

My initial experience with the game on 360 was decent, but it was really negatively impacted by bugs and performance issues. I just picked up the PC version on Steam, so I'm hoping that maybe the technical side might be a bit more solid this time.

Wow high five! :)

I started playing a couple of fays ago, crossed Primm, and have just entered the Mojave outpost. I had played till Novac last time ( I lost those saves) So i'm storming through till there. Loving it again, but this time with mods :D

Btw, I'm super excited for the Witcher 3. It's gonna be the best game experience EVER created :D I trust CD project Red now. The way they speak is as if they know exactly what I want from games and they want it too! Can't wait.

They're such an awesome studio, wish every studio actually cared for fans like them-

Damn, dude.. Just got out of there after like an hour of careful looting and reading. That was some fucked up shit, the whole sacrificial election process and what the mainframe's response to resistance turned out to be! And after what?!

Amazinggggggg

I just started New Vegas again last night, with all the Uncut mods. Basically a user has gone and made 8 or so mods that were originally meant to be in the game but got commented out for the release due to issues.

Things like New Vegas being one whole area rather than split up, more NPC's, a new companion, finished quest lines (all fully, officially voiced) and even some more Wilder Wasteland experiences.

It makes the game feel much more complete and, much like the KotoR 2 restoration mod, it feels like the way the game should be played.

It's making a really special game even more perfect.