Now Playing (the Video Game Version!)

Also, Bully encourages bullying and should be banned.

I also got Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy for the Xbox (which I now have fixed up!).

Shit's gonna be unplayable with a controller.

Shit's gonna be unplayable with a controller.

It's actually pretty easy.

Gonna play all of them. Just taking one at a time.

Just realized I'm playing these things in the wrong order...
Should have checked in which order they were released before I started playing them.

Quote from: Mugthulhu on July 26, 2013, 04:27:52 AM

Gonna play all of them. Just taking one at a time.

Just realized I'm playing these things in the wrong order...
Should have checked in which order they were released before I started playing them.

If you play them in order of "difficulty" it's Honest Hearts>Dead Money>Old World Blues>Lonesome Road. Personally, I think Dead Money is the hardest because you are stripped of all your gear at the start (you get it all back when you complete the DLC) and have only one weapon and shitty armour available; you have to fight these things that you have to dismember Dead Space style otherwise they just keep getting back up; you have to move very fast through maze-like terrain and avoid certain devices otherwise your head explodes; the final boss is a complete bastard depending on how you try to approach it; it has some of the most complicated dialogue trees in the whole game. Feels more like old school Fallout in some ways, actually.

I try to raise all the skills used for dialogue to get by easily, and I think Barter and Survival are the only ones not currently at 100. I usually focus on science and speech at first, because I find those pop up the most in dialogues, and I like being able to hack terminals and shit.

I try to raise all the skills used for dialogue to get by easily, and I think Barter and Survival are the only ones not currently at 100. I usually focus on science and speech at first, because I find those pop up the most in dialogues, and I like being able to hack terminals and shit.

It's not just the skill levels that you need, you need to choose very carefully. It's much more complex than in the vanilla game and the other DLCs.

I like playing dumb-as-a-rock super-strong characters on Fallout. It makes the game a little harder and you get some amusing dialogue options. Plus, there's something oddly satisfying about smacking your opponents half-way across the wasteland with an improvised club.

Quote from: Mugthulhu on July 28, 2013, 05:43:16 PM

Quote from: Mugthulhu on July 26, 2013, 04:27:52 AM

Gonna play all of them. Just taking one at a time.

Just realized I'm playing these things in the wrong order...
Should have checked in which order they were released before I started playing them.

If you play them in order of "difficulty" it's Honest Hearts>Dead Money>Old World Blues>Lonesome Road. Personally, I think Dead Money is the hardest because you are stripped of all your gear at the start (you get it all back when you complete the DLC) and have only one weapon and shitty armour available; you have to fight these things that you have to dismember Dead Space style otherwise they just keep getting back up; you have to move very fast through maze-like terrain and avoid certain devices otherwise your head explodes; the final boss is a complete bastard depending on how you try to approach it; it has some of the most complicated dialogue trees in the whole game. Feels more like old school Fallout in some ways, actually.

Don't get me started on bloody Dead Money. I played all the DLCs in release order (DM>HH>OWB>LR) so that was my first taste of New Vegas DLC. To start with I really enjoyed the change to melee and stealth combat. Then by the time the holograms showed up I was wanting to put a nail through the eye of whoever thought those speaker things were a good idea. In one or two places, to keep you on your toes? That'd be great. Every 10 sodding feet so you can't even explore what is admittedly an excellent location? Yeah thanks guys, that combined with jumping puzzles on your clunky obsolete game engine isn't a recipe for frustration at all. So many games have great combat but meh storylines, Dead Money proved the opposite is even worse.

Honest Hearts was....odd. My first playthrough I ended up shooting Follows Chalk by accident (again great game design there) and basically failed the entire thing instantly and was back in the Mojave within 30 minutes. Reloaded an earlier save and tried again and it wasn't much better doing it correctly. They created this lovely location, such a refreshing change, and couldn't seem to fill it with anything to keep me occupied. Fetch quests galore.

Old World Blues was from start to finish one of the most excellent add ons of all time I think. I'm still having nightmares about the goddamn Y17 harnesses. I won't spoil anymore for those that haven't played it.

Lonesome road reminded me a lot of DM - started off well then slowly died. At least the combat wasn't quite to head-bashingly frustrating. But the latter half has all the hallmarks of a ran-out-of-time-and-money job. A sandbox game reduced to a single linear path? Check. Entire plot threads dangled and then forgotten about? Check. Disappointing final boss showdown? Oh yes, without the effort to even animate the guys face, so we'll just stick a mask on there. It says something that the best character in there was an eyebot.


------------------

For fellow indoctrinated round earthers I can also heartily recommend Kerbal Space Program. One word of warning: Do not go near mods. It'll start innocently enough, sure, with 'just for information'. Before you know it the program will take 15 mins to load up the 1000 or so extra parts you've downloaded, and you think a #ws" class="bbc_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rocket propelled by atomic bombs is a sensible idea.

That was entirely my experience with the DLCs. I got so frustrated by Dead Money that I restarted my save file. The characters were great but navigating that place was a nightmare because of Fallout's utterly incompetant interior maps. That noxious cloud and the radios felt like they were added to make it last longer.

I really liked Honest Hearts, the location was beautiful, the mythos and history of the tribes was engaging and I actually felt like I was surviving in the wilderness. I remember being trapped in a ranger station surrounded by giant yao-guais with utterly insufficient ammunition. I ended up sprinting to safety and feeling incredibly guilty as Follows-Chalk was torn to pieces by the bears.

OWB was brilliantly written (apart from a dialogue glitch at the end which could get you stuck in an unescapable loop) and there were times when it felt like something from the mind of Douglas Adams or Grant Naylor (the sexual light switch and genocidal toasters were particularly good)

Probably going to start a replay of the Mass Effect series again this week when I have time. I might go Renegade and bang Ashley as I've never done either of those before.

Disappointing final boss showdown? Oh yes, without the effort to even animate the guys face, so we'll just stick a mask on there.

He turned out to not even be much of a boss in my case, since I persuaded him to help me instead of fight me. 100 in Speech and Science is great. Still need to work on Barther though.

In conclusion, I shouldn't bother getting these add-ons?  I probably don't have enough memory on my Xbox for them, anyway.  Consolefag, I know.

Well, Old World Blues seems pretty cool.

I shall consider it.  Also, I am intrigued:

http://www.gamefront.com/fallout-4-obsidian-would-like-to-return-to-the-fallout-setting/

Well, Old World Blues seems pretty cool.

It is, and if you can get it cheap/ free get Honest Hearts.

I shall consider it.  Also, I am intrigued:

http://www.gamefront.com/fallout-4-obsidian-would-like-to-return-to-the-fallout-setting/

J.E. Sawyer has expressed similar sentiments on his Formspring feed. I'd love to see Obsidian work on another Fallout title, with NV they made the already less-than-stellar F3 look amateurish, though I suspect Bethesda is aware of this and will be reluctant to give Obsidian a chance to make them look even less competent at Fallout than they already do.

I was playing some Skyrim the other day.

I was playing some Skyrim the other day.

Y'all motha fuckas need Talos

I used to play Bethesda games, but then.....

Has anyone played "Remember Me" on the XBox360?  Is it worth it? 

Just beat BioShock Infinite. That game was...wow. The story was just incredible and the game was gorgeous. That story, though, is just so gripping...I was excited and trying to figure things out for myself along the entire game, constantly just in awe of how great it was. And that ending...that...that ending, seriously.

That game is amazing

Just beat BioShock Infinite. That game was...wow. The story was just incredible and the game was gorgeous. That story, though, is just so gripping...I was excited and trying to figure things out for myself along the entire game, constantly just in awe of how great it was. And that ending...that...that ending, seriously.

That game is amazing

 

Quote from: Saddam Hussein on July 31, 2013, 09:43:09 PM

I shall consider it.  Also, I am intrigued:

http://www.gamefront.com/fallout-4-obsidian-would-like-to-return-to-the-fallout-setting/

J.E. Sawyer has expressed similar sentiments on his Formspring feed. I'd love to see Obsidian work on another Fallout title, with NV they made the already less-than-stellar F3 look amateurish, though I suspect Bethesda is aware of this and will be reluctant to give Obsidian a chance to make them look even less competent at Fallout than they already do.

Yes, I'm sure Bethesda really cares that somewhere on the Internet, a few old-school fanboys feel that Obsidian does a better job at Fallout than they do.

I actually predicted you would jump in to say something to almost this exact extent. I am proud of me.

Quote from: Crudblud on August 01, 2013, 08:14:40 AM

Quote from: Saddam Hussein on July 31, 2013, 09:43:09 PM

I shall consider it.  Also, I am intrigued:

http://www.gamefront.com/fallout-4-obsidian-would-like-to-return-to-the-fallout-setting/

J.E. Sawyer has expressed similar sentiments on his Formspring feed. I'd love to see Obsidian work on another Fallout title, with NV they made the already less-than-stellar F3 look amateurish, though I suspect Bethesda is aware of this and will be reluctant to give Obsidian a chance to make them look even less competent at Fallout than they already do.

Yes, I'm sure Bethesda really cares that somewhere on the Internet, a few old-school fanboys feel that Obsidian does a better job at Fallout than they do.

It's a pretty popular opinion.

Quote from: Saddam Hussein on August 02, 2013, 05:37:36 PM

Quote from: Crudblud on August 01, 2013, 08:14:40 AM

Quote from: Saddam Hussein on July 31, 2013, 09:43:09 PM

I shall consider it.  Also, I am intrigued:

http://www.gamefront.com/fallout-4-obsidian-would-like-to-return-to-the-fallout-setting/

J.E. Sawyer has expressed similar sentiments on his Formspring feed. I'd love to see Obsidian work on another Fallout title, with NV they made the already less-than-stellar F3 look amateurish, though I suspect Bethesda is aware of this and will be reluctant to give Obsidian a chance to make them look even less competent at Fallout than they already do.

Yes, I'm sure Bethesda really cares that somewhere on the Internet, a few old-school fanboys feel that Obsidian does a better job at Fallout than they do.

It's a pretty popular opinion.

Irrelevant.  The mainstream gaming press treated both games to the same glowing review-blowjobs that they give to virtually all AAA titles, and the sales figures backed them up.  That's not to say that none of them felt that NV was the better game, but there was no outcry of how it totally eclipsed F3 and made Bethesda look incompetent.  To Bethesda, the way it went is that they had Success 1 and Success 2.  People like Crudblud are seen as the vocal minority.

Quote from: Particle Person on August 03, 2013, 04:46:37 AM

Quote from: Saddam Hussein on August 02, 2013, 05:37:36 PM

Quote from: Crudblud on August 01, 2013, 08:14:40 AM

Quote from: Saddam Hussein on July 31, 2013, 09:43:09 PM

I shall consider it.  Also, I am intrigued:

http://www.gamefront.com/fallout-4-obsidian-would-like-to-return-to-the-fallout-setting/

J.E. Sawyer has expressed similar sentiments on his Formspring feed. I'd love to see Obsidian work on another Fallout title, with NV they made the already less-than-stellar F3 look amateurish, though I suspect Bethesda is aware of this and will be reluctant to give Obsidian a chance to make them look even less competent at Fallout than they already do.

Yes, I'm sure Bethesda really cares that somewhere on the Internet, a few old-school fanboys feel that Obsidian does a better job at Fallout than they do.

It's a pretty popular opinion.

Irrelevant.  The mainstream gaming press treated both games to the same glowing review-blowjobs that they give to virtually all AAA titles, and the sales figures backed them up.  That's not to say that none of them felt that NV was the better game, but there was no outcry of how it totally eclipsed F3 and made Bethesda look incompetent.  To Bethesda, the way it went is that they had Success 1 and Success 2.  People like Crudblud are seen as the vocal minority.

It's not old-school fanboyism, anyone should be able to look at the canon established prior to Bethesda's purchasing of the title and see that Fallout 3 was a total misstep, including Todd Howard and friends.

Fallout 1 & 2 established a certain universe and Fallout 3 totally failed at building upon it, preferring instead a random mishmash of things from the previous games, some of which directly contradict established canon, and moving them to a totally different location as if that in itself makes it somehow "new." In that sense it feels somewhat more like an ill-conceived nostalgic fan project than a AAA megabucks title. New Vegas returns to the NCR and shows us the new conflicts and problems that are occurring as the result of its government's relentless expansion, brings back the uncompromising moral greyness of the originals, references the originals and even reintroduces a character from Fallout 2, it does this in a believable manner and without falling back on retreading the old ground which it so easily could have, while Fallout 3 presents a clear cut good/evil binary with no sophistication whatsoever and does so using factions from the original games that either should no longer exist or are acting completely out of character. The nicest thing I can say about it as a Fallout game is that it mercifully went to a new location and did its bulshitting there, instead of remaining in and completely shitting up the classic west coast location.

It's not old-school fanboyism, anyone should be able to look at the canon established prior to Bethesda's purchasing of the title and see that Fallout 3 was a total misstep, including Todd Howard and friends.

Fallout 1 & 2 established a certain universe and Fallout 3 totally failed at building upon it, preferring instead a random mishmash of things from the previous games, some of which directly contradict established canon, and moving them to a totally different location as if that in itself makes it somehow "new." In that sense it feels somewhat more like an ill-conceived nostalgic fan project than a AAA megabucks title. New Vegas returns to the NCR and shows us the new conflicts and problems that are occurring as the result of its government's relentless expansion, brings back the uncompromising moral greyness of the originals, references the originals and even reintroduces a character from Fallout 2, it does this in a believable manner and without falling back on retreading the old ground which it so easily could have, while Fallout 3 presents a clear cut good/evil binary with no sophistication whatsoever and does so using factions from the original games that either should no longer exist or are acting completely out of character. The nicest thing I can say about it as a Fallout game is that it mercifully went to a new location and did its bulshitting there, instead of remaining in and completely shitting up the classic west coast location.

Those are valid criticisms, but the fact remains that relatively few people noticed or cared.  Most people were more concerned with the quests, the 3D world, the graphics, the new combat, etc.

I'm pretty sure 3 actually got better reviews than NV, too. Which isn't to say i liked 3 more, just that I'm not sure I'd say 3 being worse is an overly popular opinion.