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[Vincent Pryce]

I didn't much care for FO3, infact I was one of the guys going "THERE IS NO FO3! ONLY OBLIVION WITH GUNZ". Was very disappointing after FO2 to me. It was an ok game, but not really a Fallout experience for me.

Then I was bored as shit one night and saw New Vegas had come out. Pirated it shamelessly since FO3 was a let down in many ways.

Decided to give it an hour test d rive to pass the time, and seven hours later - not noticing the passage of time as I wandered across the Mojave wasteland - I decided that I'd buy the game once I'd have the money to do so and I did.

[BloodBird]

Well, I put about 170+ hours into FO3, and while I ran into the same problem that Wanoah did with the lack of empathy for other characters, I thought it was kind of an advantage. You really are a fish out of water with these stories, and it's funny how (in my opinion) unlike games like Mass Effect 2 where your 'alignment' choices can have an impact at the extremes, I never really found myself worrying about being a nice person or otherwise.

I guess what really was a draw for me in these games is the adventure aspect. There are all sorts of subterranean holes and areas to get lost in, and while the creatures aren't that varied the secrets and plot bits make me want to find everything. And yes, the brown does get depressing, but I enjoyed it. There's actually a patch you can get that removes the color filter that makes the world look alot more natural. The downside is that night is REALLY dark.

I haven't gotten too far in New Vegas yet, but it looks like more of the same, so if you don't like the FO3 you probably won't like this. Question for those of you who have played through this, is the hardcore mode (with water and making your own weapons) a worthwhile accessory to the game or more of just a pain in the ass?

Tried to play FO3 again today, and I noticed that, beyond all the other issues I had with it, the LACK of weapon modding, proper iron-sighting and hardcore-mode was a major let-down. In my oppinion being able to enjoy those 3 things alone makes this a different experience entierly, not just more of the same from FO3. Also, the fact that NV is made by many of the folks on the original FO1-2 game develop teams made the experience much more fallout-ish than FO3 - that game really did feel more like oblivion with gunz, as Vincent put it, but with a slight fallout-ish feel. NV enhanced that considerably and made it the true follow-up from the older ones - the music score, the enemies in the game (just the return of Gechos and other old foes missing from FO3 made it alot better.) and the return of some factions and the stories they can tell, the history etc. enhanced it. I loved helping the NCR for instance, because I recall their evolution from Fallout 1 through Fallout 2 and now seeing how it's gone. since then.

It was great seeing Marcus again too.

[Myyona]

Indeed. I think I would have a really hard time to play Fallout 3 again simply due to the lack of 'hardcore' mode in that game. I also forgot to mention how I enjoy the Repair skill has changed in effect between the two games. In FO3 it was pretty essential to max the Repair skill as it would strongly determine the maximal condition level of your weapon. In FO:NV you can repair to maximal condition regardles of Repair skill. Instead, having higher skill results in a better condition improvement when fixing one gun with another.

I also prefer the way that items have a condition threshold from where any increase will not efffect the damage output or armor level of the item, while a reducement below threshold will decrease damage and armor protection.

The only thing I miss is being able to wield a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other.

[Mizhara]

Hardcore mode itself... eeeeh. I just don't really like it. If it had actually added some challenge to the game (beyond the Dead Money DLC), then I would have approved of it. As it is, it's just a kind of annoyance to be honest. A little more inventory management. Wooptiedoo. So challenging. If it had added enough that it'd really turn the game 'real', then yes I'd like it, but it just doesn't make it any less of a game. Just more tedious.

It's just too obviously just a bundle of game-mechanics pretending to be more immersive and challenging, and doesn't really add to either. Thus, I'll drop Hardcore mode after I get bored with it and then just start enjoying the game a bit more.

[Graelyn]

I liked hardcore mode.

Until the stupid AI started getting my companions perma-killed.

That prompted an immediate start over from the beginning....

A great idea, crippled by reliance on a lacking mechanic.

[Mizhara]

I actually downloaded a mod to retain the permakill aspect, without Hardcore mode. I very much liked that aspect of having to protect my companions too. Added some challenge.

[hellgremlin]

I never bothered with regard to keeping all the companions alive. The way I always figured with NV, some of them were just *meant* to die. Boone's story, for example. I didn't mind when he bit it because he's already dead inside.

[Wanoah]

There's actually a patch you can get that removes the color filter that makes the world look alot more natural. The downside is that night is REALLY dark.

That sounds like it has potential. I don't necessarily mind it being properly dark at night...although some kind of flashlight might be nice.

[Bacchanalian]

Thing that bugged me and eventually drove me out of Fallout 3 is the fact that I kept getting stuck on a quest that stopped me from advancing the story.  I don't even remember which it was now, but I spent hours on trying to figure out what the fuck to do and eventually just gave up and moved on.  Haven't booted the game back up since.  Enjoyed it up until that point too, but I had the same issue with Fallout 1/2--I'd get stuck somewhere or on a quest or something and waste hours upon hours trying to get out.  Getting lost in DC in the last Fallout almost made me give up on the entire series because it was so frustrating to be lost with no ammo, no supplies, and lots of bad guys between me and where I needed to be but no saves that I could easily revert back to without setting myself back hours in the story.

[lallara zhuul]

Without the hardcore mod, there is no point for water in the whole game.

Nor blood packs.

[BloodBird]

Without the hardcore mod, there is no point for water in the whole game.

Nor blood packs.

Clarification; without hardcode mode, any food and water you find is vendor-trash to be sold, or glorfied, low-end healing items. Without hardcode mode, doctor's bags are entierly pointless as you can heal crippled limbs with stimpacks, that don't weight anything. Ergo, the only two healing items you ever need are rad-away to get rid of radiation poisoning and stims to heal/patch up limbs.

Far more simplistic, and far easier as you can easily sell whatever food you find for extra caps making you a richer toon too.

As for Miz's annoyance with inventory management, I see where that argument comes from too but I persoanlly had no issue with that; you get 8 hot-keys, 1-8. Assign stims to 8, water to 7, low-end but noumerous food to 6 and high-end but a bit more rare food to 5. Can still use 1,3 and 4 for 3 different weapons. (2 is hard-coded to be ammo-swap button).

Personally, the actual need for eating, drinking and the occational nap enhanced the enjoyment for me - being able to go forever with no sleep drink or food in FO3 was a bit bizzare... Is my toon an unstoppable killer-cyborg or something?

[Mizhara]

Food/Water actually becomes extremely powerful without hardcore mode too, if you have high survival. Stack different foodsorts together at once, and you have a ridiculous heal over time effect going. Sure, Doctor's bags get useless, and so does Hydra for the most part, but the rest still retain high usefulness if you have the right build.

And when I speak of inventory management, I'm mostly talking about weight. It's simply not fun for me to play this game with hardcore mode on, having to micromanage the inventory so much. I do like the concept, but the execution was a bit sub-par, since it just didn't add any challenge to me. Just tedium. It wasn't harder to dedicate a certain amount of carrying capacity to water and food. It wasn't hard to keep H2O, Food and Sleep meters zeroed out. It didn't cost me any more caps, or lose me any income, since I wouldn't be picking those things up anyway if I wasn't in Hardcore mode. All it did was add more trips to the vendors since I couldn't bring quite as much loot at once besides my 'need' items, and add some more buttons to push every once in a while.

I can definitely see why people like it... I just don't like it myself.

Now, if there'd been a challenge mode which removed two thirds of the water and food sources, and made beds/sleeping places much much more rare... then I'd turn it on and enjoy it immensely. I guess what I'm saying is that I expected the game to get harder with hardcore mode. It didn't, for the most part. Just made it more work.

[Mizhara]

So there I was. 4400ish USD spent on a stationary computer. Skyrim open, HD textures installed, all the unofficial mods and such allowing for graphics and such to be completely maxed out (unlike what the gimped console versions can do) and I was gaping. Beautiful. Absolutely fantastic. The sights, the scenes, the enemies and allies... gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. Then I closed Skyrim and booted New Vegas so I could run yet another character through Lonesome Road for completion's sake. Skyrim and such just can't compare to this gem.

Since the Ultimate Edition is now out I guess it's time for me to 'finish' this review and add Lonesome Road to the OP. If you've read this review once already you can save your time and just look up superlatives in a dictionary. Lonesome Road follows the same pattern as the rest of the awesomeness of NV. If you haven't read it, well get going. Once you're done, read the following:

Have you been holding off on New Vegas so far? Been having more 'urgent' games to play or possibly couldn't be arsed with the DLC bustle and so on? Well, Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition has just been released on Steam. The game, latest patches and all DLCs/Official Addons in one single package. It's cheap, it's very simple to get and it's just not aged at all. Fairly old graphics engine so far and yet it's making Skyrim look like crap as far as games go, proving once more that graphics just isn't the most important thing at all.

Guess those 4400ish USD weren't too good an investment. Then again, gamer hardware cred might be worth it.

[Crucifire]

Yup.

Big fan of the Fallout IP and have always been really interested in what was to be Van Buren, so all of New Vegas was a real treat for me.

Honest Hearts in particular though. I only wish it were longer and bigger, as I would have happily continued playing in the direction of the ruined New Canaan and New Jerusalem. Furthermore, I'd also love to actually see what a Legion controlled Arizona looks like.

Joshua Graham's voice actor was excellent too. "I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other."

[Caellach Marellus]

Pretty sure Myrhial found a mod that updates all the texture qualities to F:NV, not sure if it brings it to Skyrim level but it looked pretty damn gorgeous in the screenshots I saw.