It seems to me that you're really clinging to tradition in RPGs... I did find that FO:NV fitted the intro line and human nature in general very well. Nuclear apocalypse in which everyone dies? Organise and wage war. Because that's what humans do. None of that fancy schmancy make the best of it bullshit. People get in your way? You kill them. In FO:3, you also had two well-organised, highly developed powers, which apparently picked up the most advanced tech at the time and made it work flawlessly. The objective in FO:NV? Find the fucker who put a bullet in your brains and get rid of him however you see fit. After that, decide the fate of New Vegas. Play the DLC, you can launch some nukes. I'm not too sure on all the lore, but I don't think the US was carpet nuked, so it's not that strange that New Vegas wasn't damaged too much. They had quite a bit of backstory, I think, but I'm not sure. I just went with whoever had the most badass looking armour (so NCR + Brotherhood alliance it was). I don't know, the BoS chapter in the New Vegas area was just a very small contingent, and the Enclave had been defeated by then, as far as I know. And the Legion and NCR did sound like opposites; a large bureaucracy trying to bring order to a wasteland against a horde of slaves and savages who seek nothing but war and seem to have only two intelligent individuals among them. Having only played FO:NV fully, and bits and pieces of FO:3, I couldn't be the judge of that. Companions were awesome in FO:NV. Not sure about FO:3, though, I only had one, and he died within minutes. For ammo, the tesla cannons used recyclable energy or plasma cells, and you could repair the weapon with repair kits anyway. The one you get in Old World Blues is much superior anyway. The Dead Money stuff was all useless though. Meh, never really used it anyway... In FO:3, they were just visible, but not less annoying. Nope, gotta go through the ridiculous metro system, but you don't know where you're going to end up. Have fun exploring the three square feet you can access when you get up again. And it'll be filled with the same ghouls, mutants and raiders you've been fighting all this time. In FO:NV, they changed the repetitive ghouls, mutants and raiders with mutated animals. Joy. Super Mutants from the very start of the game tend to drain your ammo quite quickly. In my first playthrough, I completely circumvented the Correctional Facility somehow. I still don't know how I did it, but I certainly didn't feel as restricted as I felt in FO:3. Just because all Pokemon games up to the last ones have you as a ten year old kid (the last ones have you being 16, which isn't too much of an improvement) rolling up criminal organisations doesn't make it a good plot. Having a father with expectations and doing good for humanity doesn't exactly give you much incentive to actually take a bad karma path either. They didn't force you to do it, but it made little sense. I addressed this already, so I'll refer to that. As you said earlier, lore. The story explains why the BoS chapter in New Vegas is so small and secluded. I didn't find to be the NCR the 'last, best hope of humanity' at all. They were an overextended mess that tried to organise a devastated world as best they could, but caught up in corruption and bureaucracy. FO:3 had its fair share of sand plains. Which makes sense, with all the radiation and all. Especially in a place called the Mojave Desert. After a while, I got just as bored of all the ruined buildings than I did of the desert. The DLC added a lot more diversity in scenery for NV. Again, I haven't played the FO:3 DLC yet, so I wouldn't know about those.
The Enclave is the reminents of the old government and the BOS are the reminents of a breakaway faction of the US Army. It made perfect sense for them to be fighting. And even as developed as they are, the battles are scattered skirmishes before a main battle, not an all-out, organized, industrialized war like in FO:NV. Which DLC? Operation: Ancorage is a simulator that takes you back to when the war was still waging before the bombs dropped. And even though there are still working B.O.M.B. stations in orbit [as well as a couple other things], they are never really used for an all-out war in the game. Clearly you didn't follow the NV storyline as closely as you believe. The reason that NV was not nuked as badly [with the exception of that radio tower near to the BOS compound] is that Mr. House was a billionaire [CEO of Robcon] who liked it so he built a personal army and a missile system that protected NV. When the nukes came down over 90% of them were shot down before they could land or detonate. My problem with this is that, while it makes for an interesting game idea of having a developed city left from before the war's end, it destroys the actual game by removing 'Fallout' from 'Fallout:NV'. While game-wise the radiation is more of a nucience than anything, lore-wise it is a driving force behind the whole universe. FO:NV just didn't have it and therefore it is less a FO game and more like RAGE with a spot of radiation here and there. Yes, they do have backstory on the NCR, BOS, and Legion. The problem is that it is not flushed out. The BOS have been present in all the games and a major faction. They have known chapters in Texas, California, the Mojave [likely they are still there as canon], the Midwest, and the East Coast. Note that some of the canon is either unconfirmed or Van Braun canon. The NCR began in Shady Sands, which you [the player] help build up in FO:1 and they appear in FO:2 as Shady Sands again, but they start building the NCR at the end of the game [its in the credits section]. They don't appear in FO:Tactics or FO:3 other than some vague mentions. Their society is supposedly a Democracy. Their economy is largely an enigma, though it sounds to be mainly agriculture-driven. The problem is that FO:NV did not flush out how the NCR actually functions within its borders. The Legion doesn't have any game appearences before FO:NV though they were slated to appear in Van Braun's FO:3 before Bethesda bought the rights from Blackwood Isles. Their lore mainly appears in the FO Bible and the details are actually very scant. Their terrictories are not marked out very well. What we know is that they go as far west as the Mojave by FO:NV, their eastern borders are not defined well, they extend as far as the Chicago area in the Midwest [assumed based on the ridiculous lore that states that they somehow beat the Midwestern BOS back], and they don't appear to extend that far into Texas [assumably because of the Texas chapter of the BOS, though it is unconfirmed as canon]. They are a conglomerate of tribal groups that emerged from their vaults [or were on the surface and somehow survived] and were forced to assimilate by a brutal regime. They have a strong patriarchal society. They don't use much technology as they believe it to make humans weak. They hate mutants. Their economy is much an enigma, though it is mentioned by Cassy in FO:NV that they guard their roads well and caravans don't have to fear attacks. The main problem is that FO:NV did not tell how either the Legion or the NCR function within their own borders. Therefore, the majority is just speculation. Most of the information here is from other games and canon/non-canon/unconfirmed/Van Braun sources. FO:NV itself didn't contribute much. The BOS small? Ha! That is half right. The problem is that while the war between the NCR and the Western BOS is mentioned, the truth is that the developers just glossed over what should have been a long and costly war. Yes, the Enclave was mostly defeated. By the BOS. The NCR was still a flegeling town when the BOS teamed up with the Tribal to drive back the Enclave. Arcade Gannon and his band in FO:NV are part of the reminents of the Enclave. The rest fled east of the Mojave to some Enclave base, assumably where the Legion never found them. Militarily, the Legion and the NCR both still rely on large numbers. The BOS and the Legion are a better contrast. And the Legion is trying to bring a brutal peace to the land. Brutal, but peace nonetheless. The NCR 'rounded up' tribals and 'civilized' them. They were, in all truth, only a little less brutal than the Legion in their expansion. One is not much better than the other. The Midwestern BOS did a much better job than either of them until the canon makers screwed everything up. FO:3 didn't have... it was just inferior to FO:NV's compainions. Too many things to say about FO:3's bad companions. On the other hand, you didn't really need companions in FO:3. So I have to buy the DLC for the sequel to use guns from the DLC in the original? That makes no sense. They should have included the guns as part of the game and not just put in one. Not to mention that Tesla Cannon was basically useless as it was overkill and it broke so easily. The VATS system in FO:3 tended to have alot of bad camara angles, but at least it hit its target. The VATS in FO:NV on the other hand, required you to pour perks into it just so it would hit its targets slightly. Not only that, but the FO:NV bursts of fire in VATS were rarely enough to kill anything outright. All I ended up using it for was determining where my enemies were or a quick way to pause the game when I rounded a corner to find an enemy behind the corner. Yes, but if you can see it, you can go to it. That is what has always make Bethesda games appeal to me. The metro system is part of the lore and fits perfectly into the universe. I never found complaint about having to go throught the metros. It could get a litte bit like a maze, but once you have been through it just once, its pretty easy to find your way around. Probably shouldn't have gone up to the mountain then. Kind of common sense to run from the giant with a machinegun when you only have a 9mm. Would you prefer a game where you start off with infinite currency, a planet at your disposal, and the ability to crack the very heavens? Not much of a game. More like the end of the game. It put you in a place to make a decision that would have far-reaching affects. And lore-wise, that is how it has always been with FO games. FO:1: You must save Vault 13 or damn it to the Master. And the BOS help you along. FO:2: You must save your village, the flegeling NCR, a couple of other towns, decide the fate of San Francisco, decide the fate of an oil company, and destroy the Enclave who seek to conquer all. Oh, and enlist the aid of the BOS. FO:Tactics: You must save the BOS, no matter the cost, from the Calculator. FO:BOS [unconfirmed canon, set in Texas]: You must do... something for the BOS and save Texas. FO:3: Save Capital Wasteland with the aid of BOS. FO:NV: Do whatever you want. WTF?! FO:3 had some open areas, yes, and one desert spot, but there was still interesting things to see besides long streaches of sun-baked sand. It was a whole lot more impressive and alot more effort was put into it. And even the desert was on the path to Raven Rock and other distant objectives that you could see getting closer and closer as you moved towards it. FO:NV just didn't have that feel. Either you couldn't see your objective, it was blocked by an invisable wall, or it just wasn't there or impressive. I shouldn't have to by ANY DLC before the game makes me interested. It should be included IN the original.
And it didn't make sense for the Legion and NCR to be fighting? And how is that a bad thing? Yes, there were less people, but just because they have survived a nuclear war doesn't mean they're back to being Neanderthal. The one with the Divide. I didn't find it too amazing, although it gave you some awesome guns, that dude with the incredibly sexy voice and a pretty awesome ending, in which there are nukes aplenty. Now that you mention it, I remember reading that somewhere in the game. I tend to forget the details. I'm not one of those people that memorises every single line that's said in the game. I don't think they go into incredible detail about the forming of the Legion, but I remember there being something about around 40 or 50 tribes that they conquered or something. From what's seen of them in FO:NV, yes, they aren't too large, especially when compared to FO:3. I can sort of get why they'd want to shift away from focusing on the BoS all the time, though. I got the game in a pack in a Steam sale once, so it was pretty cheap. However, what you're implying is that you'd buy the DLC just for the one weapon, which makes little to no sense. Yes, you can go there, but through a large and confusing workaround. The map on the Pip-Boy was incredibly vague about it, as you have to first discover or learn about places before you can see the icon. If you see a building in the city, good luck finding out what station you're going in and out of. I was talking about FO:3, where those fuckers are everywhere. There are actually little games in that genre, but yes, that'd be awesome. You completely missed my point, though. What decision? You're going to be a dick to people or not, but in the end you're apparently still using the giant fucking robot (again, I'm not entirely sure, as I've yet to completely finish the game). Oh, no! They give you a choice in an open world and open ended RPG? How dare they! But for New Vegas, you can easily say you get to decide the fate of the Mojave Desert in about 4 different ways, I think. I still don't know what you expect from a desert filled with rocks and the occasional building. Of course, they could've changed the entire setting of the game, but then you'd lose Mr. House as a character, or at least you'd be forced to heavily rewrite him. The tower in New Vegas could be seen from quite far away, especially at night, where you'd see it all lit up and provide a lot of contrast to the dark and gloomy setting of the entire series.
I think that what is happening here is that it boils down to that I prefer a strong story with acceptable gameplay while you prefer a better gameplay over the story. A RPG should have options, yes, but it shouldn't upend the entirety of the universe just to do it. The endings should all be equally possible and fit into the universe. Think about the possible endings to FO:NV. For the sake of being able to continue the story/ not going backwards, there is still only one acceptable canon ending. FO:NV did a lot of damage to the canon and completely changed the focus of the game. They flung about some canon pieces which just happened to change the universe and didn't flush out the backstory very well. The introduction of the Legion was completely unnecessary. The war between the NCR and the various chapters of the BOS would have made use of what was already established and reinforced the series, but instead, they glossed over it. Basically, I prefer FO:3 because it fits in the universe and FO:NV doesn't do that as well.
Not really, I prefer a decent story where applicable, and I think I pointed that out quite well with my criticism on the stories of Pokemon and the Elder Scrolls series. I don't, however, cling to tradition and 100% lore, and while fitting in with the rest of the universe is obviously a good thing, drawing attention away from it at times isn't a terrible thing. I don't really look into the details an incredible amount, and therefore the smaller things you noticed about FO:NV bother me much less. What also probably factors in is that I played FO:NV before I played FO:3, and never even finished the last game, therefore I little to no problems with the Legion, as I wasn't familiar with the earlier games. As for canon endings, I'm pretty sure that in any game with any choice, there's only one canon ending.
What canon did it destroy? In my opinion, I was glad they took off the focus from the BOS. It was nice to see a few new factions (actually meeting with the Enclave without them trying to kill you). I don't see how they can't fill in a backstory or anything to the NCR (being inside actual NCR borders more specifically) or the Legion with a new game. That is my theory on why they didn't extend the game after the ending, because they were planning to set Fallout 4 in the Mojave or something.
They reversed the whole trend in the games. The NCR SUCK. That is pretty much their backstory. They basically are propped up on the actions of heros now and then. The BOS at least pretty much stands on its own. The developers skimmed right over massive amounts of lore that should have been put in. And the Legion is pretty... uninspired. A massive Raider group, essentially. The Enclave is evil and wants to restore the government that destroyed the world. That is why you don't see them out from behind their ironsights. They aren't supposed to be nice. Its late, I don't have the energy to fully flush my points out.
Chinglish dude. Same. If they can improve it over FO:3, I'd be surprised. But right now, I'd just settle for them correcting it.
I liked the Vurt's flora mod, (on the lower setting). It added enough flora to make it look better, but not too much flora to make it look ridiculous and unrealistic. I also liked the NOC texture packs and Poco Bueno textures as well. Warzones was pretty nice too, although that doesnt add to the look of the game, just gives you more action.
I really shouldn't have to download everything to make the game passible on its graphics and asthetics.
New Vegas was way more fun and interesting than Fallout 3, probably because there's actually a developed backstory and world. The basic survivalism and tribalism that dominated the earlier Fallout games is over with, and the far more interesting conflict between the various factions that have set up new civilizations in the wastes is here. New Vegas executed that perfectly. Fallout 3 didn't come close.
Exactly. I honestly think the people who support Fallout 3 over New Vegas all have the attention spans of small children, or utterly lack the creative ability to see the significance of that whole 5 minutes you walked without killing anything. Bizarre! NV is an actual RPG with an interesting and developing world that has interesting characters and the companions actually are relevant , not to mention how much better the combat feels and the inclusion of hardcore mode which makes the game SO much funner... if you don't play on hardcore you don't know what immersive combat feels like.. FO3 is a good story about saving the world with a few side quests.
If you take like one or two days out of your whole time playing to download mods for Fallout New Vegas, you could have about a hundred amazing mods that make the game 100 times more amazing. I agree, you shouldn't have to download these mods to make the game better, but they do make the game a lot more fun.
He said he doesnt want to have to download mods to make the game look good, and I was just telling him how simple it is to download mods.
