Yeah, I decided to try my luck at the deathclaws in the quarry with Raul and the eyebot. Found that the hunting rifle with the long range scope would pop the heads off most low-end deathclaws, while seriously injuring your average one. The -BIG- deathclaws? I used good ol' Annabelle and some HE rockets.

I started to feel rage when, as a level 16 or 17 character, I tried to complete "return to sender" and ended up battling deathclaws and casadors constantly when going away from main quest areas of the map. I was running around with leather armor and various small arms, the most "special" of which was simply "that gun". I got so pissed off because there were so many of them and they're really tough. I started out with, like, hundreds of 10mm and 5.56 rounds, and maybe like 30 .357, and by the time I finished that quest I was out of ammo, using the Bladed Gauntlet to fight the casadors, and using energy weapons and flamers looted from dead enemies that I had no skill in. I used like 20 Antivenoms over the course of the quest. But I finished the quest, and am finally ready to head into New Vegas for the first time.

The only upshot to this tremendous expenditure of resources was gaining a couple of levels, and finding mark 2 combat armor and helmet in a cazador area. After fighting, like, 10 of them and being obliged to punch the couple end ones.

Lots of saves and reloads. I was, like, pulling my hair out.

Yeah. I sort of ignored the main quest line and snuck past the deathclaws into New Vegas pretty early. Maybe level 6 or so? Gun Runners and the Med Clinic are great places to acquire caps and just as quickly spend them.

Also, I love Recon Armor for the stats. Hate how it looks.

I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't tried it out yet... making a melee/unarmed character. (Tag both really, you need both for various perks). Pump up melee to 50 for the special VATS attacks and get a baseball bat for good times (Grand Slam special). You can also use a stealth boy early on to sneak by the cazadors up north and get Chance's Knife. I murdered deathclaws hard with my melee/unarmed (both 100 and before slayer perk, after purifier and the others) with a ballistic fist and super sledge.

I guess that's one of the things I liked about NV even if it was kind of frustrating, when they said "don't go into this area" they meant it. It added a nice level of immersion for me.

I always liked sitting at the Goodsprings Cemetary and just looking out towards Vegas.

Dirt, hills, giant Radscorpions - and all I have is a Varmint Rifle.

So many suicides because of Radscorpions.

I have gotten trapped on cliffs by a pack of radscorpions about 6 times while playing. I considered my chances of evading past the horde and escaping much lower than the odds of me surviving the fall jumping off the cliff. I've been right 1 time. The rest? Suicides.

Turns out I was only level 13.

Red Rock Canyon has got the look pretty right.

I did appreciate how the no go zones really were no go zones.

Next time I will make a melee character. I am tempted to base the character on Kenshiro but someone had that idea first. Maybe I can go for Oliver Stone post apocalyptic Conan. Like, read his unpublished script.

It was hilarious how, after struggling through the wasteland doing NCR quests, attacking the man with the checkered suit in New Vegas was super easy.

I had gotten used to such extreme challenge that I showed up with like 5 guns in top maintenance. I had literally bought all the 10mm and .357 ammo from one of the gunrunners and had hundreds and hundreds of rounds. I was expecting some monster challenge and instead it was really easy, like Neo's security checkpoint shootout in The Matrix. The 9mm pistol wielding unarmored guards could barely damage my character because I kept blasting their heads off with 1 or 2 HP shots.

I felt like I was watching some ridiculous John Woo casino shootout. I remember thinking, "9mm pistols? Who uses those anymore?"

It amazes me how many radscorps are around the Goodsprings/Primm/Nipton triangle. Step off the road and you are done.

Heh, with my latest character i made my way to new vegas and gunrunners trought the mountain passes west side of the map and got some desand guns and then went back and started from Goodsprings, made the game so much easier.

I like cutting through the Primm Mountain Pass, since I only have to deal with a single Blind Deathclaw, then I can sneak north through Novac and make it into town. If I need some quick cash, I can go to McCarran and pick up the three bounties and expose teh spai. Everyone wins!

LOL, that blind deathclaw surprised and absolutely pwned me the first time.

Punches in bunches proved more effective than most firearms against it.

I miss the Jinxed quality on a 10 luck character who focused on unarmed combat. You've never seen such hilarity in FO2 until you've tried it (well, combat hilarity)

I remember trying something like that. The problem was that your critical glitches when using unarmed tended to create crippled limbs. Poor Dogmeat got crippled that way almost immediately and spent the whole rest of the game fleeing from combat.

Sounds like a candidate for save scumming.

Bloody Mess + Jinxed?

I'll usually sneak south of Primm and grab the Cowboy Repeaters from the NHP shack guards before heading across. It was a shock to me as well when I came up on the pass and I see a dead guy on the rocks and a Blind Deathclaw sniffing around it.

I think i rather take on the couple dozen cazadors then a dethclaw (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

If you helped the people of good springs or primm or something, you can get yourself a stealth boy.
use thatto sneak by the blind deathclaw and you're golden i'd say.

Ohhhhh. I love me some riot shotgun. And here I thought I'd wasted a perk on Shotgun Surgeon.

Well, yes and no. The hunting shotgun is absolutely amazing... at close range. I wouldn't try it something with armor though, even with shotgun surgeon. On the plus side, deathclaws were reduced from DT 30 to DT 15... you could almost hurt them with that pellet gun =P

There's also a fan add-on you can put on which makes shotties less useless. I used it and found shotguns were quite handy (although still limited by range), and kept one on me almost until the end (when I switched them out for all of the biggest, loudest weapons I had stocked up, regardless of my skill level).

You'll end up taking on both going up 15. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) I'd rather take 95 in.

I din't go up the 15, i took the back road throught the mountain passes to the red canyon and i "only" had to fight about three dozen cazadors to get there.

LOL at the 15 sucking. It does in real life also.

Up around Mt. Charleston Jacobstown, right?