Fallout New Vegas Options

[Voran]

Figured I'd start this thread just as a holding point for any commentary/reviews/impressions of the newest Fallout game. Shall we go for spoiler free?

General impressions. I have this game on PC, as opposed to Fallout 3, which I have on 360. Unlike my earlier Lament on how crappy my experience trying to get Front Mission Evolved to run was, New Vegas runs well on all the ultra settings at my preferred 1680x1050. Some reviewers have noted slowdown with many NPCs on screen, but I haven't.

The release version had some issues with quicksaves/autosaves that since appear to be resolved, but its still recommended to use manual slot saves frequently.

I'm around level 21 right now, I believe the cap is 28. I haven't really touched the main story mission too much, just the stuff that eventually leads you to New Vegas itself. For the mostpart I'm exploring the wastes doing sidequests, and the like.

Playing Hardcore mode, which isn't quite as difficult as I expected. In this case, Hardcore difficulty is a setting that adds sleep, thirst and hunger needs as well as weight to things such as ammo, as opposed to combat difficulty. Still, I have enough water and food and since stimpacks are still weightless, its pretty simple to keep track of. Since you either have to use doctor bag consumables or visit doctors to repair limb damage, you actually tend to visit towns more often than to just sell off your gear. I kind of like it, though I'm pretty sure the majority of my weight carried is still ammo (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) Hardcore mode also makes it possible for companion NPCs to die, so I've had to reload a save or two at times, especially when fighting deathclaws or mutant wasp things.

As for companions themselves, hm, I still have mixed feelings. I welcome the assistance, and it appears you can run with 2 companions. At present I'm using the eyebot and sniper dude. Companions also come with a 'companion perk' while in your party. For the most part I'd say pick companion based on your combat needs (in terms of what attacks they have) as opposed to what perks they bring. Sniper dude companion is long range, much like me, so we tend to blast things from extreme range.

On combat, this version of Fallout introduces iron-sight mechanics similar to FPS, which in some cases appear to override your normal hit percentages. For example, in VATS, at loooong range, its possible for my sniper shot to have 0 to 2 percent chance of hitting. However, at that same distance with manual sighting in a scope, I can blow your head off most of the time. The way I use it, I start off with manual sighting shots, then if I haven't cleared the mob pack, slip to VATS to finish them off when they get into appropriate range. VATS remains useful for fast moving creatures you'd have a harder time manual sighting (things that fly, for example).

Weapons: More variety than Fallout 3, but also oddly not as much at the same time. How? Well, sure there are a bunch of different types of weapons, but because of the new addition of 'threshold' to damage, you often end up with a bunch of different weapons, many of which would be like using a spitwad on a car. So you tend to have to go with the hardest hitting things you can find, which then leads you down a relatively limited path. Its unfortunate, because some of the less effective weapons seem really nice. Weapons can be modded to a degree, but don't expect to find mods on a regular basis, they appear infrequently in store inventories for purchase, but not for all weapons at the same time. Special variants or 'named weapons' appear within each class again, usually superior in 1 or 2 ways to the generic version of that weapon.

It is my hope that in the future the community will add some weapon packs to help expand options a bit.

Armor: I find it odd, but I'm still running in Reinforced Leather armor, which is fairly low tier and low protection. I'm using it largely because I like the way it looks in 3rd person. The NCR ranger armor looks pretty good, and has better protection, but for the time being I don't want to run around in faction armor, as it can influence interactions by parties you meet. Yes New Vegas has more types of armor than Fallout 3, but again, because the way armor attributes are placed, especially on helmets, you tend to find a good piece (like say...a beret that gives +1 Perception and +5 crit chance) versus a goathorned helmet that just gives +1 Perception, even if said goat helmet might look better. Like Fallout 3, Power Armor requires training to wear, which can take awhile, depending on how you go about your game.

They missed an opportunity to make armor modifiable as well. Likewise I find it unfortunate you can't mix and match pieces like say, boots, legs torso, arms, etc. But I can see why due to limitations of the combat setup.

Crafting: Crafting has been tinkered with in New Vegas. Your Survival and Repair skills affect what types of ammo crafting you can do, as well as foodstuffs. Repair is such a vital skill in any Fallout game that its not a chore to build up, but the flipside is that Survival is rather difficult to invest in, especially with the less skillpoints availability in New Vegas. Unfortunately that means most of the miscellaneous foodstuffs you pick up will be not very useful as food recipes have skill minimums. You might have all the ingredients for 'superduperawesome chili' but if you don't have the skillpoints in survival, you can't bake it, even if you 'have' the recipe in your list.

As such, crafting is kinda hit or miss. Can be useful for certain types of ammo. Handloads tend to do more damage. But it also appears not all ammos are unlocked. I can buy incendiary ammo but apparently i either dont have the recipe for it, or simply can't do it. Nor can I make grenade rounds (for launchers), but I'm not sure if thats a factor of my explosives skill or what.