Fallout: New Vegas: Ain't that a cuck in the bed?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Fallout: New Vegas: Ain't that a cuck in the bed?

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I've ran into a mention of a Fallout 2 restoration patch without a handy link to accompany it, and google gives me a few too many results. Anyone knows if there's a good completed restoration project out there?

# ¿ Jan 27, 2013 10:41

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 03:14

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Lord Lambeth posted:

This mod throws them back in, along with a bunch of other small cut content.

IS that a new nexus thing where you can click on "download with manager", which does nothing, or "download manually" where you get a 404 error?

# ¿ Jan 27, 2013 20:15

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

thehumandignity posted:

I don't think being filled with empty, generic caves and houses really counts as being utilized.

...

About half of the NV non-quest locations are generic mines and caves.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2013 16:48

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I've killed Vulpe on my first (and only) playthrough by... shooting his guys with a repeater from cover and chugging 5 stimpacks. What I don't believe, however, is people who claim to have made it past the deathclaws and cazadors without consulting a walkthrough of some sort.

Someone new to video games would just die to the monsters, while an avid player would read the monsters as a clear warning to go the other way (probably expecting yet another unscalable 45 incline hill blocking the path later on).

rope kid posted:

I've had a lot of people tell me that it's impossible to do anything out of order on the crit path even though a) we specifically designed everything prior to meeting Benny to be done out of order and b) plenty of people do it all the time, sometimes on their first playthrough, sometimes on subsequent playthroughs.

Yeah, but to be fair Obisidian is notoriously poo poo as "specifically designing" things. Given that the game is full of arbitrary impassable mountain ranges, thinking that the game was designed as a fairly linear experience up until Vegas would be the more favorable explanation (at least it would show a consistent and meaningful design process, rather than pure incompetence)

# ¿ Feb 16, 2013 09:36

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Honest Heats is just one huge parade of missed opportunities (with the exception of the Survivor).

# ¿ Feb 17, 2013 21:46

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I'd say that a major part of the problem with Ulysses (and for that matter Joshua, Caesar and House) is that Obsidian either can't or won't write actual larger than life characters.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2013 19:03

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Merry Magpie posted:

You have absolutely no idea what that phrase means do you?

Oddly enough, I believe I do. The game has background fiction that portrays these characters in a larger than life fashion, but when you actually get to talk to them you realize that they're a bit too realistic/petty.

_{Written in reply to the DLC debate on the last page. Thread moves fast.}

# ¿ Feb 20, 2013 06:27

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I don't think that the only possible alternative to "pettily realistic" is "comic book". More importantly, I feel like some characters, such as Ulysses, can't really be taken seriously as realistic characters. They have epic (modern epic) ambitions and scope - revealing all that as nothing more than commonplace psychosis makes the story less interesting, not more.

(Elder Whatshisname [which Word apparently recognizes as a legit word, wtf?] in Dead Money works as a good example of a larger than life madman)

# ¿ Feb 20, 2013 09:31

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Willie Tomg posted:

Came to the thread to post exactly this. MrBtongue is my new favorite youtuber and he's so drat on the money in this one it's pretty awesome. If you like this game and like talking about videogames in general (which is hard to believe isn't the case on a games forum) then you absolutely owe it to yourself to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvwlt4FqmS0

I just watched it this morning, and a few hours later I have no idea what the comparison to New Vegas was about.

Games should embrace non-lingear storytelling more? Sure. (I'm actual glad he didn't specifically bring up Ebert here). But what's special about NV that's different from any other free-roaming RPG (other than a lack of adherence to the three act structure / careful world building, neither of which really pertain to the stuff he was talking about at the start of the video)?

# ¿ Feb 25, 2013 11:56

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Is there a mod that spawns all the eggs the hunter chick in the sewers needs all at once when you start the game rather than one by one when you talk to her?

(BTW, is that the only time the game pulls that particular stunt? Seems exceptionally stupid)

# ¿ Mar 4, 2013 11:51

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

rope kid posted:

It still blows my mind when people don't think the Automatic Rifle or (especially) Holorifle are worthwhile.

When I first loaded up Dead Money, I've fired 5 shots into a Ghost's head. It dropped on the fifth, only to stand back up. Dumped the holorifle and never looked back.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2013 23:32

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

2house2fly posted:

WHITE-HOT RAGE OF CAPITALIST JUSTICE

God-daaaaaaaaamn that is some terrible writing.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2013 12:05

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

There was apparently a cut area in Fallout 2 that was directly (and I do mean directly, knowledge keeping monks and all) inspired by that.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2013 18:47

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I remember there was a mod that combined Fallout 3 and NV. Does it play nice with other mods, and is it recommended?

Does anyone have the exact phrasing of the [Barter] speech option that would piss Dean off? I've seen quite a few references to it, but I won't be pumping points into barter just to see a speech option I probably won't take.

# ¿ May 7, 2013 09:22

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Literal Nazi Furry posted:

It was buggy as hell from what I remember.
...
There was a spot where none of the saves I had while in the mod would load at all and I had to ditch those saves.

I see. Shame, I kinda wanted to finally play through F3, and that seemed like a good way to do so.

# ¿ May 9, 2013 11:54

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

MariusLecter posted:

I guess it depends on whether the Legion classifies you as enemy personnel or a death machine.
The Legionaries Caesar sends to kill me always have serious goodies I can use to maintain my own gear and sell for oodles of caps. I only wish I could send Caesar a letter of thanks or something, maybe a simple note that says, "Send more assassins -Courier"

# ¿ May 17, 2013 11:57

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Elmo Oxygen posted:

Just thought I'd share this awesome F03 fanart from Inthedarkarcade. Not New Vegas, but it still rules.

A night in the radioactive-some October. Neat.

# ¿ May 23, 2013 23:16

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

What kind of build do you need to outrun a Deathclaw, anyways?

# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 09:06

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

TheWorldIsSquare posted:

I know Avellone doesn't like it and stuff

Why, and why should anyone be bothered to care?

# ¿ Jun 21, 2013 11:46

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

ClearAirTurbulence posted:

I made a Jason Voorhees character and killed every person I encountered on the way to Vegas except for No-Bark. I could only make it as far as the golf course with all the Rangers, that was the first time I encountered resistance I was unable to beat. I gave up when I realized I would have to spare people and come back later at a higher level, which didn't fit my "kill everyone" plan.

You should have stealth killed everyone and posed their corpses. That's the Vorhees way, not a full frontal assault against an aware enemy.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2013 17:23

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

A thought about the F3 / FNV discussion on the last page (and throughout the thread).

Having the games publishing date changed by someone else is often beyond the control of the company making the game. And even if you have all the time in the world, some bugs will always be present / invented based on your reputation. So there's not much Obsidian can do about what is considered the main weakness of their games.

But what exactly stops Betsheda from hiring competent writers?

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 09:32

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

LogisticEarth posted:

Hardcore really makes the game a bit more fun and makes Survival a more useful skill and all that water, beds, and whatnot have a purpose. Beds are now actually for sleeping rather than an insta-heal. Health-over-time isn't really that annoying. Cripples limbs requiring a doctors bag is a bit trickier, and companions dying instead of just getting knocked out can be a pain earlier on. You just have to be a bit more careful in how you pick your battles.

Are there any mods that eliminate companion perma-deaths from hardcore mode?

# ¿ Aug 19, 2013 09:58

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

3Romeo posted:

Give Cass a good shotgun and limbs fly everywhere.

I've seen that said before - do companions actually have specific weapons they specialize in? Like Boone is better with sniper rifles than shotguns while Cass is the opposite even though both weapons rely on the same skill?

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 08:56

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Berke Negri posted:

I tried to doing the first mission very tactically with positioning and stealth but it was so slow, it took me probably an hour or more to get through the first village. Then I realized I can just give all of my squad long range rifles, bump up their gun skills, set them to aggressive sentry mode, and run through in CTB gunning down everything automatically and completing missions in a third of the time with less losses. I probably would have kept going just out of curiosity by I got to a minefield I couldn't disarm and was unable to complete a vehicle mission.

I wound up cheating my main character into an invincible supersoldier at some point after the robots showed up. It wasn't a terrible game, as such, and I'd still love to see an LP with some party interaction written in.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2013 09:30

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Pope Guilty posted:

The GOG versions are great because they come wrapped in software that makes them run correctly on modern systems.

I doubt that claim. I've tried 3 GOG games so far (all games I have on disc that I got to run on windows xp with minimal fuckery):
King of Dragon Pass refused to launch entirely.
Gabriel Knight 2 set my resolution to some weird poo poo and defaulted to a half off-screen window whenever I alt-tabbed.
Quest for Glory 4 just skipped a bunch of animations all over the place.

Meanwhile, every old game I got off steam ran just fine.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2013 19:42

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Orange Crush Rush posted:

Yeah it's basically designed to be the ultimate test for an end game character. There's special Deathclaws and Marked Men Troopers that are super powered versions of anything else you see, plus it's irradiated to the point where you need to chug Rad-X by the gallon. A lot of goodies though, plus a Unique Bowie Knife.

The Deathclaws and Marked Men will also happily work together in that area. The crowning achievement of Lonesome Road.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2013 09:25

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

DeathChicken posted:

I'd settle for fighting Frank Horrigan's severed upper torso. Actually, I really want the bad guy to be Frank Horrigan's severed upper torso.

Only as long as you can recover the Chosen One's severed toe as the ultimate weapon.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2013 23:25

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

The Legion would have worked just fine as the darker loss-of-freedom-for-security faction without the oh-so-edgy rape camps, or even if their idea of slavery was less ~~early republic~~ Sparta and more Roman Empire. For that matter, "we kinda realize we're all going to be wiped out in a fight versus an actual state, but the holy book says blah, so blah it is going to be forever more" is really no more reasonable or likely progress from the Brotherhood in Fallout 1 (nevermind 2 or Tactics) than "gently caress this, I thought our main reason for existing was to help people? So let's do that".

New Vegas may have better writing than Fallout 3 in a lot of places, but the core of faction conflict is not one of them.

(For that matter, even an utterly corrupt democracy with the sort of resources NCR possesses will not be quite so passive about killing people in a conflict it is committed to. Incompetent in any number of areas, including protecting and gathering the support of local civilian population - yeah. Never reacting to provocations and just sitting there while the enemy tears it apart - no. That's not good writing, that's a political cartoon the Legion is publishing)

# ¿ Nov 16, 2013 18:34

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

rope kid posted:

I've never thought of Caesar's or the Legion's activities as "edgy". For their own purposes, they engage in a variety of horrible practices that others have engaged in throughout history.

I'm not talking ethics (well I kinda strayed into that with the overture to authorial intent, but that wasn't where I was coming from) but practical feasibility / historical veracity (just like your argument goes). Historical tyrants and warlords use genocide and terrorist tactics against enemy population, and I don't have a problem with that - in fact, I rather like how those are depicted ingame, though I believe that NCR's response to various strikes should be wild haymakers in an effort to strike back, 9/11 style, rather than utter passivity. However, my issues with rape camps and 100/99% slavery comes from that same place.

Where there's war / soldiers, there is brutality / rape. Quite right, as Grrrr Martin has pointed out extensively. However, rape camps and that particular level of brutal slavery go beyond the realm of historical atrocities, and into WH40K territory. I don't mind that settings excesses in and of themselves, but they don't mesh well with the New Vegas setting, which (by video game standards) puts a lot of effort into make basic elements seem realistically feasible (Shandification of Fallout etc). I suppose that if we had seen a bit more of Legion controlled territory, things might have been explained better - but I think that the opposite would have taken place, and faced with the necessity of presenting this premise to the player while grounding it in reality, it would have been altered into something more realistic and less brutal.

Edit - Main point goes here: You can only make a certain percentage of the population slaves (or treat a certain percentage of the population in a manner that is equivalent to the worst examples of chattel slavery) before they rebel and wipe you out by sheer force of numbers. There is only so much you can do to the females of a conquered population before the same happens (Machiavelli etc) - nevermind the females of your own population and the mothers of your own slave soldiers. It's just absurd in general - video game villainy that is repulsive but is actually unfeasible in any coherent sense if you think about it.

(Then again, I'm currently trying not to derail the Last of Us LP from its lovely kudzu plants discussion with "wait, a hundred man strong bandit gang that murders every single traveler they encounter? That's absolutely insane in practical AND ethical terms", so my standards of video game bad guy practicality may be a tad high)

# ¿ Nov 17, 2013 00:22

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

steinrokkan posted:

The main weakness of Legion is not the plausibility (or lack of thereof) of its crimes, but the way its officers and soldiers are portrayed. They are cold, efficient, inhuman creatures that just clash against the reality of violence.

I'm willing to to chalk that up to indoctrination (which is a tad simplistic, but there's only so much psychological complexity you can expect here). My issue is still with feasibility in terms of scale - not numbers, but percentages.

Repressions are conducted against someone defined as an enemy, whether within or without your territory, for the (ostensible) benefit of the silent/participating majority that is not being repressed - since you can't actually repress the entirety of your population, no matter how bloodthirsty or totalitarian you are. Had the Legion followed the example of the Mongols / Golden Horde / Timurids etc - bloody atrocities in the name of conquest on the borders of the empire, peace and quiet in the territories under secure control, that would have been fine (and we see a nod to that with the notion that trade routes are safe within legion territory). But none of those guys, ancient and modern, turned around and went "rape camps for everyone (slave collars for the others)". Anyone who (mis)understands Hegelian dialectics should be able to do a basic analysis from a Marxist perspective (or going back to Rome, "gold is the lifeblood of war" or something of the sort) about the necessity of a stable population not being actively repressed as it supports your atrocities elsewhere .

To summarize: "We're going to brutalize everyone who is not us" works for a darker shade of grey faction and is realistic-ish. "We're going to brutalize everyone including us", is just stupidly grimdark.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2013 13:37

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

steinrokkan posted:

Which doesn't add to the argument on hand in one way or another. Nobody disputed that there were civilizations with appetite for killing the Other.

I believe he's referring to the horribly mistreated helots outnumbering the Spartans by a significant margin and not succeeding in any significant rebellions and/or the way Spartan females were brutalized. Which is a point, I'll admit.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2013 21:41

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I've replayed Fallout 2 several times. Most recently I tried replaying it (drumroll...) this year, with the restoration mod. I just couldn't make it through this time around - the game had just aged too poorly.

By contrast, I tried playing Fallout 3 last year and couldn't be bothered to progress much beyond Megatron / Tenpenny Tower.

In conclusion, Betsheda should consider hiring some competent writers. I've heard that's a thing you can actually do when generations of critics have called out your games for their insipid writing.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2013 20:59

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

JawKnee posted:

pretty sure you can see that warhead from quite a distance, far enough that rawr hasn't spawned in when you first see it, which is why most people don't do that.

Does the game seriously spawn enemies only when you're close enough (at least, enough so that you'd notice)? I haven't noticed that happening - in fact, every enemy in the Divide is usually on my radar long before I visually spot them.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2014 07:34

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

moot the hopple posted:

The first time I beat the game, I learned that you're transported into a room with the ending slides actually projected on a wall because one of the Remnants got teleported with me and blocked all the slides.

Likewise, except he kept walking in circles around me.

Also, you keep taking swigs from the canteen during the slideshow. If only there was a popcorn food item...

# ¿ Sep 10, 2014 00:07

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

When I first encountered the gamblers vault and got their story, I kinda assumed there'd be a subquest about letting them know how House cheated them. Not only did that never ended up happening, but I don't remember any indication of how he managed it (he's not supposed to be an exceptionally lucky gambler despite owning a casino, right?)

Anything I missed?

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 14:14

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Fuzz1138 posted:

The currency discussion inspired me to look up the various currencies in the series on the wiki. I hadn't actually noticed the designs on the Legion coins before.

So that's Caesar, Joshua and....

Ulysses? Nah. Lanius? Double nah. I'm missing something here.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2015 08:35

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

SolidSnakesBandana posted:

I've thought about letting the legion walk away at Nipton just to see what happens, but every time I feel compelled to kill them all. They just walk away so slowly!

I actually followed them for a while hoping that random encounters will wear them down, but:

1. 6 guys firing in tandem can deal with pretty much any random scorpion / cazadores / whatever.

2. They just walk away so slowly!

# ¿ Jan 12, 2015 08:08

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

ToxicSlurpee posted:

My favorite gimmick in Fallout 1 and 2 was to make a character that decided the only way to make the world safe was to murder literally everything else and to do it with his bare hands to make sure the world knew he meant business. I managed to complete those games that way but never tried 3 and NV. Is that possible?

Not in Fallout 3, absolutely in NV. The game is specifically designed with people like you in mind.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2015 16:25

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Paracelsus posted:

My impression of the NCR (admittedly highly informed by my idea of NV as primarily about the use of symbols and the formation of individual and group identity) is

So basically Caesar was right, and the NCR is the Roman Republic slightly post-Marius?

# ¿ Feb 21, 2015 14:29

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 03:14

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

cthulusnewzulubbq posted:

Uh-oh!

https://www.vcpost.com/articles/47472/20150306/fallout-4-release-year-bethesda-confirms-e3-2015-attendance.htm

# ¿ Mar 8, 2015 17:08

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