Lonesome Road Trailer is out

[sea]

Well the other "one of the few" clearly being Ulysses himself why didn't he just get ED-E himself, or better summoned him via the override code shit he uses near the end of DLC? I changed my mind about this DLC, it's utter shit and only it brings is the cute ED-E moments

He couldn't use the override code because his transmitter or whatever was of a limited range. As for luring the Courier, Ulysses did want to have him/her around... it's just that his plan was never about revenge or killing the Courier outright. But yeah, I agree that the haziness makes it a bit hard to follow at times. Kind of like Dead Money in that there aren't so much plot holes as there are things that aren't fully explained, and thus all we can do is speculate as to the precise configurations of the characters' motives etc.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Ulysses only wanted to use the Courier for his own ends.

What did he need the courier for exactly?

My assumption is, aside from a personal grudge of some sort, Ulysses knew the Courier was one of the few who could survive the Divide and deliver ED-E.

Well the other "one of the few" clearly being Ulysses himself why didn't he just get ED-E himself, or better summoned him via the override code shit he uses near the end of DLC? I changed my mind about this DLC, it's utter shit and only it brings is the cute ED-E moments

Plus he said he never wanted to outright kill you himself due to orders from Caesar, but he sure as shit attacks you (Possibly self defense, but IIRC one of the combat dialogs isn't very aggressive) at the end. And his plan apparently isn't just "Now I'll hurt you like how you hurt me by NUKING YOUR NATION" (I assume if you're Legion he nukes them, and if you have no allegiance/allied to House who the fuck knows what he does) because he tries you kill you. So what the fuck is he doing? As far as I can tell lashing out because he's sad and blaming you because he's a crazy person who wants to justify his crazy actions to his crazy self.

Ulysses doesn't make much sense. What Sea mentioned for his origins was the same impression I got, but it kinda falls apart after the Divide gets blown up, and falls apart even more during the actual adventure. Maybe some bigger brians will solve the mystery and come up with a decent interpretation, but eh. I guess as far as nonsensical insane characters go he's written well since he isn't lol monkey cheese randome XD

 

[Drakron]

Perhaps a bit more balanced than Dead Money (better gameplay, slightly weaker story), though.

I would not say that, Dead Money can be challenging if you hoard the Sierra Madre chips and not upgrade your gear, its easy if you have Jury Rigging since the self contained design of the DLC means everything was balanced in relation to what was placed in the DLC.

This one have some very obnoxious encounters as with the Deathclaws, since the best way to deal with then is on open areas with plenty of room their encounter on the Highway was plain annoying, worst is that it seems they are set to spawn the moment you enter the cell, I would say the Red Men are fine if not for their high DM, the place is tougher that Dead Money and since its not self contained it makes a few assuptions.

The story is far worst, Ulysses simply does not work very well as a antagonist as his motivation are beyond weak, Dead Money was about obsession for most part and I could understand the characters as Elijah was a very acceptable antagonist.

Ulysses is just a ravaging madman like Kreia, what he complains about does not even make sense ... I can understand the Courier unknowingly causing the destruction of the Divide but still, this is almost akin of blaming someone from causing the death of your dog because he sold the tires to the person that run him over.

Graham was meeting a legend and see he is only a man ... Ulysses? I shall kill or not because Couriers cannot kill each other because you brought something that cases the destruction of the Town I was send to destroy but had a change of heart and decided to say, oh I stayed here because of you mind you ... I still may kill you or am committing suicide at your hands? Remember the message.

MORBIUS MAKES MORE SENSE!

Its like Kreia and Ravel had a son, we need three translators, one psychiatrist and five dictionaries to know what in Gods name he is ranting about.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Ulysses only wanted to use the Courier for his own ends.

What did he need the courier for exactly?

My assumption is, aside from a personal grudge of some sort, Ulysses knew the Courier was one of the few who could survive the Divide and deliver ED-E.

But Ulysses seemed more than capable of getting ED-E himself, he marked his territory everywhere. And if the revenge wasn't in killing the courier(since the courier even says "you could have killed me so many times before" ) but in showing him what he was about to do, he'd have to assume that the courier gave a shit about where the bombs were going to fall.

...how about this explanation: it's an aberration of a story using a companion that had been cut from the main game, had some last-minute arch-nemesism injected into him in a weak attempt to pretend there was an overall story arch in DLCs that mostly consisted of cheap dungeoneering with minimal role-playing. Also, drugs.

 

[Drakron]

Avallone just gone too far, we have OWB were they are "a little crazy" but they are preferable understandable or Dead Money were they were very flawed human but we could relate with them and their issues.

Ulysses just needed to scale down from the existentialism bullshit and go down to something understandable, like Ulysses wanted to die after seeing the Divide destroyed and along with it, his home but he wanted to die at the Courier hands since it was the Courier the one that set up in motion the destruction of the Divide so it would be a fitting end for him and the whole nukes were just a attempt to force the Courier hand when it come down.

Problem is Avallone buried whatever motivation Ulysses had under a mountain of bullshit were the player is supposed to decipher whatever the double meaning, allegory or whatever the fuck is covering Ulysses real intentions, its just rendered too obscure that it comes out as DERP and not deep.

Also as I brought up Kreia ... I think Ulysses suffers a similar problem as Kreia, in KotOR2 nobody challenges Kreia bullshit so what we get is Kreia being right because no opposite point of view or criticism to her views is given, that leads to shoving down a opinion on the player.

The fault with Ulysses is NOBODY GIVES A FUCK ABOUT THE DIVIDE, as there is no other NPC is available in the game to support or counteract Ulysses position so my impression of him is that he is just crazy, there is no emotional impact or a attempt to give some shock to the player so he empathize with Ulysses, we just get verbal diarrhea from his end ... the whole "you will die without knowing why" makes him just a more annoying version of all those NPCs that attacked me without a why, like the Scorpions or the Fiends ... he is no different that a Fiend, just that he talks A LOT more.

The reason I did not killed the Think Tank was because even if they were not very good humans, at least they were humans and I developed some fondness for them and likewise I decided to stick with Graham was because there was no right solution and I understood him, I also understood why making him show mercy to the White Legs was important for him as a human.

Ulysses is just someone I cannot relate with, I make only the effort to save him so I can fucking understand WHY he was after me in the first place.

 

[J_C]

When the dialogue in PST is full of metaphor, it is OK. When Lonesome Road is full of Metaphors, it is shit.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Was there even an explanation as to why he had us to deliver the platinum chip in his place? How did he know it was trouble?

 

[Angthoron]

Finished the DLC, liked it.

DLC seems to be going for a Heart of Darkness referencing a whole lot, and hey, what is the Divide it if not the ultimate word in post-colonialism and post-modernism anyway. That is, those concept done in an alright way, and not as a central goddamned theme of "hey look i'm clever look at me".

Basically for a large part of the DLC Ulysses is Kurtz, and the player even "hears Kurtz' voice" throughout his journey to the heart of the Divide. Old empire falling apart while Kurtz/Ulysses tries to keep it somehow alive, even the finale (sans the nukes of course), all of that is very much referencing Heart of Darkness. Ulysses/Kurtz also befriends/enslaves a group of savages that worship him but he despises, yeah, well, it's all there.


Expected slightly grander vistas of devastation though, that was slightly disappointing, and no resolution at all to the Tunnelers (unless I missed something, and I might have - missed out on 3 notes and 2 nukes)

Also seems that Obsidian has improved the mouse sensitivity, and the rendering (especially of sky box) a bit, though I might somehow be mistaken. Textures look a little sharper though, especially the sky stuff.

 

[sea]

Thinking more about ED-E, did anyone get the impression that the whole "fly to Navarro" was more than it seems? Is it possible the "home" Ulysses kept referencing was an Enclave stronghold, and that's where ED-E had actually been sent? The scientist who created him was pretty bitter after his project was canceled, and I have to wonder if he decided to program ED-E to destroy the base there using the buried nukes. It's the only real explanation I can think of, that it was figurative rather than literal, considering the override code itself being "Navarro". Or was there something I missed?

 

[J_C]

So many discussions about the story, writing and dialouge. It seems this DLC is for a storyfag like me.

 

[canakin]

So many discussions about the story, writing and dialouge. It seems this DLC is for a storyfag like me.

That's the weakest part of the DLC imo. If I have to make assumptions and imagine shit in order to DLC make sense I can do it with without playing it as well. Explaining the plot holes and unanswered questions shouldn't be the player's job.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Avellites have to imagine a story as they play much like oblivion fans have to roleplay in their heads.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

When the dialogue in PST is full of metaphor, it is OK. When Lonesome Road is full of Metaphors, it is shit.

While some are probably just being :arcturus: about it, it seems that the problem here is that Ully's metaphors don't serve any purpose other than sounding cool.

One thing I was wondering, they try to make this a personal thing but by having him promise to tell the courier why he refused to deliver the chip. But...why would he (courier) care? Even if it's to tell you he knew it was trouble, you already know that from the beginning cinematic. If it's to tell you the chip's true purpose, you already know that if you played the main quest a bit. Is there something I'm missing, or is the curious just supposed to feel that courier about the Divide?

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

One thing I was wondering, they try to make this a personal thing but by having him promise to tell the courier why he refused to deliver the chip. But...why would he (courier) care?

From my angle it was more about knowing why he passed that hot potato to me (and also how he clearly knew it was trouble).

is the courier just supposed to feel that curious about the Divide?

Don't you know you are supposed to have a special place in your heart for the divide as it may or may not have been your home which you kept alive by being the only courier to go there and then you blew it up. Or didn't you get the amnesiac retconning memo done tastefully?

 

[Captain Shrek]

Shock and Horror. It turns out that realism does not make good stories, but good stories make good stories.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I've finally gotten a little bit of playtime in. I'm still at the very beginning part but so far not really impressed.

On the plus side, I now know what it would be like if WW3/ITZ/Armageddon happened, and the only survivors were myself, some inside-out zombies, and...

Prosper.

 

[Angthoron]

When the dialogue in PST is full of metaphor, it is OK. When Lonesome Road is full of Metaphors, it is shit.

While some are probably just being :arcturus: about it, it seems that the problem here is that Ully's metaphors don't serve any purpose other than sounding cool.

Well, if it was intended as an allusion to Heart of Darkness, then it makes perfect sense, and his metaphors aren't supposed to make any sense. See, to those that haven't read the book (and by the way, it's pretty short so it won't hurt to read it), the story's about a guy that goes to Africa to work for the Colonial government, and in his trip along the river leading deeper into Africa, he learns about this dude named Kurtz. Kurtz's supposedly a TOTALLY AWESOME guy, very bright, very well-educated, has managed to impress everyone, but the further the dude gets upriver, the more unwilling people are to talk about Kurtz, just telling that he's an awesome guy and that he sends home tons of ivory and other crap. At some point, the guy begins to hallucinate, hearing Kurtz's voice, and dreams up that he's going to be such a swell fella.

And then he meets him at last, and he's a sick, insane man, cruel as shit, too. A fight with the natives breaks out and they have to escape, the narrator leaves, Kurtz "stays in Africa forever" or in other words dies.

So here you are, the player, going through this DLC, and the previous one, thinking that this dude is going to be SO swell, and then you find him and he just rambles feverishly about shit that halfway doesn't make sense and halfway does, in fancy "smart" metaphors that are fucking meaningless. Again, if this is what the writers for the DLC went for here, great job, works swell.

Not saying it makes it a good dlc though, it's alright, but not awesomecool ++ or anything.

 

[Drakron]

... allusion to Heart of Darkness ...

Try Damnation Alley.

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/vault/d ... -20-11.php

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Was there even an explanation as to why he had us to deliver the platinum chip in his place? How did he know it was trouble?

He is a "Magic negro".

Also bros, was I the only one to get a feeling that Andhaira was Ulysses? His ranting about how the Two Headed Bear and the Bull were clashing, and he obviously wanted to see a nuclear war during his lifetime. And now look at us, we're all sitting here discuss!!!ing. He also was the reason New Canaan was destroyed, perhaps because they didn't accept Islam?

I'm settling it. Ulysses is Andhaira in Fallout canon.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I actually thought about commenting on that. Yeah, I got heavy Andhaira vibes.

 

[J_C]

Ulysses is Andhaira in Fallout canon.

This is highly disturbing.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Andhaira? Really? Not Prosper?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Ulysses doesn't create anything, and Prosper is an artiste~~~

 

[Zarniwoop]

Well, he does spraypaint stuff all over the lonesome road. That's sort of artsy...

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

And I guess he DOES like to hang around a bunch of misshapen mutants.