slowpoke checking in: New Vegas

[Zakhad]

I'm not a fan of energy weapons in general, although I did use Elijah's LAER and jury-rigged Tesla cannon a bit. I didn't really find the holorifle that good or enjoyable, even after modding it. Then again, that might've just been a result of Dead Money's HP bloat since I never bothered to try it in the main game. I guess it does do a pretty nice amount of damage if you look at the numbers.

I found the Holorifle (even on extra-hard, which reduces the damage you do, I believe) to be very effective in DM. One or two shots to any limb and they're down for good. Maybe helps that I pump energy weapons, and take the related perks - especially vigilant recycler, which (with GRA) gives you optimised MF cells, which have a bonus to damage and to DT reduction. But each to their own - the other weapons in DM were underwhelming. In fact, standard guns in general weren't served that well by the DLCs, except for Christine's COS Sniper Rifle in OWB(overpowered) and A Light Shining in Darkness in HH(which I like).

OWB also gives you some pretty insane perks, although you can fortunately un-choose them at the end of the DLC. Still, I think the difficulty curve is more or less screwed anyway unless you pick the Logan's Loophole trait.

Yeah, although the existence of DT, among other changes, makes the difficulty curve much better than FO3's, where the high end creatures (SM overlords and such) were all HP sinks with stupid Damage resistance - not difficult to kill, but really, really boring. Proving again that Bethesda doesn't know how to make a non-broken levelling system. As if Oblivion's wasn't bad enough. FO3's VATS with its insane damage resistance, combined with FO3's Grim Reaper's Sprint, was basically a "fuck it, you got to level 20, you can kill anything now". Pretty hard to do a high level difficulty curve that doesn't start to get stupid, but especially hard when you're building on Bethesda's clusterfuck. At least perks don't come every level now, and it's harder to max out every skill (fuck you, bobbleheads). And plenty of Bethestards complained about the slow perk rate.

Overall, I agree, though. Limiting max level and slowing progression is key to getting the most out of NV. The problem with Logan's loophole is that the chems are very, very useful, and addiction/ length of effect are the major drawbacks of something like turbo. Without that, you run through the game sniping everyone from a mile away with steady, and taking down sentry bots with tire irons using slasher and turbo.

 

[Gozma]

The skill book mechanic is annoying. I know if I manually raise any skill over like 75-80 I am wasting points due to unfound skill books, which gnaws on the sperg loci in my brain

Edit - Is there a mod that will give you back generic skill points if you read a book for a skill that is already capped?

 

[Weierstraß]

I feel the same about items with skill point on them. Was going to make a mod that removed them, but going through all items was really boring.

 

[Gozma]

The writing for Cassidy is shockingly awful

check wiki: Written by Chris Avellone

mein gott

Another character I haven't met is voiced by Felicia Day and is sure to have Joss Whedon writing top to bottom

I am starting to black out from these AAA rpg G-forces

 

[Zakhad]

The skill book mechanic is annoying. I know if I manually raise any skill over like 75-80 I am wasting points due to unfound skill books, which gnaws on the sperg loci in my brain

Edit - Is there a mod that will give you back generic skill points if you read a book for a skill that is already capped?

Never had that problem. I search for as many books as possible before maxing skills. Dedicate a decent amount of time to it. Same with getting the intelligance implant before I gain too many levels, so as to max skills. can't bare to waste points.

(Yeah, the sperg is strong with this one.)

It's why I have to set extra challenges to myself to make it interesting - the game breaks too easily, and my urge to munchkin is too strong to overcome.

I feel the same about items with skill point on them. Was going to make a mod that removed them, but going through all items was really boring.

Great avatar, Herr Aufklärer.

 

[Gozma]

I have constructed a theory that would exonerate MCA for how bad Cassidy comes across: He wrote her as a grizzled leather bag with a wheezing whiskey and cigarette marinated voice, a female equivalent to F2's Cassidy - a rough middle aged person that's seen a lot - and then had Bethesda convert her to a miraculous cute smooth-skinned 20 year old girl complete with an unsteady waif voice actor trying to come across as a gritty post-apocalyptic caravan master that is scripted to talk like she's Yosemite Sam with comedy-alcoholism. NOTHING ELSE MAKES SENSE (and doesn't also implicate Chris Avellone in Bad Writing)

 

[Hirato]

I took the skilled trait (why you wouldn't take it in FO:NV is a mystery), the educated perk, and played with 9 INT until about level 20.
I am well en route to maximising all my skills long before I reach the level cap.

I'm level 38-ish, and I just have barter (50), explosives (40), melee (35) and unarmed (40) to go

 

[thesoup]

If only NV had the gunplay of E.Y.E.

 

[BlitzKitchen]

I took the skilled trait (why you wouldn't take it in FO:NV is a mystery), the educated perk, and played with 9 INT until about level 20.
I am well en route to maximising all my skills long before I reach the level cap.

I'm level 38-ish, and I just have barter (50), explosives (40), melee (35) and unarmed (40) to go

That's rediculous. Level cap needs to be more balanced.

I played FNV with a mod that slowed leveling. You had to be picky as to what skills and perks you invested in as you'd be stuck with them for much longer.

 

[Rhalle]

The writing for Cassidy is shockingly awful

The first time I played through she didn't bother me. This second time I've found her almost unbearable. She's written with a superfluity of profanity and sexual references. I guess I get the point-- assuming there is one-- but it's too much.

I have constructed a theory that would exonerate MCA for how bad Cassidy comes across: He wrote her as a grizzled leather bag with a wheezing whiskey and cigarette marinated voice, a female equivalent to F2's Cassidy - a rough middle aged person that's seen a lot - and then had Bethesda convert her to a miraculous cute smooth-skinned 20 year old girl complete with an unsteady waif voice actor trying to come across as a gritty post-apocalyptic caravan master that is scripted to talk like she's Yosemite Sam with comedy-alcoholism. NOTHING ELSE MAKES SENSE (and doesn't also implicate Chris Avellone in Bad Writing)

You may be right.

 

[Jick Magger]

Another character I haven't met is voiced by Felicia Day and is sure to have Joss Whedon writing top to bottom

The 'sassy' lesbian? She talks an awful lot and most of it is wisecracking and sexual entendres. If you don't like that, you won't like her. Hits like a fucking freight train and is one of the only party members sans Arcade who can wear power armour (does being gay automatically give you the power armour training perk or something?).
Yeah, Boone may be broken, but at least he keeps his fucking mouth shut most of the time.

 

[Zakhad]

Yeah, Boone may be broken, but at least he keeps his fucking mouth shut most of the time.

Yeah, but he talks like such a grimdark batman cliché that I can't bare him. Just stop talking from your throat for a second or two, seriously.

ED-E was my favourite, but his battle music was irritating.

Generally speaking, though, I prefer to travel alone. It feels closer to what an apocalyptic desert would be like, silent and lonely. And makes sneaking easier. Plus it allows me to roleplay having charisma as my dump stat, because charisma is always my dump stat.

 

[agentorange]

Yeah, I ran with companions in my first two playthroughs just to see all of their stories, but their constantly chasing after enemies the moment they spotted them got extremely tiresome. Then there's the fact they drop weapons and don't pick them up, so I would notice hours later that Veronica had dropped her ultra sonic fist fucker and not have any hope of finding it again. Raul was probably my favorite companion, not sure why, Danny Trejo's voice acting was pretty fucking terrible, it seemed like he was having trouble reading the script.

 

[Zakhad]

Yeah, I ran with companions in my first two playthroughs just to see all of their stories, but their constantly chasing after enemies the moment they spotted them got extremely tiresome. Then there's the fact they drop weapons and don't pick them up, so I would notice hours later that Veronica had dropped her ultra sonic fist fucker and not have any hope of finding it again. Raul was probably my favorite companion, not sure why, Danny Trejo's voice acting was pretty fucking terrible, it seemed like he was having trouble reading the script.

One of the biggest problems with fully voiced games (especially, I assume, because the voice director is an external guy, never the actual writer/s) is that you can hear it when the voice actor has no idea the context of what they're saying, or when they obviously aren't taking the lines seriously. Happened with Atton in KotOR2 as well (although not Kreia, thank God).

Even Kris Kristofferson's Hanlon, where the voice contributes to the character, works perhaps because when he stumbles you sort of take it as part of the character.

Again, it goes to show that a big budget can be a bad thing: the voices in the DLCs were mainly unknown voice actors and were much better on the whole: I loved Dean, Elijah, most of Mobius and 0 and Joshua Graham (loved Christine, too - which tells you something, I suppose). I mean, all the characters in DM still speak up too frequently, and repeat themselves (and sometimes even interrupt themselves!). But overall, the DLCs, which I assume were done more in-house, and which Avellone said were done with much more freedom because they didn't have AAA pressures, had voice acting that connected better with the written words. Maybe also because non-celebrity professional voice actors don't think themselves to be too important for a "mere" game, and put more effort in.

That said, Mr. New Vegas was ten thousand times better than THREEEE DAAAWGGGG. Maybe cause Wayne Newton is already a Las Vegas entertainer, and so isn't likely to be too concerned with a game being below his dignity.

Oh man, fuck Three-Dog. WTF kind of name is "3-dog" anyway? Fuck.

 

[Carrion]

I fucking love Cass. Probably the most likable character I've seen in a GameBryo game, mostly because of the writing but also because I think the voice acting is spot-on. I don't really mind Felicia Day either, except for a few lines here and there ("Ooohhh, is it a DRESS???") but even that is mostly because of the writing. Then again, I had no idea who Felicia Day was when I first played the game, but I think she did a pretty good job overall.

In general I like the voice acting in the game. Most of the major characters are good, some of them even excellent, and minor characters sound generic enough so that it won't bother you even if fifty characters have the same voice actor. Compare this to Oblivion or Skyrim where almost every character has an annoying voice and/or an incredibly annoying fake accent that makes you want to murder everyone in the game before even making it past the first town.

The skill book mechanic is annoying. I know if I manually raise any skill over like 75-80 I am wasting points due to unfound skill books, which gnaws on the sperg loci in my brain

Those extra points actually don't go to waste even though you can't see them. For example, if you use a skill book after already maxing out your Speech skill, you can pass a Speech check of 100 even if you get a -1 penalty to your charisma. Of course, there are few instances where this is actually useful.

 

[Gozma]

I judge the Felicia Day character to be far better than Cassidy, both because she is better at the yeoman techniques of voice acting like figuring out context and because the character works better for the world. Obsidian also managed some cool sleight of hand by having a character in the game world think that the BoS faction is retarded, which is necessary meta because it was always kinda dumb and gets worse the further they move from A Canticle for Liebowitz -based PA worldbuilding.

The voice director credit on the game is for a Bethesda mutt and it shows from the B-list nerd celebrities with incidental levels of voice acting skill they got strictly for marketing purposes and the constant context and emphasis errors.

 

[Roguey]

If only NV had the gunplay of E.Y.E.

EYE is a garbage game, peace.

 

[Zakhad]

The voice director credit on the game is for a Bethesda mutt and it shows from the B-list nerd celebrities with incidental levels of voice acting skill they got strictly for marketing purposes and the constant context and emphasis errors.

Oh, I remembered the worst/most nonsensical: the New Zealander stuntwoman, Zoe Bell, who they got to do that Great Khan. The way she said "that litttle weasel. And I almost believed him too", with no apparent idea of how the line relates to the story, or the lines it follows, or even how it hangs together as a sentence, inspires in me a deep despair/desire for kill-rampage.

Plus, you know, she's a Kiwi. In the middle of post-apocalypse Nevada. Don't think the Obsidian guys wrote that aspect (you'd think they'd have given a reason if they did). Was cast simply because she was semi-famous after Death Proof, and the Bethesda hack literally could not give a shit if it made sense or not.

 

[Roguey]

Bell actually voices two Great Khans, the BoS medical officer, and that one rebellious girl outside of Freeside.

 

[thesoup]

If only NV had the gunplay of E.Y.E.

EYE is a garbage game, peace.

We might disagree with the overall quality of the game, but if you consider its combat garbage then I just don't understand you.

 

[oscar]

E.Y.E was the most fun first-person game I've ever played.

 

[Zakhad]

Bell actually voices two Great Khans, the BoS medical officer, and that one rebellious girl outside of Freeside.

Wow. No matter how well you think you know the game, someone on the codex knows it better/ is a more dedicated researcher.

Still hate her voice work for Melissa, though, even if she does better with the others. But maybe it's the direction rather than the choice of her as the voice actor.

 

[Hirato]

Oh, I remembered the worst/most nonsensical: the New Zealander stuntwoman, Zoe Bell, who they got to do that Great Khan. The way she said "that litttle weasel. And I almost believed him too", with no apparent idea of how the line relates to the story, or the lines it follows, or even how it hangs together as a sentence, inspires in me a deep despair/desire for kill-rampage.

The first time I encountered that great Khan, I thought "What the fuck... What's an Australian doing here!?"
Melissa's line delivery was fine, she sounds exactly like a fair dinkum Aussie... or one of those bloody kiwis across the ocean to the east.


With that said, What bothers me about her is that such a strong accent would remain after 200 years on foreign soil, there aren't exactly more than a handful of people at best to pick it up from. And not to mention, this is the 5th to 10th generation of spawn that came from the original families who survived the holocaust 200 years ago.


When I encountered her, it made made me do a bit of research, which is how I learned she was meant to be a kiwi, not an aussie.
I also learned that Vault 15 was a literal multicultural 'utopia' (what?), before the schism happened that sent them packing east, and slightly more to the south, forming Shady Shands and what we came to know as the Raiders/Great Khans (what?) back in Fallout 1.

I just couldn't believe it, the Great Khans were created from Vault 15 stock!? Vault 15 was packed with every culture they could imagine!?
Where'd this shit come from!?

And lo I discovered, it came from the Fallout Bible.

 

[Zakhad]

Oh, I remembered the worst/most nonsensical: the New Zealander stuntwoman, Zoe Bell, who they got to do that Great Khan. The way she said "that litttle weasel. And I almost believed him too", with no apparent idea of how the line relates to the story, or the lines it follows, or even how it hangs together as a sentence, inspires in me a deep despair/desire for kill-rampage.

The first time I encountered that great Khan, I thought "What the fuck... What's an Australian doing here!?"
Melissa's line delivery was fine, she sounds exactly like a fair dinkum Aussie... or one of those bloody kiwis across the ocean to the east.


With that said, What bothers me about her is that such a strong accent would remain after 200 years on foreign soil, there aren't exactly more than a handful of people at best to pick it up from. And not to mention, this is the 5th to 10th generation of spawn that came from the original families who survived the holocaust 200 years ago.


When I encountered her, it made made me do a bit of research, which is how I learned she was meant to be a kiwi, not an aussie.
I also learned that Vault 15 was a literal multicultural 'utopia' (what?), before the schism happened that sent them packing east, and slightly more to the south, forming Shady Shands and what we came to know as the Raiders/Great Khans (what?) back in Fallout 1.

I just couldn't believe it, the Great Khans were created from Vault 15 stock!? Vault 15 was packed with every culture they could imagine!?
Where'd this shit come from!?

And lo I discovered, it came from the Fallout Bible.

Did the Fallout bible say that the people retained their various separate accents over several centuries? Because if so, that's just outright retarded.

And seriously, "she sounded like a fair dinkum Aussie"? I don't know what part of Australia you come from, but where I am there are no Aussies who sound like that (unless they're New Zealand-Australians, I suppose). Vowels all wrong, not nasal enough. You can't imagine her yelling "carn the pies" with that accent, so she can't really sound "Aussie", can she? Quod erat fucking demonstrandum.

The only time I confuse Aussies and Kiwis is when they're inner-city University-attending types whose accents have been so denatured they may as well be mid-Atlantic, and even they start to differ from each other once everyone has a few glasses in them.

 

[Hirato]

The only time I confuse Aussies and Kiwis is when they're inner-city University-attending types whose accents have been so denatured they may as well be mid-Atlantic, and even they start to differ from each other once everyone has a few glasses in them.

My secret is out