RobfromtheGulag said:
Ok, I've got to disagree with you here. I felt that Dead Money was not only the best DLC of New Vegas, but the best DLC of any Bethesda game, ever.
What you call "arbitrary, time-consuming tasks", I call "unique gameplay mechanics". Having to make the decision whether to weaken yourself with the smoke or to take the long way around, the little games of "find the speaker", and the fact that my Bloody Mess perk finally came in handy made me so happy. The only downside here is that they give you too much money and too many weapons. The game was tense and exciting in a way that vanilla Fallout wasn't--I had to fight for every stimpack, and since my character sucked with melee weapons, Hollow Men were actually a threat... right up until I got the "collect 500 chips" achievement and started spending money on stimpacks and things. Then, yeah, it started to get a bit sloggy.
I absolutely LOVED Christine, and Dean Domino was fun. Christine's tragic backstory, her implied relationship with my favorite vanilla companion, Veronica, was a brilliant touch, and her connection to Old World Blues was nice, too. I enjoyed the conversation skill-checks, enjoyed her story, and just enjoyed her. And like I said, Dean Domino was a lot of fun. God was one of those annoying jerks who tries so hard to be "hardcore" and just isn't, and Dog was so pathetic I didn't even let him out of his cage, but the other two were just great to be around.
And as for the loot, friggin Gold Bars. Sell 'em to the MCP at the Sink. 'Nuff said.
For me, the worst was Honest Hearts. I guess it was because I was playing a sciency-science character who used energy weapons and wore Power Armor, but I marched through Zion clad in impenetrable armor and wielding Space-age lasers against people with spears and handguns. It was an impressive sight, but the final mission was buggy, and it's just not satisfying to beat a Dead Horse, you know?
Maybe it's because many of its elements were used for one of the most memorable sequences in the absolutely stellar Fallout: Equestria series; maybe it's because I was riding the high of Ocean's Eleven; maybe it's just because the main storyline is such crap by comparison, but even after playing OWB (the second-best DLC for NV), I thought and still think it was the best DLC out of all of them.
OT: Twenty dollars??? Are you JOKING??? I guess I'll wait for GOTY and get ALL the ponymods...