How to get the most out of Fallout: New Vegas (and games in general)

[michael87cn]

New vegas is just a bad game like that. It's very boring. The entire game revolves around finding a magical poker chip. It takes you like 20 gameplay hours to get to it and then you're just dealing with typical bad guy thugs. Yawn.

The whole game takes what could have been a really cool Sci-Fi Post Apoc setting and throws that out of the window, and instead replaces it with Cowboy Bravo Macho Man setting. Instead of a 'Vault Dweller' you're a Delivery Man. Instead of coming out of a vault into a desolate nuclear wasteland? You get shot in the head by some casino gang punks and buried alive. You then wake up and seek to take your revenge western style. Yawn!

The fallout games in general, don't have the best gameplay. That's actually true for Skyrim as well. But new vegas makes it even worse by making you mess around with your inventory even more, balancing enemies around you having armor peircing and such ammo types. Of course, it's not simple to know what type of ammo to use against what, so often times you just waste a lot of bullets.

Despite all this, and believe, many more problems, a lot of people will defend NV to their grave, because like a single guy from the original games worked on it. A single guy that barely had anything to do with the original games, but was indeed in the credits... Fallout 3 didn't have that!!!! (omg)

But if you ask me... you want a more interesting, if not-so-canon-but-who-cares-fallout-games-are-ridiculously-old-by-now-and-we're-lucky-anyone-even-makes-sequels-to-it-anymore version? Just play Fallout 3.

*exales*

 

[Roxas1359]

Its even better talking to caesar after you've destroyed his fort with boone

That actually gives you 2 points for Boone when you destroy the Legion's base with Boone, which helps in activating Boone's questline since most of the things only offer 1 point towards the quest.

Wow I didn't realize that I have like 195 hrs in the game but it does explain a lot

Yep, there are cues in the Wasteland that will trigger for certains companions if you take them to certain places or do certain actions. It applies to all companions, with Rex being the easiest, and Raul and Boone being on of the hardest to trigger their requirements. Lily's is easy because you just need to travel with her for a while and it will trigger. Arcade can be difficult more because his quest only triggers near the end of the game, but it gives you Remnant Armor, provided you didn't get it from the Prospector's corpse across the river, and depending on your choice Remnant Tesla Armor.

 

[IFS]

As others have said if you're lacking for interesting quests then work your way to Vegas, there are a lot of fun sidequests along the way but Vegas and the area around it does form sort of the centerpoint of the game's story and conflict. Other than that just do what sounds interesting, if you don't like something then skip it, don't like someone then ignore or kill them, see something interesting then go explore it. It is a fantastic game in my opinion though I will agree that the early game can be a little monotonous at least until you hit Nipton or Novac.

If you're worried about picking sides you can still change your decision later in the game (up to a point) so if you want to then pick a fight with the legion or NCR, whichever irks you more though be warned that there are some consequences for messing with either group that can be tricky (but profitable) to handle early on.

Personally I find the game at its best when I get into my character, the last one being a bitter alcoholic sniper who is sick of seeing the NCR screw its people over (while still being attached to the idea of a republic governance of the wastes) and decides to fix their shit for them. So I suppose what I'd suggest is to figure out what your characters wants to do and go from there.

 

[Zeles]

Um, I can't really tell you if you're doing something wrong but what I did, and still do in games like F:NV, is to roleplay my character. Like, what is my character thinking at this moment? Would my character choose this quest option or this one? Would it make sense for my character to say this?
I've been doing it so long that it's automatic, but if you don't do it often you may have to work at it.

Also, I've found that the companions in F:NV are very well written and fun to have around. All of them have their own quests that they give you once they get to know you (There are certain triggers for each companion and once enough are triggered they talk to you). Those are alot of fun too.

 

[BrotherRool]

Just as a general point, you can see how broken Fallout's fanbase has become. All of those: Fallout 3 vs Fallout: New Vegas threads have completely radicalised everyone and now we have half the people here calling F:NV amazing and the other half calling it the worst thing ever=D

Heck I'm part of that. I like F:NV so much more than Fo3 that I actually want Obsidian to make an Elder Scrolls game because I reckon it would be so much more interesting that what Bethesda does. Although to temper that, I actually think the situation I would like the best is if the two companies both alternated between the two franchises with Bethesda going first. Bethesda do tech and level design better and Obsidian do quests, world-building and reactivity. The best part of that deal is we'd get twice as many Elder Scrolls and Fallout games =D

 

[thefascistpig]

Its even better talking to caesar after you've destroyed his fort with boone

That actually gives you 2 points for Boone when you destroy the Legion's base with Boone, which helps in activating Boone's questline since most of the things only offer 1 point towards the quest.

Wow I didn't realize that I have like 195 hrs in the game but it does explain a lot

Yep, there are cues in the Wasteland that will trigger for certains companions if you take them to certain places or do certain actions. It applies to all companions, with Rex being the easiest, and Raul and Boone being on of the hardest to trigger their requirements. Lily's is easy because you just need to travel with her for a while and it will trigger. Arcade can be difficult more because his quest only triggers near the end of the game, but it gives you Remnant Armor, provided you didn't get it from the Prospector's corpse across the river, and depending on your choice Remnant Tesla Armor.

Ah ok I think I've gotten the ones for boone, cassidy, lily, ede, veronica and rex but never for raul or arcades

 

[HarleyHyena]

I would say... Go ahead and do a short play through, see what you think about everyone, restart the game and go from there. It's also pretty fun to get into the mindset of 'this character could be me... What would I do?'. Explore every inch of the land, talk to all the NPCs, and see all the Quests there are to do. Play it multipul times as there are a few different endings. Just have fun with it!

 

[Darren716]

I say the best way to get the most enjoyment out of New Vegas is first to get to New Vegas and once you get there you complete the quest with the bunker under The Fort and once you finish that you completely forget about the main story and do all of the side quests and other optional stuff while only rarely doing main story quests, it allows you to learn more about the world and also the more factions you get to like you the more interesting the final mission and ending will be.

 

[Rozalia1]

How to get the most out of fallout new vegas? Sell it and get an actual good game /heel.

Go do some of the faction missions I suppose, they tend to be alright.

 

[Last Hugh Alive]

The beauty of games like Fallout and similarly designed games is that you CAN abandon whatever you're meant to be doing, walk wherever you like and take it in at your own pace (though Fallout: NV is a little hard on the leash in the early going).

However, here's my general advice for enjoying open world games more: DO NOT FAST TRAVEL! I'm so glad someone once pointed this out to me. Since I stopped using fast travel almost entirely when playing games I've been getting more enjoyment from the mere act of travelling and exploring, feeling more satisfied when I finally reach my destination.

This is highly recommended for Fallout games particularly, where the theme and scenery is ideal for wandering around.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I'd say that you are lucky that you don't know all that much about the game.

I find it difficult to replay because I know most of the areas and sidequests, so I cannot re-capture that feeling of new-ness that you can.

I'd say that you should continue exploring, and finding information yourself: the game allows for this quite well, and it is rewarding.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

this is something i don't get. not all games are for everyone, if you aint enjoing it, it isnt for you. I used to say it often with Darl/Demons Souls when people would say it was broken or cheap.

Least the OP isn't a rage at how "bad" the game is etc.

 

[BrotherRool]

this is something i don't get. not all games are for everyone, if you aint enjoing it, it isnt for you. I used to say it often with Darl/Demons Souls when people would say it was broken or cheap.

Least the OP isn't a range at how "bad" the game is etc.

'I'm having problems getting into this' is different from 'I think this sucks though'. When I played Fallout: New Vegas for the first time, I got to Prim, got completely confused by the layout of Prim (it looks like it should be trenchwarfare with a no-man's land inbetween the two sides, but actually the other side is almost entirely in the big hotel and you're meant to walk through their 'side' to start the quests). I felt lost and like I didn't know what to do with the game, but after I got past that point I loved the rest of the game and it's not within my top 5 favourite games ever.

In the same way I was reading the Shortpacked! webcomic and not enjoying it, it felt like it wasn't going anywhere. I told a friend this and he suggested I skip to a certain part and now I love it.

Yahtzee was talking about how he couldn't get into Dark Souls, but now he has it seems like he loves it.

Of course it's hard to know if it's worth the effort, or how to go about it. But that's what other people are for

 

[Chaos Isaac]

I would say to drop Fallout: New Vegas and play the fun one. You know, Fallout 3.

Fallout 3's world is far more freeform and a hell of a lot more interesting to explore. It also feels far more 'wild west' since, well, you run into more bandits wanting to just kill you and nick your stuff.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

this is something i don't get. not all games are for everyone, if you aint enjoing it, it isnt for you. I used to say it often with Darl/Demons Souls when people would say it was broken or cheap.

Least the OP isn't a range at how "bad" the game is etc.

'I'm having problems getting into this' is different from 'I think this sucks though'. When I played Fallout: New Vegas for the first time, I got to Prim, got completely confused by the layout of Prim (it looks like it should be trenchwarfare with a no-man's land inbetween the two sides, but actually the other side is almost entirely in the big hotel and you're meant to walk through their 'side' to start the quests). I felt lost and like I didn't know what to do with the game, but after I got past that point I loved the rest of the game and it's not within my top 5 favourite games ever.

In the same way I was reading the Shortpacked! webcomic and not enjoying it, it felt like it wasn't going anywhere. I told a friend this and he suggested I skip to a certain part and now I love it.

Yahtzee was talking about how he couldn't get into Dark Souls, but now he has it seems like he loves it.

Of course it's hard to know if it's worth the effort, or how to go about it. But that's what other people are for

i just edited my post from "range" to "rage" - so it makes slightly more sense.lol

i still think though, the experience is individul, no one can tell you how to enjoy it

 

[BrotherRool]

i just edited my post from "range" to "rage" - so it makes slightly more sense.lol

i still think though, the experience is individul, no one can tell you how to enjoy it

It's definitely true and the number of F:NV is the worst/best thing ever comments in this thread prove it, but I still think there's also a % game to entertainment that makes subjective opinions not entirely useless. Sure there are people who dislike The Avengers, but there's enough people who like it that I think you can make recommendations to go and see it that will be more useful than a recommendation to say, Maleficent. Opinion is subjective so a person may end up hating The Avengers and loving Maleficent but the odds are better that it will be the other way round.

And there are some mechanical underlyings to entertainment. It's generally agreed that in football a 0-0 draw where the two teams stood around without even really making an effort to score or take the ball of each other is pretty boring. Whereas an end to end 4-3 comeback with constant switchings of momentum, connected passing and skillful finishes, involving a team that you love is exciting. Being entertained is a subjective experience, but that doesn't mean that it's completely removed from reality and you might as well flip a coin because it's impossible to tell at all if people will ever be entertained with something. It's not as though half of humanity regular sits down to stare at a blade of grass for 4 hours instead of watching TV.

And games have a lot of mechanical elements like that. If the beginning of Fallout New Vegas is somewhat confusing and directionless and doesn't really give you a sense of the big picture, but the middle and end doesn't suffer from that problem, well that's useful information to impart which hopefully increases the probability that someone enjoys something.

 

[Haveyourcakeandeatit]

I spent the majority of my FANV play time running from deathclaws, or so it seemed. I was desperate to join caesar's legion so spent a lengthy amount of time trying to figure out how in the world i was going to do that.

 

[Azure23]

My reaction to Nipton was almost exactly the same as Auron225's. Grenades, so very many grenades, and me coming out the other side all sooty and wide eyed with rage. I actually took pleasure in my infamy after that, and would leave the bodies of assassins unlooted just to send the message that I wasn't doing it for any other reason than pure disdain.

I also broke trail and headed for New Vegas much earlier than you're "supposed to", like others here suggest. Once I'd upgraded my varmint rifle into a half-decent sniper substitute, I went north by skirting the eastern mountains at night (so... cazadores and fire geckos instead of deathclaws). It was slow and harrowing, but that's what made it awesome.

I'm a compulsive min maxer in Bethesda games so i usually make a beeline for vegas as soon as I start to get the intelligence implant before lvl 2. Man, that is a hard journey only achievable through grit and save scumming (gotta have at least one stealth boy) but honestly your way sounds much cooler and dangerous. After all, when you do my way right, you never even have to draw a gun, feels a bit abusive towards the game mechanics. And on my sniper characters i always make a beeline for the ratslayer (amazing early game sniper rifle that looks awesome) right after that, although thats actually a tough fight as you have to deal with a plain full of nightstalkers to get to the cave and then you have to sneak past or kill the dreaded ROUS.