Dr. McD said:
Still better than everyone in Fallout 3 combined. Although that really isn't saying much considering AI still occasionally manages to commit suicide from the nearest tower trying to get past a small rock (yes, I have seen it myself) and it's hard to go even a minute without finding some new plot hole in that game.
But yes, I found them disappointing too (although I'm not surprised, dictatorships like that have never been efficient, only looked efficient).
true, but the comparison is a bit of low-hanging fruit. Comparing any of the factions in NV to to the Enclave from FO3 is like comparing Shylock to Snydley Whiplash. XD The writing is just on a different level.
To be fair to Caesar, it wasn't really the system itself that was flawed, it was his personal greed and lack of foresight. If the legion were content to only control the territories they held in the east, the system he established could probably have stood for decades. Unfortunately, because the stability of the legion is dependent upon a strong and nearby central government, attempting to expand it too wide would inevitably cause it to collapse in on itself.
That was why I couldn't, in my character's position, justify siding with the legion. As intriguing as I found the concept and the characters, there was just no logical reason to side with an army that was committing suicide-by-over expansion (same with the NCR, in that regard, though they had the boon of not being misogynist slavers) aside from the courier being a mixture of chaotic evil and stupid.
Killing House because he likely would become not so different from Caesar (House doesn't tolerate anyone opposing him, he showed that with Vault 21), and with no one to oppose him, would eventually become just plain Caesar.
I don't deny that it's possible, but I believe the odds of House becoming corrupted are fairly low. For one thing, his current living arrangements make it impossible for him to fall to the usual corrupters (huh, that's not a word? it should totally be a word) of leaders of men: greed, gluttony, and lust. He's proud, yes, but it's not as though his pride is baseless, and as he assures the courier, he has no interest in anything as banal as being worshiped like a god.
the true freedom path is tempting, but where I personally find it inferior to the House path is that it puts all the power and responsibility in the hands of people with no experience leading others, and no unified plan for the future. New Vegas is liberated, but aimless and chaotic, even in the best circumstances, and the courier, for all his talents, was never a leader. House had the correct combination of traits: experience, a long term vision for the future, and a plan in place to bring that vision to fruition.