Not sure why I keep posting, this thread's about mods, of which I'm using none. But it IS about Fallout, and I've been playing a hell of a lot of Fallout over the past few months. I played FO4 to level 76 as mentioned above, and then decided to return to New Vegas after eight years away. Found the cloud had my saves from 2013 and I picked up where I left off, at level 17.

Now I'm level 39, and I bought all of the DLC, and finished Lonesome Road and Honest Hearts, and now intend to dive in to Old World Blues. Playing on Hardcore mode.

While FNV may show it's age graphically, the underlying game is still great, and I'm having a good time with it. The DLC each add 5 to the level cap, and having them all raises it to 50, allowing me to build a stronger character than I ever could before with the vanilla cap at 30.

Fallout 4 is a fantastic game, I really like it. But it took a return to New Vegas to see how much it has changed. When I decided to belatedly give FO4 a go, I read some comments about how FO4 is a great game, but not a great Fallout game. I can't agree completely -- FO4 has enough of the Fallout soul to be a worthy installment in the franchise -- but there is some truth to it. The simple fact is FO4 is a shooter with RPG elements. New Vegas is a RPG. FNV is simply a deeper game, in terms of dialog, choice, build options, systems and mechanics. It's the Fallout game we would expect from a studio like Obsidian.

When I was playing FO4 I made a comment on a different forum about how striking it was there are so few skill checks in that game. Fallout needs skill checks everywhere, and FNV has them in spades. I see more skill checks in one random conversation than I saw in 300 hours of Fallout 4.

Things like this make the build path feel like it has more consequence. The skills system makes the build feel more specialized, there is simply more latitude than FO4. Perks are endless, but only available every other level.

By level 50 perhaps this has converged somewhat, enough points by this stage to have nearly all of the skills maxed, but the journey to this point is a more pure RPG experience that I prefer.

I'll give OWB a go, and maybe finish up with Dead Money before heading off to Hoover dam and the end of the game. It's been fun returning to this game after so much time. I always remembered it fondly, and spoke highly of it, but the details had faded. It's been fun to rediscover it after so much time had passed. It's still a great game.

Cannot coment on NV. Only saying that per mod you can build in F4 whereever you want, and then see limitations only in the ammount of materials you need to build what you want, and collecting them, buying hem, whatever.

I know you are not interested in mods, you said it repeatedly. But mods are key to F4 open sandbox aspect. There are also mods for interactive city building, complete with autonomous settlers, inhabitants doing their daily businesses, and so forth. I used some of that years ago, it worked well, but my interest laid somewhere else. I do not see F4 as an RPG that much. Complex story-driven RPG aspects are not what I look for in this game.

The first time I played New Vegas, years ago, I used some mods. I recall having a companion called Willow, and that's a mod. I'm not anti-mod, but more that I just don't feel like I need them.

I didn't really take to the settlement side of Fallout 4, even though it's a robust and fairly deep side to the game. I treated settlements like way stations, not communities, places to sleep and heal and craft and eat, but not to make life better for the unfortunate masses who remain in place, never lifting a finger to attenuate the conditions they moan about.

But a water pump, a bed, a container and some turrets to watch over it all were about the extent of my settlement building. So yeah, mods to expand on the possibilities just has little practical appeal to me. I did end up building two of the arches, one at Hangman's and one in Sanctuary, but not much more than this unless a quest required it.

You've not played New Vegas? Interesting, and I can only recommend it. Obsidian are really good at this, and they made a great game, closer to FO3 than 4 I reckon in terms of how it plays, but it's worth your time if you enjoy RPGs, Fallout and good games in general regardless of how closely it aligns with your usual predilections. Grab the GotY edition on sale.

I played F3 GOTY. Not NV.


I discovered Bethesda not before Oblivion. Oblivion, Skyrim, F3, F4, are highlight sin my gaming career. But of these, F3, being very good in itself, got me hooked up the least of these four games. Not that i did not lie it, I did like it a lot. But I like the other three better.

All Fallout is for sale on Steam at the moment. FNV GotY is 70% off.


I don't have much farther to go in FNV. I'll finish Old World Blues, kick around doing the fourth DLC, Dead Money, and then head for the finish. So I was wondering how FO2 stands up after all this time.


FO3 was my entry point, and I never played either of the iso Fallouts. It's really cheap and worth a punt perhaps. I'm a big fan of Fallout, and of that genre of RPGs, but I wonder if I am dipping my toes a little too deep with that game.


Edit: I thought FO3 was not on Steam, but I see it is. Lots of comments about crashing with Win 10. Hmmm, I might have a go.

I could never get in to New Vegas. I thought the weapon degradation was way out of line.


And how many shades of brown on brown on brown can one game have. :)

Yes, the palette is limited isn't it? Everything's sort of brown-grey.

Weapons degrade too fast, agreed. And if you take the Hand Loader perk there are ammo types that increase this, making repairs something to be done regularly. I can understand your point.

But for me it's all no bother. This is standard RPG stuff. With the Jury Rigging perk you can use any semi-similar thing to do the repair. Weapon repair kits can be found or crafted. For me, this is akin to eating or drinking mechanics in Hardcore mode. Some will see it as an annoyance. Others will see it as one more thing to monitor and solve.

Having played FO3, FO4 and New Vegas, I'd have to put New Vegas at the top of the list as the best Fallout title. The others are both fantastic games too.

I never could get the hang of ammo making in NV. Fortunately, it is really not needed if you watch your shooting.

Anyone with me on this one? Then I see you out there in one year!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-LlfIXT8to


Much of the staff making this one already was part of the Skyrim and Fallout 4 crews.



After Starfield, in some years, that is, a new single player Elder Scrolls game (TES VI) is coming.

True, but the real benefit of this is not keeping stocks high, but making better ammunition, with increased armor penetration and damage and lowered spread. Hand loaded match 5.56 rounds for example do +15% damage and reduce spread by 65%.

The only time I made ammo because I was running low was in Old World Blues.

By breaking down the ammo types you don't use you get the powder, primers and lead you need. Hulls, or cartridge cases, are collected as you fire that ammo type (with Hand Loader perk), and more can be bought or looted.

About weapon repair, there are also two companions -- ED-E and Raul -- who can repair weapons for the player.

Sure, why not. The trailer looks great. If it's first-person it's almost a certainty I'll buy it. If third person, it will have to be a fantastic game too. They've got the chops obviously to pull it off. Let's see where it goes.