I'm enjoying the challenge, I'm having to learn whole new survival methods and applying them to what I learned from Fallout 3. Maybe most are too used to the hand holding games of Halo/COD and expect to be able to run and gun and be a God in the process.
This game is going to take me time to work through, and that's a good thing.

Hardly enough challenges in gaming these days as it is, it's good that New Vegas is challenging.

Very glad this was not Easy, I find the premise of this thread flawed. With Fallout3 there were enormous complaints about how easy the game was, and I myself found it incredibly easy to get to level 20 and become a demi-God. With F:NV its much more balanced and challenging - just as it should be.

I'm playing on Very Hard level with hardcoe mode and am Really enjoying how much it extends the gameplay. Nicely done IMHO, definitely not too hard. The lack of a dartgun also means no easy kills against death-claws, we'll have to kill them straight-up now - loving it!! :gun:

So 360 and pc have very easy/very hard but ps3 doesn't?

I killed D.C's with boone and a varmint rifle (5.56 AP), I cleaned the entire quarry out with one.

Sneak attack from FAR away, and cripple its legs, as it hobbles at you just take pot shots. Or climb up on top of something and blast away.

So far I have noticed, the death claws and the flying blue bug (cazadars?) are the ONLY thing that can detect EXACTLY where you are after getting hit by a suppressed weapon from FAR away.

Like they have radar or something. I have hit death claws from so far away I could just barely make them out and they STILL find me exactly where I am if I fire 1 shot or 10.

Sneak attack crit> anything.
Shotgun surgeon works wonders too, along with magnum shells or slugs.

Did anyone notice there is a perk for attacking death claws (and other things) with a melee weapon that adds 50% damage?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/jasonsteele/Game%20Stuff/ScreenShot7.jpg :blink: (9 in total, as 1 is behind me so off camera.)

Did I mention I am level 2 in that SS? :shocking:

What's SS?

Lots of great tips on this thread!

I've been playing on very hard + hardcoe for about 27 hours and I'm only at level 3 (restarted once to add Wild Wasteland perk after I realized Four Eyes was useless, avoiding the main quest as long as possible, trying to do some side quests and explore the wastes). I am so thrilled with the combat mechanics. FNV on hardcoe+very hard is much, much more balanced than FO3. In FO3 you can stockpile stimpaks and then you are basically invincible, even in very hard setting. Also you are invincible in VATS, so everytime you are about to die you can go to VATS for a fire a few more shots while your enemies can't hit you.

In hardcoe + very hard, I actually have a reason to be happy about finding food or water somewhere. IN FO3 all the food and water was useless junk because you can find or buy massive amount of stimpaks in very hard. Also the fact that I can't instaheal with a stimpak makes the game a lot more balanced.

Simply put FO3 on very hard was extremely easy after you got the hang of it, so easy as to reduce the enjoyment slightly.

FNV is bringing the fun back IMO.


I would add a few tips to what has been said by others above in this thread:

as soon as you see a red blip -
turn off run mode and start slowly sneaking - if you have binoculars or a gun with a scope you can get a better idea what you're looking at. i haven't gotten ED-E running yet, so maybe that is more helpful, not sure.

For creatures like radscorpions
- you have to master the art of running backwards away from enemies while shooting at them. often you can do this to get them to follow you to a human traveler and you can hide in the distance or jump up on top of something to let the creatures kill the human for you so you can get more ammo and loot off their dead body. if you don't have enough ammo or health, you will very often be running away from fights only to come back when you are ready to take them out.

For enemies with guns -
if they don't have heavy armor and you have been putting lots of points into melees or unarmed and you have critical chance and damage, run very fast up to them and wipe them out with some VATS melee criticals

if they have armor, or there are lots of them, or you don't have strong melee/unarmed - stay far away and try to shoot using zoom/aim and maneuver the yellow crosshair right where you want it. in VATS at a distance you will see 0% but you can still kill them. If you have high criticals, you can often kill them in one or two headshots from a long distance, because they don't see you yet.

Here is the initial build I chose:
Str 7
Per 4
End 5
Cha 1
Int 8
Agi 5
Luck 10

Tagged: Sneak, Melee, Guns
Traits: Built to Destroy, Wild Wasteland

With high luck and Built to Destroy trait, plus weaons like machete, straight razor, (which offer bonus crit chance plus bonus crit damage), I get lots of criticals, every other hit or sometimes every hit is critical. Also the cowboy repeater has been a lifesaver.

You didnt have to restart. ED-E cant be killed as far as I know all he is, is knocked out then he will revive after a set amount of time. Ive been using that to my advantage as enemies attack ED-E I sit back and pop them off one at a time. Makes it easier than having 10+ enemies running head on at you.

Now I am not that afraid, with my new power armor and power armor training from the previously alive BoS (After gaining their trust I detonated the self destruct) and now you take some damage from crow bars if your getting hit but you hear a loud thump.

Screen Shot.

P.S

In hardcoe mode companions die, when they die they are dead, gone and done.

Only in hardcoe!

Im playing hardcoe mode on normal, has not been hard until just now running around vault 34 at level 8 or so.

Your getting killed by everything because your trying to fight DEATHclaws and cadozar wasps...

Fallout 3 was too easy even on the most difficult setting. I welcome the extra challenge this game offers. Just get in the habit of quick saving before every encounter so you can roll back if it doesn't go well.

Deathclaws are supposed to maul you aren't they? They're giant horrible monsters. The first time I saw one I was like "oh [censored]!" and tried to run. I'm playing on Normal, but I haven't died that much. Also I have the PC version so haha quicksave.

Oh good, Im sure glad to see Im not the only one getting their butt kicked!! Makes me feel much better.

What I appreciate is that you dont get ran over so much that you no longer wish to play. You just want to find a way to do what you have to do and go on. That too is much appreciated.

This game sure does make you think more. With Oblivion and Fallout3 after the 20th play though you can do it almost blindfolded. Have a feeling that this one is going to be a bit different.

I know! Its harder! Isn't it great! It actually limits you to the beginning areas without locking them off, you can still explore but it leaves the game open to strategy ("how am I going to do this.. lets try this,") you can still explore somewhere, as long as your running around in circles! Its fun!

hey guys i am playing the CE version of NV on my PS3 right now and have the 'very easy' and 'very hard' settings, so i am confused as to how others are having this problem.

If you are really heartbroken by your loss of your RIP companion, you can revive them or set them to essential via the console command.

It affects the game balance, obviously, but the point is for you to get the most enjoyment out of the game, so if it is going to increase your enjoyment to have some blend of hardcoe mode, while still making your companions invincible, then go for it.

IMO, if your companion is invincible, and you get into fights that are too tough, then your companions end up saving your ass all the time, which is kind of boring for me.

Yeah, I'm playing on hardcoe, so ED-E was dead. I may do something to make them essential, but the mods that do so apparently just revive them as soon as they die, which I don't like at all (I don't think that making companions essential is cheap, but it's definitely cheap if they get knocked out and then pop back up again right away). I'd much rather if they stayed down until the end of a battle, and then got back up when no enemies are attacking you, like in Dragon Age.

exactly sorry

Yes, exactly! I loved Oblivion and FO3, and now it is like combining all the good stuff of those games with a more balanced play that makes you actually have to work hard to figure out how you are going to survive.

Although I never made it to the 20th playthrough LOL. (Oblivion is so massive, I still haven't fully completed the main quest after playing off and on for a couple years. There are many side quests.)

You know now that I think about it, this could just be a glitch with PS3s. I think I remember hearing about this same problem with FO3 on PS3. I was assuming it could have been part of the refixing to fit the system for release last time, because they did alot of fixes to make it run on PS3 before.

Jorge Salgado is watching your every move! He knows you went the wrong way and is laughing the further you go.

Playing with the difficulty level set to "Very High" in hardcoe mode. Love it :>

A-men to that, I'm just now doing the Bounty missions with the three fiends, each of who are essentially boss characters with minions surrounding them. More intense than any fight I had in Fo3. Especially since the quest seems to want you to go one at a time, but in fighting my way through the first, I ran into the second at the tail end of it. I went from "wow, I'm close to getting out of this fight by the skin of my pants" to "holy crap, I'm close to getting out of this fight by the skin of my skin!" Was left with all limbs crippled, all possible health items and drugs used, and a sliver of life left. It was amazing.

Remeber this game was made by the folks who brought you the original Fallouts. If I remember correctly in F2, you basically needed Power Armor and a good heavy weapon or sniper riftle with the right skills to take out Death Claws.