I agree with Queue. I've been having a blast in my recent playthroughs because I limit myself to light armor. It's fun because I've had the chance to wear some cool outfits that I'd never have worn because of their low/non-existent DT.

I'm not sure we are playing the same game here. One of the more drastic differences between FO3 and FNV is the sheer amount of skill checks you get in FNV, as I remember it. And if non-combat skills are a waste of time in FNV then they're an even bigger waste of time in FO3. I know that enjoyment is subjective - I can totally see why someone would prefer FO3 over FNV, but saying that skill checks are better done in FO3 is almost empirically wrong.

I don't understand your point here. Is this criticism also not applicable to Megaton?

This is a fair point. I'd say that early-game pacing is one of FNV's bigger problems. You can choose to go somewhere other than south then east to Nipton then north to Vegas through Novac - for example using the stealth boy you find in the schoolhouse to go north through the Quarry Junction deathclaws to Vegas, but you'd be distorting the game experience. There's a sense that the Primm-Mojave Outpost-Nipton-Novac-Vegas route is the intended direction, the way the story is supposed to unfold.

It is not the same thing. In New Vegas, the last maybe ten hours of your game plays significantly differently if you choose to side with the NCR than if you choose to side with the Legion, and siding with independent Vegas is different again. I guess you could say that the House and Yes Man endings are somewhat similar, but there are still significant tonal and ideological differences between them. It's not a last-minute choice that basically affects, what, the last minute of your game? like FO3's ending (no plural, imo).



On-topic, I do agree that weapons in general need to be more lethal. No one (including the player) should be shrugging off hails of bullets unless clad in power armor.

I guess I am coming off too harshly and harping on the game. Some of that comes from paying full price and then some for the collector's edition and having not finished playing the game yet. that is mostly my fault, though there are parts of the game that simply turned me off, causing me to turn it off. Let me talk about something I really do enjoy as part of this reply, inspired by what Tranquillus wrote.


I really did love all the skill checks I have seen in the game through what I have played. my problem was that a lot of them felt kind of empty or D-Baggy. I want to play a good guy play through, and if sure feels like the vast majority of speech checks are there to convince people to let you do bad things to them or for them. It's interesting you CAN do that, but I don't want to do that.


Megaton was dump built around an active nuclear bomb. Good Springs is a town untouched by nuclear fire with fresh water springs. It is a very tempting place to settle down, especially after I get myself some caps and supplies on the road.

***********************************************************************************

One of the problems I have talked about in the past on these forums is the combination of guns and RPG numbers. It's a difficult thing to balance in my opinion. I don't mind the idea that a giant rad scorpion or death Claw has "evolved" very thick hide armor that is difficult to penetrate. I don't have a problem with it being very difficult to kill a guy in power armor. I have a problem with an elite Legion solider in football pads having 220 health and like 15+ DT shrugging off bullet after bullet to the face simply because he is level 20. To me, that isn't fun. I would rather lose that fight because his buddy is also a level 20 and threw a spear into my gut or face and killed me instead of how it works right now... but, that isn't how the game works.

I never really had a problem with how the combat in Fallout 3 worked. Even in the epic battle against the Enclave was fun without being needlessly difficult. Maybe that was because the bad guys were leveled to the player I don't know.

Don't do it on hardest difficulty yet. You'll get shredded.

Do it on very easy then easy, then the next each playthrough.

Don't kill yourself to do it on whatever the hardest is, till you get the hang of the game itself.

Personally, to me, anything higher than normal stops it being fun.
I play on easy most of the time. Very easy for hard stuff.
To me, a game stops being fun when the smallest thing kills you and it becomes a grind.
And that's what anything beyond normal turns it into.

You will lose nothing at all by lowering the difficulty.
I spent ages trying to kill a mantis nymph at the start when trying out hard difficulty, then said screw this and put it to easy.

I'd go Very Hard and hardcoe.