Every game i play i always select the most difficult setting. However, I dont know if its just me but when it's on "very hard" i'll just stand in front of an enemy unloading clip after clip into him. It's a bit of an immersion breaker. Then i try the "hard" setting and they seem to go down a little sooner. Since i'm a guy that likes the hardest setting, should i stick with it at the risk of [censored] gameplay or should i go to the "hard" setting and then risk the gamed being too easy. Also, note that i do like the whole survial premesis and don't want to lose that if i go down a setting.

What is the general consesus of the FO:NV difficulty setting question, thx.

Edit: Also, if i stuck with the "very hard" setting, would this make using ammo types for benifical? or would the difficulty be just too great to notice any difference?

anything above easy in my opinion is not fun. unloading a full clip into something and they just look at you is unrealistic. i know the game is fantasy.. but you cannot tell me a shotgun blast to the face isnt an instant kill in the real world. i play for real world action. even then you still have to put more than 1 bullet into them.

on the other hand i love being a superman. kill them easy kill me hard!

there are some creatures in the game that on hard level you would have no chance against. bearclaws...wow. in the first fallout i just ran.
in FO/NV they are easier to kill. if you can get to high ground and sniper them.
in the open..run!
in the harder settings..thirst and hunger and being tired become a real factor. you have to make sure you know where to get supllies, where you can rest etc...i was thinking of trying that

Do what feels best, how easy this game is will be subject to how you build your character and how smart you play. The guy above me is clearly not very good at this game.

Well the hard setting in the game is isn't too hard imo but very hard is a decent challenge AND since it is a rpg game, you have to get your weapon skills up to a decent level, get some nice weapons by either buying them from stores or by scavenging/raiding your enemies and also get some perks which help you kill better. If you want to do all this pretty quick I suggest reading a character creating faq from sites such as gamefaqs.com.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/959559-fallout-new-vegas/faqs/61182 is one of the best I have read.. it should help you build a pretty powerful character without giving away too many spoilers.

Yea. It seems like he's ignorant of the games mechanics. I play on normal and I run into a challenge sometimes, but overall I'm not having a hard time. It's people like davevallence that make developers create games with literally no challenge. I SHOOTZ HIM IN THE HEAD AND HE WON'T DIE!!! I PLAY ON EAZY MODE CUZ I DOMT UNDERSTAND THE GAME.

This game is all about building a character and playing in a style pertained to the build, but some folks don't understand that.

I've never played on anything besides Very Hard, just like you describe.

To be quite literal, Very hard means your damage is cut in half, whereas the damage enemies do to you is doubled. Personally, I find this to be the most realistic setting, mostly because there's still nothing stopping you from one-shotting ANYBODY (sneak attack headshot crits are quite powerful) and yet you're capable of being one-shot yourself. With normal difficulty, the AMR (that big honking sniper rifle shown everywhere) is gonna be able to one shot almost anyone you see without much effort (might not even need a headshot or a sneak attack), but oddly enough, the rifle won't oneshot you. If they get a headshot critical (rare) then they'll hit 440 damage, which will kill most lower level players, but that's a special exception. On the other hand, on Very Hard they only need a headshot to get that 440 damage on you, and a headshot crit? Instant death.
Second is deathclaws. In my experience, the average deathclaw will kill a character in 2-3 shots (3 being for the most durable character). This means that on normal difficulty, you can tank 4-6 hits from a deathclaw, which to me, just doesn't do the DEATHclaw justice. Finally, the Deathclaws on the Lonesome Road? On Very Hard, they'll one shot you. Any character; the only thing that can save you from that one-shot is Med-x combined with high endurance. On Normal they should still kill you in two shots, or one with a leap attacking, but they're not QUITE as deadly still.

And as for basic enemies? Another nice feature of Very Hard mode is that if you aim for the enemy's head, you deal double the damage. So, that basic mechanic means that you can actually cancel out the damage reduction of Very Hard mode if you just learn to aim for the head. Viola.
So yeah, for all those reasons I consider it to be the most realistic difficulty, and that's usually what I'm looking for.

Well it's a game with numbers, enemy has X in health, you have Y in weapon damage, enemy had Z in damage threshold.
If a weapon takes forever to kill an enemy with then use a stronger weapon.
Perhaps the enemy is too tough for you? In that case, leave it alone and come back later when you have a stronger weapon.

Years back I was asking myself the same question. Most warned players against anything higher than Normal. So, on my new FO3 play-through last year, I chose Hard instead of Very Hard, which is what I normally select in all my games. Now, I don't know if this is just FO3 but I got bored extremely quickly. I had over 100 stimpacks because I hardly needed to use any.

In short, I'd recommend Very Hard. Bullet-sponge enemies are there no matter what, even on Normal and in Fallout games, it really isn't the only thing that breaks immersion IMO. The point of Very Hard is to provide constant challenge whereas the point of Normal is to try to make the shooting realistic but it doesn't accomplish anything. You will still need more than one shot sometimes.

If you really want to do something about it, the most sensible way would be to download and install combat/gameplay mods. There are some really good ones, I hear. But then again, lowering the difficulty is not a solution IMO. Either way though, you can change the difficulty any time.

If that's an immersion breaker for you then I don't suggest lowering the difficulty because then you might say "now the enemy is unloading clip after clip on me". I agree with just about everything LongKnife said and if you can't find a difficulty that suits you, I suggest downloading a realistic mod if your on pc.

Hard and hardcoe mode suits me fine. Add in the JESawyer mod for additional (and sensible) challenge, and the package is ready. I don't care for the lack of FPS headshot-kill gimmicks -- in fact I appreciate the lack of 'em (although, I would appreciate the system more if it focused more on accuracy instead of damage).

What bullet-sponge enemies?
Fallout 3 had this...hell, Fallout 3 was HORRIBLE about bullet sponge enemies. Albino Radscorpions, normal radscorpions, Deathclaws, Super Mutant Behemoths, Super Mutant overlords....holy crap.
New Vegas though? Just about anything can be killed with a well-place sneak attack headshot crit, Divide Deathclaws included. The only enemies that scream "I'M A BULLET SPONGE FEED ME BULLETS NOMNOMNOM" are the ones found in Old World Blues, specifically the Roboscorpions.

Well, they are still bullet-sponges if they take multiple shots to take down under "normal", non-sneak, non-specialised circumstances. And that's great. It's an RPG, not an FPS. Still, you can't deny they are bullet-sponges unless of course you play as a sneak character but even in FO3, sneak attacks were enough to kill a foe.

The best way to achieve rewarding and impactful results from combat in this sort of game would be to have the skill account for accuracy alone and have damage be static (or a static range), but people would complain about not hitting things because they can't fathom the concept of accuracy. Ergo, FPS RPG combat is doomed to fail by default.

I love that attitude.

I got this game on release day. I built a character around using Guns. I was around level 12 or something with 100 guns skill and had the .357 cowboy repeater thingy. I find myself up agaisnt some cears leigon elite soilders who, according to vats, would take an eniter clip to the head and not even be 1/3 of the way dead... for one of them. Really? Really really?!? Idiots in football pads can run around just fine with a face litterally full of led and not care?

Oh, but that is teh funz! Oh you are so moar hard corz than me cuz you play on very hard!

I'm sorry but at some point "difficulty" crosses the entertainment line.

I quit playing the game, not because of that, but it did have an impact on my decison. I want to come back to playing the game, but threads liek this remind me of one of the reasons I stopped enjoying the game.

I want to play the game on Easy mode just so I'm not bored of the combat. Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot... okay one enemy dead. three more to go.

I want to enjoy the story and have the action be a part of the story telling, not something that bogs the game play down... then again from what I have experiecned so far and what I have read, the story isn't that good either. Maybe they made the game play so needlessly difficult to keep you playing longer.

I think this is a great review of the game, but that might be becasue I found myself saying muh of the same thing to my friends before I saw it... only not nearly as humorusly as this guy:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2435-Fallout-New-Vegas

A Cowboy Repeater is not a good weapon to have when taking on elite legionnaires. Its just not strong enough to take on what I'm guessing is a squad of Caesar's Legion assassins at optimal VATS range on your first playthrough. This is all because of DT and if you want the formula for DT then you can look http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_Threshold#Fallout:_New_Vegas. This being said you probably could take them out with a Cowboy Repeater if you were good enough and more experienced, though it would still be a challenge. The most effective way to take them out is to just get a more powerful and more suitable weapon like 12.7 mm Pistol, a Tri-beam Laser Rifle or even a Super Sledge.

I would be annoyed too if I didn't know why my Cowboy Repeater wasn't killing that Legion Centurion even though I'm shooting him in the head over and over. The reason is because New Vegas isn't an FPS, its an RPG. This game is about adapting to situations, learning about tactics, making choices and survival, it's not about killing things.

I watched that video and it seems like he didn't understand many of the mechanics of the game either. It also seemed like he didn't bother doing any side quests, follow the story, delve into the lore or understand what roleplaying in a game means. If he had then he would understand why New Vegas isn't just an expansion of Fallout 3 and he would realize why it is the far superior game.

I've put in nealry 18 hours since i first got the game yesterday and i've already learned much of the lessons you cited. The one thing i have to keep in mind that even though there are guns involved this is an RPG. Its easier to accept in other RPG's the numbers game when it comes to combat cause spells and swords stats when used against the bad guys can be understood better when the get hit and hot die cause your spell or sword is not strong enough. However, When you'r blasting some guy in the head with a shot gun and doesn't die cause of DT/DR stats its harder to get used to but not imposlible.

I just got this game cause i played skyrim for 500 hours and simply need a break and i feel like having some better story telling and my descision matter for now. After i play this game for 100 or so hours i'll pick up SKyrim again. I'm not bashing skyrim or FO:NV btw, i just like to change thiing up to keep my gameplay fresh. I expect that after i go back to skyrim i'll fall in love with the beautiful worl all over again since i'll be spending so much time in an unspiring wasteland. In skyrim i never fast travel cause the world is so awsome, yet in FO:NV i fast travel cause the walk is so boring lol. However, the writting is far better so its a give and take thing.

Anyhow, i'm getting off track. I just wanted to say that i am keeping the game on very hard and i'm getting used to the game mechanics. The one thing i love about this game is the writting and i cant wait till i get more into it. Plus i love playing carvan

How so? He enjoys playing his roleplaying game the way he wants too. I see no harm in how he plays, ands he's just offering a suggestion.

Think of the enemies surviving multiple gun shots as a result of radiation. Radiation and SCIENCE!!! Or perhaps that the guns are in such poor condition (since they're so old and ghetto) that they only have a fraction of the power the guns of our world have.
That's what I do.

yourmom=my brother and pgaither84 explained it way better than i did. i love the game for the rpg and character building, not for what others state.. bullet sponge.

no matter where you go, up pops an enemy you have to kill! at least in skyrim, i shoot someone in the head, they die. i can explore the skyrim world and not constantly battle. and if i do, my skills have been allocated that it is a good battle.

in fallout bangbangbangbangbangbangbang and so on.

flaming someone for the way they like to play a game shows how much you dont understand anything! i paid my $ just like any hard core or mad skillz preaching wannabe's.

Are we playing the same Skyrim?

Skyrim has no headshot recognition, New Vegas does. Shooting someone in the head in Skyrim doesn't increase damage at all (you could put five arrows through someone's brain for all they care), shooting someone in the head in New Vegas doubles the damage.
And Fallout New Vegas, the spawns are set, so you quickly memorize where enemies spawn. Enemies also tend to spawn AWAY from the road. Skyrim on the other hand has random encounters and plenty of spawn points near the roads, so there's constant fights as you travel. I could get from the Mojave Outpost to Nellis without a single fight in New Vegas, I doubt I could get from Riften to Solitude in under 20 minutes in Skyrim, due to all the things I'd have to stop and fight...

He was not flaming you, he was making an observation.

The only bullet sponges I have found in this game are in Old World Blues, everything else can be easily killed with the right weapon and the proper requirements(skills/SPECIAL/perks). You should not be using a 9mm Pistol against a Deathclaw. A Riot Shotgun with the Shotgun Surgeon perk is great against them, add the And Stay Back! perk and it becomes brilliant against them. All you need to succeed at this game is careful planning and choosing the right weapon for the job. A sneak headshot from a Hunting Rifle will kill a Deathclaw, this is the best way to take care of them.

I play RPGs. I love RPGs. Dragon Age, Knights of the Old Republic, DnD with my friends, etc.

I love actually role playing in my games.

Fallout New Vegas has disappointed me, but I am back again on these forums because I want to give the game a third chance.

Here's how I judge difficulty. If I want to be an unstoppable hero with no equally challenged enemies, then very easy or easy is the way to go.

Normal is more of a win-win and rarely win-lose. You rarely have to worry about loosing a battle, but some scenarios throw you off track and you end up 6 feet under if you get to comfortable.

Hard is for the wastelander looking for a well met challenge. You can take on the wasteland, and it can equally take you on! You have to watch your step, count your ammo, and plan your approach. For example, I play on hard hardcoe mode and need to scavenge around Novac to make some coin. Nearby raider camp? Profit! Instantly, charging in gets me shot up and dead. Reload. I now know that keeping silent and getting the jump on the enemy will keep me alive and not drain my ammo. I load .357 mags to a nearby patrol raider, and sneak away before any raiders found me. Then I picked off the gunmen since they were the most dangerous of the group. After they were dead, I easily popped the melee raiders with the gunmen's gun, saving ammo, and keeping me alive. Hard makes the game feel alive, makes ammo types great to use, and at the same time keeps realistic injuries to both you and your foes. Not too many headshots were landed to kill my enemies, and that's the way I like it.

Very hard is for the wastelander who has to really think! He needs to find decent equipment and stick to nearby soldiers early, and always he cautious while traveling. Raiders are verrry dangerous, maybe too dangerous for my taste. I'm not experiences in vh mode, so I would suggest playing hard. It provides a realistic challenge that is both physically and mentally fun and awesome.

The thing is that roleplaying in Fallout 3 is extremely limited. You are born in Vault 101, you are shown how you have grown up, you are told that you are 19 years old, you have to go after your father no matter how you feel him about him, you have to help the Brotherhood, you have to destroy the Enclave and you have to activate the rad filled purifier yourself even though you can have a robot, super mutant and a ghoul as companions.

In New Vegas you get a great story(better then Fallout 3's), very good writing, a more realistic setting, more interesting and deeper characters, every single quest has at least one choice in it sometimes more, 5 different ending paths with hundreds of end slide possibilities and a blank slate to roleplay with. You are the Courier and what do you know about him/her? S/he was delivering a Platinum Chip to Mr. House, s/he traveled from California and s/he got shot in the head and robbed. That is a blank slate with nearly endless roleplaying possibilities.

People have done pacifist playthroughs. I've gotten pretty far in a pacifist/Dead is Dead/Hard playthrough, but made a mistake at one point and died. I have no doubt that if I hadn't of done what I did(try to fight a Brotherhood squad with Rex and Veronica) then I could have finished the game and I was having quite a bit of fun in that playthrough.

I'm just not getting what you think Fallout 3 does better then New Vegas.

I like the setting more than new Vegas. It feels like a real post apocalypse urban ruin with trouble everywhere. Survival is essential.

New Vegas however is defiantly better written and offers a larger roleplay experience.

I am currently playing a play through for both, FO3 as an explosives big gun weilding BOS when I join them, and New Vegas as one of the few desert rangers that refused to join the ncr.

I'm having fun in both!