Ive had NV Ultimate Edition on 360 for about a year now and i have not got stuck into a proper play through yet, i had normal edition a couple of years ago and i had a Normal difficulty character on about 80 hours with loads left to do which my friends son deleted by accident. I recently started a character but my save my kept crashing, i was around 40 hours and my save file corrupted and was forced to delete.

I am looking forward to playing this game on v.hard mode but i am unsure whether or not to play in hardcoe mode or just save that for my next play through as there are many ways to finish this great game, i wonder what everybodys thoughts are playing on hardcode mode and if it really adds much to immersion in game.

I was also curious which character builds and perks people find best to use and what items i should look to obtain early in game to make it less of a burden at lower levels and to allow more roleplay freedom at the start of the game instead of a slightly linear path round to New Vegas. I am curious also as to which order to play the dlc's as i am very much looking forward to playing them as they seem to add alot more to the main story compared to FO3 dlc.

I am pretty experienced at playing FO3 but i know there are probably new tactics i can use with this game that i am not aware of yet, will playing on v.hard and hardcoe mode just become too much of a slog and ruin enjoyment?, i am curious as to what people think.

sidekicks can die on hardcoe. the main concern is posion. avoid Cazadores until you and your sidekick have decent weapons. avoid killing any legion until say the 20th level. so boone as a sidekick at low levels can be a problem.

ammo has weight so you would need to budget want you carry. also you will need more healing supplies like water. but there are perks that will allow you to carry more.

hardcoe isn't that hard, you have to pay more attention what you are carring.

From there, I get back to the Mojave and play the game, choosing a predestined time to show up at the Tops to off Benny. (a specific date, when I get finally locate a weapon I want to kill him with, after seeing two or more ravens fly off in the direction of Vegas) and I usually get to the rest of the DLCs at level 40+ so opponents have just as much fun toys to shoot back at me with.