I started playing FO when they released the first PC version. I did not get into BOS because it was so different from the original 2. When they came out with 3, I went and bought it for the PC, but it was so god aweful buggy, I shelled out the money for a 360 and bought it for the 360. I played and loved FO3. Have played it several times, and when they came out with the GOTY edition, I bought it too so I could play the DLCs.
After waiting so long for the release of New Vegas. I bought it for the 360 too. Now I own two games for the 360.... LOL
Anyway... I am playing, and they have changed so so much. Lots of the changes I can deal with, but the main change I have the hardest time with is the ease with which my character dies. I started out on NORMAL difficulty, and had to change it to easy, and still I die so easy. An not to mention the change in the sneak, you cant sneak up on anything, the game alerts everything you are close by and the nasties come after you no matter what.
I am not a hardcoe gamer, Just a fan of the FO series, and love to play it, but when your character dies every 2 minutes, you start to loose interest in the game.....
I did not have issues like this in FO3, yeah, i did die every now and then, but nothing like this. The character would only encounter nasties that were to his level of exp, and he could take them. Am I missing something in this new version of the wastes? Any advice would be nice. THanks

yea to the south things are easier to kill. north its harder. also yea youll get fed up a [censored]on unless you have good DT . a way to take enemies out easier is to put a scope on the varmint rifle or get a sniper and just sneak shot people in the head made it to new vegas at lvl 5

thanks, I will try putting a scope on the vermin.... Or maybe try to find a sniper....

Hmmm... I'm also playing on normal, on PC... I take things pretty slow, so I'm not running out and trying to engage in a lot of combat right off the start. Anyway, I've definitely run into foes I couldn't handle at the earlier levels (I'm at level 9 now), and when that happens, I'd just head out in a different direction. But in general, I'm definitely not feeling like I'm dying all the time (and I'm not) - I'm not feeling like it's way too easy to die.

Not (completely) true. In FO3, roll up a brand new character, then go directly to Germantown, Hallowed Moors Cemetary, any Talon Company area, or go galavanting around downtown DC. All of which would have introduced you to enemies that were fairly advanced for a level 2 or 3 character to take.

The way that the Fallout engine works (at least in Fallout 3) is the designer places a spawn point on the map. They decide what level and type of enemies can spawn from that location and what difficulty level that spawn point will start appearing at. Some spawn points only become active as you increase the game difficulty. The engine will attempt to match the player level against the level of enemies in the list, but if it can't then it will pick the lowest level enemy out of the list (if the player is low level). If the designer placed a spawn point that says (more or less) "create a level 25 super mutant or higher", then that's the lowest level super mutant which will spawn. Or they might give it a bigger list of "super mutants level 8-12, brutes 12-16, masters 16-20, overlords 20+". So as you level up, harder and harder enemies will tend to spawn from that spawn point. Which is why you don't see Albino Radscorps outside Megaton until later in the game.

So, when you encounter giant scorpions at level 2 - that's because that's the lowest level critter that can be spawned at that spawn point - chosen by the level/map designer who placed it. They're flagging that area as "you must be this tall". Jot a note, then come back to that area later.

Much like the classic fallouts, the game warns you about dangerous areas, but does not stop you from going there nor does it use Level-lists to scope down enemies.

Deathclaws are their own levelled list, they'll always be there, either young or full-grown.

And as to it being harder, if you're trying to sequence-break, the game is actually more like the classic fallouts and because of that I like it. Try heading straight for navarro in FO2... you'll get annihilated if you try to stand and fight with enclave troopers and centaurs.

I found the last fight very difficult, but on normal nothing else was out of my ability if I did it in the right sequence following the main quest and exploring side areas along that path and made intelligent use of special ammo and drugs.