Everyone else is doing it, so naturally I must be one of the sheep.

Anyway, lets get down to business.

Obviously this is spoilers, so anyone who complains of them in this topic is apparantly playing an int one character.

Perks:

Not sure if I'll ever actually see any of the level 50 perks, though they all seem rather cool to me. About the only thing I question however, is putting them in that particular point. To me, they seem like (story wise) they should have gone at level 31/32, the point where you 'leave your past life (ie no dlc new vegas) behind.' I mean, they are rather obviously seem to be talking about the Couriers past, pre new Vegas life. While on that subject, I must say the way that particular part was handled (ie the relationship) was rather interesting. Namely because of the lack of detail as much as the actual detail behind it. Sure, it says that you brought a package to the divide and that the civilisation there may have been started by you, but there is still plenty of room behind it for dedicated roleplayers to work with. Did you purposely start the divide for example. Was it something you absent mindedly did, perhaps with an off hand comment to a food vendor that you would have killed for one on your last run.

Were you mayor of the town or did you just happen to be a prominent citizen, in a similar manner to the Lone Wanderer. Did you actually know what the package was, or were you just the delivery boy. With all the various mutterings about nava and that, does this mean that the enclave does indeed live in some fashion, especially with the 'General Winter' hint. Yes, I believe there is actually a real General Winter, just because it fits the naming scheme too well.

Anyway, back on perks.

Personally this is the expansion that should have had grunt in my humble opinion. It has a much more miltary theme to the items and weapons available, and could have synched rather well with the bowie knife/red glare. The SMMG is a delight to use, to the point of me cackling 'cry some more' in a vaguely Russian accent when mowing down Marked Men and soldiers of the legion (more on that later). The area's were suitably epic, even if I seriously wanted to strangle the person who placed the deathclaws at some points (and myself even more for choosing perception as a dump stat). I know this might annoy some of the more RPG purists, but more so then any other, I think this DLC themetically suits a straight out implacable man FPS style run through. But that's namely because I found such a thing to be far more of a challenge then the old scoot and snipe (outside of the way to Ulysses temple). The new Riot Gear is awesome to use, though I do kind of think it cheapens the value of the desert ranger armour, and the awesomeness that was. But then again, even with that dilution is worth it, just for the joy of equipping everyone with a version of it, and advancing on Hoover Dam cinematically.

Ok.. perhaps the step by step breakdown wont work. Meh.

On the weapons.. well I feel likel energy weapons once again got the short end of the staff, but then I had to admit I was too busy using the dakka to actually try the arc wielder properly. Explosives players on the other hand, have every right to be laughing their asses off, with the addition of satchel charges and the red glare to their arsenal. Especially after a couple of ED-E checks, when everyone's favourite mini deathstar can make them. Now that explosives players can easily mass craft viable weapon, they will be able to easily hold their own in the early game. Still think that explosive playthroughs require a good knowledge of various areas though, to place the charges for maximum effect. Though they will naturally all be heading to the divide at level 25 to pick up the red glare, and by golly its worth it. If someone had of told me before this playthrough that we'd be getting an explosive sniping minigun, I'd of levelled explosives rather then energy weapons to try it out more. I just hope it gets recipes for plasma rockets or similar with GRA.

As for the actual plot of the DLC... well I kind of wish it had of been an expansion.

Thematically, this could have been an easy way to connect the four different endings for a minimal amount of work, as dealing with the rogue courier before he could destroy everything you have built could have been much more cinematic. Would have made it easier to make philosophical arguments as well, about why you won the battle for the various different factions. I mean, it easily could have been a broken steel type dlc, especially with the whole nuking parts of the wasteland/NCR/EAST and all that. But then again I couldn't do the endings of the thing while wearing the two headed bull on my back so I guess its worth it. I just found it funny that they claimed NCR would lead a bright new future after claiming hoover dam, despite the fact that I nuked them to kingdom come (don't lie, everyone wanted to try it).

But sadly, I must say my favourite part of it all is the fact we now have a recipie for Bitter Drink. Because really, who doesn't love that stuff.