I just want to get to know what other people tend to use when they play Fallout.

My choices:

1.) I honestly prefer close-quarters-combat over ranged, because it works better and it's incredibly easier than using a gun. But, I still like to play it safe and have both, so I keep a gun and a knife with me at all times.
2.) Pistols usually work best, because some are incredibly accurate and I have about as much luck with hitting a target at 200 meters with a 9mm versus a Brush Gun.
3.) Unarmed weapons I've found are incredibly more useful than Melee. Along with the fact that you can use special techniques you learn from various characters across the Wasteland, most of them are incredibly powerful.
4.) Plasma has always been my favorite in Fallout, and considering I just learned what plasma actually is a few days ago, I'm more enthused to use it!

I've been using a modified varmint rifle as my primary weapon for at least three characters.

I can't actually vote in your poll because there is no option to choose this weapon.

I likes the fire axe as a melee weapon but it is really too strong a weapon in most cases. Melee combat in these games is difficult and frustrating for me at any rate so after experimenting with the different weapons I chose the weaker varmint rifle as the most challenging and least frustrating of the small caliber guns.

Sometimes for fun I will toggle god mode and pull out my gauss rifle and head out to find some death claws. I use god mode since wasting three microfusion cells at a time is really difficult to maintain for very long. There's no chance that I will have to worry about the death claws getting to my lightly armored hide since I am usually situated on a promontory well out of reach of them before I start the hunt.

Melee seems only useful when your surrounded by enemies. Otherwise... unless your struggling for ammo, i won't use them.

I like to carry a sniper. ^ High damage ^ High range ^ Sneak Headshots v Horrible VATS v Low Capacity v slow reload (but i dnt mind)

During the day, I fight with a revolver and sometimes an automatic weapon.

At night, I snipe enemies with night vision.

When it is dark and I am close to an enemy, I kill them with silent tomahawks.

When there is a large group of enemies, I use explosives, usually dynamite or thump-thump.

Minigun + 10k surplus rounds = party time!

I like bolt/lever action rifles too.

Sledgehammers make things go squish.

Gauss weapons are my favorite... wish they put in a gauss pistol and gauss minigun!

Just added Bolt-Action Rifles for an option, thanks for that note.

Needs SMG option

This can be answered by explaining how I took out the Fiend, Driver Nephi. I left my companions at Camp McCarran so I could do things my own way. I set up a good distance away to the west of Nephi's base with a Scoped Hunting Rifle and proceeded to blow the heads off of anyone that wasn't carrying a golf club. After ED-E's enhanced sensors told me that Nephi was the last Fiend alive I put away my rifle, picked up my Katana and decided to see how good he really was with that golf club. A few minutes later I was showing Major Dhatri the surprised look on his face.

bolt action was my choice. scoped hunting rifle for most, used Anti-Materiel for deathclaw promontory and our legendary version. One-shotting the Divide unique was fun too.

means i can wear whatever the hell i want, they don't get in range. plus 100-300 rounds max required to make it through a journey.
when bolt action just wouldn't work, say the cazadores spotted me first... Combat Knife and/or .45 pistol.

only real exception since i got the rifle upgraded as i prefer... ran out of ammo in the divide, finished up using a looted marksman carbine.

Ranged weapons. I love guns :gun:

Plasma over laser

Sharp over blunt

New Vegas and Fallout 3 don't lend themselves well to unarmed or melee, which I do role play alot while playing Fallout and more so for Fallout 2.

Because of the special unarmed moves, I can't fathom why someone would use any non-ranged besides unarmed except to make the game harder; the ranger takedown lets you beat deathclaws to death with your bare fists. That said, when a game has guns, I can't fathom why someone would use any non-ranged, period. You look like an idiot charging at someone so you can try and punch them while they shoot your teeth out, regardless of how strong or weak your punch may be. Negative coolness points if you're charging at them swinging around something stupid like a sword.

Queue

All Fallouts have guns. The key difference is, when a game has an over abundance of ammo for said guns, why would anyone bother to play unarmed or melee? :shrug:

Fallout and Fallout 2 going unarmed and melee, often at times it is must rather then an option. Simply because you can run out of ammo pretty fast and end up crap creek without a paddle.

guys can i just HAVE Skyrim already? i'm sick of waiting :sadvaultboy:

Don't care.

Everything dies ridiculously fast regardless of what I do.

I find fighting melee/unarmed, against enemies who also do, is sometimes tedious. As they seem to have a knack for perfect timing of when to block, back up, and charge at me. Why deal with that when I can kill them with a gun while they're still trying to run up to me?

I find critically sniping enemies from far away, with the Eyebot and Craig Boone's perks with my Ratslayer so fun. Never did that in 3. And sniping in 1 and 2 was just, well, fights weren't as exciting.

Smashing around on my keyboard, dancing with enemies not near as fun for me.



I have never had anywhere near a problem with ammo in any Fallout game.

Poll is too bleh to vote on, anyway, I like using energy weapons in mid-range combat, I want enemies to be able to present a challenge so I don't like sniping things.
I mostly do fast paced combat with a combination of VATS when I feel an enemy is too fast. So I waste a lot of ammo going toe to toe with tons of enemies.
I need to get better at aiming and reflexes.

I have always loved Revolvers, so I pretty much only use them in game.

Energy Weapons and Unarmed is my usual choice though my current character has maxed out EW, Guns, and Unarmed (Also some non-combat skills at or near 100).

I use mainly ranged but go unarmed whenever the chance. It's just much more amusing.

I prefer assault rifles the most. Currently using thehttp://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4351/falloutnv20111108174934.jpg aka the Finnish army service rifle (the 95 model issued only to "elite" and other primary units) The sights are a bit off in the ordinary version as I just lazily ported it from a Fallout 3 mod, but I'm having fun with its scoped variant!

For melee, one handed blunts aka unarmed weapons (Saturnite Superheated FTW)

Laser, as precision > power

I prefer medium-long range fighting. As such, I tend towards assault rifles/heavy SMG and sniper rifles. I do a lot of stealth movement, keep to medium armor, and lay in headshots out of vats until surviving enemies close, whereupon I switch to AR/SMG and go for torso shots in VATS with the Center of Mass perk.

Preferred weapons are a tossup between the fully modded Hunting Rifle and Christine's COS Rifle. For a battle weapon I enjoy the 12.7mm SMG with the laser sight and extended mags. I use JSP's in the sniper rifle, but tend to stick to normal rounds for the SMG. The 12.7 handloads are nice, but the extra damage really doesn't make up for their lower armor penetration.

If I have to go melee, it's generally after running out of ammo (which recently occurred in my current playthrough in OWB) I go for a good, sturdy Hatchet. Nothing special, good damage, and bonus limb damage.

Not really a fan out Energy Weapons. A modded laser rifle is a nice enough weapon, but meh.

ADDENDUM: Much as I'd absolutely love to mod in some weaponry, I can never get mods to work for some reason. Which is annoying as hell, as I really, really want an FN FAL.

I prefer using a bolt or lever action rifle from a distance.

Bolt-action rifles are my gun of choice. Probably not the best gun available, but I like my guns to go chk-chk-boom. But the marksman carbine is quite awesome too. I haven't made much progress in my current game because I keep going off sniping everybody in sight with my new marksman carbine, then realizing that I have to load a save game because everyone is annoyed at me.

Unarmed > Melee for me. Once you get the mechanical fists you pretty much become a killing machine. And the Zap Glove/Paladin Toaster makes killing bots and power-armored opponents a cakewalk. Also, Ranger Takedown is both extremely effective and very fun.