Warning, this is a bit of a spoiler for Nipton if you're a newbie.

My newest character finally got around to going to Nipton for the first time on the way to Novac. As I went, I took out the gang members at the Highway Patrol and Nipton Road Pit Stop. All of them, both sides of the road, so none left, right?

After arriving in Nipton, I spoke with Boxcars, and spent the night in the house across the street because I wanted to approach the Town Hall in daylight. Partly because I've had a bit of a discussion with a friend regarding the effectiveness of combat in 3rd person, and I wanted to record the coming conflict. No point if it's too dark to see it, eh?

So, early the next morning I left the house and headed down the street towards the Town hall. Before I had gone five feet, I was attacked by the Barkscorpions and took them out easily. I turned from their carcasses back toward the town hall, and as I went I could see the Legion was standing on the steps.

As I went, I was pretty secure that I would have no problem with these jerks. Though this character is relatively low level, I had gone overmountain to Novac much earlier and acquired a hunting rifle, then taken out the Deathclaws at Quarry Junction, thereby acquiring the LMG very early on.

With that equipped, I disabled the menu, started recording with FRAPS, and in 3rd person strolled down the street until I saw dog man (I can't think of his name atm) start toward me. Rather than waste a lot of time talking, I unlimbered the LMG and opened up. So now, not only was I In 3rd person, there was no cursor to use for aiming, but the battle went more or less as I had predicted - very short and sweet.

I walked down the street, casually shooting at dead dogs and such, until I reached dog head guy, There, for the first time ever, I heard a voice call out from behind me. "Over here!"

Amazed, I turned and stared, because it appeared that the guys on the crosses had jumped down and were running around cutting each other down from the crosses. "Holy crap", says me to meself, sez I - "How'd that happen?!?"

On second look, I saw that what was actually happening was gang members or Wastelanders of some sort were running around cutting the Powder Gangers down from the crosses... With menus disabled, I had no idea who they were of course. I suspect I was a bit slack-jawed as I just stood and watched the proceedings. until one of them turned and fired on me.

Thus began the second battle of Nipton in the same morning... and it too was short and sweet, although my usual form was a bit off stride as I tried to figure out the occurrences of the morning. Never before in the course of numerous playthroughs had I encountered anything living other than barkscorpions and Legion in the streets of Nipton. I guess there's a first time for everything.

So... Please feel free to comment on any part of this tale, whether on the effectiveness of weapons in 3rd person, or suddenly appearing unexpected foes that may have wandered into your game.It seems like no matter how long you play these games, there is always something different happening when you least expect it, eh?.

I've found a giant ant soldier on the streets once when I returned to Nipton (after the Legion and Powder Gangers had long since gone), but I assumed that had wandered in from the desert. Nothing like this!