My first play-through I set it to Very Hard/hardcoe and the best armor I wore was the space suit and a cowboy hat or beret. At level 30 I still had to kill stuff fast or I would most certainly die.... had no trouble killing things in seconds with my AMR and 12.7mm SMG (both .50 caliber weapons....coincidence?). I had to reload often due to massive trauma to my person.... I tried using shotguns but the smg seems to have the same spread, but more effectiveness. If you do not hide behind your companions it makes things harder too, So stand in front of your companions and only where tissue paper.... that worked for me in the challenge department.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n40Un4GP6E

I always like the challenge of playing without using vendors for buying or selling. Anything my char needs or wants has to be found in the world, period.

Thanks for the input, but I notice that a lot of these suggestions just make the game harder, not necessarily more realistically deadly for all parties involved. I mean, Hard difficulty with low HP basically means that everybody but you can take multiple head shots, which is kind of ironic considering what your character is famous for. And on that note:



I'll name my next PC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage if it will reassure you that it's okay to play.

I understand exactly what you are after here. You want the game to be deadly but not just difficult, where you do whatever you can to survive within the actual rules of the game (rather than self imposed restrictions). That's what I want as well, but I find I have to keep fine tuning the 'rules'. You ask yourself "Does it make it too easy to have Boone as a companion?" etc when if you were in that situation for real ANYTHING that makes it easier is a bonus that you would readily accept.

Guns should kill people and monsters and you as well very quickly. Gunfights should be terrifying things that last about 5 seconds and people drop like flies. Or you only dare to shoot at people from miles away behind cover with like a 10% chance of hitting and use up all your precious ammo.

I have to admit it is *quite* realistic and the combat is pretty fast and furious....just would prefer if it was more so. Still a great game though.

Only if you act like a complete [censored] as a result of getting shot in the head. Of course, I would be a [censored] too if someone did that to me probably.

I am also yearning for the same thing as the original poster - more realistic gameplay. Deadlier shots both to my enemies and to myself. Any direct hit either kills or cripples. If you ever find a mod like that please let me know.

What I did was make my character as bad as she possibly could be with any weapons and set up my tagged skills with speech, barter, and sneak. Had it on realistic and pretty much the only way I made her better was to read the skill books or get the implants. That way it's not like she magically knows how to use all these weapons and what not. It's actually a pretty interesting playthrough.

Exactly.

This is why I never play on hard or very hard.

Playing where even a single gun shot is very very bad news could be really fun, but only if it works both ways.

If, like me, you can’t use mods, try keeping the difficulty at normal (but on hard core), but playing “one life to live”. That is, if you get killed, that’s it. GAME OVER. Time to start a new character. I started a character like that in both FO3 and Oblivion and it was really really fun. Every fight could be your last. When you’ve invested a lot of time in a character who’s now low on ammo and surrounded by enemies, you’re sweatin’ for real.

Agreed.

Also, off topic ... Falcon, your quote is just plain awesome.