I think receiving power armor training was the point where I realized I was finally powerful. It's not necessarily the moment I became powerful enough to take on whatever I wanted, but it was the moment that I finally decided to confront downtown D.C. and, specifically, the Capitol building. The Xuanlong assault rifle may have been my real turning point, though... or perhaps it was just my first Chinese assault rifle.

A3-21's Plasma Rifle.

It happened around level 6 or 7 or so on my first character. My luck wasn't high enough so instead of getting the Mysterious Stranger I picked up the Bloody Mess perk. I had the hunting rifle and had been leveling up my small guns skill the entire time so as that increased I felt that the man behind that hunting rifle was no longer the guy who had to run away from larger scale battles but he was the man who could take these men on and take the damage in the process.

For me the game was easy at the getgo. At level 6 I killed two supermutants, one with an assault rifle the other with a minigun with my 10mm SMG wearing Leather Armor. Then after that.... I reflected on my previous Fallout experiences and thought "Boy, if I even thought of that in F2 I would've died". Suffice to say, I quickly got bored when I got the Xuanlong assault rifle and the T-51b.

Later on, I went to the Lincoln Memorial and cleared out all of the Talon Company and Super Mutants there with just a Hunting Rifle.

When the Pitt (Which was the only time I had fun in Fallout 3) and Operation Anchorage came out with the Perforator and the Chinese Stealthsuit, I stopped playing because of how broken the game was by then.

No, I'm not bragging.

A3-21's Plasma Rifle, without a doubt.
After getting that, I drove my foes before me, heard the lamentation of the women, etc etc. The gun was amazing.

@shdowhuntt-Were you on the higher difficulty levels? Even FO3 gets much tougher if you're running on Very Hard.
Also, FO2 had broken stuff too, like being able to get and use the best armor and weapons in the game in like ten minutes of playtime. Let's not turn this into another pissing match between FO1&2 and FO3 fans; both games have their strengths and weaknesses.

after the legit loot from operation anchorage, that's more than enough

As soon as I walked out of the vault and got hit with the epic environment that is Fallout 3 <3

Interesting subject.

For me, it was around the time that I picked up Lincoln's Repeater, its such a powerful gun at any stage, really. By the time you find it you will have a decent Small Guns skill and Charon is also available in the same building, so its a really good place to be. Everything seems just that little bit easier after this.

Except for reavers, of course. :huh:

I agree, Lincoln's repeater, IMO, is great as a distant weapon and in close. There's not much out there that can survive 2 or 3 head shots from it. And hunting rifles to repair it are plentiful.