Blind. I may use a wiki or guide to find all the bobble heads but only after completing a majority of the game or on subsequent play throughs.

pffft using a game guide for an open world game? Defeats the purpose.

I always do blind, hell i could write a guide based on how many times ive run through FO3, NV, Oblivion, and Skyrim. I leave no stone un-turned, no playstyle un-played, and no lore un-read. Maybe this time i will remember to document my first playthrough for RP purposes...doesnt work the 500th playthrough what with all the knowing everything already and such

For CC I'll use a guide as needed so I can pick SPECIAL scores that will allow me to pick the perks I want initially to fit my role-play. As far as getting info on the quests and item locations and such, no, I'll go though trying to figure it all out blind.

Ha Ha! Guess I'll be the first player to admit I'll use the guide. My first play-through will be at max difficulty and consist of many hundreds of hours over many months and if I do something I regret or want to change, I might throw out a month of game-time to reload a previous save.

I'll use it first to choose my SPECIAL points so I know the consequences of my choices.

I'll probably use it next to find a half-decent shotgun and rifle and some armor that looks cool for the beginning of the game.

I'll use it next to jump-start my leveling up A LITTLE by learning where a few bobbleheads or skill books are.

I might use the guide to squeeze every bit of loot and xp out of of my FIRST FEW quests.

I'll use the guide to have a full understanding of crafting and base-building.

Finally I'll use the guide to choose my perks with an eye on what my players strengths and weaknesses will be later in the game.

At the beginning of the game I don't like being totally weak and I like my player to look cool. Also if I can only have one toy...it would be a shotgun ha ha.

Bottom line... I will use the guide to "get a handle" and understanding of how I will play the game. After that I'll avoid reading "spoiler" stuff but will read the guide to "stay immersed" while I'm catching a smoke or hitting the john.

I want to go in blind, with one exception: I want to know who the possible companions are.

When I first played Fallout 3 I didn't even realize there were companions in the game and either killed or missed most of them.

I killed Butch during my escape from the vault. I blew up Megaton right away, killing Jericho. I killed Clover during my assault on Paradise Falls. I immediately shot Tinker Joe, hoping he would have some good loot on him and turning Sergeant RL-3 hostile. So I killed him as well. I killed Fawkes with the computer terminal because I didn't trust him. I never came across the Scrapyard so I never encountered Dogmeat and Star Paladin Cross met her untimely demise when I tried to take on the entire Citadel.

It wasn't until I reached Underworld and decided to not shoot people on sight for once that I learned I could buy Charon's contract and have him as my bodyguard. Thrilled, I quickly looked up information about other potential bodyguards and realized I had killed almost all of them, lol. Went back to get dear old Dogmeat though.

So yeah I'd like to know in advance that someone is a potential companion so I don't give in to my itchy trigger finger.

Likewise. I try to follow the in-game cues rather than having to look for outside help, so it's only if I get really stuck on a puzzle that I stop to look it up. After the first playthrough, though, I find the guides really useful - there's so much that I haven't seen even in games I've owned for years.

I've never followed a guide, per se, but I do read tips and things to get the most out of later playthoughs.

Blind for the first few times then I might start looking up stuff to go and see.

If you're going to use a guide,

you appear to be using it in an excellent way.

I will also think hard about my SPECIAL points, that shouldn't just be a random choice.

Blind, unless I come across a complex puzzle that force me to match pictures of whales and snakes. I think I might need some help with that.

My first play through will be totally blind, right down to stat choices. It will mostly involve the main quest line, only a few side activities, and about 70000 saves

Second play through will build on what I know, and explore much more of the game. Probably read a few articles on effects of different choices, look up how to get "perk achievements", min/max a little better for the play style I'm going for, and try more/all of the followers.

I don't buy game guides and only use the wiki if I really get stuck. So blind for me.

Blind playthrough first, blind playthrough last, blind playthrough always.

I have an acquaintance who buys a guide alongside every game he purchases. It completely baffles me - I don't get it.

Bethesda games are some of my favourites simply because of the worlds in which they take place, with so much to explore and learn. If you're going to just follow along with a guide, what's the point in the first place?

Blind unplanned playthrough first, with more planned out characters to follow.

As usual, first run blunder through everything then before the second (perhaps third) run read a guide on how you were supposed to do it, and checking for things I missed quest by quest, location by location.

Well, if you're going to get the guide at all, getting it alongside the game often has a discount. Even if you don't plan to use it the first play.

But yeah - with games that are all about random exploring, I've never bothered with a guide - like everything from Bethesda. Heck, I rarely read up much on them after the first play - I've still never had an FO3 character that found all the bobbleheads in one run. And my latest playthrough? Found some more spots I hadn't before (somehow, it seems I never did a really in-depth explore of the NW corner of the map....)

I pretty much only got them for JRPGs, games where a lot of the "hidden" stuff is just so freakin' convoluted you'd need a guide to ever figure it out. (Things like: "To get this particular unique weapon in Act 3, you need to have NOT opened four chests in the previous 40 hours of the game. And they look just like all the other chests." http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GuideDangIt ) And this was mostly in the PS1/2 era for me anyway. Haven't played nearly as many JRPGs since then, plus the internet.

Unless I'm horribly stuck for like days, I never use a guide, so blind

Only reason i ever used a guide video during a first playthrough was to complete a bugged quest, quest-marker was not in the right place but after the first play through godmode and guides and exploring everything and having fun doing the weirdest s..t ingame to baddies and that junk launcher can not wait to have some fun with that teddybear launcher here i come .

Sounds like CoD or Battlefield would be a better game for you.

That or Angry Birds

I'll play blind ofc, but for some of the more arcane game mechanics (damage/armor values, or perk requirements) I'll look for some in-depth information, I think.

Blind for sure.

I don't even understand this question, why play a game if you aren't even going to play it? Instead just be an all seeing all knowing pawn dictat? Not leaving anything to surprise? Not using your brain?

It depends on your play experience. With such emphasis on "discovery", there's no way a guide can bring you that value, it ruins the entire interaction with the narrative and just presents you with spoilers and the mathematics of winning/succeeding. If you value your play-time, don't use the guide unless a. You're stuck, or B. You've finished the game at least once (unless there's multiple endings, in which case you've done an adequate amount to satisfy your need to experience those alternate versions).