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[duckroll]

I beat Dead Money. I -really- enjoyed it. Steam says I played about 11 hours of it, but the in-game save says it was about 8 hours, probably as a result of crashes and deaths resulting in reloads. The setting was really interesting to me, as was the approach to the design. Very methodical. The interactions were much more personal and more tightly knit than usual because of the nature of the campaign as well.

Hats off to Obsidian for having ENDING SLIDES for the DLC as well. Having a title screen, an opening narration, and specific ending narration slides for the DLC made it feel very much like a complete short story form of a Fallout game. The ending hooks were interesting too, in terms of how they tease the upcoming DLCs. Definitely looking forward to more.

Ending spoilers:

Spoiler

So I hear there's supposed to be an ending where you can actually join forces with Father Elijah and use the technology of the Sierra Madre to take over the Mojave? Has anyone actually figured out how to trigger the ending in the game itself? Was it cut from the actual DLC, or is it Karma dependent? Any ideas?

Edit: More spoils:

Spoiler

I went digging into all the dialogue trees and conditions in the GECK, and I found the answer. The DLC has a special Veronica hook which is different from the ones in the main game. You have to talk to her about Father Elijah after the DLC is installed, but before going into the Dead Money campaign. This will flag the player as knowing that Father Elijah is Veronica's mentor. Even if you asked her about this before in the normal game, this doesn't register until you do it again after installing the DLC.

This will add an extra dialogue option at the end of the DLC when you ask Elijah questions. You can bring up Veronica, and then he will talk about his plans to wipe out of the NCR. What's interesting is that after this there are two possible replies from the player.

If your rep with the NCR is normal or high, you can only suggest to him that you don't care if he does, and he acknowledges that he doesn't care that you don't care. But if your rep with NCR is *really* low, then you can suggest to him that he should do it as soon as possible. Then he'll mention that he's seen what you've done via your pip-boy, and that he shouldn't have put a collar on a potential ally. That will trigger the ultimate bad ending without a fight with Father Elijah.

Sounds like NV will be pretty damn fun to replay after all the DLC are complete, with all these little things in mind for more character possibilities.

 

[duckroll]

To follow-up on the previous post, I loaded an end save and used the console to edit my reputation variables (and to spawn Veronica to take care of that event flag) to test it, and yes it definitely works. The ending is intact and accessible as long as you meet the criteria for it. Obviously the game doesn't continue after that though.

Have some questions about the story though because it felt very jumbled in the way it was presented and I think I might have missed a note or two somewhere:

Spoiler

1. The biggest question I still have is, what the hell was the cloud? The way Elijah talks about using and the alternate ending where he does use it makes it seem man-made and controllable. But going through the notes everywhere I never saw anything that hinted it was man made? All the stuff I saw gave the impression that it like existed underground and when the war started and the bombs went off it was released free.

2. Did they ever tell you what the ghost people were? Domino talked about them like they might have been ghouls?

3. What I thought was really weird is when you get out at the end and you never hear from your companions again. The ending says there was a radio message that was all they needed, but umm I couldn't find any radio message? Is there a goodbye message somewhere?

4. The Elijah Holoscribe thing that you picked up afterwards that is addressed to Veronica, how do you view it? I talked to her and nothing happened. Do I need to go to a specific place to activate it?

Overall it was neat, but I wish I could get a story summary of the entire sierra madre lore/timeline because it wasn't as clear as I wanted it to be.

Also I hope we don't go to the "big empty" because from the talk in this one it just sounds like another similar place with holograms and traps and stuff and I think that's all played out after dead money.

Hmmm... I guess I could shed a bit more light on those points from my point of view.

Spoiler

1. The cloud is definitely not man made. It's implied that there is some natural gas vein that was accidentally tapped into while the workers were building the villa. If you follow all the messages and reports in the villa areas, it paints a really bleak picture of the construction. The workers and foremen were ripping off Sinclair big time by providing shoddy work and they just didn't give a shit about safety or long term handiwork. They just wanted to get the work finished so they can bail out.

But it's suggested that the cloud is a sort of toxic gas unique to the area, and not found anywhere else, and since it is produced naturally in abundance in the Sierra Madre, it can be gathered and weaponized like any other toxic material. Unlike man made toxins, it doesn't require any materials or science to create more of, so that makes the cloud an attractive chemical weapon to use.


2. The ghouls are most likely survivors at the villa during the grand opening, when the bombs hit. They would have been mutated, just like how some humans became ghouls, except the presence of the cloud probably mutated them further into mindless zombie monsters instead. The suits they're wearing are the chemical suits imported to the villa for the workers after the cloud first started appearing.


3. Since your companions were basically a group of people put together by force rather than choice, it makes sense that after a traumatic event like this, they would go their separate ways to find their own lives again. As for the radio message, I think they might be talking about the farewell message from Vera which plays on the radio after you leave. It summarizes the true purpose of the Sierra Madre pretty well, and leaves a bittersweet feeling in the tone.

I do think they could have handled the good byes a little better though. Another set of companion conversations with those who survived, at the fountain, would have been perfect. They probably ran out of voice budget. I love the ending slides though, so it's not all bad.


4. You need to get Veronica to join your party again, then talk to her about herself, ask about Father Elijah, and then ask where he is now, and then ask about his last message. There's additional dialogue here added which isn't in vanilla NV. This also sets the trigger for the courier to "know" that Elijah and Veronica are linked. It's lame that they didn't use the default event flag from the vanilla game, because you actually have to do this before you start Dead Money if you want to be able to ask Elijah about his connection to Veronica at the ending. Grrrr.

Anyway you can still do this after you beat Dead Money. After you trigger that, just close the dialogue box and then talk to her again. There should be a new option where you can say "I found Father Elijah." and it goes from there.



As for the Big Empty... I think it's definitely one of the future DLCs. There's no question about it. But before bitching about how it's going to be Dead Money all over again, consider that the Big MT facility was originally a major location planned for Black Isle's Fallout 3. So it's a concept that they've had for a long, long time now. I don't think it'll be just a lazy repeat of Dead Money, and I'm sure there's an interesting story there to tell. Especially if they introduce the Ciphers tribe in the same DLC.

 

[BeeDog]

Awesome about that ending. Can you provide additional details of how that particular ending pans out?

 

[duckroll]

Awesome about that ending. Can you provide additional details of how that particular ending pans out?

Spoiler

The narration goes that the Sierra Madre falls silent for some time, and then a red cloud starts appearing in parts of the Mojave and starts spreading West. No one knows what it is or where it came from, but there are stories of how it is often followed by a ghost army which kills relentlessly with its lasers. There is also a light coming from HELIOS One shining across the wastes. Eventually a REPCONN rocket filled with red cloud is filed into Hoover Dam, wiping out everyone there. The place becomes uninhabitable and both the NCR and the Legion withdraw from the Mojave. The two survivors left in the aftermath of the red cloud bid their time, preparing to rebuild the world and... begin again.

Something like that anyway.

 

[TheLegendary]

Experiencing a lot of crashing now .

I'm in Freeside and now Im getting a crash every 5 minutes at times. Could somehow be PC related but I havent had an issue with any other games. I did just upgrade to the latest ATI driver (CCC doesnt work for me for some reason but I have the actual driver) but I've played Dead Space 2 no problem.

Is this part of the list of bugs with the game (running on Steam fully patched) or is this possibly just on my end?

i7 940
HD 5870
6 GB of RAM

 

[Ledsen]

Experiencing a lot of crashing now .

I'm in Freeside and now Im getting a crash every 5 minutes at times. Could somehow be PC related but I havent had an issue with any other games. I did just upgrade to the latest ATI driver (CCC doesnt work for me for some reason but I have the actual driver) but I've played Dead Space 2 no problem.

Is this part of the list of bugs with the game (running on Steam fully patched) or is this possibly just on my end?

i7 940
HD 5870
6 GB of RAM

The game is still super buggy, just like all Bethesda games. They never fix most of the bugs, and NV is supposedly even worse than normal, maybe thanks to the powerful combination of Bethesda+Obsidian.

 

[Scruggy]

Where do you get The Assassin suit?

 

[duckroll]

Where do you get The Assassin suit?

You can find it somewhere in the medical clinic while you're looking for Christine. I can't remember exactly where but it's in one of the rooms. I think it's on the first floor, somewhere after you go to the basement to disable something and come back up.

 

[Scruggy]

thanks.

Fallout wiki is blocked at work for some reason

 

[MrPing1000]

So I have yet to buy this game due to being butthurt about DLC. As such I'll pick it up once everything is bundled together in a GOTY edition style thing.

That'll happen right? Like in october like they did with Fallout 3.

 

[Chairhome]

I just found out that Gamestop.com has the PC version for $20 online only. Probably picking this up soon. Should I bother finishing FO3 Point Lookout and Broken Steel? I beat the regular game already... Started Point Lookout and it seems pretty hard, so I've been putting it off.

 

[duckroll]

So I have yet to buy this game due to being butthurt about DLC. As such I'll pick it up once everything is bundled together in a GOTY edition style thing.

That'll happen right? Like in october like they did with Fallout 3.

We know at least 3 more DLC are planned, and the way Obsidian is designing them is very different from the FO3 DLC. They're each self-contained story campaigns with their own title card, opening, and ending(s), but the main game hints at DLC story arcs, while the DLC(s) hint or reference the story arcs of future DLCs. So I would say there won't be a GOTY Edition until at least this current series of DLC is done.

Dead Money just came out for PC and PS3 on Feb 22. I'll guess that the 4th DLC will be out by the end of this year. So maybe they'll release a GOTY Edition early next year?

 

[Massa]

I'm sure it's been posted, but I just got around to the latest Bethesda podcast and Pete Hines hints about post-Dead Money DLC coming out in a monthly basis and before summer. They could still do a GOTY in the Fall, but maybe next year is more likely due to Skyrim.

 

[duckroll]

I'm sure it's been posted, but I just got around to the latest Bethesda podcast and Pete Hines hints about post-Dead Money DLC coming out in a monthly basis and before summer. They could still do a GOTY in the Fall, but maybe next year is more likely due to Skyrim.

If it's monthly, wouldn't the next DLC have been announced by now? Dead Money was announced a month before it was released.

 

[bonesmccoy]

I just found out that Gamestop.com has the PC version for $20 online only. Probably picking this up soon. Should I bother finishing FO3 Point Lookout and Broken Steel? I beat the regular game already... Started Point Lookout and it seems pretty hard, so I've been putting it off.

I would play through Point Lookout. I find it closer to FNV than to F3 overall, so it will be a good segway. But for Broken Steel, honestly, I felt that it added absolutely nothing to F3 experience.

 

[SlickVic]

Got one final mission to do in Broken Steel so thinking of starting New Vegas tonight.

Any unofficial patches for the PC version worth downloading at this point or should I just rely on the official patches? Thanks.

 

[bonesmccoy]

thanks.

Fallout wiki is blocked at work for some reason

Using a cached link should get you by that.

 

[Massa]

If it's monthly, wouldn't the next DLC have been announced by now? Dead Money was announced a month before it was released.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some delays, it's Obsidian after all.

What he said:

- the DLC packs connect with one another and tell a good story;
- information coming soon;
- come out pretty regularly, month after month;
- by the summer you'll have a nice suite of New Vegas stuff.

It's 18:30-19:20 on episode 7 of the Bethesda podcast.

 

[Evolved1]

So... I just bought this on PS3.

couple thoughts after a couple hours:

1) Hardcore mode is actually making this kinda fun (wasn't a fan of FO3) and I'd have it be even more sim/hardcore if possible.

2) This game runs like fucking crap and has locked up my PS3 twice already in two hours. WTF!?

 

[Ickman3400]

Quick question here. Does the cd key for the retail PC version work on Steam? I've been looking at re-buying it since I have a nice PC now and I never did get to try out the DLC.

 

[duckroll]

So... I just bought this on PS3.

couple thoughts after a couple hours:

1) Hardcore mode is actually making this kinda fun (wasn't a fan of FO3) and I'd have it be even more sim/hardcore if possible.

Yup, that's what you get with an Obsidian game. Lots more thought going in to the gameplay, and improving the various systems for more in-depth gamers.

2) This game runs like fucking crap and has locked up my PS3 twice already in two hours. WTF!?

Yup, that's what you get with an Obisidan game. Lots of bugs, lack of polish, and possibly serious game breaking lockups and stuff. :/

Quick question here. Does the cd key for the retail PC version work on Steam? I've been looking at re-buying it since I have a nice PC now and I never did get to try out the DLC.

Yes, it is a Steamworks game.

 

[Ickman3400]

Yes, it is a Steamworks game.

Nice, thanks. I looked on amazon and saw it had the GFW logo on it and was worried. Definitely going to pick it up now.

 

[rc213]

Finished this on PS3 like a week ago, Felt like it was more Fallot 3 goodness but without many memorable characters/places. Weapons mods seemed kind od useless, Would have rather they carried over the schematics thing from F3. Shishkabob win!

Enjoyed it, Bugs/Lockups didn't bother me much since I put 100hrs+ each into Fallout 3/Oblivion PS3 so saving often seemed natural. Didn't feel the need to replay it though, Bring on Skyrim!

 

[TheUsual]

Nice, thanks. I looked on amazon and saw it had the GFW logo on it and was worried. Definitely going to pick it up now.

If it says "GFWL" you'll be looking at Microsoft Achievements. There are plenty of GFW games, but don't have achievements. I believe there's just a certain outline of things that have to be in a GFW title (like 360 controller support, correct me if i'm wrong)

 

[Manos: The Hans of Fate]

wrong thread!

 

[AlimNassor]

Man, I was playing Fallout 2 today and did a quest for a Dr. Henry. I knew I recognized that name from somewhere but couldn't pin point it. So I finished and went to play NV. I then see a Dr. Henry at Jacobstown. Coincidence?

 

[Proxy]

Man, I was playing Fallout 2 today and did a quest for a Dr. Henry. I knew I recognized that name from somewhere but couldn't pin point it. So I finished and went to play NV. I then see a Dr. Henry at Jacobstown. Coincidence?

They're the same person.

 

[HadesGigas]

Man, I was playing Fallout 2 today and did a quest for a Dr. Henry. I knew I recognized that name from somewhere but couldn't pin point it. So I finished and went to play NV. I then see a Dr. Henry at Jacobstown. Coincidence?

Nope, same guy.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Dr._Henry

 

[grkazan12]

Hey Gaf just bought this and I gotta say it's pretty awesome so far. I was just wondering what are some of the essential and best mods in terms of graphics and gameplay???

 

[Dark Stalkers]

Hey Gaf just bought this and I gotta say it's pretty awesome so far. I was just wondering what are some of the essential and best mods in terms of graphics and gameplay???

Project Nevada
Enhanced Shaders
Nevada Skies URWLified
Weapon Mods Expanded

 

[Owzers]

Rented New Vegas and have played it for many hours now and it's......not for me. The biggest problem is that after the initial fun 45 minutes - 1 hour, it's just terrible fetch quests and loading screens. I'm at the "Boomers" recruitment mission and it's just insane.

 

[thejoker89]

I thought Obsidian did a good job on Dead Money. Really looking forward to playing the next three.

 

[conman]

]The biggest problem is that after the initial fun 45 minutes - 1 hour, it's just terrible fetch quests and loading screens.

That's nothing. It gets much, much worse. Absolutely brilliant writing and dialogue. Horrible design.

 

[Owzers]

That's nothing. It gets much, much worse. Absolutely brilliant writing and dialogue. Horrible design.

Now 15 hours into the game, i don't think Obsidian was interested in making a fun video game.

 

[Yerolo]

One tip for people about to start Dead Money:

Put all your loot into your safe house before starting as you're stripped of everything right at the start. If you take in everything with you, you will be over-encumbered as fuck when all your original loot is returned to you along with all the loot you get from Sierra Madre. I had to use a teleport cheat to get back to the safehouse as I wasnt going to walk all the way back at 1/4 speed :/

Its a lesson I should have learnt from the F3 DLC though

 

[HadesGigas]

lol I found a repeatable glitch at the end of Dead Money.

Spoiler

In confrontation with Elijah, walk up as close as possible to the doorway where he is walking towards, he stands there giving his smug little speech, turrets attack, take one of them out with the holorifle when they go hostile. After this I'm not sure exactly the cause, might be the Meltdown perk causing a ridiculous chain reaction, but I'd go flying and end up on the other side of the barrier where Elijah was. Problem being that Elijah has since moved through the barrier to "take care of this himself". All the doors and shit are unusable, the only thing I can do is hope to kill him with explosives when he wanders close to the barrier, which wasn't working very well.

 

[conman]

Now 15 hours into the game, i don't think Obsidian was interested in making a fun video game.

True enough. But, damn, did they write some memorable dialogue.

 

[Evolved1]

Things are devolving into boring fetch quests... and the lack of draw distance (maybe this is just a console issue) is becoming quite troublesome.

What is the point of binoculars if shit doesn't actually appear until you're right on top of it? Haha thought that area was clear!? Well turns out there was an entire gang of dudes all along! SURPRISE!!!

My character is the stealthy type... recon is almost impossible though since stuff just pops into existence as you get close. It's annoying.

Still... this is better than FO3 and I'm not sick of micromanaging my resources yet. If fact, it's the most fun part of the game so far.

 

[conman]

Still... this is better than FO3 and I'm not sick of micromanaging my resources yet. If fact, it's the most fun part of the game so far.

In terms of play mechanics, resource management on hardcore mode was the only thing that kept me interested (beyond the story/characters/dialogue).

Similar to Fallout 3, at about the 20-hour mark, this game becomes ridiculously easy (and painfully tedious), even on the hardest setting. And also just like FO3, once I hit that point, I just played to watch the story come to completion. No point in actually "playing" anymore from then on.

 

[bonesmccoy]

One mod I recommend to everyone interested in getting 'more' out of New Vegas? The slower leveling mod. Right now I have it set so that it takes me 30% longer to level up. This keeps combat challenging and your character vulnerable enough well into the game to keep things interesting.

I just completed Dead Money, and it's a tie for best DLC with Point Lookout. The atmosphere is excellent, and the challenging portions of it are challenging for good reason (unlike Broken Steel). You get some great loot, and

Spoiler

you learn about upcoming expansions: The Divide, Honest Hearts, and the Big Empty.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

I really wanted to hate Dead Money. The Fallout 3 DLC staple of taking all your shit and hitting the reset button is one of my least favourite things about the modern Fallout games so I got pretty annoyed when I started it and woke up with that bloody holo-rifle. Then I was given a series of pretty linear objectives with very little exploration and I saw the red-mist.

Then, unexpectedly, after about an hour the writing totally won me over and I loved every minute from then. It was still disappointingly linear and scripted, but in anything other than a Fallout game that wouldn't be a problem so I was willing to put up with it.

I also really loved that they used Father Elijah and foreshadowed the locations and events of the future DLC packs, which makes me think that Obsidian is approaching the NV DLC the right way; that is, they've actually got a plan for it, they're not just making it up as they go along. I was reading the Wiki to see if I missed anything and it says that Christine

Spoiler

is Veronica's girlfriend who she talks about when following you

but I don't remember where that was implied.

 

[duckroll]

I was reading the Wiki to see if I missed anything and it says that Christine

Spoiler

is Veronica's girlfriend who she talks about when following you

but I don't remember where that was implied.

Spoiler

When you talk to her in the suite near the end, asking her about her past and stuff eventually gets her to talk about her time when she was in the Brotherhood, and how there was someone she was in love with, but she was moved away or something. It never states directly that it's Veronica, but it's strongly hinted at.

 

[The Quiet Man]

Whoever wrote that in the wiki must have been indulging in a little wishful thinking, because

Spoiler

it really could have been anyone. There are other women in the Brotherhood, after all.

 

[HadesGigas]

Whoever wrote that in the wiki must have been indulging in a little wishful thinking, because

Spoiler

it really could have been anyone. There are other women in the Brotherhood, after all.

It's a bit too coincidental that

Spoiler

you meet two Brotherhood lesbians who were driven apart from their partners like that.

It's never said they were partners and it's possible it's just coincidence, but it was so annoying that it basically painted the Courier as too dense to put two and two together and ask one of them if they knew the other.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Spoiler

When you talk to her in the suite near the end, asking her about her past and stuff eventually gets her to talk about her time when she was in the Brotherhood, and how there was someone she was in love with, but she was moved away or something. It never states directly that it's Veronica, but it's strongly hinted at.

Ah okay, yeah I do remember that but the way the Wiki represents it makes it sound a lot more like it was stated but in a roundabout way. This makes more sense.

Whoever wrote that in the wiki must have been indulging in a little wishful thinking, because

Spoiler

it really could have been anyone. There are other women in the Brotherhood, after all.

It's a bit too coincidental that

Spoiler

you meet two Brotherhood lesbians who were driven apart from their partners like that.

It's never said they were partners and it's possible it's just coincidence, but it was so annoying that it basically painted the Courier as too dense to put two and two together and ask one of them if they knew the other.

I'm willing to accept that

Spoiler

she is the lover who Veronica tells you about. Only bad writers accidentally drop coincidences in like that.

 

[afternoon delight]

I did not even make that connection, so I'm as mute-dumb as my Courier.

It makes a lot of sense, and now feels like a missed opportunity for side dialog.

 

[duckroll]

http://www.jolt.co.uk/news/33166/more-fallout-new-vegas-dlc-details-appear/

Does anyone know if this is true? Seems really odd that they would release something next week without actually announcing it...

 

[ukresistance]

http://www.jolt.co.uk/news/33166/more-fallout-new-vegas-dlc-details-appear/

Does anyone know if this is true? Seems really odd that they would release something next week without actually announcing it...

I agree that it's strange, that there has been no announcment makes me think it's maybe not coming that soon. I'm going to be the optimist though and get more MS points after work tommorow in preparation for more Vegas fun.

 

[Lothars]

http://www.jolt.co.uk/news/33166/more-fallout-new-vegas-dlc-details-appear/

Does anyone know if this is true? Seems really odd that they would release something next week without actually announcing it...

I would suspect if it's true maybe we will be getting an announcement before the end of the week, who knows though.

 

[duckroll]

It's pretty weird though. if they were planning on releasing it this month, wouldn't it have made sense for it to be announced at PAX?