My Fallout New Vegas Experience

[LHammonds]

This is just a little documentation on my initial experience while playing New Vegas.

 

Game platform: Custom PC

- OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, 64-bit

- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58-UD7

- CPU: Intel Core i7-960, 3.2 GHz

- RAM: 12 GB

- GPU: XFX Radeon HD 5870, 1GB

- Hard Drives: Ancient SATA 1.0 drives...yeah, they are slow

- Two Samsung 2343BWX monitors running at 2048 x 1152

 

Installation

 

While waiting on New Vegas (NV) to arrive in the mail, I decided to re-install Steam and make sure everything is updated and ready to install NV. I kept seeing a list of game available to purchase and got really tired of seeing it pop up all the time but I was curious if they offered any uber-cheap deals or freebies. After figuring out how to sort their offerings by price, I found only one game that was free: Alien Swarm. I was not surprised that the game was released by Valve either. It looked interesting so I looked it up on YouTube and saw enough that I wanted to try it out. Downloaded it and had a blast playing....oh ya, this is about NV, not AlienSwarm...almost forgot. Hmmm...I guess that's how Steam works. ;)

 

I forgot to tell my wife that I was expecting a package in the mail and when she sees something from Amazon arrive (Friday?), she automatically assumed it was from/for her mother who frequently uses our address as a ShipTo location for whatever reason. Wife proceeds to chunk it in the back of the van and forgets about it for a few days. On Tuesday, she happened to ask if I was expecting a package while we were talking on the phone...

 

DoH! ** Homer Simpson voice **

 

I installed the game, activated the code and it let me know I got a freebie mod called Tribal Pack because it was a pre-order from Amazon...so I downloaded it as well. No real problems with Steam this time. Everything worked as expected.

 

First Impressions

 

I started the game and after clicking past all the initial videos (need to find and delete those binks!) I was presented with the familiar start screen. However, there was a "Continue" link at the top as if it had detected a prior savegame and would allow me to continue from that point. Since this was a brand-spanking new install, I kinda got excited and thought it might "port" my old Fallout 3 character and started to think about all the grand possibilities this might provide! So I clicked it and was presented with the error: "There are no save games present"....bummer. Wow, not 5 seconds into the game and already disappointed with what appears to be a bug (menu item should have been disabled / gray'd out).

 

Started a new game and ended up making a guy that looks strikingly familiar...guess who? Yep, Conan...yours truly. I guess most people do the same thing with their first character. I quickly find out that a I am a weakling with barbie-toy weapons that can hardly kill anything. Good, that means I have to work hard and earn them (clarification time....earn = kill for, steal, find....anything but buy). The "Tribal" armor seemed like a joke...even for a level 1 character and certainly wouldn't be kept hanging around at any higher levels unless for aesthetics only. I already had better gear. Guess that makes me feel better about all the other pre-order packs that were exclusive to particular vendors (e.g. they must have been craptastic too).

 

As I move along on a walkabout, I am greeted by my wallpaper all of a sudden. Huh? I look around and see if something popped up to cause the game to minimize...nope. Nothing there. Must have been the Steam window or something. Who knows...anyway, I click the minimized game and get back to adventuring. This same thing seems to happen at least once every time I start the game...but not necessarily right after starting the game. I still don't know what causes this.

 

I love the fact that I can now aim my rifle, shoot and hit my target rather than relying on VATS. I've racked up quite a few coyote kills and was feeling pretty strong and confident. That is, until I ran across a giant scorpion. I managed to utilize the poor path finding so the scorpion could not reach me while standing next to a fence. I unloaded just about everything I had and it didn't seem to put much of a dent in him. I was almost out of ammo when it finally figured out how to reach me. DoH!!! I jumped the fence to get away...he jumped over it too. DoH!!! I put away my weapon and ran down hill as fast as I could. Looking over my shoulder, I could see he got hung up on the fence for a bit...giving me a nice lead. Whew!!! Then he got free and I noticed just how fast that sucker could run on the open plains...which is much faster than me. DoH!!! I head back to the town I started in hoping to seek protection there. I just barely made it. I turned around and saw the scorpion had turned around...as if it could not go any further. So I got an attitude and shot at it one more time just outta spite. It turned around charging at my position, ignoring the point where it had originally turned back. DoH!!! I turned tail and ran some more. Some people walking around town started to shoot at it and I turned to see if they could kill it. Nope. It killed them all and continued after me. At this point, I was too close to escape and its 1st attack that connected knocked off a chunk health. I turned around, pulled my weapon and was readying to fire...but instead died like the little wimp I was. I will enjoy the day that Conan 2.0 becomes uber powerful and rid the wastelands of these varmints.

 

After talking to the townfolk for a while, I quickly found that the major quest for the town seemed a bit out of my league since I didn't have enough skills in ANY area to enlist the help from anyone. So I left the town to go hunting and raise my level enough to get at least the minimum amount of skills for the quest. (this is where I normally get side-tracked doing side quests and odd jobs for the duration of the game...and forget the main quest exists).

 

I reached an out post and found several quests there...one of them to find out why a town is burning...which leads me to the 1st time I choose a road to follow...so-to-speak. It is plainly obvious which actions will cause faction bias in either direction. I don't know enough about either faction to "side" with them but my 1st play through in games usually sides with whatever seems like the "good guy" path...however, this is Fallout so there probably isn't a good-guy path...just "nicer" decisions overall...but plot twists can always be introduced making you out to be working for / with the bad guys. hehehe.

 

When choosing a perk, I noticed one that talked about getting the chance to see creatures you wouldn't be able to see without it. Hmmm...That sounds cool...so I picked it and apparently, those "exotic" creatures are DEADLY. Dang, I should have picked that perk at a later level. DoH!

 

My 1st real achievement was "Jury Rigger" which meant I repaired 30 items...yep, I like to collect things and in order to carry 'em around (remember I'm a weakling at 1st) I have to combine like items by repairing them which reduces my inventory and improves the condition / value of what I am carrying.

 

I still find VATS very useful in the field. I keep a close watch on my loaded bullet count and when I'm down to just one bullet left, I use VATS to fire the next 2 bullets...which does the reload inside VATS' slow-mo. It might not be a faster reload but it certainly does seem to be.

 

Here is a chronological list of various events so far:

 

2010-10-26 - Installed Game

2010-10-31 - Installed 1st mod: Inventory Sorter

2010-11-02 - Created this topic and currently have 12 hours gameplay logged.

[Delusibeta]

After figuring out how to sort their offerings by price, I found only one game that was free: Alien Swarm. I was not surprised that the game was released by Valve either. It looked interesting so I looked it up on YouTube and saw enough that I wanted to try it out. Downloaded it and had a blast playing....oh ya, this is about NV, not AlienSwarm...almost forgot. Hmmm...I guess that's how Steam works.

 

I say, I say, I say, there's quite a lot of free games on Steam if you know where to look.

 

On topic: Good write-up. Since I'm about to fire my copy up myself, it's good to know what to expect. Nice and spoiler-free too.

[soot00]

Good stuff, Keep them Newb stories coming !! :thumbsup: