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I know some companions level and some don't. I think Dogmeat might not. But the respawn outside Vault 101 think, I thought, only happens if he gets separated from you and can't find his way back, or if you enter some place he can't go (like The Pitt). I didn't think it applied to his death.

Anyway, it was goofy how much getting him changed my thoughts on the game, but it did.

Re: Dogmeat. When you get the Puppies! perk, be aware that if the original Dogmeat dies, you don't simply get a replacement Dogmeat. You get a duplicate skin actually called "Dogmeat's Puppy," and unlike Dogmeat, it actually levels with the player and has double the health of the original.

So if you're attached to Dogmeat, know that if he dies, the puppy you get is probably a better companion but, sentimentally speaking, technically not the same character. It's all irrelevant, of course, if you have Fawkes. I left Dogmeat at home with Wadsworth and touted my mutant enforcer instead.

Soooo, it's better to kill your dog?

Now I know why I prefer Rex - To up his stats all you need to do is replace his brain!

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Every time I read this thread it startles the crap out of me.

Oh crap, I forgot about Fawkes. I best get over to that area soon! Did some more of the main quest, including the hilarious and chilling Tranquility Lane.

Oh! The Broken Bow. Last time I played I didn't do anywhere near as well on the Survival Guide, and I had skipped over the Broken Bow area of Rivet City, as the door required 100 Lockpick skill to get into. I was exploring the flight deck of the ship and I looked over the edge and noticed some parts of the ship looked like they could be climbed on. I swam over and spent some time trying to climb up, to no avail. At some point I submerged randomly and noticed an underwater door! I was able to get the full history of Rivet City this time! Luckily, although I had completed all my (required) tasks for the Survival Guide, I hadn't yet stopped in to see Moira to complete the quest line, so I was able to add another optional quest to improve the quality of the final guide.

Having WAY more fun with Fallout 3 this time around. I enjoy this style of character a lot more and I feel much more familiar with the lay of the land and progression this time around. I like Yoda's scavenger mode style, as well. I am also running into locations and quests I missed last time around, of course.

Oh! Also...I try to play in realistic mode, which can be punishing. No dying allowed, ever (unless you can't help it). Stay alive at all costs, even it it means wasting a tremendous amount of resources. Blow all the stims, all the food, all the ammo... just stay alive. Also, No saving allowed - auto-saves only. No creeping along saving after ever encounter. That seems to take much of the danger and excitement out of the experience for me, diminishing the game.

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Yeah, it does, but I'm OCD about that stuff and I find the fact of having scoured a place satisfying enough even if I'm "cheating" that way. I value the discovery and the idea that I've cleaned an area out more satisfying than feeling particularly pure about how it was done. Within reason, of course.

Anyway, I'm thinking all the new baddies I've got to contend with all of a sudden should be somewhat balanced out by the Chinese Stealth Suit. I've only used it a little, but it seems like it should almost break the game.

I'm close to maxed in Sneak, and yes, it makes it way easier. Actually, so far, this play-through has been cake due to the sneak factor.

It's not cheating, per se, but I find it makes the game more engaging and exciting if I can add more of an aspect of danger or loss to the death penalty. That may be kind of weird, though.

Guess what? I picked up Fallout 3 again too.

Still pottering around Megaton at the moment but, even after a fair number of playthroughs, it doesn't feel stale. Comfortably familiar, I suppose, like a town you remember from childhood.

I was intending one last glorious go at Oblivion as my last Bethesda game until Skyrim but hit a bit of a snag - My Nord Bard was crap and I'd got too far into the game (was starting to close the Oblivion gates for the towns to get them on my side for the final battle) to start again any time soon.

Nords are obviously best with heavy armour, big weapons and a scowl, not light armour, high speechcraft, agility and speed. It cancels out their strengths and makes their weaknesses merely average.

Instead of a challenge the whole thing was becoming a chore.

No fun! Best hang out in the Cap Wasteland a bit more, instead.

One thing I like is how differently some of the quests are playing out for me. For instance, I was disappointed in The Replicated Man last time, because it seemed short and sort of tacked on, but it turns out I had just missed a good amount of the quest content, taking an easy/short solution route. Last time, I barely got the quest started when I was given an option to trick Zimmer with a fake spare part. I did that, lied to Zimmer and never confronted the Replicated Man (I won't spoil the ID here, JIC). I don't think I ever found out who the android actually was. This time, I didn't turn in the spare part, instead searching for tapes and clues, eventually having to go back to the guy in the broken bow to find out the whole story (so now it turns out I missed sections from TWO quest lines that involved the bow). A much better quest when you do the entire process.

Yeah, it's actually one of the better ones, I think, but it's so like this game that people can play it differently and have an entirely different opinion of it. The sheer number of permutations in some of these quests is insane.

Spoilers about that quest, BTW...

I think i have a save directly after I told the replicant about their identity. I think I can load it up and beat the bot to Zimmer to get the other reward. I hope that's not too late! Otherwise, it is what it is - I will just go without wired reflexes.

That reminds me, whenever a character says "OK, now we have to go to Rivet City, let's go!", they actually walk the entire way. They don't just respawn there or blink to their new position, which is pretty cool... During the Lincoln Memorial stuff, I started the folks from Union Temple walking to the memorial and then went and cleared it of slavers. Like a day later, here comes the group of people out of the train station and walking up the road to the memorial. Pretty realistic.

If you have to beat him to Zimmer I think it might be too late; you need to volunteer to kill Zimmer in the conversation, I think, though I haven't tried to race him. My guess is as soon as you load a new "area" it's already done, though.

You're a better man than I, though; I'm so intensely curious about these things that I can't just play through and see what happens and then do it again. I feel like I have to do it all "right" the first time, read about alternatives, etc. I play Fallout 3 all wrong, really.

The walking thing you mention is, indeed, very awesome. It's just an all-around fantastic, well-shaped game. I know some people hate the bugs, but man, I can't believe there aren't twenty times as many when you consider the conversation trees, all the allegiances it has to keep track of, all the random stuff you leave lying around, the real-time physics calculations, etc.

By the by, I did have one crazy bug where the people of Arefu (and, naturally, also The Family) turned against me for absolutely no reason. Apparently this has happened to others, too. Now what do I do with the 70 Blood Packs in my fridge?!

Ah, had you set up the deal with The Family for the packs? I am wondering if it times out after a few weeks of game time and they go mad and hungry, turning against you which then turns Arefu against you?

Yeah, i'll just skip the perk from Zimmer I guess. Not a huge deal as I took both VATS enhancement Perks this time round.

Yeah, I setup the deal; seemed best. Actually, I think the deal was just with the people of Arefu to do it, but I'm like 95% sure that any peaceful solution means you can trade them Blood Packs. I don't think I read anything about them turning against you after time, and I found several people who had the same thing happen to them, so I dunno. Pity; I re-loaded and came back later and all that to try to fix it, but it was not to be. Oh well. My conscience is clear. Bang bang bang!

I wanted the lockpicking achievement and one of the early easy ones is the back door to Moriarty's (continuing the awful Irish accents in video games, although Dragon Age 2 is undisputed world champion). Instead of picking the lock to get in, which just results in a slight karma drop, I thought I'd be smart and speak to Colin then pick the lock on my way out of the bar...

"Why are all those settlers running away from me?" I thought. Then a bullet zipped past my head coming from the town's watchtower. This was after I'd disarmed the bomb, the ungrateful sods!

Bad coding means that you just need to spend a couple of days away from Megaton and the people magically forget your misdeeds and welcome you back with open arms.

Picked up Dante's Inferno.....feels like God of War lite.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Do you even watch reviews mate?

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The Freedom Roads

Not really, I glance to see what the general consensus is, which is what they said about this game. Thought I'd try it out myself.

It's not really a complaint, just an observation. It never achieved the WOW factor that GoW did. I like the idea of Dante going into each level of hell (Lust, Anger, Greed, etc) but it didn't really have a story to interest me.

I hear Bayonetta is like GoW on steroids. Might wanna check that one out when you get tired of the reported repetitiveness and similar enemy design in DI. Bayonetta is supposed to be kinda bugged on the PS3 though, dunno if they've fixed it.

Yep, there's a big patch for PS3 which fixes most of Bayonetta's brokenness and I'm still getting game updates with PSN being down so that's not a factor even if PSN is off for the foreseeable future.

The reason I bought a 360 was because of crappy PS3 ports in multiplatform titles but it's interesting to note that 2 big games recently seem to perform better on the Playstation than Xbox - Dragon Age 2 and Portal 2 (which I might pick up today if I can get a good price on the massive turd which is SHIFT 2). Whether this is the start of a trend or a blip, only time will tell.

EDIT - Gawd bless HMV! They might be hugely overpriced for Blu Ray but they always seem to have better trade-in offers than the other stores and I got rid of SHI(F)T 2 for just a fiver less than I paid for it and thus picked up Portal 2 and Vanquish for a shade over £20.

I got the PS3 flavour for Portal and was itching to tag the game to my Steam account (which means you get a free download of the game to play on PC) but can't because of PSN's continuing lifeless state.

I'd heard good reports about Vanquish as a nice little balls-to-the-wall shooter and it was only £10 so took the punt.