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The People's Republic of Clogher
I think New Vegas is a better, more rounded game with superior writing but I still don't think it captures the Fallout essence that F3 does.
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Did you play New Vegas? I felt it lost a little something compared to 3, but I've never been able to put my finger on what, exactly. Still a great game though.
Aye, I did. Finished it, too. I haven't gone back and replayed much. Even though that's part of the appeal of these games, I find it strangely difficult to do that.

Interesting to see how NV looks as a sort of half-point between F3 and Skyrim, in that it started toying more with the idea of having areas you really just can't survive early in the game. Seems like that's even truer in Skyrim. It's a nice hybrid with the leveling that I think works better than sort of nerfing all the bad guys in the beginning so you can roam with relative impunity.

The setting probably had a lot to do with the extra missing "something." Seeing DC in ruins, and the storyline of the game as a whole, felt a lot more momentous than all the Vegas stuff. And the choices were more obvious. The nuance of the choices in NV is what makes it better in one sense, but it makes it feel less epic, too, because none of the outcomes feels utterly horrendous (though Caesar's Legion obviously comes the closest).



The People's Republic of Clogher
I think a big part of F3's appeal for me comes from your 'birth' from the vault into a strange new world. The courier in NV means you're inhabiting someone with a lot of previous knowledge.

I've always thought of him as the Lone Wanderer on a gap year.

Maybe that's why I also prefer Fallout 1 to Fallout 2.

EDIT. Here's a video you'll probably want to watch, Chris.

&feature=g-vrec



Good call, on the vault thing. That moment when the sun blinds you is such a smart, nice touch. And it helps that my first ever experience outside of the vault was absolutely hysterical. I dunno if I've regaled you guys with it; probably 100 pages back.

Thanks for the video, I'll check it out as soon as I get home. I find that kinda thing super helpful.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Mod managers are great when it comes to uninstalling mods because it remembers if you've overwritten anything installing the mod and reverts the setup to what you had previously. I lost count of how many times I had to completely re-install Oblivion because a mod had mucked up and uninstalling it removed essential game files. Wyre Bash then came out and Nexus Mod Manager uses the same basic premise, only with a much more forgiving interface.



I am forcing myself to play Medal of Honor:Warfighter but its not interesting at all I dont know what it is, its actually based on real life missions which i don't know how it works, when it's supposed to be a secret, that's why now some of the navy seals are under investigation giving too much info to EA. I might swap MoH with Black Ops 2 clock the campaign quickly kill some zombies and swap it for Far Cry 3
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there's a frog in my snake oil
Played a bit more of XCOM and am surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. Never thought I'd care so much about a squad of Space(ish) Marines with ludicrously sized weapons and armour but I love watching all of them levelling up and gaining new skills. In an essentially turn-based game they've managed to get a surprising amount of urgency into the battles too.
Played through the full demo and was seeing how it could be fun. Liking the verticality and the random extra skills for each soldier. Are you still enjoying it?

I gotta say, though, it's almost overwhelming at first. The history, the size, all the side quests. I've never played an Elder Scrolls game before, so it's a bit like a fictional punch in the face. And I'm finding the crafting mechanics just a tiny bit opaque, but it's early yet.
It can be good to make sure you only have one mission arrow switched on at a time. (And... I feel dirty saying this... it can be good to 'roleplay' too. Mainly in the sense that it's good to focus on a core set of complementary skills. But it can also help with mission flood - only pursuing guilds / missions you think your character would do. At least for a bit.)

I'm not sure I could go back to Skyrim after playing Dark Souls, but I do still want to give it a shot on the PC, with proper menus etc. The combat in Skyrim just seems silly after the brilliantly done combat in Dark Souls.
No-hud bows sah (I know I bang on about this stuff, but it def feels like a skill once you start getting it. Computer AI is still pretty pap tho )

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Oh and ok, this is looking kinda fun...

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28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
I never really got into GTA IV, Vice City was the one I had most fun with.
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there's a frog in my snake oil
Damn, even my lady saw the fun during a slow-mo j-turn in a limo

(*EDIT* - that's not some strange innuendo. She genuinely thought that kinda stuff was cool /*EDIT*)

But yeah, Vice City is def the daddy. Just the mix of tone & fun overall.

It was the vehicle weight/variety, & lovely attention to city detail that won me over in IV. Maybe they can build on that - have more fun with the new physics now etc? (*EDIT* same way they transitioned from the skeleton of 3 to vice's playfulness)



We've gone on holiday by mistake
Invested in Halo 4 yesterday and wasn't dissapointed. It seems like they got rid of all that was bad about Halo and kept all the good.

Very impressed so far.

I never was a COD man.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Played through the full demo and was seeing how it could be fun. Liking the verticality and the random extra skills for each soldier. Are you still enjoying it?
I definitely wouldn't/couldn't spend an evening or an afternoon playing solely XCOM but it's fun in quick sessions. I tried the PC version briefly with a controller and it was clumsy at best - console users are missing out on keyboard/mouse in this instance.



In the Beginning...
I'm a glutton for any Rockstar North game. Since GTA: Vice City, they consistently hit it out of the park. Red Dead Redemption was particularly fantastic. They might be the best true storytellers in the business. You bet your ass I'll be playing GTAV.

Finished Halo 4 also. Great game with an emotional finale; the franchise is in good hands with 343 Industries. My only complaint is that the last half of the game felt like an exhausting gauntlet of, well, getting shot at. I got frustrated a few times. Perhaps the pacing could have been a bit more varied? Super intense nonstop action gets a little painful after a while.



A system of cells interlinked
By the bye - MWO went live and can now be accessed by everyone! Let me know if you want to give it a try and I can help you find cool folks to play with and get up to speed in the cockpit.



http://mwomercs.com/

Lots of people from all over the world in our crew, and I can introduce you to the community etc, as I help run the VoiP server for our clan.
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Well, while it's pretty safe to say Skyrim will never replace F3 for me, I started liking it a lot more last night. Just went on one of those weird binges where I had to keep going, kept flying over the landscape, getting closer to some other town on my map, and deciding to go on and on. Something like Dragon Bridge to Markarth in one big swoop. Wouldn't have done it if I hadn't gotten pulled out there by the Dark Brotherhood thing, and decided...

WARNING: "Skyrim Dark Brotherood Questline" spoilers below
...to just kill Astrid. Toughest choice I've had so far, but I think it's the right one for a "good" character.

Think one of the main reasons I did it was a "while I'm out here, I might as well establish some Fast Travels for later" notion, and the fact that it was daylight (I notice that has a big affect) and that The Reach is probably the most gorgeous part of the map, with the giant wall-like mountains on either side of the main path next to the river.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Well, while it's pretty safe to say Skyrim will never replace F3 for me, I started liking it a lot more last night. Just went on one of those weird binges where I had to keep going, kept flying over the landscape, getting closer to some other town on my map, and deciding to go on and on. Something like Dragon Bridge to Markarth in one big swoop. Wouldn't have done it if I hadn't gotten pulled out there by the Dark Brotherhood thing...

Think one of the main reasons I did it was a "while I'm out here, I might as well establish some Fast Travels for later" notion, and the fact that it was daylight (I notice that has a big affect) and that The Reach is probably the most gorgeous part of the map, with the giant wall-like mountains on either side of the main path next to the river.
The location vibes are definitely something they got right aren't they. Journeying over to each major city was pretty cool the first time round. (A cheesey mod someone should do is to keep all the little snap shots that get taken every time you save - I kinda got into the habit of arranging nigh 'holiday snap' shots at major saves for a while )

Don't know how much you want in the way of tips btw, but sleeping adds some boons (the category 'active effects' in magic is worth checking out), which kinda encourages you to keep to a day cycle. (Night travel isn't nearly as fun, although can be kinda cool once you've got one of the various people-detecting spells)

Glad you reminded me the Dark Bro missions still exist. Gotta get round to killing that old lady one of these days...



The People's Republic of Clogher
Astrid is probably my favourite npc in the game. Or maybe Jenassa.

I can see why you went the way you did with the DB, Chris, but it's worth playing through at some stage just for the story. Cicero gets a bit annoying but the rest of your 'family' are pretty cool also.

If you're travelling around not using fast travel (which a lot of people do), there's a great mod called Better Fast Travel - Carriages and Ships, which adds carriages to most of the smaller villages and ships to Solitude, Windhelm and (I think) Riften. That way you can still keep in character and fast travel 'realistically'.

I tend to do what you did in all the Bethesda games, at least early on - Keep travelling on foot slowly ticking off all the undiscovered map markers which appear on your HUD.

Another mod I find useful is Multi House Map Markers which gives homes and other places (like Jorrvaskr and Castle Dour) markers. There's a mod out there which adds markers for nearly every sight on the map but it's overkill.