Hellos.
Another sporadic post from the queen of the procrastinators lol.
Work keeps piling up and I keep putting it off. I need someone to stand behind me with a whip and make me work.
Tuesday I got Fallout New Vegas and Wednesday I got my lovely Xbox back. I missed it so much.... So I've played a little under 20 hours of NV since getting it and so far, the best part of it was the pointless goodies in the CE.
Where should I start?
I started by reading the..(way too tiny to call it a graphic novel)comic book All Roads, which left me in the exact same place I was before starting it...clueless.
Then I fired up the game and sat through the opening while thinking, "ok then"
Then it was time to create my character...Which is done by being grilled by some bald doctor. Seriously, I thought that whole stat choosing, SAT test would NEVER end. When it was all said and done, I was a fugly mannish woman and had no idea why that had to take so long.
I proceeded to loot the good doctor's house, because nothing brings out my inner kleptomaniac like a sandbox rpg.
Once that was done I stepped out the door and began my long roam through the wasteland. Emphasis on the LONG.
I havent' really done all that much in my roughly 20 hours of adventuring, unless you want to count how many times I've gotten my ass handed to me by radscorpions. But in that time I've formed some decided opinions on New Vegas.
First, Wayne Newton was cool for the first couple of hours, so was the music. Now its all just starting to grate at my brain like a rusty cheese grater. Love ya Peggy, but I'm really wanting to find "Johnny Guitar" and cut off his fingers one by one with a cigar cutter at this point. Fallout 3 had an infinitely better soundtrack and Three Dog kept things fun. Hundreds of hours of Fallout 3 and I never got tired of hearing Three Dog make dumb jokes about farting in vault 101 or listening to Danny Kaye and the Andrew Sisters sing Civilization. Hell, I've got the soundtrack in my car and was listening to it this morning. Not so with New Vegas, I cant picture listening to these songs EVER again if I can help it.
Second, the whole awesome concept of modding weapons, breaking down and creating ammo and the wider range of items to repair with. Couldn't they have made this a little less...well...shitty? I'm sure that as I level up and I explore more places these abilities will expand (at least I hope so) but for now... I find it somewhere between "meh" and "utterly useless"
Breaking Down Ammo
So, I've got all this 5mm and 12ga. ammo I dont need. Breaking it down into useful parts in order to create ammo I *do* need seems like an awesome idea. I find a bench and I go to town. When I'm done breaking it all down I discover...I cant make any of the ammo I actually need...I can however make 12ga. and 5mm ammo, Yeehaw! I thiank god...or the creators of the game that the broken down parts dont weigh anything in my inventory,because I am carrying enough lead to destroy every single child on the planet with lead based paint-painted cribs. Cant even sell this crap as its not worth anything.
Modding Weapons
I haven't really done much with this aside from getting a new barrel for my .357. Unfortunately right after I did I picked up a much more effective weapon and my newly modded magnum became obsolete again. Haven't seen much opportunity for modding things but I'm still just trudging along the vast nothingness of the wasteland.
Repair
Repair is always a pain in my ass. Finding the exact same item to fix things with and the broadening of this part of the game is quite welcome...Its just...not enough. Now, i'm no expert on guns, but I remember watching a video to do with the difference between hunting rifles, semi-automatic rifles and automatic rifles. One thing I remember is that by changing a few things the three looked incredibly similar while being very different. So, going by that, and taking also some game liberties....why can't I use parts from my shotgun to fix my cowboy repeater? Or to fix my double shotgun? No really, why not?
Repairing my armour is an even bigger pain in my ass. Sure I have all the Powder Ganger (stupid name) armour and Wastelander outfits I could ever possibly want and/or need for repairs or making a tent mansion. But Metal and Leather Armour? Much harder to come by and so far, in all of the area I have roamed there is only 1 person...ONE DAMN PERSON who can repair it for me...at exorbitant cost. Someone glibly suggested to me that if I didnt want to repair my armour I should "not get shot" Brilliant! I'll keep that in mind when 5 radscorpions are chasing me across the hills because I hid behind a rock, shot one and the other 4 just appeared and decided nothing would be tastier than my ass (must say, my girl Triss has one hell of a swing when she walks).
Ideally I would never get hit, but since I'm going to get hit eventually, it would be nice to find something to fix my damn armour with. Why is there no armour repair kit like there is a weapon repair kit?
Creating....stuff
Now I can create my own stimpaks and other concoctions in order to dominate the dumb creatures of the wasteland. Pity its such an inconvenience. Now I know, you hardcore gamers are sitting here reading this going "Man she's a whiner. Man up and play the game right, in hardcore mode, livin off the land, eeking out a pathetic existence in this post apocalyptic hell" You know what I say to that? STFU. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not "hardcore" i'm not seeking to develop awesomely leet gaming skills. I play because its fun and I stop when its not fun. I'm not ashamed to play on Easy if I need to and I shouldnt have to play on Hardcore to get what the game has to offer. Much like that review savant Yahtzee's view on Multiplayer in games, "A game should stand on Single Player alone", I say a game should show me its good side regardless what mode I play in.
I know it sounds like I just hate the thought of creating my own items and gear, but thats not it at all. I have very fond memories of going nuts with the alchemy in Oblivion and making hundreds of potions and poisons for fun and profit. (nothing more hilarious that using a paralyze potion that only lasts 2 seconds on someone repeatedly.) My problem is with the inconvenience of it. In Oblivion I carried repair hammers to fix my weapons and armour, and I carried an alchemical set to create my potions. I could do this anywhere at any time. Had too much flora and fauna in the ole pack? consolidate by making a shitload of potions that weighed 1/4 as much and were actually useful. Not in Fallout New Vegas, find a campfire, a workbench, an ammo bench, can I have a "make the wasteland suck less bench"? How about a "replace the DJ" bench? No? Of course not, then I wouldnt be playing it right would I?
Its post nuclear war hell, it should be hard, it should suck, you should feel small and helpless...Well, somehow I got all that from Fallout 3 but without a lot of the useless aggravation.
But, lets throw out all of my drama with my inventory. Because I can forgive much if a game can grab me by the (figurative) balls. Alas, this game does not.
I'm the kind of girl who likes porn with a plot. I love a good story. A nice twist or touching narrative can do much for me. (Bioshock knocked me on my rather ample ass)
Gripping story? Arthritic grip maybe. Where Fallout 3 got me with family, New Vegas got me with..."How the hell does one survive a shot in the head and being buried alive?" As Ron Perlman tells me at the beginning....I am a courier for the Mojave Express...you would think as such I'd know how to take better care of myself in the wasteland right? Then why is my character just as clueless as my vault raised softy from Fallout 3? i'm not talking about getting shot in the head...that plot device that didnt hold my interest for more than 3 seconds. I'm talking about after Doc Mitchell patches me up and sends me on my merry way.
...Where was I going again?
I have no idea where i'm going...and I dont actually care.
The only fun I've had in this game is when I'm running around shooting Night Stalkers and praying one isnt behind me ready to hump my leg. Can't say I care about any town, any faction, any plot device..dont even care about the guys who tried to kill me, which I think is who I'm supposed to be looking for...maybe..I dunno.
I'm gonna stop because this is almost as hate filled as my thoughts on Castlevania HD. really, its not that I live to hate on games, its just that lately games have done nothing but disappoint me...oh that reminds me...
Tomorrow Fable 3 will arrive on my doorstep..That game I have high hopes for. I know, I know...Everyone always has high hopes for Fable games which are always crushed upon release...Not I.
Fable 2 was the first game I ever actually pre-ordered...I was so excited and giddy. When I finally got it and started playing...Well, even now I cant find a thing to hate about it, except maybe my own choice at the end of the game. With that in mind, I highly doubt I will dislike Fable 3.
But..but...how can you hate on New Vegas yet love Fable 2? Molyneux didn't deliver a third of what he promised!!
That may be so but what he did deliver was a game that was (aside from the messy inventory) easy to get into, fun to play, with beautiful landscapes and memorable characters (I love you Stephen Fry but I cannot STAND Reaver) and most importantly he gave you an actual investment in the story line. So much so that I didnt even realize how much so until the end. As far as I'm concerned the game gave me what I wanted from it. Could it have given me more? certainly... I mean, we could have real-time growth of plants or it could make my bed and make me breakfast but I've no complaints.
Wow, it seems my quick impressions are never as quick as I intend them to be....
Before I go however I have a couple of things I gotta address... I will probably pop back on in a week to give my impressions of Fable 3 (hopefully to counterbalance all the haterade I've been drinking). But after that I will be silent for a while yet again. No, no, I'm not predicting my procrastination now. I'm planning on doing Nanowrimo and will be busy trying to get it done. You would think with all the yapping I do 50,000 words would be no problem, however, its making those 50,000 words be part of a cohesive whole that causes me fits and starts.
After the month of November and my attempts at novel writing have come to an end, I will post all those back posts I've been putting off for like what? a year?
Witch's Honor
Edit: I wanted to add something I forgot...you might be wondering why I have not said a word about the copious amount of glitches in the game...I want you to know that I did not miss them and yes I have seen plenty...Its just that this topic has been covered everywhere ad nauseaum. I wanted to give my feelings on the actual game...the glitches have gotten so much attention that they are overshadowing some real issues with the game itself.
