I always pick up unique weapons in any game, like collecting them - either display them on shelves or store them in the ammo box in Victor's Shack in NV - I have probably picked up that All American in every game, but stowed it without ever looking up the stats! I am really glad you brought that to my attention, I will def test it out next time I play New Vegas.


That is so interesting about Laura Bailey's history, she really has an impressive resume - and a great voice, too.

In Oblivion there were a few voices that caught my attention, like the female Redguards had that sultry thing going on with their voice, etc; but they were almost too noticable. There are some really great voices that are much more subtle and pleasing in Fallout 3 and New Vegas imho - feminine sounding, but rich and melodious.


Mel Blanc was the only name I really knew or thought of while growing up as far as voice acting went; then movies like the Lion King/Shrek/etc - started using voices of actors that I recognized the voices of immediately; and I think (for me) that added some to the enjoyment of watching the animated vids with my children. (I don't know why, maybe because I could picture the actual actor playing the role standing in front of a mike with a headset on and saying those lines, lol).

Robin Williams had a voice acting role in almost all the vids I bought for my children, he must have had a contract with Disney or something. He was excellent in the roles while still being instantly recognizable by his voice.

But then you have people like Wes Johnson, who I never heard of before Oblivion, and instantly became a huge fan of his work; would want to buy a game/movie/etc if I saw his name in the credits (just to see another facet of his talent).


*

Oh, I never knew there was an alternate way to do that vault! I also slaughtered everyone in there, darn it!


Also, I never found that cave tunnel (probably because the quest giver was shot dead, lol).

I love reading your Annie posts, always learn new things about the game in your posts!

I love Wes Johnson. He is also the arena announcer for the Washington Capitals. It was on a documentary I saw, I think about Washington D.C. They had a little segment with him. I kept yelling at the tv "That's Mr. Burke!"

He did this interview, which whoever wrote the article really didn't edit their spelling/grammar well - but the interview is fantastic; it talks about his first forays into voice acting for TES:


http://www.thegamingliberty.com/2011/08/tr...by-wes-johnson/



I became a huge fan of his work in Oblivion, and have tried to keep up with everything he has done since - did not know about the sports announcing at all though, and the article says he has done a bit of sports announcing before the Capitals! That slipped by me, thank you for saying that; because now I have to find Youtube vids of those games being announced to hear him, lol.




This post has been edited by mALX: Jan 19 2015, 10:03 PM

Annie finished exploring everything around Vegas. She spent the last few days exploring the two Freesides, and helped out the Followers of the Apocalypse. Today she met The King and started smoothing things over between him and the NCR. I left off with her first visit to the Strip. Then she headed back to Novac to pick up Lucky, which counts as a hold-out weapon. Now she is back on the Strip, about to pay a visit to Benny...

Ooh, I'll def be interested in hearing how her visit to Benny goes! How did she get past those robot guards to enter The Strip?

Annie used her high intelligence to hack the robots. An 8 or more is all you need to get in the Strip without a passport. Or maybe it was her Science skill. I think it said Intelligence though.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 22 2015, 03:22 AM

There is one perk that lets you disable hostile robots if you can sneak up on them, the first time I accessed the strip it was on that perk, I got every robot on the strip disabled except Victor, Yes-man, and if I am not mistaken, Jane - they could not be put into permanent slumber (but I could be wrong about Jane).

By the time I was ready to sneak into House's sanctuary below floors, I had already disabled any robot that could stop me. Was itching to get to that army in the basement of the Hotel before I got on House's bad side, but I don't believe they are ever accessible. I did wipe out his army in Caesar's camp, but afterward got wondering if they may have been needed in the big battle at the dam. Never made it to that battle yet, I'm dying to see it happen!

(Might be Youtube is the only way, unless my PC game is more stable than the XBox 360 game was, lol).

I have never had a character take that robot disabling perk. That sounds so hilarious to disable every one of them on the Strip!


Annie finished off Benny just before bed last night. She is only my second character to do so. She used her high Speechcraft to smooth talk Benny's right hand man Swank over to her side. It took 3 separate speech checks, and she had to use Benny's Lighter (which a Khan gave to her after she negotiated for their safe release from Boulder City), and a note left behind in Novac.

Swank gave Annie the key to Benny's room, and gave her back all of her guns. So she didn't even need Lucky, which she had sneaked in past the door. But Annie still used Lucky anyhow. She has been saving it just for this. Naturally Benny tried to talk her out of it, but there was only one way that things were ever going to end for Benny. Now he sleeps with the fishes.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 22 2015, 08:36 PM

Annie did a little adventuring around the Strip. She took pictures for the Michale Angelo, and brought a whole bunch of vault suits to the woman in the Vault/Hotel. Both were easy since Annie has already cleaned out all the Vaults and been everywhere. She also got involved in the case of the missing Brahmin Baron's son at the Ultra-Luxe. It wasn't easy finding him and getting him out alive without a bloodbath, but Annie managed with a minimum of folks getting themselves killed.

Afterward she left The Strip and went down, literally, into the Sewers. There are only two Sewer maps, but they have access hatches all over Vegas, which would make them a handy way to sneak around the city.

Finally, she headed out to Nellis, and got past the artillery to the airbase. She spent today helping folks out, culminating in raising the sunken B-29 in Lake Meade for them.

With that Annie has been everywhere in New Vegas, except for Caesar's Fort. I am saving that for last. So I think I'll try doing the dlcs now. It will be my first time to do any of them.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 24 2015, 03:37 AM

Oh, the Khans just started shooting at me in Boulder, wouldn't negotiate at all ... but it might have been because I got the prisoners out the back door before approaching them via the front, urk. I did not want the Khans against me, so didn't shoot back; just ran and got out of there because I was between the Khan and the NCR and they were both shooting.

That was one of those tough quests where I felt caught between a rock and a hard place. Really wanted to stay neutral, but didn't know how to do it under the circumstance. I'd love just once to get through the game with the Khan still neutral to me, lol.






HOLY COW!!! She did all that in one day? I love the Boomers, really enjoyed doing all those quests and becoming accepted there. Did Annie sneak the girl from the Crimson Caravan up there for that boy in the hanger? They had some really great quests there, and the last play-through I didn't even steal a single thing from the armory, lol.

How does Annie fight Cazadors? That is twice she had gone through huge nests of them with seeming ease, how is she doing it? I got killed a billion times trying to even get to that vault; and died a million times more trying to just get away from that marina to get to the plane !!!

I have not done a single one of the DLC yet, I am dying to hear about Annie's experiences with them!!!

If you just walk right up to the Khans in Boulder you can talk to them. With a high enough Speech you can broker a truce between them and the NCR, where they hand over their prisoners and the NCR lets them leave in peace. Thanks to that and a few other things, Annie ended up with Idolized status with the Khans.



Annie did play Cupid and arrange for that Crimson Caravan girl to be able to safely get into Nellis. Annie didn't steal anything either. But by now she has so much stuff. She has like 80k caps, and a pile of weapons and clothes at home.

Annie's Colt M4 has been a real blessing versus the Cazadors. I have had better luck with her using that than any of my other characters. The burst fire gives me a good chance to hit with at least half its bullets, and couple of bursts will generally put one down. If all else fails I go to VATS. I took the headshot perk, and I think the Commando one, plus Action Girl. So she does really well in VATS. That is how I usually kill Deathclaws too. Oh, and I am using 5.56 Match Round and Armor Piercing with the Colt too. The Match Round for Cazadors and most other things, the Armor Piercing for Deathclaws and other armored types like the Legion.

Antivenom helps too. One of the DLCs adds one called Snakebite Tourniquet, which not only nullify's venom but gives you a resistance to poison for a while. Annie also took the Tribal Wisdom perk, which gives you a 25% poison resistance, makes you take 50% less limb damage from mutated insects, and even lets you eat them!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 26 2015, 09:46 PM

Oh how much I would love to be Idolized status with the Khans! I'll have to build up my speech and try doing that next time I start a game! The closest I've come was in my first game, there was some mini-quest in a cave up in the northeast that gained me some karma and reputation with the Khans, but when I got to their encampment my game crashed.

My first play-through on the 360, I did clean out that armory and also the dining hall ammo and weaponry before I'd even talked to anyone. After I started talking to the people and liking them, I felt awful about the theft. True, I was scrounging for bottlecaps at the time, but still wouldn't have done it if I'd come to know them first. After that first time I've never done that again, no matter how broke I was.


*

Oh my gosh, this is exciting advice! I am making a copy of this and print it out, going to use it as a guide the next time I play. I really hated those cazadors, could never survive the attack if there were more than two-three. Thank you, thank you!!!!!

Truthfully, the thought of using poison resistance never crossed my mind! Thank you!

For the last few days I have been playing the Honest Hearts dlc, and so far I have been having a great time. It takes you to Zion Canyon, a really cool new area that is actually a RL location in southern Utah. The place is not really that big, but like Skyrim, it divides everything vertically, into a series of terraces that loop back and forth. So it gives the impression of being much larger than it actually is.

Joshua Graham is voiced by the male Dunmer guy from Skyrim, which made me laugh. I keep expecting him to say "You dare fight a Dunmer!". I think he might be the only vendor you can buy and sell stuff to and from in the expansion. It adds some new weapons, such as a Colt .45 Model 1911, and a Thompson Submachine Gun (just called a .45 submachine gun). Plus new perks, new plants, and some new recipes. I was already using some of the latter in my regular game, such as the Grunt Perk, that gives you extra damage for 'army' rifles and pistols, and the Tribal Wisdom perk I mentioned above. I am glad I have had the dlc turned on all the time, instead of just waiting until I actually went to Zion. Because the extra perks and stuff are great for the vanilla game as well.

The best part I think are the pieces of the Survivalist's journal that you can find scattered on computers throughout the canyon. He is a man who was in the park during the great war, and lived through the 50 or so years afterward. You cannot help but feel sorry for the poor guy, who saw people come and go, encountered the first ghouls, and just lived through the death of the old world.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 26 2015, 09:34 PM

Those journal entries sound fascinating! Your description of Zion canyon reminded me of "The Pitt" - where Betheda took a tiny little area and just used a maze-type ribbon candy effect to make it feel much larger - it was surprising how much they managed to pack into such a small area!

That "Tribal Wisdom" perk sounds awesome! Do you have to be accepted by the Khans to receive it or have it show up on the list?

The Dunmer male voice =




This post has been edited by mALX: Jan 26 2015, 08:15 PM

Tribal Wisdom doesn't have anything to do with the Khans.You just need to be level 8 and have a Survival skill of 70. Plus Honest Hearts installed and active of course.


Today I uploaded Simplified Ammo Crafting to the FONV Nexus. It does what the name says, and makes the ammo crafting a whole lot simpler. It reduces everything to only four basic components: Shellcasings, Primer, Powder, and Lead. It allows you to breakdown any kind of cartridge into them, and then use those components to create any kind of cartridge in return. That includes Armor Piercing and Hollow Points. Gun Runners Arsenal is required, as GRA ammo is included.

There is also an optional file to use in place of the main file, that adds in the .45 ammo from Honest Hearts as well. Obviously, Honest Hearts is required to use this, in addition to GRA.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 26 2015, 09:44 PM

I'll have to study up on how to increase my survival stats, they were never very high in previous games.

Survival is just a regular skill, same as guns, explosives, etc... It helps with unlocking cooking recipes, and some special perks. Annie just got hers up high enough to make Gecko-Backed Reinforced Leather Armor, which has some resistance to poisons and energy.

Annie finished up Honest Hearts today. She teamed up with The Burned Man to wipe out the White Legs tribe. The White Legs were allies of Caesar, and were trying to slaughter the other tribes in Zion. Not to mention kill The Burned Man, a.k.a. Joshua Graham, Caesar's former right hand man. Annie knows what to do with Caesarians, and let her M-4 do the talking. At least until she picked up an Anti-Material Rifle. Then she had a few choice words with it as well.

When it was all over, Zion was safe for tribals once more, and Annie's work done. She headed back to the Mojave (actually several times, as it took a few trips to bring all of her loot back). Now I pondering which dlc to try next?

Are you planning to do all the DLCs, SubRosa?



As for myself I wanna come back to the Capital Wasteland, but it´s too early! Can´t do it until late March or so

I've still never played New Vegas, and I have no idea why. For those that have, is it worth a play through now that the next gen is upon us?

Yes.

It's buggy as hell even after multiple patches, which is a shame, but I can honestly say that it was one of the best games of the last generations; it's incredibly deep, has some of the best characters I've seen in any video game, has absolutely excellent worldbuilding and the gunplay is pretty damn fun.

What I would warn is this: don't go into it expecting a sandbox in the style of Oblivion or Skyrim. New Vegas is a big game and you're welcome to roam the Mojave Wasteland, but essentially what you're playing in is a massive stage that's designed to be the set of the game's story. If you go into it just to wonder and explore, you'll come away disappointed because pretty much everything you'll encounter exists to advance the plot in one way or another. If you go into it to play the story, however, you'll likely have a blast, because it's a damn good story that's well told.