Dead Money was my least favorite of the dlcs. I don't think I would ever want to do it again. Let me see if I can find my review on it from the winter:

First off, it does not feel at all like a Fallout game. Instead it seemed more like a Silent Hill game. You start out losing all of your gear and being thrown into a hostile environment with an explosive collar around your neck, and a madman with his finger on the switch. Making this worse, radios and speakers will make your collar explode. Some you can shoot out, many (read in the important areas) you cannot. You only have a few seconds to get through those areas, or your head explodes. Needless to say, I reloaded the game a lot playing this dlc.

The enemies come in two types. Ghosts are the first, most plentiful type. They are basically people in long black coats, gasmasks, and helmets, who jump and stagger around in a most inhuman fashion (I did mention Silent Hill right?). Killing them does not kill them. They just get back up after a minute or so. Unless you dismember them. This makes finding a knife very important. The second bad guys are holograms, which cannot be injured by anything. You have to either sneak past them, or shoot out their emitters. Said emitters are often placed somewhere that you cannot see, much less reach, without using the TCL cheat code to fly/walk through walls. That is all you face for the entire dlc, and they become very tedious, especially the invulnerable holograms (which are thankfully few).

On the plus side, the new spanish villa meshes and textures are just gorgeous, even in their post-war state. The interior of the Sierra Madre casino is even more lush and extravagant. But the best thing of all is that once more Serana takes a turn voice-acting some of the parts. Laura Bailey does the voice for Vera Keyes, a pre-war starlet whose hologram is also the spokesperson for the casino. She also does the voice for one of your companions, a BOS scribe who is initially mute, but later restores her voice. Or at least gets Vera's voice after a medical bot fixes her up.

We also get to meet Dean Domino, whom we have all seen on pre-war posters around the Mojave. He's a ghoul now, the only survivor of the Sierra Madre's grand opening, which also coincided with the nuclear war. There is a neat backstory between Dean, Vera, and the casino's owner - Sinclair. I won't give away spoilers, except it is about love, betrayal, and money.

One other nice touch I am noticing in the dlcs is that the characters within are linked together. The BOS scribe in Dead Money is referred to by Ulysees from Lonesome Road. She refers to Ulysees in Dead Money. Both were previously at The Big MT, the site of Old World Blues. Ulysees is the one who sent the White Leg tribe from Honest Hearts on the warpath, precipitating the events of that dlc. So obviously Obsidian had these all planned out in advance, for them to have linked the characters and events together so. That is a very good touch.

All in all, I did not really like Dead Money much though. I don't think I will ever want to do it again. I did not mind losing all my gear. But what drove me nuts was the bomb collar that was constantly being set off all the time by radios you cannot see, destroy, or ever find (I think they place some between the walls). Combined with that the town outside of the casino is a maze of twists and turns and multi-story buildings, all of which look exactly the same. So you wind up going through the same places over and over again, and constantly reloading because the invisible or invulnerable speakers are blowing you up. Oh, and lets not forget the clouds of poison gas that start killing you after seconds of exposure. In the end it just became very frustrating, and I couldn't wait to get it over with.

One other point of note, is that once you start the dlc, you cannot leave the Sierra Madre and go back to the Mojave until you have finished its main quest. After you finish the main quest, you can still explore around the casino and surrounding town all you like. But once you leave for the Mojave, you can never go back. This is similar to Honest Hearts, where once you journey to Zion, you cannot go back to the Mojave until you finish its main quest. But with Honest Hearts you can still return to Zion at any later time. Lonesome Road OTOH, you can leave any time, and go back any time.

Oh, thank you for telling me - I was wondering how I made it in and out of there at early levels if there were cazadors, lol. I'd rather face a Deathclaw than cazadors!

Thanks for posting the in-depth review SubRosa. Much appreciated.

I guess the hard part to judge at the Beth forum is that the main people who are on there these days are the ones who think the sun shines out of Obsidian, and in many cases quite dislike the Bethesda style of things. Reading the posts there I got the distinct impression that Dead Money was the best dlc ever created.

Having just finished Shivering Isles it would take a lot to surpass that. IMO. At lease as far as game content went.

People did mention the collar explosions and that it annoyed many. Things sound like the designers are trying to pay us back for all the grief that we give them. Lol.

I plan to kick things off this October so Dead Money will pop up around year's end for me.

No doubt I will be on here complaining.

This post has been edited by Winter Wolf: Jul 2 2015, 12:03 PM

I didn't find speakers or radios that problematic, from my experience most of them can be destroyed or turned off remotely. Elijah, your captor, gives some good tips at the beginning of the DLC, how to deal with them - scout the area you're in and try moving e.g. left - if it starts beeping, try moving right until it stops etc. It doesn't work always, though.

If you see red speakers, don't bother with them, you can't destroy them with any weapons, you can only turn them off, though not all of them. If you see blue speakers, you can destroy them with any long-ranged weapons. Radios can be both destroyed from afar or turned off manually. As I said before, I had problems with only one speaker close to the end of the DLC, because it's hidden behind some pipes.

One of the companions in the DLC, I can't remember which one, gives you a Signal interference perk so your collar doesn't start beeping automatically, instead there are a few seconds of delay which often allows you to find the speaker or run through the area until the collar stops beeping.

I recommend searching for holograms behind doors and counters, most of them aren't in the plain sight and can be either destroyed by force or turned off with high enough Repair skill.

--

Jumping to another topic, I did some reading today on the FO wiki regarding Joe's weapon - the rebar club. Not counting the unique Nuka Breaker, the rebar club is a melee weapon with the highest strength requirement, it can be effectively handled if your STR is 9, so fortunately Joe can wield it easily. However, it is one of the most durable weapons, according to the wiki, it can strike about 1245 times from full condition before breaking, which is a lot! I got curious of this when I noticed that the weapon's condition almost hasn't changed ever since Joe wields it.

For a comparison, Nuka Breaker, which is a unique rebar club, can strike 995 times from full condition before breaking and Oh, Baby, the most powerful melee weapon in the game regarding the damage, can strike 495 times before breaking.

This post has been edited by Lopov: Jul 2 2015, 01:38 PM

I was afraid this was the same one, lol. Urk.






Oh boy, hints !!! Thank you, Lopov !!!

BWAAHAA !!!

Trey went to the Temple of the Union and helped scout the Lincoln Memorial. While there, he met Leroy Walker, who wanted any Lincoln artifacts so he could destroy them.

Trey decided that .44 slugs from the Lincoln Repeater were the best he could do. (Side note- look up the Spencer carbine... one of my relatives equipped his troops with them during the American Civil War- the Lightning Brigade).

With the Memorial cleared of the unfortunate stain of slavers, the Temple was able to move their headquarters.

Next, Trey stopped off to see Red-Headed Reilly (sigh)... she still seems to only appreciate him for the map references he can provide.

And then it was back to the Outcast Outpost and the grumpy Sibley, who wants Trey to climb into a giant metal egg. If he comes out saying "Nanu, Nanu" there will be trouble....

How cool that Treydoggy ancestors were instrumental in American history!!! Woof!!!

I love that quest, and the way you phrased unloading that carbine into Leroy Walker, lol.

I´m surprised every once in awhile. I´ve been to L´Enfant Plaza several times but only now did I discover the small stash by the rubble where the 3-4 Super Mutants always are.


Other than that, I still do what I always do so no surprises there

Screenshots or it didn't happen !!!!! BWAAAHAAHAA !!!!!

Trey is living up to his title of "Lone Wanderer," ranging across the Capital Wasteland, looking for uncharted locations... probably to have an excuse to go see Reilly again...

The business with the Outcasts and the giant metal egg was... odd. Even while a part of his mind understood that it was just a computer simulation, with holograms instead of people--- he felt a real bond with Sergeant Montgomery and the heroes of Anchorage.

But then he discovered that real people are flawed... as an argument broke out over the contents of the armory. He was tempted to just get on the riverboat that promised to take him far from D.C... but instead, he headed to the northern part of the Wasteland, chasing a rumor of... trees.

The competing desires of the residents of Oasis, especially Harold/Bob/Herbert, presented a difficult choice.

On the way back, Trey witnessed an odd.... confrontation... at Canterbury Commons. The melodramatic posturing of the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist was something of a relief, after all the real violence Trey had experienced. However, the lasers and missiles flying around where quite real and quite violent- and would not care who they killed.

BwaaHaa - Treydog likes Reilly because of her red hair, no doubt!


Oh, I just figured out the giant egg you talked about in the last post, DOH!

Anchorage is one of my favorite questlines of all the DLC; I always hold a save right before entering the Bailey Crossroads Station so I can go back and replay it just for fun later. I really don't understand why they had that craziness at the end, I mean it kind of taints all the Outcasts because of the actions of those few in that bunker in the Player's mind - how can you ever feel safe turning your back on them after something like that?

But that said, I'm really glad that whatever happened in that bunker (stayed in that bunker so the Outcasts above ground didn't turn on the Player for having to defend themselves).

Love the Oasis quest too, and that there is no "wrong" way to end that quest.

Misa is in Point Lookout, so if Treydog comes there she will see him, lol.

Some time ago I had a character named Sebastian who felt a bond with Montgomery - Benjy as well. He also had respect for General Chase although he was just a character in the simulation.

Ah, Oasis - my favorite place in the Capital Wasteland. I've been there only once with my first FO3 character Ronny but memories of his visit to that special place are still very much alive.

--

I got an idea for a new FO3 character today. I'm bored to death with the Dad/Son scenario and the main questline, so I'm thinking of roleplaying a US Army Mechanic that was abducted by aliens before the Great War and wakes up many years later aboard their spaceship (Mothership Zeta), the world being just a shadow of its former self.

Partially, I got inspired for this playthrough by reading that our PC in FO4 lived before the Great War but for some reason wakes up 200 years later and explores the devastated world.

From this regard, FO3 is easier to roleplay than New Vegas, because the backstory isn't so forced upon you and you can wander in almost any direction and manage to get through (with a few exceptions), while in New Vegas you can more or less follow only one path through the Mojave desert.

That sounds like a really interesting roleplay, Lopov! I never was big on the Dad/Daughter roleplay either - never did the searching for him or "Following in his Footsteps" until later on after I'd done my own roleplay and exploring; because as soon as you start following his trail the story starts becoming linear.

I found out via YouTube that you can see a whole other side to Daddy James by smart-alecky answers and surprise assaults on him - especially after he gives you that BB gun, lol.

Oddly enough, I didn't see NV as being that linear, I mean you have so many choices even in the main questline; and you don't even have to begin them unless and until you want to. You can't help but choose factions to side with or tick off, but only a few of the quests actually push you to pick one and slap the other in the face (and you can avoid doing those quests if you are not ready to slap anyone's face yet).

I pretty much ignore the whole FO3 Daddy/Daughter main quest most of the time as well. I still usually do the tutorial/Vault 101. But I see it more as a way to get acquainted with my new character. Once they are out of the Vault, they go on with their life like Vault 101 never happened. It is something they dreamed, rather than something that really happened.

I used same idea with Mothership Zeta for my character Oda Hidetaka (who was a RL person). She was one of Oda Nobunaga's daughters, who pretended to be male in order to be a samurai (this part is my invention, the real Hidetaka was just said to be a pretty boy, who died young). Kidnapped by aliens, Hidetaka woke up centuries later in the Mothership, and it was killing time!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jul 4 2015, 08:25 PM

My character is usually angry at Daddy James for the chickenshirt way he left his daughter and best friend to face and handle all the uproar in the vault instead of bringing them with him. NOT the type of father you can rely on or trust to concern himself with your safety when the chips are down; which is why my character usually starts out being independent and not trusting anyone till eventually meeting and forming a bond with Dogmeat; and then later on ends up developing friendships with a few people as well.

(which also explains why my character is referred to by the Wasteland in general as "The Lone Wanderer."




This post has been edited by mALX: Jul 4 2015, 09:05 PM

That's true as long as you're interested in actually doing the main quest, which I'm usually not. What I meant to say earlier is that FO3 offers more in terms of exploration and FNV more when it comes to quests and meaningful choices. In FNV you can't leave Goodsprings in any other direction than south because you get butchered by high-leveled enemies while in FO3 you can go almost any direction with good chances to survive.

I remember Oda but I forgot that her adventure began on the spaceship. I might borrow the idea of dreaming about life in the Vault.

What I did with Hidetaka was after she exited the Vault, I used the TCL command to go up really high in the air, and then went north to the Recon Craft Crash Site. Once I was there I went back down to the ground so that she could get snagged by the aliens and taken off to the Mothership. The reason for going up really high was that she did not add discover any locations as she traveled. She was so far overhead that they did not register. So when she was done with Zeta, the entire Wasteland was brand new and unexplored for her. Since she was a samurai, I also used the console to give her the samurai armor and katana after she busted out of the containment cell.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jul 4 2015, 10:30 PM

Today I some New Vegas perks to FO3, like Purifier and Unstoppable Force. Persephone learned Purifier just a little while ago, and wow what a difference it makes. She just went on a Super-Mutant killing spree in L'Enfant Plaza. They go down a lot easier now. Unfortunately some perks just cannot be brought over because the FO3 executable does not have the same entry points as NV. Otherwise I would have brought over the one that lets you knock people down, and the one that increases your melee weapon attack speed.

I'm thinking of fast traveling there and once aboard the spaceship, I'll use "tmm 0" command so all map markers will be deleted.

Joe has both perks, they're essential for melee characters. I believe that Purifier is even more useful in FO3 than in FNV because mutants are in abundance.

This post has been edited by Lopov: Jul 5 2015, 01:02 PM