I will move your controller using only the power of my mind. (video games)

[Chet]

Ugh. In New Vegas, after battling my way through Vault 34 against all those fucking ghouls to turn off the stupid reactor, I step outside only to be confronted by my first fucking Deathclaw, and even at Level 15 this thing is making mincemeat of me over and over again, so I just try running for it only to run into a swarm of fucking Cazadores. Death surrounds me and there is no way out unless I got back to a save back in Vault 34.

Cazadores are the fucking worst by the way. The worst.

[FreddyKnuckles]

The. Fucking. Worst. I can finally take them with some guns from Old World Blues.

The best bet for deathclaws is the anti material rifle and a lot of patience.  That fucking landfill or construction site or whatever it's supposed to be?  Fuck that.

[Dick]

Really?  I had no big problems dealing with giant cazadores with a 10mm pistol after level 15 or so.  They are the worst though.  You'd think they would have learned their lesson after the runaway popularity of cliff racers in Morrowind.

Deathclaws are a beast to take down even in the mid-game, but your biggest weapon should be ok against one from level 12 or so, just don't be shy of going into your pip boy and stimpacking it up.  For multiple deathclaws, your only real solution is a fairly powerful rifle with a scope.  The quarry is all insanely wide-open spaces and high perches.  If you can sneak to a good spot, you just post up and selectively engage.  With a reasonable sneak, you'll only be pissing one off at a time, and it'll take each deathclaw 3 hours to get to you.  Meanwhile, VATS headshot headshot rinse repeat.  I cleared out the quarry around level 17 or so, not too many problems.

I wonder how you guys are picking your perks?  I ask this because I am not min-maxing (I usually play science/repair/speech characters), but I tend to pick combat perks complementary to my play style.  The game seems substantially more difficult for y'all.

[elpollodiablo]

Y'know I never actually finished New Vegas. Logged about sixty hours, life got in the way, then when I tried going back it just didn't hold my interest. Maybe if I get enough work done this week I'll break it out and try to polish it off before the semester starts.

[coldforge]

I would say 80% of my ADOM/stone soup deaths were the result of me getting lazy and just repeatedly hitting the arrow key in a fight, and not noticing my health go down while I was holding plenty of potions/teleports whatever.

[Chet]

Really?  I had no big problems dealing with giant cazadores with a 10mm pistol after level 15 or so.  They are the worst though.  You'd think they would have learned their lesson after the runaway popularity of cliff racers in Morrowind.

Deathclaws are a beast to take down even in the mid-game, but your biggest weapon should be ok against one from level 12 or so, just don't be shy of going into your pip boy and stimpacking it up.  For multiple deathclaws, your only real solution is a fairly powerful rifle with a scope.  The quarry is all insanely wide-open spaces and high perches.  If you can sneak to a good spot, you just post up and selectively engage.  With a reasonable sneak, you'll only be pissing one off at a time, and it'll take each deathclaw 3 hours to get to you.  Meanwhile, VATS headshot headshot rinse repeat.  I cleared out the quarry around level 17 or so, not too many problems.

I wonder how you guys are picking your perks?  I ask this because I am not min-maxing (I usually play science/repair/speech characters), but I tend to pick combat perks complementary to my play style.  The game seems substantially more difficult for y'all.

TBF I had just used most of my ammo and stimpaks in that stupid vault.

I am enjoying the game greatly though. The only criticism I have so far is that New Vegas as a place isn't nearly as atmospheric as, nor does it have the character that the Capital Wasteland does. I miss DC. I'm probably one of the few people that enjoyed the subways too. Also, the radio was way better in F3.

[Good Intentions]

I would say 80% of my ADOM/stone soup deaths were the result of me getting lazy and just repeatedly hitting the arrow key in a fight, and not noticing my health go down while I was holding plenty of potions/teleports whatever.

YES, or maybe I should say, YASD.

[Thermofusion]

Has anyone tried From Dust yet?

[elpollodiablo]

No but looking at the WP article makes me think there's a good essay on commoditized exoticism in there.

Research into actual African and Pacific tribes influenced the creative direction of From Dust, resulting in the distinctive appearance of the game's fictional characters.

Also the graphics look pree coo

[Good Intentions]

It looks good, but it doesn't have an exoticist aesthetic, rather, a super-generic wishy-washy New Age one.

[FreddyKnuckles]

Really?  I had no big problems dealing with giant cazadores with a 10mm pistol after level 15 or so.  They are the worst though.  You'd think they would have learned their lesson after the runaway popularity of cliff racers in Morrowind.

Deathclaws are a beast to take down even in the mid-game, but your biggest weapon should be ok against one from level 12 or so, just don't be shy of going into your pip boy and stimpacking it up.  For multiple deathclaws, your only real solution is a fairly powerful rifle with a scope.  The quarry is all insanely wide-open spaces and high perches.  If you can sneak to a good spot, you just post up and selectively engage.  With a reasonable sneak, you'll only be pissing one off at a time, and it'll take each deathclaw 3 hours to get to you.  Meanwhile, VATS headshot headshot rinse repeat.  I cleared out the quarry around level 17 or so, not too many problems.

I wonder how you guys are picking your perks?  I ask this because I am not min-maxing (I usually play science/repair/speech characters), but I tend to pick combat perks complementary to my play style.  The game seems substantially more difficult for y'all.

By "take them down" I meant with ease. I've definitely gotten ambushed by like 5 of those things, even at a high level and gone down.  Deathclaws are the same way. If you know one is coming it is fine but if you're gallavanting around and you come round a corner right into it's lap you're probably fucked. I gallavant a lot. I don't fast travel as much unless it's a long long way, I also don't use VATS that much.

[elpollodiablo]

It looks good, but it doesn't have an exoticist aesthetic, rather, a super-generic wishy-washy New Age one.

Having an argument about this is maybe the stupidest thing I could imagine us doing, but--it's absolutely exoticist, using tropes of dimly-imagined primitivism to present a Western audience with something at once seemingly other but totally familiar. That pull-quote I posted there is kind of the epitome of exoticism.

*Although if you mean that you've played it and its actual aesthetic differs from what its WP article suggests, then my bad.

[Thermofusion]

I dunno, Westerners have been making "enlightening" trips to the South Pacific and returning to synthesize dippy new art for a hundred years or so. At least the thing doesn't have tiki idols and volcano sacrifices and a Martin Denny soundtrack, right? I kinda shrug that shit off unless there's some kind of uncomfortable racial element to it. I'm more interested in the game's erosion physics.

[Good Intentions]

epd, what I mean is the thing doesn't look Pacific or African in presentation (or rather, like any of the hundreds of cultural groups represented in that area, covering half of the earth's surface). It looks really generically new-age. God knows the framing device is painfully new age. I am not surprised in the slightest to hear about  the background research they did, despite basically none of it showing - that's exactly what you'd expect from something this earnest.

[Thermofusion]

I'm down with new age! Also none of us jokers have played the damn thing

[elpollodiablo]

What's all this about soil erosion?

[FreddyKnuckles]

It's kind of 90% of the gameplay.

[Thermofusion]

I gotta hardon for hydrological transport modeling

[Chet]

Does New Vegas end after the main storyline?

[jm]

My only beef with the Civ games is the complete inability to do anything cool once someone has already hit one of the victory criteria. Like, I spent all this time completing space shuttle parts, and now I can't blast off because I won a diplomatic victory? Lame.

Oh hey, so I guess this isn't entirely true. I did manage to win a time victory and then in extra turns win a domination victory. I wasn't about to let that asshole Bismarck keep any territory. Still annoyed about the space shuttle thing, though.

[Thermofusion]

Hey so uh

EA has trademarked Alpha Centauri, sparking speculation it may be developing a new game in the cult turn-based strategy series.

Two trademarks, first spotted on NeoGAF, were registered on 1st August by EA in the US.

The first is for computer game software, the second for online computer games.

EA has also trademarked Alpha Centauri in Europe – on 2nd August.

EA published fan favourite Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri in 1999. The science fiction strategy game is considered the spiritual successor to Civilization 2 by Firaxis fans.

As noted on GAF, EA allowed the Alpha Centauri trademark to expire in 2009. The original game was recently released on GOG.com.

Some are speculating EA may be readying an Origin release of the original, or preparing a reboot of some description.

[Dick]

Does New Vegas end after the main storyline?

Yeah, though I think they're going to change that after the last DLC or something.

[Ah_Pook]

im like 20 hours into new vegas. its as good as FO3 i guess. im definitely addicted to it like i was with FO3, but these games get real tedious after a while for me. i end up wandering around until i find an interesting looking location, then just checking  the fallout wiki to see if theres any worthwhile loot in the buildings to see if its even worth bothering to explore the place.

[Chet]

Deathclaws can suck  my dick now I have the gauss rifle.

[Chet]

I went to caesar's legion fort to kill them all because those guys are evil as fuck, but damn is them shits hard, they have these power fists that will kill you in one hit.