I've played FONV like, three times before all the way through, this is like my fourth playthrough total as a result. Every time though, I am continually impressed by how good all four DLC are.
Okay I'm going to walk that back only slightly. The one DLC in Fallout 3 that I actually enjoyed was Operation Anchorage but that was only because it changed Fallout 3 into a straight up FPS game. Point Lookout could have been interesting but it was short, tiny, uninteresting and full of godawful fetch quests.
Mothership Zeta? Oof. just... fuck. badly balanced dlc, awful level layouts. No interesting lore. And the alien weapons look like ass.
Don't EVEN get me started on Broken Steel holy fuck.
I got Fallout 3 for free due to winning some vouchers at work. I pirated all the DLC.
I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it because YOWCH.
Fonv tho? I bought the ultimate edition and do not regret it.
okay actually another point for Operation Anchorage in FO3, you got some fuckin' sweet loot out of it. that gauss rifle oh my god I loved that weapon. Also kinda liked that because it was a simulation written by some rabid, racist knobjockey it was a full on pre-war propaganda piece, so full of horrid stereotypes and "FUCK YEAH AMERICA" bullshit, lol and it was internally consistant with Fallout's crapsack world.
@Nine somewhere I still have my preorder collector's edition with the platinum chip replica and everything, and it's one of my better childhood purchases 😅
@V wait what the collector's edition came with a platinum chip!? Oh shit, fuck. that's AWESOME
@Nine It came with a replica of the platinum chip, replicas of one poker chip each from every casino on the Strip, and a comic that I do not remember the plot of. Wasn't a very eclectic or varied selection of things but it was definitely a very *satisfying* collection of things. Who doesn't love poker chips in all their forms? 😸
Much as I like NV and 3 the human character models aren’t my favourite.
@plugs oh yeah defintely, they've still got bethesda's trademark jank in the character models
@Nine maybe i'll give Old World Blues and Honest Hearts a try! still yet to complete the base game quests and storyline ^^;
@keeri I can honestly HEAVILY recommend FONV and its DLC, like... if you haven't got all the DLC yet, definitely get them. All four of them are amazingly well crafted, fit perfectly with the lore, AND expand on the core story as well! Plus they're good, hefty content packs, with lots of exploration, additional story, lots of secrets to find, great characters, great stories, great writing, and amzingly good environments.
@keeri Double this up with the fact that each DLC actually has a very different feel and style to it. In order of play, Honest Hearts is pretty close to standard gameplay of FONV, but has more of a slant towards exploration, path finding and locating secrets, which rewards you with lots of great gear.
Old World Blues is pretty hard at points, but has amazing rewards, and is genuinely hilarious at points. It has a very 50s scifi schlock feel to it!
@keeri as for the other two, which you probably know about, Dead Money is heavily built around survival, and using what you can get your hands on since you start with almost nothing but some clothes and a unique energy rifle (which is v. cool btw, love the action of it, VERY ammo hungry tho XD ). picking up everything you can, trading it in against other items (no caps in this DLC!), or using casino chips to buy food, stims and items is key, as is stealth, observation and careful planning.
@keeri and finally Lonesome Road is... well it's an endurance run, it sorta combines Dead Money and Honest Hearts's feel, with a lot more exploration, and natural hazards to overcome. it's positively DRIPPING with lore, and ... gosh it hits kinda hard at points.
Worth it tho.
One of these days I might try a Hardcore playthrough, see how I do :3
@Nine thanks for detailed write-up! i've played FNV for 40 hours so far, they did pretty damn good with the writing and i'm enjoying the choices/progression too. i'll see if i can find time for the dlc's haha
@Nine still giggling from "tribe called Enseeyar"
@keeri Oh yeah, if you're playing with the Wild Wasteland trait, there's a unique npc that's a reference to a particularly popular mod that came out before Honest Hearts did, that only does one tiny thing at the start of the game. :3
@Nine haha wow i saw that npc but had no idea
@keeri Two Bears Hifiving is awesome and I love that he's literally just there for no reason other than the inkblot REALLY DOES look like two bears hifiving and it's wild that nobody at Obsidian saw that until a modder made it happen lol
as opposed to Fallout 3's dlc which is largely total friggin garbage