Well, at level 20 you could take the Explorer perk. Then you wouldn’t need the guide.
But you also couldn’t take the Grim Reaper perk, and that makes the baby Jesus cry.
ZP Reviews FO3!
Considering how badly he panned Oblivion, I was expecting a more caustic review for Fallout 3. Apparently, even the curmudgeon Yahtzee Croshaw finally succumbed to the charms of this gem of a game.
ETA: Probably NSFW.
I like the map just because I like to know where things are. I don’t necessarily want to know what a thing is (except for the whole bobblehead thing) but wondering around aimlessly so that I might stumble upon a location just doesn’t appeal to me. I plan to find every location anyway, might as well save myself the grind of randomness. I pretty much find myself a quest. Look at where the questgiver has shown it to be on my pipboy, and then hit the locations in between. It’s worked pretty well so far.
And Zero Punctuation has now reviewed Fallout 3: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/420-Fallout-3
Like all of the videos he does, there’s some language making it NSFW. He probably gives FO3 as best of a review as he has given any other game except Portal.
(He loved Portal. He hates almost everything else.)
Beaten to the punch, apparently.
True…though honest the level 18 and 20 perks don’t seem all that great to me over all. I’m going with Action Boy at 16 and then Better Criticals…and Grim Reaper Sprint at 20. That leaves one more to go so maybe I’ll go back to Adamantium Skeleton or Life Giver.
Has anyone tried Mysterious Stranger btw? Is it worth getting?
-XT
I’ve tried the mysterious stranger perk, it’s not overly useful as it doesn’t happen very often. It’s slightly humorous in the beginning though, with some stranger mysteriously appearing in some odd and unlikely place.
I think I’ve seen it sold by some merchant, don’t they get restocked after a while so you could buy more?
Weirdly, this is the second post-apocalyptic open-world action RPG with a slightly unsatisfying railroad ending that I’ve played in a row (Stalker: Clear Sky being the other). There’s obviously a great demand for PAOWARPGsWASURE at the moment. Someone should blog about this.
Awesome game, though. Found it quite hard to get in to, largely because of a lack of initial direction and quests, but once in the swing it’s very hard not to love. Having now backtracked to before the final mission, am finding life as a level 20 character slightly dull - pretty much nothing is a threat any more, and the main problem I have is carrying all the preposterous loot (even with Fawkes acting as a homicidal mule). As with many of thesee games, once you reach the really high echelons it’s a bit like playing with God mode turned on, and some of the magic rather goes.
Cheers to FinnAgain for the perk thoughts, incidentally - had been using them rather carelessly prior to reading that.
I’ve taken to wearing the Spring Dress, a Bonnet and the Horn rimmed glasses. Armor? Phooey! As an unexpected bonus, I can now carry about 30 pounds more junk.
I’ve discovered another rather serious bug…
Listening to too much GNR leads to goddamn earworms!!! Those sappy old songs are haunting my every waking and sleeping moment. It doesn’t help that the first several times I heard the lyrics “I’m as corny as Kansas in August…”, I heard it as horny and kept making Scooby-Doo “hruh?” sounds :p. Been a long, long time since I saw South Pacific.
Despite heavy rotation of Nick Cave/Grinderman the last couple of days, I just can’t shake those damn songs.
Yeah, I thought she was saying as horny as well. And what’s with the Smackin Hackin and Whackin song (or whatever)? At first I figured it was sexual innuendo…but as I listened to it more and more it seemed to be about a mass murderer. Regardless I find myself running about humming them under my breath about butch Pete or being a mighty MIGHTY man in my prime!
(ETA: I miss the song from one of the older Fallout games that went something like A Kiss is Just a Kiss…to me, that haunting and echoing melody perfectly illustrates Fallout. Wish they had put it in this game)
-XT
Fallout 3 songs list for anyone interested:
I always think of President Obama when I hear this one. 
This one is just…a bit disturbing.
Corny song mentioned by Tam.
-XT
Louis Armstrong…A kiss is just a kiss on YouTube. I think this is the ultimate Fallout song…JMHO though.
-XT
Glad I could help.
I had been a little confused as to how some of the wasteland scavengers survived out there, with the radscorpions, Yao Guai, Deathclaws and whatnots. Then I came upon a little Enclave roadblock where a scavenger (with Chinese AK) and his pet Yao Guai(!), the detachment, and two giant radscorps were having a free-for-all. Only the scavenger and his pet lived. I’ve also seen a lone scavenger slay a raider assault with his Gatling laser.
I wonder no longer.
Dear God this is an addictive game. And the worse part is that it lends itself to creating different types of characters and replaying it over and over. I didn’t get into Oblivion nearly as much as I have with this game.
Did that. The Guide covers a lot of stuff that doesn’t show up on the map. Besides, it’s mainly for my next playthrough.
It’s of better use if you don’t have any companions. Harry (MS carries a .44 Magnum like Dirty Harry) only shows up in VATS after your target is below 150 HP and even then it’s a one in 10 chance.
You’re still wearing clothes?
How quaintly pre-apocolypse. 
Yes, the mysterious stranger and bloody mess are pretty much there for the amusement value. But at this point I can afford to be amused.
One thing I don’t like is that you have to spend all your points and choose a perk before you can get out of the screen. There have been a couple of times when I’d rather have banked the perk until the next tier opened up.