Today something remarkable happened! Thanks to me going down Irradiated Metro I found a place I haven´t been to in my 400+ hours; L´Enfant Plaza!!

I don´t do dungeons so much anymore and I have avoided said metro because of its name, but it wasn´t so bad and it gave me what I always want; more unexplored areas!

Awesome that you're still able to find new places after so many hours. I probably discovered something new in FO3 each time I played it, there's a lot to be found in the Metro.
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After realizing that NCR are just a bunch of incompetent idiots, Hoffman cleared Primm of Powder Gangers by himself. The entire exploit lasted a little less than 12 hours, beginning around 8 PM and ending around 7 AM in the morning.

Powder Gangers. Are you talking about this guy? He looks tough.

Yeah, these guys. They're not so tough but there are plenty of them though not all of them are hostile.

Their combat notes from the Wiki.

I always think of them as being Power Gangers, and imagine that the Power Rangers are chasing them...

For practically stealing their trademarked name!

There's one old man in Primm that'll always name them "Powder Gangsters" but what's funny is that developers actually added a dialogue line where you can correct him about it. I can't remember what's his reply, though.

Ok, so besides L´Enfant I have now also discovered the White House and I´ve found some nice things along the way. All in all I´ve had some very fun Fallout 3 moments as of late!

After switching to Windows 8 I seemed to have some trouble launching Fallout 3 GOTY (which is apparently a very common problem) through steam. I've FINALLY got it sorted, so now I can join you guys! Although resolving the problem had left the game with lag, it's better than no game at all!

My character, who I've been thinking about for a while, is called Quistis. Quistis is her surname, but goes by it as she absolutely HATES her first name (I have yet to find out what it is). She is a brawler, but knows how to take care of herself. Her tagged skills are Melee, Medicine and Speech.

Currently she is in Megaton, having just diffused the bomb. Luckily for her, the bomb was a basic in explosives and was something she learned during some volunteer classes at the Vault, so she was able to deal with it... and was rewarded with a house!

She will probably stay a while. Megaton feels safe, and after the day she has had she needs to recuperate to figure out her next move. Tomorrow she will ask around about the location of her father.
I will post a screenie of her once I finalize her look.

Very cool. Glad you sorted that out, Rihanae. Why did you get Windows 8? Did you have 7 before? ..

Yeah, Renee. Once i got better wifi at home it gave me the option to upgrade so i did

EDIT to avoid a double post:

Well here is Quistis! As you can see (and maybe disagree) I didn't want to make her TOO beautiful. She strikes me as a very average looking girl. Although she is pretty, I like the way she looks... although I might edit her jawline at some point! Also, she is wearing the tunnel snakes jacket. She had always liked butch, despite his attitude towards her (I chose to see it as flirty banter). She will probably wear this outfit for a while, and i think it looks great on her

Here is a question, mainly aimed at modders. As you can see in this pic the hair mod I added doesn't look right at all. I can;t seem to get it right, which is odd as the hair mods i use for other games work perfectly. Any thoughts?

Anyway, currently Quistis is still in Megaton, seeing the sights. She will probably make her way over to the general store soon... she has heard the owner of the store may need some help with something...

I think you did a great job with Quistis, she really strikes me as your normal, typical girl

I hope you´ll have fun roaming the wastes with her

Okay, thanks to Mirocu it seems I'm going to be firing up Fallout 3 again. Haven't technically got started yet, but the character's a tech-junkie by the name of Blaine. Energy weapons again, I'll save small guns for my sniper run, this guy won't be doing any sneaking, and I'm aiming to avoid scoring too many critical hits.

His purpose is pretty much to run the MQ then go on to Broken Steel. My sniper character gets the rest of the DLCs.

Quist is a geek! Awesome!

I think the hair was meant for a different race. That is the case when I see that kind of clipping in Oblivion or Skyrim. Though since all the human races are basically the same in FO3... I dunno.

haha she is indeed... But she's a demon with a baseball bat

The hair thing makes sense. Looking back it says the hair was ported from oblivion, wjoch has a different head shape than fallout. It's cool. I'm happy with Quistis' vanilla hairstyle for now

Can't go wrong with Wendy the Welder

I use Hair Pack for my new FO3 hairs. So far all the ones I have tried have fit my character's heads. Not that I have tried them all mind you.

Hmm how odd, thats the one that i use :/ i may have to double check ive installed it right haha

The readme says that if you are using the Saram hairs, you have to download and install the Saram Hair Mod as well, and copy the textures and meshes to your FO3 folder as well. So maybe that is what is causing the issue?

Ugh, so much for Fallout 3

So I create my character, defuse the bomb and a couple of other things in Megaton, deal with Silver peacefully, then head for the super-duper mart. Clear the place out, and head back to Megaton.

End up going toe-to-toe with an Eclave soldier on the way back, courtesy of Broken Steel. My (almost broken) laser pistol versus his laser rifle. His Enclave power armour versus my armoured vault suit.

And it wasn't even an interesting fight, it was a walkover.

You and your Dead is Dead... ...

I'm not saying I died loads, but would never have gotten anywhere if I'd done that...Fallout can be bloody brutal...

Esp New Vegas... ...

Right, in New Vegas it's wise to listen to NPC's advices - if they tell you that you shouldn't go in some direction because there are dangerous beasts ahead, we better listen to them. You can get pwned even by some creatures at mid- and high-levels easily.

I can manage well in FO3 as DiD but FNV is way more difficult. My former character Hoffman died because he hoped that he could sneak past some cazadores. Although it was night and his Sneak was 100, the creatures spotted him. Although he killed them, it was their poison that finished him off and not even 21 stimpaks could help him.

Actually it's quite the reverse.

I mauled the Enclave soldier, in a straight up fight at level 4. With an inferior, almost busted gun and inferior armour.

And that was after clearing out the super duper mart, and no healing items were used.

What should have been a major threat and a full-blown life or death battle was... boring. Just stood there shooting at the Enclave soldier until he keeled over.

Which has really put me off the game. If fighting a better armed and armoured enemy isn't even a challenge, I really don't see any particular reason to keep playing. I'm not saying I want every fight to be life or death, but some challenge would be nice.

You know?

Well damn, CT.

*coughcough*SLIDER*coughcough*


Sorry...


Well, sorry to hear you found it boring, Thorny..

Slider?

There's no slider in Fallout 3, we get a choice of five difficulty settings, at least I think it's five.

Though according to the manual this also increases the XP you get for combat, so you end up leveling faster, which seems a little counter productive.

Maybe playing Gears of War was a mistake...

Well, I'm quite happy playing on very easy, personally...

As the idea of pouring bullets into raiders in places where one would likely do it seems somewhat stupid to me...

I like one-shot kills...Not boring at all...*Le shrug*...

Go visit the Deathclaw Sanctuary, see if they are a challenge. If not, then I agree that it is time to hang up your hat (my character Hidetaka did after clearing the place out with a sword).

Maybe I'll give it another try tomorrow with the sniper.

Blaine was on track to end up a power armoured juggernaut. Not really my preferred style of play, just wanted to check out Broken Steel, you know, go full Brotherhood for it.



I remember checking the place out years back, just to find the armour there. Good fun.

This guy wouldn't stand a chance though.

Well, I probably won´t play FO3 for some time now myself. Going to live in The Cottage™...

I'm happy with default. I wouldn't quit a game after killing some enemies too easily, instead I'd count my blessings. But whatever.

Maybe you're just bored, Callidus.

I'm sorry to hear FO3 wasn't for you CT, but I agree with your thoughts on Enclave difficulty. It's a shame you don't play on PC as i'm sure there are mods to sort that problem.

I always play on east, personally, mainly for the same reason McB does. It makes it more realistic for me that enemies can be bested in one shot to certain places.

Right, some news...

Ahh... I'm afraid things didn't quite work out with Quistis. She was inspired by a character in another game, but as it usually happens when this happens, the lack of an actual 'creator-character connection' comes into effect. so I pulled the plug on her.

I remembered the day I created Lissa. Completely original sprung from a simple idea of a young girl with a big hammer. nothing else was known about her until I created and journeyed with her, so I utilised this in my newest FO3 character!

Eden 'Edie'Halliwell. Literally nothing is known about her just yet, other than the fact it seems she seems to follow Quistis in her personal style (I.E her love for melee combat and secret crush on Butch). She seems very quirky, kind but also quite hot headed. She snapped at her friend Amata quite harshly when told about Jonas's death and her fathers escape from the vault,but it seems Amata didn't hold this against her, leading me to believe that Edie and she usually have disputes, but remain friends. In the wastes she goes by Edie after learning about the corrupt enclave president who shares her name. She was named Eden due to her mothers love of the bible. Eden brings hope and beauty into a baron and destructive world.

In her first hour out in the wasteland she slowly explored the area around Megaton and Springvale, coming across Silver and an Enclave Eyebot. She was very curious about the world she was thrown into. She soon spotted Megaton and headed for it. This is where i stopped playing for the night.

My only plan for her is that I will play up until 'Waters of Life' is completed, and then 'Trouble on the homefront' (as i need that quest completed in order to activate my Amata Companion mod) but from then on it is free rein, which I cant wait for.

I will post some screenies of Edie a bit later.

On a side note, I literally only just noticed the signs outside the Vault 101 door. Although it's a nice little touch... why are there signs? It's not like anybody inside could see them. I imagine the people who had the signs thought the door would have cameras, I don't know. food for thought haha.

Sometimes the 'blank slate' approach is the best one. I've had a few of these for sure.

Isn't the Tutorial hilarious? Do you see what I mean? When I began Joe's game I forgot about the birthday party and all the in-fighting that's going on, and snide little comments. And also the G.O.A.T. I dunno, I was dying with laughter, just about.


Oh whoa, not sure what you mean. I'll have to check this out next time.

The signs say things like "We're Dying You ***ers!" and so on. They are laying with the skeletons right outside the main door of the vault.

Yup, Subrosa's got it! I would take a screenie for you Renee, but as they hve naughty language on the signs I won't risk breaking any rules

Back to the tutorial, the GOAT is rather funny! I had a chuckle with the final question the way he asks it just had me rolling! Also, when Butch's mothe ris getting attacked by radroaches, her response to getting attacked is hilarious, 'Ugh... what's HAPPENING?' haha.

Here is a screenie of Edie. The first African-American character I have played on FO... I don't knoe why but I was surprised to find that James' (dad) race changes based on yours. Haha.

I managed to zoom through Waters of LIfe and Trouble on the Homefront and now have me Amata companion.

I'm going to see if I can also have Corporal Cross... but i think Amata is fine for now.

Now I think Edie and Amata are going to check out one of the strange signals from her radio now... most likely the one down south

Edie is cute. I like her smile.

Aww shucks, thanks! I must admit i spent probably more time than i should have getting her right haha.

Also, i managed to get my hair mod working! Turns out it was a simple change i needed to do in ths .ini. Thank you for your advice, none the less, SubRosa!

I was always wondering why after 'Trouble in the Homefront' with the peaceful way to complete the quest you could never go back to Vault 101. Well today I installed a mod called 'Vault 101 Revisited', and it seems awesome. It basically allows the PC to go back into the vault 30 days after the quest completion to find its opened and is started to connect more with the outside world. It's very diverse, with a bunch of side quests and a main quest line.

My only problem is the quest makes a duplicate Amata, and as I already have my Amata companion, there are two of them, haha. I think when I am ready to do the quest I will have my companion Amata wait somewhere until the quest Amata is no longer needed, then disable her and replace her with my companion Amata. Get me? :/ for now i'll have to ignore that Edie had Amata as a companion in the first place.

Buuuut in the mean time the broadcast Edie decided to investigate was for the Outcasts. ON her way there she went to the Citidel and came across Paladin Cross, who after a short discussion, decided she would travel with Edie, which is awesome! We are heading to the outcasts now, so I will update later!

Edie is pretty, I like her nose the most.

Did a mistake today and chose Friend of the night perk in New Vegas. I didn't know that it "turns on" a really annoying green illumination at 8 PM, I expected more subtle changes. Not to mention that the perk is also active indoors so whenever you enter some building, the light changes to green and when you exit, it requires a second or two to get back to normal light. I removed the perk with the console and added Rapid Reload instead.

Thank you for your comment on Edie she looks a bit different now after I added a cosmetic mod, though.

I 100% agree with you on the Friend of the Night perk. When I first took It I wasn't sure what to expect from it, but in my head I hoped it would brighten some things during the night like enemies and items. But the perk, to me, seems utterly useless.

To Edie, she accomplished Operation Anchorage last night... and it was incredible. I'd never played it, or any of the DLCs before so I had no idea what to expect, but it was SOOO good! I took a couple of screenies, but after the first leg of the quest I got so into it I forgot to take more! haha.

What Edie took away from the quest was a new love for shotguns. She'd never really used guns before and much preferred Melee combat, but after realising how skilled she was with shotguns she decided to take that skill into the real world.

She went to Rivet City afterwards and bought herself a (mod added) pump action shotgun.

I completed OA for the first time in the previous year, and I also liked it. It is often criticised and said to be a disappointment but I was really surprised in a positive way. There are some memorable characters too, my favorite is that young soldier who often joins you on a mission - can't remember his name now.

EDIT: Remembered, it's Benji.

I agree. I think it was quite brave of Bethesda to take a chance and having FO3 (somewhat) purely like the FPS games we have today, and I very much think they succeeded. With the limited health/ammo resources and overall fights, it was a great little addition and experiment. OA very much reminded me of an old Medal of Honor game I used to play... can't remember what one though haha.

Awwah Benji What I wouldn't give to have Benji as a companion outside the simulation. I'm sure it can be done using mods, but I very much like to keep my mods lore friendsly.

I had a lot of fun with Operation Anchorage. I just did not like the FPS things like derezzing enemies and health and ammo refilling stations. I would have preferred the gameplay be the same as the regular game, with stimpacks you could pick up, etc... But that aside, I loved the arctic environment, taking on The Red Menace, and having "Butch" as a sidekick was fun. I know he wasn't the real Butch from Vault 101, but has the same voice, so I kept thinking that. I even created my Winter Soldier Cailleach just for Anchorage.

I could praise OA all day at this rate, haha. I actually have a save just as the quest starts should I wan't to go back (mainly for screenshot purposes haha).

I LOVED your Winter Soldier! I remember some beautiful screenies came about from her, which was partly the reason I grew so eager to play OA. Did you play with her after OA, or did you retire her upon completion?

I KNEW Benji seemed familiar. I didn't know they were the same actor. I did have a lot of love for Benji, and am quite glad he was essential through the whole thing, or if he wasn't I'm glad he was pretty indestructible! He was a darn good companion and, as I said before, I'd love to have him as a lore friendly companion. I know I could make my own lore-friendly and plausible way to have him in game... but I'm awful with that! Haha.

Today Edie and Paladin Cross visited Rivet City. Edie wanted to buy a shotgun after seeing how easy they are for her to use. She saw many, but settled on the Combat Shotgun. They then had a drink at the Muddy Rudder, where Edie bumped into Butch, who she hadn't seen since she helped bring peace to Vault 101. She was thrilled that he was still alive... but of course she'd never let him know that It's such a shame she has such good karma. She'd love to travel with him. Maybe one day. (Butch is a Neutral companion, which is quite annoying haha. We will see... I'm sure Edie can't stay a saint forever )

Following this they decided to travel to the DC ruins via the nearby tunnels. After a rather thrilling journey which included intense raider fights, they ended up at the mall, which was Edie's first visit. After making good with the Ghouls, they spent the night at Carol's place in underworld.

During the night Edie overheard a Galaxy Radio broadcast with Three-Dog specifically asking for her, needing an important favour, saying that she 'owed' him. She figures in the morning she will head on over and see what he wants.*

*All imagination. I managed to get through our first meeting with a speech check, as I HATE the quest where you have to fix the dish. However, I am starting to miss listening to the radio outside of DC, so I will do it now that Edie is in the city.

I only did the dish quest with my first character Ronny years ago...it was funny, because when he fixed the dish, he didn't return to Three Dog at once, but explored on his own instead, so he came upon Rivet City and found out about his father. When he returned to Three Dog many weeks later, he was grateful but said that Ronny "probably doesn't need his help anymore" - it was a nice touch.

---

Moving to the Mojave Wasteland...Stuttgart is on his attackers' trail, right now he's resting at the Wolfhorn ranch and will immediately head to Novac in the morning. Although he came to the Mojave to work as a bounty hunter, finding his attackers and have his revenge are now his priorities.

Here's one pic of Stuttgart - the man with a muttonstache.

Cool guy you got there, Lopov

Thanks.

Stuttgart is back in Novac. He followed his attackers' trail and intercepted some of them at the Boulder City. As it turned out, their leader, a man named Benny, betrayed his thugs and headed for New Vegas. Since he now knows where to find Benny, there isn't any reason to hurry , so Stuttgart will in the meantime discover why have ghouls been attacking Novac lately.

Having a smoke at the motel.

Summer is here and it's time for a new character...

----------------------------------------

His first name is William Robert but everyone calls him Billy Bob, so that's his name in the game. Hot blooded Billy Bob used to spend most of his time on computers, playing pre-war games, practicing shooting skills at the reactor level or participating in boxing matches with Butch and his gang that took place every Friday at night when Overseer was asleep.

But things have gone horribly wrong on the day when his father left the vault. Blinded by anger because of Jonas' death, Billy Bob escaped from the vault, leaving a trail of blood behind him - with an exception of a few security officers, he spared no one, not even the Overseer although he saved Butch's alcoholic mother from the radroaches. Only when he saw tears in Amata's eyes, he came to his senses but it was too late, now there was only one option - to leave Vault 101 and go out, to the harsh Capital Wasteland.

After seeing the sky for the first time and walking among the ruins of Springvale, Billy Bob was attacked by two giant ants and a dirty raider. Exhausted, he made it to Megaton and agreed to look into defusing the bomb so in return sheriff Simms pointed him towards the Moriarty's saloon to search for his father.

*Until today I didn't know that starting the bomb quest gives you an option to ask Simms about Dad once again in which case he tells you that he saw him at Moriarty's.*

Yikes don't get on Billy Bob's bad side!

Ha ha Billy Bob. Very nice. I like his backstory. I should be joining you in the Capitol Wasteland with Joe King soon.

Yeah, looks like he's vengeful.

Maybe they'll go sit down by Potomac and drink some vodka. That is until mudcrabs mirelurks show up.

Now I've played this game for a long time and had several characters that travelled all over the Wasteland but yesterday I met Uncle Leo for the first time. Billy Bob just left Megaton and headed north, when a friendly super mutant comes down the road...I read more about it later and apparently this random encounter is extremely rare so I guess that Billy Bob is lucky to meet him.

In other news, Billy Bob found out that his father headed to the GNR Plaza, warned sheriff Simms about Burke's plot to blow up Megaton, and later saved Simms' life when Burke wanted to shoot him in the back. After eating some mentats, he successfully defused the undetonated bomb and was rewarded with a cozy shack above the Brass Lantern.

Right now he's resting in the Farragut West Metro station, after having a rather dangerous encounter with Sam Warrick by the Potomac.