Fallout 3!

[Upsilon]

Spoiler:

Killing the overseer. Why oh why does Bethesda never give you a way to just knock people out? I wanted the girl to like me, not hate me forever.

Spoiler:

Why can't you just use V.A.T.S to shoot his gun arm?

[Voco]

Spoiler:

What? shoot his gun arm? That's not going to do any good. He's a pretty timid guy; he won't attack you at all unless you attack him first (or express intent to do so.) You can just kill the guard without the overseer interfering, then talk to him and get him to give you his key/password. He'll just stand there, angry but apparently too afraid of you to make a move.

[Phen]

Can't you change graphics settings in the starting menu, when you're not really inside the game yet? I just used it to up the resolution, but it looked like the place to do such stuff.

[Fossa]

I got it for PC today and just started playing. I really, REALLY like the intro sequence. Although there was a small piece I didn't enjoy:

Spoiler:

Killing the overseer. Why oh why does Bethesda never give you a way to just knock people out? I wanted the girl to like me, not hate me forever.

Also, if anyone could give me help on this, it would be appreciated:

Spoiler:

Where the hell is the Family of Blood located? I checked all three places and didn't find anyone. Except for a few dudes down in the metro station, but they weren't the Family.

And of course they had to release this game the day before I have my math midterm. And then have another midterm on Thursday. Goodbye grades!

First question:

Spoiler:

You don't have to kill the overseer. I just left him alive. You can get the key to his office and his password from elsewhere. End result? Girl likes me.

Second question:

Spoiler:

I assume by "dudes in the subway" you mean the ghouls making ultrajet. Try asking them about the family (there's a way to get to them through that subway station).

Now for my own experiences.

I'm playing like myself the first time through (read: Lawful good). Yes, evil can be more fun, but that helps add to the replay value in my mind. The first time through I'm bending over backwards to help and do right by everyone (give or take a few stolen bobby pins and stimpacks). I'll see the vast majority of the content this way.

Next play through? Well, I'll be blowing up the town with all these side quests in it in the first 10 minutes.

Spoiler type stuff:

Spoiler:

Holy crap. Telling Simms about Burke's plan to blow up the town? Awesomeness if you haven't done it. Simms arrests Burke who says he'll come quietly then tries to pull a silenced pistol and waste Simms. I got my vats up first and emptied three bursts from my assault rifle into Burke's head, saving Simms's life. End result? I got my a house! And a silenced pistol and some sweet threads.

Anyone know if Arkansas has any special role to play? A part of me wants to kill him for his sniper rifle, but the fact that he *has* a name makes me suspect that hes actually important...

[Phen]

I got it for PC today and just started playing. I really, REALLY like the intro sequence. Although there was a small piece I didn't enjoy:

Spoiler:

Killing the overseer. Why oh why does Bethesda never give you a way to just knock people out? I wanted the girl to like me, not hate me forever.

Also, if anyone could give me help on this, it would be appreciated:

Spoiler:

Where the hell is the Family of Blood located? I checked all three places and didn't find anyone. Except for a few dudes down in the metro station, but they weren't the Family.

And of course they had to release this game the day before I have my math midterm. And then have another midterm on Thursday. Goodbye grades!

First question:

Spoiler:

You don't have to kill the overseer. I just left him alive. You can get the key to his office and his password from elsewhere. End result? Girl likes me.

Second question:

Spoiler:

I assume by "dudes in the subway" you mean the ghouls making ultrajet. Try asking them about the family (there's a way to get to them through that subway station).

Now for my own experiences.

I'm playing like myself the first time through (read: Lawful good). Yes, evil can be more fun, but that helps add to the replay value in my mind. The first time through I'm bending over backwards to help and do right by everyone (give or take a few stolen bobby pins and stimpacks). I'll see the vast majority of the content this way.

Next play through? Well, I'll be blowing up the town with all these side quests in it in the first 10 minutes.

Spoiler type stuff:

Spoiler:

Holy crap. Telling Simms about Burke's plan to blow up the town? Awesomeness if you haven't done it. Simms arrests Burke who says he'll come quietly then tries to pull a silenced pistol and waste Simms. I got my vats up first and emptied three bursts from my assault rifle into Burke's head, saving Simms's life. End result? I got my a house! And a silenced pistol and some sweet threads.

Anyone know if Arkansas has any special role to play? A part of me wants to kill him for his sniper rifle, but the fact that he *has* a name makes me suspect that hes actually important...

Regarding the sheriff thing:

Spoiler:

You also get the house if you disarm the bomb. I tried telling the sheriff just for fun about Simm's plan, but something wierded up and I just reloaded. I'm too goody-goody to blow it up (at this playthough, anyhow)

I have a question, but I don't think it's sooo spoilerriffic, although the answer might be. Does anyone know if it's possible to get power-armor training?

[Fossa]

Haven't gotten anywhere near far enough in the game to answer your question. More squeeing over my exploits though...

Spoiler:

Killing Burke was worth it for the silenced pistol alone. That thing is amazing. It doesn't alert enemies to your presence so you can kill people with headshots while sneaking and remain hidden. In the supermarket I managed to go through 3 raiders without alerting the other two by getting sneak attack crits on them in the VATS system. Coolest slow-mo camera work ever.

[Phen]

Arh, now I'm becoming sad I didn't get him while I had the chance. Ah well...

Anyone tried the wasteland-survival guide quests?

Spoiler:

If you tell her that she shouldn't write the book, 'cause people will get hurt you get a "dreamchrusher" perk that makes crits to yourself do 50% less dam.

[Xaddak]

Edited for clarity.

It is possible to train power armour, by following the main quest (or so I hear).

My question: Where is my damn powerfirst? I found a unique one, but it broke - so I assaulted the Super Duper Mart as seen in the 5-part video to get one, and hey-o, it ain't there. Now, I wasn't expecting it to be in the exact same spot on the ground, but at least in the building would be nice.

Am I just screwed out of the only weapon that seems to make an Unarmed character worthwhile? Do I need to h4x? Is there no generic "Power Fist", only the unique two that I found in a guide on GameFAQs? What's going on?

[Phen]

I've only encountered a powerfist in the manual... Havn't seen any in the super duper market. I have, however, found miniguns, flamethrowers and swords. Not that I'm using them, unfortunately.

[Rippy]

Another comment: This game is hard. I was playing on normal, and bumped it down to easy after a while, and I still end up dying all the time (this is when advancing the main story). Seriously, it pits you against 3 or 4 mutants, each of which take almost your entire VATS to kill (and my character has ~70 Small Arms).

The big guns are a lot of fun, too. Find the Fat Man if you can, it makes a pretty explosion.

[Upsilon]

I'll probably be getting Fallout 3 tomorrow.

So. Energy Weapons as the only combat tag skill I have. Bad idea?

[Voco]

Spoiler:

Actually, no, I've found laser pistols and their ammunition to be quite plentiful, starting at super-duper mart. They're in crappy condition, of course, and they're the only energy weapon I've seen yet, but they're nothing like as rare as in the original games.

While it's not what I did, you can get by with an energy weapons specialization, I think.

[Xaddak]

I now have power armour on! Is very nice...

[Wolf]

I now have power armour on! Is very nice...

Awesome! How far into the game are you? (I want power armor. . .)

[Voco]

Well, I can't speak for Xaddak, but I also found some power armor and I'm...

Spoiler:

...Not very far at all. I took a while to get here, but you could get here right away. After (by whatever means you favor) you find where your father went after Megaton, you will run into some Brotherhood of Steel soldiers, including a wounded (and now dead) one from whom you can loot your first set. Assuming you don't spend any time exploring or doing non-critical quests, (which would be a terrible waste, don't do that) you could probably get to it in half an hour.

I'm still on the lookout for Dogmeat, though.

[Rippy]

Well, I can't speak for Xaddak, but I also found some power armor and I'm...

Spoiler:

...Not very far at all. I took a while to get here, but you could get here right away. After (by whatever means you favor) you find where your father went after Megaton, you will run into some Brotherhood of Steel soldiers, including a wounded (and now dead) one from whom you can loot your first set. Assuming you don't spend any time exploring or doing non-critical quests, (which would be a terrible waste, don't do that) you could probably get to it in half an hour.

I'm still on the lookout for Dogmeat, though.

Yeah, but you can't actually wear it at that point. It tells you you need training in power armour. I ended up dropping that set because I was becoming too encumbered and it wasn't doing me any good.

[Phen]

Well, I can't speak for Xaddak, but I also found some power armor and I'm...

Spoiler:

...Not very far at all. I took a while to get here, but you could get here right away. After (by whatever means you favor) you find where your father went after Megaton, you will run into some Brotherhood of Steel soldiers, including a wounded (and now dead) one from whom you can loot your first set. Assuming you don't spend any time exploring or doing non-critical quests, (which would be a terrible waste, don't do that) you could probably get to it in half an hour.

I'm still on the lookout for Dogmeat, though.

Yeah, but you can't actually wear it at that point. It tells you you need training in power armour. I ended up dropping that set because I was becoming too encumbered and it wasn't doing me any good.

Exactly the reason I asked. I just stashed it in my house. That fatman thing... I think the game told me to pick it up from one of the paladins at the

Spoiler:

super mutant behemoth attacking the GNR building

, but I died before I had the chance. And when I reloaded it didn't happen.

... Why do you want dogmeat? Can you actually use those meats you find?

Also... Centaurs are freaking scary! I had never seen any before I purged a church somewhere in the wastelands of mutants... Pretty easy to take out from a distance though.

I'll probably be getting Fallout 3 tomorrow.

So. Energy Weapons as the only combat tag skill I have. Bad idea?

I found a laser rifle pretty quickly in

Spoiler:

the metro on the way to GNR

. I'm into small weapons, though, so I can't use it.

[Jebobek]

This first run-through I'm acting as a super-polite guy who does all the quests, but carries nothing but Big guns and blows anything that defies me into nothingness. Now only if I can find myself a big gun....

I'm working on the research book quest. I got sidetracked by the fire ant quest and now I don't know how the hell to get over to the other side of the river to get to the rodents I must scare off with my stick. I guess jump down into the subway again?

I like the skill-alignment system by the way. I'm guessing its very similar to fallout 1/2? Everytime you level you put the points into where ever you want them. So I never even touched a big gun but I'm still putting points into them. At first it seemed weird because I'm used to practicing the skill to level up in Oblivion, but now I'm really liking it. It keeps you going at the same pace; you're never breaking from the questing or killing in order to grind that XXXX skill up to 25. In fallout 3 if you wanna train skills you go out and kill stuff/quest till you level up.

[SecondTalon]

... Why do you want dogmeat? Can you actually use those meats you find?

Dogmeat.

[Jebobek]

I ran into tons of wild dogs when I was first outside, and they all have "dogmeat" on them. So I understand the confusion.

So apparently the box version has Securom-lite on it, known as "Securom 7". I'm wondering if the Steam version has it.. people on Amazon.com say it does not but I dunno. I kind of don't care cause I've already gotten a bigger dose of Securom from Spore and there were no problems. From the complaints, I gather that the install does not work if you have a certain copy of Nero on your computer. What bothers me is that Bethesda told us that it would just be an online check of the Key.

[jerdak]

I'm working on the research book quest. I got sidetracked by the fire ant quest and now I don't know how the hell to get over to the other side of the river to get to the rodents I must scare off with my stick. I guess jump down into the subway again?

- Do you have the wharf or whatever it's called on your fast travel? Assuming you haven't found the war memorial yet this is the closest location. There is a bridge right next to it leading to said rodents.

Regarding securom, I've heard stories on the Bethsoft forums of people having Securom issues with their steam copy. I guess there is a link to a Securom patch. I'd post it here but most of these sites are blocked from work.... go figure I can still access xkcd.

Lastly:

Another comment: This game is hard. I was playing on normal, and bumped it down to easy after a while, and I still end up dying all the time (this is when advancing the main story). Seriously, it pits you against 3 or 4 mutants, each of which take almost your entire VATS to kill (and my character has ~70 Small Arms).

Have you tried hiding? The first place I found after Megaton was some church with 4 super mutators, 1 of who had a minigun. I'm playing on hard and I only have a small arms skill of 60% but I managed (8 stimpacks + 40x10mm bullets). You just need to pull them 1 at a time and use the rocks for cover. If that doesn't work just run up, vats em in the face, and then run around a corner. Or use zoom and shoot em manually.

[Xaddak]

Actual spoilers concerning the main story

Spoiler:

So I just beat the main quest line, so I guess technically I beat "the game".

I made a character just for the story - a good guy, Unarmed based, wearing power armor, and wielding a power fist and spiked knuckles. I had Fawkes following me during the final assault on the Jefferson Memorial, wielding his gatling laser and carting around a set of Tesla Armor for me - which it turned out came in handy at the end, or so I thought it would, when I chose to be the one to go into the lethally radioactive control room.

"Aha," I thought. "I'll put on my Tesla Armor, and pop a couple Rad-X, and I'll be as invulnerable to radiation as you can get, and then I have, what, 14 Rad-Away packs? I'll be fine!"

So I go in, I'm traipsing around getting lightly irradiated (mostly 1-3, up to 6 I think was the worst), but I guess I walked around the control room circle the long way, because it did the boom-whiteout-insert-plot-here cut-scene and killed me anyway. I don't like how the game is forced to end when you beat the main quest. I was pretty invulnerable to radiation there, I would have had to waited for quite some time to be killed by it, assuming I was just sitting there, and not using any of my medicine to slow the advance of radiation sickness.

One of the things I didn't like was the death of Dad. I kind of did want to start the Purifier with him still alive - I wish the game would gives you choices instead of railroading you in places like that, with stupid things like a glass door. There I am, wielding a power fist that I just used to punch the head off of an armored Enclave soldier, and I'm stumped by a piece of glass? No. Give me a CHANCE, even if it is just a fake one, to save Dad. Like maybe as I walk into the room I see Dad dying, in a similar way to Vault 101 closing at the start of the game, where it only starts to shut when you're far enough away that no matter how fast you move, you can't get back in. Give me the illusion of having a chance if not a REAL chance.

Other than that, I liked the story, short though it was. The simulation in Vault Whatever and the trek through the example vault in the Museum of Technology were two of the weirdest experiences I've ever had in a game - massive kudos to whoever made those parts of the game. It honestly seemed like anything to do with any of the vaults got pretty creepy - the vault where you meet Fawkes, I guess that was the source of the Super Mutants?

So all in all, it was good. I'm currently playing an evil, sneaky, thieving bastard type character, but I blew up Megaton and now I'm kind of lost about what to do. It seems like the only quests are to help people, except a rare few like The Power of the Atom.

[Amnesiasoft]

Another tip: VATS the minigun to death.

[Rippy]

Another comment: This game is hard. I was playing on normal, and bumped it down to easy after a while, and I still end up dying all the time (this is when advancing the main story). Seriously, it pits you against 3 or 4 mutants, each of which take almost your entire VATS to kill (and my character has ~70 Small Arms).

Have you tried hiding? The first place I found after Megaton was some church with 4 super mutators, 1 of who had a minigun. I'm playing on hard and I only have a small arms skill of 60% but I managed (8 stimpacks + 40x10mm bullets). You just need to pull them 1 at a time and use the rocks for cover. If that doesn't work just run up, vats em in the face, and then run around a corner. Or use zoom and shoot em manually.

Yeah, I try to get them one by one if I can (basically by shooting one, then hiding and waiting for my VATS to recharge before attacking again). I kind of like the difficulty level, though, despite the occasional frustration, because it really fits the wasteland setting. You really feel the urgency of getting to wear you're trying to go so you can rest up and repair your gear.

One thing I wish, though, was that rifles were actually reasonably accurate. Even when aiming with them, I find it's hard to hit someone from even medium distance. I can understand VATS giving low accuracy percentages because it's meant to be used in closer quarters, but it'd be nice you had the option to attack at long range. Maybe I just haven't found the right weapon yet.

[Delbin]

Powerfists started showing up for me at about level 13sh? I'm not sure if they're unique since I'm not much of a meleer. I'll keep track when I play some more. Sometimes you get a weapon really early and don't see them on enemies for another few levels. It took about 3 hours of playing to find another 10mm submachine gun and now they're everywhere.

The difficulty has been a small turnoff for me. I'm not minding the dying so much. It's more that it takes so many bullets to kill someone and finding more ammo can be very difficult. It might be my fault for not focusing more points in the weapon skills. I'm only at 60 or so, so I might just be paying for having points elsewhere.

I know it's part of the gameplay to be scrounging around for tools and weapons to just get by, but does my gun really need to dissolve after 100 shots? I feel like I'm spending most of my time looking for ammo and hoarding valuables to repair my stuff instead of progressing the story or exploring for its own sake. The worst was doing the big quest to install an item in the washington monument to get a key to open a cache with maybe 4 clips of ammunition. This is all with the perk to find extra ammo.

And here it's the end of my shift and I haven't talked about any of the good things. Next time

[Phen]

Huh, I don't even remember what the difficulty was set to, if it even asked me. I'm having no trouble at all, only times I've died was jumping from really high places to try and cripple my leg or being beat in the face by a behemoth mutant. There's times where it's tough to get ammo, but right now I'm having plenty once again. Got the ammo-scavenging feat as well.

Finally found a silenced pistol, too, but it just doesn't pack enough of a punch compared to my trusty hunting rifle that sometimes takes out the super mutants in one shot if they havn't spotted me yet, or the chinese assault rifle.

It's still awesome. I'm currently in the museum of tech (I'm here because the game crashed :S). It was damn creepy walking through the mock-up vault...

PS. Has anyone found a use for all the meats you get from enemies (including dog-meat, yes).

[Rippy]

Well I just played for a few hours, and had a bunch of hilarious moments:

Main story spoilers:

Spoiler:

- When I came back to the Galaxy Radio Station after installing that satellite dish, I entered the building and had several Brotherhood soldiers exclaim "wow, that thing was HUGE!" I realized they were talking about that giant mutant, but the innuendo made me laugh.
- I killed Three Dog immediately after completing the mission. Then strolled out of the building unharmed, wearing his clothes, glasses and do-rag.
- And yet, I turned on Galaxy Radio after exiting the building, and he was talking! Magic!

But the very best part was,
- In Rivet city I turned on one of the antique radios, and heard a female voice say something like the following:
"Ok, we're gonna be playing just music right now. Why? Because some asshole murdered our DJ." *music plays*

- And finally, at night in Rivet city I was able to kill the two people guarding the market, and loot the entire thing. So basically, I got a combat shotgun, chinese rifle, tons of drugs, and best of all, noone else in the city suspects me.

Has anyone else found a combat shotgun? They are sweet. They do a bit more damage than a sawed-off shotgun, but they have a 12 shots to the clip. I stopped playing before I had to fire it several times in a row, so I don't know if it's semi-auto or what, but it's still great.

[Phen]

Had a combat shotgun for a long while, although it rarely sees action. I prefer my chinese assault rifle I wonder if it would've been a better idea to have gone for energy weapons at the start, though.

You can really be a bastard. I'm just playing it as a good guy, who won't hesitate to decapitate the bad ones with gunshots, though. I went up to paradise falls and nearly became a slaver.

I agree with the rifle accuracy-thing. I almost picked the Commando perk, but I figured that if I was trying to shoot far away I wouldn't be using VATS anyhow.

[Upsilon]

I picked this up today. I have Energy Weapons, Small Arms, and Repair as my Tag skills. Energy Weapons because I know they'll eventually be useful, Small Arms because they're freaking everywhere, and Repair because I figure it will save me a ton of money.

I saved Megaton. My main reason in doing this is that I have a robot butler who tells jokes.

"A neutron goes into a bar and asks 'How much for a drink around here, anyway?' the barkeep says 'For you? No charge.'"

[BumpInTheNight]

But the very best part was,
- In Rivet city I turned on one of the antique radios, and heard a female voice say something like the following:
"Ok, we're gonna be playing just music right now. Why? Because some asshole murdered our DJ." *music plays*

I just LOLed, man I love this game.

Has anyone else found a combat shotgun? They are sweet. They do a bit more damage than a sawed-off shotgun, but they have a 12 shots to the clip. I stopped playing before I had to fire it several times in a row, so I don't know if it's semi-auto or what, but it's still great.

Its a god-send, between it and the hunting rifle almost all situations are covered. Yah you can indeed fire 12 shots quickly/consecutively before reload, I find it extremely useful for interior settings where the quarters are cramped and you know you'll be swarmed (feral ghoul nests etc). On that note I'm beginning to dread walking through the subways, I just met a ghoul that isn't exactly normal and he took way too many shots for my comfort level, I backed out promptly and took up another quest

Spoiler:

"Glowing one" was its title, it was all lit up and glowy. Found him in the subways leading towards the washington monument

[Xaddak]

I think every house has a wisecracking robot butler.

[Jack Saladin]

So, I just started playing, and within an hour I've run into a massive glitch. Whenever I sit down to do the GOAT test, nothing happens and I'm just stuck at an empty desk.

I check online, and apparently it's a common problem. Fuck yeah, Bethesda.

[Amnesiasoft]

You don't HAVE to take the G.O.A.T. Just go lie to your dad about being sick. Sure you'll miss an achievement, but yeah...

[thecommabandit]

Played it. Love it. I do most of the shooting in VATS since I tagged Explosives, Repair and Science. Spoilers since I don't want to ruin it for anyone:

Spoiler:

The first thing I love about this game is the first-person reloading animations. Two examples: with the combat shotgun, you pull the empty drum off, load the new drum on and pull some lever at the front. After moving your hand away you go back and cock it again because it's a two-hundred year-old piece of junk. And the scoped .44 magnum: you pull the spinny bit out (what's that called anyway? magazine?), empty the cases, load the new rounds in and flick it back in. After a second you flick it back out, fiddle with it for a bit, spin it a few times to make sure it's working and then flick it back in again. And apparently the cocking lever on my Chinese assault rifle is a bit dodgy, too. As is the battery port for my laser pistol.

I'm just looking forward to finding a laser rifle and a decent amount of ammo for it. I've found plenty of shells (but my combat shotgun broke recently and the sawed-off one is painfully inaccurate) and other stuff, but I used most of my 5.62 and .32 rounds with my assault rifle and hunting rifle while clearing out ants for "Those!". Found plenty of energy cells but not many microfusion cells.

I'm just waiting the find the shishkabob schematic. I've been hoarding a bunch of lawnmower blades, brake handles and motorbike tanks for a while now.

[Delbin]

Spoiler:

I'm just waiting the find the shishkabob schematic. I've been hoarding a bunch of lawnmower blades, brake handles and motorbike tanks for a while now.

Spoiler:

I was given the schematic for helping out The Family early on in the game. I haven't found any brake handels or morobike tanks, though. I mouseover any motorcycle I see, but so far no luck. I've been checking every box and cabinet I've come across as well.

I'm still getting used to the atmosphere. Sometimes it all feels grey and samey like a lot of games do when they try to be super realistic. The only bright colors you see are from radioactive mushrooms. Even so, the environments feel very meticulously detailed. Even when a building doesn't have an explorable interior you get a kind of lived-in sense that makes you believe people tried to make a last stand there. One example is the small town northeast of your starting area that has all the houses barricaded with sandbags.

Lately I've been killing people at range with a hunting rifle and the two perks that give you VATS accuracy for head shot and for using a rifle. They appear to stack. Often times I have a better chance hitting the head than the body.

[Phen]

Regarding the burny and slashy-schematic:

Spoiler:

I think I found the motorcycle handbrake and gas tank in the super duper market. I got two schematics for the shishkebob, so I have the v2 instead. It's 10% burnier and slashier.

I'm a little concerned that it might've been a stupid idea to get 3 ranks of the perk that gives 10% extra xp since I found out the max level is capped at 20. But it's going fine so far.

Delbin, have you noticed any considerable difference with the commando perk? I almost picked it, but then got the Strong back instead, since I was sick of having to run back and forth all the time.

[Rippy]

I found a gas tank and brake handle in this rebel outpost-type place above a subway entrance somewhere along the route to Galaxy Radio. At first I took them because I was sure I could stick them in a broken motorcycle and get to use it, but later I noticed their icons were the junk icon so I threw them out. What are they for?

I agree with the amount of depth in the game. Sure, there's still things like how murder doesn't seem to carry across rooms, and the AI is sometimes a bit funny, but there's so many things done right too. Just about everybody has a name and their own dialogue. Buildings are linear so you don't get lost, but also have tons of openable side doors so it doesn't feel as much like the building has improbably collapsed into a single route. And those little fine touches like the Galaxy Radio changing (see my last post).

And yes, my character is leaving a trail of murder and destruction everywhere he goes. It's even a little unnerving to kill an amicable lone trader and steal his gear (surprise discovery: unlike in Oblivion, everything traders have for sale is considered part of their inventory, and so can be looted from a corpse or presumably pickpocketed), but it's a disturbingly fun experience nonetheless. I intend to kill the father after finding him, since the game hints that by saying "Be nice when you find your father... Or not." It'd better be possible.

[Xaddak]

"No job is too nasty for the mecenaries of the Talon Company. If you encounter these cold-blooded killers, be prepared for a fight to the death." Game hint on a loading screen, I'm sure I got it wrong, but you get the idea

Now: a fight to the death, as opposed to...? All the Raiders, Slavers, random robots, super mutants, feral ghouls, and wild animals that just want to be friends?

[Jebobek]

Regarding perks, I've been putting points constantly into things like "get an extra point to put into Str/Agi/Int" or "everytime you level you have more points to spend on whatever." I think its a boring thing to do but I'd like to see how it pans out when I hit lvl 20.

Did anyone invest in the bloody perk? How much different does it look?

Yea I was a little wary on the +10%xp one. This first character I plan on getting to lvl 20 and maxing him out. I'll probably invest in +10%xp next time around so that I can do speed runs.

[Xaddak]

I've used the Bloody Mess perk. It only really makes a difference on melee characters or when you don't go for headshots, since a good headshot seems to cause the head to explode anyway.