Spoiler Warning S5E1: The Death and Life of Reginald Cuftbert

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Apr 6, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 285 comments

You knew this was coming, didn’t you? You’re smart like that. Yes, we’re doing Fallout: New Vegas. Also, don’t miss this rare guest appearance by Randy Johnson. (The Spoiler Warning host, not the baseball player.)


Link (YouTube)

Youtube has given us more room. We can now upload videos greater than fifteen minutes in length. Given the extreme length of Fallout 3, and the likely length of New Vegas, we’ve decided to bump up our episodes to twenty minutes. This just means we’ll be putting out an hour and twenty minutes of show a week, instead of just an hour.

This is actually a huge bonus for us. One of the biggest headaches of Mass Effect 2 was when our episodes would run just a little bit long. It would eat an enormous amount of Josh’s time, editing and trimming to get the episode under the limit. You can’t just cut a whole minute from one spot and leave a hole in the episode. You can’t just fast-forward without breaking the continuous flowing conversation. If you just chop the episode early, then that extra minute of footage winds up in the next episode, thus perpetuating the problem. (We record episodes four at a time.) So Josh would have to reclaim that minute by painstakingly trimming away a few seconds at a time.

Now that the limit is lifted, this isn’t a problem. If we spill over to 21 minutes, it’s no big deal.

And yes, we began playing without turning on the subtitles or turning off Steam notifications. This is only our fifth season. I’m sure we’ll get good at this eventually.

 


From The Archives:
 

285 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning S5E1: The Death and Life of Reginald Cuftbert

  1. David Armstrong says:

    This will be the first game you guys have done that I haven’t played.

    Here’s for hoping I can still figure out what’s going on. All the other SW’s that’ve been done, the action was always incomprehensible, but my own experience could fill in the gaps.

    Best of luck!

  2. Nyctef says:

    Yay Spoiler Warning is back \o/

    1. psivamp says:

      Yay! More puppets — I mean Spoiler Warning. Yay!

  3. somebodys_kid says:

    More Spoiler Warning, hooray! But I haven’t even bought New Vegas yet!
    Hmmm, to watch and enjoy or not to watch to not spoil….

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Go ahead,watch it.Sure,some things will be spoiled,but the game has so much interesting content and various factions that you can still play it afterwards and enjoy it just as much.

      1. somebodys_kid says:

        You’ve convinced me, it shall be watched!

        1. Fat Tony says:

          That was easy.

  4. Patrick the Underutilized says:

    It’s ok…I only played New Vegas 3 times through…I couldn’t be of any use to this project.

    (Elitist siblings and mumble mumble…..grumble… shoulda thrown a bigger rock…..grumble mumble….)

  5. Eddie says:

    The implementation of DLC items was something that really bugged me in Dragon Age Origins. Not so much the balance issues (although the Blood Dragon Armour was one of the most powerful armour sets for the entire game), but that none of it ever made sense for the character to start out with. I think the worst example was from the Leliana’s Song DLC; you get special armour if you complete a quest and it transfers into the main game, but it just dumps it into your inventory at the start of the game instead of, oh I don’t know, having it be one of Leliana’s posessions.

    1. Raygereio says:

      Well, to be fair the Blood Dragon armour was balanced in that by the time you had the strength to wear it and the money to get the full set, you prety much already had access to other gear with equal stats.

      But yeah; random dumping of items in your inventory was weird. DA2 didn’t improve things in that regard: “Here, have an item in your mailbox.”

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Indeed,I hate these cheap dlc dump ins.Why not make the purchasable in shops after some time,or something like that?But I guess that would require so much more effort than just dumping everything in your inventory from the very beginning.

        1. psivamp says:

          I think that people might feel cheated if they have to pay real and virtual money for something.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Um,why?When you buy a dlc that is a bonus mission or something,you still have to play through it to get rewards.

            1. psivamp says:

              Not saying that I would feel cheated, but I can see it happening that people would feel cheated to pay real money then have to find their special item in the game world and pay for it again.

              The first set of after-market bonus items in a game I played was in a copy of Baldur’s Gate II, they added a store full of stuff — it was right there in the main city, but it was pricey. I didn’t have a problem with that, but for smaller scale additions like a single set of armor or something, I can see people wanting to just have it.

    2. Veloxyll says:

      It bugged me in both DA games. Especially since aswas mentioned, it’s usually not balanced for when you get it, so you either break the game right from the start, or don’t use your DLC. Either way I don’t feel like I got my $10 worth out of it.

      The scaling sword in DA2 wasn’t so bad, except you fight Darkspawn, THEN you check your mail and get an Anti-Darkspawn sword.

    3. superglucose says:

      You’re commenting on balance issues in DA and claiming it’s because an ARMOR was too powerful? o.O

      Try playing a mage. Now stop going “SQUEEEEEE FIIIIIRE!” and actually pick good spells, like Paralyze and Mass Paralyze and Bloodmagic level 2 and Force Fields and Crushing Prison.

      Yeah that game had balance issues long before the DLC :P

      1. Jarenth says:

        I won every fight by just casting Earthquake, Blizzard and Tempest on the same area and subsequently watching every enemy fall down and die over and over.

        All Dragon Age magic is broken. I think that was a plot point in Dragon Age 2.

  6. Dude says:

    I haven’t played New Vegas. And now I won’t have to! More time for PS:T. Hooray!

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      You still can.Unlike fallout 3,it is a fun game with actual replay value.Even with all the frustrating bugs it had in the beginning.

      1. Dude says:

        I’m saving it for 2012 now. Way too many games on my plate to get through before I can sink a hundred hours in just one again!

  7. Passing Comment says:

    I always start giggling whenever I see Doc because he looks almost exactly like Canadian politician Jack Layton.

    1. Nonesuch says:

      He does look like old walrus-stache!
      It’d be funnier if he sounded the same.

  8. Chris B Chikin says:

    I’m surprised you didn’t make a point of the fact that Doc just gave you his Pip-Boy. You, a complete stranger who he knows nothing about* gives you a possession he’s probably had for the better part of at least fifty years.You won’t have been his first patient – probably not even his first patient who was a drifter who might need it. Also there’s that thing from Operation Anchorage (assuming that steaming pile of crap is canon) which more or less relied on the fact that Pip-Boys cannot be removed.

    To me it just felt like an immensely contrived way to give you a Pip-Boy, and could have been fixed just by him instead saying “Hey, I treated this other guy a few weeks back – looks like he came out o’ one o’ them vaults. Poor sod didn’t make it but he had this jumpsuit and this mechanical whatsit. I got no use for ’em, so might as well give ’em to you. Here ya go.”

    *Assuming Reginald Cuftbert’s reputation has not preceded him in his trip from Washington.

    1. Jakey says:

      EDIT: Speculative theory that involves MINOR SPOILERS and as of yet unseen major characters, for those who haven’t played the game.

      Ah, but didn’t Doc come from Vault 21 that was owned by Mr.House? In between Victor digging you up and the Doc deciding to patch-up an almost dead guy with a bullet in his head, who’s to say he isn’t paid off/an agent of Mr.House, who’s lying to you through his teeth? This theory makes quite a bit of sense if you can’t get past the fact that they shoehorned in Fallout’s signature item.

    2. Someone says:

      I was more annoyed by their insistence on giving you the vault jumpsuit. The pipboy is fine – so they didn’t want to come up with another convenient wrist-mounted personal health and inventory manager, who cares. But the suit is completely unnecessary for anything other than keeping the bizarre tradition. It’s like the Doc stops you on your way out and goes: “psst, sonny, you’re not actually a Vault dweller, but that’s okay, take this suit and this pipboy and they’ll be none the wiser!“.

    3. Tever says:

      “Also there's that thing from Operation Anchorage […] which more or less relied on the fact that Pip-Boys cannot be removed.”

      Made me think the Pip-Boy you get from him came from his dead wife. Which makes it even more weird that he’d give it to a random stranger. I think I’ll go with Jakey’s theory from now on. It doesn’t hurt my brain.

      1. Deadpool says:

        Well, to be honest, the unremovable Pip Boy was a Bethesda thing, and this was made by Obsidian and (thankfully) followed Fallout 2 cannon more than Fallout 3…

      2. Anon says:

        “Made me think the Pip-Boy you get from him came from his dead wife.”

        Hur hur! Hey boy, you got a purty mouth! take this pip-boy! hur hur!

        …Creepy.

        1. Whither Canada says:

          Well, I kinda went with the whole “it was probably his dead wife’s” but I took it as being way less creepy. Like, he didn’t really like having it around because it reminded him too much of her. So Doc pawned it off on a guy he saw that looked like he could use it, as soon he was ready to give it up.

  9. Nonesuch says:

    I didn’t actually finish playing this while I had the chance, but compared to Fallout 3? Much more enjoyable to run around, the system of upgrading weapons is particularly enjoyable to my reflexes.

    I think this season will be particularly enjoyable.

  10. Nyaz says:

    Woohoo! New season of Spoiler Warning! Finally~

    Oh, and I really like the new end credits thing you’ve done there.

  11. Thadius Girth says:

    The thing that bothered me most about New Vegas was that most of the weapons are highly ineffectual. I actually went through the data files and tripled all weapon damage just so combat would be more intense and rewarding, not to mention more realistic. And yes, hardcore mode is a pain in the ass.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      It never bothered me.Though I did play a strong melee character,so I could haul bunch of drinkies and food with me.So I had only sleep to worry about,because the rest I kept down whenever I healed myself.

      1. psivamp says:

        I played through three times with wildly different combat specs and I’m almost entirely certain that my melee/unarmed character had it the easiest.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          It is.Which is why Josh picked that build,I guess.

        2. Khizan says:

          Oddly, I found that my cowboy character had it easiest, largely because the .45-70 govt guns are so powerful sand cowboy is a massive damage boost to them. Killing Caesar took me 1 bullet per person for him and the praetorians, iirc.

        3. BenD says:

          The problem is that unarmed/melee requires you be able to press buttons fast. I think? I assume? It does when I try it. And I am way, way better at pressing buttons slowly.

          From a great distance.
          While crouching.
          XD

          1. Piflik says:

            Well…Unarmed/Melee is definitely not the easiest in New Vegas…ever tried to kill a pack of Deathclaws up close? Even wih the best armor and Unarmed/Melee Weapons that is completely impossible. Killing them with a Gauss/AM Rifle is by far easier.

          2. Daemian Lucifer says:

            You dont have to press the buttons fast.You can press and hold the button,then release when you get near.

            Or,you can use vats.

  12. Raygereio says:

    Please Shamus, more vitriol next time; I don't know if my fragile heart can take the excitement of you saying nice things about an Obsidian game.
    ;)

    And dear Ao, that picture is two bears high fiving. I don’t know how I never saw that.

    1. Sleeping Dragon says:

      The first time I saw that? Two frozen, headless chickens dancing XD

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Canadian flag.(Im not from canada though)

        1. Piflik says:

          I saw two Sumos high-fiving…

          1. Kojiro says:

            Two circus elephants standing on their hind legs and touching their trunks together. Which is sort of an elephant high-five I guess.

            1. Abnaxis says:

              I first heard the bear-high-five thing from Ruts and Jibar over at Chocolate hammer, and now I can’t ever see that inkblot without giggling.

              1. Sydney says:

                Two ninja bears.

                1. Adam says:

                  Two frozen ninja chicken bears.

          2. Whither Canada says:

            I definitely saw two sumo wrestlers as well. Or ninjas. It definitely made me wonder why “two things high fiving” wasn’t a choice.

  13. X2-Eliah says:

    Oh poop. I was secretly hoping that we’d get a chance to recover from the brown. Well, at least it has yellow tint instead of green – that’s better, right? right?

    1. Nonesuch says:

      Yellow and red most of the time, at least out in most of the mojave.. There’s one area that has a green tint but it’s not pervasive.

      1. X2-Eliah says:

        Myeah, to be fair, the way NV used colour bleaches for those locations (the radioactive town and the mutant mountain) kinda annoyed me.. I mean, it was still lacking of any colour contrast, and looked really crappy, you just noticed it more since it was not constant (and thus something you could phase out of your mind), but rather ‘Oh look we r draining colourz cos this is ray-di-ayshun!!’

        Sigh. I was just hoping for Batman:AA (would’ve been a good hook for the upcoming sequel, too) or something.

        1. Nonesuch says:

          At least the water is BLUE!
          And having a rebreather? Very fun way to escape getting shot at. Swam all the way to hoover once.

    2. BeardedDork says:

      I’m pretty impressed with what we have just seen there, I haven’t actually played this game but these scenes are pretty representative of what I remember from my 22 months in the Mohave desert.

      1. Someone says:

        What, you punched bottles and got shot in the face?

        1. BeardedDork says:

          Repeatedly with lazers. Though I was thinking more of the scenery.

  14. Chris B Chikin says:

    I’m going to treat this as being a continuation of Reginald’s story following the events of Fallout 3.

    It turns out that over the course of his adventures in the capital Wasteland Reginald had ingested so much random crap that somehow he actually became immune to death from laser fire. After coming to following his beating at the hands of the Super-Mutant Overlord, Reginald made his way to Rivet City, where he ate, drank and injected everything in sight and slaughtered the locals to make up for the fact he couldn’t nuke them along with the Brotherhood.

    What happens next can only be described as a blur. Reginald drunkenly stumbled his way across the Wasteland, doing a whole lot of stuff even he doesn’t remember, although he does have some recollection of sitting round a campfire having a very stirring conversation with a brahmin claiming to be his spirit animal. Reginald believed this as it was certainly the most intelligent creature he had thus far encountered in this world.

    Anyway, when Reginald finally came down from his several-month-long drug induced bender he found himself tied up in Nevada with no memory of what he did, being lectured by Chandler Bing in a stupid jacket, and missing his pretty floral bonnet. Then he got shot.

    No more screwing around. No more random sampling of strange narcotics (well, maybe a little). No more gleeful genocide of entire settlements (unless of course, they really, really deserve it). Reginald is now a man on a mission. Kill Chandler Bing, and take back his floral bonnet!

    1. Nonesuch says:

      YES! Bonus points if he sneak attacks that guy. (Hint: it’s a scripted conversation)
      But for the awful suit alone, he needs to die.

      1. Chris B Chikin says:

        I’ve not played New Vegas yet, but I was really just hoping for the chance to give him a Three-Dog special!

      2. bucaneer says:

        Awful? No way, it actually has damage threshold (1), which made it useful in my pistols only – no armour – 10 Luck playthrough. Then again, that was basically playing as Benny to begin with. The only better option is King’s suit (5 DT), but I didn’t have the heart to kill him.

        1. Chris B Chikin says:

          Yes, but we’re saying it looks horrible.

          1. Nonesuch says:

            To be fair, I agree with mumble’s opinion in one sense. Since I can’t scalp the bastard, I’m going to put his coat in my trophy cabinet. (I devoted an entire chest in the suite to shiny unique things)

            1. Kojiro says:

              His gun’s a pretty good trophy too, though. Unique, and rather powerful should you decide to use it.

              1. Someone says:

                Unique? Oh yes, it’s beautiful. Powerful? It’s the upgraded version of the weakest pistol in the game. I always thought it was a shame noone is ever going to use it, because by the time you get a chance to obtain it you already have access to much better weaponry.

                1. bucaneer says:

                  Again, useful if you restrict yourself to only using pistols (and have the requisite skills and perks). It has a nice fast firing rate, and 9mm ammo is everywhere, so it’s a good choice against enemies that can be taken down with sheer DPS.

                2. Kanodin says:

                  And that is why it failed to kill you.

                3. acronix says:

                  That`s interesting. My first character never got rid of it, and he used it in almost every combat, until I got the sniper rifle and a light machine gun…at around level 25…

                  My second character was a sneaky melee gal, and I still used it, though not as much as my first one.

                4. Milos says:

                  I used it for the longest time. It’s not the most OP weapon in your inventory but it has decent stats. Plus it’s a way to spend the tons of (was it 9mm?) ammo you get along the way. I’m not going to waste lazerz on killing lowly geckos or whatever so I always had it as a fall-to gun when I’m roaming around randomly.

  15. Vipermagi says:

    You went into the Prospector Saloon, talked to Smileyface, and then walked out. I am disappoint.

    You can drop the barrel onto the bar and just loot all that wonderful booze there, and get absolutely hammered.

    Other than that, good stuff as per usual :)

    1. Halfling says:

      Replied to the wrong post.

      *Moved*

  16. Johan says:

    I picked up New Vegas 2 weeks ago, and have averaged one Crash to Desktop every 3 hours or so. Also broken quest triggers. I hope you don’t get the one where you crash AS YOU’RE TRYING TO SAVE and your save file and autosave are both corrupted.

    1. Sleeping Dragon says:

      Goddess yes. It would really suck to have a season end with “and then the game corrupted all our saves”. You have to prevent it at all costs, make a copy of your saves… and another copy just to be sure… and put one extra copy on the USB drive, or better yet two drives and mail one to your mother.

      Seriously, I hear in the next DLC the game will be able to hunt down every piece of hardware that had any interaction with your PC and clean it of your files, the only way to keep your savefiles safe will be to write down the binary in a paper notebook.

      1. Johan says:

        “It would really suck to have a season end with “and then the game corrupted all our saves””

        The Death, Life, and Corruption of Reginald Cuftburt [sic]
        Though that sounds like a Dark Side kind of fall.

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      This is my only concern as well.Though those crashes were helpful,since those were the only times I was able to stop playing the game for a bit to do something else(usually bitch about how buggy the game is,but still).

    3. Khizan says:

      My copy of New Vegas CTDs every ~4 hours or so, almost on the dot, and I’ve got to reboot to play it again. I’m pretty sure there’s a memory leak somewhere.

      1. Someone says:

        Try playing in windowed mode. I’ve had the same problem with FO3, and, while playing windowed didn’t prevent the frequent ctds, it allowed me to shut the game down without hitting Reset.

    4. Halfling says:

      I only ever had two crashes in about 30 hours of New Vegas playtime. Both in the same spot within two minutes of each other actually. So I just had to step around the spot the third time.

      My bug problem that made me stop playing what was otherwise a wonderful game, was the slow down I would look near anyone’s face in combat. Though from a friend who has basically the same system I do they fixed it.

    5. psivamp says:

      I played on the 360 — I know, *boo* *hiss* — but after the initial round of patching it seemed to be much more stable. I haven’t touched it since completing Dead Money and my third play through, but I might.

      The worst problems I had were:
      1) Several back-to-back freezes while attempting to cross Hoover Dam.
      2) A companion died in a building with no enemies as I transitioned through a door to the outside on Hardcore mode.

      1. Max says:

        Is it at all possible that the console versions are more stable than the PC? I got New Vegas for Christmas on the PS3, and often played it for 4 or 5 hours in a row, and I’ve had 2 crashes.

        No broken quests, no people stuck in geometry, only 2 crashes. Maybe I just got really lucky, but there seems almost no bugs. And this was months ago.

        1. psivamp says:

          Oh, the 360 version was still pretty messed last time I touched it. My first run (unpatched) I didn’t have any broken quests, then I patched up and that patch was supposed to fix some broken quest triggers — THEN I had a broken quest trigger. My only computer is a MacBook which I despise, so there’s really no way I can play a modern game on it.

          1. BenD says:

            I’ll take that MacBook off your hands! XD

            1. psivamp says:

              I don’t have the capital lying around to replace it with another machine right now. I’d part with it for a laptop of comparable hardware, but that’s tricky to arrange over the tubes.

        2. BenD says:

          Go to Camp Forlorn Hope (a buggy, buggy place) or cross Hoover Dam (a buggy, buggy event) and see how that goes.

          My PS3 playthroughs have been crash-filled. 5 hours without crashing is not unusual… unfortunately, 30 minutes with 5 crashes is also not unusual. Certain areas, events, and (I suspect) THINGS are buggy. Having a large save file (>5MB, say) seems to raise the chance of crash/freeze during loading screens, so the last half of the game is worse than the first.
          Thankfully, I think Forlorn Hope isn’t strictly required for all playthroughs. I hope. In my current playthrough I am hoping to avoid it entirely.

    6. Deadfast says:

      Well, given Shamus’ past experiences I believe he has his work as technical bug adviser cut out for him.

  17. Vect says:

    Well, I know that Matthew Perry has gone on interviews about how much he loved Fallout 3. That apparently earned him a spot as one of Fallout’s biggest sleazebags.

    Also, the guy with the shovel with the 0o0 face is probably practicing for when he meets Cuftbert again in Boulder City. Pretty sure it’s the same guy.

    I take it that you guys are going for Independent while making the Mojave as shitty as possible, or at least recruit one of the followers? Possibly Cass for the nostalgia factor of Fallout 2.

    1. Hitch says:

      There’s a companion other than Felicia Day? I don’t want to hear it. ;-)

      1. Kanodin says:

        There is and his name is Danny Trejo.

        1. Dude says:

          Holy shit! MACHETE!

      2. Nyaz says:

        Well, there’s ED-E and Rex, the robo-dog…

        Seriously, though. I kept Felicia D-… er, Veronica around for a good 90% of the game*, just because she could PUNCH OFF PEOPLE’S HEADS.
        Not to mention what happens if you give her a Super Sledge…

        * = I spent the remaining 10% trying to figure out where Felicia Day was so I could get her to join me.

        1. BenD says:

          Veronica is definitely the best companion if what you want is companionship. She actually says interesting things! Boone was really shorted on lines – says the same thing every time you access his inventory, give him an order, etc. Booooring. He could have been shortspoken and stodgy without being so boooooooooring.

          1. Whither Canada says:

            I kept ED-E around a bunch, because he was like a floating storage locker… with a laser. He also stays pretty quiet for the game, except for his awesome desperado “I’m attacking!” music.

      3. psivamp says:

        I did not know that Veronica was voiced by Felicia Day. Not sure how that happened…

        1. Someone says:

          Same here. When I first found here I just went: “Oh, cool, chick with a powerfist. I don’t have a companion, so I might as well…”. I was quite surprised to find out about Felicia Day later on.

  18. bucaneer says:

    Ah, a Spoiler Warning season of New Vegas. Pros: better than FO3 in every way imaginable. Cons: fewer opportunities to pocket-grenade radio hosts.

    I look forward to new and imaginative ways to break the game that Josh will inevitably come up with (bottle boxing is a good start; how about boxing through Quarry Junction later?).

    1. Someone says:

      I’m looking forward to discovering what he’s going to do with the Holy Hand Grenades.

    2. Hitch says:

      I don’t think the game ever presents an opportunity to pocket grenade Wayne Newton, and really why would you ever want to?

      1. Vect says:

        That and New Vegas is an AI rather than an actual person. Also, unlike Three Dog, New Vegas does not have constant satellite surveillance over the Courier and exclusive talks about you, instead going “Something happened the other day and reports say that there was some sort of civilian/third party involvement”.

    3. Even says:

      The perfect way to break the game at this point would be if they did the “Stealth Boy/Sneak through the I-15 at level 2”. It’s a fairly easy way to access some of the better gear in the start. Shoot some Fiends and you’re pretty much set for the next 10 levels as far as weapons go. You won’t find better weapons walking along the plot rails.

      1. BenD says:

        In my first playthrough I thought I-15 was the direction I was supposed to go. x_x

  19. Gale says:

    Ooh, new Spoiler Warning. Wasn’t expecting the new season to start on a Wednesday. Are you going to be playing with the schedule at all, or will it be the same Tuesday to Friday spread as with ME2?

  20. X2-Eliah says:

    Okay, watched, nice episode.

    However… I did like F3, if at least for it’s open world instead of New Vegas’s walls of cazadores and radscorpions (and let’s not mention interior design).

    So hearing ‘OMG this is so better than F3’ all the time won’t be pleasant for me, I suspect. Especially since there are aspects that are not an improvement in any way.

    I wonder how many bugs you’ll get.
    Edit: Actually, of the SW cast, are there folks who are not Obsidian fanboys/girls? I just hope that they will also criticise the bad parts of NV instead of just fawning over all that was changed.

    1. Irridium says:

      They loved Mass Effect. And Bioshock. They won’t let this game get off that easy.

    2. Sleeping Dragon says:

      Without starting the discussion on the superiority of either title I do hope that once we’re past the unavoidable comparison stage we’ll get our share of cruel, cruel chopping the game into tiny, mutated, wriggling bits. ;)

    3. Someone says:

      I actually liked “walls of cazadores”. I found that FO3 had the same problem as Oblivion, in that you could go anywhere at level one, and everywhere you would find the exact same stuff and the exact same amount of challenge. Everything was homogenized. New Vegas actually has regions with distinct layouts, flora, fauna and danger levels, so there are places you can go where you will be torn apart if you are not ready.

      It does feel a bit restrictive when the game blocks off the path out of the “newbie area” and into the mid-game content with powerful monsters, but they are by no means insurmountable.

      I never followed the “Goodsprings->Nipton->Rest of the game” path in all of my playthroughs, I used my head to find a way through the “roadblocks”: The Deathclaw-filled passage near Sloan can be traversed with a couple of Stealthboys and a bit of luck, the cazadore mountain road to the west of Goodsprings can be cleared with liberal application of explosives, and, if you sniff around a bit, you can find the easiest passage to the “mainland” through the Blackrock toxic dump (the one with all the centaurs) and the Scorpion Gulch. Granted, it’s still pretty hard with all the giant radscorpions about, but quite manageable even on low levels. And I appreciate it when a game forces me to think to achieve my goals.

      Can’t argue about the interior design – it blows. It almost completely ruined the Dead Money DLC for me.

      1. acronix says:

        As much as I hate New Vegas interior design, I actually found Dead Money´s design to be much better, to the point where I didn´t ask every two minutes to myself “Who was the idiot that made this layout?!”

        Except the hotel suites, I got lost there a couple of times. But again: a couple of times vs a dozen is a big improvement.

        1. Someone says:

          I’d say it was the worst offender. If all the “dungeons” in the main game were at least mercifully short, Sierra Madre is an excruciating 2-3 hour experience.

          Throughout the whole time I spent there I could never figure out where I was or where I was supposed to go, everything looked the same (very, very brown same) which, coupled with fighting the same 3 types of enemies in increasingly large quantities, made for a very dreary, dull, monotonous experience. If it wasn’t for the great characters and writing, I would have abandoned it altogether.

          1. acronix says:

            Oh, you mean the villa and the outside zones. I considered them, well, outside zones, probably because they had a sky texture in the roof. But yeah, in retrospective, they were a maze. Still, I didn`t suffer them as much as the vanilla interiors.

            I agree that enemy variety was awful, and those stupid spear throwers with near-to-perfect aim made me crank the difficulty down to very easy.

    4. guy says:

      You… haven’t read Shamus talk about Obsidian before, have you?

      Check out his stuff on NWN2, and become enlightened.

    5. BenD says:

      I’m still struggling to figure out why, exactly, I liked Fallout 3 more than New Vegas, when New Vegas is better in so many ways. I suspect these things are relevant:
      – the quests are all kind of interlinked, so it’s hard for me to wander off and screw around for a while without affecting/involving the main story;
      – the main character’s background, other than ‘was a courier and got shot,’ is unestablished;
      – the dungeons and locations don’t usually have their own little stories (some of them do, but in F3, almost ALL of them do) to be discovered from the corpses, computers, notes and knick-knacks left behind.
      So I guess that’s all basically complaints about the storytelling, if not exactly about the story.

      1. X2-Eliah says:

        Yeah, pretty much this.

    6. Veloxyll says:

      I’m sure before too long they’ll be complaining about the game just as much as they did FO3. Heck, Mumbles started out all “I AM A FAN OF THIS GAME AND ALL POSITIVE ABOUT IT” which lasted about 4-6 episodes before they overran her with endless critcism.

  21. dovius says:

    Hey, Spoiler Warning’s back!
    Also, Rutskarn LIKES a game? And no puns in said admission? Check for falling cats and dogs, armaggedon is upon us!

  22. alabaster says:

    Well, now that I’ve completely caught up with old episodes, Season 5 will be the first one that I can watch live from the beginning. Seemed like the appropriate time to leave my first post.

    I loved New Vegas, and I love Spoiler Warning, so this is like… chocolate and peanut butter. Together!

  23. Irridium says:

    Look at your guy’s feet. Your feet are socks. You have no toes. This was the same for Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

    3 games on this engine, all pretty similar, and nobody can sculpt some god damn toes.

    1. Someone says:

      Yeah, I remember that was the first thing that caught my attention when I started playing: “What the hell did you DO to me Doc?! Why do I have flippers instead of feet?!”.

      1. Bobby Archer says:

        So that’s why Doc takes no payment for essentially bringing you back from the dead: he needs subjects for his depraved flipper-men experiments.

        1. Kanodin says:

          Heh no payment, because you were totally walking around with no caps to your name when he found you.

  24. Mathias says:

    Freud’s theory wasn’t beard envy, it was penis envy. His theory was that women were envious of men because they had a John Thomas, and that their lack of one was what caused them to have self-esteem issues. No, I’m not kidding.

      1. Mathias says:

        OH GOD TV TROPES NO

        1. dovius says:

          Mmm, what’s thus link
          *5 hours and 724 pages later* WHY

        2. Dante says:

          At least its not the Fetish Fuel wiki

  25. Kale says:

    Ah, Cuftburt instead of Cuftbert. Well, when you get shot in the face, buried, and get brought back by questionable means, you have to expect a smidge of brain damage. At least it’s phonetically the same. Or maybe that spelling was Doc’s mental spelling when we said our name. Perhaps Vegasians use the ‘ur’ more than the ‘er’. Seriously, when will we ever write our name down?

    1. Vipermagi says:

      In the title of this episode, for one. Which technically is a typo now, I think, maybe?

      1. Jarenth says:

        Another possible explanation is that it’s the audience that’s being trolled today.

        But really, would Shamus go there?

    2. Someone says:

      I like to think that Cuftburt is Cuftbert’s evil twin, spawned from the darkest reaches of the netherworld to haunt the Mojave wasteland. And, when two will finally meet, their fight will be the ultimate, final battle, and their overpowered crits will destroy the planet and bring the second Armageddon to the world.

      1. Chris B Chikin says:

        THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!1!

  26. Nasikabatrachus says:

    Mumbles, you are diagnosably crazy, because those are not bears high-fiving: they are clearly garden gnomes high-fiving.

    1. Mathias says:

      That was clearly an elaborate shout-out to Valve’s garden gnome mascot.

  27. Eric says:

    Mumbles: there is actually a mod that adds the “two bears high-fiving” option, if you want it.

  28. James says:

    Josh you have to get Boone, even if its just for his “acquirement”? quest, also Boone is mentally OP, he will kill everything before it gets in range all the time.

    1. Hitch says:

      The problem with Boone as a companion is after you recruit him, you walk like 20 yards and meet Felicia Day. Sorry, Boone, it was nice knowing you.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Plus,she punches people.Yes,having an overpowered sniper with you is nice,but watching felicia day punch people is so much more satisfying.Especially when you are there punching with her.

        1. Matt K says:

          That’s why I used the compainion mod and had both of them in my party.

        2. Gale says:

          “OK, Felicia, we’re taking out a guy they call Cook-Cook. I’m told he’s a huge, psychotic, cannibal rapist in heavy armour who uses a flamethrower so he doesn’t have to waste any time between killing his enemies and eating them. But. I was also told that he’s highly attached to his pet cow, so here’s the plan. We’re going to sneak around these hills, and I’m going to snipe that cow. Cook-Cook will probably go into a berserker rage, and start fighting his own gang members – if they don’t kill him, they’ll at least soften him up a little, which is when we swoop in and deliver the killing- Felicia? Hey, where’d you… Felicia! I told you to stay behind me… “Objective Complete”? What? How is that even… Felicia! Oh god, there you are. You aren’t hurt too badly, are you? What were you thinking, rushing them head on like that? You could’ve been- oh, you’ve got something on your fist. Is that… Is that Cook-Cook’s face? Did you just… Did you just walk in there and…

          …Well. You want this new suit of heavy armour? I’m sure we can wash out the smell.”

          1. Deadpool says:

            Felicia: “Oh, you got me something? Is it a dress? Oh… ewwww… Thanks, I guess.”

            1. krellen says:

              After she said that the first time, the next thing I gave her was totally a dress.

  29. Hitch says:

    To all of you viewers expressing disappointment that they’re actually saying nice things about the game… fear not, it will not last. It’s story is an improvement over Fallout 3, but it will wear out all of the goodwill from that long before Reginald Howeveryouspellit makes a hash out of things and they quit.

    I noticed the end credit, “Shamus Young: still hasn’t beaten this game.” I was thinking as it started that I need to go back and play the final battle before they get there. I got to that point and decided to roll a new character and try some other stuff and never got back to finishing the game. Now you’ve given me incentive.

    1. Sleeping Dragon says:

      I actually liked the “first timer” reactions during the ME2 season. Especially during the Lair but it was also fun to listen to Ruts during the finale.

  30. dovius says:

    Didn’t even notice Randy’s cameo since I usually just listen to the episodes as a soundtrack while I feed my WoW addiction, but once I saw what it was, I laughed my ass off.

    1. Halfling says:

      I have been whining for a Randy appearance for seasons now. At long last I am getting some traction.

      1. Randy Johnson says:

        I lolled heartly at my guest appearance. Age of Chivalry is a good game btw.

  31. Zak McKracken says:

    Nice to see SW again!
    On the time limit problem: Wouldn’t the obvious solution have been to plan the episodes to be 2 minutes shorter than the limit and never having to squeeze in that last witty half-sentence?

    1. BenD says:

      LOGIC HAS NO PLACE HERE

  32. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Yay,a good sequel to a bad game!Plus this time with longer episodes!

    I wouldnt call ncr good though.Less of an evil maybe.Or less obviously evil.Or less of a jerk.But definitely not good.

    As for beard envy,no,its beer envy.This is probably the only thing I miss viddler for.

    Damn you Mumbles!Now I cant unsee the bears high-fiving!

    I dont remember ever sleeping with hardcore on.Why when you get all that coffee and shit?They really shouldve tweaked it to rise exponentially when you use these aids instead of bed.

    Companions are powerful against regular enemies,but when you decide to,for example,charge a nest of deathclaws early on,you need to go solo.Or have boone snipe from afar.

    And you guys definitely need to turn on the radio,at least for a bit.Especially when tabitha is in range.

    1. X2-Eliah says:

      Who cares about tabitha when you have BELLS THAT JINGLE JANGLE JINGLE (tooot, tooot tooot).

      1. Someone says:

        What? I can’t hear you over the sound of my BIIIIIIG IRRRRRRN, BIIIIG IIIRRRRRRRN!

        1. Zukhramm says:

          FOOOOR THE ONE THEY CAAAAALL JOOOOOOOHNNY GUITAAAAAAARRRRR!

        2. BenD says:

          Well, I heard somebody whisper ‘please adore me’, and when I looked the moon had turned to gold. BLUUUUUUE MOOOOOOON

      2. krellen says:

        They’re actually spurs that jingle jangle jingle.

        1. X2-Eliah says:

          True. I haven’t played NV for 3 months, and finally – FINALLY – I’m starting to forget that song.

          Seriously, I still don’t know if they skimped on music licenses or just the shuffler in the radiostations was messed up, but I do know that NV had the most god-awfully repetitive radio I recall.

          1. krellen says:

            I really don’t think you were intended to listen to the radio for long stretches of time.

            1. Zukhramm says:

              I think it could have been improved by having the radio play only from the radios placed around the world and not from you pip-boy. Sure, you’d see less of it, but the amount of songs and news reports would seem a lot more massive.

          2. Khizan says:

            I’d have been happy if the only two songs that played were Big Iron and Johnny Guitar.

    2. Nonesuch says:

      The NCR are obviously supposed to be good. They come off as a bunch of boring, generic american stand-ins. The NCR characters are pretty shallow.

      To be fair, Caesar’s legion is no better. They’re shallow, evil, torturing raspy voiced assholes.

      Which is why I went with House/Independant. I couldn’t decide which side to play.

      1. bucaneer says:

        I don’t think any side is supposed to be good in this game. It is hinted pretty heavily that NCR with their bureaucracy, taxes and general outlook that doesn’t fit in the wasteland aren’t quite welcome and are only tolerated because the Legion is even worse. People of the Mojave would like to be left alone, thank you very much.

        Basically, you get to choose from four extremes: regression to outdated cruel antiquity vs fake out-of-place progress for Legion/NCR and anarchy vs totalitarianism for independent/House. Each option has its own benefits and drawbacks (even the Legion – it’s clearly the worst, but I like the work that Obsidian put into Caesar’s character and his motivation/reasoning), so in the end the best you can hope for is a lighter shade of grey.

        1. acronix says:

          Keywords here are: “Legion is even worse”.

          1. bucaneer says:

            That doesn’t mean that whoever opposes them is good, though.

          2. Zukhramm says:

            Keywords here are: “I’ll do it all by myself instead!”

            1. 8th_Pacifist says:

              Keywords here are: “Napoleon complex!”

            2. Nyaz says:

              Keywords here are “Felicia Day punched off Caesar’s head?!”

  33. Patrick the Fair and Impartial says:

    This game crashed more than a drunk red-neck in a tractor race. In fact, I don’t think anything could crash more unless you substituted all the NASCAR drivers for elderly japanesse women.
    And I played the game 3 times through, because it’s that damn good.

    Each time I found something I had missed the time before. It’s fun. It has humor. It has shocking and disturbing elements that remind you what kind of game you are playing. It’s difficult but not frustrating. It’s in every way better than its predecessor. Just watch out for the chick with the hello kitty back pack.

  34. Piflik says:

    Yay! Vegas..I am currently in my 4th playthrough (the kill-everything-that-moves-playthrough), so there won’t be much I haven’t seen…will be interesting to hear your thoughts of the game…especially the comparisson to Fallout 3…

  35. Drejer says:

    Now I haven’t seen this one yet ( I like watching em in the weekends) but YESSSSSSSS!!!
    Totally what I hoped for

  36. swimon says:

    I really didn’t like the beginning to this game. I get that chasing my killer is the hook and I’m supposed to want him dead but I don’t know him or the guy he’s shooting so I don’t know why I should care. I understand that the guy he’s shooting is supposed to be me since the camera is his POV but I can’t control him in any way and they refer to things I wasn’t there for.

    The other part I don’t like is that they don’t really tell you that you got amnesia from the bullet or if there’s a split between your knowledge base and your character’s. I might not agree with everything in the extra credits episode “amnesia and story structure” but I do agree that New Vegas handles it’s protagonist poorly in that he/she is a blend of blank slate and established character that doesn’t really work.

    1. Chris B Chikin says:

      Same here. When my character got shot at the beginning my first thought was “Meh, he probably deserved it.”

    2. Kanodin says:

      They did get indecisive about whether you would be a complete blank slate or a character with a past, and in trying to have both they really only hurt each idea.

      1. Zukhramm says:

        It’s not completely bank but it is “blank enough” I think. Took a job as a courier for the platinum chip, was captured and shot. That’s it, the rest is anything you want.

        1. BenD says:

          Would be nice if game acknowledged this in the storytelling, like by Doc saying, ‘Well, you can’t remember everything, I s’pose.’ It would have taken almost no effort and almost no brains for the developers to have given the player the clear understanding that NO MORE DEVELOPMENT IS COMING.

          1. Zukhramm says:

            But why wouldn’t you remember everything?

            1. BenD says:

              The brain damage from being shot. That’s what people point to when I complain about the partial amnesia. It’s just that the GAME doesn’t point to it.

              1. Zukhramm says:

                If the game never points out I have amnesia I just asume I don’t, which is what I did.

    3. X2-Eliah says:

      Let’s look at it this way.

      A guy caught you, got you all tied up, then shot you in the face. You survived by some miracle. Under what logic do you go to meet him again?

      1. Chris B Chikin says:

        Well, a sane person might have second thoughts, but we all know Reginald Cuftbert would have a pocket grenade with his name on it. I bet it’s even coloured with black and white checks.

        It’s one of the few cases where Josh’s characterisation of the protagonist doesn’t actually break the story.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          A sane person would still want to:
          a)Be honorable and finish the job they were hired for
          b)Get revenge.
          If that sane person lacked the skills for this,yes they would probably just forget about it.But the courier has the skills needed to accomplish this.

          1. Zukhramm says:

            c) Figure out WHY they were shot.

            Even if I was not skilled or strong enough to get some kind of revenge or devoted enough to finish the job I would definetely want to know why I was shot in the head. It’s not something I’d just ignore and go do something else.

            1. Jarenth says:

              And perhaps, most importantly,

              d) Screw that guy. Turnaround is fair game.

            2. Sleeping Dragon says:

              It’s been a while but I seem to remember that you also have this note that basically says that if you fail to deliver the chip they pretty much owe you.

              I mean, it’s an awesome job, right? I get to trek through have the Mohave fending off raiders, former convicts, crazy gangers, radscorpions, mutated ants, mutated butterflies and an occasional deathclaw, I am to protect the item with my life and I get paid a whooping 250 caps for this. I don’t think this would even cover the ammo I’d use up on the way.

              Also, at another point (I’ll probably rant about it once the SW team gets there) we’re offered, if I remember correctly, something like a thousand caps, by which point I think I had easily 50 or 100 times as much in my inventory, and this pittance of spending money is treated like some amazing fortune…

              1. acronix says:

                In-game, that may be a great sum of money, but thanks to how the economy is broken, the player think it sounds ridicolous.

                1. Chris B Chikin says:

                  Same thing in Fallout 3 where you blow up Megaton for 600 caps. Even at this point in the game, your entire inventory is probably worth more than 600 caps. The problem was that, at this potentially very early stage, offering the player a realistic sum of money equitable to the task of blowing up a town (lets say >10,000 caps) would break the game so badly it would spend the rest of its life in a body cast.

                2. Someone says:

                  @Chris

                  Not really. It’s not like there is anything useful you can buy, besides ammo, and having 1500 10 millimeter bullets doesn’t make your character more powerful than having 200 10 millimeter bullets.

  37. Sekundaari says:

    So, the name thing:

    What Rutskarn originally meant was Reginald Cuthbert. (How do I know this? Trivial.)

    Josh spelled this as “Cuffbert” first, and corrected it to Cuftbert when Rutskarn said it was wrong. At this point Rutskarn was like “You know, whatever” and the misspelling was made official.

    And now it’s Cuftburt. I can only assume old Reginald (youngest possible age here for some reason) has been knocked and shockwaved on the head so many times he’s bound to forget a few unimportant details. Oh and that latest bullet too, that could do it.

    I don’t think the Fallout 3 faces were hideous… perhaps Rutskarn meant Oblivion. Vaguely related, watching the Fallout 3 season it feels like most positive things Shamus said about the game (yes there were some) were preceded by “I do like that”. I wonder if that will continue. ;)

    Also, I don’t think anyone’s voice will be drowned out if you increase the game volume a little bit.

    1. bucaneer says:

      “How do I know this? Trivial.” -> “perhaps Rutskarn meant”
      You’re losing it! A true Rutskarn shows no doubt, even when the only alternative is pure fabrication, lies and puns.

      1. Sekundaari says:

        I do get confused every time I disagree with myself, so there’s that. And Rutskarn does show doubt: Don’t you remember when we felt clueless trying to grow food on bare rock? When we wandered the beautiful Vvardenfell in loops? Or when the battle music was playing and we were supposed to do… something other than watch? Also, it is important to preserve the mystery in Rutskarn’s thoughts. You have much to learn, young Ruts.

        By the way, I believe “pure fabrication, lies and puns” was the worst-case scenario for the League. *Shudder* Though puns were in the best-case scenario too. They were inevitable.

        1. bucaneer says:

          True, the origin of puns is, and must remain, even more of a mystery than the multicorporeal nature of Rutskarn. However, confusion and mystery (or loss of sanity at an amazing rate, for that matter) are distinct from doubt about your own thoughts as a Rutskarn.

          Speaking of the League: *winks and nods suggestively at clickable name* I keep getting a visitor or visitors from Switzerland; is there any chance that Admiral von Schneider could have materialized somehow?

          1. Sekundaari says:

            Paranoia is of the essence for Rutskarn. And what would be more paranoid than thinking someone already altered your thoughts, and it’s too late to get the originals returned? Even if you ask them while flashing your creepiest smile ever. Seriously, try it sometime. They won’t let you have them back.

            About the good Admiral… I wouldn’t know. Could be Jà¼rgen or Hans, too. They really live just two towns over from Karl, and he isn’t long-lost to them, they just never think of calling him.

            I guess it’s ok for me to follow a let’s play of Shogun despite my mysterious past… see you at the other end of your name.

        2. Someone says:

          Wasn’t “pure fabrication, lies and puns” ALL the League did?

          1. Sekundaari says:

            I’m only considering talks between the core members here. Recruits and other non-members are an entirely different matter, naturally. Though we did say some true things, at times.

          2. bucaneer says:

            It was also an exercise in thesaurus and the occasional bit of true but not entirely welcome information. And don’t forget the boundless paranoia and imagination gone wild.

            Also, I like how we keep hijacking comment threads here and confusing the good populace of Twenty Sided by talking about ancient exploits over in Ruskarn-land.

          3. BenD says:

            There was also a lot of ill-fated spreadsheet management!

            1. Sekundaari says:

              Yes! And a lot of talk of games, like New Vegas. Which sort of makes this on topic again, in the manner of a plane malfunctioning and crashing back to ground.

        3. Jarenth says:

          All I’m going to say here is ‘gangplank’.

          1. Sekundaari says:

            Ah yes, the elusive gangplank. How could I ever forget you.

            Wait, where did it go again…?

      2. X2-Eliah says:

        To be that guy, I must point out that Ruts has not been very good at his puns (or, indeed, even remotely frequent enough) ever since the end of the original F3 season. So perhaps it’s time to stop giving him a free ride and get him to work for the punster reputation?
        Edit: I hereby propose a mandatory Rustkarn-specific minimum pun quota per episode. Suggestion – two/ep. for the initial weeks.

        1. Someone says:

          He seems to do them in outbursts now. Remember Amnesia (heyo!)? “You’re just a Trav in a Cage”. That one was probably worth a couple months of non-punnage. It’s basically a Silent Hill scenario: the waiting, tension and expectation of puns makes every actual pun encountered all the sweeter/more terrifying.

  38. Demonix says:

    AWWWWWWWWWWWW YEAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

    This is going to be fun!

    Disclaimer – I am a fallout fanboy, but am sane enough to recognize that nothing is perfect.

  39. Irridium says:

    Also, about the bears. In Timesplitters, you can play as a bear wearing a Fez.

    No I am not making this up.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      And fezzes are cool.

  40. RTBones says:

    Bears. Yes, I too saw bears. I saw the high five, but initially thought dancing, at which point I literally started singing.

    Look for the BEAR necessities
    The simple BEAR necessities
    Forget about your worries and your strife
    I mean the BEAR necessities
    Old Mother Nature’s recipes
    That brings the BEAR necessities of life

    And I was sorely disappointed I couldn’t choose an “its bears!” option.

    I am most of the way through my first playthrough. So I’ll be interested in seeing Reginald do his thing because I know there are quests Josh will do differently than I did.

    1. RTBones says:

      Yeah, I know, unBEARable, isn’t it?

    2. Deadpool says:

      I didn’t see bears at first, but I see them now. I didn’t see the penny arcade “cocks everywhere” either… Definetely not the genitalia I see in that picture…

  41. krellen says:

    Aww, I wanna watch Spoiler Warning, but these silly people keep expecting me to work while I’m at work.

    Incidentally, I can’t hear anyone say “Rise from the grave” without hearing it in the voice from Altered Beast; now that’s stuck in my head, so thanks for that Josh.

    1. burningdragoon says:

      That’s exactly how I feel… except I have big white box where the video should be, so my choice is between working and regular not working.

    2. Jarenth says:

      WISE FWOM YOUR GWAVE

      1. krellen says:

        Why did I know you’d know exactly what I was talking about, Jarenth?

        1. Jarenth says:

          Great minds think alike?

      2. Daemian Lucifer says:

        And here I was holding myself from not writing this.Well,I guess my wil score is higher than yours.Though not when it comes to bragging.

  42. Nidokoenig says:

    Oh, horse apples. I was waiting for Obsidian(and any unofficial patchers) to actually finish this game before I played it, and I don’t currently have a PC that actually can play it. I’m gonna have to wait this season out.

    1. krellen says:

      New Vegas actually has an ending, and it seems to be the ending it was building to, not some hacked-together thing.

      1. Nidokoenig says:

        I was speaking more from a technical standpoint than a narrative one. I had more than enough trouble with Fallout 3, so I’m waiting until the game is stable and there are no big, nasty surprises left. Hell, I still get crashes with Morrowind, but at least some form of magic tells me it’s about to go loopy, gets me to autosave and shuts down cleanly so I pick up right there. If I want bugs, I’ll play Dorf Fort, at least that has fun ones.

        1. Halfling says:

          Dwarf Fortress does not have bugs only secret bonus features.

          Also since it is a Dwarf Misery simulator and not an actual game any bugs only had to the experience.

          1. Irridium says:

            Dwarf Fortress can be pretty ridiculous at times(or, all the time).

            One time, a Dwarven man died of sickness or something mundane. Then his kid went around punching people. Apparently this kid is descended from Captain Falcon himself, because every punch he throws crushes people’s skulls. He killed 5 Dwarves(2 smiths, a doctor(my last doctor at that…), and 3 soldiers who he caught unaware). It was just horrifying.

            Fun times!

        2. krellen says:

          I never had any huge issues with New Vegas, bug-wise.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Lucky.I had a crash every 3,4 hours.Plus a few enemies falling through the floor,but luckily no one with major loot,only beasties.

      2. BenD says:

        I will argue that building for that ending was a mistake, because it’s a lame-ass ending, but it is definitely a polished, intentional lame-ass ending.

        Oops, another complaint about the storytelling.

  43. Some Jackass says:

    Is Season 6 gonna be Bioshock 2? Cuz not only would it continue the trend, but you can get the hat trick of PCs dying in the opening cutscene.

    And somehow, lacking continuity in a name is just what Id expect from Reginald

    1. Max says:

      And then when they finish Bioshock 2, they can play Mass Effect 3, and by time that’s done, there will hopefully be another fallout for them to play, followed by Bioshock: Infinite…

  44. Gantidae says:

    Yay! A new Spoiler Warning, and it’s a game I wanted to see you play! Every sentence in my post has an exclamation point. Except for that one. And that one!

  45. Fat Tony says:

    Hmmm so obviously being “Reg” (I’ve got know him well enough that he no longer slaps me, with a dismembered limb, when I say that)”Mass Murder” Cuthebert, you’re gonna be going for the Route where you SPOILER betray and kill everyone.

  46. Mailbox says:

    Finally! I feel like I’ve known this was coming for weeks. Oh wait. I have.

  47. KnightLight says:

    Yay for New Vegas!

    I’m sure you’ll find flaws to tear apart, as there are a few, but overall I loved this game. I preferred to play a nerdy Captain Cosmos fan with a laser pistol. I was disappointed with energy weapons at first, but then they patched it and rebalanced the energy weapons and I was happy again.

    Also, I loved all the companions so much that after my third playthrough I modded the game so that I’d never have to leave one behind. The problem with that is that yes, a couple of the companions are terribly overpowered so that if you have all of them in your party, you’ve basically broken the entire game across your knee. Nothing is difficult ever again.

  48. Entropy says:

    I kinda like that Caesars Legion use the hard (and correct) c, and pronounce Ave: Ah way.

    1. Avpix says:

      Classical latin for the win!
      Si potes legere hoc, scis nimium.

      1. Jekyll says:

        would that mean that the leader of the most feared band of murderers in the Mohave Waste would be Cheeser? pronounced ecclesiastically that is.

  49. Deadpool says:

    I’m with Rutskarn here: I love this game.

    Note, I abhor Fallout 3. I keep hearing about how the side quests are fun, and how people (including most of the SW crew) enjoyed the game despite its flaws, I just couldn’t overlook them. This was a return to the Fallout 1 and 2 that I loved. It wasn’t the same (it never will be, but that is the natural order of things), but it was a good game nonetheless. It was nice to see some moral ambiguity again (Even if they messed it up with Caesar’s Legion, the NCR is nicely even in its moral compass. Kind of a Shu kingdom type thing). So really looking forward to seeing it torn to shreds here. Here’s hoping most of the glitches are worked out (damned you Obsidian!)

    I like Hardcore mode btw. Most people forget the OTHER additions besides food and drink: weight. Minor items now have weight, which means grabbing everything that isn’t nailed down is no longer an option. Keeping 8 different guns sounds fun, but keeping the ammo for all of them AND food and water is impossible. Makes for some interesting decisions. Healing items healing over time instead of instantly, also pretty awesome.

    Here’s a fun game to play during this Spoiler Warning: Find a feature, and try and guess who put it in there, Obsidian or Bethesda. For example, day one DLC with pre orders that break carefully crafted game balance.

    Btw, just for the record, I’m a firm believer in female protagonists. Be it for Jennifer Hale’s voice, or for Saints Row’s male motion cap, or for New Vegas’ bearded lady, female main characters is where it’s at.

    Glad Spoiler Warning is back. And kudos to Kevin McLeod, I don’t think he gets enough credit for his awesome work here…

    1. RTBones says:

      It’s interesting that you mention weight and slow healing. I’m not done with my first run-through yet, but my second will be in hardcore mode for those reasons, primarily.

      1. Deadpool says:

        I’ve only ever ran in hardcore more. It’s not HARD, but it certainly makes you think…

    2. Someone says:

      FO3 is very good if you like TES games. If you like Fallout, every second of FO3 breaks your heart. If you like both, well… you’ll have VERY mixed feelings. I certainly did.

      But Vegas… yeah, I love it to bits. It’s gotten to the point where I involuntarily throw my fist into the air and shout “VEGAS! VEGAS!” three times whenever I hear it mentioned anywhere (which is the reason I’m suffering from neck pain right now). It’s certainly the best thing that could ever happen to the franchise, given the circumstances.

      I love the healing-over-time in hardcore mode, but I despise dying companions and weight. Really, if you have at least one companion, between the two of you you have enough carrying capacity to lug around everything you’d ever want to carry with you, and still have some room for trophies. It just adds to the endless tedium of inventory management: “…and I’ll give Boone the cigarettes… and the jalapeà±o… and the laser rifle… and take my 3 missiles… no wait, I don’t have enough room… take some Buffout… give back the grenades… now Boone doesn’t have room…”.

      Dying companions are bad because the AI is crap and you don’t really have enough control over it. It always ends up sending companions into fights way over their heads, and the only way to save them is to inject them with 20 stimpacks every fight. Then again, maybe that’s the point. On my first playthrough, Veronica was the main factor preventing healing item inflation that plagued FO3, and creating a consistent money sink, as I had to buy out all the stimpacks from every merchant I came across just to keep the crazy girl alive.

      1. krellen says:

        If you like Fallout, every second of FO3 breaks your heart.

        A single sentence that sums up my feelings exactly.

      2. Entropy says:

        I like TES games. I do not like Fallout. (I like them in theory, but Old school RPGs just aren’t my thing.) Fallout 3 is still awful in a lot of ways.

        I loved Fallout New Vegas.

        Will be sorely dissapointed if Josh doesn’t go for the Wild Card ending. Suits Reginald cuftbert (not burt :P) perfectly.

        1. Someone says:

          Out of curiosity: did you like Oblivion?

          1. Irridium says:

            I feel I must say this about Oblivion. Who your character was was a fantastically refreshing change. You were not “the one” or anything like that. You were just in the wrong place at the right time(Mr. Freeman…)

            You had to work to get to the top. It was not given to you. You had to work to get noticed. It was great, empowering, rewarding, and as I said, just refreshing. I’m glad I got to sit out the final battle and let someone else fight it.

            Oblivion did have flaws. Very big flaws, but thats the one thing I feel it did right.

            And this is why I’m a bit sad about Skyrim. YOU are Dovakiin, last of the dragonborne… and YOU must stop the big bad dragon from eating the world!

            Why can’t I just be a normal dude who got into some trouble? Tie it in to your class choice or something. A warrior would get an assignment(or merc contract, or whatever), and get caught up in something greater. A thief would have stolen something(artifact, plans, messages, whatever) that hinted at something greater, and would then be involved. A mage, through study, would have learned about the prophecy, and set out to try and stop the worst from happening.

            Basically, make your character important, but not “The One”.

            I’m sick and damn tired of being everyone’s “last hope”. Let someone else do it. I’ll gladly help, but I’m sick of being the chosen one. Its no longer special when I’m the chosen one time after time after time after time after time and so on and so-forth.

            Hm… that was longer than what I planned… ah well. Its from the heart, yo.

            1. Aulayan says:

              I almost agree with you here. But I have no problem being the Last Hope.

              But earn it. Effing Earn it. Not through birth. Not right in the beginning cause you’re the PC (Or because the plot is on rails) but earn it. Slowly become The Hero through your actions, and then the plot hits you and you’re viewed as the Last Hope because you earned it.

              That may be a bit too much for most game companies though.

              1. Deadpool says:

                The basic plot for Fallout, from the box: Our water chip has given up the ghost. Someone has to go out there and look for a new one. We drew lots. You drew the last one.

                Simple, practical. No legendary mission, no dark past, no important family. Just a guy with a job to do.

              2. Someone says:

                I like how Morrowind handled it. It really brings an amazing sense of accomplishment to go all the way from a filthy, despised outlander with nothing to his name but some dirty rags, a rusty knife and a dozen coins (and, usually, about 80 coins worth of stolen kitchenware) to the One Great Hero, overcoming the numerous trials and slowly earning your place in the society.

                1. Matt K says:

                  Me too, especially since it was “The Empire needs more control over these pissy people so we created a Chosen One for them” and then things get real.

          2. Entropy says:

            It was ok. Plot was a little bland, but worked, I guess. Closing Oblivion gates got boring FAST though.

            I prefer Morrowind. A MUCH more interesting villain.

      3. Khizan says:

        Veronica had a bug that prevented her health from scaling as she leveled with you, so she was a problem to keep alive, yeah. Once I downloaded a mod to patch that up, she became much less of a problem.

        I prefer companion death because it forces me to take more care with my fights. I can’t say “Well, I’ll let Veronica ‘tank’ them and just plasma grenade the entire pack of things.”

        In fact, my main problem with the game is that companions are so good that they leave me feeling like a passenger in some ways. Veronica wrecks stuff, Boone headshots enemies I haven’t even seen yet, Arcade does a ton of damage with his plasma weapon.

        And I love the weight on ammo thing, because it forces me to think about my loadout. I’ve got 200lbs of space. 40 is taken up by my armor.Let’s say we’ve got 20lbs of miscellaneous food/water at any given time. So I’ve got 140lbs to distribute between weapons and ammo and other stuff. Do I carry a variety of weapons and a bit of ammo for everything? Do I stick to my basics and carry a heavier loadout?

        My guns character had one scoped rifle, a shotgun, and a carbine, iirc. I limited myself pretty harshly because weight was a real consideration for me if I wanted a decent amount of ammo for each gun. I’d leave some areas with less than a clip of ammo left for my primary weapon, and I had an armory in my motel room in Novac that I’d go back to to change up my gear. Deathclaws? Bring the AMR. Legion or Fiends? I can probably use the sniper rifle or scoped carbine and bring more bullets.

        My energy weapons character carries maybe 8 weapons, but they all share an ammo source, so it feels much more flexible. Problem is, I burn through it way faster and once a gun is out, I’m all out. I find that ammo weights adds a lot to the feel of the game since it truly limits my resources.

        I wish that ED-E and Rex counted as “real” companions instead of their tertiary slots, though. I think they provide a bit too much inventory space, especially since there’s no risk of them ever using what they’ve got. I learned pretty quick that you can’t trust Veronica with an Incinerator or Plasma Grenades or whatnot. Rex can’t ever use them, which makes him an amazing pack mule.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Wow,8!I never had more than 3 active weapons:the hammer,plasma rifle and laser shotgun.Though I mostly used just the hammer,sprinkled with a bit of sneak plasma against tough melee enemies like deathclaws and super mutants.

          1. Khizan says:

            I don’t really USE them all, but I carry them.

            1) The gauss rifle for sniping
            2) Fully upgraded standard laser rifle as a “standard” weapon because it’s got decent range and power while being easy on the ammo consumption, and a scope for sniping of weak things.
            3) Plasma caster for heavy duty stuff at close range.
            4) Plasma pistol as a holdout weapon. Don’t really need this since finishing the casino quests, though.
            5) The laser RCW for general purpose close quarter stuff, and to have a non-MFC weapon.
            6) Pulse gun for robots and power armor.
            7) Plasma defender as a “walking around gun”, since pistols don’t slow run speed. I carry <50 rounds for this and keep spare ammo on a companion.
            8) Tesla Cannon because it's a lightning bazooka. Sure, it does less damage than my gauss rifle, chews up 45 shots of ECP ammo a shot, and is slow firing. But… Lightning Bazooka.

            Actually, thinking about it, I use everything but the Tesla Cannon fairly regularly. I'm playing strictly with energy weapons, though, and I try to avoid using VATS when I can, so I find that some weapons just aren't suited for some things.

        2. acronix says:

          I used Novac as an armory too, though I never used most of my secondary weapons (except for pulse grenades and mines when I expecteed robots to show up).

        3. BenD says:

          Your EW char needs to carry the recharger pistol. It is inexplicably more powerful than the recharger rifle, and my default weapon in my current playthrough. Why yes, I have much more powerful stuff on me – but why do I need to use a hammer to swat flies? Carrying the recharger means you’re never completely without ammo.

          1. Khizan says:

            The recharger pistol has the irritating little bit where it starts at 0 charge as soon as you switch to it. I hate that enough to carry a regular pistol and a bit of ammo for it.

    3. Zukhramm says:

      Weight is the most important point for me. For me Hardcore Mode is mostly “Anti-cleptomania Mode”, the only way to keep me from taking EVERYHING.

    4. Sekundaari says:

      I think you could expand your game by adding a third party, modders. If anything was done by mods to Fallout 3 before New Vegas, modders take the cake. This might turn into “Simpsons did it”, or not.

  50. Bentusi16 says:

    Rather then pretending to be sophisticated, I’m just going to describe what I did when I got onto twentysided today.

    Me: -eating delicious macaroni and cheese and chicken (baked together)-
    Me: -clicky link-
    Me: -Drop fork, deep breath, high pitched- Yayyyyyyyyy!

  51. Harry says:

    actually so excited for this season! :)

  52. guy says:

    Color! My friend! I haven’t seen you since season 1!

    Okay, so there was some color in ME2, but it was hit with the “realism” hammer, because of course it’s realistic that a space station maintained by mindless drones would have rusty slum areas.

    1. X2-Eliah says:

      Indeed. Perhaps the next game will have colours, eh?

      /trolling

      1. Veloxyll says:

        Baby steps man, baby steps.

      2. Aulayan says:

        Not quite yet. I have seen what Shamus and Josh plan for spoiler Warning.

        Season 6: Bioshock 2.

        Season 7: Mass Effect 3

        Season 8: Batman Arkham Asy–Ha ha, Just kidding Mumbles, Bioshock Infinity.

        Season 9: Tetris.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Yes,a whole season of tetris!Now that would be awesome!Plus it has numerous colours.

  53. Sozac says:

    YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

  54. Astrolounge says:

    YES. The chops shall ride again!

  55. Joel D says:

    Hey, a season of Spoiler Warning that might not be constant complaints and nitpicks! And thus actually watchable!

    1. Michael says:

      Don’t bank too hard on this.

      There wouldn’t be a show otherwise.

  56. Astrolounge says:

    “For 200 years” – Mumbles.

    …Drink?

  57. Miral says:

    *cough* Subtitles! *cough*

  58. Starwars says:

    I’ve been watching another LP of this game and I actually find it quite jarring to watch people play without the Hardcore mode. A lot of the stuff is really only flavour stuff, like drinking and eating (not a problem at all). But what I like about Hardcore mode is that it just makes the fucking gameworld makes a bit more sense. At last there is a goddamn use for water and food-stuffs around.

    Plus the changes to the healing (which constantly gets overlooked I find, but it’s really the biggest reason to go Hardcore mode if you ask me). Stimpaks healing over time can make for a pretty big change in how you approach some combat situations, same thing with how you can’t heal crippled limbs with stims now. The changes to items and weight can also make for a small change.

    As for New Vegas itself, it’s a game where you can make a lot of critique in various areas I think. But yeah, just in terms of the game design, this is a huge improvement over Fallout 3 and very reminiscent of the older games in many ways (to a point of course given how different the gameplay is). I think it feels like Fallout 2 a lot in that there’s a *lot* of brilliant stuff in the game, but you’ll run across some rather less good content. It’s an uneven experience.

    But New Vegas gave me what I might consider to be the most defining feature of Fallout, and that is player freedom and choice. That is ultimately why I love this game.

    1. Even says:

      I think the problem with using it for Let’s Plays is that it risks adding additional downtime with the increased deaths, inventory management and Pip-Boy fiddling in general, in the end just slowing down the progress of the game, unless you specifically plan to do a hardcore playthrough. For the purposes of Spoiler Warning though, I’d imagine that is mostly why they didn’t do it.

      Rest assured, it does add it own spice to the game. I played my first playthrough in hardcore, and I liked it. Playing second and third without it, it just never felt the same. Most of the fear of death gone, Survival skill made obsolete, it just felt like FO3 with new story and weapons.

      Dead Money was especially challenging going through when in the beginning you really had to scrounge for supplies and keep moving due to losing health while outside. Had to drink more dirty water than I care to count, but finding stimpaks was only that much sweeter. The vending machines just kind of broke it when you get enough chips to last a life time.

  59. Kavonde says:

    Awesome! Glad you guys are back. And playing a genuinely good game that Josh can nonetheless have fun breaking! Sounds like a really, really promising combination.

    Of course, now I want to go back and play it again. Gotta see about joining Caesar’s Legion this time…

  60. Mailbox says:

    You know I didn’t care much about the other pre-order packs. Having bought the 360 version from gamestop, I got the classic pack. For some reason I didn’t realize until now, after looking it up, just how good the lightweight leather armor is compared to the armors from the other packs. I must admit I’m a little jealous now. Thanks.

  61. Rasha says:

    So they’ve fixed most of the bugs? Do I have access to well over six thousand mods to tailor my game? If so this game is officially on my wants list. If not… Fallout 3 retains its high state of favor for another year or two.

  62. Specktre says:

    Yay! New Spoiler Warning! AND Reginald Cuftbert returns… so happy…

  63. acronix says:

    That part where Sunny Smiles says “Cheyenne stay!” confused me too. Besides the fact that we can`t see the dog, she looks straight at you (well…as straight as this engine lets). If they just added a litte animation of her looking slightly down to her right, a small arm movement in that direction, and maybe some barking along with her lines we wouldn`t get so confused.

    1. Veloxyll says:

      It almost would’ve been worth a mini-cutscene, since apparently to have a conversation I have to stare intently at the other person’s face.

      1. X2-Eliah says:

        Try it in real life. The other person will be too unnerved to counter anything you say.

    2. psivamp says:

      I have to admit that my Fallout characters are usually looking down and so, I saw the dog each time because I was looking down at it when I came in the door. Obviously, designing a scripted sequence beginning with an assumption on the direction your player is looking is silly… How hard would it have been to say enter a “conversation” with Cheyenne, who barks, then the conversation with Sunny starts?

  64. MrWhales says:

    Not that i figure this will be read, so i’ll also post this on a post with a fewer count(221 comments at the moment) But i shall abstain from this season at the point where i didnt keep going with the game, I sent it back on GameMine because i had a hankering for a certain western game from a certain company that coincidentally is the name of a popular energy drink. And i am also going to put this game back at the top of my list to play again..

  65. rayen says:

    Josh you crit stacking bastard. So good to be back in the wasteland.

  66. Vekni says:

    With this currently being $20 at GameStop, my PC begs the question:hows the bug fix status? Is it at “should have launched this smoothly” quality yet?

    1. Even says:

      Hardly if random crashes don’t fit into that. It’s still a lot better now than it was at release though and there’s been a mention of an upcoming patch.

      1. Vekni says:

        Much appreciated!

  67. Milos says:

    I don’t mind this since I like F:NV but, as I’m sure dozens of people already mentioned in comments that I didn’t read, we’re getting into a pattern here. By the time you are done with New Vegas ME3 will be out and we all know that’s a must for you – since we already invested so much time in ME universe we have to see the “epic” conclusion. Not much of a complaint as much of a I’m-so-smart-to-have-noticed-this remark.

    1. M says:

      ME3 is coming out in fall. You really think it’ll take most of the year to beat this?

  68. Markus says:

    Hey new Spoiler Warning! Off to a good start for Season 5.

    1. Bentusi16 says:

      Other then forgetting subtitles :D

      Just kidding. Its great to see them back.

  69. Xythe says:

    Do you guys have cameras in my house? This is the 5th season, and also marks the 5th time you’re doing a game that I have just bought and started playing, and thus the 5th time I can’t watch straight away for fear of spoilers. Why must you torture me so?

  70. Ramsus says:

    I actually just recently beat this game (and Dead Money). I specifically did it because I knew you guys would be doing this game next. And still I barely finished a couple weeks ago even though I figured you’d be doing this one back practically when you started Mass Effect 2. Good to know at least I’m still ahead of Shamus.

    I gotta say Kevin really outdid himself with the song this time. I mean all his work is great but this one just blew me away. It’s seems so perfect for the game. Bravo man, bravo.

    1. Someone says:

      Wait, that was MacLeod’s work? I actually thought it was a tune from the game.

      1. Chuck says:

        It is a fitting tune. Does anyone know its name? I fail at internet searches.

  71. CalDazar says:

    Not knowing Sunny was talking about a dog was very strange when I first played the game. I’d got it for my birthday and me and some friends were going through it and one of us said “is she talking about her vagina?”.

    Well once you see that conversation in that kind of light it’s hard to stop. Funny though.

  72. superglucose says:

    In defense of the color pallet: that’s now Nevada really looks :P

    Know how you can tell when you’ve crossed from Nevada to Utah?

    Instead of everything being the same shade of brown, everything’s the same shade of grey.

  73. Seth Ghatch says:

    YOU STARTED SPOILER WARNING AGAIN AND I DIDN’T KNOW!? FUCK.

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