For the Head of State mission I had to do the "quick wait" option for about 24 hours before they showed up at the waypoint near the memorial.

Finally finished Riley's Rangers last night. It took 3 nights of 1-1.5 hours to get to the locations and finish it.

I was thinking about turning up the difficulty though, since I am LVL 11.5, and just tearing stuff up. Then I was running out of ammo, and switched from the Lincoln Repeater to the hunting rifle, and realized it was just the gun that was that awesome!

I do regret getting the bloody mess perk though, it seems to annoy me more than add to the game. Why would a headshot make the arms and legs fly off?

One thing I wish I could do is eliminate the burned/damaged/destroyed books. I don't think they serve a purpose other than ammo, and I hate searching and get a flash of an item, only to find another book.

I am thinking I will start the main mission now, and work my way into it until I stumble across some more side missions.

I think I'm going to need to install one of the mods to remove the level cap and possibly one for slower levelling. I've already hit level 20 and I've barely touched the main quest. I certainly wasn't trying to level. I was just exploring and doing side quests.

Finished it tonight. Awesome game. Now I'm continuing from an earlier save to see if I can finish with 'good' karma.

Fawkes is freakin' awesome. He wouldn't hang with me because of my karma level, so I just followed him around for a while. He's such a beast.

One good way to get a lot of good karma is to go and slaughter

= J

I know the feeling. Too bad I can't get a mod like that on the Xbox. Takes away a bit of the incentive - still holding off continuing the main quest because I need to hunt some more bobbleheads. Here's a bonus - apparently your party members don't run out of ammo unlike the first 2 games (unless my buddy just carries a huge number of electro charge units that don't show up when I want to trade with him).

^ And they don't take damage to armor. Se you can repair something up, give it to them like pack-mule, and it will be in the same shape when you take it back.

I'm heading to the museum in the mall to do the Washington Monument quest... anyone have any tips about getting around the hoardes of super mutants that seem to pile up on me anytime I try to fight them?

Im on the same quest.

How the hell do I get there to begin with? Every way i go its blocked by rubble and collapsed buildings. So frustrating.

you need to go thru the subways.
Check out your map. It should point out each waypoint you need to hit.

Yeah, I'm in that quest too. Just follow the map. And yeah, that quest is hard with all the Super Mutants. Just bring a lot of ammo if you want to kill all of them. Or you can use stealth boys but I guess you'll have to kill them later.

Well... I decided to go "all out" and purchase the hardcover guide. I really like it, but...

no poster.

wtf?

Hidden + Lincoln's Repeater!

Although the .44 ammo is hard to come by.

I probably should have held onto it, but I just turned it in for karma. You'll start coming across a lot more ammo later on, but it depends if it's your primary weapon or not. Heck, unlike the first couple of games, the damage/rundown factor here means you need at least a couple different "primary weapons". I think I'm still carrying plasma rifle, alien blaster, laser gatling (put that in storage soon), railroad rifle, sniper rifle, scoped .44, and I think Chinese Assault Rifle, combat shotgun and maybe one or two others.

Didn't even think about giving Fawkes armor - (Marcus couldn't wear armor in fallout 2) - but then again, it's no real skin off my back if he kicks the bucket either, given that I made it this far by myself - compared the much-more-difficult combat in the first 2. I wonder how much more challenging the combat and other functions are on a harder difficulty. Does it make lockpicking/hacking more complicated or just the combat?

The frustration of that quest, along with a feeling of overall pointlessness to most of things I've been doing, is what made me give up on playing this game.

So I treat the addict in Megaton and he gives me the key to his stash on the treatment plant. I clean out his desk until it's empty, but my PIP says that I haven't completed the quest yet. Did I screw this up, is it a glitch, or is there something left for me to do?

I finally got through. I killed a couple mutants then would go and rest and replenish, and then quick travel back to the mall and take out some more. Now I'm dealing with

I have a ton of other ammo, but not .44.

I carry a silenced 10 mm, submachine gun, assault rifle, combat shotty, sniper, lincoln's repeater, plasma rifle, gunting rifle. Plus grenades, mines, and other guns, for "just in case" although I never use them.

Last week I unloaded my gun locker to sell off items i never use, then I get to the store, and the chick only has 300+ caps. It took me forever to wobble over to her to find out she was broke!

I didn't think Washington monument was bad. But I did a bunch of side quests before.

Should be at the back of the book.

hunting rifle from a distance.

Lincoln's rifle is my favorite. I always use Sydney's 10mm, the Terrible Shotgun, The Smuggler (or whatever) alien blaster, Ol' Painless rifle, the Railway rifle, the missile launcher, the Fat Man (for Behemoth's mainly), and frag grenades.

yeah, it's not. very disappointing...
I wrote to Prima, but I doubt they'll be able to mail me one.
Best Buy won't take it back, 'cause it's open.

grr.

You killed her? - edit. I guess if she dies, she dies. I wanted her help for the quest so I reloaded a couple of times to save her - might see if she's up for another quest now.

I would also send an email to Best Buy's customer service explaining the situation. I've contacted them a couple of times over the last few years in instances in which they have been at fault and the store refused to take any corrective action. Each time, their customer service resolved the situation. The book is supposed to come with a map...don't let Best Buy take advantage of you! [/soapbox]

No, she gives it to you if you complete a certain quest.