Point Look Out looks pretty great - the developers are saying that they're going with a gothic horror vibe for it.

Unfortunately, I either have to clear up some room on my hard drive for it, or get a new one.

Is it worth getting a new 120gig hard drive for $120? And is it a cinch to transfer info?

I did just that. Transfer was really simple and took about an hour. No problems at all and now I have over 90 gigs remaining. It's awesome to see such a high number there instead of the usual 1 - 2 gigs I was sitting on for a while.

It just sucks that I can get a regular 120gig drive for around $30. Where does MS get off charging so much more for their proprietary one? Not to mention, I only need one because I wan to buy more of their product, and they're making it harder to do so.

Agreed. It's screwed up logic. I ebayed the transfer kit for like $35 after I used the kit and traded in my old HD for about $10 at Gamestop so that can help defray the cost.

If you can find one in stock, Sears has dropped the 120Gb drive to $70. You can also get certified refurbs from GameStop. I think they're $100, but if you wait for a good coupon & have an Edge card, you can get it for around $65 or so, which is how I got mine.

I'm afraid to read any more of the thread for spoilers (stopped at page 16), but I wanted to chime in. I just started this game last night, and I'm pretty thoroughly impressed with what I've seen thus far. The opening sequences were a brilliant blend of storytelling and tutorial, the vault was very oppressive and cramped, and the open world is pretty impressive in terms of scope and presentation.

I'm not sure how effectively it could be played as a straight shooter, but the VATS system gives it a whole different (almost turn-based) vibe anyway. My strategy right now is to just get very close to my targets and VATS them in the head a few times.

I'm out of the vault and have checked out Megaton and much of the surrounding area. I've been putting most of my points into small arms and speech so far, and I'm sure that will backfire later.

The only part I'm terrible at is inventory management...not in terms of running out of stuff, but rather simply not knowing the conventions of the genre. I must've ran from roaches for 5 minutes trying to figure out how to select a weapon. I also avoid some things just to keep my karma up, even though I know I need to do them. For instance, I'm guessing that I learn plumbing by breaking into the plumber's desk, but I know I'll take a karma hit for it.

I'm going through this as well. I am still in the Megaton area too. I am really enjoying it so far. I've been putting my points in Speech and Laser Weapons. So far, so good, but I am having trouble with Those! side mission, specifically beating the queen guardians.

I would review where you are spending your points. While lasers are pretty ammo can be at times a biatch to find. You should go with a rifle skill.

Odd night last night. I spent most of the evening looking for the family, but apparently at the wrong time of day. In the course of looking where I was instructed, I killed a couple of supermutants thinking "hey, maybe THEY are the family"....but not so much. Then I found Big Town, who wanted me to kill the supermutants. I wanted to tell them that I already did, but it didn't come up as an option. What happens when you accidentally complete an objective before you're given the mission?

The Family is underground, in a train station.

Which supermutants did you kill? There are plenty, but the folks in Big Town are only talking about the ones in Also, there's more to that quest than just killing supermutants -- you're rescuing prisoners of theirs as well. So it doesn't sound like you've done that part yet.

Don't worry, the game usually takes into account the fact that you could complete some objectives before you find the related quest. I can't think of anything in the game that you'd miss because of doing that.

You don't learn plumbing at all. Increasing your Repair skill will help you repair the pipes, if that's what you're referring to, but all containers in the game just contain items, ammo, etc.

Avoiding spoilers is a wise idea. There are plenty of surprises and things to find on your own. You'll get the hang of inventory soon enough. Assigning weapons to the shortcut menu is a good start.

As for skills to concentrate on at the beginning of the game, Small Guns is a great one, Repair is absolutely essential, and Lockpick is highly recommended. There are tons of locks to pick, and you can get lots of extra items and ammo as well as access to places you won't otherwise be able to go. I wouldn't focus too much on Speech, although winning those challenges is fun and can get you some extra info and caps sometimes, and I definitely wouldn't focus on Barter at all. It helps early in the game, but as in most games, later on you'll be swimming in caps and items to sell and wish you'd put those points into Repair, Science, Energy Weapons, etc.

Those weren't the ones. I found a pair (and some crab looking dude) by the outdoor theater, one with a club and one with a minigun. I got pretty much nothing for that. Then I went up a hillside and took out a ton of well armed raiders...again for pretty much nothing.

Still, I'm really enjoying the variety of the world.

That was my concern. Thanks.

I feel like I'm kind of wandering around aimlessly (which is fine as long as they keep me in ammo), and I wanted to be sure that there wasn't some "order" that these things needed to be done in.

Playtesting for this game had to have been a nightmare!

I actually fixed the pipes last night. Of course I had another genre moment last night where it took me 10-15 minutes to figure out how to read a book!

As a point of reference, I don't generally get into RPGs. I tried Oblivion and couldn't even get out of the tunnels before I got turned off by the overly complex menu/inventory system. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like they really simplified that aspect for Fallout.

This almost makes me want to start over, but I'm probably 6-8 hours in.

I downloaded Point Lookout, gonna try it out later today. Looking forward to some more Fallout action

Oh, didn't they tell you? You're doing it right now.

But seriously though, with such a huge and complex game, there are plenty of bugs and glitches, so keep multiple save files and save very often. It's not uncommon to get completely stuck in a crevice, in a hole in the ground/floor, behind a desk, etc., or for the game to just completely lock up. They continue to release patches for it.

And wandering around aimlessly is the best way to play this game. You'll find lots of side quests, both marked and unmarked, as well as many (many, many, many) locations to explore. I put 200 hours into my first playthrough, and I still didn't find everything.

Don't worry about starting over. You'll have plenty of opportunities to increase your skills while levelling up, and even more if you spend a lot of time hunting around for skill books and bobbleheads. As for perks, I recommend NOT taking the one that gives you more experience (you'll earn more than ample experience to reach the level cap without it), but do take the one that gives you 2 skill points per book you read instead of just 1. The perk is called Comprehension, and it's available when you reach level 4. Save any books you find from now on until you take that perk. If you explore thoroughly, there are MANY skill books to find - I believe there are 25 for almost every skill, and close to that many for the others. So with that perk and the bobbleheads, there are a possible 60 points per skill, over and above the normal levelling up points.

Speech is very important. It can save you from doing entire quests sometimes.

Can't wait to check out Point Lookout.

Moviepage, I appreciate the tips. I did start over, partly because I wanted to change my characteristics, but also because I killed the Overseer and wanted to see what happened if I didn't.

I ran into my first couple of problems last night. I ran across a group of raiders attacking some ghouls, and I tried to help the ghouls, but in the process, one of the ghouls got in my line of fire. I ended up having to kill everybody, and lost Karma in the process. I also picked the back door at Moriarty's on my way out (just for experience), and I guess he'd walked in the room before I did it. So he's pissed and shooting at me for picking his lock (even though I was breaking out rather than in), and the town was pissed, and to make matters worse, it autosaved when I opened the door. I ended up wasting an hour or so on that one.

On the upside, I found another vault (106, I think), and that was some creepy shit right there. Awesome stuff.

I noticed that in my new game. Before, I focused on speech and was able to get a lot more information out of people. In my original game, I think I talked the hooker into giving me Moriarty's terminal password.

I can't imagine needing DLC for this game...good lord it's huge. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if I picked up the GOTY edition way down the road when it's cheap.

I guess that's why I always viewed it as significantly less important than some of the others. When I'm playing a game, I like to...you know...play the game. Fully and completely.

It really just depends on how you want to approach the game.

I think this is going to be the second RPG I ever finish (the other being FF7). I've played other games with light RPG elements like the Castlevania series, but I usually get pretty turned off with managing huge inventories and upgrading more than 3-4 personal traits. Basically, any time I have to use a menu in a more complex way than, say Zelda, I'm ready to do something else. I also generally don't get into fantasy stuff (other than Zelda).

But I'm finding this world and story very compelling, and the menu management doesn't seem quite as overbearing as Oblivion (which I also tried). Fallout 3 isn't going to make an RPG convert out of me, but I'm definitely digging it right now. It's a perfect mix of sci-fi, post-apacolyptic and horror.

And, I'd love to have a game mode in F3 with standardized level upgrades and weapons that don't break and limbs that I didn't have to babysit. I just want to wander around this world without all the fuss.

I felt the same way. I'd hated most RPG games I've played before Fallout 3. I'm not interested in Oblivion, Mass Effect or any of those games. But so far I have 140+ hours of playing time with Fallout 3.

Anyone complete Point Lookout?

Wow. My favorite DLC mission, by far.

You're already done with it? Was it only 2 hours or something?