Recent content by John Hancock

Some people seem to dislike the fact that New Vegas' post-apocalyptic desert environment features washed-out, dreary, muddy colors. I've seen similar sentiments posted on other forums. I personally consider washed-out, dreary, muddy colors to be a perfect fit for the game's setting; I don't...

Yeah, I've gotten random scenery items in my inventory at Primitive Village, too. Happened to me after the fake stimpak quest.

SIGH. I'll only say this: If Bethesda Softworks had any half-decent competitors — other than BioWare, which didn't release any RPGs during 2006 (Oblivion) or 2008 (Fallout 3) — they'd be winning a lot fewer awards. In my opinion, gamers are so friggin' starved for halfway-decent western...

I agree. The real giveaway is that the characters' postures and suggested movement seem fairly fluid and natural. If that were an in-engine screen shot, they'd all look like cloned, ramrod-stiff mannequins having an epileptic seizure. (I'm exaggerating a bit, but still....) On the other...

Man, I don't even remember my first playthrough. There have been so many — at least a dozen complete playthroughs per game over the past 12-13 years. Currently I'm doing something I've never done before: playing as an Energy Weapons sniper, with Energy Weapons being the only combat skill I...

I don't know the first thing about compiling scripts (computer programming et al isn't really my shtick), but I'm a sharp fellow and can probably figure it out. I'll head over to The Vault and/or Vault-Tec Labs to find a starting point. I'm beginning to realize that since I still play and...

Well, I must admit I'm fairly ignorant of the exact tools and applications used by today's professional 3D modelers and artists. As I mentioned earlier, if Bethesda were developing pre-rendered talking heads, I think they'd probably do an excellent job of it. However, they (and Obsidian) are...

Regarding the NPC orders mod, would it be possible to place NPC names at the beginning of floating text in single-NPC parties, rather than at the end, so that the orders can be grammatically correct (i.e., end in a period)? Let me show you what I mean: Original ; Heal yourself (12xx)...

Most of them were. I'd say all of them, but I've heard (unsubstantiated) rumors that alternative methods were used in some cases. Once sculpted, the clay models were then marked, laser-traced and scanned into a computer, skinned, detailed, and animated. The real issue is that Bethesda's...

Yes, and it has nothing to do with YAAM per se, because YAAM doesn't change the Damage Mod for 4.7mm caseless ammo. 4.7mm caseless has a Damage Mod of 3/2, which means that the base damage against unarmored targets is actually: 13 * 1.5 = 19 (rounded down) 23 * 1.5 = 34 (rounded down)...

I knew who it was immediately the moment I set eyes on the screenshot, so I don't think your statement is entirely accurate. If nothing else, the goggles and shoulder armor give it away (as you say), but the face is pretty close, too.

It's a generalization, yes, but only because I can't/won't list every single category of new-school gamer. It gets the point across: If we bitter, hardcore, old-school fans were still the primary target audience, Bethesda's butchery of the franchise wouldn't have flown. I've mostly been a...

It's not really fair to compare the details of a pre-rendered talking head originally sculpted from clay to a three-dimensional character created from a wire mesh skeleton and textures. Considering what they're forced to work with, Obsidian has done a good job, and I for one prefer to give...

To be fair, no computer game to date has implemented a balanced and/or even remotely realistic theft system — not even the Thief games, although they come pretty close, since the entire game revolves around committing theft. As far as perfectionism... I'm a perfectionist myself, but in my...

Well, the problem I see with that solution is that it's specifically designed to punish people who save and load the game in order to steal or plant items with a low skill level. What's the point? If people want to exploit as they play, let them. Adding a deterrent will only annoy them, and...