Rank the DLC's

[SnapSlav]

Nah. Elijah and Ulysses were AMAZING, and blew Graham away.

Disagree. Elijah was a pretty classic villain. Utterly ruthless, mad with ambition, the works. He very much served his purpose, but there was nothing formidable about him. A crazy old man with too much dangerous technology in his hands.

Ulysses was a bit of an hypocritical loony, if you ask me. His dialog looks more like mad ramblings and vengeful slurs than any coherent ideology. He blames th Courier for destroying everything in his way, but he blows up parts of Big MT and willingly sends the White Legs to raze New Canaan without a second thought. He blames our hero for the Divide, which was completely unwittingly done, and as a revenge he forces him to set off a nuke, and himself nukes the two most powerful civilizations in the Mojave seemingly out of spite. It seems like the destruction of the Divide completely broke his mind, yet the writing suggests we should actually listen to him. He doesn't really have a point to me. He just wants to make the Courier suffer as he has himself suffer, but it's buried under ramblings and dubious philosophy.

Well you weren't paying attention, or you were just twisting the facts to suit your purposes, if you felt that Ulysses was contradicting himself. He pointed out when the Courier accepted no blame for launching the nuke that it was the Courier's CHOICE to do so. The courier may not have known they were about to launch a nuke, but they knew they were AT a nuclear silo, and had no need to walk onward; yet they chose to. That was the point Ulysses was making, and he was right. The courier CHOSE to launch the nuke, ignorant of the repercussions or not. If you actually listen to what Ulysses says, when he speaks (and isn't directly addressing the courier, simply rambling to himself), he makes perfect sense. Nothing is lunatical, and his motivations were just. He wasn't driven by some personal vendetta that would harm innocent bystanders as a result of his blind rage. He ideologically BELIEVED the West and the East couldn't be saved, as they were now, without a catalyst to "bleed them", what happened at the Divide showed him what could use to accomplish that goal. Ulysses even specified that he didn't "blame" the Courier for the Divide, so much as he blamed them for "showing [him]" what he learned. This touches on the philosophy (which is true) that knowledge is painful, and he learned something ENORMOUS from this, so the pain was equally massive, on the level of great suffering. He simply spoke symbolically (not insanely) when he addressed the Courier, calling their actions "packages" that they "deliver". Being able to torment the courier by beholding the knowledge of "their" faction's fate was simply a bonus, for Ulysses. Think Die Hard With a Vengeance in that regard; the goal had nothing to do with the protagonist, but the villain included the protagonist as icing on the cake.

As for Elijah... BEING a frail old man is what made him so imposing! Noonan was a great example of what most people think of old men, especially in a post-apocalyptic setting; they're helpless old farts with no productive purpose, but we keep them around out of sympathy. Elijah, on the other hand, with chronic headaches (as a sufferer of those, I DEFINITELY recognize how hard it is to function when your brain is on fire at most times) and debilitating arthritis, was STILL one of the biggest threats posed to every major faction within the game; surpassed ONLY by Ulysses and his ambitions. But while Elijah "ran the show" from behind the scenes, and really had total control over human beings with his depraved methods (a quality of his personality that, according to Veronica, he was only TOO delighted to be able to make a reality), he was STILL a force to be reckoned with, if you faced him, in person. A "frail old man", yet he could kill any seasoned soldier or avatar of divine luck (The Courier) if he wasn't approached with utmost caution. He was formidable.

 

[Ilosar]

Well you weren't paying attention, or you were just twisting the facts to suit your purposes, if you felt that Ulysses was contradicting himself

You keep using these words. I don't have a ''purpose'' here, it's my own interpretation.

What really made me not buy Ulysses was that it seemed he was talking to the player more than to the Courier, when he blamed him for the Divide, for the launched nuke, for everything. Thing is, neither the Courier (who was simply delivering a package) nor the player (who never witnessed those events at all) could be held really responsible for the disaster of the Divide. Same for the nuke, you have to launch it to progress, and Ulysses made specifically sure you had to do it. For the Courier, it's kinda stupid, since Ulysses invited him to the Divide, had no problem with launching nukes himself later, and again razed New Canaan, a prosperous and generous community. If it's directed at the player, it'sdownright stupid. I paid 10$ for this add-on, I won't just quit because some dude on the intercom says so

If you want an example of a game succesfully rubbing the player's actions in his face, play Spec Ops: The Line. That's really well done. In Lonesome Roads it seems like Ulysses is directing all the blame towards the Courier (why else have him come along? why else forcing him to make the warheads explode and launch the nuke?) and that, as the player, we're supposed to feel guilty. Given that his own actions are just as bad if not worst, I really don't buy into his character, no what how many metaphors he employs. The bottom line is, he's trying to use a catastrophe as a justification to engineer his own, which is bogus and wrong. He also seems to completely gloss over his own atrocities (New Canaan chief among them) Hence the ''hypocrite loony'' monicker.

As for Elijah, he's a badass, no doubt about it, but that doesn't make him so exceptionnal. There's plenty of competent old people in the Mojave, Sterling, Raul, the Remnants, House in a fashion, Graham is pretty damn old and suffers constantly too, hell the Courier can be one if so you choose. It doesn't make him a particulary memorable villain, especially given that his grand project is baseless genocide and power grab loosely justified by his incredible misanthropy.[/quote]

 

[Mameluk]

Apart from joining the minority of people considering LR as the best DLC, let me put my two cents to the ongoing discussion.
The problem with Ulysses is that he's somewhat insane, at least to some extent. Obviously, he's driven by vengeance, just like Elijah and Graham are, but the means of its realisation are pretty illogical and blurry if looked upon closely.

Courier: So what - you intend to bomb the Mojave?
Ulysses: No, not the Mojave. The West, all that's been built since America died.

To put it shortly, Ulysses can't find his place in the world. He's seen his tribe slaughtered by Legion, then helped the Legion slaughter another one. Now, obsessed with the idea of resurrecting America, he craves for nukeing the only political organism that inherited its traits - NCR. When I was listening to him during confrontation and to his reasons behind his master plan, I felt like his lust for changing the world, and having his revenge against Courier in the meantime, reached a stadium where he no longer cares for any place to call his own. In other words, he seems like he'd rather burn the land down than settle in. It's like he was some illogicaly dumb 9gag meme: Wants America back; bombs NCR/Gives respect to an old Caesar order; bombs Legion.
Also, as already pointed out, the manner of speaking. Symbolism, alterations, metaphors and parables instead of putting his thoughts straightforward. I even had to read the article about him on FOWiki to clear out and understand better some details of his design. He was THAT chaotic, at least in my point of view.
Now, don't get me wrong. Ulysses is one of my favourite characters in the entire Fallout franchise, but some aspects of his overall appearence make him sometimes more annoying than intimidating, as I suppose he was to be portrayed.

 

[Courier]

If you want an example of a game succesfully rubbing the player's actions in his face

Bioshock is really the best example of a game doing this right.

 

[SnapSlav]

You keep using these words. I don't have a ''purpose'' here, it's my own interpretation.

Ironically, I think you misunderstand my use of words in exactly the same way you misunderstand Ulysses' use. Maybe it's my habit for being equally as dramatic, philosophical, and metaphorical that's why I understood every single word he said without confusion. Either way, I use words just like he does, for illustrating a practical point. In the case of "you purposes", I'm guessing you think that means that I'm implying you have some sort of subversive agenda? Really it just means... whatever your purpose is. If you have no purpose when you speak, then why are you speaking? In literary contexts, "purpose" is akin to "subject". You write a sentence to convey a subject. The practical application might be that the subject is your own opinion, and getting your opinion across is your purpose. Some people, such as myself, would aim towards convincing others, and that's their purpose. Either way, everyone who has 2cents to contribute, and does so, has a purpose. It's not as deep, I think, as you're making it out to be.

Apart from joining the minority of people considering LR as the best DLC, let me put my two cents to the ongoing discussion.
[...]
Now, don't get me wrong. Ulysses is one of my favourite characters in the entire Fallout franchise, but some aspects of his overall appearence make him sometimes more annoying than intimidating, as I suppose he was to be portrayed.

Well, like I said above, at no times did I find him difficult to follow, and since he was speaking "my kind of language" at all times, I was practically eating up his words as he gave them, so I didn't think he ever got "annoying". It's possible this is just one of those "different people, different tastes" scenarios, which ITSELF would be really annoying, if that were the case. But Ulysses wasn't so much hell-bent on destroying rather than creating, so much that he SAW no means to create, but he saw a means to destroy something that (in his mind) deserved being destroyed. But you're right that he resigned himself to "not having a place in this world", as evidenced when he lured the Courier to their final showdown with the intention of dying no matter the outcome- be it by the Courier's hands or those of the Marked Men. He wanted to accomplish his goal, and once that was over, his life held no further meaning, as he saw it. It's that kind of conviction that made him so monstrous, just like the Master, who acknowledged that they did horrible things, but felt at their core that these evils were necessary to accomplish a greater good. His history with the Courier, his plan, and his faith in it are what made him a memorable, amazing villain.

And I'd definitely agree that Bioshock was a great example, but I'm not so sure it's the BEST example... Not that I can think of one better, but... Well one MIGHT just exist!

 

[Josan12]

I thought i'd gravedig this thread and throw in my views on the DLC's now that i'm almost finished playing through them, starting with my favourite ...

1) Old World Blues: 9/10

Overall, excellent -. Really immersive, well-written, atmospheric, challenging, varied, and is, IMO, undoubtedly better than alot of GAMES out there - truly amazing for a DLC.

+ Superb difficulty balance. I've played it at varying levels and it's always consistently tough.
+ HUMOUR!! FO1 had it, FO2 had it in spades. Only OWB brings back that wacky humour that I loved.
And even better, it swings between deadly serious and funny masterfully just like FO2.
+ Really clever, involving, thought-through writing. All the characters in the sink, all the think-tank, mobius,
even thrice-damned Ulysees. ALL excellently written.
+ Stunning atmosphere. I'm still not sure how they did it but to me the 'moonscape' feel combined with the
50's sci-fi pulp culture makes it really other-worldly. But then I love sci-fi...

- A bit far-fetched? Is it Fallout? I would say so but i'd understand if it was criticised for this.
- OP loot like the LAER but it fits within the DLC just fine.
- The high-school re-runs got a bit repetetive for me

2) Dead Money: 7/10 (so far)

I have to confess I'm still halfway through DM but already i'd rather re-play it over HH or LR.
The creepy survival-horror atmosphere had me from the get-go. Combined with taking me back to the good old days in early NV when I had to utilize every chem and every bit of ammo to survive - and i'm sold.

+ Like OWB - stellar writing. Dog/God, Christine and Dean had me enthralled.
After enjoying all the questions I could ask them I wanted to ask more! That defines good characterization and writing for me.
+ AWESOME atmosphere. They actually used lighting in this DLC and boy does it show.
Creeeeeeeepy. Love the Ghost people.

- Lacking a little in challenge. I find ghost people rather weak once i got a decent gun (and you start with one).
Companions like dog seem OP but this is systemic in NV with Veronica, Boone etc being OP IMO.
- repetetive enemy - so far ONLY ghost people. Compare to the interesting array of enemies in OWB and it seems a shame.

3) Honest Hearts: 4/10

Like many people the word 'Meh' sums up HH quite well. It's reasonable fun for the hunt but is bland and forgettable.

+ Plays well to think of yourself as an old-school hunter seeking the challenge of big game.
Not fitting with the plot of course, but nevertheless a decent array of (mostly re-skinned from NV) enemies.
+ Survivalist story is A++
+ The environment is engaging and feels unique and absorbing. Quite beautiful at times.

- Dragged down by poor characters. Very weak treatment of the 'post-apoc tribal culture' that FO2 did so well.
Follows Chalk and the other female companion come across as embarrasingly bland. Daniel and Joshua are passable
(I love the voice actors voice for Joshua - always makes me think of Diablo 2)
- Story is uninteresting because of the problem with the tribal culture above. White legs, sorrows, dead horses - whatever.
I didn't really care about any of them as I couldn't believe in them.
- Challange of enemies swings from crappy little coyotes to massively powerful giant green geckos
or giant cazadors in an instant with little regard for easing the player in.

- awful missions. I mean really - collect the lil' scout lunchboxes for Daniel?!?! Come on.

4) Lonesome Road: 2/10

Given the quality of OWB and DM I'm stumped as to how LR was so bad. I mean, on the surface it seems fine - looks good, plays ok, interesting environment. But underneath it's like it was designed and written by kids.

+ Rich environment - fun to explore, lots of hidden stuff, collapsed overpass tunnels, high road.
+ Challenging enemies - probably too challenging

- AWFUL character writing. Ulysee's tedious ramblings wanna-be cryptic bored me to tears after the first time he spoke through ED-E.
- Childish 'emotional' ED-E with his stock 'beeps excitedly' or 'beeps sadly' seemed embarrasing to me.
- Invincible ED-E very immersion-breaking even if you've chosen hardcore.
- WAAAAY to much loot, much of it OP to make up for how generally hollow this DLC is. I mean, there's no reasonable way you can carry the stupendous amount of high-level loot they throw at you.
- Poor story arc focused on desperately trying to make the player feel SOOO important by launching nukes at everything.
Then follows a lame attempt to make the player feel like he's affected the Mojave with the Long 15 and the Legion equivalent but actually comes across as over-reaching and ineffectual.
- running around blowing up nuclear warheads that explode like car engines seems like an idea from kindergarten kids.

So that's my experience of the NV DLC's. I think NV is a great game and it's got 2 great gaming experiences to go with it. HH is worth a look i suppose. Overall, my experience is basicly the same as the consensus in the poll above!
Considering how bad DLC's can be, i'd say they're well worth the time to play, especially OWB which is unmissable. I'd skip LR personally but others on these boards definately recommend it.

 

[EnclaveKnight]

For me from best to worst:

1 is Lonesome Road: it is linear, but the story behind it, and the moral of that story, of how one person can commit an act with such far reaching consequences that that person might not know it, makes it intriguing.

2 is Old World Blues: Only because I love the techy (is that a word?) feel of it all.

3 is Honest Hearts: The idea that you can't have it perfectly/make everyone happy is good, but the story needed more work.

4 is Dead Money: I HATED that DLC. the Ghost people and the cloud and Speakers kill it for me.

 

[woo1108]

Dead money
Yes it would be nightmare.
For me that was one of the most challengable DLC, I ever played.
RL is not only good for story but for it's message.
I really like it.

 

[LonesomeDrifter]

1. Dead Money
2. Old World Blues
3. Honest Hearts
4. Lonesome Road

While HH ain't the thing IT COULD be, it offered my religious side a small smile. But for me, Dead Money was just the best. Story was well done, loved the tragic story of Vera and the quotes of Elijah were memorable (some of them, such as: "Do this and I'll let you go... I'll let all of you go.")

 

[scorptatious]

1. Dead Money: I love how atmospheric it was, the characters were great, and I really liked the emphasis on survival.

2. Lonesome Road: Again, pretty atmospheric and Ulysses was awesome. Only thing I didn't like was the dialogue requirements from Ulysses are dependent on reputation rather than which questline you're the farthest in.

3. Old World Blues. Lots of exploration, very quirky, and it provides a lot of explanations and backstory to a bunch of stuff in both the DLC and the Mojave. I kinda found the enemies rather annoying to deal with though. Lobotomites and Nightstalkers EVERYWHERE.

4. Honest Hearts: Joshua Graham was really cool. Plus I did like some of the hidden diaries of that one guy. (Can't remember his name.) Was kinda meh on the whole setting though, and I felt encounters were FAR to frequent.

 

[Josan12]

While HH ain't the thing IT COULD be, it offered my religious side a small smile.

Yeah that's a good point - it's rare to see religion even acknowledged, let alone explored in video games these days. FO1&2 did well in this respect with the cathedral, hubologists and various religious details. It's Strange FO3 and NV neglected it so much - considering you can be DAMN sure it would survive and thrive in the post-apoc society.

 

[Hyddan92]

1. Honest Hearts, I loved the change in atmosphere, to walk around in a lush paradise such as Zion Canyon was wonderful. Just stunning scenery. And the survivalist, I loved to read about him and learn about his life and his feelings, and at the end when i found his body... I became so sad for him, but still happy that he could finally die and i thought of the sorrows and whatnot. Just amazing.

I did feel that it was a bit to little to do though, it should have been possible to join the whitelegs if you were a legion guy and abit more stuff to do and explore.

2. Old world blues. Oh man i loved the humour, walking around there was hilarious. And the stuff you found and found out about. A bit to techno for me though, but still amazing. I love the toaster and the robots in the sink. Talking to your brain!

3. Lonesome Road. A nice "end" to it all, nice to finally meet Ulysses, fight your way though it all and the challenges, fun to once again fight on your own. I loved the riot gear.

Sometimes felt to scripted and linear, sad that you couldn't get Ulysses as a follower. And why the hell would you blow up nuclear warheads everywhere?

4. Dead Money UTTER FUCKING HORROR! FUCK THIS SHIT. I do like the survival aspect, but the death clouds, and the immortal fucking ghost people, and the god damn speakers... not to mention that you always lost life... And it was so horror-like. AND YOU WAS FORCED TO FINISH IT BEFORE YOU COULD LEAVE. I hated it. FUCKING HOLOGRAMS. And no weapons to speak of.

Did like the gold though, and meeting Elijah McUltraDouchebag. But that's about it.

 

[Eumesmopo]

1 - Lonesome Road

Ulysses is officially my favorite character of the whole series, his dialog is so very well written and voiced that I don't even care that it hardly ever makes sense.

2 - Old World Blues

It was funny and had a satisfying amount of content to it plus the plot kicked ass. Would have been my first if not for being too silly for my taste.

3 - Dead Money

An maze-like villa covered by an poisonous dust and infested by enemies with an uncanny gait and creepy gas masks made for an awesome combo, but the fact that you can't carry over you gear to it just made me hate this DLC at some times.

4 - Honest Hearts

No comment on this one other than the whole story felt pointless for me.

 

[Atomic Postman]

1.Dead Money
2.Lonesome Road
3.Old World Blues
4.Honest Hearts

Dead Money had absolutely brilliant atmosphere,tone,themes and characters and everything worked to enforce eachother, a very strong DLC that I can hardly put any flaws in.

Lonesome Road was climatic and I really felt the tension build throughout the DLC, from the second town onwards you start piecing together that someone has a serious beef with you,and this is the payoff:An atmospheric, climatic and challenging experience that brings interesting environments and enemies meant to test the mettle of High Level Players who have mastered the Mojave,a strong DLC, but it has its flaws.

Old World Blues was lighthearted and fun, it had a nice 50's B-Movie style to it and though the humor was childish at times, I did find myself chuckling at some of the Think Tank's dialog and other things throughout the DLC.
It was nice to have a new open world environment that was very interesting and provided some very cool locations and enemies, showing a side to Fallout we rarely get to see. A good DLC, not many flaws, but it's not as potent as the other two.

Honest Hearts was a massive case of wasted potential, there really was the blueprints for a great DLC here, but they flopped.

Still,they are all miles better than any of Fallout 3's DLC.

 

[Mohamed2001]

I favor them all.

However.

- Old World Blues

- Lonesome Road

- Dead Money

- Honest Hearts.

I AM NOT SAYING HH IS BAD. It's good, but the story is a bit meh. And I don't feel like talking with tribals. It's not comparable with the Fallout 2 tribal talking feel. However, HH makes excellent use of mapping.

 

[the_cpl]

I didn't like Dead Money. The purple smoke, the holograms, it was just annoying.

I didn't like Honest Hearts. You get a couple travel buddies, but all of them get killed in the first couple seconds. It's nothing just walking around, there is nothing interesting in the desert, even if you find a crappy looking shack, you must be happy for it, becuase that's something. At least there is one interesting character there (Joshua).

I didn't like One World Blues. There are only robots and insanes. I think there is no human npc to talk there. There are a couple interesting places to look, but the invisible monsters are just bad. Maybe I would enjoy it more, if I wouldn't go there accidentally with a level 1 character.

Lonesome Road. I didn't like it really, because... just why the Hell that revenge guy talks so slow and so much?!

Again, the original storyline is awesome, but the DLC-s are not that great.

 

[00:49]

1. Dead Money. Liked the focus: let go and begin again. Makes the whole thing feel homogeneous and purposeful. Scarce resources, holograms and speakers kept me present in the game all the time, made me think and plan, as opposed to just blasting another horde of enemies without an intelligent thought in my head and moving on. Engaging is the word for it, I think. Superb characters, nice background story, okay plotline, blatantly unimaginative quest-line, but that's something all of the DLCs have in common.
2. Old World Blues. Loved the mood swings. Loved exploring the Big MT more than the actual story. All DLCs somehow make me more invested in the smaller stories within themselves than the main plot. It really didn't feel like Fallout to me, what with all the shiny Proton Axes and other high-tech stuff, but I still enjoyed it a LOT.
3. Lonesome Road. Nice environments, love them even though they made my head ache at times. Don't see any good qualities beyond that: can't for the life of me even remember what the plot was about (which says something about its quality), the Marked Men and the Tunnelers were nice concepts but somehow felt under-developed, and the gameplay was 'meh' at best.
4. Honest Hearts. Has 'meh' written all over it. If the Survivalist's tapes were the whole DLC it would've been better than the DLC itself without the tapes.

 

[Nar]

I can't really judge on the other DLC's since I had some crashes with NV and stopped playing it. I've fixed those problems now though and I intent on playing all the DLC's.

But I have finished Honest Hearts, and although I loved the anthropological, theological and linguistic side of Honest Hearts, the gameplay was boring and repetitive. So boring even that I put on Godmode and rushed my way through it, using the 'kill' command in the console to take out any enemies that I deemed too time-consuming.

 

[2house2fly]

4: Honest Hearts
Joshua Graham is a really strong character, as is Daniel, the Survivalist logs are fantastic, and Zion is beautiful, but the actual content is a little slight. All the enemies are just reskinned or differently sized versions of other enemies in the main game or Fallout 3, and there's not a lot to most of the locations other than, like, "here's a campfire with tin cans" or "here's a jetty with an old boat tied to it" or "here's a campfire with tin cans, II".

3: Lonesome Road
Ulysses is probably my favourite character in Fallout, and while a lot of people don't like the "big revelation" that

Spoiler

the Courier destroyed the Divide unknowingly by delivering an ordinary package there and doesn't even remember it

I loved it, because it resonates with something I've experienced and think about a lot: whether or not you are to blame for something you did, the fact is that you did it. You're part of a chain of events which caused something tragic to happen, and the fact that you didn't choose to be, and that literally anyone else in the world would have done exactly the same thing just makes it more sobering to me. That said, the DLC is extremely linear, which I can see being off-putting, and a big part of it is how it reacts differently based on your faction reputation, which doesn't take completed quests or killed characters into account (was getting House dialogue after I'd killed him!)

2: Dead Money
Story and characters are great, and I like a lot of the switch-ups in gameplay. Atmosphere gets a bit samey though, and you can't just dive in at your leisure like you can with the other DLCs; it's pretty unique and you have to be in the mood for it. That's the only thing that stops it from being my #1 but at the same time, if it wasn't so different I probably wouldn't like it as much.

1: Old World Blues
Oozing with charm and humour, with lots of little environmental dioramas. I don't think there's anywhere you can go that doesn't net you some kind of reward. Enemy spawns are a bit ridiculous though, and you need to bring in a lot of armour-piercing bullets if you want to play with Guns.

 

[Mathius]

I personally didn't think any of the DLC's were great, but here's my 2 cents:

1&2. Lonesome Road and Old World Blues - These are a tie for me. Both of them did some things right and both did some things that were absolutely lame.

Lonesome Road had great combat balance and a super cool environment. But I got really sick and tired of all those desks and file cabinets. I also got really tired of Ulysses insane ramblings. He was definitely an interesting character, but at the end of the day he was far too preachy to figure out just what the hell he wanted. I also disliked the fact that with a simple speech check I was able to talk him out of world domination, but that's more of a complaint with New Vegas in general. The idea of giving a backstory to the player at that junction in the game was a bit annoying as well.

Old World Blues started out great, with lots of comedic relief. The idea of the homes where the scientists used to live was interesting as well as finding some of the leavings from Elijah, Ulysses, and Christina. But the mobs were unnecessarily over powered to the point where exploration started to get irritating at level 30 something when I did it. It also bugged the hell out of me that Obsidian took almost all the meshes that they designed, dumped them in the big empty and claimed that they all were developed there, but they "escaped". Talk about a lazy explanation for all these creatures running around in the wasteland. I also have to take points off for those stupid canine tests that you have to do over and over and over again. The stealth suit upgrades weren't quite as bad. Then there's the fact that they in fact gave you the best and coolest player house in the game, but you have to travel to OWB to use it. And lets be honest, by the time you did OWB you already had an established player house somewhere and who was going to take the time to move their stuff? I would say there were more things wrong with OWB than LR, but there were also more things that OWB did right.

3. Honest Hearts - This one was so Meh, it definitely belongs in the middle. The whole thing is short as hell. I have listened to people praise the scenery, but I got sick of literally seeing red about 5 minutes into it. Seriously. Give some contrast in those mountaints. I'm not even positive a mod could fix it without totally rebuilding areas of it. The combat was fairly easy. I was pretty disappointed that the story line was religious in nature. I just don't want real world religion or politics in my video games. I feel like they cause nothing but trouble and people are better off keeping that on a personal level. I'm not saying the way they brought it up or approached the story was pushy or bad, I just would feel better if it wasn't there at all. I really liked the silenced .45 pistol you're given, but then I found out it was worthless in LR. The followers were terribly lame. Then again maybe it's just my lack of interest in native tribes. Who am I to say? Lastly, it bugged me that they introduced you to some interesting characters as caravan drivers and then killed them off 5 minutes later. I would almost argue those were the most interesting people in the entire DLC.

4. Dead Money - Wow. The poster who said this was a chore, was dead right.

First off the whole concept pissed me off, and I'm gonna go on a mini rant here. Avallone deliberately set off to make this area different from the core game. ( http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=1&showentry=144 ) Why you would introduce a game, and then introduce more content for people who enjoyed the game but then make them pay for the content and then go in a deliberately different direction just doesn't make sense to me and it offends me. When you pay for something, whether it's video games, tickets to ball games, whatever... the person in charge needs to check his or her ego at the door and realize that nothing they did would be possible without the people who supported the game. Just going off and doing your own thing because **** you fans, irritates me. (maybe it's because I'm a Cleveland Browns fan)

Anyways, so they set out to make a survival horror out of it. But the combat is some serious torture porn stuff. The enemies that not only won't go down easily without an insanely lucky head shot, but then get back up... the cloud that kills you slowly.... the bomb collars with hidden speakers..... and then throwing in traps just to seal the deal... Oh and lets take away all your weapons and leave you with a crappy holorifle for reasons that have no explanation story wise whatsoever. Any one or two of those things would have made it difficult enough. Putting them all together and then refusing to let you leave the area just made this a chore.

For everything that Dead Money did good, they ruined it. The environment was cool, but the aforementioned dangers made me not want to explore it. Introducing Christina's story that makes it pretty well obvious she was Veronica's former lover was a good concept, but then not leaving any dialogue with Veronica later, or allowing the two of them to interact on any level (since you can't return to Sierra Madre and Christina doesn't leave) was a total miss. Then introducing Elijah who is supposed to be so brilliant and Veronica's mentor and then finding out he's just a **** is another huge let down. But what really sucked for me was the fact that they introduced some absolutely AWESOME follower characters: Dog/God, Domino, and Christina, and then refuse to let you take them with you into the waste. And at the end of it all your reward is some crappy weapons (assuming you didn't drop them along the way) and a bunch of gold bars that are not only worth too much to sell, but seriously... you don't need that much money for anything anywhere in the waste. It's not like you can buy a house like Skyrim.