Longest video I ever made. Please consider liking, commenting, and subscribing! Any corrections will be posted here and in the description so check there before commenting! Corrections: 1. "Split personality" is a dated term I used for dog/god. Dissociative Identity Disorder is more accurate and the multiple personalities are called alters. 2. I used the term "cabal", which I have been informed is used in anti-Semitic rhetoric and will be refraining from using it in the future. I believe this was used in discussing the American government, corporations, and military. 3. Not a correction: The courier is NOT an amnesiac. Please stop bringing this up to me. JESawyer is on record saying the courier does not have amnesia. 4. The Thorn egg quest also rewards you with a unique shotgun 5. Gamergate being mentioned: I brought it up to frame how the progressiveness of New Vegas is often misinterpreted by people (usually right-wing). I used GamerGate because it was an example I saw first-hand, where people were praising Arcade specifically for weird reasons and I saw this during the GG era. The section isn't about GG, it's about New Vegas' progressiveness and strong left-leaning ideology that individuals misconstrue as right-wing. It's not a discussion on tokenization, it's about people angry when a character deviates from the viewers perceived norm. If Arcade or Veronica were more open and loud about their sexuality this would rub the people I described the wrong way. Some commenters think this means I'm talking about them when I say this. Do you dislike characters simply because they are loud about their sexuality? No? Then I'm not talking about you. Yes? You should probably go outside. Check the first 20 minutes of this video for an explanation on GG: ruclips.net/video/lLYWHpgIoIw/видео.html 6. Daniel was originally meant to be Asian, but a glitch caused his character to be Caucasian instead. 7. Prison labor is slave labor. 8. I get it. You didn't love or hate it. You only liked it. 9. I will not debate in my comments. if you disagree with me that's fine, but I'm not taking part in the "marketplace of ideas" in my free time. 10. gamergate nerds stay gone 11. The legion doesn't attack you because they identify you as a courier. Couriers are often used by the legion as disguises for their spies. 12. I missed one ending with Chief Hanlon if you kill Caesar.
My fondest memory of this game is being told not to go somewhere, saying "You can't tell me what to do.", and then getting absolutely shredded by deathclaws.
At first i took it as the devs trying to gate content. Then i realized they don't give a fuck about gating content and that's just part of the world building! Chefs kiss!
The Legion’s neutrality towards you is simple. If one is playing normally, your first interaction with the Legion will be at Nipton. If I’m remembering correctly, Vulpes Inculta (a spymaster within the Legion) will deduce you to be a courier. Couriers in legion-occupied territory are highly respected and the Legion will usually leave them alone, and even reward them in exchange for being their eyes and ears in places outside their borders. That’s why they don’t attack you from the onset.
@@kinagrillThe Frumentarii is prolly Caesar's greatest assest; They're so good that the Legion couldn't even tell if a courier is a random courier or one of their spy.
My first playthrough, I was so disgusted by what I saw in Nipton that I walked up behind the line of Legion soldiers and executed them point blank in vats with a caravan shotgun, one after the other, somehow winning the resulting shoot out with Vulpes Inculta. I kept his hood, which conveniently counted as glasses for my four-eyes trait. Afterwards during the raid on Nelson, the local Legion leader mistook me for Vulpes as I entered his barracks , complaining about me wandering into his turf but remaining non hostile while littered the room with explosives and holed up in the bathroom. Later on I was able to buy Frank's family for a mere 300 caps, freeing them in the process. Soon after I was approached by a Legion npc who basically informed me that the jig was up, leading to a shootout with the entirety of cottonwood cove. It was around this point I realized I was playing one of the best games ever made.
@@raavhollywood I swear lol, I played this game all the way through a few years ago. If I had a PC I would play it again but I just have a series x and sadly NV doesn’t t support mods on console. I hope one day this game gets a remaster or something. But the thing that makes these games so special is that everyone has a different experience…I never even knew about this whole sequence.
5:13:53 The hardest part is letting go” as we all casually carry all 27 gold bars and use the “Long Haul” perk to fast travel to become richer than House in his pre war days. Of course on top of the cleaning all the casinos out too. The hardest part is people letting go of “MY” money that is not yet in my inventory.
One of the things you missed, or where unaware of, (thought this might not be clear at the start of the game) is that the Legion is under standing orders to not harass couriers, as many of them are Legion agents. This is probably why the Legion doesn't attack you without infamy, as you are a courier.
Was checking the comments to see if someone else noticed that, consider this a "hello fellow cool person who has absorbed slightly too much fallout information and noticed this specific detail in a 7+ hour video"
Something to note is that Marcus is actually a character from Fallout 2. He's the canonical companion who assisted the Chosen One in blowing up the oil rig of the Enclave's final base of operations, which ultimately led to the Chosen One splitting off from Marcus to go their separate ways amidst the wasteland. He mentions this in dialogue trees, and I just think that's a really awesome tidbit about someone who seemed to be just some minor character, only to turn out to be the companion that assisted in eradicating the Enclave.
@@SuperRADLemon Well they are all enclave people so they are TECHNICALLY from 2 cuz they were part of the oilrig thing, survived and went into incognito mode so to speak within the spreading NCR. I dunno if they are all mentioned by name, but they are canonically (to the NV-timeline at least) from Fallout 2 as the origins.
No way. I'm absolutely in love with how popular long form critiques have become. Thanks for taking a massive swing I'm excited to chill with this all day
I think the legion's neutrality towards the player has to do with a piece of dialogue you can hear from Ulysses (not sure where) in which he references Caesar saying "kill no courier"
Indeed. Since caesar had twisted hair homie as a courier doin his spyimg thing he tried to make trim down the amount of things that could kill him. When i played my 1st time through (dlc's were out already) i didnt beat the game b4 i delved in LR. I had that curiosity why they wouldnt sweat me the while time til i heard twisted hair homie say that. Its made sooo much sense after. We had a unintentional hall pass with the legion, fuckin great detail
I think either Ulysses or Caesar mentions that the only reason none of them have tried unless provoked was exactly because Legionnaires are ordered not to attack couriers period. Its actually a really sensible explanation for avoiding one of the major factions being hostile off the bat, and it makes the player character's job so much more interesting. How many couriers are Frumentarii? Does the NCR also use couriers as agents?
My favorite part of FO:NV is 100% the atmosphere. The weird foreign distant metallic noises heard far away, sounds of gunshots, wolves, and the eerie OST. It's amazing!
@@okagronwho the hell complains it has no atmosphere? Never seen it Only that it’s atmosphere can be boring at times, which it definitely can The desert is not comparable to the dc wasteland in that regard
3:29:31 They actually do address this. If you have Veronica as a companion when you buy it off Max for her personal quest, she says something to the effect of “Wow. Good thing the safety was on.”
One of my fond memories of New Vegas involves a bug that I don't know if anyone else has documented or not. I wasn't the one who encountered it, instead it was my friend who was playing the 360 version at launch and seemingly could not level up. At all. He was perpetually stuck at level 1, even though he was getting XP enough many times over to level, but pressed on because he had always been a huge Fallout fan and wanted to see the game through no matter what. I distinctly remember being in a voice chat with him as he "fought" Legate Lanius, wincing when he was one shot by his sword, laughing when he managed to knock him down with the tons of dynamite he had carried through the game, and going absolutely wild when he managed to kill him and win the game. I wish I still had my old phone, because he sent me a photo of his screen with Lanius laying dead and the level ticker telling him he was still at level 1.
I had actually never considered using the stealth boy to pass Trudy's speech check, until I saw you hover over it and remember that it does in fact add 100 sneak.
my theory is that he actually just wanted to go to popeyes but was to lazy to walk there so he got some random schmuck to make him a sick rocket cause why not
You’re probably not going to see this but the reason that the Legion seems like a path you have to intentionally go down is because Obsidian didn’t have enough time to work on the Legion and focused more on the NCR. This is also why there are so few named Legion members. If they had even a month more time to complete it, I’m certain that the Legion would be far more fleshed out.
Yeah, there was supposed to be a town that you could visit and see how those under Legion protection truly lived. Iirc it's name is Malpais or something.
Fun fact about Daniel from honest hearts. He was meant to be Asian, but literally right before the dlc went out someone accidentally changed him to white an no one knows who did it.
A memory I'll never forget is my moded playthrough of Lonesome road. After finishing the DLC entering back into the Mojave. The first thing I see is a cockroach on two legs with a nine iron running at me.
Imagine what we could've gotten if Obsidian had gotten the time to make a finished product. Hell what if they make a new Fallout game with this generations capabilities? We can only dream.
"youre brother was a little bitch and so are you" at the memorial and "i..i cant feel my legs!" after trying out Fisto are the best lines of dialogue in the entire fallout franchise.
In the Honest Hearts DLC Violence isn't the answer. Violence is a question, and the answer is "YES". The Dead Horses and The Sorrows have every right to defend themselves and their territory.
Fully agree here. But with a limit and control. Because going full murder-hobo is harmful for Joshua as well. It's about being able to defend and protect, not going holy godwarrior on General Gobbledeegook.
@@wowliker642 Same, same. I can understand Joshua's idea of fighting to keep what is yours, but taking it too far just corrupts and ruins you. Like how a revolution only works to a point. if it keeps trying to stay the revolution AFTER winning, they become the very tyrants they saught to depose.
@@wowliker642 Which is funny because for the entire expansion, my character felt incredibly capable until it was time to talk Joshua down with one of the hardest speech checks in the game, which made a horrifying amount of sense: you're trying to get Joshua to hold back a fundamental part of his nature, his unending fury.
Especially because Rendell Clarke himself wanted it so. You know this entire "Be kind to on another but defend yourself if threatened". You cannot preserve innocence in this world. The tribes would get prayed upon over and over. The White Legs would just be replaced by others.
Cool seeing you commenting on this lol especially since you’re so KH focused. Wouldn’t mind you doing a video on this too one day since I as well very much enjoy some Fallout New Vegas
I sided with Joshua in Honest Hearts because I found the idea of the Sorrows basically being evicted from their native land by the Legion/White Legs not something agreeable this is the post apocalypse and people need to fight to Survive. I believe no matter where the Sorrows relocate another Faction will threaten their way of life. So yes Joshua's way is extremely violent and genocidal but in this case it is necessary for the Sorrows to survive in the long run.
@@fjparasite1172 Depending largely on the single speech check at the end of his route possibly no? I don’t think honestly in that single speech check that it would not result in his own legion, and even then I’m not sure that the sorrow would be able to survive there and continue there way of life into the future
@@fjparasite1172 The tribes became military forces but there was no indication that they engaged in slavery and conquest under the might of a sociopathic ruler like the Legion... I think 😂
"this is the post apocalypse" doesn't belong in this statement. Like the entire point of the series but especially new Vegas is that it doesn't truly matter that the bombs dropped. It doesn't change the relationships societies have with each other. It doesn't change human nature.
I remember telling my friend in school that my ideal prefect video game would be an RPG set in post apocalyptic america with old school jazz on the radio.. my buddy immediately informed me of FNV and my life was forever changed
I'd love to add that new players can also find an interesting middle-ground between the intended path (south into Primm) and the extremely difficult path (north through Sloan): they can go east through a narrow passage in the mountain side, where, if memory serves me right, they will encounter a blind deathclaw! The path heads straight to Novac, bypassing Primm, the Mojave Outpost, and Camp Searchlight.
yep, or they can follow the railroad tracks, then over the mountains dealing with increasing levels of threats all the way upto a legion camp if disliked by them.
It's so strange that a game with some much to say about different the forms of government, philosophy, and the human condition is the same game where you can get jumped by a gang of elderly grandma's right after activating a robot called FISTO that you have the option to "test out" before sending it to a casino/brothel.
20:20 One of my favorite aspects of the courier is that they feel like a real person that has been living in this wasteland from simple comments like being able to say "Aren't you that singer from New Reno? I think I saw you play the clubs there" when you first meet Bruce Isaac
While this is true, I personally loved the backstory of Fallout 3. As I haven’t played previous 1&2 games, I was new to the world - so is my Lone Wonderer, as she grew up sheltered by the vault. So we explored the world together.
@Merunit K the 3 background is fine in my opinion and is over hated a bit. In Fallout 1 you are also a vault dweller but one specifically picked to help save the vault as it implies you are the only one the Overseer can fully trust. 2 is the most interesting as you are the decendant of the first games protag
@@carolusrex5213 The FO3 background is probably hated because it takes so long to actually get to The Main Story. As a result, the tutorial seems forced, and if there's one thing players hate, it's being railroaded in such a ham-fisted manner. What I loved about FNV's character introduction is that it's thematically sound for the rest of the game: it starts off as a revenge Western, right up the point where the Powder Gangers came to town...and THAT is the tutorial.
@@LucyWest370 because it's true. 18 months is not enough time to make a mod, let alone a full AAA release. And unfortunately, bethesda's engine is utter garbage.
@@LucyWest370 that's a fair point, but it's entirely based on hindsight. They were definitely not prepared for late 2000s 3d open world game development, given how basic the work was technically in their prior games.
The amount of effort you put into this is incredible! FNV remains my favourite game of all time, and this might just become my favourite video of all time. Thank you :)
Who knew that extremely funny people that are passionate about history would like New Vegas! ... Oh wait, it makes total sense xD Thanks for the laughs and your passion, Mr. Hollis!
While I can't say that I agree with all of your thoughts, I CAN say that this is without a doubt one of the best Fallout: New Vegas videos I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Very well done.
Ya speccialy the obnoxious idea that everything evil is capitalism and the faulty notion that capitalism is an ideology and not an economic system.. can be kinda hard to listen through
I think you're selling Joshua Graham's character a little short. He's not just not moving on from his past with Caesar, he thinks that the part of him that is awful is intrinsically also why he survived being burned alive. His view is in a lot of ways that he knows he's terrible, a monster, but a necessary form of evil to keep the dead horses safe. It's wrong, obviously, but I think it's much more interesting to look at him through that specific lense
He views his own suffering and his work to help the dead horses as serving God. killing when done righteously is a chore like any other. Graham is the tool for the chore of killing and that's his retribution
I'm barely 11 minutes in and o just wanna say. That opening cinematic where Benny shoots you is so well done, even with the how outdated it looked even at release, that EVERYONE uses it to open their discussions, retrospectives, reviews, etc of New Vegas. And I don't say that to disparage any creators. It just shows how well written and iconic it is. Now onto the next 7 fucking hours of my life listening to this as I play Sunbreak 😂
It's so weird because the intro looks outdated yet the way it looks makes me love it all the more. It's like the jankiness adds a bit of heart and nostalgia to it all.
Rewatching this after your Oblivion retrospective and I already commented first time I watched but I actually wanna celebrate your video style a little. You always manage to capture the sense of playing games like we did when they're new but with research and plenty of hard evidence to back up your critiques that come from experience playing the game extensively. Bless you SuperRad
Your "fault" about the way the enemies appear in Lonesome Road is one of my absolute leading praises. Never have I ever been so immersed and felt threatened by a group of enemies as the Marked Men. I felt like I was being hunted, that no place was ever safe. I've never played any area of the game so cautiously and slowly before in the entirety of my 50H+ playthrough.
I agree. First time playing through Lonesome Road on my old Toshiba laptop with a wireless mouse, my fingers were quaking as I made my way through the rubble and bombed out buildings, feeling the lines of sight of 3+ enemies at all times. Only thing that's come close to feeling like that for me was the first Dead Space when you get attacked in the elevator.
I've done many playthroughs of this game and its DLCs yet I learned new things from watching this. Didn't even knew that it is possible to keep Dean alive.
I have played this game collectively over consoles and PC for probably well over 2,000 hours. Am I gonna sit here and watch a 7+ hour video about it? You’re goddamn right. Because I’ve got spurs that jingle jangle jingle
That's a weird looking monster Hunter spinoff... Loved New Vegas and even it's ups and downs when the different dlcs were being dropped. Should be a fun nostalgia trip watching this.
Once you go hardcore, you really can't stop: I thought I'd do it once, just to get the achievement, but now I can't imagine NOT using it. It really makes you evaluate your inventory and how to best use every Kg. And it also encourages the use of safe houses like Novac, the SM bunker, the abandoned shack, etc. Like realistically, my Courier would probably be leaving food, water, ammo, weapons, and meds at all of their safe houses, ala Randall Clark.
Another important thing about the SPECIAL is to not fill any up to 10, only 9. Because later on when you reach the New Vegas medical center the doctor can sell you implants that boost special points up by 1. That way you can spread out points more in the beginning and then max them out later on
No, that goes to Acerthorn’s AWFUL “retrospective”. He barely played the game and misunderstood so much about it, and it comes out to about an hour and a half.
@@RecklessRobert Yes, I read all of your terminal entries as well as the holotape in your duffel bag right next to where you died. You were more than a soldier. You took pride in your survival skills, often running off from Salt Lake City to the wilds for days on end, much to the dismay of your wife Charlotte and son Alex. Beginning with the war and the loss of your family to the bombs, and how you waited out the worst of the radiation, then set out into the light once more, adapting to the new flora and fauna as it, too, adapted to the new world. I admire you for helping others survive, as well as raining vengeance on those who would butcher innocents. I agreed with what you did, even if you made mistakes along the way. Which is why I sided with Joshua Graham and crushed the White Legs, all using your survivalist rifle. I’ll continue to use it against Caesar’s Legion as well. Daniel, a Mormon missionary disagreed with me and Joshua, because he fears war with the White Legs would change the Sorrows tribe from what he views as a life of simple innocence into a more warlike culture. Almost convinced me too, but I remembered what you said, “I tell them never to hurt each other but that if someone else comes along and tries to hurt them to strike back with righteous anger.” Heeding your words, I fought against the White Legs. However, I did not kill their leader, Salt-Upon-Wounds. Instead I convinced Joshua Graham to spare Salt-Upon-Wounds, to teach the Sorrows a lesson-that retribution could be tempered by mercy. While the Sorrows’ innocence has been lost, it’s for the best. For Zion, and the longevity of the Sorrows.
Yes! 7 hour long Fallout New Vegas reviews are my favorite genre! Edit: SuperRad this is amazing! It’s remarkable how much effort has gone into this video. Thanks for always uploading such great content!
I actually just tried going the northern route to Vegas for the first time last night. I took a roundabout high ground path to the tribal village wrecked by Cazadores, used Dynamite to take them out, and then used stealth boys to try and avoid the bighorners and fiends the rest of the way. I, unfortunately, only had 2 stealth boys and had to sneak around about halfway into the fiend territory, but I made it to Freeside at Level 3.
Robodogs (as well as robobrains) use the brain for processing (much like a SIMM for a PC) which is then grafted onto an existing robotic personality (like the ones in robots like Mr. Handys or Protectrons.) Generally its original memories/personality are only a shadow or a vague background thing. In the case of the Robobrains, the brains used have their past self lobotomized out for the most part. A few exceptions exist, and the process isn't always perfect. The robodogs were originally developed by Big MT (I think) and they're a little different from robobrains, but I think they work generally the same. So putting a new brain into Rex would not fundamentally change him as his base programming is like that of a regular robot. But the personality might bubble up to the surface like a kind of trojan or a corrupted hidden system file, and cause problems. Or not... you can see I've given this some thought.
I disagree with how you interpreted Veronica's personal quest and the brotherhood's main quest. Veronica wasn't just trying to end the lock down, she was trying to change the brotherhood's main goal and how they operate. They are zenophobic and almost never allow outsiders to join them except for special occasion, refuse to allow others to have advanced tech if they could help it, and follow the codex to the letter even if it causes problems for them. Ending the lock down doesn't change the brotherhood, just allows them to continue their mission. Veronica saw that the mission would ultimately lead them to just make more enemies while stifling them as the world grows around them. Ultimately, the brotherhood is on a path to self destruction, something they will never move from, which is why Veronica gives up at the end.
Very good point. I saw Veronica's want for that, but focused on the lockdown moreso. You're right that she wants to change the brotherhood as a whole and ultimately fails at doing so.
If you do end the lockdown the by replacing the elder and ask him to join the brotherhood you’re task in doing so is a bit messed up. They want you to accept the mission blindly as their tenets say members should do. He is just as xenophobic as most members are to outsiders. Ending the lockdown is worse for the wasteland because they cause trouble for the factions that win hoover dam.
2:13:16 I just want to piggy back on to your point here, if you take the confirmed bachelor perk you end up finding a quite a few homosexual characters that you would otherwise not know of. Like The desk clerk in Mojave Outpost, and Boone’s friend Manny Vargas. The Desk Clerk being particularly interesting as he mentions that sort of thing isn’t allowed in the NCR. Then again Cpl Betsy exists, who’s openly a lesbian. Very interesting stuff
It's not looked kindly at, not that it's illegal, and he specifies that the heart of republic is more accepting. Considering Betsy is also 1st recon sniper, it makes sense others would respect her despite their prejudices
For me the beginning of new Vegas felt really really slow, but once I sat down and started really exploring and interacting with settlements and reaching new Vegas, it quickly became one of my favourite games ever. Amazing video btw
Reviving this comment thread to say 100%. Started with 3 and adored it, 100%, multiple playthroughs, discovered all locations, etc. I then rented this from blockbuster, back when that was a thing you could do, started, and was immediately turned off by the western theme, single shotguns, dynamite, the joe Cobb gang, etc. I ended up finding the crashed vertibird and the Tesla beaton prototype, right before returning the game. For some reason that memory alone stuck with me and made me try again a couple years later and I finally broke through that early game wall and hit free side, met the ncr, found the unique minigun at devil's throat, found the enclave, got the armor, fell in love with the game, and am now running a tale of two wastelands run with all 8 dlcs and 63 different mods. Crazy to think I nearly missed this game while being sick a fan of the series
I’m not even halfway done but seeing how much I missed makes me want to boot up this game again. It’s crazy to think areas like vault 11 are apart of a game that’s unfinished. This video is easily one of your bests
You missed the moral side of making lily take her meds fully, if she does take the meds fully she loses complete memory of her dead husband, the love of her life. So yeah you do help her mentally, but at the same time she will forget her husband completely. Maybe its not so much of a moral quandry for other people but it kind of breaks my heart😅
I thought I brought up the memory loss, and your right it is an important aspect. For me it feels like lily is a danger to herself and others when berserk, and this was the right decision for her benefit
Thanks I was looking for a comment pointing this out. The mechanical aspect is interesting but I feel like the moral dilemma of Lily's wellbeing vs her memories of her husband and grandchildren are undersold here.
@@SuperRADLemon I can see this idea, but for me I feel as though it's not my place as the courier to make that decision for Lily, her past is who she is as a person, the tapes of her husband and he grandchildren are what she cherishes most in life. I know it's probably better for her to take her meds but it's just not a choice I can bring myself to make in game.
@@tibaronmagnus3672 I think that’s a fantastic point. However, Lily is an elderly woman who is also affected by a dependency on Stealth Boys and the side effects which come with that. The mental health of Nightkin is a major recurring theme of New Vegas, and while you’re *almost* always encouraged to find a peaceful solution to their problems, the writers also make it abundantly clear that they are prone to dangerous feats of violence as Super Mutants. Moreover, as shown with Lily, you can’t really determine just how old a Super Mutant was when they were transformed by FEV. Super Mutants are made, not born, and so while intelligent SMs exist (like Lou Tenant, Marcus, Fawkes, and Lily), many are likely forcibly transformed as children or in their twilight years. Given we know Lily to have been 75 and then made a Super Mutant and then a *Nightkin*, I don’t think it’s necessarily unethical to make decisions on her behalf, especially when those mitigate harm to her and those around her. A major theme of New Vegas is letting go of the past and looking to a better future, and while this is demonstrated on a grand scale with the factions aspiring to Roman imperialism, American imperialism and capitalism, it’s also shown in the small scale with Lily and the memories of those before she was a Super Mutant. To be able to move on from those memories and live a life that inarguably puts her and everyone around her at less risk is, I feel, the right choice. And even then, I still don’t necessarily want to say that’s the ONLY right choice, or that it’s the “best”. Good arguments can be made for all three administration methods, but ultimately we are in control of an old woman’s autonomy under the assumption she can’t make this decision for herself. That’s a difficult position to be in.
I always felt that Lilly might be an insane nightkin supermutant, but she is sane enough to choose what is the right dosage, so taking the half-amount should really be what she should continue with since it's worked out for her for a long time now. No need to fix what is not broken after all. She is not human after all, so ascribing human values of choices to what she should do isn't really a good idea imo.
Hey man, just wanted to say I really appreciate the effort and attention to detail you put into these BIG retrospectives. I'm a huge fan of long-form content like this and love to hear different people's interpretations on these games that have so much to offer both in gameplay and storytelling. You blend analysis of gameplay mechanics and writing/themes/politics in a rational, intellectual, and at the same time accessible way that really shines through, while still leaving room for people to agree or disagree and debate. Honestly great content, and I always look forward to more from you. Cheers.
The reason why siding with the Legion feels like that you have to force your self to believe is because Obsidian had already finished the NCR but the legion was undercooked before release.
Plus you spend most of the game on the NCR occupied side of the river so your exposure to them is limited to their atrocities. It's not until you visit Caesar's camp that you find a random trader who makes a solid point about the benefits of Legion control: that the roads are safer because the Legion wipes out all opposition so thoroughly so caravans are safe from raiding as long as they don't carry Legion contraband (drugs and booze mostly). This doesn't offset the Legion's brutality and flaws but it helps them feel more than glorified raiders.
@@PlebNC Even Cass, who is definitely one of the main two NCR companions, points this out too, exactly as you said while also pointing out that the legion is still a shitfire for human rights
Amazing video, but I feel like you were focussing A LOT on morality and social commentary instead of analysing actual roleplay of a character - I guess this fits well if you usually play a character that aligns with your personal motivations and reactions to things happening in a game, but I'd assume most people playing rpgs don't do that IMO it's more interesting to see the perspective of the protagonist when he's not a morally right do-gooder by our modern standards of society, there's a lot of interesting depth to this game when you play a very flawed character, especially when you consider what the courier went through - it makes little sense to be this righteous savior of the world in this game, especially after doing all the DLCs and barely being a human anymore. I really respect and appreciate the work put into this, but I would've loved more commentary on the quality of writing, characters and rpg elements instead of meta-commentary of bashing capitalism every 5 minutes lmao. While I do agree with most of your statements, it really doesn't add that much to the analysis and feels a little tiring towards the end. Most players and viewers understand the concepts of good and evil and don't really need this slightly patronizing tone of moral high ground IMO, at least it felt that way to me personally Great stuff though, I've been waiting for a really long FNV analysis for a while!
While I appreciate the sentiment, this is a 7 hour video full of discussion surrounding the writing and gameplay. But regardless of how you roleplay the character, the writers had a lot to comment on and I wanted to focus on that part of the writing.
On the Rex memories thing, cyberdogs use the brain as more of a cpu than storage, each time you replace the brain it adds a small number of memories into the existing ones, knowing different parts of the brain exist for long vs short term storage, this makes some real world sense and is in line with the Fallout wiki.
4:26:15 To add some nuance here, it's not like Great Khans are innocent angels that got corrupted by NCR atrocities. Those are the same Great Khans that terrorised Shady Sands in Fallout 1, NCR in Fallout 2, and they were still basically raiders pre New Vegas timeline where House tried to unite 3 families. Not so say NCR is justified in their atrocities, just saying that Great Khans are very very flawrd faction and letting them go independent will probably keep them being flawed, but hopefully one day they can change thanks to Followers of the Apocalypse
6:40:00 I think you completely missed the point of Caesar's logic. Caesar is taking the identical stance that China is taking in the modern world. It is him expressing a philosophical debate that goes back to 17th century with Hobbes. What Caesar is saying the world by default is anarchy, and that the state should be a Leviathan, and in doing so, give absolute protection from the dangers of anarchy. He, like Hobbes, is also saying that it is the duty to give up some of their liberties in exchange for that protection. This was realist (in the academic sense) Enlightenment thinking in contrast to the NCR which is based on liberal (again in the academic sense) enlightenment thinking. The liberal enlightenment thinking can be seen in the writings of philosophers like Rousseau, the American founding fathers, Paine, and Mill. They emphasized that the state should have a much more limited role in society. Before the Enlightenment, the default European philosophy on governance was that rulers get their right to rule from God, and if God didn't want to rule, then God would just remove them. The realist and liberal enlightenment thinkers disagreed on a lot, but what both agreed on was that the right to govern was a bottom up right. That it was the lower and middle classes that held up the government. This made them quite revolutionary in their time, even if they disagreed on almost everything else.
what a great opinion. Sad SuperRAD didn't have any think to reply with. I find it so funny we puts his beliefs out there and talk abut how mean people are because of his beliefs. Then can't even have a conversation with someone with a very good point and no hate, just a logical opinion.
This is nice and all but ultimately he covered this just by saying that regardless of what philosophy Caesar spits out, his actions are unjustifiable. It doesn’t really matter what Caesar’s “point” is when it’s just shitty justification for being the devil lmao
Time to dust off my copy of New Vegas and lose every sense of real world responsibilities and obligations. Thank you for your time on this video, great listening while I'm at work 👍
I'm sorry, but I can't justify siding with Daniel over Joshua during the Honest Hearts DLC. I get the sentiment that Daniel is the more peaceful of the two and that Joshua is literally war criminal/religious zealot. But Daniel is infantilizing the Sorrows. He's encouraging them to run from their problems and avoid violence out of some desire to keep them "pure and innocent". Not only is such a mentality twisted and creepy, but it's also doomed to fail. The Wasteland is a dangerous place, with factions like the Fiends and the Legion infesting it (not only that, but the White Legs are *literally* acting on behalf of the latter). The Sorrows won't be able to run from every hostile force they encounter. Eventually, they will find themselves in a situation where they are forced to either fight or die out. What's worse, Daniel has the Sorrows leave their ancestral home; a land lush and filled natural resources. Such places are very scarce in post-apocalyptia, and the likelihood that the Sorrows will find a similar home is slim. And what do the White Legs do with the bounty they've stolen? They go full salted earth and destroy it. An utter and senseless waste. No. As bad as Joshua is, he's right to encourage the tribes to fight for their home. And provided you have the necessary speech skills, you can even encourage him to spare the White Legs leader, preventing the Sorrows from completely losing their penchant peace and cooperation with outsiders.
Fallout New Vegas is easily one of my all-time favorite games and this retrospective is awesome! I'm only 2 hours in, but I'm loving the retrospective. Keep it up SuperRAD!!
One of the reasons the Legion does not attack you on sight is that you are or were a courier, one that was known about, and Legionnaires do not attack couriers as many are disguised Frumentari.
I will never forget when I fell through the floor in REPCON, teleported outside of REPCON, then immediately got mauled by feral ghouls that suddenly respawned. Or when I got jumpscared by Vulpes and I fired immediately at him, and got shredded by Legion. Or when I tried to steal from the Silver Rush(before I learned I can just pick up a gun and take it to the back) and immediately got shredded by them. ..A lot of my memories of this game is just dying to be honest.
I think the tribes are presented less as ignorant and more innocent due to their insular cultures being restricted to Zion Canyon, hence why Follows-Chalks doesn't understand the significance of Hoover Dam. How would know the dam is more than a wall if he doesn't know what a dam is? This is why I think the DLC is called Honest Hearts. It is about cultural innocence. The tribes being in different stages of innocence like choosing to remain innocent by fleeing but risk being targeted later anyway, choosing to fight to defend themselves but risk becoming warmongers themselves. The White Legs arguably are also innocent, a warrior tribe unwittingly tricked into being pawns of the Legion and innocent by way of not understanding the motives of larger powers than themselves.
are you aware of what "ignorant" means? not knowing the importance of hoover dam because he doesn't even know what a dam is, is the definition of ignorance.
@@Vulpix298 Actually ignorance is willfully ignoring something, hence why the words share the root word "ignore". Not knowing why Hoover Dam is important isn't ignorance, it's lack of knowledge to grasp the concept. Follows-Chalk isn't ignoring its political and infrastructural utility, he straight up doesn't know what it's used for beyond its shape. As opposed to the NCR who are overtly aware of pre-war America's failings and yet display ignorance by still basing their entire society on it.
Fun video, but there is something deeply amusing to me about all the moralising and criticism of flawed political systems when the conclusion of the commentator is that the right answer is clearly a dictatorship, but with themselves as the dictator, so it's a good dictatorship.
Creating an independant Vegas isn't creating a dictatorship. We don't even have to be the ones on charge, it's up to the player at that point. The main goal is to strengthen the tribes and remove house/NCR/legion from the equation
@@SuperRADLemon Yeah, but who gives the player the legitimacy to make this decision for all of Vegas? No one, just personal power and a monopoly on violence in the form of your death-robots that can blow up anyone who disagrees with you. Even if someone else ends up in charge, you're the kingmaker with the keys to the death-robots computer. Whatever system the player creates, it's obtained and enforced with the explicit threat of violence against anyone who disagrees, independence is a nice cause but literally no one in the game is asking for it in the form you're probably imagining it. I think that's the most interesting theme of New Vegas and all it's factions in a world where the slate was wiped clean, who gets to inherit the world and who gets to decide how that world is going to look like? No single answer there, always fun to discuss.
Everyone is making decisions for all of Vegas. The player is the only one actively going to all of these tribes, making them better, and getting their loyalty / support. So it is legitimized.
I'm disappointed the Honest Hearts section was so dismissive; maybe it's because such stories are less common these days but the overarching religious themes are generally quite cohesive, and ask a serious philosophical question about the nature of God, such as how a man can become deified through his action and inaction, which is an important topic in a game that is littered with figures with deity status--Father Elijah, Dog/God, Mr. House, Caesar, The Think Tank, and of course The Burned Man--with the Sorrows and the Dead Horses representing two extreme branching paths for many religions: pacifism, or violence. It seems basic because it's binary, but it's an element of the human experience that is undeniable to our history, and functionally within Honest Hearts we see society developing anew from the ashes of the bombs dropping, with the added context of New Vegas' particular lore. I think dismissing it as a white savior/'gone native' story is missing the point, even if the stereotypes of the natives themselves are harmful, because the story is about societies developing and their religions that naturally occur; "If there was no God, man would create him." But, it's a very long critique and it would be ridiculous to suggest one could get everything perfectly done in such a colossal effort.
I think it's fair to say I didn't hone in on or go into better detail about the religious elements, but at the same time, I do believe there was some problematic narrative and tropes at play with what I did discuss
@@SuperRADLemon oh, without a doubt, there are some serious issues with Honest Hearts that you definitely addressed well. The rest of the retrospective was spot on; this was my only point of contention :)
dude yes i just played new vegas and a 7 hour video is legitimately exactly what I need right now my mental health is failing so I'm gonna watch this whole thing in one sitting
45:25 the karma system is there mainly for the endings. each faction ending has 3 variations based on your karma level. ex: if good, mr house is proud of you and his choices, if bad, he's terrified of you.
I really disagree that the boomers are portrayed as good people. They aren't necessarily depicted as being evil either, but definitly not good. The kid retelling their history basically says their main goal is to gain air superiority and bomb the ever living hell out of "ignorant savages." Now "ignorant savages" could potentially refer to anyone because the isolationism of the boomers menas they have practically no contact with the factions outside. They are depicted as having no qualms about indescriminant killing by both stories from outsiders like george and from your initial interactions with them. The only reason the courier is allowed in is because of some bogus prophecy made up by mother pearl. Everyone else would rather kill the courier or has no strong feelings about them. They have no desire to "do good." They only want to fly and kill people. These are not qualities of good people.
I would like to correct, Peral didn't make up a bogus prophecy, if you ask about it she actually makes fun of the idea, she is just aware that the balance of power in the Mojave might change soon, and so she was just waiting if anyone from the outside was outstanding enough to reach them and see if she and the Boomers could give outsiders a chance and hopefully adapt
Thank you. You captured the core of what made Fallout New Vegas so special to me: all the branching quests and different ways to solve problems. It made multiple playthroughs feel very unique and I was finding new things even after playing it three times. I also loved the Dead Money DLC on release because it was so interesting and felt like a completely different experience from the base game. Also I loved the way they put all that gold in the vault at the end and left it up to the player to either curb their greed or find a way to surpass the main quest path to slowly walk away with all that money. It just felt like such a fitting way to end a DLC that had so much choice built into it.
I really like your video. Personally, Honest Hearts was one of my favorite dlcs. I never took the messages as seriously as you did so perhaps that is why, but I see Joshua Graham as a deeply, deeply flawed man. He tries to change but is still stuck in his past ways. I believe the Courier's choice here with killing the White Legs, while sketchy, leaves the most room for improvement of both the tribes and Joshua. The evacuation in my mind leaves no future for the Sorrows, as they don't have the same defense as with Joshua's semi-militarism in the not-terrible-Joshua-ending. Maybe I am wrong, maybe not. If there is any feedback from anyone, I'd love to hear it. Just a man sharing his opinion.
I'd never know without videos either. You have to fundamentallly go against one of the primary ways the game rewards you to do that. And tbh he doesn't seem horribly offended when you correct him , so it's easy to miss.
for those that are curious I learned that it's in the very first interaction that matters. and all other interactions. you gotta make him feel as an equal to you. I feel OxHorn's video about him covers it rather well and describes it better than I could
Dealing with Benny for me was saving my game before picking what to do with him in the fort and trying all 3 pathways, ending in the duel. Wore his suit for the rest of the game.
This was an amazing retrospective good sir! Im going to be doing another playthrough as a result. I forget how much i enjoyed this game when it released. Lets just hope i have enough time to actually complete the run :D Thanks for reminding me that I still have this game
Longest video I ever made. Please consider liking, commenting, and subscribing! Any corrections will be posted here and in the description so check there before commenting!
Corrections:
1. "Split personality" is a dated term I used for dog/god. Dissociative Identity Disorder is more accurate and the multiple personalities are called alters.
2. I used the term "cabal", which I have been informed is used in anti-Semitic rhetoric and will be refraining from using it in the future. I believe this was used in discussing the American government, corporations, and military.
3. Not a correction: The courier is NOT an amnesiac. Please stop bringing this up to me. JESawyer is on record saying the courier does not have amnesia.
4. The Thorn egg quest also rewards you with a unique shotgun
5. Gamergate being mentioned: I brought it up to frame how the progressiveness of New Vegas is often misinterpreted by people (usually right-wing). I used GamerGate because it was an example I saw first-hand, where people were praising Arcade specifically for weird reasons and I saw this during the GG era. The section isn't about GG, it's about New Vegas' progressiveness and strong left-leaning ideology that individuals misconstrue as right-wing.
It's not a discussion on tokenization, it's about people angry when a character deviates from the viewers perceived norm. If Arcade or Veronica were more open and loud about their sexuality this would rub the people I described the wrong way. Some commenters think this means I'm talking about them when I say this. Do you dislike characters simply because they are loud about their sexuality? No? Then I'm not talking about you. Yes? You should probably go outside.
Check the first 20 minutes of this video for an explanation on GG: ruclips.net/video/lLYWHpgIoIw/видео.html
6. Daniel was originally meant to be Asian, but a glitch caused his character to be Caucasian instead.
7. Prison labor is slave labor.
8. I get it. You didn't love or hate it. You only liked it.
9. I will not debate in my comments. if you disagree with me that's fine, but I'm not taking part in the "marketplace of ideas" in my free time.
10. gamergate nerds stay gone
11. The legion doesn't attack you because they identify you as a courier. Couriers are often used by the legion as disguises for their spies.
12. I missed one ending with Chief Hanlon if you kill Caesar.
Have you ever tried a Fire Emblem game?
So, does this mean you're gonna watch the 3 hour MHdos review? (Assuming you haven't already)
@@slimey630 On stream at some point
@@ExPrism yes
@@SuperRADLemon I'll bring the popcorn
My fondest memory of this game is being told not to go somewhere, saying "You can't tell me what to do.", and then getting absolutely shredded by deathclaws.
Did the exact same thing! Fuck that quarry
Hello, king!
There are critters there that just get mad when you shoot them.
I love how terrifying deathclaws are because of the treat they pose even to leveled characters
At first i took it as the devs trying to gate content. Then i realized they don't give a fuck about gating content and that's just part of the world building! Chefs kiss!
"Can I have some FO:NV confirmation bias?"
"Only a spoonful."
Pulls out comedically sized 7 hour video on FO:NV
Thanks for the DnD music playlist
Oh, you mean FNV, cutie :3
Hahahaha
@@FluffySylveonBoi tf
@@matthewjones39 I wasn't talking to you xD
New Vegas singlehandedly got me through my parent's divorce back in the day and was still somehow less stable than their relationship
holy shit
Lol I actually got through my parents divorce with nv aswell. Good for us
Holy crap same funny that this has apparently happened three times
@@bilthmistake627 better than getting through it with something like how I met your mother or something
Right there in the same boat 💀 dang y'all, NV really was our lil destabilized guardian angel
The Legion’s neutrality towards you is simple. If one is playing normally, your first interaction with the Legion will be at Nipton. If I’m remembering correctly, Vulpes Inculta (a spymaster within the Legion) will deduce you to be a courier. Couriers in legion-occupied territory are highly respected and the Legion will usually leave them alone, and even reward them in exchange for being their eyes and ears in places outside their borders. That’s why they don’t attack you from the onset.
I guess I never added this to the corrections, but it's there now, thanks!
And cuz any Courier could be a Frumentari and thusly 'do not kill the messenger'.
well on top of that he also wants you to well be a courier and carry his warning to everyone you can
@@kinagrillThe Frumentarii is prolly Caesar's greatest assest; They're so good that the Legion couldn't even tell if a courier is a random courier or one of their spy.
@@kinagrill
”don’t crucify the messenger”
My first playthrough, I was so disgusted by what I saw in Nipton that I walked up behind the line of Legion soldiers and executed them point blank in vats with a caravan shotgun, one after the other, somehow winning the resulting shoot out with Vulpes Inculta. I kept his hood, which conveniently counted as glasses for my four-eyes trait.
Afterwards during the raid on Nelson, the local Legion leader mistook me for Vulpes as I entered his barracks , complaining about me wandering into his turf but remaining non hostile while littered the room with explosives and holed up in the bathroom.
Later on I was able to buy Frank's family for a mere 300 caps, freeing them in the process. Soon after I was approached by a Legion npc who basically informed me that the jig was up, leading to a shootout with the entirety of cottonwood cove.
It was around this point I realized I was playing one of the best games ever made.
I did not know that was a mechanic damn
My first playthrough i shot Vulpes but because i loved his coyote hat not Nipton. XD
Bro, your comment just made me want to replay the game
@@raavhollywood I swear lol, I played this game all the way through a few years ago. If I had a PC I would play it again but I just have a series x and sadly NV doesn’t t support mods on console. I hope one day this game gets a remaster or something. But the thing that makes these games so special is that everyone has a different experience…I never even knew about this whole sequence.
Hehe the first time I met Legion I told them good job xD
Patrolling a 7 hour retrospective almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter
Hey its actually worth watching tho xD
I hear ya, and Creetosis's one clocking in at eight hours is also a good go! Don't be afraid to use 2x playback speed or higher.
@dinosirbone7605 my mind has went to so many places but I thought about that statement a like too deeply woow
🐐
@@kritizismmusics9737 now I'm doing it. What does it mean? It's provocative.
Fallout New Vegas is one of those games that you either love or you're wrong.
Damn, I wanna like this but I cannot disturb the perfect balance of nature
Jon stfu your likes aren't going to be forced you Gump
Hell yea nxqqa
Needs more comments
@@StreetbeatDesigns67your nit funny or special man just like it or not
5:13:53 The hardest part is letting go” as we all casually carry all 27 gold bars and use the “Long Haul” perk to fast travel to become richer than House in his pre war days. Of course on top of the cleaning all the casinos out too.
The hardest part is people letting go of “MY” money that is not yet in my inventory.
Letting go of poverty lmao
“Later Elijah, hey NCR you ever heard of a guy named Mansa Musa? No? Great.”
you can place the bars into crate with collision and carry it to gun runners. or just make a base in the abandoned brotherhood bunker, like i do.
🤓 it's 37 gold bars
If no long haul perk, you can stash them in the abandoned bos bunker and come back for them whenever
One of the things you missed, or where unaware of, (thought this might not be clear at the start of the game) is that the Legion is under standing orders to not harass couriers, as many of them are Legion agents. This is probably why the Legion doesn't attack you without infamy, as you are a courier.
You know I literally bring up this point during the lonesome road section and then I never thought to connect it to that. good point.
That makes sense. I just thought they left you alone because you didn't attack them and you're not allied with anyone.
Bro you sat through all 7 hours and noticed that? Holy shit. I am impressed.
Was checking the comments to see if someone else noticed that, consider this a "hello fellow cool person who has absorbed slightly too much fallout information and noticed this specific detail in a 7+ hour video"
@@Warrior_of_Symbolica Represent.
I am a time traveller from 7 hours in the future and I can confirm that this video is a certified hood classic
A true Arizona ranger right here 💙
am i still alive in 7 hours?
@@ct7246 I cannot tell you or else all reality will collapse in on itself
@@ct7246 That means you dead as fuck bro, damn
Most original comment I've seen so far
Something to note is that Marcus is actually a character from Fallout 2. He's the canonical companion who assisted the Chosen One in blowing up the oil rig of the Enclave's final base of operations, which ultimately led to the Chosen One splitting off from Marcus to go their separate ways amidst the wasteland. He mentions this in dialogue trees, and I just think that's a really awesome tidbit about someone who seemed to be just some minor character, only to turn out to be the companion that assisted in eradicating the Enclave.
Holy, I didn't know that
@@SuperRADLemon I recently learned that Doc Henry is from Fallout 2 as well, which is interesting.
@@mistermaxie6487 I mean there's 5 regular people from Fallout 2 in NV... that older lady in Novac, the guy 'Cannibal Johnson', etc. :P
Oh wow they're all from 2?
@@SuperRADLemon Well they are all enclave people so they are TECHNICALLY from 2 cuz they were part of the oilrig thing, survived and went into incognito mode so to speak within the spreading NCR. I dunno if they are all mentioned by name, but they are canonically (to the NV-timeline at least) from Fallout 2 as the origins.
No way. I'm absolutely in love with how popular long form critiques have become. Thanks for taking a massive swing I'm excited to chill with this all day
Same. Try the long form analysis playlist.
Just type in "long form analysis" and it'll come up. Lots of great stuff there to keep ya busy.
Indeee, we cannot have too many Longmen on this platform..
My favorite line in FNV is when The Courier say’s “It’s New Vegas time”
And he absolutely Vegas’s all over the place.
Thanks Malcolm, sorry about killing you for the star caps
@@SuperRADLemon that was merely one of my Malcolm Clones. You’ll never find the real me.
@@lowfn Chernobyl?
My favourite line was when Mr House said “it was you courier! You were the Fallout: New Vegas all along!” Before the courier pulled his life support
@@malcolmholmes5002 that sounds about right
I think the legion's neutrality towards the player has to do with a piece of dialogue you can hear from Ulysses (not sure where) in which he references Caesar saying "kill no courier"
Indeed. Since caesar had twisted hair homie as a courier doin his spyimg thing he tried to make trim down the amount of things that could kill him. When i played my 1st time through (dlc's were out already) i didnt beat the game b4 i delved in LR. I had that curiosity why they wouldnt sweat me the while time til i heard twisted hair homie say that. Its made sooo much sense after. We had a unintentional hall pass with the legion, fuckin great detail
I think either Ulysses or Caesar mentions that the only reason none of them have tried unless provoked was exactly because Legionnaires are ordered not to attack couriers period.
Its actually a really sensible explanation for avoiding one of the major factions being hostile off the bat, and it makes the player character's job so much more interesting.
How many couriers are Frumentarii?
Does the NCR also use couriers as agents?
My favorite part of FO:NV is 100% the atmosphere. The weird foreign distant metallic noises heard far away, sounds of gunshots, wolves, and the eerie OST. It's amazing!
I'm pretty sure the atmospheric sex noises in Gomorrah triggered my sexual awakening
imagine if it was cel shaded
That's hilarious because Bethesda fanboys love to claim that New Vegas has no atmosphere. Which is wrong, but whatever.
@@okagronwho the hell complains it has no atmosphere? Never seen it
Only that it’s atmosphere can be boring at times, which it definitely can
The desert is not comparable to the dc wasteland in that regard
@@xdclancer8847that’s just like, your opinion 😂
3:29:31 They actually do address this. If you have Veronica as a companion when you buy it off Max for her personal quest, she says something to the effect of “Wow. Good thing the safety was on.”
inception theme
30 minutes in and I already have an uncontrollable urge to replay this game.
I made it 11 minutes. I'm weak. Don't judge me
Feed that urge
I am
Fools. Starting a new replay brought me here.
Saaame
One of my fond memories of New Vegas involves a bug that I don't know if anyone else has documented or not. I wasn't the one who encountered it, instead it was my friend who was playing the 360 version at launch and seemingly could not level up. At all. He was perpetually stuck at level 1, even though he was getting XP enough many times over to level, but pressed on because he had always been a huge Fallout fan and wanted to see the game through no matter what. I distinctly remember being in a voice chat with him as he "fought" Legate Lanius, wincing when he was one shot by his sword, laughing when he managed to knock him down with the tons of dynamite he had carried through the game, and going absolutely wild when he managed to kill him and win the game. I wish I still had my old phone, because he sent me a photo of his screen with Lanius laying dead and the level ticker telling him he was still at level 1.
No shot lmfao, your friend is insane
ah yes true realistic mode, only *YOUR* skills can be used.
The new "Hardcorest" mode
I had actually never considered using the stealth boy to pass Trudy's speech check, until I saw you hover over it and remember that it does in fact add 100 sneak.
Wait wtf. It does???!!
I like the theory that Jason bright isn't trying to go to space but to the glow in California, it's a little less dumb that way
my theory is that he actually just wanted to go to popeyes but was to lazy to walk there so he got some random schmuck to make him a sick rocket cause why not
If you support both Jason Bright and the Legion, the ending slides state that the Bright Brotherhood returns to defend Novac.
Man tries to go to space, only ends up paying taxes
Quite plausible as during the ending cards Bright Brotherhood will come to the aid of Novac to help I'f they have reached their destination.
I think they landed in Los Alamos, NM.
You’re probably not going to see this but the reason that the Legion seems like a path you have to intentionally go down is because Obsidian didn’t have enough time to work on the Legion and focused more on the NCR. This is also why there are so few named Legion members. If they had even a month more time to complete it, I’m certain that the Legion would be far more fleshed out.
Yeah I didn't realize this at the time of writing, but it's a very good point
If they had a month more to complete it, I'm pretty that they'd use it to fix bugs and to iron out some details instead of adding more content
@@july7498 A good point and more likely. Again, they would likely do more than focus on one particular thing and do a bunch of stuff.
Yeah, there was supposed to be a town that you could visit and see how those under Legion protection truly lived. Iirc it's name is Malpais or something.
@@sijul6483 yh it was called like the malpais camp it’s where Joshua graham would’ve stayed when he was in the legion
You’re not gonna convince me that Bright’s flock didn’t make it to The Far Beyond. They played Ride of the Valkyries, god damn it.
Dayglow is where they were going
Fun fact about Daniel from honest hearts. He was meant to be Asian, but literally right before the dlc went out someone accidentally changed him to white an no one knows who did it.
Yee I know, I acknowledge that somewhere in the comments, but I dunno if I mentioned it in a correction.
now he is asian To Me
fr??? bruh 😢
edit: actually ig im glad hes not asian bc hes a prick and i wouldnt claim him LMAO
if true, thats funny as fuck
@@based980Not really. You'd be the first to bitch if someone changed it from white to Asian lmao
A memory I'll never forget is my moded playthrough of Lonesome road. After finishing the DLC entering back into the Mojave.
The first thing I see is a cockroach on two legs with a nine iron running at me.
Gregor Samsa awoke to find himself transformed into a vermicious golfer.
Imagine what we could've gotten if Obsidian had gotten the time to make a finished product. Hell what if they make a new Fallout game with this generations capabilities? We can only dream.
At least we are getting Outer Worlds 2
I'd do some dark unforgivable things for a fallout new Vegas in Fallout4s engine
Imagine if obsidian had made fallout 4.... So many missed opportunities in that game.
@@woodchuck83 or if Bethesda just simply took tips from obsidian. But honestly there’s no point in debating as what’s done is done sadly 😢
@@michaelknasel1641 good news is that there will be a New Vegas overhaul mod for 4
"youre brother was a little bitch and so are you" at the memorial and "i..i cant feel my legs!" after trying out Fisto are the best lines of dialogue in the entire fallout franchise.
In the Honest Hearts DLC Violence isn't the answer. Violence is a question, and the answer is "YES". The Dead Horses and The Sorrows have every right to defend themselves and their territory.
Fully agree here. But with a limit and control. Because going full murder-hobo is harmful for Joshua as well. It's about being able to defend and protect, not going holy godwarrior on General Gobbledeegook.
@@kinagrill Trust me I know that is why I always talk him down killing Salt Upon Wounds.
@@wowliker642 Same, same. I can understand Joshua's idea of fighting to keep what is yours, but taking it too far just corrupts and ruins you. Like how a revolution only works to a point. if it keeps trying to stay the revolution AFTER winning, they become the very tyrants they saught to depose.
@@wowliker642 Which is funny because for the entire expansion, my character felt incredibly capable until it was time to talk Joshua down with one of the hardest speech checks in the game, which made a horrifying amount of sense: you're trying to get Joshua to hold back a fundamental part of his nature, his unending fury.
Especially because Rendell Clarke himself wanted it so. You know this entire "Be kind to on another but defend yourself if threatened".
You cannot preserve innocence in this world. The tribes would get prayed upon over and over. The White Legs would just be replaced by others.
all I've ever wanted is a scripted 7 hour New Vegas video, I'm only 5 minutes in and I'm so excited for the rest of this
Cool seeing you commenting on this lol especially since you’re so KH focused. Wouldn’t mind you doing a video on this too one day since I as well very much enjoy some Fallout New Vegas
Glad I’m not the only one!
@@SquidKingSalazar each to their own strengths
I sided with Joshua in Honest Hearts because I found the idea of the Sorrows basically being evicted from their native land by the Legion/White Legs not something agreeable this is the post apocalypse and people need to fight to Survive. I believe no matter where the Sorrows relocate another Faction will threaten their way of life. So yes Joshua's way is extremely violent and genocidal but in this case it is necessary for the Sorrows to survive in the long run.
same
On the other hand isn't Joshua just making Legion 2.0?
@@fjparasite1172 Depending largely on the single speech check at the end of his route possibly no? I don’t think honestly in that single speech check that it would not result in his own legion, and even then I’m not sure that the sorrow would be able to survive there and continue there way of life into the future
@@fjparasite1172 The tribes became military forces but there was no indication that they engaged in slavery and conquest under the might of a sociopathic ruler like the Legion... I think 😂
"this is the post apocalypse" doesn't belong in this statement. Like the entire point of the series but especially new Vegas is that it doesn't truly matter that the bombs dropped. It doesn't change the relationships societies have with each other. It doesn't change human nature.
I remember telling my friend in school that my ideal prefect video game would be an RPG set in post apocalyptic america with old school jazz on the radio.. my buddy immediately informed me of FNV and my life was forever changed
Nice lmao
Had a very similar experience just wish i could remember the friend who put me on so i could thank them
I'd love to add that new players can also find an interesting middle-ground between the intended path (south into Primm) and the extremely difficult path (north through Sloan): they can go east through a narrow passage in the mountain side, where, if memory serves me right, they will encounter a blind deathclaw! The path heads straight to Novac, bypassing Primm, the Mojave Outpost, and Camp Searchlight.
yep, or they can follow the railroad tracks, then over the mountains dealing with increasing levels of threats all the way upto a legion camp if disliked by them.
@@trutwhut6550 Yeah, that route bypasses Primm and the Mojave Outpost. Such a splendid game FNV is.
or even take a nice shortcut through a safe part of blackmountain, but thats a little cheesy since you have to phase through a fence
I've been watching this over the span of multiple sittings and I gotta say this is Hella impressive. 7 hours of quality content, love to see it.
Thanks Samuel L. Uzumaki
It's so strange that a game with some much to say about different the forms of government, philosophy, and the human condition is the same game where you can get jumped by a gang of elderly grandma's right after activating a robot called FISTO that you have the option to "test out" before sending it to a casino/brothel.
The whiplash truly made the game iconic.
20:20 One of my favorite aspects of the courier is that they feel like a real person that has been living in this wasteland from simple comments like being able to say "Aren't you that singer from New Reno? I think I saw you play the clubs there" when you first meet Bruce Isaac
While this is true, I personally loved the backstory of Fallout 3. As I haven’t played previous 1&2 games, I was new to the world - so is my Lone Wonderer, as she grew up sheltered by the vault. So we explored the world together.
@Merunit K the 3 background is fine in my opinion and is over hated a bit. In Fallout 1 you are also a vault dweller but one specifically picked to help save the vault as it implies you are the only one the Overseer can fully trust. 2 is the most interesting as you are the decendant of the first games protag
@@carolusrex5213 The FO3 background is probably hated because it takes so long to actually get to The Main Story. As a result, the tutorial seems forced, and if there's one thing players hate, it's being railroaded in such a ham-fisted manner.
What I loved about FNV's character introduction is that it's thematically sound for the rest of the game: it starts off as a revenge Western, right up the point where the Powder Gangers came to town...and THAT is the tutorial.
@gbasa1454 oh yeah New Vegas has an amazing start. Honestly if remade with better graphics and would easily become my favorite game ever.
@@carolusrex5213 That's what mods are for!
I just want to thank you for making a video that runs almost the entire work day, really burns the hours away.
I read your comment while listening to this at work lol. My day is going super fast while listening to this!
New Vegas is my favorite game of all time. I've been sleeping to this ever since it's been released. Thank you.
Thank YOU
Wow, if you sleep to this video, you must be well versed in the first few minutes of it :)
I had no idea Boxcars stood when attacked, started laughing when he got up so hard
They do try to show his injury because when he moves he's in a limp. But yea, more engine and time limitations lol.
@@raze2012_ I swear literally anything about New Vegas comes up and its always the time limit and engine constraints
@@LucyWest370 because it's true.
18 months is not enough time to make a mod, let alone a full AAA release.
And unfortunately, bethesda's engine is utter garbage.
@@mzov_1724 well considering Obsidian never thought to negotiate and literally said “thats more than enough time” maybe its their fault
@@LucyWest370 that's a fair point, but it's entirely based on hindsight.
They were definitely not prepared for late 2000s 3d open world game development, given how basic the work was technically in their prior games.
The amount of effort you put into this is incredible! FNV remains my favourite game of all time, and this might just become my favourite video of all time. Thank you :)
Thanks for watching it :)
Who knew that extremely funny people that are passionate about history would like New Vegas!
...
Oh wait, it makes total sense xD Thanks for the laughs and your passion, Mr. Hollis!
Dylan what are you doing here?
While I can't say that I agree with all of your thoughts, I CAN say that this is without a doubt one of the best Fallout: New Vegas videos I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Very well done.
Thanks!
Ditto. Awesome vid.
Ya speccialy the obnoxious idea that everything evil is capitalism and the faulty notion that capitalism is an ideology and not an economic system.. can be kinda hard to listen through
@@alexanderrose1556hes not wrong about that though
@@rickkroll he undeniably is, speccialy as he seems to misunderstand it for a political system / ideology which.. like it factually isnt
I think you're selling Joshua Graham's character a little short. He's not just not moving on from his past with Caesar, he thinks that the part of him that is awful is intrinsically also why he survived being burned alive. His view is in a lot of ways that he knows he's terrible, a monster, but a necessary form of evil to keep the dead horses safe. It's wrong, obviously, but I think it's much more interesting to look at him through that specific lense
He views his own suffering and his work to help the dead horses as serving God. killing when done righteously is a chore like any other. Graham is the tool for the chore of killing and that's his retribution
Agreed, it's a commentary about how being a tyrant is bad but being a pacifist will get you killed.
I'm barely 11 minutes in and o just wanna say. That opening cinematic where Benny shoots you is so well done, even with the how outdated it looked even at release, that EVERYONE uses it to open their discussions, retrospectives, reviews, etc of New Vegas. And I don't say that to disparage any creators. It just shows how well written and iconic it is.
Now onto the next 7 fucking hours of my life listening to this as I play Sunbreak 😂
Yeah it’s a cool intro
It's so weird because the intro looks outdated yet the way it looks makes me love it all the more. It's like the jankiness adds a bit of heart and nostalgia to it all.
It gives me chills everytime
World for me lol
I always thought of lonesome road as meta commentary on how influential main characters in video games are and how much of the world they change
Rewatching this after your Oblivion retrospective and I already commented first time I watched but I actually wanna celebrate your video style a little. You always manage to capture the sense of playing games like we did when they're new but with research and plenty of hard evidence to back up your critiques that come from experience playing the game extensively. Bless you SuperRad
Your "fault" about the way the enemies appear in Lonesome Road is one of my absolute leading praises. Never have I ever been so immersed and felt threatened by a group of enemies as the Marked Men. I felt like I was being hunted, that no place was ever safe. I've never played any area of the game so cautiously and slowly before in the entirety of my 50H+ playthrough.
I agree. First time playing through Lonesome Road on my old Toshiba laptop with a wireless mouse, my fingers were quaking as I made my way through the rubble and bombed out buildings, feeling the lines of sight of 3+ enemies at all times. Only thing that's come close to feeling like that for me was the first Dead Space when you get attacked in the elevator.
FNV needed a place like that the base game never really tested the players build that much in terms of combat.
There are like 1 or two places in lonesome road where you truly feel safe
Any game that let's you have an argument with your own brain is undoubtedly a masterpiece
Disco elysum concurs
@@thewholesomecultist6702that games just a mindfuck all around lmao
No game will ever be like this for me. Countless hours and the atmosphere is something that will never leave my heart and personal imagery.
I've done many playthroughs of this game and its DLCs yet I learned new things from watching this. Didn't even knew that it is possible to keep Dean alive.
Playing New Vegas is not the hard part. It's letting go.
@@rkkzjj32 Tldr, but I know better stories. 2/10 for effort though :)
@@rkkzjj32 no
It's letting go.
I ain't letting go of shit.
Loot all the things!
Yup. That's why I never let go. (Please help, I'm locked in Victor's shed)
I have played this game collectively over consoles and PC for probably well over 2,000 hours. Am I gonna sit here and watch a 7+ hour video about it? You’re goddamn right. Because I’ve got spurs that jingle jangle jingle
As you go riding merrily along? Me too my guy me too.
That's a weird looking monster Hunter spinoff... Loved New Vegas and even it's ups and downs when the different dlcs were being dropped. Should be a fun nostalgia trip watching this.
for real, the gecko hunt was pretty neat with the new golf club greatsword. maybe ill try the bat next
I finished it on hardcore and it made me appreciate the mechanics of the game even more.
Once you go hardcore, you really can't stop: I thought I'd do it once, just to get the achievement, but now I can't imagine NOT using it.
It really makes you evaluate your inventory and how to best use every Kg. And it also encourages the use of safe houses like Novac, the SM bunker, the abandoned shack, etc. Like realistically, my Courier would probably be leaving food, water, ammo, weapons, and meds at all of their safe houses, ala Randall Clark.
@@zenspeed404yeah, to me Hardcore mode, headphones, and radio on are essential. Maybe the most immersive game ever
me: "Man I really wish I could watch a 7 hour deep dive on fallout new vegas"
SuperRAD: "Hold my sunset sarsaparilla."
Rofl
I played this game before and after a vacation to Las Vegas and I can say without a doubt the peoples faces are very similar to the NPCs in the game.
Another important thing about the SPECIAL is to not fill any up to 10, only 9. Because later on when you reach the New Vegas medical center the doctor can sell you implants that boost special points up by 1. That way you can spread out points more in the beginning and then max them out later on
Also with strength you can get 1 extra from power armours (or 2 from the t45, but its weaker)
Mix maxing can get boring real fast. Plus you really don't need so much of it
10 intelligence is fun tho, let's you level so much quicker.
Damn, missed the entire powder gang quest line because I just blasted the whole compound away immediately
Fun fact: This is the shortest Fallout: New Vegas retrospective on RUclips
No, that goes to Acerthorn’s AWFUL “retrospective”. He barely played the game and misunderstood so much about it, and it comes out to about an hour and a half.
@@courier8365 Don't give that twat any extra attention.
@@courier8365 have you been in my cave 🤨
@@RecklessRobert Yes, I read all of your terminal entries as well as the holotape in your duffel bag right next to where you died. You were more than a soldier. You took pride in your survival skills, often running off from Salt Lake City to the wilds for days on end, much to the dismay of your wife Charlotte and son Alex. Beginning with the war and the loss of your family to the bombs, and how you waited out the worst of the radiation, then set out into the light once more, adapting to the new flora and fauna as it, too, adapted to the new world. I admire you for helping others survive, as well as raining vengeance on those who would butcher innocents. I agreed with what you did, even if you made mistakes along the way. Which is why I sided with Joshua Graham and crushed the White Legs, all using your survivalist rifle. I’ll continue to use it against Caesar’s Legion as well.
Daniel, a Mormon missionary disagreed with me and Joshua, because he fears war with the White Legs would change the Sorrows tribe from what he views as a life of simple innocence into a more warlike culture. Almost convinced me too, but I remembered what you said, “I tell them never to hurt each other but that if someone else comes along and tries to hurt them to strike back with righteous anger.” Heeding your words, I fought against the White Legs. However, I did not kill their leader, Salt-Upon-Wounds. Instead I convinced Joshua Graham to spare Salt-Upon-Wounds, to teach the Sorrows a lesson-that retribution could be tempered by mercy. While the Sorrows’ innocence has been lost, it’s for the best. For Zion, and the longevity of the Sorrows.
Only in the english side of RUclips.
There's a spanish retrospective that's only like an hour. It's actually pretty dang good.
I'm not into fallout, but the dedication to get this long of a video out is super impressive, so I'll watch it all.
I'm not into liking comments on RUclips, but the dedication to watch the video through is pretty impressive, so I'll like your comment.
Maybe it'll convince you to try it or try it again someday
me from a year later, finished New Vegas and 4 now, I like these games a lot
Yes! 7 hour long Fallout New Vegas reviews are my favorite genre!
Edit: SuperRad this is amazing! It’s remarkable how much effort has gone into this video. Thanks for always uploading such great content!
I love having videos like these to play games to, or to sleep to
What a great way to start the weekend, keep up the bangers my guy!
Will do!
I actually just tried going the northern route to Vegas for the first time last night. I took a roundabout high ground path to the tribal village wrecked by Cazadores, used Dynamite to take them out, and then used stealth boys to try and avoid the bighorners and fiends the rest of the way. I, unfortunately, only had 2 stealth boys and had to sneak around about halfway into the fiend territory, but I made it to Freeside at Level 3.
Robodogs (as well as robobrains) use the brain for processing (much like a SIMM for a PC) which is then grafted onto an existing robotic personality (like the ones in robots like Mr. Handys or Protectrons.) Generally its original memories/personality are only a shadow or a vague background thing. In the case of the Robobrains, the brains used have their past self lobotomized out for the most part. A few exceptions exist, and the process isn't always perfect. The robodogs were originally developed by Big MT (I think) and they're a little different from robobrains, but I think they work generally the same. So putting a new brain into Rex would not fundamentally change him as his base programming is like that of a regular robot. But the personality might bubble up to the surface like a kind of trojan or a corrupted hidden system file, and cause problems. Or not... you can see I've given this some thought.
sierra jrs jfjqjql
l
Yes, robots with brains seem to be Big MT, whereas robots without them (securitrons, Mr handys, etc.) Are Robco
Thanks for the info but I didn't understand a single thing
At this point, I think RUclipsrs are just challenging each other: who can make the longest Fallout New Vegas video
I disagree with how you interpreted Veronica's personal quest and the brotherhood's main quest. Veronica wasn't just trying to end the lock down, she was trying to change the brotherhood's main goal and how they operate. They are zenophobic and almost never allow outsiders to join them except for special occasion, refuse to allow others to have advanced tech if they could help it, and follow the codex to the letter even if it causes problems for them. Ending the lock down doesn't change the brotherhood, just allows them to continue their mission. Veronica saw that the mission would ultimately lead them to just make more enemies while stifling them as the world grows around them. Ultimately, the brotherhood is on a path to self destruction, something they will never move from, which is why Veronica gives up at the end.
Very good point. I saw Veronica's want for that, but focused on the lockdown moreso. You're right that she wants to change the brotherhood as a whole and ultimately fails at doing so.
If you do end the lockdown the by replacing the elder and ask him to join the brotherhood you’re task in doing so is a bit messed up. They want you to accept the mission blindly as their tenets say members should do. He is just as xenophobic as most members are to outsiders. Ending the lockdown is worse for the wasteland because they cause trouble for the factions that win hoover dam.
@@SuperRADLemon iy
@@Nastara iu
@@Nastara oio
2:13:16 I just want to piggy back on to your point here, if you take the confirmed bachelor perk you end up finding a quite a few homosexual characters that you would otherwise not know of. Like The desk clerk in Mojave Outpost, and Boone’s friend Manny Vargas. The Desk Clerk being particularly interesting as he mentions that sort of thing isn’t allowed in the NCR. Then again Cpl Betsy exists, who’s openly a lesbian. Very interesting stuff
It's not looked kindly at, not that it's illegal, and he specifies that the heart of republic is more accepting. Considering Betsy is also 1st recon sniper, it makes sense others would respect her despite their prejudices
For me the beginning of new Vegas felt really really slow, but once I sat down and started really exploring and interacting with settlements and reaching new Vegas, it quickly became one of my favourite games ever. Amazing video btw
Thank you
Reviving this comment thread to say 100%.
Started with 3 and adored it, 100%, multiple playthroughs, discovered all locations, etc.
I then rented this from blockbuster, back when that was a thing you could do, started, and was immediately turned off by the western theme, single shotguns, dynamite, the joe Cobb gang, etc.
I ended up finding the crashed vertibird and the Tesla beaton prototype, right before returning the game. For some reason that memory alone stuck with me and made me try again a couple years later and I finally broke through that early game wall and hit free side, met the ncr, found the unique minigun at devil's throat, found the enclave, got the armor, fell in love with the game, and am now running a tale of two wastelands run with all 8 dlcs and 63 different mods. Crazy to think I nearly missed this game while being sick a fan of the series
I’m not even halfway done but seeing how much I missed makes me want to boot up this game again. It’s crazy to think areas like vault 11 are apart of a game that’s unfinished. This video is easily one of your bests
You missed the moral side of making lily take her meds fully, if she does take the meds fully she loses complete memory of her dead husband, the love of her life. So yeah you do help her mentally, but at the same time she will forget her husband completely. Maybe its not so much of a moral quandry for other people but it kind of breaks my heart😅
I thought I brought up the memory loss, and your right it is an important aspect. For me it feels like lily is a danger to herself and others when berserk, and this was the right decision for her benefit
Thanks I was looking for a comment pointing this out. The mechanical aspect is interesting but I feel like the moral dilemma of Lily's wellbeing vs her memories of her husband and grandchildren are undersold here.
@@SuperRADLemon I can see this idea, but for me I feel as though it's not my place as the courier to make that decision for Lily, her past is who she is as a person, the tapes of her husband and he grandchildren are what she cherishes most in life. I know it's probably better for her to take her meds but it's just not a choice I can bring myself to make in game.
@@tibaronmagnus3672 I think that’s a fantastic point. However, Lily is an elderly woman who is also affected by a dependency on Stealth Boys and the side effects which come with that. The mental health of Nightkin is a major recurring theme of New Vegas, and while you’re *almost* always encouraged to find a peaceful solution to their problems, the writers also make it abundantly clear that they are prone to dangerous feats of violence as Super Mutants.
Moreover, as shown with Lily, you can’t really determine just how old a Super Mutant was when they were transformed by FEV. Super Mutants are made, not born, and so while intelligent SMs exist (like Lou Tenant, Marcus, Fawkes, and Lily), many are likely forcibly transformed as children or in their twilight years. Given we know Lily to have been 75 and then made a Super Mutant and then a *Nightkin*, I don’t think it’s necessarily unethical to make decisions on her behalf, especially when those mitigate harm to her and those around her.
A major theme of New Vegas is letting go of the past and looking to a better future, and while this is demonstrated on a grand scale with the factions aspiring to Roman imperialism, American imperialism and capitalism, it’s also shown in the small scale with Lily and the memories of those before she was a Super Mutant. To be able to move on from those memories and live a life that inarguably puts her and everyone around her at less risk is, I feel, the right choice. And even then, I still don’t necessarily want to say that’s the ONLY right choice, or that it’s the “best”. Good arguments can be made for all three administration methods, but ultimately we are in control of an old woman’s autonomy under the assumption she can’t make this decision for herself. That’s a difficult position to be in.
I always felt that Lilly might be an insane nightkin supermutant, but she is sane enough to choose what is the right dosage, so taking the half-amount should really be what she should continue with since it's worked out for her for a long time now. No need to fix what is not broken after all.
She is not human after all, so ascribing human values of choices to what she should do isn't really a good idea imo.
Hey man, just wanted to say I really appreciate the effort and attention to detail you put into these BIG retrospectives. I'm a huge fan of long-form content like this and love to hear different people's interpretations on these games that have so much to offer both in gameplay and storytelling. You blend analysis of gameplay mechanics and writing/themes/politics in a rational, intellectual, and at the same time accessible way that really shines through, while still leaving room for people to agree or disagree and debate. Honestly great content, and I always look forward to more from you. Cheers.
The reason why siding with the Legion feels like that you have to force your self to believe is because Obsidian had already finished the NCR but the legion was undercooked before release.
Makes sense
Plus you spend most of the game on the NCR occupied side of the river so your exposure to them is limited to their atrocities. It's not until you visit Caesar's camp that you find a random trader who makes a solid point about the benefits of Legion control: that the roads are safer because the Legion wipes out all opposition so thoroughly so caravans are safe from raiding as long as they don't carry Legion contraband (drugs and booze mostly). This doesn't offset the Legion's brutality and flaws but it helps them feel more than glorified raiders.
@@PlebNC Even Cass, who is definitely one of the main two NCR companions, points this out too, exactly as you said while also pointing out that the legion is still a shitfire for human rights
@@PlebNC Raul also pointed that if anything Legion is proficient in upholding order. A order, butorder nontheless.
Barbaric*
Amazing video, but I feel like you were focussing A LOT on morality and social commentary instead of analysing actual roleplay of a character - I guess this fits well if you usually play a character that aligns with your personal motivations and reactions to things happening in a game, but I'd assume most people playing rpgs don't do that
IMO it's more interesting to see the perspective of the protagonist when he's not a morally right do-gooder by our modern standards of society, there's a lot of interesting depth to this game when you play a very flawed character, especially when you consider what the courier went through - it makes little sense to be this righteous savior of the world in this game, especially after doing all the DLCs and barely being a human anymore.
I really respect and appreciate the work put into this, but I would've loved more commentary on the quality of writing, characters and rpg elements instead of meta-commentary of bashing capitalism every 5 minutes lmao. While I do agree with most of your statements, it really doesn't add that much to the analysis and feels a little tiring towards the end. Most players and viewers understand the concepts of good and evil and don't really need this slightly patronizing tone of moral high ground IMO, at least it felt that way to me personally
Great stuff though, I've been waiting for a really long FNV analysis for a while!
While I appreciate the sentiment, this is a 7 hour video full of discussion surrounding the writing and gameplay. But regardless of how you roleplay the character, the writers had a lot to comment on and I wanted to focus on that part of the writing.
On the Rex memories thing, cyberdogs use the brain as more of a cpu than storage, each time you replace the brain it adds a small number of memories into the existing ones, knowing different parts of the brain exist for long vs short term storage, this makes some real world sense and is in line with the Fallout wiki.
4:26:15 To add some nuance here, it's not like Great Khans are innocent angels that got corrupted by NCR atrocities. Those are the same Great Khans that terrorised Shady Sands in Fallout 1, NCR in Fallout 2, and they were still basically raiders pre New Vegas timeline where House tried to unite 3 families. Not so say NCR is justified in their atrocities, just saying that Great Khans are very very flawrd faction and letting them go independent will probably keep them being flawed, but hopefully one day they can change thanks to Followers of the Apocalypse
6:40:00 I think you completely missed the point of Caesar's logic. Caesar is taking the identical stance that China is taking in the modern world. It is him expressing a philosophical debate that goes back to 17th century with Hobbes. What Caesar is saying the world by default is anarchy, and that the state should be a Leviathan, and in doing so, give absolute protection from the dangers of anarchy. He, like Hobbes, is also saying that it is the duty to give up some of their liberties in exchange for that protection. This was realist (in the academic sense) Enlightenment thinking in contrast to the NCR which is based on liberal (again in the academic sense) enlightenment thinking.
The liberal enlightenment thinking can be seen in the writings of philosophers like Rousseau, the American founding fathers, Paine, and Mill. They emphasized that the state should have a much more limited role in society.
Before the Enlightenment, the default European philosophy on governance was that rulers get their right to rule from God, and if God didn't want to rule, then God would just remove them. The realist and liberal enlightenment thinkers disagreed on a lot, but what both agreed on was that the right to govern was a bottom up right. That it was the lower and middle classes that held up the government. This made them quite revolutionary in their time, even if they disagreed on almost everything else.
what a great opinion. Sad SuperRAD didn't have any think to reply with. I find it so funny we puts his beliefs out there and talk abut how mean people are because of his beliefs. Then can't even have a conversation with someone with a very good point and no hate, just a logical opinion.
This is nice and all but ultimately he covered this just by saying that regardless of what philosophy Caesar spits out, his actions are unjustifiable. It doesn’t really matter what Caesar’s “point” is when it’s just shitty justification for being the devil lmao
Yeah and modern day China is a horrible place. lol.
Time to dust off my copy of New Vegas and lose every sense of real world responsibilities and obligations. Thank you for your time on this video, great listening while I'm at work 👍
Lmao
I'm sorry, but I can't justify siding with Daniel over Joshua during the Honest Hearts DLC. I get the sentiment that Daniel is the more peaceful of the two and that Joshua is literally war criminal/religious zealot. But Daniel is infantilizing the Sorrows. He's encouraging them to run from their problems and avoid violence out of some desire to keep them "pure and innocent". Not only is such a mentality twisted and creepy, but it's also doomed to fail.
The Wasteland is a dangerous place, with factions like the Fiends and the Legion infesting it (not only that, but the White Legs are *literally* acting on behalf of the latter). The Sorrows won't be able to run from every hostile force they encounter. Eventually, they will find themselves in a situation where they are forced to either fight or die out. What's worse, Daniel has the Sorrows leave their ancestral home; a land lush and filled natural resources. Such places are very scarce in post-apocalyptia, and the likelihood that the Sorrows will find a similar home is slim. And what do the White Legs do with the bounty they've stolen? They go full salted earth and destroy it. An utter and senseless waste.
No. As bad as Joshua is, he's right to encourage the tribes to fight for their home. And provided you have the necessary speech skills, you can even encourage him to spare the White Legs leader, preventing the Sorrows from completely losing their penchant peace and cooperation with outsiders.
Im so late to the party finding this video /channel really enjoying your videos helping me thru them anxious evenings so thank you keep it up ! X
You are so welcome!
Fallout New Vegas is easily one of my all-time favorite games and this retrospective is awesome! I'm only 2 hours in, but I'm loving the retrospective. Keep it up SuperRAD!!
Was looking for something to listen to on a 6 hour car trip, couldn't be more perfect timing!
My fondest memory of fnv is that patroling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter
One of the reasons the Legion does not attack you on sight is that you are or were a courier, one that was known about, and Legionnaires do not attack couriers as many are disguised Frumentari.
i played new vegas this year and i cant cope with how i managed to live 24years without playing that game and inhaling that awesomeness
I will never forget when I fell through the floor in REPCON, teleported outside of REPCON, then immediately got mauled by feral ghouls that suddenly respawned.
Or when I got jumpscared by Vulpes and I fired immediately at him, and got shredded by Legion.
Or when I tried to steal from the Silver Rush(before I learned I can just pick up a gun and take it to the back) and immediately got shredded by them.
..A lot of my memories of this game is just dying to be honest.
I think the tribes are presented less as ignorant and more innocent due to their insular cultures being restricted to Zion Canyon, hence why Follows-Chalks doesn't understand the significance of Hoover Dam. How would know the dam is more than a wall if he doesn't know what a dam is? This is why I think the DLC is called Honest Hearts. It is about cultural innocence. The tribes being in different stages of innocence like choosing to remain innocent by fleeing but risk being targeted later anyway, choosing to fight to defend themselves but risk becoming warmongers themselves. The White Legs arguably are also innocent, a warrior tribe unwittingly tricked into being pawns of the Legion and innocent by way of not understanding the motives of larger powers than themselves.
are you aware of what "ignorant" means? not knowing the importance of hoover dam because he doesn't even know what a dam is, is the definition of ignorance.
@@Vulpix298 Actually ignorance is willfully ignoring something, hence why the words share the root word "ignore". Not knowing why Hoover Dam is important isn't ignorance, it's lack of knowledge to grasp the concept. Follows-Chalk isn't ignoring its political and infrastructural utility, he straight up doesn't know what it's used for beyond its shape. As opposed to the NCR who are overtly aware of pre-war America's failings and yet display ignorance by still basing their entire society on it.
Ignorance does not have to be purposeful or willful. It can just be a lack of understanding or knowledge surrounding a topic.
Fun video, but there is something deeply amusing to me about all the moralising and criticism of flawed political systems when the conclusion of the commentator is that the right answer is clearly a dictatorship, but with themselves as the dictator, so it's a good dictatorship.
Creating an independant Vegas isn't creating a dictatorship. We don't even have to be the ones on charge, it's up to the player at that point. The main goal is to strengthen the tribes and remove house/NCR/legion from the equation
@@SuperRADLemon Yeah, but who gives the player the legitimacy to make this decision for all of Vegas? No one, just personal power and a monopoly on violence in the form of your death-robots that can blow up anyone who disagrees with you. Even if someone else ends up in charge, you're the kingmaker with the keys to the death-robots computer.
Whatever system the player creates, it's obtained and enforced with the explicit threat of violence against anyone who disagrees, independence is a nice cause but literally no one in the game is asking for it in the form you're probably imagining it.
I think that's the most interesting theme of New Vegas and all it's factions in a world where the slate was wiped clean, who gets to inherit the world and who gets to decide how that world is going to look like?
No single answer there, always fun to discuss.
Everyone is making decisions for all of Vegas. The player is the only one actively going to all of these tribes, making them better, and getting their loyalty / support. So it is legitimized.
I'm disappointed the Honest Hearts section was so dismissive; maybe it's because such stories are less common these days but the overarching religious themes are generally quite cohesive, and ask a serious philosophical question about the nature of God, such as how a man can become deified through his action and inaction, which is an important topic in a game that is littered with figures with deity status--Father Elijah, Dog/God, Mr. House, Caesar, The Think Tank, and of course The Burned Man--with the Sorrows and the Dead Horses representing two extreme branching paths for many religions: pacifism, or violence. It seems basic because it's binary, but it's an element of the human experience that is undeniable to our history, and functionally within Honest Hearts we see society developing anew from the ashes of the bombs dropping, with the added context of New Vegas' particular lore.
I think dismissing it as a white savior/'gone native' story is missing the point, even if the stereotypes of the natives themselves are harmful, because the story is about societies developing and their religions that naturally occur; "If there was no God, man would create him." But, it's a very long critique and it would be ridiculous to suggest one could get everything perfectly done in such a colossal effort.
I think it's fair to say I didn't hone in on or go into better detail about the religious elements, but at the same time, I do believe there was some problematic narrative and tropes at play with what I did discuss
@@SuperRADLemon oh, without a doubt, there are some serious issues with Honest Hearts that you definitely addressed well. The rest of the retrospective was spot on; this was my only point of contention :)
Well I agree with said contention, ty for mentioning it!
Wow. The amount of effort that went into this vid is astounding. Well done my dude
dude yes i just played new vegas and a 7 hour video is legitimately exactly what I need right now my mental health is failing so I'm gonna watch this whole thing in one sitting
You are my target audience
@@SuperRADLemon sees this comment 3 hours and sum in 🥹🫶😂
45:25 the karma system is there mainly for the endings. each faction ending has 3 variations based on your karma level. ex: if good, mr house is proud of you and his choices, if bad, he's terrified of you.
I really disagree that the boomers are portrayed as good people. They aren't necessarily depicted as being evil either, but definitly not good. The kid retelling their history basically says their main goal is to gain air superiority and bomb the ever living hell out of "ignorant savages." Now "ignorant savages" could potentially refer to anyone because the isolationism of the boomers menas they have practically no contact with the factions outside. They are depicted as having no qualms about indescriminant killing by both stories from outsiders like george and from your initial interactions with them. The only reason the courier is allowed in is because of some bogus prophecy made up by mother pearl. Everyone else would rather kill the courier or has no strong feelings about them. They have no desire to "do good." They only want to fly and kill people. These are not qualities of good people.
That's a fair point that I overlooked.
@@SuperRADLemon Still a great video though! Keep up the good work!
I would like to correct, Peral didn't make up a bogus prophecy, if you ask about it she actually makes fun of the idea, she is just aware that the balance of power in the Mojave might change soon, and so she was just waiting if anyone from the outside was outstanding enough to reach them and see if she and the Boomers could give outsiders a chance and hopefully adapt
I've never played Fallout New Vegas, but I love watching people's retrospectives on it and mod showcases.
Thank you. You captured the core of what made Fallout New Vegas so special to me: all the branching quests and different ways to solve problems. It made multiple playthroughs feel very unique and I was finding new things even after playing it three times.
I also loved the Dead Money DLC on release because it was so interesting and felt like a completely different experience from the base game. Also I loved the way they put all that gold in the vault at the end and left it up to the player to either curb their greed or find a way to surpass the main quest path to slowly walk away with all that money. It just felt like such a fitting way to end a DLC that had so much choice built into it.
I really like your video. Personally, Honest Hearts was one of my favorite dlcs. I never took the messages as seriously as you did so perhaps that is why, but I see Joshua Graham as a deeply, deeply flawed man. He tries to change but is still stuck in his past ways. I believe the Courier's choice here with killing the White Legs, while sketchy, leaves the most room for improvement of both the tribes and Joshua. The evacuation in my mind leaves no future for the Sorrows, as they don't have the same defense as with Joshua's semi-militarism in the not-terrible-Joshua-ending. Maybe I am wrong, maybe not. If there is any feedback from anyone, I'd love to hear it. Just a man sharing his opinion.
No couriers were harmed in the making of this video.
I played this so many times and I never had Dean Domino not try to kill me in the theatre
Crazy right?
Yea I genuinely didn't know it was an option to have him not fight you until like 3 days ago.
Hes the only one i could never convince to see reason
I'd never know without videos either. You have to fundamentallly go against one of the primary ways the game rewards you to do that. And tbh he doesn't seem horribly offended when you correct him , so it's easy to miss.
for those that are curious I learned that it's in the very first interaction that matters. and all other interactions. you gotta make him feel as an equal to you. I feel OxHorn's video about him covers it rather well and describes it better than I could
New SuperRAD retrospect like a blessing. thanks for this awesome content. love these long ass video of yours.
The writing on this is so tightly paced I feel like the adverts only help me catch my breath. Amazing work.
Glad you enjoy it!
Dealing with Benny for me was saving my game before picking what to do with him in the fort and trying all 3 pathways, ending in the duel. Wore his suit for the rest of the game.
I stole his pistol and rigged the game from the start :3
"With your luck I'm surprised those bullets didn't turn around and climb back into the barrel"
This was an amazing retrospective good sir! Im going to be doing another playthrough as a result. I forget how much i enjoyed this game when it released. Lets just hope i have enough time to actually complete the run :D Thanks for reminding me that I still have this game