Spoiler Warning S5E4: Yo Dawg

By Josh Posted Saturday Apr 9, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 217 comments


Link (YouTube)

So you may have noticed that we started this season a little later in the week than our usual Tuesday – Friday schedule. This wasn’t planned, and I can say pretty confidently that I am totally at fault. The new credits sequence (which, interestingly enough, has been where most of my time has gone at the start of the last three seasons) turned out to need more work than I had anticipated, so I ended up spending most of Tuesday evening fiddling with it in Premiere. But, we also recorded four episodes, and I figured, “Hey, more Spoiler Warning is better, right?” So this episode ended up going up this morning rather than being pushed back to Monday.

Do note that this is not something we plan on sticking to – so next week we should be back to our normal schedule. But until then, feel free to enjoy this most-meta episode of Spoiler Warning.

 


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217 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning S5E4: Yo Dawg

  1. sab says:

    I just realised I find it far more rewarding to watch Spoiler Warning than to actually play Fallout New Vegas myself. Kudos to you, sirs and lady.

    1. Johan says:

      Misery loves company. If I can watch as just one other person crashes to desktop and loses their savegame to corruption, it will have been worth it.

  2. PurePareidolia says:

    It always struck me as really pointless even doing this loop. Benny is so obviously from Vegas, even if you don’t know much about the game, so if you can get past the various deadly creatures (using the stealth boy in the schoolhouse for example) then why even bother with the southern towns? What could you possibly gain other than proving your guy is amazingly thick and can’t tell the guy using gambling metaphors is probably from the gambling town.

    I mean, at what point was your goal not completely obvious, bearing in mind the game is called Fallout: NEW VEGAS?

    1. Someone says:

      Well, supposedly you are hot on his heels, so even if he is from Vegas he is not necessarily currently in it.

      1. PurePareidolia says:

        But he will be at Vegas. So, presumably if you go there first you can ambush him or something, rather than just missing him each time.

        1. Someone says:

          Still, Vegas is a pretty big city. You can try looking for him there, starting from scratch, or try and use the clues you have to catch him on the move.

          There are also some Great Khans in the picture, so your character might want to ask them some questions as well.

          Besides, you are still trying to figure out what the delivery and the robbery were all about, that’s why you go to Primm.

          1. Johan says:

            You start the game with a note (the Doc gives it to you) giving you the details of your package. Something like:
            “Package 6/6, Platinum Chip
            Enter Freeside and find the contact, retrieve the money. We are not responsible for any injury you may incur delivering the package”

            Of course that doesn’t tell you WHY someone would want to kill you over it, but you do know the details of your own delivery.

          2. Kavonde says:

            And besides, while your character might not know this, you’ll need to raise a substantial amount of chips (or do a substantial number of favors for the King, uh-huh-huh) to get into Vegas proper. Sure, you could try to ambush him outside the city, but there are two major entrances and both are about equidistant from where Benny’d be coming from. Or maybe you could ambush him at the Strip’s entrance in Freeport, but Mr. House’s robots would probably back him up, seeing as he currently works for the guy.

            And between Goodsprings and Vegas, there are the radscorpions, the Jackals, the deathclaws, and the terrible, terrible giant wasps.

            1. Irridium says:

              Or you could up your science skill and mentally break the guard bot. Or up your speech and convince that one guy in Freeside(works on robots, in the Kings area. Mick and Jims is the store I think, maybe) to make you a pass.

              There’s also some more ways to get in.

              1. Kavonde says:

                Well, the pass is still 500 credits, even with the Speech check. I’ll grant you the Science thing, though isn’t it a fairly high DC? You’d have to spend some time leveling up to make it, which would mean either facing the aforementioned radscorpions, Jackals, deathclaws and giant wasps with nothing more than a Varmint rifle, a couple of shotguns, and a nearly-broken laser pistol, or…going to Primm!

                The railroad tracks really are there for your convenience.

                1. Irridium says:

                  I just used those skill books that add 10-20(depending on if you took the perk) to beef up my science for a bit.

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Well you can get a cool floating robot to follow you around here.And a bit more to the south you can get a girl that will help you brew moonshine and have better effects from liquor.Both can be quite useful.

      1. krellen says:

        I forgot about Cass’s perk. That makes her the perfect companion for Reginald Cuftb(u/e)rt.

        1. Michael says:

          Reginald Cuftbuert, the newly anointed Frenchman.

          1. Piflik says:

            Reginald Cuftbà¼rt

        2. Audacity says:

          Hell man, a woman who likes booze, brews good booze, and whose mere presence makes you immune to hangovers seems like the perfect companion for any man.

      2. Mailbox says:

        You can get Cass only until much later after going north to the Crimson caravan and doing a quest there. Your first human companion available isn’t until Boone in Novac.

    3. Irridium says:

      Benny doesn’t go straight to Vegas after shooting you. He takes the long way. Probably because of all the deadly animals in the way.

  3. Klay F. says:

    I have a nigh irresistible urge to finish that meme in the title… I shall abstain in favor of the thread’s sanity.

    1. PurePareidolia says:

      It was going to be about fetch quests, right? This game is full of them. Doubly full of them in fact.

      1. Klay F. says:

        Nah, it was going to be about how they put a Spoiler Warning in yo Spoiler Warning, so you can et cetera, et cetera…

        1. Someone says:

          YO DAWG, I HERD YOU LIKE GRAMMAR, SO I PUT A SPOILER WARNING IN YO SPOILER WARNING SO YOU CAN CORRECT SPELLING WHILE YOU CORRECT SPELLING!

          There, it’s out of the way, continue the thread.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            YO DAWG, I HERD YOU LIKE GRAMMAR, SO I PUT A SPOILER WARNING IN YO SPOILER WARNING SO YOU CAN CORRECT SPELLING WHILE YOU CORRECT SPELLING!

            There,fixed it for you.Too bad that you cant see double strike tags,but oh well.

            EDIT:Also,too bad that s still doesnt work,but strike does.

            1. K says:

              I love the ironic touch that you make a grammar joke and then ignore the punctuation rules. Well done!

              1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                Not my joke.I did a formating joke.Though it makes it worse,because the rules I ignore have more to do with formating than grammar.

              2. Someone says:

                YO DAWG, WE HERD YOU LIKE ENGLISH, SO WE PUT ERRONEOUS PUNCTUATION IN YO ERRONEOUS GRAMMAR SO YOU CAN CALL OUT MISTAKES WHILE YOU CALL OUT MISTAKES!

                Keep finding mistakes, I dare you.

      2. Eric says:

        It really is kind of sad. While some of the quests in this game are genuinely interesting, so many of them are just lazy, lazy, lazy… I understand the desire to make the player explore the world, and fetch quests are one way of doing it, but “walk from point A to B” is not really my idea of “fun” when so much of the game already revolves around doing just that. That said, the quest design in New Vegas is still well beyond Fallout 3, but… honestly, even Dragon Age had better choice and consequence.

        1. Someone says:

          The ending montage has all the consequence I need. As for fetchquests, it often feels like they wanted to develop a location or a storyline, but couldn’t see it through because of time constraints and bad management, and padded out the content they already created with quick and dirty “bring A from B to C” type quests.

          Like Bitter Springs: the area looks like it could have a dozen small, interesting tasks as well as it’s own storyline, but it just has a fetchquest and a setup for Boone’s personal quest.

          1. Roll-a-Die says:

            It also has the RepCon quest, but PLEASE don’t do that one, it’s horrendous and incredibly boring.

            1. Piflik says:

              The REPCONN quest is in Novac…and it has the coolest looking NPC…

  4. Jarenth says:

    Calling it now: In Season 7 or 8, a reason will be found to show the opening of this episode. It will be Spoiler Warning, playing Spoiler Warning, playing Spoiler Warning.

    From there on out, the sky is the limit.

    1. Hitch says:

      A later season will be Ruts and Mumbles watching season 1 and commenting on the commentary by Randy and Josh. Also they find a way for viewers to add comments about the Viddler comments.

  5. JPH says:

    Okay, someone has to make Mortal Kuftbert fanart now.

    1. Fat Tony says:

      All those who agree say : Aye

      “Aye!”

      1. Irridium says:

        Second.

        /Scruffy

    2. Someone says:

      There is a very thin line separating fan-art and fan-porn, one which fans seem all too eager to cross.

      I’m not sure if the world is ready for Reginald Cuftbu(e)rt porn.

      1. JPH says:

        Oh, I am so ready.

  6. Veloxyll says:

    I admit I thought Mumbles said that too.

    I am also amazed that the engineers of the Hindenberg recreating the Titanic actually runs.

    1. Mumbles says:

      I STILL DON’T HEAR IT. DON’T TELL ME.

      1. Hitch says:

        I was also sitting here until Shamus translated thinking, “My god, how drunk is Mumbles to say that?”

        1. Specktre says:

          I know, same here: “She… did not just say that…”

          1. Kavonde says:

            On the bright side, at least she didn’t say “cold Hà¶hler whiskey.”

            (There’s a pun there, but it’s a loooong stretch to make it work.)

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              Im stumped.An explanation please?

              1. Kavonde says:

                I was going for colonoscopy. After looking over Wikipedia’s list of every whiskey brand in existence, Hà¶hler was the best I had to work with. Yeah.

                I was tired :-\

                1. Grag says:

                  I assume they heard pap smear but honestly I didn’t hear that or “Pabst Beer”

                2. Kavonde says:

                  I heard “pap smear,” myself. Not sure why it’s such a big deal. I, for one, applaud Mumbles for her dedication to her personal health.

      2. Deadpool says:

        I can’t hear anything else… What DID you say?

        1. Bobby Archer says:

          Pabst Beer. Although, I think Mumbles is the only one who actually heard it as that.

          1. Deadpool says:

            *manages a restaurant*

            *never heard of Pabst*

            Must be a state thing…

            1. Hitch says:

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pabst_Blue_Ribbon

              I knew it only as old cheap beer that had pretty much died out. I wasn’t aware of the hipster revival. (And hence why Mumbles would bring it up.)

            2. Raygereiio says:

              Maybe Pabst Blue Ribbon sounds more familiar?

              Edit: Huh, I’ve been ninja’d.

            3. Zukhramm says:

              What? Even I’ve heard of it.

              1. Deadpool says:

                Must not be popular in my edge of the world… A little too hipster probably.

                1. RTBones says:

                  PBR is definitely NOT hipster – it’s an old school cheap lager that nearly died out in the US and has made a bit of a comeback.

                2. mixmastermind says:

                  PBR is actually what a lot of hipsters drink. Mainly because it’s cheap.

                3. Zukhramm says:

                  You’d think hipsters would go for some expansive unknown beer from a russian brewery that closed the decades ago and not cheap American stuff.

                4. Jarenth says:

                  Which is exactly why they drink PBR.

          2. Zukhramm says:

            I’ve listened to it ten times now and I hear nothing else. Hint please!

              1. Mumbles says:

                HOW DOES SHAMUS KNOW WHAT A PAP TEST IS.

                HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT A PAP TEST IS.

                1. Slothful says:

                  Well, he is married with kids.

                2. Deadpool says:

                  I would like to believe knowledge of pap smears are more common than knowledge of pabst beer, but I couldn’t track where I first heard of it… Probably a girlfriend somewhere…

                3. Randy Johnson says:

                  I also heard Pap smear

                4. krellen says:

                  I’m fairly certain my first encounter with the phrase was from The Nanny.

                  Also where I first heard about the bris.

                5. Mailbox says:

                  It’s not like its a secret.

                6. Irridium says:

                  Well, thats my knowledge learned for the day.

                7. X2-Eliah says:

                  Moreover: WHY WOULD A SANE PERSON ASSUME MUMBLES WOULD WANT TO TALK ABOUT PAP TESTS?!

                8. Daemian Lucifer says:

                  @X2-Eliah

                  Because he has listened to her for a while now?

                9. Grag says:

                  Questions like that are open to speculumation.

                10. Kavonde says:

                  Any more puns like that, sir, and we may have to suspend your internet cervices.

              2. Zukhramm says:

                Oh.

                Oh…

                1. Zukhramm says:

                  Also, reading that I found this…

                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda_system

                2. Gale says:

                  Having grown up being privy to (and sometimes involved in) very frank conversations held by my mother, my sisters, and the majority of my female friends, hearing these kinds of things mentioned or discussed doesn’t feel weird or awkward at all.

                  This fact depresses me greatly.

                3. Klay F. says:

                  I fear you have stumbled upon a conspiracy most foul my friend.

          3. X2-Eliah says:

            I heard “Pabst beer”.. What did she NOT say but people heard?

            1. Klay F. says:

              Think of things that rhyme with “Pabst Beer”, I’m sure you can think of something.

            2. Don'tKnowMyName says:

              Pap’s Mirror. They thought Mumbles was using her grandfather’s old mirror to look at herself, and they were surprised that she would be so vain. She just doesn’t seem the type to be obsessed with her image like that.

              1. mikeshikle says:

                I distinctly remember asking my girlfriend at one point what a “pap” is and why it needs to be smeared. Being a med student she explained promptly o.O

  7. Fat Tony says:

    Also does Reginald “Obvious Reasons, Bad Intentions, Up To Something, Pants Exploder” Cuff/Cuft/Cuth/burt/bert work for Valve as he seems to have a thing for hats of all shapes and sizes.

    1. Zukhramm says:

      There really should have been a TF2 bonnet for Steam pre-orders of New Vegas.

  8. Vipermagi says:

    That food devouring section after tripping those Powder Charges irked me. So much wasted food.

    1. Bobby Archer says:

      Hopefully you get used to it. As Josh said, his playstyle tends toward the “eat my whole inventory every other fight.”

      1. RejjeN says:

        That’s not it, he was eating numerous of the same “hp/s” items. They do not stack…

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Actually,they do stack.If you eat 2 corns,youll get twice the duration for their regenerating effect.Also,Im not sure,but dont healing items work instantly in normal mode?Or is that just stimpaks.

          1. RejjeN says:

            You sure? I thought I tested that myself but I may be wrong @_@ (Just seems odd he’d be healed so little by it if that’s the case as well). And yeah I think it’s only stimpacks in normal mode.

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              Im almost completely sure,because I know I was eating mostly just the same food type,and it always healed me fully.And Ive just checked the video again.He went from 20 to 230 hp by taking mostly items that give you 1-5 hp,except for sunset sarsparilla.Though he only needed four of those,and none of the other items he ate,so it is an overkill.

            2. bucaneer says:

              The durations definitely add up, it’s just the rates that don’t stack.

              1. Vipermagi says:

                Oh, I had no idea. Didn’t seem like it to me, but my internal clock is a pile of crap anyways (especially during combat :p ).

          2. bit says:

            It’s only stimpacks that heal instantly, yeah.

            I too, was irked by Josh’s complete waste of food; but I was one of those people who would calculate the most efficient way to heal myself to full before, during and after every single fight.

  9. Slothful says:

    I like how Shamus is the only one who criticized himself, and Rutskarn just agreed with Shamus that Shamus is terrible.

    …and all the while Mumbles kept mentioning that there was something missing from their little trio.

    There’s something smelly about this…

    1. Eric says:

      A conspiracy, friend! Murder most foul!

    2. Specktre says:

      I loved the opening minutes of this episode, I was laughing by the end of it.

    3. Ramsus says:

      Well clearly it’s because Shamus has a huge ego and wants to draw attention to himself. While the others are content to remain in the shadows. =P

  10. Sander says:

    Please give Josh a controller instead of a mouse. He still looks around like a detoxing tweaker.

    I know it wasn’t possible to control ME2 with a controller but Fallout:New Vegas is a “Games for Windows” title so it should be controllable with a controller.

    It would make watching this a lot less tiresome.

    1. Kanodin says:

      Actually New Vegas is a steam title. Even Bethesda knows Games for Windows Live is a buggy useless mess.

      1. X2-Eliah says:

        Games for Windows != Games for Windows LIVE.

        GfW means that the game can deal with gamepads, and corresponds to some basic criteria about running on Windows OS. A game without the GfW tag can tell your controller to go screw itself, and not run on Win7 64bit, for example.

        LIVE is a completely different thing.

    2. Simon Buchan says:

      Not that I think you are wrong, but I find it really distracting to watch controller- uhh- controlled play. It’s not even that I don’t like controllers, I use one for about half the games I play afterall. I just can’t help but notice how slow and unnaturally evenly it tracks across the screen, and in the worser implementations the enemy stickyness (where the reticule will move slower over enemies to make them bigger targets, and even move with them for a short distance). Again, this isn’t an anti-controller rant, I’m just wondering if this is just me. Certainly the complaint is more common against mouse controls!

      @Kanodin: I have at least 3 games that are both Steam and GfWL.

      1. Sander says:

        I am not against the use of a mouse, but it is just the way he plays (and you are more likely to constantly look around with a mouse). A controller would slow him down to make it more watchable even though the gameplay would look less natural.

        There is a reason why most films aren’t filmed by a twelve year old, you need to be able to see what is going on. This is like watching the Cloverfield of gaming.

        What I do now is I just listen to it and minimize the window, but I would prefer watching it to see what I missed in my playthrough.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          “There is a reason why most films aren't filmed by a twelve year old, you need to be able to see what is going on.”

          Did you watch any of the modern films?They all are filmed with a shaky cam.Its frustrating.

          However,I dont find Joshs playing that annoying.Probably because that is how I play first person games.And probably because episodes are just 20 minutes long.

      2. Eric says:

        Yes, but New Vegas has no Games for Windows to be found. Probably why the PC DLC ended up being delayed.

        And no, I totally agree, I have a major problem with watching first-person games controlled by analogue sticks… they strike me as just slow and clumsy, even for players who are supposedly “good” with them. I can barely walk a straight line in a console shooter, and seeing even the best players seemingly struggle and bump into walls every minute is just kind of sad. Someone needs to make mouse and keyboard controls standard for consoles next generation. Nintendo could do it and we’d call it innovative!

        1. Viktor says:

          I hate keyboards for gaming. I can see the benefit of a mouse, but I always end up hitting the wrong keys at crucial moments. Not to mention moving without the ability to adjust your speed or alter direction outside of the cardinal directions is just silly.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Yeah,a combination of an analogue stick and mouse would be perfect for gaming.

            But,you can get used to not hitting the wrong keys if you type a lot,so for people working on keyboards its already second nature(oddly though,Ive had it the other way around).

            1. Viktor says:

              I spend a lot of time on a keyboard. That actually makes it worse, since I have to move my hand for WASD and don’t want to remap everything for each game.

              Also, I don’t object to Josh’s jumping. I normally hate jerky films, but he has always seemed perfectly normal to me.

              1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                Remapping is usually the thing I do first with any game(along with tweaking other options).Its far easier for me to spend 5-10 minutes fiddling with options that to have to learn everything anew with every game.

    3. Nyaz says:

      Ugh, but then he’d turn around really slowly instead, and people would be complaining about that.

    4. Josh says:

      You do NOT want to watch me try to play this game with a gamepad. Trust me. It’d be less “Oh he’s jerking the camera around so much!” and more “Oh now he can’t actually hit anything ever.”

      1. Will says:

        Seconded, Fallout is not Halo, it was not designed with a console controller in mind. It would just be bad.

    5. Kdansky says:

      I have an easier request: Don’t jump every two seconds. Seriously. Just try to walk in a boring straight line if there is nothing going on. Every game should have a stamina bar just so Josh cannot bunny-hop for three episodes straight.

  11. Kanodin says:

    Ah yes, I have fond memories of getting my first crippled leg from those mines in hardcore mode. Nothing quite like fighting through an entire hotel and rollercoaster on one leg while you desperately search for a doctor’s bag (I had already forgotten doc Mitchel existed and could help out).

    1. Hitch says:

      You do know that a stimpack will heal a crippled limb?

      1. Pete says:

        Not on hardcore mode it wont.

      2. 8th_Pacifist says:

        Not on hardcore.

        EDIT: Aaaaand… ninja’d.

      3. krellen says:

        Not in Hardcore mode.

      4. Hitch says:

        I didn’t know that and fail at reading comprehension. I totally missed the word hardcore and would have assumed that was the reason if I’d read it.

        I’m not justifying… I’m pointing out a double fail.

      5. Irridium says:

        Cam’t in hardcore mode.

      6. RejjeN says:

        Not in hardcore.

      7. X2-Eliah says:

        notinhardcoremodeninjaed.

    2. Gale says:

      Me too! I remember seeing the huge rusted cowboys, hobbling up to them with next to no health and three broken body parts, thinking “Oh thank god I’m saved” when I saw the NCR outpost. I also remember hobbling away the next morning, after discovering that there aren’t any doctors there.

      It was a long walk to Novac.

    3. Piflik says:

      My first (and only hardcore) character had the Small Frame Trait…I crippled 3 limbs on one of these mines ;)

  12. Kelly says:

    I didn’t get the game until a month after release (before the comprehensive patch though), so maybe that’s why, but honestly I NEVER found all that many bugs. And none of them were all that serious (a few NPCs walking into picnic tables and an undead prospector).

    Honestly, I found WAAAAAY more bugs in 3 (which I played a year or two after release) than I ever did did in New Vegas.

    1. Vipermagi says:

      I feel so left out :( I hardly ran into bugs in either game.

      1. Kelly says:

        Well I never ran into anything gamebreaking really (with the exception of Vault 22 in New Vegas, but that wasn’t the game’s fault, it was mine for accidentally fast traveling out of a locked-down fault without thinking), it was just hilarious physics stuff mostly, aside of one time in 3 when a Deathclaw spawned in Paradise Falls and started murdering the hell out of EVERYTHING.

        1. Chuck says:

          My only issue was game freezes, which I was used to from my playing of Fallout 3 GOTY. I think my PS3 was touched by an angel or something.

    2. PurePareidolia says:

      Same. In Fallout 3 I had quests like Head of State completely fail even with the unofficial patch, everything ran more or less smoothly in NV

  13. Daemian Lucifer says:

    You live in that place?Wow,Josh,your city is a dump.

    And why did you pick the wild wasteland perk and then not comment when it kicks in,or even look for the other places of interest?

    But you get ed-e in this town.Thats useful.

    As for cannibalism,its not really that useful.I ran into a farm and stocked on so much corn there that I had to sell half my food,and still had more than enough to last a looong time.I even had plethora of doctors bags on the ready for when I finally got the nerve to assault deathclaws.

    Oh,and one thing you forgot to say:Folks from bethesda said that theyll be doing the bug testing for the game.When I heard that,I laughed out loud,for real.Still,turned out to be quite more stable than Id expected it to be.A crash every 4 hours is annoying,but I expected way worse.At least none of my saves got corrupted.

    1. Eric says:

      Cannibalism really is useless. It heals next to nothing at later levels. It’s honestly faster to fast travel away, buy some stimpaks, and travel back. Waste of a perk, but at least there are actually good ones to take in New Vegas, unlike Fallout 3 where half of them were just bullshit like “oh you get more points in Small Guns.”

      Oh, and don’t be surprised at the lack of buginess. After three games on this engine, you’d have to expect Bethesda to iron out most of the kinks. It’s less a testament to their ability as developers as it is just a reminder that they had three tries before they did a decent job. Multi-GAME OF THE YEAR developer Bethesda in the house, mofos.

      1. Someone says:

        The one use I could wrangle out of it is farming bad karma, since getting “Absolute Monster” status is so damn hard (even if you nuke megaton, the karma gets back to saint after a level or two). Of course, in New Vegas Karma doesn’t matter one bit, which makes one wonder why they even kept the stupid system, as it was practically replaced by reputation.

        1. Even says:

          It does affect how your ending plays out, although it barely makes a difference. There’s a good, neutral and evil karma version for each faction ending.

          It can also affect your companions. Cass will eventually leave you if you get too much negative karma.

          1. Piflik says:

            You can’t really have negative karma in New Vegas…I am currently doing a kill-everything-that-moves run and I have Very Good Karma. The reason for this is that killing Ferals or Raiders gives you positive Karma…the former is understandable, since you end a tormented existence, but the latter is completely ridiculous…killing a human being in cold blood can never get you good karma, no matter the circumstances…

            1. Someone says:

              I dislike the former. So let me get this straight: you are good because you are killing the monsters attacking you in self defense… as opposed to being evil and selfish by letting them tear your face off?

            2. Daemian Lucifer says:

              The worst is that you get karma from killing powder gangers,but lose it for looting their stuff.

      2. Sleeping Dragon says:

        Except for the occasional CTD (I think I had like 3 during the whole game) most of the bugs I experienced weren’t so much engine related as scripting related. Quest triggers that never registered, NPCs that never or double spawned, dialogues that didn’t change despite the town/quest/NPC status changing (so again: trigger not registered or variable not changed), things like that.

  14. Sekundaari says:

    Hilarious start. Notice how Ruts’ original suggestion was “Cuthbert”.

    Are we going to see more melee later, by the way? I remember Reginald using mainly melee and grenades (and any overpowered DLC stuff, but that was another thing). Is it easier later on, or something?

    1. Kelly says:

      There are some rather ridiculous melee weapons later on actually. Personally I’ve never considered them as useful as guns but THEN AGAIN maybe that’s just me.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        They are actually more useful than guns.Someone commented in one of the last episodes how the van graffs were a hard fight,and others said how they needed to mine the place in order to win.I went there with a super sledge,and I killed everyone in less than a minute.Seriously,everything falls like flies when you get in their face.The only enemy I avoid meleeing are the deathclaws and cazadors.

        My only regret is that I picked melee instead of unarmed because ballistic fists are such a great concept.Not as powerful as the thermic lance,but it is a glove with a freaking shotgun!Though I gave that to veronica.

        1. Kelly says:

          Therein lies the issue though: you can’t really melee certain enemies because they’ll fucking DESTROY YOU. I’ve never met a Cazador or Deathclaw that doesn’t explode when I shot it with my Anti-Material Rifle.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Well you can melee cazadors,but its annoying how you have to deal with poison for a looong time afterwards.Its more of an inconvenience than a threat.Though if you lure them to come one by one,they will never touch you.

            And you can melee deathclaws 1 on 1.But they are usually in packs,and having to fight 4+ of those super fast beasties is a threat.Though with high constitution and power armor,even this becomes a breeze.So if you have drugs to spare,you dont need guns for this either.

            Plus,with melee weapons you dont have to worry about ammo,so shopping becomes much smoother.One big problem with guns is the inventory management.Which is why I prefer energy weapons,as it is much easier to convert all the power cells into one type.

            Though I admit,sniping is fun,and I usually do play a sniper in such games,new vegas has showed me the power of the brawler side.And in this case,the game for me is very close to fallout 1 which made me appreciate cyberpunk,which I wasnt a fan of before.

            1. Kanodin says:

              There was a melee perk that gave +20% damage against deathclaws, can’t remember the name, that one really made fighting them a lot more manageable. I fought the alpha Deathclaw with the unique super sledge and he went down in two hits thanks to that perk.

              1. Keeshhound says:

                Purifier. It actually adds 50% to all unarmed and melee attacks against mutants, abominations (Deathclaws) and ghouls. Also, the third rank of the challenge perk Abominable gives an additional 10% damage against all abominations.

            2. Kelly says:

              But then you’re just replacing ammo management with drug management. As a sniper, I never have to worry about addictions or anything, I just sit on a ridge and pick them off. Advantages/disadvantages.

              Having said that though, I abuse the hell out of mods and often rarely bother fighting by myself, preferring to abuse Unlimited Companions and Build Your Own Bots to the point where I would eschew armor in favor of suits to better play the role of House’s Middle Management, with my party members and security bots as the muscle (though I did have to help out in Quarry Junction, the Dam, the Deatchclaw Promontory, and a couple other places).

              1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                “But then you're just replacing ammo management with drug management.”

                Not really.I mostly use drugs for carrying capacity and for speech checks.Rarely do I use them for combat,and its only when I engage something much over my level that I use drugs for combat.So basically,Im constantly addicted to alcohol,and rarely to anything else.

          2. Someone says:

            When my melee character goes against deathclaws, he just throws plasma grenades and lets Boone take care of the rest.

          3. Dromer4ever says:

            Actually, if you use VATS, certain weapons can ragdoll the opponent. You just have to time you attacks.

          4. acronix says:

            On my first playthrough, I was trying to play a sniper. The first time I tried to fight a (single) deathclaw, I emptied my sniper rifle clip on it and got just a pinch of its health down. In desperation, since it was on top of my by then, I switched to my melee weapon, the ballistic fist.

            After that, no more deathclaws where seen in the vecinity.
            That`s also how I killed the final boss.

        2. PurePareidolia says:

          Yeah, on my hardcore playthrough I was playing low endurance melee only, and once I got the fire axe I was nigh unstoppable from then on. At higher levels I could run into a bunch of deathclaws and be the only thing with legs to stand on by the end of it (at this point I had the unique super sledge, I forget it’s name). Even Cazadors became a matter of timing, though I still kept an antivenom or two on me.

        3. Mailbox says:

          Melee, unarmed, or Guns. Doesn’t matter in the end. It depends on your character build and perks. A Guns character with the right set of perks is just as effective as a melee or unarmed character with their perks. Deathclaws, as an example, can either be downed either by pummeled toe to toe or they can be shot from a distance. Either way they are taken care of just the same in both instances. It’s all preference and has nothing to do with usefulness.

          But we can all agree Energy weapons are useless. lol.

          1. Will says:

            The Alien Blaster remains an amazing weapon, although ammo for it is a bitch.

            1. Archaic says:

              that and the fact that in new Vegas once you own it you have a finite amount of ammo in which to use as well as the fact that its only available if you choose a certain perk. overall though yes the alien blaster is one of the better energy weapons in the game.

              1. Piflik says:

                After the patch they are not bad…especially for high crtit characters, since they have a higher bonus compared to other weapons…also they use less different ammo which makes them especially useful in hardcore…you don’t have to carry around a multitude of different bullets and still be versatile…

                1. Archaic says:

                  unfortunately for my self i think the console only got one patch,(Im unsure as to if that patch fixed that particular issue with the critical damage). but overall i still find energy weapons a worthwhile skill to invest in definitely.

          2. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Thats only if you count just the damage output.It comes down to whether you prefer range or simplicity of the inventory.And energy weapons arent that useless,especially because they give you both more simplicity than guns,and more range than melee.Plus,after patching,they became as deadly as guns,and deadlier if you have a build focused on criticals.

            1. Johan says:

              Yeah, as you said one of the draws is quite simply RANGE. Sitting half a world away pulling triggers beats in-you-facitude for me any day. Also with ranged you can confuse the enemy on terrain. I killed the deathclaw mother by finding a nice spot where she and her babies could path to, then standing and pelting them with (insults) most of my microfusion cells. This was level ~13 I believe, so it ended up using a lot of cells, and I was eventually just flinging all the dynamite I’d looted from the powder gangers and hoping for the best. But I made it after 200~ cells and 20~ sticks of dynamite.

        4. Dantian says:

          Guns are the best skill by far, because the Gobi (named sniper rifle) and Avenger (named minigun) are so ridiculously overpowered. The Gobi especially.

      2. Nyaz says:

        Melee weapons are extremely good later on, when you can get Super Sledges and stuff. I made a melee character in New Vegas (after watching Josh kick ass in the Fallout 3 Spoiler Warning, *ahemcough*), and it was really damn effective. You never have to worry about ammo, only about repairing them once in a while.

        The only problematic foe as a melee character really is Deathclaws…

        1. acronix says:

          Am I the only one who killed them like butter with a ballistic fist?
          Maybe it`s because I did thart before the latest patch?

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Higher tier melee and unarmed weapons can kill deathclaws easily,thats not the problem.The problem is that they are way faster than you,and they are in packs,so by the time you kill 2 of them,the others will gang up on you and destroy you.Of course,if you pick them one by one,youll have no problem.

    2. Deadpool says:

      I was hoping he’d keep on using the Guass Rifle at 20% Energy Weapon while complaining about its damage output/accuracy/whatever…

      I remember him doing that more often than hitting people in the face with Sledge Hammers… And holy shit was it fun.

      1. Jarenth says:

        I’m still holding out hope that ‘Josh, put some goddamn points in Energy Weapons already, I swear to GOD!‘ makes a revival this season.

        1. Sekundaari says:

          Oh yes, what fun it was last time.

        2. Archaic says:

          my guess would be to say it will return , if not until halfway through the season though heh

        3. RTBones says:

          Indeed. I’m also guessing that we’ll hear a return of “STOP SHOOTING ME” at some point in this season.

          1. Sekundaari says:

            I really, really hope you’re right.

      2. Klay F. says:

        In all fairness to Josh, the Gauss Rifle was a buggy piece of shit no matter your energy weapons level.

  15. Chris B Chikin says:

    Don’t worry Shamus – I heard it too.

  16. Archaic says:

    does anybody know the meaning behind the red balls and playing cards on top of the ridge? i know its there because of the wild wasteland trait but i never quite understood if it was random or a reference for something else.

    1. Starwars says:

      It’s a reference to a certain thread on the somethingawful forum where a guy once described his game-idea (the Zybourne Clock I believe it was called) in a rather silly way and got laughed at by the many forumites. The lead designer of New Vegas is a member of those forums (and posted pretty frequently in the New Vegas thread as well).

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Here,the wiki explains it:
      http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Johnny

      EDIT:Damned ninjas!

      1. Archaic says:

        Ahh ok, thanks for the link it makes much more sense now

  17. Halceon says:

    So… the Powder gangers in Priam are *sunglasses* A rogue cell?

    1. Hitch says:

      Actually, if you talk to “Mayor” Cobb, he’ll tell you that even though his guys in Goodsprings (although I made no effort to help and he was the only Powder Ganger left after the raid) are gonna cut back on the killing, those guys around Primm are jerks and will still shoot at anybody.

    2. bucaneer says:

      Yeah, it was really unfortunate how the crew slipped Ruts’ hook there. Could’ve led to more groaning.

  18. krellen says:

    One of the big inaccuracies for me is actually the sky. It kind of bugs me to see all those little clouds painted all over the sky; in a desert, it’s almost unheard of to have a cloud-painted sky. The sky is either completely clear, or completely overcast. There’s not really much in-between.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      To be fair,all out nuclear wars tend to mess up the climate.

      1. Hitch says:

        By creating pretty, fluffy clouds that never rain? Seems improbable.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Im the devil,not a climatologist.

          However,I do personally know of a place that barely gets a rain twice a month,yet has cloudy days 5 times a week(on average).Though it is just a small village and not a huge desert.

          1. Irridium says:

            Isn’t the UK overcast 98% of the year or something?

            1. some random dood says:

              Reminds me of of how a Mancunian told me he checks for his local weather. “If you can see the Pennines, it’s going to rain soon. If you can’t, it’s already raining.”

          2. Jarenth says:

            ‘Damnit Jim, I’m the Devil, not a climatologist!’

          3. Josh says:

            The other thing that bothers me about the sky is how washed out it is. The sky over my house is always a deep shade of blue, not “de-saturated-kind-of-blue.”

            1. krellen says:

              Yeah, that too. I try not to look up while playing New Vegas, because the sky really puts me off.

            2. X2-Eliah says:

              Yep. Those are the joys of a dumb colour-filter over the whole goddamn screen.

              1. Michael says:

                Lemme guess: there’s a fan-patch to fix that?

                1. Gale says:

                  I actually had to go check my list of mods, because I installed the NV version of Fellout as soon as I possibly could, and had all but forgotten that the game looks different. It’s only now that I realise why the Spoiler Warning sky looks so much washed out than I remember from playing the game.

        2. PurePareidolia says:

          On the other hand, if the skybox was just blue it might look like they just threw on a flat colour and called it a day. Non-Nevadans would be all “where are the clouds anyway? Man, Obsidian is so lazy”

          1. krellen says:

            There’s a lot more Southwestern US than Nevada, and a lot of people living there. There’d be at least a fair contingent of us that would recognise they did it right.

            I’m not sure of it, but I’d suspect other parts of the world would be familiar with the same – Australian Outback, perhaps?

            1. Will says:

              Actually little puffy wisps of clouds arent that uncommon in the outback. Not the norm certainly, but you do get them.

  19. SatansBestBuddy says:

    Okay, it’s not just me, Mumbles is swearing in every single sentence.

    You need to pace your swearing, people grow bored of it when it’s always there, use it maybe once every 25 sentences for better results.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Shes emulating debra from dexter.

    2. krellen says:

      Mumbles has always been a potty mouth. We just haven’t always been able to hear her.

    3. Zukhramm says:

      No no no, no pacing please. I guess I’m pretty used to sweaing, people do it a lot where I’m from, appearantly. I don’t do it myself, I just can’t, but I actually do enjoy hearing it.

    4. Irridium says:

      Its just how she talks.

      I thing I remember her saying on twitter once that her most used words were “fuck, fucking, and love”.

      Or something like that.

    5. X2-Eliah says:

      Check her twitter, dude. The Mumbles you hear is rather timid compared to that.

  20. sebcw1204 says:

    there was talk of inaccuracies between real vegas and the game. one that wasn’t brought up was the presence of joshua trees, i’m pretty sure those only grow in california.

    1. Starwars says:

      Nah, they grow around the Mojave area as well.

      While I’m sure there are inaccuracies in the game (a lot of down to scale probably), it seems a fair amount of research went into the overall gameworld. I remember the lead designer going on motorcycle trips around the Mojave area and taking pictures for reference, getting the plant-life correct and so forth.

  21. Mailbox says:

    Hey Josh, If you plan on going into more dark poorly lit buildings like Jean’s Sky diving might I suggest turning on your pip-boy light. Cause as a viewer we cant see anything.

    Loved that beginning. Ah, memories.

    Yeah the detect/hidden is fickle. It works most of the time but it has its moments of being broken. Biggest example is Cannibal Johnson’s cave. He detects you from anywhere in there.

    1. BenD says:

      He can smell your warm, delicious blood beating in the confines of your chewy, savory heart.

    2. Sleeping Dragon says:

      Turning on the pip-boy light and then forgetting to turn it off for half the game will not help the sneak chances in the slightest.

  22. Peter H. Coffin says:

    Speaking of local knowledge… Isn’t there a big hunk of a mountain between Goodspring where you wake up and Las Vegas proper anyway? How the hell would you be able to see it from that little hill?

    1. PurePareidolia says:

      Two reasons – first, good springs itself is quite elevated, the graveyard even moreso, and second – Black Mountain and stuff are kind of off to the side, not directly between you and Vegas.

      1. acronix says:

        Following point one, Goodspring`s elevation is more evident if you follow the north (cazador infested) road. The height changes there are less smooth than the path the game expects you to take at the beggining.

      2. Josh says:

        I’m pretty sure you can’t see Vegas from Goodsprings, the distance between the two is quite a bit farther than it is in the game.

        1. BenD says:

          24 miles, says Google. I think you could see cityglow at night (especially if overcast, though apparently you don’t get overcast much!), but I wouldn’t expect the clear silhouette of a building, probably?

          1. Alexander The 1st says:

            Sounds like a job for Science!

  23. BenD says:

    My new favorite summary for all questlines in New Vegas: “It’s super dangerous. You might find some items.” Only I think Mumbles needed to pronounce that as it’s accurately spelled, which is ITAMZ.

  24. Ramsus says:

    Ah, how I miss being able to read half a comment as I watch, get totally distracted, and have to go back to figure out what someone is talking about. Or pause halfway through someone’s sentence to read something someone said or post my own comment and spend like ten minutes trying to find it buried in all the other comments.

    I hope someday we see an episode that shows clips of this episode’s beginning and then it does something crazy like cuts to a clip of Ruts playing Hitman or something and the conversation continuing on as if that was also a season of Spoiler Warning. (Btw for those who haven’t seen it I highly suggest you watch the latest Ruts hitman video. This goes double for Josh, Mumbles, and Shamus. )

    And to end this comment on an inexplicable low note: Pabst smear. Just think about it.

    1. BenD says:

      Like a wine enema, but even worse?

      1. Duncan says:

        No, it’s a shot of vodka in a glass of PBR.

        Then you drink it.

  25. Ãœber says:

    Not sure if you guys know this, but a HL2 mod called Dino D-Day released a day or two ago that is, in fact, Nazi Dinosaurs.

    It’s not the best game, but the concept is hilarious and the velociraptors are rightly overpowered.

    Thought you might want to know.

  26. Fang says:

    So four episodes in and I already have two quotes from Josh that I love:

    “It’s like if the builders of the Hindenburg had to build a airship but used the design of the Titanic.” and “Sooner or later you are going to be down and out in the middle of a room with a million dudes outside and you will be giving long meanful looks at people you’ve already murdered.”

    Keep it up Rutskarn!

  27. Rodyle says:

    Oh, god… I thought I was alone in thinking that the gecko’s reminded me of murlocks untill I heard Rutskarn make that noise!.

    1. Archaic says:

      they in fact do look like murlocs almost to a disturbing degree heh

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Shouldnt that be that murlocs look like geckos?I know geckos come from fallout 2,but I cant remember if murlocs were introduced before warcraft 3.

        1. Archaic says:

          i wouldnt know i only know what a murloc looks like after using stumble upon and coming across the save the murlocs website XD

          but yeah you may have a point it may be that geckos look more like murlocs

  28. Jennifer Snow says:

    Lol, I just read Shamus’ tweet about the hopping. I could tell Josh was at least trying to remember occasionally not to bounce everywhere, so I’m happy. Probably he’ll revert to the full on deranged bunny within 2 more episodes, but I’ll be used to it by then.

  29. Pat says:

    Two layers of Spoiler Warning? It’s not enough. We need to go deeper!
    BRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

  30. B.J. says:

    Dear Josh: all food in New Vegas heals over time. You only need to drink about 2-3 sarsaparillas to heal up, not 6 bottles, plus a dozen other foodstuffs.

    I can’t tell if you’re doing that to be funny or what. But it bugs the crap out of me. It’s soooo wasteful.

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