Casino Chips at Fallout New Vegas - mods and community

NCR 5 dollar bill is only worth 2 caps
Legion silver Denarius is worth 4 caps
That's 2 more of the base value of what the NCR 5 dollar bill can afford. Now lets check the highest.
NCR 100 dollar bill is only worth 40 caps.
Legion gold Aureus is worth 100 caps.
That's 60 more of the base value of what the NCR 100 dollar bill can afford.
Unlike Legion currency however, the NCR has a third denomination of a 20 dollar bill which is worth 8 caps. Still, the ceilings of both of their highest currencies available to the markets edges in favor of the Legion over the NCR dollar with the Aureus having a higher purchasing power in regards to commercial activity.
sources;
[By 2281, the NCR dollar is valued at about 40% of a water-backed cap[6] and only 10% of a silver Legion Denarius.](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/NCR_dollars)
[Legion currency](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Legion_Denarius)
[NCR currency](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/NCR_dollars)
Dialogue points from merchant or merchant adjunct entities to substantiate probable currency values decided by the Wasteland market;
>Dale Barton: "Hell, I don't even need to travel with guards most of the time in Legion territory. All the bandits are dead or run off."

>Dale Barton: "Between having to hire protection and getting slapped with taxes, it's more profitable to stick to Arizona and New Mexico."

>Rose Sharon of Cassidy: "Some caravans deal with the Legion now because the security. If towns could get the same protection? A lot more tempting than you'd think. Bunch of people would be willing to side with the Legion to not have to worry about Fiends and Boomers and Powder Ganger attacks."

>The Courier: "You don't get paid in Caps?"
>Chomp Lewis: "Nope. The NCR's been trying to switch over to using paper money, like in the Pre-War days. Trouble is that the exchange rates ain't exactly fair. For example, a hundred bucks in NCR money is valued at roughly half that in caps around here. Seems like a rotten deal for us, but work is work."

>The Courier: "What can you tell me about New Vegas?"
>Chomp Lewis: "I've been there once, and I don't recommend it. It's just a way to burn through a month's pay in five minutes*. I've seen a lot of folks come through here thinking they'll have the easy life once they get there. It never happens."*
From one of the developers:
>J.E Sawyer: "And this is discussed in-game: BoS raided NCR's gold reserves until NCR could no longer generate gold coinage nor back their paper money. They abandoned the gold standard and established fiat currency, which is why its value is inflated over both caps and (especially) Legion coinage. (...) People in eastern NCR and the Mojave Wasteland lost faith in the NCR government's a) ability to back the listed value of paper money and b) stability overall. If you're living in Bakersfield, staring at a piece of paper that says "redeemable for value in gold" and you have no faith in the government's ability or willingness to do that -- or if you see that the government has changed the currency to say that it is not able to be exchanged for a backed good -- you may very well listen to the strong consortium of local merchants offering to exchange that paper note for currency backed by water."

The ~~Tops~~ Vegas Casino exchange rates for in-house playing Chips;
Note: With a double check, all the Casino cashiers in Vegas have the same exchange dialogue, barring the type of greeting they give depending on the chosen locale. That means the exchange rates for all Vegas Casinos are standardized and consistent.
NCR
2 chips for 5$ NCR
8 chips for 20$ NCR
40 chips for 40$ NCR
Legion
4 chips for 1 Legion Denarius
20 chips for 5 Legion Denarii
40 chips for 10 Legion Denarii
80 chips for 20 Legion Denarii
100 chips for 1 Legion Aureus or 25 Legion Denarii

Source: Geck dialogue files, vDialogueCasinoCashier; Topics
EDIT: To even nip this in the butt further, some comments here say that Precious Commodities don't have intrinsic value. If that is the case in regards to the NCR being discussed here, why by the time of FO2 was the lowest denominator of their currency, 1$ dollar, was in Gold Coins?

$1 NCR - The Fallout Wiki (fandom.com)

The NCR never or had any contingencies to shore-up their currency to a fiat one at all if the most basic unit of their internal monetary exchange was Gold Coins. If that were the case they would've had pure paper money to begin with without these Coins being in circulation in Fallout 2; with all Gold being in their reserve purely being for backing only, but this isn't the case as we observe.
With the absence of their most basic unit of exchange being gone and the 5$ paper note being demoted to the new basic unit of their currency, that's a huge amount of unaccounted inflation off the bat; inflation they could've never prepared for since they valued Gold enough as a natural unit of exchange at such a base level to be circulated. They didn't expect the BoS to hit them that hard or anyone to do so with their perceived control of their core territory; nevermind the facts that its very unstable and unlucrative to deal in with raiders they can't hunt down with lack of dedicated manpower and poll taxes.

Precious vs Fiat currencies have staunch differences that can't be reconciled in the context of the Fallout universe and a general post-apocalypse. Precious Commodities are backed by simple human consensus of its natural properties being of worth and desirable for a monetary unit of exchange.
These can be traded and exchanged easily with a readily agreed upon value along with Caps because they are accepted by almost every post-war Tribal group, Wasteland settlement, independent Traders, and most other polities across America. Its supply is also naturally in nature, not manufactured artificially with Fiat money note printing.
(In the Fallout series, we see some form of international travel is still somewhat possible with characters such as Alistar Tenpenny and in Fallout 4 with multiple characters from other continents. Take Gold from the US and bring it to the British Isles, it will still have ready value no matter what. Take simple Fiat bank notes of a faction in the US to say, the Fallout version of West Africa. It would absolutely have no value because the issuer of that tender back in North America literally has no economic influence to back its money in this region miles away; there is no Demand or recognition for it. Conversely with Gold taken from North America and traveling to Fallout West Africa, it has tradeable value no matter what because Gold is a natural unit of exchange from its recognized natural value by humans.)
Fiat currency is only as strong as a nation-state can legitimize and maintain it. The only Fiat currency at the time of New Vegas taking place is NCR currency, which is doing badly from the aforementioned factors of the top of this post. The NCR IS a nation of some sort, but it isn't in the league of pre-war society statehoodship.
It doesn't have the financial instruments or development of robust monetary institutions to handle Fiat when they've have been on a Gold economy all this time and the value of the NCR dollar has plummeted due to lack of Demand with its sudden absence. The only reason why the NCR dollar had high worthiness was due to the inherent value of Gold they had on reserve in a post-apocalyptic society that has an extremely high assessment of value it.
With the Gold-backed era of the NCR (supported in FO2 with Gold Coins directly in circulation and being exchanged), Caps were practically worthless in the NCR territory as comments here note. Now with Gold out of the equation as we can observe with direct evidence, the highest focal point of NCR currency isn't even worth 40% of Cap currency by the end of the NCR-BoS war.
Double Edit: The whole reason why the resource wars in the Fallout universe happened because the main natural mineral resource, Oil, was almost all depleted entirely- in an international society where almost all the pre-war Nations were Oil based economies. Without Oil we see in numerous cases in Fallout in the post-war landscape with products with exorbitant prices due to rampart inflation with money that had no value.
[This](https://www.reddit.com/Fallout/comments/3x9cqj/how_inflated_was_the_prewar_economy_some_of_the/cy348gl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) comment here from 4 years ago from the main Fallout subreddit goes into the context of the universe.
In the very intro of the first Fallout game, we see on the TV in the ruined building that is still running- a common non-luxury car is worth 200,000 dollars.
Regular Gas in pre-war Fallout America was 1450.99$
Premium Gas was 8500.99$
To note, America was only one of the nations still with a minutiae of Oil left, but here are the prices.
Source: [Gas Prices](latest (293×291) (nocookie.net))
The Mechanical Pony toy seen in Fallout 3 costs 16,000$.

I just really love the Fallout Universe.

High all! I really recently fell in love with the Fallout Universe, with all its complexities and unique stories. In particular, I very much enjoy the subjectivity of interpretations of the games and their outcomes, and I wanted to create my own personal contribution by writing a story specifically set after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. The Courier is referenced once in passing and there's no mention of a next of kin for the Courier. The story is completely original with entirely unique characters that I've made and it takes place after a non-specific timeline in which Mr House wins the fight for the Mojave Desert. I wanted to share some of my work with my fellow Fallout fans and see what you think. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.
Beginning:
After the guns fell silent during the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, the world was forever changed. Mr House’s City State of New Vegas gained full sovereignty and control over the Mojave Desert, and his Securitron Army pushed the exhausted NCR and broken Legion out. In the following years, Mr House rapidly expanded the city of New Vegas, and reignited the production of old Pre-War Technology automobiles, bus lines, and a high speed train line appeared. The Strip itself expanded beyond the Three Families; Strip clubs, pubs, casinos, all you can eat buffets filling the area, with some residential apartments and houses now beginning to be sold to the highest bidder, just as it was in the old world.
The expanded city of Vegas outside the Strip itself however is a slum, crime, inequality, and denigration is all but abundant, and unrest is growing. Following the removal of President Kimball, his Vice President Donald Watson took over and inherited a State in crisis. Faith in the government had rapidly deteriorated, and the economy of the NCR began to suffer as many relocated to the Strip to live a life of luxury and excess. The NCR is now a shadow of its former self, with Military Police now required to keep order on the streets of its towns and cities. The poverty level is rising. In the East, Caesar’s Legion too is changing, and not for the better. With the Western Campaign a failure by all accounts, resources dwindling, questions about the strength of their Leader Caesar are cropping up in the minds of those closest to him.
By 2295, the pieces had fallen into place. The fate of these States and the people who uphold them is uncertain. One thing is for sure. Whatever happens, the Wasteland will be changed unlike it has ever been before.
‘I appreciate your respectful and restrained response to my contact. It is a pleasure to interact with the less agitated members of your State.’
Aminta barely heard Mr House, and instead stared out the windows of the Lucky 38. The skyline of the Strip extended seemingly forever, pushing away the surrounding darkness with neon light. Just beyond the city outskirts, the silhouette of Mr House’s newly created Launch Pad. It was one of five, and she could just see the other four, each slightly further away from the city than the last. She scrutinised them, and was struck by the boundless possibilities of such technology; the opportunities provided. How exciting it would be! Mr House’s voice then cracked her thoughts and brought back to the present. She listened, without comment.
‘Roughly 18 hours ago, a team of five extraordinarily skilled individuals ascended Hoover Dam from the base of the structure,’ The ostentatiously large screen in which Mr House’s face sat suddenly changed to show grainy footage. ‘This was captured by one of our cameras on the perimeter of the dam. I apologise for the bad quality, it has been surprisingly difficult obtaining improved camera lenses, and As you can see, they used some kind of Grapnel Launcher and ascended via the rope.’
On the screen, it was possible to just make out five distinct figures at the base of the dam. They were clearly dressed in dark clothing, though the quality was too poor and the camera was too far away to make out any of the fine details of the material. Aminta scrutinised the footage, watching intently as the five figures used an oblong object, reminiscent of a hunting rifle to fire a rope, or cord up the side of the dam; high enough to catch the top. The operator of the device then disconnected it from the gun, and pressed it into the ground. It appeared to stick. They then ascended the rope. The camera feed then cut to show three of the attackers subdue and restrain two security guards. Due to the light, it was clear that the clothing the criminals were wearing was Recon Armor, though there were no insignia or identifiable characteristics. The two men were then held down by two and clubbed across the face by the third member with the butt of a 10mm pistol. He then turned to the computer and retrieved something from his pocket. Then the screen went black.
‘At this point, at roughly 1:27 am a Trojan was fitted onto the system. It temporarily disabled all the security cameras in the sector. It was one of the strongest Trojans I’ve ever come across, but I was able to get the system back up and running within 15 minutes. Unfortunately we cannot recover any footage from the corrupted data files that detail how the robbers escaped. I hope you can understand why I decided to contact you.’
Aminta pondered to herself. Why would Mr House, a man who controlled Rockets and owned and governed an entire city and it’s enterprises, would need to contact the New California Republic for assistance in a robbery? From where they were standing, he appeared to be in a position any high ranking NCR official would kill for. She didn’t say anything. There had to be more to this meeting than what Mr House was implying. She looked to her left, trying to be casual. Sitting next to her with an overexaggerated grave look on his face was Political Officer Neville Dawson, and next to him was Dennis Crocker, former Ambassador to the Strip. They too were quiet, their faces frustratingly hiding what they were thinking. Not sure where to look, Aminta turned back to the screen Mr House’s caricature face was on. She had to say something.
‘Mr House, why exactly do you think these people targeted Hoover Dam? There are many casinos and places full of money on the New Vegas Strip. Is there anything of massive value at Hoover Dam?’
‘Well Chief Aminta Marr, no, ostensibly speaking, there is nothing there of real value to anyone, unless they have the ability to take and control the Dam and source it’s hydraulic generated electricity,’
‘Then why would someone do this?’ Aminta said curtly. She tensed up, not meaning to sound dismissive.
‘Well Aminta, they did take one thing from what we've deduced,’ Mr House said, appearing to ignore her tone.
‘And what was that Mr House?’ Neville cut in. He was leaning forward, hands clasped tightly together. He was trying - and failing - to ease the tension in the room.
‘Well, before I contacted you Neville, and to answer your question Aminta, I ran through my storage records from 2285 to the present. I had Mr Harvey Shwarze, my ‘Representative in Government’ review them in paper form in our archives. Three things - completely inconsequential things mind you, were missing. Three Platinum Chips.’
‘Three Platinum Chips?’ Neville said concertedly, as if he knew exactly what Mr House was talking about.
‘That’s right. It’s a data storage device, well it was a data storage device. Designed by me before the Great War of 2077. Perhaps once upon a time this would’ve been valuable to somebody, but after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam I had access to all kinds of ruined facilities all over the Mojave to reform to working order. I began reprinting hundreds of Platinum Chips which were variations of the original Platinum Chip. They continuously upgrade and encrypt my software to prevent any outside programmers from accessing my highly sensitive data. I have no idea what a group of hooligans would want with three. I can easily replace them, and since they’re only usable on my systems, well they would simply be useless.’
‘Perhaps they wanted to sell them,’ Aminta proposed. It wasn’t impossible, she thought. People pay top dollar for things with perceived value, isn’t that the cardinal rule of the Strip?
‘To whom?’ Mr House replied. ‘The point still stands. Nobody has any use for them but me.’
‘Well, perhaps they thought they were valuable.’ Dennis remarked.
‘In any case, they will soon learn they are not valuable.’
‘If you have no problems with this Mr House,’ Aminta cut in. ‘Why do you need us here? The NCR has its own problems, big problems, and from where we’re standing, you seem to have everything under control.’
‘That’s precisely the issue!’ Mr House exclaimed. ‘The very fact they managed to steal anything from me at all is deeply disconcerting! I spent days and nights running statistical simulations for all possible scenarios in and formulated the best plans for countering every scenario I came across!’
‘I guess my point is, I do not understand, in any capacity, why you, YOU of all people would need to call us for assistance in a matter that you - whether intentional or not - have spent the last fives minutes telling us it isn’t an issue.’
The room fell quiet. Aminta pulled her hands back from the table and into her lap, and looked down at them, pretending to be occupied analysing them. She had exposed the true, unspoken meaning of this meeting, and they all knew it. She bit her lip. Dennis wiped the sweat off his face. Neville breathed in deeply, as though he was going to speak. But Mr House did first.
‘As I understand it, the NCR has fallen on hard times since the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. My Lieutenant after the battle was admittedly curt in regards to handling our relations, and since then it seems your economy is really struggling with extremely poor unemployment and satisfaction levels,’ Mr House paused.
Neville looked at Aminta with a look of understanding, and regret but he didn’t say anything. Mr House was right. Of course he was right.
‘It just so happens that while it may look from the outset I’m doing well, with the occasional launch of one of my experimental rockets, crime in Greater New Vegas is extraordinarily high. To be clear, the Strip is not, but the extended city state with the newly constructed buildings - those areas are. I want to make a proposition for the mutual benefit of the NCR, and New Vegas. Neville, think carefully about what I’m about to say.’
Neville spoke up. ‘Alright, I’m all ears.’
‘Dennis Crocker here can once again become the Ambassador to the Strip, and the NCR can once again have an Embassy. I will also give the NCR access to some of my technologies to help your state re-stabilize after everything that’s happened. In return however, I would like Aminta here, who is your Chief and Commander of both your military and normal police forces, to assist my Securitrons in patrolling Outer Vegas. Securitrons don’t make the best police, and security guards are in short supply and are not equipped, in any sense, to be police. I also would like your help in tracking down the culprits of this robbery; that being an extension of the aforementioned policing stipulation. Such a breach of security cannot happen again. Neville Dawson, I’m willing to sign a treaty pertaining to these terms, or any terms the NCR may propose, unless of course it does mutually benefit both states.’
Aminta felt her twang strike her deep in her heart. For years, the NCR Police Force had been absorbed into the Military Police Unit, and they could barely contain black market dealings of Chems and military grade weaponry on the streets of NCR’s cities. They did not have the resources or power Mr House seemed to think they did. For nearly 3 years straight she had been bombarded with evidence of killings by her own subordinates, illegal incarcerations, and illicit behavior between colleagues within her own chain of command, with no power to rehabilitate or prosecute those involved. Meanwhile, those that had the money to escape fled to New Vegas, desperate to find a life of comfort. It was possible that through re-establishing trade and mutual respect with Mr House, they could rebuild the NCR’s respectability on the international and internal level. She found herself hoping the treaty would be signed.
‘This... is a huge proposition. I hope you can understand the overwhelming nature of what you’re telling us, it’ll take a bit for us to come to a conclusion.’ Neville exhaled, as though he had been holding it for the last minute.
‘I understand.’ Mr House responded.
‘Maybe I ask,’ Donnie piped up. ‘What specific kinds of technology will you provide to the NCR?’
Mr House ran down a checklist. ‘Vehicles. Remade pre-war cars. Excavation machines. Cement mixers. Would provide jobs and improve your infrastructure in the process, whilst also giving me business and improving the situation here. Mutually beneficial for both sides.’
‘I see.’
Aminta struggled to contain her happiness. She had become a police officer to enforce safety and protect those who abide by the law. This was a way back to such operations, in which she could help those in need, rather than sit idly while their situation worsened.
‘I’ll also be willing to give 10% of the electricity produced by Hoover Dam to the NCR. It produces more than I need.’ Mr House offered.
Dennis shifted his weight, and opened his mouth. It was a second before anything came out.
‘15% would be great, if possible.’
‘Done.’ Mr House concluded.
‘Well, we’ll definitely have to confer this back to President Watson. As previously said by Mr Dawson, this is a huge offer.’
‘I understand. Aminta, I can only hope you also support this.’
Aminta smiled. ‘I am willing to establish a NCR Police Force here in New Vegas, and assist in establishing prosperity and stability, for the benefit of both states.’
‘Excellent. I’ll arrange for a Taxi to take you back to the border.’
*****
Nobody said a word in the ride in the elevator down to the entrance of the Lucky 38. There was a perpetual sense of being watched, and listened to, and Aminta supposed they probably were. She sensed from the stiffness of Donnie and Neville’s postures they felt the same way. As the three left through the ground level of the building, the desolate casino indicated a time long past, preserved in pristine condition yet uncannily lifeless; inhabited only by robots. Aminta felt a shiver flow throughout her body, prompting her to hurry outside.
Upon exiting, Aminta was greeted by the fantastic lighting she had seen from the Lucky 38. Buildings stretched high into the now night sky, perpetually lit up and calling for you to spend a few short hours in their luxurious suites and lose all the money you have without knowing it. She had visited the Strip a couple of times before the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. Back then, whilst still grand, its exterior walls felt cobbled-together, layered pieces of steel to preserve what glory the pre-war days had. Now, the Strip felt open, almost a complete return to complete pre-war glory, though there was no way of her knowing what such a time looked like. Polished, beetle like cars with extravagant interwoven pieces of silver and gold making up their hubcaps cluttered the road, filled with nicely dressed young women chattering incessantly.
Boys, ranging from teenagers to old men stumbled around, drunk and happy, their legs falling beneath them as though they were wet noodles. To the left, the Ultra Luxe Casino hotel stood at the far end of the street, intoxicatingly ostentatious and alluring for any hoping to climb the social ladder, despite the many rumors of cannibalism attempting to tarnish the brand. The fountain outside the front sprayed sparkling water into the night air which caught the light of the strip and reflected it like the jewels the building it was in front of was embroidered in. However, Aminta was not taken by the hotel, and watched two NCR troopers, still in their military uniforms be forced to dance in front of a crowd of onlookers. They were pushed and shoved as they struggled to dance, their arms and legs barely keeping to any rhythm as they fell to the ground, vomiting a putrid yellow substance onto the asphalt. She looked away in disgust and embarrassment for the two men.
A man in an expensive looking suit and bowtie greeted the three. Behind him stood a long polished black car.
‘Shall I take you to the crossing point?’
‘Yes.’ Donnie answered. Aminta and Neville followed his lead. He had more experience on the Strip than the majority of the tourists around them. She started the car once they were all inside, the engine barely kicking as it began to drive. Aminta marvelled at its power, it’s sleekness, at the strength and confidence of its movement and the luxury of it’s exotic wood plated interior.
The chauffeur drove to the large South Gate of the Strip, passing multitudinous buildings of similar grandeur and spectacle, all the same though uniquely different, until they all blurred into one mix of different colours and moving forms. The chauffeur leaned out of the side window, showed an identification pass to a Securitron, and the gate opened. Aminta’s car was the only car that left. As the gate closed, the car picked up speed and tore through the rest of Vegas.
Immediately outside the Strip, the buildings were noticeably more dilapidated. Aminta watched as the varied prosperity of the Strip curtailed rapidly into a mess of buildings, barely recognisable as residential or industrial, though they were unmistakably new creations. She almost didn’t notice it at first, but they were all the same. Row after row of buildings with the same geometric exterior, though placed at odd angles to each other, as if a child had been playing with them and haphazardly threw them into where they now stood. As the car moved further and further away from the Strip, lights in these buildings became scarce, and the brickwork became exposed to reveal pipelines and shreds of electrical appliances, some still spitting sparks. When the light of the Strip was nothing more than a flicker of light on the night horizon, the copied buildings were replaced with houses, roofs sagging, walls crumbling. As the car zipped passed, Aminta caught wisps of figures; people moving about the ruins and the darkness like ghosts, until they passed the last house, and all that could be seen was the night sky and desert shrubbery.

This game is a masterpiece. (long post)

I love this game so much. I have been paying for this game for 5-7 years and my opinion has never changed. Everything is just so good. I am not going to put a section about side quests because I cover a few side quests in a few sections. I will briefly cover the main parts of the base game. ( maybe I will make a post covering the amazing DLC) SPOILERS AHEAD. I apologize in advance for tangents, grammatical and spelling issues.
TLDR at the bottom
START/TUTORIAL
The way NV starts is a pretty good. It teaches you about the aspects of the game in the small town of Goodsprings. In "Ghost Town Gunfight", the game teaches you about skill checks. To convince Chet to help you pass a barter check, to convince Easy Pete, you pass an explosive check, Trudy requires a speech check, and Doc Mitchell requires a medicine check if you choose to do "Run Goodsprings Run". It also teaches you about the reputation with the two quests I just mentioned. If you help the Powder Gangers, they will like you, at the cost of wiping out Goodsprings, and if you choose to help the town, the Powder Gang hates you, but Goodsprings likes you.

MORALITY
Morality is not black and white in NV for the most part. For example, in the quest "The White Wash", you are asked to investigate the case of NCR Corporal White, a soldier who went missing. You face a dilemma at the end when you find out that a Follower Of The Apocalypse is taking water from the NCR to give to the people of Westside who really need it. He tells you that he killed White to hide the secret about the water, and he feels bad about it. So you have to choose what you think is the best option, do you (A) tell the NCR that their water is being stolen so they can use it, or (B) do you keep the secret at the cost of some NCR working peoples livelihoods? There is no clear good or clear bad, it's all grey. Of course there are some obviously evil people in NV like the Fiends, especially Cook-Cook. But there is a lot, and I mean a LOT of grey.

MINOR FACTIONS
The minor factions are really great in NV. You obviously have the Brotherhood of Steel, the tech hoarders themselves. But there are also other small factions, like the Followers of The Apocalypse. They are a group of scientists and doctors whose purpose is to help people (I believe they debuted in the original Fallout. Can't remember if it was the first or second one.) You also have the Great Khans, a group of nomads who are modeled after the Mongolians. They raid, take chems, sell chems, and kill anyone who gets in their way. But as I said earlier, the morality is not black and white. The Khans hate the NCR because of the Bitter Springs Massacre, an incident in which the NCR slaughtered Khan women, elders, and children. There is also the Boomers. The Boomers are a group of former vault dwellers who stay at Nellis Airforce base and shoot at any outsiders. This is because they do not trust them, but you can help them to prove that outsiders are not as bad as they think. The last minor factions I will cover are the Families of the Strip. The Omertas are an old school mafia inspired group that run the Gomorrah casino. They have shady business that ranges from abusing the prostitutes to killing everyone in the Strip for Caesar's Legion. The White Gloves are a society of people who see themselves as above everyone else in class. They run the Ultra Luxe casino. But there are a handful in the society who want to bring back their old tribal tradition of cannibalism. The Chairmen run the Tops casino and they are the "coolest" family. They use old school slang and are the most laid back family.

Companions
The companions are great. Although I want to cover every single detail about every companion, I will limit myself to brief explanations on my 2 favorite companions (I love the other but do not have the time to cover them) and why I like them.
I will cover Arcade Gannon first. I love Arcade so much as a character. He is a Follower of The Apocolypse and he has an interesting origin and great writing. He has an intense hatred for Caesar's Legion. You trigger his personal quest by siding with anyone but the Legion (and maybe House. I have never tried siding with House while Arcade was in my company). He pulls you aside at certain places and, depending on how you reply, makes him like, or dislike you more. When you reach max affinity, he pulls you aside and reveals his story. He was born in the Enclave and he wants you to reunite the remnants that he knows to fight against the Legion at Hoover Dam. You can tell Arcade to stay in Freeside as a doctor to help people in the aftermath of the battle or you can tell him to fight with the remnants. If you tell him to stay in Freeside, he will give you his fathers Enclave tesla armor. If you tell him to fight, he will wear the armor at the battle for the dam. You will be rewarded with power armor training and remnants power armor. This will affect (effect?) his fate in the ending slides.
The other companion I will cover is Boone. He is former NCR First Recon sniper who participated in the Bitter Springs Massacre that I mentioned earlier. You meet him in Novac and he asks you to find the person who sold his wife into slavery. You can either find who did it or you can make him kill a random person of your choice. By doing things he like and asking him about his past, Boone will open up about the Massacre and you can take him to Bitter Springs. After killing Many Legion bois, you can tell Boone to let go of the past and he will finally move on, or you can tell him to become vengeful and more aggressive. This will affect(effect?) his fate in the ending slides.

MAIN QUEST LINE SUMMARY
To keep this very short, the main plot is to decide who should win the second battle for the Hoover Dam. Your choices are the NCR, Caesar's Legion, Mr. House, an independent Vegas with the help of Yes Man.

THE NCR
The New California Republic is a, well, a republic whose goal is to recreate the government of the old world, like the U.S government. It is a bureaucracy and has the positives and negatives of one. The characters in the NCR are diverse and very well written. Like how Colonel Hsu is a sensible and calm man who can resolve violent situations, as seen in the "Kings Gambit" quest where if you go to Hsu, he offers Freeside extra food and water to stop the violence. But in the same quest, you can tell Colonel Moore about the Freeside situation. Moore is a no nonsense lady who will not hesitate to fight violence with violence, which is what happens if you tell her about the Freeside situation. She sends a squad of soldiers and you to the Kings school to give the King an ultimatum. In conclusion, the NCR is an army that wishes to use the governing methods of old world America. But they also have the flaws of that system, like corruption.

CAESAR'S LEGION
Caesar's Legion is more than a faux Roman Empire. Caesar is a man who is educated on the old world, on old world government and was even an NCR citizen and Follower of The Apocolypse. Caesar thinks that the best way to lead is through dictator control. He tells you this when you ask him about President Aaron Kimball. He says that democracy slows down progress. He actually has an amount of respect for Kimball. The Legion is made up of 86 tribes that Caesar has conquered. These tribals are stripped of their identity and are indoctrinated into essentially worshipping Caesar as a living deity, as Arcade Gannon said. The legion does not believe in modern medicine. They only use "natural" sources of healing like powder. Which is not great when (plot twist) you find out about Caesar's brain tumor. Lets talk about how women are used in the Legion. Woman are used as slaves and mates for the men. When tribes are conquered, the women are forced into slavery, while the boys and young men are made into Legion soldiers. The Legion see's women as less than men. The men are trained to fear their leaders rather than their enemies, because if they fail, they are killed, like what Caesar attempted to do to Joshua Graham when the Legion lost the First Battle for Hoover Dam. The Legate Lanius, who probably has the best voice in the game, is a figure of fear. He kills anyone that gets in his way and has been a full member of the Legion since he was a child. Caesar says that Lanius has no care for the men of the legion. In conclusion, the Legion is a slaver group that is led by an educated warlord who has interesting philosophies.

MR. HOUSE
Robert Edwin House is the founder of RobCo, the company responsible for many of creations in Fallout including the Pip Boy. He predicted the Great War and prepared to survive it, through weird means. The platinum Chip was running late for delivery while the Great War started, so House did not get it. House is very interesting. He is very smart, yet makes very risky gambles, like trusting you (a stranger) in not destroying his secret army of robots. He single handedly saved Vegas from the war and built it up again. He wants you to help him fulfill his wishes for the future. He thinks he deserves the Dam because of what he can do for Vegas. His plan is to remove the Legion and lower the influence of the NCR in the Mojave so that he can bring back the glory of pre war Las Vegas. As another redditor said on the fallout subreddit, House seems to be the only one with long term plans for the future, whether they are good or bad is your opinion. In conclusion, Mr. House is an ambitious man with ambitious plans for Vegas and the Mojave. He is very confident in himself and his ability to predict the outcome of situations.

YES MAN/ INDEPENDANCE
This is going to be the shortest description. Benny had help reprogramming a securitron to help with anything, most notably taking over Vegas. You choose what factions you like and which ones you do not like and you kick both the Legion and the NCR out of the Mojave wasteland to establish independence.
FREEDOM AND DETAIL
This game is a game where you have complete freedom. You don't like Caesar, go ahead and kill him. There's no quest to do it, but you can still do it. You can kill anyone you want and you can make many decisions that impact the world. If you allow the NCR train to blow up, or if you do it yourself with the Legion, people will talk about it. I made a post showing Legate Lanius's reaction to you confronting him while wearing Legion faction armor. Obsidian has done such an amazing job putting so much detail in this game. Another example of detail is wiping out Camp Forlorn Hope. The NCR will talk about that if you do it then talk to the troopers. There are more examples of this that you will see during your own gameplay.

THE WORLD

The games world is so good. The world is great, especially from a 2010 game. The locations are great. The unmarked spots like the Sarsaparilla sign where the Lonesome Drifter is are pretty cool. The spot where you find a dead person with remnants power armor is a pleasant surprise if you just find while exploring. I also feel very immersed in the world when I'm just walking around and see a legion patrolling or NCR patrolling.
SOURCES
https://www.reddit.com/Fallout/comments/3izps8/lets_talk_about_why_mr_house_is_the_best_option/
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Caesar
https://www.reddit.com/falloutnewvegas/comments/klc6ff/in_my_near_57_years_of_playing_this_game_this_is/
A few Oxhorn videos

TLDR: I love Fallout: New Vegas.

An Honest to God, No Bullsh*t New Vegas Review (Base Game)

Why Fallout: New Vegas is the worst Fallout Game.

Fallout: New Vegas is by far the worst fallout game in my opinion, and here’s why.
Fallout New Vegas is considered by most to be the best fallout game ever made, rivalling Fallout 1, 2, 3 and 4. People always seem to call it superior, and will always change the subject to New Vegas whenever a fallout discussion happens. After hearing this, you’d presume the game is amazing, right? No. It isn’t.
This will be my in depth explanation on why Fallout New Vegas, although not terrible, is incredibly mediocre, and is stupidly overrated.
1: The introduction sequence: Probably the most famous mark of a fallout game is the introduction. Fallout 1, 2 and 3 excelled in this, setting the stage perfectly. However, my main point is about how these introductions are structured. In fallout 1, 2, and 3, they purposely leave as many details of the wasteland out as they can, in order to leave mystery and unexpectedness to the world. Fallout new Vegas completely turned a 360 on this concept, and purposely told you about all the factions and how the game ends BEFORE THE GAME HAS EVEN STARTED... why, you may ask? No reason, Obsidian just doesn’t know the most basic device of storytelling, which isn’t revealing the plot before the plot has even started.

The world itself. Ok, maybe we got off on the wrong foot here. Maybe the world makes up for most of it. Considering Mr House dealt with most of the nuclear warheads that attacked Vegas, maybe the world will feel alive and interesting, and make logical sense, unlike some of fallout 3’s locations, which admittedly didn’t make any logical sense in terms of food, water or trading like Arefu.

Well, no, actually. For a start, the biggest location in the entire game, The Strip, is executed really poorly. For one thing, The strip is placed on the complete north of the map, meaning travellers will need to travel sometimes hundreds of miles to even be able to see it. This would cripple a lot of profit from the strip, because travellers won’t simply have the time or money to go that far. But, fine. I guess I can believe that it is on the northern side of the map, I suppose, even if it is stupid. But where I draw the line, is the way to the strip.
Somehow, no one realised that there is no definitive safe way to the strip. The strip is only accessible through a deathclaw encampment, a super mutant and nightkin infested settlement on top of a hill, or, a mountain alleyway filled with poisonous cazadores, and even worse, the entire way from the rock crushing plant to Camp McCarran is infested with well armed fiends and raiders! Has mr house or the NCR even considered making a safe place for tourists to come to the strip? Because I have a hard time believing so many people come onto the strip, even though logically they should be long dead by the time they reach Camp McCarran.
And on the topic of the strip, there is also another settlement just outside the strip called freeside, which is swarming with muggers and highwaymen! How is the strip even still in business, with these muggers running around attacking everyone? This not only effects the strip, but the other businesses too, like the Van Graffs, Mick and Ralph’s, and the gang, the kings. Hell, it’s so dangerous someone at freesides north gate asks for 200 caps just to get there. How is no one even acknowledging the existence of them? You could at least shoe horn in a quest about driving the robbers out of freeside, even if it ends in a cheap speech check. It would be better than nothing.
The world is practically empty and boring. Most of the locations are box standard NCR outposts, or abandoned farms with nothing interesting to them, (like wolf horn ranch.) There are also towns that have no logic to them like Primm. There is a ncr camp right next to it, so you would presume Primm is under NCR jurisdiction. You’re told that this isn’t the case, however. So why are they there? Why have they set up an outpost next to a place they have no control over, and is apparently overrun with raiders? And it gets worse. Primm has no trade for food, water, no toilet, no beds, and their only save haven is the casino. They don’t even have the hotel anymore, so why are they there? Shouldn’t they just leave at that point?
I could go on, but just know that few locations even serve a purpose, beyond being filler apart from a few or zero quests.

Main quest: Act 1 The first part of the main quests revolves around you, the courier, searching for the man who shot you in the head. Not a bad idea actually, and I give some credit to obsidian for making an decent hook for role playing. The main quest, however, is extremely dull and linear, with no consequences for actions. The main quest actually praises the player for taking the easy way out of the situation, and punishes trying to diplomatically solve situations. Every clue you could get for completing long quests, can easily just be pickpocketed from them or stolen from their corpse. This is unlike fallout 3, where killing your only leads for where your dad went, completely locks you out of any clues, which is a great consequence for not caring and taking the easy way out. Most of the quests feel like filler, made to pad out your way to the strip rather than lead you into fascinating choices.

But finally, you arrive on the strip, ready to get the platinum chip back. But then, from the moment I started speaking to Benny, I realised how incompetent Obsidian was. He is voiced by Matthew Perry. Didn’t obsidian realise he is a comedic voice actor, not a serious or evil one? Benny sounds and feels like a bumbling comedian because of the voice acting and the script, removing any immersion you could have up until that point. There are only two ways to deal with him. Use black widow, or kill him.
Also, this confrontation makes no sense as well. Confronting the owner of his OWN CASINO right in front of his 7 armed bodyguards, and the multiple chairmen in the casino. This feels so unrealistic, considering Benny may as well just kill you as soon as you confront him and threaten him to his face.
4: Factions
Arguably; The factions in New Vegas feel incompetent and generic, sometimes even worse than fallout 4. You have 4 factions you have the choice to join. New California republic, Caesars Legion, Robert House and Yes Man.
Let’s start off with the worst. Caesars legion. Never have I seen a more one dimensional evil faction in any type of media. They enslave innocent people, harass people, crucify everyone, and for no good reason. They are so generic and box standard that the Enclave look like saints compared to them. They only do this to threaten people into ignoring them, which in turn just drives people away from them and they end up supporting the NCR instead, worsening the legion for no reason. The legion is based off tribal ideologies, and as such wear tribal gear like re-fashioned football uniforms and use weapons like spears. Which is where the problem lies. How is the legion even alive at this point? They are just advanced tribals, and nothing compared to the heavily militaristic society of NCR. The fact that Caesar thinks he can even survive in the actual wasteland is honestly pitiful. The legion feels like it’s only there to serve as a generic evil faction for the player to join, rather than be an actual morally grey group of people.
The NCR are unfortunately pretty generic; which feels like an incredibly missed opportunity, especially because of how morally grey they should be. They will only say no to something if it has an incredibly obvious downside. I will say that the Great Khans are executed a lot better here than anywhere else though. They will only stop supporting your ideals if you ruthlessly kill the factions, which should obviously be present with every faction. Like all factions, it boils down to the same experience because you recruit the exact same factions each time. This isn’t obsidians fault per se, but it still feels like all factions feel the same, just with a different coat of paint.
Yes man is only there if you just screw over everyone in the game, and need someone who won’t judge your choices whether you slaughter everyone and just don’t care. This is another example of the game having zero consequences for your actions. You should be punished for killing everyone by not being able to finish the game, not still allowed like nothing happened. He serves as a generic, run of the mill faction, for people who want to get the game done without caring about choices.
5: Consequences Consequences are common place throughout fallout 1 - 3. They serve to punish the player for taking the easy way out of a situation, and pose problems in the future for your character. As I mentioned before, killing leads for your father end in having no clues to find him, resulting in needing to explore 100+ locations to find his location. Fallout new Vegas does not have this. I’ve already mentioned the main quest, but this leeches onto almost every quest. Come Fly With Me, a nonsensical side quests about launching a somehow fully functioning pre war rocket with some gel and modules, (Not being taking seriously; much like Fallout 2,) if you purposely screw up their HUGE rocket ship into crashing into each other, it affects nothing. This should be huge news! A giant rocket flying into the air and crashing into each other should become something huge in between common folk, but it doesn’t ever come into play. There is multiple examples I could also show you, like in the quest, That Lucky Old Sun, you are given the choice of helping the NCR, or giving it to some other random factions. But the NCR doesn’t even mention it at all if you give it to them or the other factions. Why? It feels like the world is completely disconnected from the quests, which makes every choice meaningless.
6: Speech system.
Fallout 3’s speech system was much better than New Vegas’ in my opinion. This is because as long as you have 100 speech, (Done at level 5 or 6), you become a god of convincing every situation in your favour without any problem. This makes the game easy and the game doesn’t give you any challenge beyond that, and although fallout 3’s speech system is also pretty unbalanced, even if you had 100 speech, you couldn’t convince everyone. You only have a 49% chance of convincing three dog into giving you information, making the game not feel stupid easy, but actually interesting, and gave incentive to invest in other skills as well.
This is unfinished at the moment, but I will finish it soon. Please give opinions in the comments, and i will reply if you would like. This was written by KillianMayor.

9 and 1/2 years later, one Courier finally reaches the end of his lonesome road.

Been a long time coming. In the small town in which I lived back in 2010, I was one of a just a handful who came to get our copies of Fallout: New Vegas from the local Gamestop during the midnight release. I had college midterms that week and my only chance to play it was that night, so I pulled an all-nighter, with only a pony keg of beer and a large quantity of Monster left over from my friend’s birthday party Jager-bombs for supplies. Felt like absolute garbage the next day, but it was worth it; I got more than six hours of sweet playtime in before going to school in a state of gut-churning delirium.

That playthrough however would never be finished. I can’t remember exactly where I fell off the wagon, only that I did fire up the Xbox 360 long after I had given up on it to try to get the momentum going again, and failed. I know I must have been close to the max Vanillla level, and reasonably far along in the main quest (failing the other faction questlines and such) Had probably done at least 75% The next serious attempt came a few years later, when I was able to borrow a friends GOTY (or Ultimate, can’t remember what they called it), also for Xbox 360 and try it again, but with the higher level cap and DLC additions. This time, I was somewhat more methodical, remembering what I’d done and how I wanted to do it right, and then going so far as to venture into Zion, completing Honest Hearts, and then entering Lonesome Road next. Though I was in my mid-twenties levelwise, I found LR to be challenging and a little confusing. I didn’t actually realize I could leave it at any time and come back, and I lost interest again. That’s where the second attempt failed.

A friend of mine stayed with me when he was between places, and he used my old copy to do an all-Legion vanilla playthrough. I saw most of this, and it triggered my interest again. Even so, it would be years later until I finally felt the lure of New Vegas tugging at my soul again, and found a nice discount on Steam. So I downloaded the game, and started for the 3rd time. This time I vowed to do something different; rather than the traditional “stealth sniper” model of combat, I would go all-out melee. I min-maxed hard, as I usually do, planning around my eventual stats with my ideal gear loadout and the fact that I would eventually have all skills maxed. Had to take a 1 in Charisma, but it really had no noticeable effect on the game, especially since I pushed Speech high fairly early. Ended up with 10’s in Strength and Luck, a 2 in Charisma, and 9’s in every other SPECIAL stat.

I looked up quite a few things beforehand, aiming for ideal outcomes. This is what led me to misinterpret a key detail regarding the NCLegion infamy resetting during the main quest, and so rather than avoiding confronting Benny during the conclusion of “Ring-a-ding-ding!”, I actually did not enter the Strip at all until after I was Level 50, having concluded Lonesome Road (which made swapping companions a giant pain in the ass). I had decided to nuke both NCR and Legion at the end of Lonesome Road, and not because I planned to finish on the Independent questline. No, it’s because I played the most OCD looting obsessed scavenger you can imagine. Wish I could say it was “role-playing” but truth be told, I just couldn’t stop myself.

Two things about that: firstly, I wouldn’t make the choice of nuking the two factions again. Honestly, regardless of who I planned on siding with, I wouldn’t bother nuking either. I don’t consider the Scorched Sierra Power Armor useful, especially compared to the Remnants or Gannon armor, and the Armor of the 87th Tribe looks kind of cool, but it’s a pretty poor weight/DT ratio and the only time I bothered equipping it was during one of my many fights against Legate Lanius, as a joke (wearing the Marked Beast Helmet and wielding the Blade of the West. I know, I know, very original…) Also, neither of the unique Grenade Rifles are that interesting. By the time I obtained them, I had Red Glare, Annabelle, and a Fat Man and a stupid amount of ammo for those weapons, so the 40mm grenades just felt beside the point. Secondly, damn did I over prepare. For pretty much everything. Playing mostly melee until all my other weapon skills caught up, I hoarded tons of late-game weapon ammo and I just never had the chance to use much of it. Not mention hundreds if not thousands of healing items. Oh, and money? When the Securitron did my credit check to see if I had 2K caps and could enter the strip, I was just shy of 1 Million. I had closer to 1.2 Million by the time I actually tried gambling in any casino (other than the Sierra Madre), I had a ton of Pre-War money, a large reserve of both Legion and NCR money, and I stole all 37 gold bars from the Sierra Madre vault and never sold any of them. I spent way too much time hoarding, and despite playing on Hardcore there was only a couple of times where I ever felt like I was suffering for it or needed to actually change my actions due to food, hydration, or sleep. When I did the Arizona Killer quest, I thought there was going to be a huge number of NCR troopers and Rangers present. I just reverse pick-pocketed the C4 I’d been hoarding onto everyone present, left about 5 blocks on the stage, and then, just to be a dick, sat on the observation platform using a Stealthboy and waited for Kimball to finish his speech before shooting him in the head with an exploding .50 MG round. Immediately after, I pushed the detonator and there was literally no one left on top of the dam.

I didn’t enter Zion until I was around level 30, having already completed 80-90% of the sidequests. After I finished HH, I spent some more time wrapping up in the Mojave, then I did OWB. After that, I finished literally every remaining quest in the Mojave I knew of except the ones that would anger the Legion. Then I did DM, and then I completed the remaining side-quests, becoming an enemy of the Legion, including taking Boone on a nice little trip to wipe out Cottonwood Cove. Finally, I completed LR, let the nukes fly, but saved Ulysses for reasons I’m still not sure about. Happened to get the NCR Courier Duster, which I was happy about; that extra carry weight is actually pretty useful and I wouldn’t have bothered wearing any of the other ones based on their stats.

From that point, it was all fairly straightforward. Although since I had several hundred hours invested and this felt like the most complete playthrough I’d ever do, I saved a couple of key “point of no return” moments. On this same file, I finished all 4 main questlines. Started with the Legion, because I had to destroy the Securitrons in the Fort for them alone, and their quests contradict everyone else’s. Then I did Mr. House, because both NCR and Independent require him to die to move forward after a point. NCR was 3rd, and then finally, Independent. For the first 3, though I did complete all companion quests (except “For Auld Lang Syne” during the Legion one), I did kind of a rush job. Then, I really took my time with the final playthrough, because the Independent ending was the one I’d really wanted all along. Took some companions on a nice vacation, like taking Veronica to watch as I got kicked out of every casino, or when I gave Boone my CZ37 Avenger and I took my Shoulder Mounted Machine Gun and we went to Visit Caesar like the hammer of justice. But tonight, I finally did it, and I finished my ultimate playthrough, which despite ending 4 times, didn’t feel over until the last one.

Despite playing on PC this time, I didn’t use mods. I wanted the experience. And I have to say, holy fuck does this game still crash way too much. It’s really kind of unbearable at times. I love New Vegas overall, but goddamn it’s buggy. We all know it, just had to get that off my chest. I do think it’s interesting how there’s really no “totally good” ending. All the major factions have their appeal, and their drawbacks. Obviously, the Legion is worse than most. But they’re inarguably effective, and my understanding is that cut content was supposed to expand upon what is only hinted at in-game, which is that life is actually pretty good for everyone in Legion territory who isn’t one of their slaves. The NCR dedicates itself to noble ideals but is bogged down by a corrupt bureaucracy and oligarchy, and plenty of folks in the Mojave aren’t asking for their kind of help. They’re also an imperialist power overreaching, so there’s that. Mr. House himself is an interesting case; while his vision would undeniably be of benefit to mankind, he’s not remotely interested in improving the lives of anyone who he doesn’t employ and thus most of the people just fall by the wayside. He’ll more or less ignore suffering and chaos unless he sees a profit in stopping it. The Independent ending of course puts you in charge, but it doesn’t give you much opportunity to decide what that means, which I found to be disappointing. The Ending slides indicate that really, not much changes aside from the retreat of the 2 foreign powers.

Although it’s never been announced that any ending is Fallout canon, I have to believe that the Independent ending is meant to be such. Neither the NCR nor Legion could really be allowed to win and control Hoover Dam; the entire political landscape would have been thrown too far out of whack. Despite the fact that it’s been over 2 centuries since the great war, the Fallout series basically can’t move past the “Post-Nuclear” world, and having one giant regional power control close to a quarter of the continental US would upset that too much. Similarly, with House’s plan to reignite the high technology sectors and send colony ships to new planets, the game world of Fallout would end. Fallout needs a lawless wasteland as the backdrop, and the only ending that doesn’t upset that delicate balance is the death of Mr. House, the retreat of the NCR, and the defeat of the Legion. There's also the fact that Wild Card is the one main questline that can't be failed by interacting with another faction, and is only no longer able to be completed once you've begun another faction's endgame quest.

Knowing that New Vegas is largely based on the canceled, original Fallout 3 makes a lot of sense. Though I entered the series with Bethesda’s Fallout 3, I have read a lot of the lore and this game feels much more like a continuation of the story set up then. Even though The Courier is far removed from The Vault Dweller and The Chosen One (though maybe not as far removed as we think, given the extent of his prior travels), the story of the NCR, the Brotherhood, and the Enclave all feel much more connected to the events of the Mojave than they do the Capital Wasteland, despite the Brotherhood and Enclave’s more central roles in that story. New Vegas has the direct consequences of the past protagonists’ actions shaping the world, like the NCR’s transition from a tiny town, to a sprawling Republic, to a militaristic empire that is now sinking under the weight of its own overreach and inefficiency. Whereas 3 had just echoes of the past stories and one or two direct cameos like Harold. I almost now think of New Vegas as “Fallout 3” and Fallout 3 as “Fallout Bicentennial”; the spin-off that created a new-branching storyline to which Fallout 4 is obviously a direct sequel.

That brings me to where I wish this game had done better. I know, they suffered from a significant amount of budgetary and time issues. I know there was going to be more to the game than what made the final cut. And they did a pretty incredible job with what they had. The reusing of resources from F03 works pretty well and the game is fun, the character writing is great, I love the humor, the companions are mostly cool. What I wish is that the choices you make in quests had a bit more noticeable impact on the world, aside from random dialogue or radio announcements. I know there’s an in-game reason for why killing Caesar won’t affect the upcoming battle for the dam. But really, going to The Fort and killing him shouldn’t feel like an empty gesture. Both Legion and NCR tell you the Legion is better at taking positions than holding them; why the hell did the NCR never assault Caesar’s camp? I did it with one other dude and Sputnik. And then you can’t even free the 2 slaves that are there once Caesar and all the Legionaries are dead. Why wouldn’t the NCR send some rangers to go hold that hill and rain hell on the Legionaries in the camps below? They send a force to occupy Nelson after you retake it, this seems like a higher priority.

It’s also weird to me how little of a role the Super Mutants played in this game, coming here from Fallout 3. You’ve got the quest in Black Mountain, one or two in Jacobstown, and then like 2 other random encounters with Nightkin in Novac and the Repconn testing facility. And that’s literally it. After proving myself a friend to Jacobstown, I think it’s odd that you can’t ask the mutants to help out during the battle, or at least defend Vegas or something since the NCR and Legion probably would wipe them out if they seized power. This would especially make sense during the Independent Route, establishing Vegas as a haven for all. In general, I think if you’re going to decide to seize power for yourself you should have been given more of a chance to decide what that means and what you do with it. I would have really liked to see more options regarding the Brotherhood and the Followers and shaping how they’re going to fit in to Vegas society, post Hoover Dam. Mr. House was also taking cuts from the Three Families and using them fund his operations. I would have liked the chance to start running some of those operations. Hell, for any faction it would have been cool to get to spend some of my stupid amount of money late-game on improving their equipment, defenses, etc. There’s also quite a few quests that I wish had had alternate methods of resolution that would make sense. For example, why can’t you sabotage the Legion’s Howitzer in I Hear You Knocking or why can’t you take over the bottle cap press for yourself and just lie to Alice McLafferty in Pressing Matters?

Additionally, when one is working for either the NCR or the Legion, it’s irksome that you don’t actually get to join those factions. Would have been cool to go from Recruit Legionary through Centurion and then become a Legatus yourself. Caesar could have at least formally made you Frumentarius, since that’s what you basically become. NCR could have made you a Colonel by the time the battle begins for all the shit you did for them.

Regarding the DLC, and I know this is again due to budgetary reasons, I didn’t like how what you can do in one DLC can’t affect/be referenced in the others or the main game. I also wish you’d been able to go a little deeper on the connection between them, for example talking to Elijah more about Big MT or Graham about Ulysses. Or Christine about Ulysses. I found Elijah to be somewhat a disappointment in general, after him being hyped up by the Mojave BoS, Veronica, and the Think Tank. He’s just kind of a crazy dick.

Honest Hearts was enjoyable but it would have been better if you could get deeper into it with Graham. Plus he would have been a phenomenal companion to bring back to the Mojave; I think he might actually be my favorite character in the game. My favorite part in it was uncovering the story of The Survivalist. Wish finding all entries plus his corpse and belongings could have given you some dialogue options with the Sorrows, maybe even teaching one to be his successor or something. And the Desert Ranger armor was awesome, I wore it until I got the Elite Riot Gear in LR.

Old World Blues was just really solid: had a fun, weird story. Just wish it had an actual impact after you return to the Mojave and the Endgame. I mean, the Courier controlling, Vegas, Hoover Dam, AND the research and production of Big MT? Some shit’s going down. Where’s MY army of robot-scorpions to supplement my army of Securitrons? Only downside is the unique weapons are trash; the only cool thing was the Stealth Suit once it’s fully upgraded.

Dead Money was my least favorite DLC of all. First, the cloud was just annoying, and made it hard to enjoy the one time I lost all my shit and was forced to just play with the newly acquired equipment. Second, the Villa portion vs the actual casino portion is way too long, and I had much higher expectations for the interior of the casino. Third, while the characters were pretty interesting (besides Elijah), I couldn’t believe how there’s no resolution regarding Dean being the one who fucked over Christine and cut her vocal chords. Also, how’d he pull that off? She’s a BoS assassin, for fuck’s sake. Fourth, letting go my ass. My gold. MINE. Fifth, once you’re back in the Mojave, the presence of that vending machine plus the constant dump of chips is basically game-breaking. Not that I needed it by then, I’d pretty much broken the game by being a pointless millionaire hoarder.

Lonesome Road was cool overall. Dragged on a little longer than it needed to in some places. Ulysses, while certainly interesting, rambled a little too much and a little too metaphorically without actually saying much. Love the unique weapons from this one, love the unique armor. My one big issue is that I still barely understand the backstory of the courier after all that. Really wish they had gone into more detail, or that there had been a survivor from the community you helped build who could have filled you in more. Feels like you never actually encounter that community at all, since all the buildings are prewar and all the notes are either prewar or from the recent NCR expeditionary force. If I had to do it again, I’d just stop the nukes since I’d rather have the peace of mind and become idolized with the BoS than anything you actually get from Dry Wells or the Long 15. Also, though it killed me to do it at the time, I left ED-E so I could get the perk. But the more I thought about it, letting him die there actually seems less cruel than letting him try to continue to Navarro and discover what happened to it. Would have been cool if it turned out Arcade was actually the boy in the recordings though.

All in all, I’m glad I’ve finally seen the end of my own lonesome road. And now I’m going to uninstall Fallout New Vegas. But, since we are in the midst of a quarantine, guess I’ll fire up Fallout 4...

[FNV] What does "Invalid Chip in CasinoData List!" mean?

New Vegas Sequel Ideas(Random notes)

Idea!
The goal is to make a new Vegas sequel
-Player has choice of how the main ending was done at start of game(perhaps default mr house won could be best tho)
-Tension between a free/house new Vegas force ncr to focus all efforts in annexing the strip and taking full power from the dam (Lucky 38 has power source so no need for dam when the platinum chip arrived it gave enough power for new Vegas to no longer need the dam)
-Start of game. Noise of fence climbing etc. Then open in Back area of the Sierra madre you are playing a nobody at this point. Just a prologue anyway. It’s based of the part of the mod for new Vegas (Fallout dust)
So etc etc you find the father and blah blah basically you free him he helps you and your two buds or tribals either way you/he weaponisation of the gas then it kills you all and spreads throughout the wastes. This will be the main on globing threat to deal with. (Then a 5-10years later cut)
New Vegas is either independent or Mr house is still ruler and it is thriving(for now) Though tensions are rising as NCR has become a even more corrupt state beating the legion it is on course to annex new Vegas. Allow it faces threats from everywhere.
Main ideas for main story parts. ———— The house always wins
Work for Mr house and ensure Vegas stays free as well as expanding the control from the strip to the damm and all the Mojave. Also having a a few optional quests that could make it easier and change main endings as usual. Such as installing a puppet for Mr House or Destroy it from the inside however also destroying your reputation with NCR and it’s allies with it. (TBA)
Two Headed Bear
The main story for picking NCR is choosing who ends up leader and what type of actions the player makes changes what the possible leader will do or if the player wants to coup the NCR (NEVADA REGION) or perhaps make it a complete different leader perhaps a people’s leader who everyone thinks would be best but would perhaps do the worst etc etc.
It’s main objective is to still however annex the strip and secure as much area as possible without overextending and perhaps imploding.
Down with them all
Basically a fully player dictator or player republic with possible companions as members of it(TBC/TBA)
The main pull of this option would be there be many options for the player to take and would offer the most options however not necessarily the best.
(No matter what the ending has to be bittersweet the ending no matter what has to have something so that so matter which side the player chooses it will never be perfect. Example being.
The NCR take the strip but at what cost and what if you never deal with the cloud. Eventually since everyone is so focused on power and politics and money and greed they forgot about the most unstoppable force coming to them.
———— The game and it’s size.
The game size is going to have to be quite large. The largest perhaps fallout game it needs a whole addon the make the strip feel like the strip and it’s development over the years of either a Mr House look(if the player choose that choice) or a independent free Vegas look(choice again)
The strip need to be huge,expensive,Neon lights,A jewel that can be seen from every part of the wastes with open space to see it. It need to glow bright(large aura of light) It needs to have casinos that have a large amount of quests and a ban that only lasts 1-3 weeks in game time. Being spilt into tiers with betting casinos.
There should be 5-6 casinos to bet in with their own tiers.(1 being best and biggest bets and payout to 4 being the lowest)
The lucky 38-Tier 1 The tops-Tier 2 The Ultra lux-Tier2/3 The Gomorrah-Tier3 Vault 21-Tier 4
Obviously a lot of work and thinking needs to be done to put on paper how I see all of this working out in my head.
So just gonna focus on the strip and build out from their. The strip being the centre of the game world.
THE STRIP (THE JEWEL,THE CENTRE) Yes things are going to look different
The strip needs to be fully open no loading screens and it needs to be big I mean full street big and a full remodel. The lucky 38 being made in the middle for a start like it’s cover in the old game.
With the walls being made much higher with towers and Soldiers keeping guard.
The casinos moved about and time passed based on leader the state of the strip.
(Example being if house is leader then casinos are looking good and on the surface so does most of the strip. However if it is a free new Vegas the casinos are suffering the Gomorrahs are the worst of it and the strip caters more to the people than the families.)
The quests on the strip needs to be worthwhile too. Every family and Mr house or Free New Vegas it needs to be all worthwhile and exciting. Such as like a spy mission for gammorah to see what is happening inside the family and a bank heist for the tops depending on certain things too.
Another big thing is things that happen need to feel like they have a lasting effect.
Example being. If you do a bank heist the tops will have less money and be shit down for one in game month and will be lowered to a tier 3 casino. However if you help Mr house and stop the heist instead of helping it and taking the money for yourself the tops give you a penthouse suite with a weekly free chips amount that slowly increases from 500-1500 a week.
It needs thing that make the player thing will this help me in the long run or a quick thing is what I need and who do I want to side with if I pick this and what are the benefits for going solo or against everyone they need more choice and choices that feel like they matter.
Also a big change the ending go the game will continue after the end. With HUGE effects depending on the ending.
Example - NCR Victory means Vegas is in ruins and no longer will the player be able to play at them unless they have done missions with each family and switched their sides with the ncr in this example. So the tops switched to NCR but the ultra lux didn’t therefore the ultra lux casino is in ruins. Making the player be very careful when the do the ending and hopefully encouraging them to do as much as possible to get a satisfying ending as much as possible.
DLC
The dlcs will be much like old New Vegas. However the ending of some of them should effect the main story of vanilla new Vegas and one of them affecting the whole game world even if the ending of the game is complete.

What does "Invalid Chip in CasinoData List!" mean?

My inventory is full!

The Abridged Biography of Mr. House, Part 1

Before writing here, I’ve read many debates over the factions in New Vegas. Although I’ve seen many good points, I also feel that Mr. Robert Edwin House is often grossly misunderstood – both by his supporters AND by his detractors. To assist, I’ve endeavoured to read up on all dialogue, letters and terminal entries concerning House, and from that write out a summarized biography with occasional insights into the man’s character. What you’ll read is by no means exhaustive (and I always enjoy new perspectives from others), but it IS going to be a fair bit of reading. I mean, seriously, this is the abridged biography of a 200+ year old man, not some low-effort meme post.
Grab yourself some biscuits and make some nice hot tea. Sit back, relax and enjoy at your own pace.
DISCLAIMER: A flaw of my writing style, especially when using this many words, is that I can appear all over the place at times. I'm trying to improve that. Feedback is appreciated, and I love answering questions should you have any. Don't panic if I don't respond quickly though, IRL is kinda hectic right now.
Anyways, where shall we begin? Oh, right.
To understand House, we must examine the context he inhabited Pre-War.
1) Family Matters
“Born June 25th, 2020, House was orphaned at an early age when his parents died in a freak accident (auto gyro, lightning). Though cheated of his inheritance, House attended the prestigious Institute in Massachusetts and founded RobCo Industries on his 22nd birthday. Within five years, it was one of the most profitable corporations on Earth.”

Mr. House’s obituary (“A Tragedy Has Befallen All Mankind”)

I have tried to find other texts to support the story Robert House gives of his early life (since we all know his obituary has more than a little embellishment in it), but haven’t found much, other than the eerie terminal logs in the H&H Tools Factory. The logs in general paint an objective picture of his half-brother Anthony House as a deranged man, ending with this noteworthy passage:
“It's worse than I feared. Henderson sent a 10-point memo outlining the benefits of mechanization and automation. As if I wouldn't know he's been plotting with my half-brother the entire time! I knew he was a weasel-dick traitor from the moment I laid eyes on him. Only one thing to do. One thing, and the company - my father's LEGACY - is safe forever. Cindy-Lou will bring him to me, and then I'll make an example. The Bastard will learn why you don't cross the House.”

Anthony House, regarding Robert House.

and
“Jenny, What the hell is up with these guys? They've been coming after our market share like they've got something to prove. No, strike that, this feels personal. Did Mr. H. run over RobCo's dog or something? Alan”
With the above in mind, it is believable that Anthony House had cheated Robert House out of his inheritance, with the former viewing the latter as “The Bastard” (due to Robert being the younger half-brother) and thus undeserving of any part of the House family legacy. We can thus take the QUOTED part of House’s obituary above more or less at face value.
2) The end is nigh!
Now, years after raising a famous company from almost nothing, Mr. House deduced the occurrence of the Great War. By his own account, he first deduced this in 2065 – at this point in time, according to the Fallout Bible and Van Buren, Vault-Tech’s “Project Safehouse” had been in motion for over 11 years with the apparent goal being to shelter humanity in the event of a large-scale nuclear or bio-weapon holocaust. Europe and the Middle East were mutually ruined due to extended conflict and lack of resources. Heritage sites like the Grand Canyon were open to be mined. And the UN may-or-may-not-have been disbanded. Going by the GNN report in Fallout 2 the UN still had at least another (fairly ineffectual) 9 years left counting down from 2065. According to the Fallout Bible, it was already long dead. Either way, the world was in bad shape.
It’d be easy for us, at this point, to turn to Mr. House’s prediction and say something along the lines of “No kidding”. It seems obvious, from where we stand now in the Pre-War Fallout world, that there would be a nuclear Holocaust. And indeed, it was obvious. Even the Mormons were buying spots in Project Safehouse, if we are to believe Van Buren in that particular instance. What made House unique in his deduction, however, was knowing not only that the Atomic Holocaust WOULD happen no matter what (Vault-Tech’s plans were based more around general contingencies for any large-scale apocalypse), but he also knew precisely WHEN it would happen – the War only starting a day or so sooner than he expected.
As an aside, in light of the shambles the Pre-War world was in, one must wonder just how much it actually meant to be “one of the most profitable corporations on Earth”. Earth, at that point, was almost a wasteland already and House still built and sustained a thriving business. But I digress; we’re not yet worrying about how House could rebuild a wasteland. What we need to look at now is this – what did House do with his uniquely precise knowledge of the impending Apocalypse?
“I knew I couldn't ‘save the world,’ nor did I care to. But I could save Vegas, and in the process, perhaps, save mankind.”

Robert Edwin House

And really, it is no wonder House did not care to save the world – there was barely anything left to save. The UN – an international force for peace – had either died or was rapidly weakening. The U.S. began setting its sights on annexing Canada. Entire forests were felled, Once-ler style, just as countries were felled to acquire them. Sure, people could build power armour, but only because the US military could no longer afford to fuel their tanks for sufficient mobility, and their “Mechanized Cavalry” needed something to take into battle. Even electricity is rationed after the fusion reactor of New York City almost went supercritical under the strain of providing for a 17 million+ strong population (Fallout Bible). And, despite all their troubles, America was still one of the best off countries in the world at this point (which makes you wonder how much worse it was in the others).
But whilst America carried on, Lonesome Road and Old World Blues show us that its values had changed, almost as if in a twisted homage to Heath Ledger’s Joker - “You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve." We see this theme echoed in the NCR and even the Followers of the Apocalypse, but we’ll get to that later.
The Pre-War world wasn’t some ideal Utopia that was only ruined by the tragedy of the bomb. It was already a desperate place, already a wasteland in many ways. There simply wasn’t enough left on Earth to provide for everyone (RIP Charlie Chaplin). And that’s why House could never hope to save everyone, let alone the planet they lived on. Anything he tried on that scale would be “too little, too late”.
3) Who Wants to Live Forever Anyways?
So…why did House choose to save Vegas?
Some say he did so in order to save himself. But if he truly wished to save himself, he could have been like Senator Todd Peterson, and built himself a private bunker within which to live out his days with whatever loved ones he may have had. Even if he wouldn’t be immortal, it’d still be a MUCH more comfortable way to spend his days. When it comes to the life he eventually chose, the Official Game Guide has this to say about House:
“He is emaciated to the point of being skeletal, bones visible under pale, translucent skin crisscrossed by faint blue blood vessels. House's command helmet is not detachable - we don't want to imply that the player could put it on and take his place. The helmet might be bolted right into his skull, like a "halo" used to stabilize severe neck injuries. Or it might not be a helmet at all, the top of Mr. House's skull having been removed and fitted with transistors and vacuum tubes.”
No, House did not endeavour to save himself. If anything, he condemned himself to a special kind of Hell. He was a man with the means to luxury, and yet sealed himself off from it, and almost all human experience the average man might take for granted (the smell of a flower, the touch of a woman, the feeling of a cool breeze on a Summer day)…forever. He mentions his longevity came with a cost. He was not kidding. If anything, he was understating.
Others instead compare House to Andrew Ryan, and say that he saved Vegas only so he could be the head amongst the wealthy and the elite. I must disagree here too – the tribals he later babysits were never elite in their own right by Pre-War standards before House’s intervention. Aside from being a superficial reference to Howard Hughes, House has very little in common with Ryan. Billions of US Dollars were at House’s disposal. If he really wished to be a leading figure amongst the elite, he would’ve built the Fallout equivalent of Rapture in the middle of the ocean ages ago. Or he would’ve built his own “Sierra Madre” to rival Sinclair. Or he would’ve ingratiated himself with the Enclave (who he did contract work for) or the Institute (where he studied), who could’ve used a man like him to lead their projects.
He did none of those things. He chose to save Vegas. Young, old, rich, poor, honest and crooked alike. And he chose to become immortal, despite the steep personal costs.
But why?
4) Long Term Investments
“Vegas is more than a city. It is the remedy to Mankind’s…derailment.”

Mr. House “I grew up not far from here, and though I traveled the old world extensively, I never found another place like it.”
Mr. House Aside from being House’s birthplace, Vegas -in the Fallout Universe - was home to not only the (in)famous casinos, but also to many factories dedicated to manufacturing drinks, robots, tools and rockets. Nearby there is an air-force base and –perhaps most importantly- Hoover Dam and Helios One. In a world fated to end over a lack of resources, ensuring access to two of the most basic and important renewable resources in the aftermath would go a long way to help ensure humanity at least doesn’t end entirely.

And all of these resources would fall within range of his Securitron Network – at least once the Mk II upgrade arrives.
If we are to believe that Mr. House wished to establish colonies on new worlds as a solution to Earth’s resource problem regardless of whether the War happens first or not (and the Official Game Guide confirms House is interested in technological progress, at the very least), then it makes sense that House would choose Vegas – not because it is particularly important in itself (compared to other possible cities), but because it is the central location from which he could gain control of resources vital to the space program –renewable energy, REPCONN HQ, rocket test sites and seemingly limitless clean water for his employees. Still, as we find out later, House doesn’t let Vegas itself go to waste by any means…
The site chosen, House toiled over his defenses. He built a nuclear reactor under his casino with enough energy to power the Mojave. He built a life-support system to ensure his survival into the post-apocalypse, no matter the cost. He built Securitrons to protect his interests in the aftermath, and then built a factory/ storage facility for them under Fortification Hill – a mere stone’s throw from Hoover Dam - so that his army might never run out. Meanwhile, the brilliant Big MT scientist who would become Dr. 0 silently fumed in envy over House’s superior abilities in robotics.
Some may doubt that the Fort’s bunker was a factory. After all, House just calls it a “barracks”, which implies storage, right? Well, consider some barracks have recruitment offices – and in RTS style games, they’re often functionally the same building. Now what would the Securitron equivalent of a “recruitment office” be? Powering up the Fort Bunker causes distinct, repetitive hydraulic sounds, as if there were an assembly line moving. Does that sound like mere storage to you? No. You think he’d build an army with no way to replenish it?
“I'm surprised you can still underestimate me after everything you've seen.”

Mr. House

5) For Want of a Nail
But now, ironically after the above quote, we encounter House’s greatest failure. You see, House had everything set up, but it was still in BETA (insert Fallout76 Joke here). He commissioned the “Platinum Chip” to contain all the patches, software upgrades and override commands he could need for the foreseeable future. It was specially shaped so it could only be used on hardware he specified – no other company could hope to steal it or otherwise use it for their own purposes. The Chip was finished and scheduled to arrive a day before the predicted date of the war.
And then the War arrived a day early.
77 Warheads targeted Vegas. Mr. House, irrevocably entombed within his Life Chambers, readied Vegas’ defenses…
“I was in Mexico City when the bombs dropped. Even from there, we could see House's defensive rockets shooting down the incoming missiles.” -Raul Tejeda
And what House couldn’t shoot down, he hacked, deactivating warheads mid-air so they could never reach Vegas. But, because the Platinum Chip hadn’t arrived in time, the software remained a BETA - and would for another 204 years. Nine warheads managed to impact the Mojave.
*“When blaring civil defense sirens heralded mankind's doom on October 23rd, 2077, the citizens of Las Vegas bore witness to an astonishing spectacle. Huge laser cannons unfurled from secret housings in the roof of the Lucky 38 casino and Hoover Dam's intake towers and began spitting blasts of green fire into the sky, destroying warhead after warhead and sparing Las Vegas's urban center and the dam from direct hits. Citizens filled the streets and cheered. And then they died horribly from the lethal fallout that blew in from the dozens of warheads that detonated around Las Vegas.
Though Mr. House's missile defense grid performed admirably, the Great War was in actuality the day of his greatest setback.”*

Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide

House saved no-one that day. You were either in a Vault, or you were House, or you were dead.
Software bugs, compounded by the EMP from nuclear fallout, caused the defense action House put forward to result in multiple system crashes, forcing him to shut down his fully automated reactor before it melted down from faulty programming. Now without Hoover Dam (EMP) or his reactor, House’s life support relied on a very limited supply of emergency power. It was all he could do to restore his OS to an even less advanced -but more stable- build before passing out from shock.
6) Too Stubborn to Die
Now, the Courier is famous for rising from the grave to finish their quest - but House did it first. 61 years after the bombs dropped, House woke up. At this time, the Master (of Super Mutant army fame) was active and alive. Vault 15 – from which Shady Sands was built – hadn’t even opened yet. The majority of House’s Securitrons are offline, with only a handful of downgraded ones stationed in his casino. Raiders plagued the Wastes. And House’s own limited power supplies dwindled ever lower.
Now, he lived a full life. Raul notes how House was something of a superstar who dated all the beautiful women and made billions before the War, reaching the ripe age of 57 before the bombs fell. After losing almost everything in his gamble to try save Vegas, it’d be tempting for anyone in House’s position to give up, to shut down again and just…die. Instead…
“Immediately he began using his Securitron robots to search out human settlements…”

Official Game Guide

From this point onwards (until his determinant acquisition of the Dam) House is forced to make choices most of us don’t even have to consider. Everyone has to worry about their budget for the month. Some of us have to worry about their budget for the year…or a company’s or even country’s budget for a similar period - maybe 5 or 10 years, in some cases. House has chosen to worry about the World’s “budget” (fiscal or otherwise) over the course of…forever, because no one else alive is as acutely aware of the global resource shortage as House, who lived through multiple wars caused by it, culminating in that big famous one that almost ended the world.
“For years, I played a miser with my emergency power supply. I began to run out of reserves around the time I woke the first batch of Securitrons”.

House

Of course, House had his own budgets to worry about. It was not long after sending out his forces to find other humans that his power supply began to dip dangerously low. Realizing the costs of waking up his robots after the first batch forced House to play very carefully – after all, he couldn’t enact his plans to revitalize the global economy if he died now, could he? He sent his mechanical agents out, quietly hiring prospectors to find his beloved Chip – with no personnel or infrastructure to reproduce it, he had to find it…before he shut off forever.
Beyond that, he ran silently, keeping his “electrical bill” as low as possible, hoping the Chip would find him in time. As it turns out, the NCR got to him first.
If you ever wondered why House did not try to personally civilize Vegas, introduce sustainable agriculture and grant free schooling before NCR showed up, it’s because doing those things would require him to take a very active role in life outside the Lucky 38, and doing that, with his power reserves as they were, would have been fatal for him (to say nothing of the mutants, raiders, etc). This is the weakest he has ever been since his half-brother swindled him.
But I digress. The NCR is on the horizon…as was the Legion.
7) I Called Dibs 2 Centuries Ago
Suddenly, things moved very quickly. For years after the Wastes were repopulated, (what passed for) peace and order in Nevada was maintained by the vigilante Desert Rangers, who allowed themselves to be absorbed into the NCR in 2271, in exchange for help against Caesar. A year later, the Mojave Outpost as we see it –under NCR- came to be, the Mojave south of the Vegas area having been pacified earlier under the leadership of then-General Kimball. Then, Kimball achieving Presidency, Hoover Dam fell under their grip.
In the span of 2274 House engaged his final power reserves in a last-ditch effort to secure his future (and, by proxy and from his perspective, the future of Mankind). Beatrix Russel and the King describe Pre-House Vegas as a place where everyone got by, but the truth is less-than-spotless; according to the FNVOGG, tribes fought amongst the ruins – Slither Kin, Boot Riders, Great Khans, and many other smaller or more mysterious groups. Using Securitrons as his intermediaries, Mr. House enlisted the help of all who were both willing and capable of aiding him, playing on their self-interest and need to survive by promising (and delivering) them resources and power. But whilst you can teach tribals to fight your enemies and socialize with your allies, you can’t turn them into a competent team of technical specialists – not in the time available. And he’d need educated men and women to truly restore the glamour of his New Vegas.
And that’s where Vault 21 came in. After uncooperative tribes like the Great Khans were pushed off the areas around the Strip, House made an offer to this community, who had previously lived in peace as chaos raged above them. The offer was simple: help rebuild Vegas…or not. Most chose the second option, but a small group of Vault residents decided to gain support on House’s behalf, eventually achieving a consensus: they would work for House, and opened their doors to him. They soon found themselves aiding House’s tribals in building a massive wall sheltering both the Strip and Freeside from the rest of Vegas. Vault 21’s lower levels were salvaged of useful technology to aid in construction…and then (infamously) filled with concrete to ensure future, less innocent visitors to the Vault couldn’t use it to breach the Lucky 38’s sub-levels or Vegas’ defenses. At the request of its more agoraphobic residents, House spared Vault 21’s top levels, transforming it into a hotel for them to run. With the Vegas Strip being far larger – more casinos, more housing, more everything – in lore, art and cutscenes compared to in-game, it is plausible to believe the displaced Vault Dwellers were rehoused on the Strip itself; as relatively well educated individuals, they’d be invaluable in House’s endeavours – of the three we met, we know one became House’s top sign artist, one became a hotel manager and one voluntarily left Vegas to be a travelling doctor before retiring in Goodsprings (we know because he eventually returned to marry his sweetheart, who still lived not far from the Vault she came from).
Whilst not yet open for business by any means, House had managed to turn a ruin plagued with tribal conflicts into a citadel presided over by Three Families. The NCR arrived in force, expecting just another wasted city picked over by warring raiders…and instead found a fortress in the wastes…and surprisingly, one that not only wasn’t hostile to them, but outright welcomed them…providing certain concessions were made…
With the threat of the Legion just on the horizon, NCR were faced with an offer they could not refuse – they would be allowed to set up an embassy and police force on the Strip, as well as a military base in Outer Vegas so long as they provided 5% of the Dam’s power output to Vegas (which they would need to do to make use of their embassy and base anyways) and allow their citizens and soldiers on leave to enjoy House’s amenities at their own discretion. Sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? NCR agreed to the terms, implicitly legitimizing the sovereignty of New Vegas under House. Power flowed to the Strip and House, who had to suffer multiple power outages, whose salves and meds almost curdled because of this, whose life was literally tied to that of his battery…could finally breathe easy, now having more (electrical) power than he knew what to do with.
8) But why didn’t House…?
You may be asking “Why didn’t House instead provide his resources to the NCR, allowing them to push the tribals out of Vegas and restore it that way, possibly becoming a prominent citizen in the process?”
House’s detractors often refer to his compulsive need for control, and control is precisely why House would rather recruit tribals to work for him than try to merge with something larger. But why does House want that control?
I’d argue it isn’t due to a compulsive need for it – his leadership is extremely hands-off. To understand why House wants to remain in control, rather than admit subservience to a larger civilization, we need to look back to Pre-War America and that Joker quote we put down earlier.
NCR is, in many ways, similar to Pre-War US. It was founded on lofty ideals. And when resources became scarce? They abandoned their ideals and annexed whatever and whoever they wanted to get more resources until the globe was almost depleted and -BOOM! So far, NCR is just at the “annexing” stage (not that they have nukes anyways), but the globe is about as depleted as it was 200 years ago.
Chief Hanlon speaks of the overconsumption and mismanagement of water in their territories, Doctor Hildern predicts a famine after a decade of population growth. Supporting this, the intro-cutscene for the game outright states NCR’s expansion is influenced by a lack of resources for their growing populace. NCR’s current population as a nation…around 700 000. Compare that to Johannesburg’s (which is just one city) population of 900 000+. Compare that to the 39 million+ strong population of real life California today. And NCR is the largest unified population on the continent. And they’re running out of resources already. By modern IRL standards, the population that Earth (or at least, America) can sustain in the Post-War Fallout universe is absolutely tiny. Even the possible savior we find within Big MT’s matter replicators is in question, with the substantially wealthy Sinclair being driven almost into debt just to fund the creation a few according to the terminal in the Y-0 Lab, and very few having been found outside the Sierra Madre despite Dean’s claims. Of course, perhaps that could change with time and resources directed towards further development, but until then… (As it stands, Pre-War US couldn’t/ didn’t make them economically viable to produce before the Great War started). If even the Followers of the Apocalypse are willing to commit murder over water at this juncture (White Wash), imagine how things would be later down the line. There aren’t infinite resources in the Fallout world – just too few people to deplete what is left…yet.
No one is as painfully aware of the resource shortage as House. Maybe others of his intellect will rise up in the NCR, but like him in Pre-War US, they won’t detect the issue until it’s too late to properly solve it. Not wanting to gamble on the multi-headed NCR following his advice forever, he instead puts on an appearance of having power, ensuring full control over his enterprises. This is why House doesn’t bid for NCR citizenship.
He’s seen what happens to Democracies when the going gets truly desperate – how they corrupt into oligarchies blinded by greed or desperation. Rather than watch that happen again, he chooses to become an autocrat in a long-term venture for the good of Mankind – after all (as we’ve stated before), he has little reason to continue living for himself.
9) The Nature of the Strip
“A fool and his money are soon parted.” – Proverbs, 21:20, King James Bible
Strip away the gambling amenities, and what is left? A luxury resort, a fine-dining restaurant, an art gallery, a theatre, bars, hotels, a brothel and a gentleman’s club.
For want of a nail, House cannot access the powerful amenities around Vegas, but he’s made the best of the city itself. Early on, access between the Strip and Freeside was unrestricted (according to the FNVOGG) – Securitrons thoroughly patrolled both areas and just about everybody there was living relatively well.
For those of you familiar with casinos, you know they pull every trick in the book – the smiling staff, the bright lights, the music, and the colours – in order to subtly entice you to make a wager. For those who’ve only visited casinos to partake in their collection of arcades, restaurants, cinemas or theatres, you know all those psychological prompts to “pay to watch people flip paper squares”, as Follows-Chalk likes to say, are entirely ignorable.
For a man like House, the Strip exists to collect money (a.k.a. the power to requisition resources) from those who do not know how to spend it and redistribute it into the hands of those working towards his ends (maintenance aside, recovering his Chip – which is still invaluable despite the power from Hoover Dam - is becoming a tad expensive, after all). It also exists as a place of culture and relaxation for more responsible visitors. For many others, however, the Strip has become a beacon of hope.
Enthusiastic entertainers finally had a place to permanently employ their gifts. Those who were unfortunate in life but otherwise hard-working made livings as Street Vendors on the Strip, earning far more than they could anywhere else even after taking House’s Franchisee taxes into account. And formerly inter-warring tribals were finally living in peace, operating lavish casinos semi-independently in return for making and enforcing certain agreements with House (notably, cannibalism carries the death penalty).
10) The Separation from Freeside
Around two years BEFORE the game started, or 2 years AFTER the First Battle of Hoover Dam, House began to wall Freeside off from the Strip. Whether it was due to being overwhelmed by too many people trying to spend money they didn’t actually have, or due to a security issue, House decided to pull his Securitron forces and loyal employees off of Freeside to concentrate on the Strip, with admittance becoming more exclusive. You either:
a) possessed a passport indicating you were trusted to visit the Strip
b) had enough money on you to prove you were a tourist who could afford to enjoy the Strip’s services (there is no entry tax or fee – just a credit check to ensure you aren’t going to just indebt yourself within 5 seconds of visiting)
c) have to stay in Freeside or go home
d) were an NCR soldier or VIP on leave
OR
e) tried to break past a cordon of armed robots whilst ignoring their instructions to stop and turn around, earning yourself a Darwin Award (of course, NCR troops will also kill you if you try to use “their” Monorail under similar circumstances, only they won’t wait for you to break past them).
But despite the new checkpoint, a woman from North Vegas – who previously could barely afford to eat – found good, steady work on the Strip as a salesperson. Street performers like the Lonesome Drifter or Billy Knight were admitted in without a peep. Although it’s true that the Strip’s services cater to the rich, the people it truly looks after are the hard working and enthusiastic (Billy Knight isn’t an exceptional comedian, but he clearly loves his work and that was clearly enough). Remember that no one local to Vegas was rich before House came back –since his resurrection he has been an employer of the willing and the able, and that hasn’t changed. Vegas puts on a big show for wealthy consumers, but it’s people like Billy Knight or the woman from North Vegas who come out ahead.
But, of course, not everyone liked the idea of working for House. Perhaps, more tragically, they decided too late to find employment as all staff slots were filled. Regardless, Freeside, with most of its more capable now residing on the Strip, and the Securitons no longer protecting it, degenerated back into lawlessness and became a hive of scum and villainy. It is from these conditions that a man calling himself the King rallied various dispossessed former tribals of all colours into a new tribe of his own. But we’ll return to him later…
We never find out for certain why House shut out Freeside. The Locals will blame the droves of NCR squatters around Vegas (for just about everything), but we’ll likely never know for certain beyond plausible speculations.

Lonesome Road and the paths men walk, or: Why Ulysses is a punk bitch [Spoilers]

STOP IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED LONESOME ROAD - If you have played Lonesome Road, stop anyway unless you've gotten speech victory and heard Ulysses' explanations rather than just charging through and murdering him.
Disclaimer: This post may contain conjecture.
Like any player likely does, let's get our first look at Ulysses from the perspective of Courier Six. Separate from just explaining Ulysses to you as the reader, I'm going to try to explain why any Courier worth their weight in depleted uranium should understand the mindset of Ulysses well enough to at least slightly consider sparing him, even with the limited information they have as a character.
Now, like anything in a proper Fallout game, there are multiple ways this explanation can work depending on story created in-universe by the paths the player chooses. However, I find these branching paths should converge at or above a minimum baseline level of knowledge of Ulysses by the time the player meets him at the end of the road.
One of the first major choices the dialogue options will let you make in how your version of the story goes is whether your version of Courier Six knows who Ulysses is to begin with or not.
If you choose to play as a Courier who has no idea who Ulysses is, then that should be a partly self-mitigating factor in terms of how much they know at the time of meeting, because without prior knowledge, Courier Six has no reason to rush things. For a Courier who knows who Ulysses is, and some of what he thinks, it makes sense to picture some anger driving them through the Lonesome Road without any eye for the scenery, just trying to find that man and face him. Maybe they think he had something to do with Benny's setup based on the conversation with Nash in Primm; maybe they just remember who he is from working with him as a Courier and they weren't on good terms last they spoke; with nothing like this, there aren't nearly so many cases where your Courier is gonna have any motive for charging across the Divide like a creature possessed. This means with a Courier that doesn't know Ulysses, they're bound to find some of Ulysses' journals, and likely to start asking Ulysses tons of questions by the second or third time he speaks through ED-E.
This means that by their meeting, the vast majority of realistically-played Couriers should share a similar perspective on Ulysses. It's one of the least headcanon-customizeable aspects of the franchise's storylines, yet also one of the most oversimplified or misunderstood by fans. Figures, somehow.
So, since most readers probably didn't just replay the DLC yesterday, and since many others either didn't pay enough attention/get immersed enough and some others might have played oddball characterizations of Courier Six who really didn't care to find out many details, let me go over that understanding your Courier should probably have of Ulysses.
First of all, Ulysses seems to be the only human capable of surviving intact in the Divide, other than Courier Six. This is a pretty significant connection to the two on top of just both being Mojave Express couriers. It doesn't seem to be a lack of motive that keeps everyone else out of the Divide, given that it's an area rich in powerful treasures, we see the NCR and Legion used to have presence there, and we know residents of the Mojave consider the area of the Divide a hellish nightmarescape. This bond of being the only two people that know this place and how to survive there probably gives Ulysses like, +15 Friendship with Courier Six, who may or may not give a fuck about that slight bit of a bond compared to the threat of a second nuclear apocalypse.
Courier Six may or may not know anything about Ulysses' early life, but they can deduce what he's been through in the past few years pretty easily.
This man was one of the two most powerful Couriers working for the Mojave Express delivery company. The way he tells it, the Mojave Express was almost the capitalistic version of an ancient empire, creating prosperity for all its territories by bridging communities together with safe trade routes and healthy markets. While based in the Mojave, the company apparently was a spiderwebbed network branching out from there into the Wastes, hiring badass motherfuckers to go straight-up carry shit through hell in order to facilitate trade with small but per-capita-wealthy post-nuclear communities surrounded by too dangerous of areas and inundated with too primitive or barbaric of cultural practices to do it themselves.
The most badass of those motherfuckers was Courier Six, supposedly. You can tell Ulysses looked up to them at the time, apparently being one of the other badass motherfuckers himself. It seems Courier Six was the main one responsible for representing the Mojave Express delivery company on the Long 15 and into the Divide, and Ulysses was his backup or substitute or protege or something along those lines. Whether Courier Six knew Ulysses at the time or not, Ulysses certainly knew of Courier Six.
When Courier Six delivered a package into the Divide that accidentally caused local nuclear armaments to be activated and destroyed the community the Mojave Express delivery company had built through them, clearly Ulysses was disappointed. The one he looked up to was supposed to be the badass motherfucker for the Divide, hired specifically for their mastery of that place others couldn't even survive in. And, understandably too traumatized to see more nuance, Ulysses saw his supposed superior destroy the place they had made a thriving community in by acting as a human trade route. That's how Ulysses saw this place he loved get changed forever into one of infinite tragedy and nothing else. The person responsible for it, who should have loved it more, ended it, then turned away and tried to forget. Only he remained here. Only he carried the history of the place he had loved more than its supposed master.
Also, your Courier sees where this is. The place Ulysses remains in is the deathest place we ever see in the Fallout franchise. Every story here, with literally absolutely zero exceptions, has ended in utmost tragedy. Every element of the place is as reminiscent of existential doom as the strongest human minds can process without severe mental breakdowns, and his was already broken down when he got there. This is a place that had cultural issues that ended in a nuclear apocalypse, sucked for hundreds of years, finally started to thrive, then had another nuclear apocalypse that skinned everybody alive. This is home for Ulysses. He fell in love with a place built on a minefield of nuclear hellfire, and this is the horror of the dead love he holds in his arms.
If your Courier is thoughtful and finds the right journal entries or conversation tidbits, they'll pick up on something deeper here, too. The reason why Ulysses remains (other than his beloved community that died there).
To him, strength is the key to virtue and good in the world. He's of the philosophy that good, without true strength, is just bad being thought of optimistically. That sounds weird, but it's the basis for the whole scenario of the Lonesome Road.
As a result of the complexities of this philosophy, because he is the only one capable enough to find a way to survive in the Divide after what Courier Six does to it, that gives him a moral obligation to basically defend the title. The Divide holds potential, and its master is gone; he must master it now to protect this potential. If he becomes the new master of the Divide, the strength of the Divide works for him and he has home-turf advantage, and therefore anybody who would use treasures within the Divide for purposes he disagrees with will have to overpower him and the Divide itself to do so, and therefore by remaining, he contributes to the world's need for strength to assert itself so that the ultimate best version of everything can be created by natural selection. The beauty of the Divide attracted the right master for it, hopefully, and if not, he'll be replaced by whoever is right for the role. The Courier, on the other hand, by chilling out in the Mojave, commits deep and tragic sin according to this philosophy.
And oh how far Courier Six has fallen by the time they come back. Compared to the level of badass it took to master the Divide, what a shell. Nothing but atrophied skills, just enough to be strong in the Mojave. Looking at how much Robert "Stingy" House pays for the Platinum Chip compared to the valuables you can find looting a single building in Lonesome Road, this is really a small-time gig by Courier Six's standards. Maybe it's not Courier Six's fault; clearly the Mojave Express barely even qualifies as a shadow of its former self. It only operates within the lands of its namesake now, barely a trace left of the capitalist empire that had once spiderwebbed out into the Wastes. Maybe financial struggles were what had gotten them involved in using Courier Six to nuke the Divide. Perhaps they had been riding high at the time though, and that mistake the Courier carried is what threw the business into turmoil. Who knows.
We do know how it looks to Ulysses. To him, you did it. You betrayed everything the image of you meant in his eyes, and spent all the time since then proving what a betrayal it was.
And, while the blame itself seems kind of non-sequitur and thus easily dismissed as sheer insanity at first glance, Courier Six should know better than that by the time they meet. Ulysses isn't devoid of good points in his explanations. It seems like he's come to think restlessness is a dangerous, harmful human trait, for some real reasons. He mentions at one point how something about the NCR made Courier Six feel the need to leave; and since there are communities with psychodynamics that cause everyone raised in them to want to stay, he's not scientifically wrong. He just disagrees with most people on which set of psychodynamics is healthier.
And why does he disagree? The Courier knows. For one thing, Ulysses used to serve Caesar (which a wise player shouldn't hate him for - Caesar enslaves people; the reason there sometimes aren't dialogue options to ask someone why they first began serving Caesar is because everyone in the Mojave knows the reasons can be too horrible to bring up). He calls Caesar's legion "the bull" compared to the NCR's "bear." And Caesar himself calls his Legion a nomadic tribe seeking to become a proper nation. They explore, finding and absorbing wealth and power, crushing and destroying anything that stands in their way. So does Courier Six in every abandoned building looted, every headline made on the Radio New Vegas news segments leading up to the battle at Hoover Dam. Since the dawn of agriculture, life has offered humankind the option to settle down, and some have chosen to continue roaming, driven by a deep desire to "do something with their lives." If people weren't like that, this place Ulysses loved wouldn't have been rushed into bloom only to wither and die just as instantly. No detonator would ever have been delivered to activate nuclear hellfire there. Nature would have run its course, for better or worse, and any outcome arising from that purer "nature" would seem less horrible to Ulysses than what did happen, even if the Divide and its residents never could have evolved in a positive direction.
Looking at it from that perspective, Courier Six must be able to attach at least some semblance of remorse to their feelings on this. They should know Ulysses' perspective is too traumatized to include the nuance necessary for realism, but there's still substance and not complete insanity.
This is why Courier Six should figure out *everything*. This one piece of knowledge that the above paragraphs culminated in, that Ulysses isn't completely insane, is the nugget of truth, the seed from which will grow a tree of knowledge. I don't know how you think of your Couriers, but I've played a lot of different characters in this game and even the low-INT ones aren't the epitomes of lazy thoughtlessness. That knowledge of how there is some substance to Ulysses' thinking, how there is some remorse to be felt for the Courier's connection to the tragedy, will stick in the human mind like a splinter, drawing attention and prompting the central nervous system to find a solution. If it's not a nagging enough feeling to make them understand Ulysses by the time they meet him, then it will be enough to make them grow to understand him fully in their reflections on the Lonesome Road during their journeys through the Mojave afterwards, especially if they kill him and add the guilt of that final intentional act into the equation.
What your Courier is bound to realize eventually is that, as batshit impossible as it was to see at first glance, the man was actually quite sane and intelligent. Ulysses, you see, he was testing you and himself. If you kill him, if you try to feel the weight of that killing as if you did it in your real world to a human you really knew like your Courier did (rather than just in a video game), the fact that he was testing you should start blaring at full blast in your mind as if it wasn't obvious before. He actually wasn't certain of any of his beliefs; he simply believed them because, from his perspective, they seemed right. It's fortunate that his perspective included an understanding of perspective itself, the roads men walk, because he knew he shouldn't place too much weight in his own beliefs; only as much as a man has the fair right to.
He believed Courier Six had weakened and atrophied and would not be able to master the Divide again as well as he himself had in the time since its destruction. He believed he was the badass motherfucker for the Divide now. So he planned to take action based on that. When the action he decided on was a second nuclear apocalypse, he realized that was too big and dangerous to blindly let his beliefs make it happen, so he invited Courier Six to challenge him on it. He believed the nukes were bound to be used for destruction due to the nature of strength, that law of the nature of strength proven to him by the Courier. He believed communities like the NCR were bound to die by their own weakness, that law of the nature of weakness proven to him by the same Courier. If he was wrong about Courier Six, he might be wrong about everything; if he was wrong about everything, Courier Six would prove him wrong by stopping him.
And prove him wrong the Courier did.
And the more you look at it, the more you can see what lengths he went to, ensuring a valid test rather than just trying to bias it in favor of himself. It seems he intentionally set paths for Courier Six through the Divide, leaving army supply lines worth of loot to aid in the journey, rejuvenate the skills, and be stored up for the final encounter. I think he even subconsciously left the journals as another test, telling himself they were reminders he didn't need, but probably being guided by some small feeling of wondering if Courier Six could reach all the places he'd set up camps in, or what they would think of his words; because, if you find all his journals and say the right things, it enables a dialogue victory where Ulysses indeed acts like you've passed a test.
This makes Ulysses more sane than the average person, even. Most people in the real world never try to account for their own bias, half-ass it when they do, and would be god-awful at it if they did try. I don't see people in the Fallout universe as being any different on that. It actually takes someone particularly realistically-minded to set up tests that go to such lengths to avoid self-favored bias. These mitigating factors he used against himself aren't hard to come up with, but only a very truth-focused individual actually comes up with and does them when push comes to shove, and Ulysses went beyond even that by putting his actual life on the line in doing so.
Ultimately, Ulysses should look very different to you as a player once you know him. He should have gone from some completely miswired freak in a hopelessly non-sequitur psychosis, to a very intelligent and morally strong person who's actually putting up a hell of a valiant battle against his psychosis and clinging to just enough of a sense of reality to protect the world from the most destructive idea it had seen in a couple centuries, one that existed in his own head, all while being one of the most capable and effective people on the planet in many measures. His psychosis didn't stem from inside him, it was painted onto him so thickly by the roads he walked in life. Had he been born in a vault in California instead of wherever he was, maybe he'd be such a great version of Courier Six that there wouldn't even be a story to the game because Benny would never have gotten the Platinum Chip from him. The game would have just been a Ron Perlman speech about the Mojave, you delivering a package to a casino full of robots, some weird old guy in a TV paying you, and then Ron Perlman speaking with another slideshow to explain how that guy beat everyone at Hoover Dam before war never changes again. There would still be a shitton of endings, but only for the weird people whose first move was leaving the casino and keeping the package for some reason. 10/10 still better than Fallout 4.
But this is still a limited understanding of Ulysses. Your courier can learn to understand much more if they do enough digging, and with the power of the internet, you the player can easily learn everything.
Let's start with Ulysses' early life, probably the hardest detail for Courier Six to find. He comes from a tribe called the Twisted Hairs. From what I can discern, they must have been a bunch of post-nuclear braid-wearing, peace-loving, Spartan tree-hugging Rastafarian hippie Native American warriors. They probably had a very militaristic society in everything except how they thought of war, meaning their economy was built to sustain a powerful military and they trained their populace brutally into powerful fighters, but as a preventative measure - to be so inadvisable to attack that nobody would start shit and there would be no violence. They must have all shared the seeds of Ulysses' philosophy, how strength is the key to good.
It didn't work out for them. In strengthening themselves above the level raiders and other tribals could compete with, they became powerful enough to be worth fighting for other, bigger entities. They got mostly wiped out by political forces a class above them.
When Caesar took the last stone the Twisted Hairs had to stand on and conquered their tribe, Ulysses saw his society, one that prided itself on strength, destroyed by one that prided itself on bigger strength. The bull was big and aggressive enough to charge, and its charge destroyed something that thought standing one's ground was a strong enough defense. As long as the bull could exist, the victory of such aggression seemed inevitable. That charge was apparently the strongest force in the entire realm of human nature.
As one of the few Twisted Hairs remaining, Ulysses was faced with the choice of either death, or psychological twisting by Caesar. And if Ulysses were the type to choose death, he probably would have been one of the dead already, fallen fighting for the beliefs of the Twisted Hairs, not one of the survivors. The fear of death made him its bitch, and then made him Caesar's.
That's why the rest of his life after that was all about strength. Because of the path he had chosen to walk out of weakness. Anyone in his position would succumb to the psychological phenomenon known as survivor's guilt, let alone one enslaved by Caesar and sent to wipe out other people's tribes too. Clearly this gave him the burning need to gain strength and capability and get as far as possible from that weakness. He went from one too weak to die for his tribe, to probably the toughest warrior his tribe had ever produced, judging from how much damage it takes to make a dent in his health bar. Caesar, being possibly the smartest manipulative narcissist in the entire Fallout universe, twisted his mind all along, but he too was exceptionally intelligent, and eventually he grew both wise enough and powerful enough to escape Caesar's Legion, albeit with a deep and completely fucked cascade of psychological fractures through every nook and cranny of his soul and mind.
Even in his prime, he wasn't so strong, powerful, or badass mentally. He made constant mistakes. His punk-bitch thinking was sometimes so far from right, it made him look so completely insane it took half this post just to make the case that his thoughts had any substance. He was just desperate to be stronger and better. Desperate for peace in a world where he couldn't have it, yet willing to take it from other parts of the world that did, blindly obeying Caesar's authority like a punk bitch as if strength and power alone made a leader righteous. He buried himself in these complex, ingenious philosophies, subconsciously trying to make it impossible for anyone else to get through to him and force him to feel the pain of the truths he was running from - like a punk bitch. He tried to train the Marked Men to be like him because he was having too much fun feeling like a leader to think of the consequences, like a punk bitch, and he was surprised like a punk bitch when they continued being fucking drugged-out genetically damaged mindless ghoul men driven mentally useless by the loss of their fucking skin. He blamed the Courier for what happened to the Divide, like a punk bitch, because it helped him dig himself deeper into these philosophies that let him feel superior and righteous and powerful against a world that really left someone with his desires and fears quite powerless. His outlet for all this was to decide he's gonna fucking launch nuclear missiles at people, like a punk bitch who's probably overcompensating for a tiny dick.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'd be a little bitch if I lived in post-apocalyptia. I'm terrified of death. It's one thing to let the fear of death make you its bitch. Everyone acts like a little bitch sometimes. What sets someone apart, what makes it a flaw in an individual, is being a punk bitch. I don't quite know how to explain the meaning, but I feel like you probably just get it. There's something punk bitch about wanting to fight the Courier over a package he delivered, it's not just being a bitch-ass pussy.
So no, he wouldn't have been a better version of Courier Six. If he'd been born in a vault in California and we got a version of Fallout New Vegas starring him, it wouldn't have been just delivering the package to Mr. House, it would have been telling Mr. House "nah sir, I'm not qualified to do that, I'm scared of dying so I don't do badass shit. Props for trying to save the world tho, shit's pretty scary out here. Good luck!" He was only ever a badass because he was born in a tribe that brutally turned its people into badasses. War, war never changes; men do, by the roads they walk. Courier Six, no matter how you play it, is always someone that walks the road to greatness because they're driven to it by something inside them.
Anyway, punk bitch shouldn't have hurt ED-E, I had to fuck him up.

fallout new vegas tops casino chips video

The Tops chip is a miscellaneous item in Fallout: New Vegas.. Uses [edit | edit source]. They can be purchased at The Tops casino to be used for playing in this casino's games only. The games using these chips are slots, blackjack and roulette.. Locations [edit | edit source]. The chips can be exchanged for bottle caps, Legion currency and NCR dollars at the bank inside The Tops casino by The Tops Hotel and Casino was one of the foremost establishments of the Las Vegas Strip before the Great War. Though damaged by the War, it was restored by Robert House and the Chairmen to its former glory, becoming a mainstay of Strip casino visits by 2281. 1 Background 2 Layout 2.1 Lobby and casino 2.2 Restaurant 2.3 Courtyard 2.4 The Aces theater 2.5 Presidential suite 2.6 13th floor 2.7 Vikki and Vance Casino - 2,500 chips Atomic Wrangler - 5,000 chips Gamorrah - 9,000 chips The Tops - 10,000 chips Ultra-Luxe - 15,000 chips Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 | 4GB DDR2 | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit These are the Lucky 7 Poker Chips that were only available in the Collector's Edition Game. Includes Chips from The Tops, Ultra-Luxe, Gomorrah, Atomic Wrangler, Vault 21, Silver Rush and Bison Steve Hotel. Replace your lost or broken chips. The TOPS - Fallout New Vegas Poker Chip BrassOnion. 5 out of 5 stars (3) $ 6.44. Only 3 available and it's in 8 people's carts. More colors Vegas Casino Chip Display Frame Insert Poker Player Gift Laser-engraved Holds 36 Casino Chips Welcome to Las Vegas With Frame Option CarvedByHeart. 5 out of 5 stars (1,769) $ 21.00. 1. The Gomorrah, Tops, Ultralux, and AtomicWrangler chips have been added as they appear in the collectors edition, the style used on the number side of each of the chips has been expanded on to create the 1, 5, 10, 25, 100 and 500 chips for each casino. 2. a) I used NCR money to buy some chips, and when I cashed out, I took bottle caps, so in essence, I 'sold' the NCR money for caps. b) at a couple of points, the manager came over and congratulated me on my winning streak, and at those times, I noticed a quick 'blip' on my screen about getting 2-300 chips, but it popped up and was gone before I Got the information off the fallout wikia, and used 32,769 chips. That specific number is about the highest amount you can get according to the wikia. It says if you get, say, 33,000 chips and try it, you only get about -32,000 to use. And if you do try this, the wikia advises you save before you drop the chips as they might disappear. The Tops casino chip are a miscellaneous item in Fallout: New Vegas. The chips can be exchanged for bottle caps, Legion coinage and NCR dollars. The chips used for playing in this casino's games only. The games using these chips are slots, blackjack, and roulette. 1 bottle cap = 1 chip $5 NCR... 4: Deal with the people in the Casino (any method works) 5: Leave Primm again and wait for three days or more again. 6: When you come back to the Casino, there will be a cashier to talk to. This cashier will give you caps based on the number of chips that you have, but... *she will NOT remove the chips from your inventory*

fallout new vegas tops casino chips top

Fallout New Vegas 101 : The Tops Casino - YouTube

About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators ... Review of The Tops Casino In Fallout New Vegas. Stayed tuned for The Ultra Luxe and Gomorrah.Funny dialog, Rat Pack music, and funny shows await you in The T... I recommend to talk to Swank and convince him of Benny's crimes to get unchecked access to the casino (meaning you're allowed to have all your weapons).Every... "Fallout: New Vegas 101" is a series taking a closer look at the lore and features of the game.By NilsorSubtitles available in English and French=====... Today I show you how to do the negative chips glitch which can give you upwards of a million caps. The only issue is you need 32,768 caps to do this glitch.... The Tops is one of the casinos on the New Vegas Strip in 2281 controlled by the Chairmen, one of the three tribes that were allowed into New Vegas after the ...