Getting New Vegas soon

[KEM10]

make sure you get Maria its the best gun in the game (its owned by the guy that shot you in the head)

Q-35 Matter Modulator. Nice try though.
Don't listen to the energy weapons haters, it is more useful than they think. You don't need to find more ammo as long as you have a good science (you should anyways) you can recharge the spent shells into more ammo.

 

[AMX58]

awesome game man i had to get cause i really liked the third one and well yeah its adicting

 

[The Shade]

If you plan on being a rich character, pour an extra point or two into Endurance at the beginning. For every point of Endurance, you can buy a cyborg enhancement at the New Vegas Med Clinic that will increase your abilities.
It costs 4000 caps for each of the implants that gives +1 to a SPECIAL stat of your choice. (eg. 4000 caps for +1 Intelligence.)
It costs 8000 caps for a Damage Threshold boost (+4)
It costs 12000 caps for health regeneration (1hp/10sec.)

Those are worthy investments, but you need one point of Endurance for each implant you want to add.

Also, Endurance adds health, which you'll need a lot of.

So yeah... invest in Endurance early on.

-----------

Bonus point: You don't get to pick a perk with each level up anymore. Rather, you get one every other level. (Or is it every third level?) However, there are certain perks that can be "earned". For example, killing enough bugs will grant you a perk to do extra damage to bugs.

 

[Valkyrie101]

There's far less reliance on VATS - it's a gameplay addition rather than dominating combat entirely. Also, optimised melee characters are oh so slightly overpowered.

 

[NooNameLeft]

Avoid giant radscorpions at all costs until you're about level 15+, unless you have large amounts of ammo to just throw away.

Actully, a high dmg weapon (high dps is not required) plus armor piercing ammo should do the trick even for a low level character.

 

[NooNameLeft]

make sure you get Maria its the best gun in the game (its owned by the guy that shot you in the head)

Q-35 Matter Modulator. Nice try though.
Don't listen to the energy weapons haters, it is more useful than they think. You don't need to find more ammo as long as you have a good science (you should anyways) you can recharge the spent shells into more ammo.

Ahem

Ranger Sequoia

Guns - 1
Energy weapons - 0

 

[number2301]

Luck of 10 and go gambling its so helarrious i win lke 99% of all blackjack hands
the real killing is in the slots just dont get banned from all casinos.

A luck of 7 will allow you to break the bank at every casino quite easily, I wouldn't waste SPECIAL points going that high.

 

[SFMB]

I'd invest in lockpicking skill. You'll want that maxed when you find a little sniper's perch with a locked box... Gobi. And the manual reloading perk, for homemade killer ammo.

 

[loc978]

-Go with guns your first time through. Seriously, there are a ton of 'em. The .357mag is your friend (especially Lucky and cowboy repeaters)
-There is no Big Guns skill anymore. Now, Flamers are energy weapons, Miniguns fit under "guns", and Missile Launchers are under "explosives".
-Enemies don't scale to your level as thoroughly anymore. There are a LOT of things you have absolutely no chance against until you're level 10 or so... Cazadors are evil even at max level (mostly because they exist in packs of 10 or more at times).
-there are a LOT more conversation options that can be solved with speech, barter, science, sneak, hell even guns, in this game.
-There are a lot of options for player housing, but it's generally best to just use Victor's Shack in Goodsprings until you get your suite on the Strip.

-...energy weapons don't actually suck, but they're not as immediately useful as guns, and they're only more powerful when you're willing to spend a whole lot of ammunition per shot. That said, plasma weapons are actually very powerful, negate damage resistance, and you can get some of 'em up to a 100% crit rate in VATS.

 

[mexicola]

I found Barter in Fo3 to be sacrificeable. I got money just from consistent play. Does it have a bigger part in NV?

Yeah it's very "sacrificable" in NV too. Sure there is a ton of times you can barter your way through the dialogue and get a somewhat greater reward, but seeing as the only purpose of the skill is more money, and my character with a barter of 15ish has over 60k caps simply from selling items you find, yeah it's not a crucial skill imo. Rather pimp out your persuasion so you can get out of hairy situations sometimes and resolve quests more easily.

Also, unlike in FO3, perks can only be chosen every 2 levels so you should put a little more thought into choosing them.

And last but not the least: at the start while you're a very low level and facing giant scorpions - dynamite is your friend. You will save a ton of ammo, you can easily get them in starting area off of powder gang members and they can work nicely even with low explosives skill.

 

[Jedoro]

Something I haven't seen mentioned:

Difficulty does NOT affect experience gained, so it may seem lame, but throw it on Very Easy when you start and raise it if you want more of a challenge.

 

[KEM10]

make sure you get Maria its the best gun in the game (its owned by the guy that shot you in the head)

Q-35 Matter Modulator. Nice try though.
Don't listen to the energy weapons haters, it is more useful than they think. You don't need to find more ammo as long as you have a good science (you should anyways) you can recharge the spent shells into more ammo.

Ahem

Ranger Sequoia

Guns - 1
Energy weapons - 0

What? Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the amazing energy weapons

 

[loc978]

to be fair, the Ranger Sequoia is a little more useful than the Alien Blaster... Alien Power Cells run out eventually, and then you can never get any more without using console commands. .45-70 may be incredibly rare (actually a bug, for which there is a fix on PC), but if you try, you can always find more.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I also recommend Wild Wasteland. You ultimately get more stuff, and there's not really any negative side-effects unless you prefer the serious, dark, gritty version, and even that's not really affected overall.

If you can get ahold of the Classic Pack somehow, do it. The Weathered 10mm Pistol and Vault 13 Armor is a Godsend for a starting player.

When leaving the first town, DO. NOT. GO. NORTH. I can't emphasize this enough. Just don't go north. I'm serious.

Do whatever you can to get Boone as a companion. For a low-level player, he's perfect.

The 9mm SMG is pretty crappy. I wouldn't bother with it unless you're desperate.

Actually.
If you go north with a shovel (hugging the west side of the map) you will find a grave just before you get to this campground infested with giant wasps (stay away from that campground for now). Dig up the grave and you?ll find one of the best melee weapons in the game.

Also Speech is used a lot more in this game.

However, my biggest piece of advise is don?t bother getting this game unless your getting it for the PC. All the versions are broken but the modders have at least made some decent patches for the PC version. I have this for the ps3 and found it excruciatingly frustrating.

 

[Wintermoot]

make sure you get Maria its the best gun in the game (its owned by the guy that shot you in the head)

Q-35 Matter Modulator. Nice try though.
Don't listen to the energy weapons haters, it is more useful than they think. You don't need to find more ammo as long as you have a good science (you should anyways) you can recharge the spent shells into more ammo.

I dont hate Energy weapons! Maria uses the 9mm for ammo and parts making it a great weapon, energy weapons are more usefull with high repair and a high energy weapon skill

 

[Zydrate]

1. Play it on a computer.

Inapplicable. My computer is kind of shitty and can't afford a new one.
Hell, New Vegas itself is being a mail-in christmas gift.

 

[Zydrate]

There's far less reliance on VATS - it's a gameplay addition rather than dominating combat entirely. Also, optimised melee characters are oh so slightly overpowered.

Good news for my assassin character I have on FO3.
Chinese Stealth Suit is my GOD.

Something I haven't seen mentioned:

Difficulty does NOT affect experience gained, so it may seem lame, but throw it on Very Easy when you start and raise it if you want more of a challenge.

Oh, very useful to know!

 

[Chaosweaver]

Get Repair maxed out ASAP. Repair 70 lets you get the Jury Rigging perk which allows you to repair an item with a roughly similar one, like fixing Power Armor with Metal Armor, or even touch up a hat with a pair of shades!

The requirement for Jury Rigging is actually 90 Repair - it is by far my favourite perk, though. So useful.

If you're going to gamble, I'd suggest getting the Anti Anti Cheat (not a typo) from Fallout Nexus. Without it, you're forced to wait 90 seconds when reloading if you lose too much while gambling in casinos.

I wouldn't waste points on Barter, you'll find plenty of gear to sell which will mean you'll have caps coming out of your ears (not to mention the money to be made in gambling is tops - especially when you learn the trick to playing Caravan).

Oh, and make sure you download the official patches before you start. Adds plenty to game stability and reduces the number of bugs.

 

[Zydrate]

Oh, and make sure you download the official patches before you start. Adds plenty to game stability and reduces the number of bugs.

Please tell me it's free... I have no Microsoft points to spare.

 

[Chaosweaver]

Oh, and make sure you download the official patches before you start. Adds plenty to game stability and reduces the number of bugs.

Please tell me it's free... I have no Microsoft points to spare.

It'll be free. I'm guessing from your post that you're playing on XBox. Not sure how that works as I play on PC and get the patches automatically through Steam.