Well, I needed a new game to play so I started to rummage through my old computer parts and found a few CDROMS shoved into a manual on how to play Lords of the Realm2 (hehe, a classic). Wouldn't you know it, one of the discs was Fallout2. I stared at it for a while and came to the conclusion, that I'd bought the game but never really played it. I don't remember why I never played it, but I slipped it into my laptop anyways and woah! I'm hooked! I'm having an absolute blast playing this game...and I'm kicking myself for leaving the poor ting out there in that cardboard box soo long.

So, a few questions have I to ask those of you here:

1. Is it really still such a popular game? I mean, how's the replayability?

2. Does the food in the game actually serve any purpose?

3. Where can I find a merchant that has, oh, about $50,000 on him...I'm sporting half a department store now and I'm only in Reno!

4. Is there a way to keep the big mutant guy you get in Broken Hills from obliterating your entire party with his "minigun" without basically taking his toy away? The combat options dont seem to allow "Stop shooting your buddies".

5. My Karma says "Shield of Hope" - Does that mean anything or is that just another goodboy "title"?

I'll look through the forums more deeply later, but these questions are the ones burning in my mind at the moment. So if any of you are bored enough to aid a FO2 n00b...I'd be much obliged.

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"I'm tryin' to like people, it's just so hard filtering out all the stupid ones."

1 Yes the Fallout series is still really popular, it has a massive cult following all over the world and a humongous internet presence. Its one of the most replayable games i have ever seen with the random encounters, character customisability and the quests making it different every time you play it.

2 No the food is just for fun, most of it has been shrink wrapped since before the apocalypse so its not edible

3 The best idea with items is to trade them for items you need, not hold out for gold, because most merchants dont have too much. The whole point of the bartering system is to avoid only exchanging money for good and vice versa. You need to trade those goods for stims, ammo, new weapons and armour and other essentials. But if you want gold, just go around and talk to everyone and trade a little away at a time.

4 Marcus is a bit of a moron when it comes to shooting the other characters. You can talk to him and change his combat options to make him more cautious before he lets rip with a burst shot. But sometimes its just a matter of keeping out of his way.

5 Well karma does make a difference, if you have good karma some people will talk to you more but some bad ass characters wont, because you are a do gooder. Dont get reputation confused however, its just a rewards thing, it doesnt actually make a difference.

Im going from memory, so if i got something wrong, correct me, dont wanna confuse the guy

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What is new is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come again and again.

- Nietzsche

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No one is perfect

I missed a question I meant to ask. I run XP, and I was wondering if the game runs better in a compatability mode? I haven't put it on one yet, but it still crashes occaisionally. I know that some other older games I have seem to be more stable when run on compatability of win95 or 98.

Also, does anyone else not use anything like stimpacks and healing powders? I'm completely clean...except once I used jet to pry open a door in the vault. My char is smart but not super strong.

Is it even possible to go through the whole game not using stimpacks? So far so good and I'm almost done killing all the families in new reno.

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"I'm tryin' to like people, it's just so hard filtering out all the stupid ones."

And you dont need to worry about stims, they are a necessary part of the game, super stim abuse is a bad idea though. Healing powder is pretty much superflous after a certain point because its inferior to stims in every way, especially once you get Myron, who can make his own.

I dont use jet much, you can get by without it and its sort of demeaning, like being addicted to drugs in real life. I sometimes have to use buffout or mentats for tricky jobs, but i dont depend on them.

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What is new is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come again and again.

- Nietzsche

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"I'm tryin' to like people, it's just so hard filtering out all the stupid ones."

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No one is perfect

............hmmm i guess its not good to just add a comment though without raising new questions to keep the thread going..

btw welcome to the forums Sharp. Don't worry about posting, Gauss just means that its best to stick with forums that have seen activity and post stuff people can react to.

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What is new is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come again and again.

- Nietzsche

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No one is perfect