Willow

That's right, after a spate of Star Wars reviews we're going back to the game that this blog started in: New Vegas. Oh, but don't worry, I won't be droning on about someguy2000 or his excellent mods again. No, I've decided to branch out. So here, I present to you, is Willow.

Author: llamaRCA

Willow - A Better Companion Experience

One of the things modders like to do, besides making bleak and depressing quest mods that will make you forsake everything good and happy to be found in life, is to do the exact opposite because the internet is a strange place that is filled with contradictions, overused memes, and cats.

This is Willow. Say hello.

So, Willow. As is stated in the title the aim of this mod is to create a companion better than the vanilla ones, with more functionality and things that she can do. Whereas the vanilla companions have backstories, quests, and an ability they can grant you (as well as a boost to their stats or something similar upon completing their personal quests) they don't offer much else. After that they just wander the Wasteland at your side in silence, occasionally helping you duct tape your shotgun back together or letting you drink what would normally be the suicide note for any normal human liver and only have positive side effects, but Willow does just a little bit more than that.

You will first meet her south of Primm on the road to Mojave Outpost and Nipton, so she's acquired fairly early in the game. She asks for your help getting her things back from a group of raiders and agrees to travel with you if you succeed. The place her items are at is right on the way to Vegas, just a bit south of Novac at the bandit camp there, so simply following the main quest will, for the most part, fulfill her quest requirements.

After that she becomes an official follower with her own companion wheel and everything. Now here is where this better experience comes into play. With Willow, the mod tracks how much she likes you and your relationship changes depending on that value. You can just toss her aside and ignore her, ensuring the two of you never get too close, or talk to her and help her with what she wants done. The more you do the more points with her you get, and eventually you can turn your friendship into... something more. 

More.

You know what I mean.

Bow chikka bow wow.

In case my previous hints were too subtle.

But anyway, once you reach that point, you have the option of remaining friends or going all the way. Willow swings both ways so female characters don't miss out on anything if they don't want to. Either way that choice is final once it has been made, so know what you want before you pick an option.

Willow also isn't indifferent to the political climate of the Mojave (Though thankfully she describes it in less comically large words than I just did). She's a citizen of the New California Republic and would prefer you siding with them. She has no strong opinions on a House or Independent playthrough, but she understandably has a few reservations about throwing in with Caesar's Legion (As all sane people would). But in the end, whichever faction you pick, she'll stay with you all the way. She cares about the player more than the conflict, even if she has her own opinions about it. Which is nice.

You can also train her to be better at combat skills she isn't versed in. She prefers guns, but with the right amount of training she becomes a decent Unarmed fighter, and will also let you borrow her rifle since she doesn't depend on it as much. She'll also do some cooking, helps lower prices during trading, and has a spiffy hat.

She feels a lot more natural than the other companions thanks to these features. She doesn't have the most tragic backstory or the deepest dialogue, but she does exactly what the mod sets out to do: Create a more in depth, better companion experience. If you're going to be wandering through the Mojave any time soon, Willow is a prime candidate to consider having by your side. 

The Better Angels

Alright, I promise, this is the last mod from someguy2000 on this blog. For now. Probably. I swear. Next time I'll move on to a Star Wars game or something, just bear with me for now.

Author: someguy2000

The Better Angels

NOTE: Like with Bounties III, this mod shouldn't be activated until you are ready to play it. That means AFTER completion of Bounties III.

The Better Angels is, in effect, the Epilogue to the Bounties Trilogy. As a result of that, and the rushed development and release, it's quite a bit smaller than the rest of someguy's mods. Essentially, in the aftermath of the scarring events in Frosthill and the dark note that Bounties III ended on, the Courier is contacted by an old friend in NCR Intelligence asking them to travel south to a small outpost on the shore of the Colorado River where a large group of slaves is crossing into NCR territory. In the company of two...uh, "Distinguishable" NCR Rangers, the player heads for FOB Omega to help the small garrison defend against the inevitable Legion assault.

"Camp Shithole"

The tone of the mod is noticeably lighter than that of Bounties III, conveyed through someguy's excellently written profanity spewing characters. A couple of foul mouths from Bounties III even make a welcome appearance, their rambling arguments and barbed insults making for wonderful entertainment. As always, someguy's dialogue is up to snuff, for the most part.

Now, as you know by now if you've been playing his mods, and why shouldn't you know, unless you hate true art like this, which is created in a whiskey-fueled haze of self-depreciation and increasing mental instability, and dammit I'm rambling let me start over.

Ok, as I was saying, all of his mods are fully voiced and lip-synced. This mod is no exception. However, and this can be a little jarring, someguy himself voices all of the characters here. The tight release schedule (About a month, maybe even less) is the reason why, and the acting isn't necessarily bad, it just becomes noticeable. Especially after binge playing the rest of his mods because that's the best way you can spend your lonely Friday nights even though you wish for so much more and-

Crap, I started rambling again. Ignore that last sentence. Anyway, most of the dialogue is well voiced enough, though one or two lines sound a bit stilted and lifeless, it isn't a big deal. After arriving at the base the player is given jobs to do to help shore up the garrison against the attack. You repair the robots laying around that have different effects during the battle and train the troops to make them more skilled at shooting, stabbing, or bombing. You do a few sidequests relating to supplies and the massive amount of slaves pouring across the river, in effect doing all you can to prepare yourself for the massive Legion attack.

And yes, it is massive. It holds true to the Legion's in-game stated strategy (Send in the new guys to die, the slightly less new guys to die a little less, and then the old guys to kill everyone who is still alive) and they come at you in swarms. The Battle of FOB Omega is easily the largest battle to take place in New Vegas, period. Even bigger than the end game at Hoover Dam. You will easily kill at least 200, yes, two-hundred Legionaries during the course of the battle. Which is a conservative estimate, by the way. There is no way to adequately relate how many fo them there are through words. The battle itself can take up to 20 minutes from start to finish, with men in skirts running over the river to hack you apart with lawn-mower blades the entire time.

These are the people you will be defending from Cazadors (aka "Satan's Butterflies") and groups of men who scream in Latin and wear skirts.

Oh, and there's the mortar bombardment. Yeah, mortars. The Legion has themselves some serious artillery that will rain down on the camp at certain intervals during the battle, blowing the troops of your garrison to pieces with one unlucky blast. When you hear the air raid siren start going off, for the love of God find cover or you'll eat a mortar shell.

The battle itself is very intensive, and if your system isn't up to snuff and keeps crashing, someguy has included an option to skip the battle and go right to the end so you don't need to be afraid of being unable to complete the mod. The battle is, however, the main attraction here, since it's so impressive and bold.

Each of the voiced characters you meet has their own endings for the battle dependent on if they live or die, and what you told them before the battle began. And yes, one of the characters you love so much and want to survive can be vaporized by a mortar at the very beginning of the attack. That's just war, I guess. But to help prevent that you can bring companions along. Seriously. It's not a trap this time, like in Bounties III. And you will need them. And you will need the heaviest firepower you can get your hands on if you don't want to be the sole survivor.

And, as said before, this is a lighter mod, intended to give a less depressing ending to the someguy series. The dark note Bounties III gave players is somewhat lessened by the ending of this one, making the series as a whole bittersweet in nature instead of just straight up depressing. As an ending it's decent, if a bit empty, and a much better way to end things than with the alcoholism-inducing end of Bounties III. So if you've ridden this ride for this long, one more mod won't hurt. Hell, it's probably just what you need. So even if you can't make it through the battle without your computer flipping you the bird, go ahead and get this. It's a much better end note than you'd get otherwise.

New Vegas Bounties III

I'm finally back (And apologies for the extended absence) and ready to finish finish this trilogy. Yes, we've reached the final mile of the Bounties series where it all comes to a head in the snowy mountains of Utah, but can the conclusion of this epic series live up to its predecessors?

Author: someguy2000

Links:

New Vegas Bounties III

This mod also requires both of the Honest Hearts and Lonesome Road DLCs for the main game. ALSO, important note: Due to the quick release of this mod it does not require the Someguy Series esm. That means that once you activate Bounties III it will be immediately available to play even if you haven't completed the previous two. It's recommended that you leave the Bounties III file deactivated until you are ready to play it.

Now that we've got the links out of the way, let's get into the mod itself. It is, as the title implies, the third piece of the Bounties series which had more than a little bit of trouble during development. After missing its release date by several months, with the mod author practically disappearing from the face of the earth entirely. Fortunately though, the impending release of Fallout 4 pushed him to return and complete it, pushing it out in a mostly finished state in the Fall.

This time around it's much simpler, harking back to the days of Bounties I. You talk to a guy, he tells you to kill another guy, you do it, you get paid. No wanted posters and none of that "Taking them in alive" nonsense. Although, you can let some of your targets go if you feel they don't deserve a .44 slug to the brain, but you give up the bounty you would have collected on them if you do. Most of the mod takes place in a brand new worldspace that, other than the central town of Frosthill, feels pretty barren and empty. There are a few sidequests, mostly secondary bounties provided to you by your NCR handler named Brookshire that fall toward the dark end of the morality spectrum, and you can bash a bunch of rats for an old man in town, but the real attraction here is the main quest.

The mod begins with meeting one of Marko's cronies, a gunslinger named Virgil, outside of the old Randall and Associates building. From there he takes you on a 30 minute or so romp throughout the Mojave doing Marko's dirty work in exchange for him leading you to the notorious outlaw himself. You aren't doing anything particularly evil though, so good-aligned Couriers can do it as well without fear. 

Virgil, Marko's trusted gunfighter.

The work he has you do is actually a thinly veiled excuse to crap all over you, though. As is described by one of the characters in the mod, it's essentially a "Bunch of 'Ghost of Christmas Past' bullshit" but I found it to be intriguing. Virgil takes you and shows you how people around the wasteland were affected by your bounty hunting from the previous mods. A family is massacred after you killed the Fiend keeping their followers controlled in the ruins of Vegas, and they promptly began killing everyone they saw. One of your targets used the money from his robberies to support his family on their failing farm, and his death resulted in them falling in to poverty and one of the children being enslaved by the Legion.

Now, the way he goes on about it is more than a little reminiscent of Ulysses from Lonesome Road, but unlike that dread-locked windbag who can only communicate three words at a time, Virgil finds more success in his guilt trip because he relates the characters and consequences directly to things that you, as the player, have done. Instead of it being some offscreen incident that wasn't even hinted at beforehand you actually carried these actions out yourself. Whether you care or not is up to you, but Virgil's accusations carry more weight than Ulysses' ever did.

Virgil himself is an interesting character, and after doing his work you can speak to him to find out why he became a killer for Marko. It's an interesting backstory, and he has some thoughtful things to say about the nature of good and evil, and how without bad men the Courier themselves, even if they're good aligned, would be essentially nothing.

As you've probably gathered this mod is much more heavily oriented toward narrative than the others. The gameplay has been simplified from Bounties II but the narrative has only grown. I'd say more about the story but, as this is a conclusion, I'm afraid I might spoil something. Needless to say that, eventually, the player will get their long-awaited face-to-face with Marko and he manages to live up to his reputation, though I don't want to say more than that. The story takes a much darker, more personal turn toward the end that just ends up hanging there after the mod is complete. It's unorthodox, but it fits the style of Bounties well enough that I can give it a pass.

In conclusion, if you enjoyed the story of the previous mods, then download this one immediately. The story is the best part of a someguy2000 mod and Bounties III delivers.

New Vegas Bounties II

Time to pick up where we left off last time, with the second entry in the Bounties series. Ultra-violence, tragedy, and drunken, profanity spewing outlaws await, reader!

This is, as the name subtly implies, the second entry in the Bounties series of mods by someguy2000. It aims to be bigger and deeper than its predecessor while maintaining that whimsical, blood-splattered charm that made his previous mod such a joy to play through. And does he succeed? Well...

First off, if you have the Someguy Series esm loaded, you can only begin Bounties II by completing Bounties I. To begin the second one once it becomes available simply travel tot he Boulder City Jail, where the NCR's best and brightest have assembled to combat the nefarious forces of the Mojave criminal underworld.

NCR's Finest

Get used to those quirky characters in the bounty office, because you'll be going there a lot. This time around there are more bounties to hunt but you no longer receive assignments directly from your handler. This time you have to track down and find actual Wanted posters scattered throughout the wasteland in order to activate the bounty. Most of the Bounties seem to be worth less this time around, but there's a catch: You can take in several of these targets alive.

I know what you're thinking. "Why would I take any of these scumbags in alive?" We're all thinking that. Sometimes it's just too entertaining to shoot a man and his entire gang, drag their corpses into a pile, then discover just how you can turn that pile of sadness into a joyful rain with the power of high explosives. But, just like the buzzkills from the REAL Old West, your handler gives you a greater reward for bringing people in alive instead of turning them into a fine red paste to be used in crafting recipes. Not all targets can be taken alive, but those that can can be captured in a variety of ways. You're given a shock collar at the beginning which, when used on a captured outlaw, "Encourages" them to turn themselves in with the strategic application of 50,000 volts if they select a different course of action. Essentially, once the collar is on, they run from their current location across the wasteland to the jail, upon which you will receive a notification that they have turned themselves in.

To get the collar on them, however, is done in many different ways. Some you can talk down or threaten if certain skills are high enough (Not always Speech. SPECIAL Stats like Charisma and Perception also play a roll at times, as do things like Melee Weapons, Unarmed, etc.) in which case they just end the conversation, put on the collar themselves, and turn themselves in. Other times you have to go through the formality of shooting them a few dozen times before they're willing to beg for their lives listen to reason. It's entirely possible during these encounters to not realize they're running at you to surrender until after you've turned their head into a pile of chunky salsa. To make matters even more complicated, these lowlifes aren't rendered invincible while running to turn themselves in. Yes, after you went through all the trouble to capture them, they can stumble into a nest of Cazadors and become acquainted with the painful end of their stingers. Which means then you have to march into that nest of devil bugs yourself so you can cut off the guy's finger and take it back for a substantially smaller reward.

Add to that that the posters are scattered all over the wasteland, from Goodsprings to Primm to Ranger Stations and even the Strip and the bounty hunting begins to feel like more of a chore after a while. Thankfully the bounty office contains a computer terminal that tells you where each poster is located in the wasteland, as well as the outlaw's backstory, crimes, and if they're likely to surrender or not.

The Face of Justice

But most of the bounties you pursue are just random wasteland trash that you haul in for a reward. The actual narrative that continues from the first mod doesn't begin until you choose to go after a fellow by the name of Red Bear. The hunt for Red Bear is extensive and drawn out, but since he's one of the baddest men in the wasteland (Mentioned in one of the plethora of notes at the end of Bounties I) it fits, appropriately building up to the final confrontation with him. After dealing with him however you wish there are a few more targets to go after before the main story ends, with the final one bringing you just a bit closer to the mysterious Marko, some sort of outlaw boogieman that lawmen AND criminals fear equally. The narrative has a heavier focus this time around as things begin to escalate and build up to the final chapter in the series which is welcome, and the crimes of the main targets genuinely make the player want to bring them to justice. The money earned from the bounties in the main story far surpasses that of the secondary targets, and someguy2000 continues his tradition of setting his Big Bads up with unique weapons and valuable loot, so the player won't be wanting for money if they can survive.

Yes, survive. This entry into the series is much more difficult than the first. You'll face entire gangs, inhumanly strong bosses, and booby traps. If your speech is high enough you can turn the odds somewhat in your favor. Or, if you can only achieve happiness through unspeakable agony and suffering, you can taunt your foes with a variety of profane and obscene dialogue options which makes them even more powerful and gives them even more mooks to fill you full of holes. In the end though, it's up to the player more or less to choose how the fight will go.

A new saloon is added just south of Novac which is home to the new companion added by the mod, Doc Friday, a former orthodontist. A ghoul gunslinger on a vendetta ride for the murder of his brother, Doc is amicable, honorable, and educated. He'll tell you tales of some of his exploits, the reason he took to gunfighting in the first place, and sheds a little light on the elusive Marko while he's at it. Help him avenge his brother and he'll join you in your adventures. He's a decent companion, good for conversation, but I usually leave him in the saloon and go solo. A few of his lines don't have VO which may be a turn off for some players but I'd recommend giving him a chance.

Speaking of the saloon, it receives deliveries of the NCR's very own newspaper reporting on, that's right, you. You can read of your exploits in the Coyote Courier, expertly and honestly reporting on the slaughtered families and dead children you leave in your wake.

Wait, what? 

To say that there is a slight bias in the paper is akin to stating that a meteor only kind of annoyed the dinosaurs. The slant in these papers must be seen to be believed. The reporter paints you as so ridiculously evil it just comes full circle from horrifying to hilarious. You can even visit him in his home and, uh, have a few words with him about his journalistic integrity. Literally, you can talk to him. And convince him to go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and paint you as the Wasteland's very own Jesus, smiting evil-doers with your righteous .44 Magnum and giving homes to the orphans of the the Mojave. 

Other than that there's a side plot about some Legion gold that's infuriatingly difficult to find (The key is in Sergio's House behind a teddy bear. It opens the safe in Fisk's hideout with the key to the footlocker at the bottom of the lake, near the Scavenger's platform), and that's it. The narrative is even more engrossing than before and the Western atmosphere is even more prevalent, which is always a good thing when it comes to New Vegas. Revolvers and dusters reign supreme here. Despite some of the new features being implemented poorly (Geckos eating your bounty before he turns himself in), they are new features, trying to emulate the feel of bounty hunting from the days of yore. If you enjoyed the narrative set up in the first one (And why wouldn't you) the sequel will more than deliver on your story expectations. It remains engrossing throughout.

New Vegas Bounties

As everyone who even remotely pays attention to the gaming community knows, one of the most hyped games of the year was recently released. That's right, Fallout 4 has graced us at last. Which is why, in honor of Fallout 4, I will be reviewing some mods for... Fallout: New Vegas? What?

That's right. I have a confession. I haven't bought Fallout 4 yet. The Bostonian Wasteland continues to elude me as all my friends dive deep into the wasteland without me. I have been left in the radioactive cloud of dust, slowly ghoulifying with each passing day that I am denied my own opportunity to enjoy the newest set of wasteland adventures.

But enough whining, I need to save some for the other Fallout posts I make. This post will go over one of the more highly acclaimed mods for New Vegas, called New Vegas Bounties.

Author: someguy2000

New Vegas Bounties

Nexus Mod Manager (For quick and easy installation of mods, this is what I use)

Requirement: The Someguy Series esm (This file is required for all of someguy2000's mods, and must be placed before them in the load order).

The premise of the mod is simple, and right in the title. You hunt down bounties. But there's more than just the wanton killing, pop culture references, and excessive profanity, even though those are all you need to be successful.

The way it works is simple. You pick up a holotape in Goodsprings then travel to the firm Randall and Associates just outside of Primm, where you begin taking bounties from the eponymous Randall himself. Unsurprisingly they being somewhat simple, gradually escalating in both risk and reward. Each bounty you kill (No options to bring them in alive) you take their finger back and get paid, and Randall begins to open up to you about his own past as a bounty hunter and wandering gunslinger. The random tales he has to tell are an amusing distraction that come up every so often, when they feel needed.

The further you get though, the more apparent it becomes that there is someone working against you. You begin to find notes on targets or in random encounters from a mysterious rival bounty hunting firm that seems to have it out for both you and Randall. And here is where the true appeal of Bounties arises. The writing.

There is an underlying story to Bounties that shows itself gradually as you traverse its profanity spewing dialogue trees, referencing characters and events from both the past and future that gives the player a sense of other forces besides the ones in the Mojave making moves of their own. Add to it that all of the characters are well voice-acted, complete with full lip syncing while they immerse you into a brand new, well crafted storyline and you begin to forget that you're playing a mod. After a while it feels like a full-fledged DLC, minor audio issues notwithstanding. The narrative itself starts off in a similar vein to most in Fallout, but as it goes the tone shifts to something darker. Not dark for the sake of darkness but still more unsettling than most of the quests in New Vegas. I won't say any more on the plot. I believe that spoilers contain a power far more destructive than any nuclear missile, but rest assured that the story in Bounties is worth experiencing, even if you aren't a fan of particularly bleak narratives with a heavy Western atmosphere.

I spoke above of profanity and references. From what information I've been able to gather over the development process, the author assembled this content purely from pop culture references, alcohol, profanity, extreme violence, and more alcohol. There is a lot of swearing in this mod. So much swearing that I began to suspect that the author learned English exclusively from Tarantino movies and reruns of Full Metal Jacket. But I can't say that that in anyway detracts from the experience. You are, after all, hunting down drug dealers, slavers, outlaws, and hobos. Many of these assorted ne'er-do-wells are ripped from famous movies or books (One drug dealer by the name of "Tony Idaho" wielding an assault rifle named "My Little Friend" comes to mind), but in the strange and at times whacky atmosphere that Fallout is known for these aren't entirely out of place, though your mileage may vary on this point.

The bounties themselves aren't particularly difficult to bring in, aside from a few that throw a couple of twists your way, but several own unique weapons you can use or sell for good amounts of caps. The pay for the bounties, coupled with the junk you find on their corpses is enough to set a Courier up for a long while. One weapon acquired toward the end, a custom modeled revolver found in a safe, became my primary weapon when its good stats were rolled into a gun that brought you back to the days of the Old West.

If you enjoy Westerns, get this mod. If you enjoy good writing, get this mod. If you enjoy a well crafted experience from a talented modder, get this mod. This mod earns its recommendation.

In a day or two I'll set in on the sequel, Bounties II. Will it live up to the hype or do we need to string it up for failing to deliver? Well, there's only one way to find out...

Beside playing it for yourself. Or looking it up on Youtube. Or- actually I guess I was wrong. But come back here anyway. Please. It's lonely.