I just finished Honest Hearts and am at level 34 with 106 hours playing New Vegas. There was some nice exploration of Zion. Most of the quests were not difficult and the end seemed fairly easy. I made the choice to go with Daniel since I am more of a pacifist. I enjoyed my visit to Zion and have returned to the Mojave to maybe do a bit more exploring till another DLC is released.

Deus Ex: "I'm an emotionally retarded science fiction experiment reminiscent of Solid Snake without a sense of humour. Oh shit, Illuminati. Oh shit, Area 51. Oh shit, the dichotomy of man and machine." - I adore the game but plot was not its strongpoint any more than art, and the characters were universally spiritless. The game was a bland-flavoured stew of every famous conspiracy theory bar JFK and David Icke's reptilian overlords glued together using emotionally insecure cyborg and some traditional Mission Impossible style doublecrosses. Fantastic gameplay despite clunky combat, lacking writing.

Bloodlines was admittedly only a little less cheesy in terms of overall plot - and was based in a prebuilt RPG setting - but comparing Smiling Jack, Jeanette/Therese, or Sebastian LaCroix to say Paul, Manderley and Walton Simons you've got a game with fantastic writing and a rich artistic style versus a game barely any more emotive than Barney and the Science Team.

It feels like an excellent 2d/isometric RPG uncomfortably jammed into a 3d, first person engine and gameplay structure. The writing quality, quest writing and art-style vye with the classics in a way Deus Ex never could.

I've never judged a game's quality by its bugs - they can be immensely frustrating, but I'm not playing a game for a smooth experience, I'm playing it for the story, the emotional impact and the challenge. An early release by a bankrupt studio under a brutal publisher does not diminish the achievement - it just makes me feel sorry for them. And very grateful that community members have since patched the game into a respectable product.

I used to LARP, Finkie, back in the day...  in a country Australian town... Too many damned Gangrel wannabes.

Mat: I've heard if you can endure the tedium until a certain point the game becomes much more rewarding. I hear this about a lot of Bioware games. Personally, I've never lasted that long. KOTOR left me angry to the point of deep discomfort, Dragon Age almost calcified my attention span and Mass Effect... Well, Mass Effect was just rather boring. I didn't think it was a bad game, as such - just a bit 'big shallow popcorn blockbuster', in game form. Certain aspects of the art style are very rewarding though. Argh. Don't want to spoil. You probably saw them already. Near the beginning, I think. *twitch*

Yeah, the game seems pretty unforgiving with it's saves – you only get three at a time.

At least the acting, voicework, and story telling are pretty well done.

@xtal - I haven't played the first ME, but had heard the second was better than the first... but have to admit neither ME nor ME2 struck me as overly desirable...  sad, because I like sci-fi-ness and RPG-ness.  I'll just have to wait until Bethesda give TES/Fallout the far far far future treatment.