I just ran across my first mutant vampires, and their leader is none other than Vance. I decided to help them reach an understanding with the nearby town they had been attacking at night (as opposed to destroying them outright), as per a quest.

But, I also created an alternate save, where I tested out my ability to kill a bunch of vampires (not that they are any stronger or better than the typical raiders in the game, heh). Turns out Vance's trench coat is not only very cool looking, but has some kickass bonuses to abilities - something to the effect of INT +1, CHA +1, Small Arms +10...

Needless to say, I want the thing on my main game now, if only because it's called 'Vance's trench coat' - oh, and because I've specialized in small arms weaponry, too.

I think I might just put aside the moral high ground and take it from his rotting corpse, despite trying to run through the game as a 'good' guy.

There are only 20 levels. That's not cool. They should have told me before I wasted half of my perks on crap that helps me level up.

lol... I don't know.. for some reason that made me laugh.

Hehe.

That's a shame, though. Oblivion allows you to keep leveling, as far as I know... my guy on there is about 28 now, and I'm more or less filling out the other skills to be an uber-ninja-wizard-knight killer guy.

Yeah... that is one downfall... I remember reading in a preview that once the storyline finished the game was over and you couldn't keep playing your character... so you have to try to experience as much as you can during your play through of the campaing.

With Oblivion you can keep playing infinitely with that character.

Just to warn you guys if you haven't found it out already. There is currently a very serious bug in regards to trying to explore the Bethesda Ruins in the game.

Kalshion went in there only to suffer a major crash, one so hard he had to reset all his boot sectors. He is not the only one to have suffered this either from what we have read and most people haven't been able to recover from it.

I'm on the 360, but that sucks yeah.

I was kind of looking forward to playing around after I had reached max level. That kind of sucks that you can't, especially since I enjoy being as powerful as my character can be and killing anything I run across - it becomes more focused on exploration than having to judge if I could kill any particular enemy.

Looks like I might have to stop playing the main quest and focus on running around a little... I had been playing through the main story for the last hour or two, aiming at getting it done, and just got to exploring Vault 87 for a G.E.C.K.

Damn... not being able to play afterward has put a real dampener on the game for me now.

Well, as long as I can keep playing through on Spiderman: Web of Shadows, I'll be fine. I enjoy the games that keep going.

Hate to burst your bubble - Web of Shadows ends when you reach the end of the story, you can't keep playing.

...

What is wrong with games nowadays? Spiderman 3 didn't end, but Web of Shadows does?

Looks like Oblivion is the game to keep returning to, if only because you can keep going. I don't see why Fallout 3 couldn't have done the same, given the expansive nature of the game - I sure as hell don't want to explore everywhere *right* now, but that doesn't mean I don't want to a few weeks after I passed the main story.

Lame.

Well I noticed that, unlike in Oblivion, mobs in most dungeons don't respawn. I actually wish FO3 was more larger and had factions you could actually join; perhaps to cause more terror or to help fix up the wastelands.

Who knows though... there is always the next Fallout game =)