My Pipboy map is telling me the direction you need to take is the Farragut West Metro Station tunnels east to Chevy Chase North. Then you can head south through the ruins to the GNR Building Plaza (I found lot of muties around that area). Farragut Station is west and slightly north of the Super Duper Mart. I actually skipped that part myself, since I didn't want to carry on the main story before I'd explored some more. Of course, I end up going to Rivet City and unknowingly talking to some Doctor Li character...

Wow. This is the only Fallout 3 tread I've seen that didn't have a small arms vs energy weapons debate. Impressive.

My small weapons skill is a lot higher than my energy weapons, but earlier in the game I focused on small weapons because I didn't have any energy weapons. But I'm content with my 'terrible shotgun', Lincolns rifle, and the .44..

Small Arms for me. Mainly because I like using sniper rifles and shotguns(though the maximum range of sniper rifles is ridiculously short). And lasers seem weak outside of VATS and the delay of plasma bugs me. Perhaps it's just me, or are ARs and chinese ARs fairly unpredictable in their aim? I have 100 small arms and sometimes I'll just nail a guy with every bullet from a magazine, but then there are times where it seems like I can't hit him to save my life(literally).

edit: not to mention small arms just feels more right in a post-apocalyptic world to me than lasers do. Having combat armor, helmet, and AR strapped to my back gives it that extra atmosphere. I guess my next play through I'll go energy weapons and grab some power armor, see how that goes. That will also be my totally evil SOB character too(Megaton is ****ed).

I went Small Arms on my first playthrough but later added points to Energy Weapons because, let's face it, there's enough to go around. It meant I had a decent run with A3-21's Plasma Rifle which I used for a lot of the tougher enemies for it's sheer damage output. Second playthrough I'm starting off on Energy Weapons. I quite like them, but there's something that's far more satisfying about killing something/someone with bullets than when you kill them with lasers/plasma. I guess the critical hit deaths are just more entertaining when it's not a simple melt-into-a-puddle or disintegration.

Also, blowing up Megaton is amazing. Well worth it.

I play small arms because the railway rifle is totally pimp.

Look what you did -_- (k, not a debate yet, but still)

First energy weapon you can get in in the Super Duper Mart. At least the first one you find as part of a quest.

yeah but the damage on it didn't compare to the 9mm I had so I just sold that mug

Fallout 3 first DLC confirmed as

A refight of the US liberation of Alaska (Epic yes)

Something set in "The Pitt" in the ruins of pitsburgh

And playing with the brotherhood of steel removing the last enclave soldiers from DC

=[

I kind of wish I could try out a plasma rifle. They sound pimp.

I wonder how that last part will work, considering, you know, our character dies.

What part of that suggests it's the same character?

Considering its an RPG, I don't really see the point of creating a new character for a select few missions. Sounds pretty silly.

Your character doesn't have to die

There are no options to survive without being a pathetic coward.

Heard so much about this game, its going to be one of the games that will be part of my Xbox 360 xmas pressie from parents...

Looks cool

This game rocks

I've been holding off starting my 2nd play through because I know it will consume me again

Which sucks. I lug around the super mutant with the heart of gold all game, only to have him tell me to f*** off when he could save the world without killing me.

I thought the same thing

The game was a lot of fun, but became pathetically easy when I hit the higher levels. It also did not help when I hit level 20 well before I finished the main quest line. However, Energy Weapons + Grim Reaper + Commando + Action Boy + Plenty of Agility = Ridiculous. By the end of the game, I could easily walk around the D.C. ruins and kill multiple mutants in a row without depleting my action points. In addition, I had thousands of bottle caps and a ridiculous surplus of stimpacks and ammo. If I ever actually ran into trouble, I had enough resources to get me out of it.

I might try to play again as bad or neutral with a different strategy (probably specializing in Big Guns and Explosives), though I imagine that it could be a lot harder.