Fallout: New Vegas/Awesome

"Benny: "From where you're kneeling it must seem like an 18 karat run of bad luck. Truth is, the game was rigged from the start.""
 * The way the whole thing starts off with a bang.

"Caesar: You're the courier who's caused so much trouble for my Legion, and yet you dare come before me. All the bribes I sent to the Omertas ended up buying me nothing. The Great Khans aren't exactly clamoring to fight for my Legion now. The garrison I established at Nelson has been wiped out. Years of meticulous scheming to place a mole at Camp McCarran - wasted. The Kings of Freeside are cooperating with the NCR now, which frees up soldiers to defend the dam. So tell me this, because I really want to know: I am feared - with good reason - but you of all people dare to come before me, the mighty Caesar. What were you thinking? Courier: Death to tyrants!  Caesar: Praetorians! To arms!"
 * In general, the way you can absolutely destroy the Legion's operations before even getting to Vegas. The Courier: Kills the head of the Frumentarri and all his bodyguards, wipes out a small slaving camp, covers Cottonwood Cove in radioactive waste (killing everyone there and leaving it uninhabitable), kills various Legion patrols, leads a small NCR task force to kill everyone in Nelson, kills the Legion assassins sent after him/her, repels an attack on Bitter Springs, destroys the Fiends and kills all their leaders, nukes the outpost at Dry Wells, gets the information from Silas, digs out the Legion spy at McCarran, and kills all the Recruit Legionarries stationed at the Techattiicup Mine. Then, after reaching Vegas, they can kill Alerio after he gives the Mark of Caesar, foil the Omertas' plot to attack the strip, sever their alliance with the Great Khans, upgrade the securitrons under the Fort, and, as a final nail in the coffin for their operations in the Mojave, the Courier can rampage through their main base, killing dozens of their best troops, until they finally kill Caesar himself. Who would've thought one person would pretty singlehandedley turn the tables on the second largest army in the post-war world?
 * Better yet, do all that with a female Courier.
 * Do all of that, but hold off on killing Caesar until after you walk into Edward Sallow's tent, and hear the Would-Be-God-King list off all the ways you have screwed him over, and THEN kill him.

"Cannibal Johnson:Come on kid, there are still bad guys to fight."
 * It takes a fair bit of effort, but - get every major unique weapon in the game. Equip them all (comes to about 215 pounds). Equip the Prototype stealth suit so you don't have to worry about health. Convince the Brotherhood, the Boomers and the Remnants to back the NCR in Hoover dam, and then begin For the Republic. The Legion truly have no idea what they are fucking with.
 * The entirety of No Gods, No Masters.
 * The Second Battle of Hoover Dam is filled with these, and many of them are a direct result of the player's actions. This includes:
 * Getting the Boomers' help will have them
 * Forging an alliance with the
 * Seeing the
 * If talked to during the battle, Cannibal Johnson gives these badass words.

""Thumbs down, you son of a bitch.""
 * For context, this is after the  After this, you are being escorted by the beings that put the fear of god into every person west of the Colorado. After that day, every person east of the Colorado will be fearful of them too.
 * Also
 * Doing all of the above, and getting all the various factions to go along with your plans. There is nothing quite like watching the  NCR, what's left of   and the   all fighting side by side, ESPECIALLY when you reach the top of the dam.   supporting riflemen, and suddenly that  And then the  comes out of nowhere...
 * But perhaps the best ending of all (in terms of awesomeness)) is one where you
 * Interrogating the captured Legion centurion at Camp McCarran, if you have a high intelligence..
 * Get's more awesome with a bit of Fridge Brilliance when you do so after talking with Arcade and cluelessly ask him about Latin. If you think about it this way, you just learned Latin from hearing a sentence and what the Legion usually says.
 * At the end of the Dead Money DLC
 * If you kill Caesar and completely brutalized the entire Legion with a female Courier. Some NPCs will even comment on the awesomeness of this act or even give you gifts for it. Especially after some of the Legion NPCs tell you how all women should Stay in the Kitchen.
 * Boone's one liner if you kill Caesar with him in your party. "Thumbs down, you son of a bitch."
 * This becomes ten times more awesome if Boone lands the killing blow.
 * One hundreds times more awesome if Boone kills Caesar with a headshot. Take into consideration his dialogue line before reaching the Fort - about how he wants to put a hole in Caesar's head - and Boone becomes the Little Engine That Could.
 * Continuing the line of killing Caesar, there's always the option of single-handedly killing every Legionnaire in the camp, then instead of going with cloak and dagger-style assassination, just busting down his tent's door and unloading a mini-nuke right in his face. For bonus points, run out of his tent and send a nuke at his pursuing guards, then put away the Fatman, put on your sunglasses, and walk away in front of the explosion. Rule #1 of the Mojave: You do not fuck with The Courier.
 * What's even better is completing the Honest Hearts questline (preferably the Good Karma way) and return to Caesar's camp wearing Joshua Graham's body armor and carrying his unique pistol. After shooting my way through the entire camp with just the pistol and blowing off Caesar's head with a single critical hit, I thought for some reason that this was exactly what Joshua had in mind when he left the equipment for me in that locker.
 * Gun Runners' Arsenal offers two different ways to kill Caesar and get rewarded with XP for it: Even A God-King Can Bleed, in which you spear the bastard in the head or Historical Propriety, in which you personally reenact the Ides of March and shank him to death.
 * Best part? These aren't mutually exclusive. Do both while Boone headshots his Praetorian Guards.
 * Best part? These aren't mutually exclusive. Do both while Boone headshots his Praetorian Guards.

"Benny: The cleaners will knock twice. Tell them to be thorough. Option 1: Your little trap failed, Benny. Option 2: It's a real mess up here... there's four bodies. Option 3: I'm coming for you, Benny. Benny: What the fuck?!"
 * The only problem with all of the above methods? They leave a corpse to be respectfully buried by Caesar's followers. Much better to score the final hit with an energy weapon critical. You ensure no one will ever be able to tell Caesar's ashes apart from those of his followers and that Caesar is brought down by the very technology he teaches his troops to disdain.
 * At one point, some NCR mercs will show up to harass quaint Jacobstown, and Marcus asks you to deal with them. Sure, you can bribe them or just kill them, but the most badass option? Talking it out. Why should they leave? Because instead of fighting an entire village of super mutants, they'll have to fight you. The entire company leaves right away.
 * Finally finding the treasure of the Sierra Madre. And then letting go...
 * Even better yet, not letting go of the 37 gold bars you're "supposed" to drop. Hail to the king.
 * Though some might say that would be Completely Missing the Point of the whole DLC.
 * Finding Benny in The Tops, getting attacked by his henchmen, slaughtering the four of them, and sending Benny, one of the most powerful people in New Vegas, running for the hills.

"Courier: I'll wear your head like you wear that dog's. Vulpes: Legionnaires! We have a problem!"
 * While Terrifying Presence is useless if you're playing for keeps, if you're playing to have fun then it lets you be one mean son of a bitch. To the point that you can utterly terrify Vulpes Inculta upon meeting him in Nipton.

"Paladin: "In the name of the Codex, I sentence you to death." The Courier: "I'll destroy you and your Codex and hunt down everyone who follows it!"
 * Insert headshot before he can even ready his weapon.
 * Alternatively if you didn't kill him, or just bypassed Nipton and met him on the Strip after dealing with Benny, he'll be the one to come up to you to give you the Mark of Caesar. Without the means to defend himself. And he turns his back to you. Nice suit, I think I'll take it.
 * Insert another headshot.
 * Even better is if he is already dead, another Frumentariius called Alerio gives you the mark of Caesar, specifically mentioning that you are forgiven for killing Inculta, without realising this might not have been a one-time thing. Cue shotgun to the back of the head. You gave me cause, Profligate.
 * Terrifying Presence pulls so many of these off it's amazing, even if it is criminally underused.
 * If you tell Veronica to defect from the BOS and join the Followers, the Paladins that have been harassing you though her quest show up, murder the Followers doctors and try to pull one on you. What happens next is just pure awesome.

Paladin:  "No! No. NOOO!""

"The Courier: "You raise that gun and I will kill everyone in this room.""
 * Using it to save Cass from Jean Baptise.

"Courier: I just did what anyone else would have done. NCR Soldier: Bullshit! Anyone else would have gotten killed!"
 * Raiding Nelson. Alone. Burst into the barracks where Dead Sea and his guards are, then unleash some shotgun justice. I managed to burst in, send the guard on the right flying with one shot, rearrange the left one's face with another, and by the time Dead Sea had unsheathed the Liberator and barreled at me, two more shots take him down. All in the span of a few seconds.
 * Walked into Dead Sea's barracks with a 10mm and a claim of friendship. Walked out with an empty 10mm and a new machete.
 * One man goes into a quarry of Deathclaws to make them his quarry. When he goes in, it's the middle of the night, pitch black, a sandstorm brews, and he has nothing but an anti-materiel rifle by his side. By sun up, every. Single. Deathclaw. Is dead. Killed them all; even the young ones.
 * I trust you enjoyed a hearty breakfast of wasteland omelet that morning?
 * And that man's name was...Craig Boone.
 * The Courier has lots more chances of being witnessed performing unusual deeds than in previous games, making him a bit more believable as a great hero. One particular moment comes from retrieving a fallen Ranger's corpse, which was being used by Fiends to ambush other rangers and NCR soldiers. Literally carrying his body back to an NCR position has you stating a few things about yourself, and the soldiers there responding in actual awe:

"Courier: Now the Fiends and the NCR know not to fuck with me! NCR soldier: No fucking kidding!"
 * Or a little more boastful:

"Courier: I made a promise to Private Morales. NCR Soldier: That must be some code of honor you hold yourself to. Don't worry, no need for you to hoist him over your shoulder and haul him all the way back to California, like I know you would if you had to."
 * Or one that while modest, is no less badass:

"NCR Soldier: Oh my god. How the fuck did you do that!?!"
 * There's also dialogue if you retrieve the body at full health and return without taking a single point of damage.

"Caesar: That was incredible. How did you do it? Courier: I have no fucking idea."
 * Or you could play for the Legion and wipe out Camp Forlorn Hope all on your own. For the extra bit of satisfaction, do so as a sniper and kill the sniper-rifle wielding NCR elite rangers by sneak-headshot. You can also try and stay in stealth for the entire mission, picking off the high-ranking officers one by one in stealth with a few well-placed headshots. Even when there is only one of them left, they never saw it coming.
 * So if First Recon is at Forlorn Hope, you'll be The Last Thing They Never See
 * The Arizona Killer mission deserves special mention as hands-down the most badass mission in the game. There is nothing quite as satisfying as sitting on a tower and watching the president hold a speech before you finally decide to pull the trigger and blow his head off. Before the eyes of his assembled elite ranger bodyguards and an audience of NCR soldiers, who will all instantly drop on their knees and cower in absolute terror of you, even as you walk towards them and pick them off one by one with your standard gun. And then? You get to steal the president's suit right off his dead body and wear it to mock those profligates.
 * Of course, you can always blow him up instead.
 * Or better yet, plant C4 on Jeremy Watson, move to a safe distance with the detonator and wait for President Kimball to give him the award. Probably the only example of "Assisted" Suicide Bombing
 * Or, for the extra-badass with slight suicidal tendencies, just run up to him and shank him. This is even a challenge in the Gun Runners' Arsenal DLC.
 * And for the finishing touch you can EAT him.
 * Go to Helios One, restore power, arm the defence system, go outside, and just watch. It's worth it.
 * The "Crush the White Legs" option in Honest Hearts
 * Operating on 's brain tumour. Yep, the Courier's pretty awesome.
 * Bonus points if you have at least 20 medicine and only made it through because of that 9 in your luck stat.


 * If you pre-ordered from Gamestop, or downloaded ''Courier's Stash", the Courier will sometimes casually drink from his/her Vault 13 canteen while something awesome happens
 * You and Boone single handedly repelling the Legion raiding party during Boone's companion quest. Admittedly, it's not as big as Boone made it out to be (a dozen Prime Legionaries and six dogs), but it's still awesome. It's even better when you hear the news broadcast on the Mr.New Vegas show later. One of the refugees was quoted as saying: "God sent us two two angels for protection, and at least one of them had a .308 caliber flaming sword of justice with a telescopic sight."
 * The statement becomes pretty funny, if you've given Boone a different weapon, say, an anti-materiel rifle
 * This Troper was always impressed with you're introduction to the Legion at Nipton. Sure, it's horrifying, and shows just how ruthless and merciless they are, but god damn if that's not one hell of a way to make a first impression.
 * Doubly so if you happen to walk in wearing NCR armor.
 * Step One: Create a new character, name him Arnold and make him look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Step Two: Acquire reinforced leather armor, a lever-action shotgun, a pair of sunglasses and a generous supply of twenty-gauge magnum buckshot shells. Step Three: Take perks Cowboy, Bloody Mess, Shotgun Surgeon and Toughness (twice). Step Four: Acquire armor and healing implants. Step Five: Gain Lord Death Perk. Step Six: Declare war on Skynet, sorry, I mean Mr. House. Step Seven: Hasta La Vista Baby!
 * With Old World Blues, add in 'get through the Big Empty and chose not to take your brain, spine or heart back' somewhere before the old Step Six.
 * How to create the Savior of Century's End
 * Step One: Create a new character, name him Kenshiro and make him look like Kenshiro.
 * Step Two: Acquire a reinforced Gecko-backed leather armor, a ballistic fist or a super-heated Saturnite power fist
 * Step Three: Take perks Piercing Strike, Bloody Mess, Purifier, Paralyzing Palm, Ninja, Toughness (twice), Slayer, Implant GRX (twice), Chemist, Light Touch, and Pyromaniac.
 * Step Four: Acquire armor, healing implants, and Old World Blues quest Perks.
 * Step Five: Gain Lord Death Perk and Day Tripper.
 * Step Six: Declare war on the Legion.
 * Step Seven: Use Implant GRX to go Bullet Time on Caesar or Legate Lanius allowing you to ATATATATATATATA until his body explodes.
 * Step Eight: Omae wa mou shindeiru. (You Are Already Dead)
 * Made even better after finishing The Lonesome Road. Why? Beyond getting the Courier Duster, if you have Wild Wasteland active, you can do all of the above with....
 * On the other hand, Two-Step Goodbye can literally make people explode.
 * This requires Honest Hearts but create a character and name him Al Capone. Acquire an appropriate suit and hat. Then head to Zion and acquire a Thompson submachine gun. Next, teach these New Vegas punks a thing or two about the Chicago Way, starting with Benny!
 * One of the few actual RPG-boss-like creatures comes in Old World Blues as You can deal with it one of any ways: you can find the shutdown code nearby and remotely shut it down; you can use the Sonic Emitter to EMP it; you can reconfigure the turrets to attack it for you. I chose something different. I chose...  Then walked away as it exploded behind me.
 * Sounds like you re-enacted Wasteland without realizing it. Which is also awesome.
 * In Old World Blues
 * One not for The Courier: Outside Camp Searchlight are a group of NCR troopers who were on patrol when The Legion detonated a radioactive device in the city turning nearly everyone to feral ghouls. By the time the game starts the aforementioned NCR troopers are patrolling the perimeter of the irradiated city warning anyone about the radiation all while in danger of radiation poisoning themselves and attacks from feral ghouls.
 * If you have the Terrifying Presence perk, then during the Van Graff quest you can use it to make Jean Baptiste back off when . You make one of the game's biggest psychopaths back down using just a single threat.
 * The Legate Lanius (and the Praetorian Guard) has always given me trouble at the end. But not after this. True, I had Enclave Power Armor, Cannibal Johnson and his Minigun, ED-E and Boone (in Power Armor no less), but those guys are still hard to kill. Except, I had ARCHIMEDES II. That softened the old bruiser up. And then there was the Holy Frag Grenades (only available with the Wild Wasteland perk). The first one left Lanius with only two bars left. The second one bounced off the ground in front of him and exploded at about eye-level. I did it in VATS too, so I had that nice 300 effect going. If only Lanius wasn't wearing that darn helmat, so that I could see the look on his mutilated face.
 * According to my kid brother, he scored a serious moment of awesome while I was away. He started a new game solely for this, and poured all his S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points into Strength and Endurance, and all his skill points into Melee and Unarmed. He then entered the Legion camp armed with only a shaving razor (or as he put it, a small knife for peeling fruit). Turns out, when I asked him if he actually won, he answered with: "YES! THANKS TO MY TRUSTY FRUIT KNIFE!"
 * Get to the end of the Lonesome Road DLC. If you can successfully convince Ulysses to abandon his plan, then
 * Alternatively
 * Hell, The Lonesome Road itself is pretty much this, in-game and out. The set pieces are used well enough to make a tense story, truly terrifying enemies in the form of the body horror Marked Men, the mutated Tunnelers and old standbyes Deathclaws. Add in several chilling events such as  the result will be epic. So epic that people through the Mojave speak of the Battle of the Divide as one just as important as the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. Regardless of outcome, this moment is one of the big two Crowning Moments of Awesome in Courier 6's life.
 * Learning Ulysses' question to the Think Tank that caused them to be knocked out of Mobius' loop, NOT experiment on him, and give him the information to reactivate what laid beneath the Divide.  Goosebumps.
 * There's a reason you win a challenge for merely setting foot into The Courier's Mile. But really, how bad could it be after the hell that was The Divide? Well you have to deal with:
 * 1) Constant, heavy radiation in a place where the enemies will tear right through any anti-radiation equipment sans Power Armor (and even then...).
 * 2) On your left, a dozen Marked Men, in an area that lets them regen health like mad (full health in half a minute), armed with some of the best weapons in the game.
 * 3) On your right, a dozen special irradiated Deathclaws, grouped tightly together and with no sort of high-ground to save you. They'll kill fairly much anyone in two hits.
 * 4) All in an area so small you can see the other side, ensuring you'll most likely aggro all the enemies at once if you're not careful.
 * There's some nifty loot, but nothing particularly rare other than some Mini-Nukes and a Nuka Cola Quartz, and there's only one unique item which isn't particularly showy. In all, it's a Bragging Rights Reward-sort of area, but surviving it means you have utterly mastered the game.
 * In the ending slide show of Lonesome Road, you've defeated Ulysses, either by talking him down or just killing him, and now the Courier has to leave the Divide, making their way back through the devastated place. And the Marked Men, crazed cannibals held together with hate and radiation, and the Tunnelers, ferocious humanoids capable of swarming and taking down Deathclaws, STAY OUT OF THE COURIER'S WAY FROM FEAR/RESPECT. Damn.
 * ED-E gets one in Lonesome Road if you let him
 * If you take Arcade with you to the Fort to listen to Caesar's proposal, when the Legion's leader is done giving his Motive Rant, the normally calm and collected Arcade explodes, laying into Ceaser and outlining exactly why his "empire" is a sham and why his ambitions are doomed to fail. And it is glorius.
 * Additional awesome. The lines were original dummied out from the game, since you can't take companions into the tent. However after fans found out about the lines, the devs worked them back in via a patch, with Arcadae now giving it after you left the tent.
 * Sadly I'm too chicken to try killing Caesar, but an idea has come up that I'm pretty sure you could pull off in game: Get Legion Money (easy enough, kill legionaries), Kill Caesar (no headshots, it needs to be intact), use the 'pick up' button (R3 for Play Station 3) to arrange his body out for a wake, drop the money, then use the Pick Up again to get two single coins, place one over each of Caesar's eyes. Caesar is now ready to pay the Ferryman to Tartarus. Sure, that's Greek Mythology, but the Romans took so much from their myths anyway that the allusion still works.
 * Two of the Gun Runners' Arsenal challenges are for crippling Caesar's head with a spear called Even A God King Can Bleed and Historical Precedent for killing him with a knife.
 * The Evil Mr. House ending says that half the reason he lets you live in the lap of luxury at the Lucky 38 is because he's afraid of you. He controls an unstoppable robot army (which you gave him) and you still scare the crap out of him all by yourself.
 * A meta example. JE Sawyer released a mod that greatly corrects errors in the game, fixes DLC issues, made Hardcore Mode actually hardcore, made the rewards for Dead Money less game-breaking, and added Damage Resistance back to the game for certain armors. AFTER the game had finished production and they weren't going to continue working on it officially. That's dedication to making sure it runs right.
 * Even better, its on version 4. He plans to have Version 5 out by september. Nearly a full year after the game's development ended.
 * This YouTube video has a playthrough that tries to end with diplomacy but ultimately fails due to a speech stat that's a bit too low. They then give Lanius the beating of a lifetime.
 * Killing the Brotherhood of Steel paladins using the Pulse Gun. You remember when Veronica told you it could destroy your whole Brotherhood, you bastards? Should have paid attention.
 * Once you've obtained the Gauss Rifle; put on some good armor, find a deathclaw, wait for it to lunge right over you, target it's head in VATS, and watch that motherfucker fly backwards.
 * Another meta example. Do you know how long it takes to make a console/PC video game? Usually companies take 2–4 years to make sure they get it right. Obsidian was only give... 13 months. Factor in that at least 2 months for pre-planning (confirmed by J.E. Sawyer) and at least a month of basic bug testing they made the entire game in TEN MONTHS!!! Very impressive when you realize the scope of the game. On the other hand, a tearjerker for Obsidian as Sawyer let slip that they needed 5 more months to fully flesh out the game: specifically to add the post-game sequences and Legion territory.
 * Another meta example. Do you know how long it takes to make a console/PC video game? Usually companies take 2–4 years to make sure they get it right. Obsidian was only give... 13 months. Factor in that at least 2 months for pre-planning (confirmed by J.E. Sawyer) and at least a month of basic bug testing they made the entire game in TEN MONTHS!!! Very impressive when you realize the scope of the game. On the other hand, a tearjerker for Obsidian as Sawyer let slip that they needed 5 more months to fully flesh out the game: specifically to add the post-game sequences and Legion territory.