I picked up some girl while looking for the declaration of independence. She seemed nice. She’d booby trapped an entire room with mines. Despite the flashing lights, when we came through that same area later, she managed to walk over one of her own traps. It wasn’t for some time that I realised she’d actually died there and wasn’t following me any more.

I had the big kind super mutant, but he wandered off by himself and picked a fight with a Mr Gutsy (or whatever the nastiest floating robots are called) one day. I suddenly realised that there was the faint sound of gunfire in the distance, and that he wasn’t with me. I ran around a building just in time to see him have his shit blown up. Tragic.

Paladin Cross managed to survive the whole game, though I was tempted to kill her myself many times as she insisted on spoiling any sneaking I was engaged in.

Dogmeat and Charon are good companions because they’re tough, and Charon has a shotgun, so he does a lot damage. Dogmeat died a couple of times because he would run off and attack deathclaws or radscorpions by himself. Charon was also good as a pack mule.

Mirelurks look scary, especially when they jump out of the water snapping their claws, and they have a high damage resistance but they don’t deal much damage. The mirelurk hunters can be dangerous, if you’re in a confined area. Outside they were much like the other wasteland creatures. They would charge and I would walk backwards keeping them just within shotgun range.

I did die to a Mirelurk early in the game. I found a Mirelurk cave when I was level three and curious what a Mirelurk was, I had a look inside. I used up all my shotgun bullets on the first one and was killed by the second. I returned at level 20 and had my revenge.

Charon was killed when we were ambushed by a pack of Mirelurks while walking next to the river. I killed the mirelurk king, but Charon was surrounded by the hunter and other mirlurks and I couldn’t save him. I reloaded the game and nuked the mirelurks.

I haven’t found a teddy bear in an abandoned train. I shot someone outside my house, and then went inside. All the guards and the sheriff followed me inside. I decapitated them and put their heads on my shelves. I liked my father more when I decided that he was actually Liam Neeson, rather than a character voiced by Liam. I did look for him at Megaton and the radio station before deciding that I’d done my duty as a son and losing interest.

VATS is a little easy. Still, I found it more interesting than just shooting. I’m not sure what the solution is. When I exploded someone via reverse pickpocketing, the entire community started shooting at me, if it makes you feel better. I found companions added to the difficulty, in that the challenge became keeping them alive. Which I miserably failed at, almost consistently. I did manage to get killed by Deathclaws on a few occasions.

I don’t think I ever got killed by a Mirelurk, but I feel like I did because they’re so fucking scary. That may just be me.

Have you picked up the teddy bear in the abandoned train? How did you get all those dead bodies in your house? How could you not like Liam Neeson? I liked the idea of following someone through the wasteland, especially since you didn’t find him immediately.