My first post about being annoyed at getting killed while wandering the wastes was made around my second day of playing. I think I was about level 5 or 6 at the time. At that point I was working my way through the main story missions and trying to make my way to the radio station from Megaton, which is the point I kept getting killed at, that is a long ways to travel at a low level. I talked my way out of helping Three Dog with his broadcast problems and got him to tell me where Liam Neeson was anyway, which I did not know at the time robbed me of being forced to gain precious experience points. By the time I finished clearing mutants out of the Jefferson Memorial, my level had reached a decent point where I am able to travel just about anywhere without dying too much.

Some exploration prior to beginning the story missions in order to build experience would have been wise and saved me a lot of frustration. At that point the game just felt overwhelmingly huge, and the story missions where the only sense of direction I had.

Now I am throughly enjoying the game, and can't see myself getting tired of it anytime soon. Now that I have discovered enough locations, it is easy to travel from place to place without trudging through the wasteland for hours. Biggest complaint now is that while playing the things hours just fly by, I'll start playing it sometime early in the evening with the intention of buring just a little bit of time, and before I know it it is dark outside and nearly bedtime.