Elsarild said:
Fallout 1 ending was that you walked off into the wasteland, cast out by the people you saved, fallout 2, ending with you, sacrificing yourself and your friends to almost lunacy to help the entire wasteland, but no matter how noble you did it, someone will suffer. Fallout tactics and BoS had the same line of tought, self sacrifice has been the stable of the series.
I thought you didn't sacrifice yourself at the end of Fallout 2. You just nuked the Oil rig and escaped on the Freighter.
Actually, I found that Fallout 3 missed the point of the Fallout series alltogether. Fallout has always been about the choices you make can indeed affect the world around you, Fallout 3 had you finishing your dads work off and saving some wasteland that, played under certain conditions, your character potentially doesnt give a shit about. The only hint I got of that was with the FEV in the water supply option, but that only had an effect post game.
the original fallouts were also great commentary on Humanity, and the greed and mistrust that plagues us. Fallout 3 missed that. Instead, it showed factions that have already been established as reclusive and mistrusting as "Heroic" just because they were out of canon fodder for that sort of stuff.
Im happy that no one has mentioned Fallout New Vegas. Sure there is no freeplay, but the feeling I got when seeing what my companions did after I parted with them and the evolution of the world around me is worth more than any freeplay could be worth.