Poll: Fallout 3 or New Vegas

[michael87cn]

as you can see, fallout new vegas is the more popular option. that doesn't mean its the better game though...

I recommend 3 if you want a fun game... NV if you want to play something because its the popular idea... before NV came out, people absolutely loved 3. but there was a lot of drama around 'who' made 3, and 'who' was going to make NV, and NV became popular due to fan loyalty. however, as a game.... its a tragedy .... as a story, its fine...

if people were actually go back and -try- playing 3, without bias or expectations, they'll see its an incredibly well designed game by Bethesda Softworks, the people that gave us Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim... New Vegas is by a bunch of nobodies that used Bethesda's software to try and capitalize on 3's success... couldn't even make their own game ... yeah an 'original' guy or two worked on it, but fallout 1 and 2 were not made by these dudes alone and the internet gives them WAY too much credit.

what a joke... people really are mindless sheep.

oh. but new vegas has fucking 'iron sights' or what i call 'block my whole screen so i can be a military man' bullshit. im sure lots of people enjoy it, because CALL OF FREAKIN duty, but whatever. if you buy a game for this, i pity ya!

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Is it bad that I thoroughly enjoyed Dead Money? It wasn't your typical shoot'n'loot and worked great as horror.

Not at all. That was my favorite DLC because of the survival horror theme (that came out of the left field when comparing to the main game even in HC), great characters, and melancholy as hell story and atmosphere. And because I and many of my childhood friends had moved apart because of studies and/or work, the themes of "letting go" and "begin again" were more than a bit personal.

Good times.

Oh my. Someone who doesn't complain about how they took your weapons away, or how the holograms were unkillable? That's something.

Yeah, you've listed my sweet spots with the DLC. There was also an added touch that it was the first time skill/speech check successes weren't always the best choices (See Dean Domino).

 

[zombiejoe]

I liked Fallout 3 because it felt more focused and the world felt more distinct. New Vegas was fine, but it a bit disjointed at times. Maybe that's how the original Fallout games were, I don't know. But that's how I felt.

If you asked my mom, however, she'd tell you Fallout: New Vegas is better because a lot of Fallout 3 take place in cramped subway systems where everything looks that same and it's hard to know what you're looking at, and that gives her motion sickness.

Your mother is a wonderful woman with excellent taste.
Tell her I said that.

 

[zombiejoe]

as you can see, fallout new vegas is the more popular option. that doesn't mean its the better game though...

I recommend 3 if you want a fun game... NV if you want to play something because its the popular idea... before NV came out, people absolutely loved 3. but there was a lot of drama around 'who' made 3, and 'who' was going to make NV, and NV became popular due to fan loyalty. however, as a game.... its a tragedy .... as a story, its fine...

if people were actually go back and -try- playing 3, without bias or expectations, they'll see its an incredibly well designed game by Bethesda Softworks, the people that gave us Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim... New Vegas is by a bunch of nobodies that used Bethesda's software to try and capitalize on 3's success... couldn't even make their own game ... yeah an 'original' guy or two worked on it, but fallout 1 and 2 were not made by these dudes alone and the internet gives them WAY too much credit.

what a joke... people really are mindless sheep.

oh. but new vegas has fucking 'iron sights' or what i call 'block my whole screen so i can be a military man' bullshit. im sure lots of people enjoy it, because CALL OF FREAKIN duty, but whatever. if you buy a game for this, i pity ya!

That is the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard. There are plenty of people, some in this thread, who have already listed plenty of reasons why they prefer New Vegas, and you're just going to lock them in as "mindless sheep" and describe them as the generic dude bro "CALL OF DUTY" player?

If there is anyone in need of pity, it is you.

EDIT
Also, you do realize Obsidian made New Vegas, right. The Obsidian. Just look them up, they clearly are not "nobodies."

 

[SajuukKhar]

-In F3 a random guy suggests you to blow up the nuke in a city for reward.
-food supplies? fuck 'em!
-trade routes? fuck em!
-shops full of eatable food? fuck yeah!
-electricity in postapocalyptic bombarded ruins? fucking everywhere!).

-And? New Vegas suggests you let a brutal slave empire enslave all the people of the wasteland, while raping all the women, and killing all the elderly and crippled, because they are more "safe".

-They have plenty of food supplies, there are many randomly encountered bands of hunter NPCs that carry meats of most types of animal, and dialog from NPCs, and items found on all NPCs person, confirm they eat those things, as well as food items found in food stores.

On top of that, they have scavengers who comb the ruins for pre-war food, and a large supply trade with the point lookout area, from both Tobar the ferryman, and the smugglers, enough to keep every major food shop in the wasteland supplied with punga regularly.

And to further supplement that, it's mentioned that Rivet City trades fresh food grown in its hydroponics bay for scrap metal to fix the boat, and mutfruit is harvested from the various bushes around the D.C. area.

-What? Fallout 3 DOES have trade routes, there's 4 major caravans that walk it.
Heres the map of it

Spoiler

-It would takes quite a while to clean out every pre-war building in a city as large as DC. Especially given that most people would have tried eating the animals first, which they do.

-You are aware that fission batteries are literally NUCLEAR reactors and have power to last for hundreds, and possibly thousand,so of years?

Plot revolves around plausible conflict.

New Vegas
1. The entire "find Benny" plotline is ridiculous, and nonsensical. The courier, who has no real weapons, armor, skills, or money, who just got easily overpowered and nearly killed by this guy, has no idea where he is, or any reasonable expectation that he could beat Benny, going after him regardless is nothing but pure psychosis. Even Sawyer admitted it was a stretch and that they should have let the player leave the mojave via the Mojave outpost since going after Benny is something most people wouldn't logically do.

2. The next major plot arc, aka the NCR/Legion war, is even more stupid because the NCR should EASILY overpower the Legion without trying, and have only failed to do so because they were made into almost loony toon levels of incompetent, while the Legion has been played as these god like master of spying who have managed to infiltrate nearly every level of the NCR military without trying.

3. No one except House has ANY reason need or want the couriers help, since they have trained diplomats or spies to do everything they do ask you to do in the main plot quests, and the "BUT THEY NEED YOU TO GET OT HOUSE!" argument is bull since House can do nothing, and his small force of securotrons could be easily overcome by the NCR, Legion, or even the BoS, and without you, he would never get his large robot army, or upgrades.

Fallout 3
-Man tries to save people of the wasteland by creating a device that can mass purify water in the scale needed to farm.
-Man gives up goal after constant failure to try to at least give his child, which his wife died giving birth to, a good life
-After realizing his child no longer needs him, he tries to go back and finish what he failed at many years ago, still haunted by his inability to help the people of the wastes
-Child going after him because they were thrown out of the vault, and his father is the only remnant of the only life he ever knew.
-Father sacrificing his life to prevent people trying to use his device as a weapon of genocide.
-Fathers equally powerful old friends understanding the anger the player feels, but unwilling send to send against a force just as, if not more so, powerful then they are to recover a device they know doesn't work, and the thing that might make it work is nearly a fairy tale.
-The BoS then going after the Enclave after the child has the missing part stolen from him, since the Encalve can now actually use it as a weapon of genocide, as feared.

Now which is more plausible?

In Fallout New Vegas, every town you come across has some sort of renewable food source.

Except Primm, Novac, Nelson, and Nipton.

 

[LobsterFeng]

as you can see, fallout new vegas is the more popular option. that doesn't mean its the better game though...

I recommend 3 if you want a fun game... NV if you want to play something because its the popular idea... before NV came out, people absolutely loved 3. but there was a lot of drama around 'who' made 3, and 'who' was going to make NV, and NV became popular due to fan loyalty. however, as a game.... its a tragedy .... as a story, its fine...

if people were actually go back and -try- playing 3, without bias or expectations, they'll see its an incredibly well designed game by Bethesda Softworks, the people that gave us Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim... New Vegas is by a bunch of nobodies that used Bethesda's software to try and capitalize on 3's success... couldn't even make their own game ... yeah an 'original' guy or two worked on it, but fallout 1 and 2 were not made by these dudes alone and the internet gives them WAY too much credit.

what a joke... people really are mindless sheep.

Yes listen to this guy. All the people that believe New Vegas is a better game are just mindless fans despite their numerous well written arguments as to why they believe it's better. Evidence and a majority vote have no claim because he says so.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Except ... over the course of the game you get your hands on a GECK, a device that can terraform a big patch of nuclear wasteland into a fertile green paradise. Too bad you used it up to complete the water purifier your dad and his colleagues developed, because they can't make a bigger version of their own work. Something they shouldn't have had to do because every Mr. Handy comes with liquid condensators that produce radiation free water.

So yeah, you wasted the miracle machine because these supposed top minds are too terrible at their job to solve the engineering problem of upscaling their own technology or reverse engineer an already existing and proven one.

Actually, you dont use the GECK itself to fix the purifier, you use components of it to fix the purifier.

On top of that, Bruan himself tells you the GECK is unstable, which is proven when you turn it on and it kills you. It has no ability to discern between living and non living things, using it would destroy the CW, and everyone in it, via uncontrollable matter conversion, disassembling everything, every city, and every person, to make new plant life for a world that wpould now have nothing to live in it.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I gonna go with Fallout 3.

Mainly because I thought the world was interesting and I had way more fun in that game. And by fun, I mean faffing about and blowing up things because reasons. I kinda ignored the story at the beginning since I was exploring more than anything else, and stealing anything that wasn't nailed down. I've played that game a lot, and tried different playing styles, basically not a thieving bastard, and quests that were more logical for my character at the time.

Now, about the other choice...

New Vegas bored the fuck out of me and the environment was the main offender there. I didn't even make it to Vegas before I quit the game. It wasn't from a lack of trying either, and I really really tried to like the game. I just stopped caring.

That whole game reminded me of how utterly boring it is to drive to the real Vegas, which I've done several times, and that kinda ruined the whole game for me. I know it sounds pretty stupid, but that's where I am with that game. The characters that I have ran into didn't really make an impression on me. Again with big games like that I tend to ignore the story and faff about, and of what little NPC interaction I had it didn't make me care enough to continue. Maybe I'll "finish" New Vegas someday, who knows.

I'm sure that the game was amazing, but I liked Fallout 3 way more than New Vegas.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

NV is better is practically every way. Gameplay, characters, quests, plot, environment, DLC, arsenal, etc. The only thing F3 did better was the intro and the initial wow factor.

Completely wrong. Lest we forget... Three-Dog? F3 radio shat massively on F:NV, god, after a radio host that involved in the world in F3, it was kinda embarrassing to have a radio host that plain and boring, well, at least in my opinion.

OP: F3 is better if you're looking for a game set in the remains of an old world for the most part, whereas I'd say that F:NV feels a lot more like a game set in the early stages of a new world, at least the bits in the mojave are. [DLC pretty wicked-rad, y'know?]

 

[carnex]

-And? New Vegas suggests you let a brutal slave empire enslave all the people of the wasteland, while raping all the women, and killing all the elderly and crippled, because they are more "safe".

Legion is modeled after what "Caesar" sees as Roman empire. They follow Caesar, a man. And, in Fallout tradition, game lets you choose your own moral view of the world. If it's slavery for everyone, than go right ahead.

-They have plenty of food supplies, there are many randomly encountered bands of hunter NPCs that carry meats of most types of animal, and dialog from NPCs, and items found on all NPCs person, confirm they eat those things, as well as food items found in food stores.

On top of that, they have scavengers who comb the ruins for pre-war food, and a large supply trade with the point lookout area, from both Tobar the ferryman, and the smugglers, enough to keep every major food shop in the wasteland supplied with punga regularly.

There is no explanation for food in big settlements in F3. You can't live forever from old irradiated food scattered across wasteland. Even if those few traders could supply major settlements there is no explanation where they get food from.

And to further supplement that, it's mentioned that Rivet City trades fresh food grown in its hydroponics bay for scrap metal to fix the boat, and mutfruit is harvested from the various bushes around the D.C. area.

Itwas obliously a long time since I played F3 since I don't remember this.

-What? Fallout 3 DOES have trade routes, there's 4 major caravans that walk it.
Heres the map of it

Spoiler

-It would takes quite a while to clean out every pre-war building in a city as large as DC. Especially given that most people would have tried eating the animals first, which they do.

-You are aware that fission batteries are literally NUCLEAR reactors and have power to last for hundreds, and possibly thousand,so of years?

Actually no, there is very strict power output of every battery in Fallout universe. And, yes, one micro fusion battery pack could run low powered light for years, town like megaton with all appliances,robots etc running at all times would burn through them rather fast.

1. The entire "find Benny" plotline is ridiculous, and nonsensical. The courier, who has no real weapons, armor, skills, or money, who just got easily overpowered and nearly killed by this guy, has no idea where he is, or any reasonable expectation that he could beat Benny, going after him regardless is nothing but pure psychosis. Even Sawyer admitted it was a stretch and that they should have let the player leave the mojave via the Mojave outpost since going after Benny is something most people wouldn't logically do.

Fallout central stories were always kind of iffy (with exception of first one perhaps). Fallout was, for fans, about world and people in it. Storyline was something like astarter motor to get you going and then move out of the way.

2. The next major plot arc, aka the NCR/Legion war, is even more stupid because the NCR should EASILY overpower the Legion without trying, and have only failed to do so because they were made into almost loony toon levels of incompetent, while the Legion has been played as these god like master of spying who have managed to infiltrate nearly every level of the NCR military without trying.

Legion is HUGE in number of men but territorially sound and relatively small, a good portion of narrative is spent explaining that fact. NCR is bigger but also has to deal with internal politics, descent within it's own territories and overzealous expansion. In other words they are so overstretched that they recruited just about anyone who volunteered. And that is the perfect time to get infected by enemy spies.

3. No one except House has ANY reason need or want the couriers help, since they have trained diplomats or spies to do everything they do ask you to do in the main plot quests, and the "BUT THEY NEED YOU TO GET OT HOUSE!" argument is bull since House can do nothing, and his small force of securotrons could be easily overcome by the NCR, Legion, or even the BoS, and without you, he would never get his large robot army, or upgrades.

Story is that everyone knows that much of military gear they no longer even know how to use was designed and made by Mr. House. They all know he has Ace up it's sleeve and region is too valuable to risk that ace being erasing Nev Vegas and Hoover Dam from face of the earth. Mr, House is a suicide bomber with itchy trigger finger that sits among others but also maintains law and order.

In Fallout New Vegas, every town you come across has some sort of renewable food source.

Except Primm, Novac, Nelson, and Nipton.

Primm is temporary holdout. Prior to that it was small casino town with few inhabitants. They lived of casino visitors, carrier services, hunting and trade with good springs and caravans (which are, unlike those in F3, described as real caravans with dozens of pack animals)

Novac is also a small community of scavengers that are gathered arround one of the last places in Mohave to scavenge. They know that towns days are numbered as they traded scraps for food. Could be sustained as settlement for Helios One by NCR.

Nelson has farms,organized hunts and military leftovers. But all that is rather weak for the population of base. But, truth is, they are not there long, they settled that place decade ago. Also recognize they will run out of food and that is why they are willing to cooperate.

Nipton? Beats me. There is a line or two how it was a stop for caravans on their way to New Vegas but it's really too close to NCR camo and to Vegas for it to really hold water.

OP: F3 is better if you're looking for a game set in the remains of an old world for the most part, whereas I'd say that F:NV feels a lot more like a game set in the early stages of a new world, at least the bits in the mojave are. [DLC pretty wicked-rad, y'know?]

How do you figure that. in FNV there are rebuilt civilizations.Things like that take time...

 

[RelexCryo]

I vote New Vegas, simply because it has a better selection of guns. But both games are actually very good.

 

[AlexK1991]

I've been thinking, after all these years, of giving Fallout 3 or New Vegas a try. Problem, I only have enough for one of the them, right now. Which is the better game?

Fallout: New Vegas is the deeper, lengthier, more varied of the two. Personally though, I'm not a fan of Fallout 3, so I might not be the best source for an unbiased opinion, but I have played both extensively and I found New Vegas to be much more enjoyable.

*edit*

Also, New Vegas has much better voice acting and writing, even if the overall story is actually pretty dull.

 

[Denamic]

NV is better is practically every way. Gameplay, characters, quests, plot, environment, DLC, arsenal, etc. The only thing F3 did better was the intro and the initial wow factor.

Completely wrong. Lest we forget... Three-Dog? F3 radio shat massively on F:NV, god, after a radio host that involved in the world in F3, it was kinda embarrassing to have a radio host that plain and boring, well, at least in my opinion.

OP: F3 is better if you're looking for a game set in the remains of an old world for the most part, whereas I'd say that F:NV feels a lot more like a game set in the early stages of a new world, at least the bits in the mojave are. [DLC pretty wicked-rad, y'know?]

So, I'm completely wrong, and to back up your claim, you present... a radio station? If it's the interaction that amazes you, don't forget Three dog only gave you a quest to repair a dish and gave you information about your dad. That was it.

Also, Fallout 3 takes place 36 years after Fallout 2. Fallout 1 was a wasteland with the beginnings of civilization. Likewise, Fallout 2 had made significant progress, with multiple large settlements. Then came Fallout 3 that, 116 years after the events of Fallout 1, was somehow less advanced than the people in Fallout 1.

 

[RealRT]

Also, Fallout 3 takes place 36 years after Fallout 2. Fallout 1 was a wasteland with the beginnings of civilization. Likewise, Fallout 2 had made significant progress, with multiple large settlements. Then came Fallout 3 that, 116 years after the events of Fallout 1, was somehow less advanced than the people in Fallout 1.

I gotta play devil's advocate here, but it was explained - Washington region is less lived-in because of big numbers of Supermutants in the area.
Also, IMO, Fallout 2 made a huge mistake by having all that progress. Made the game far less atmospheric.

-------------------------
OP: Why is this even a comparison? New Vegas, of course. Fallout 3 may be fun while it lasts, but it's actually fairly small and has little to no variety. New Vegas has much more content and better writing. The only edge F3 has is the radio music.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

I'd say Fallout 3.

It's not a god damn boring. Sorry House, Legion, and NCR are all boring, and unfortunate they're the majority of the game.

 

[Amir Kondori]

I voted New Vegas but felt a little torn. Fallout 3 just had way more atmosphere, but everything else, quests, weapons, perks, etc., was better in New Vegas.
If Bethesda Softworks wasn't just good at world building, image the games they would make.

 

[Rastrelly]

-In F3 a random guy suggests you to blow up the nuke in a city for reward.
-food supplies? fuck 'em!
-trade routes? fuck em!
-shops full of eatable food? fuck yeah!
-electricity in postapocalyptic bombarded ruins? fucking everywhere!).

-And? New Vegas suggests you let a brutal slave empire enslave all the people of the wasteland, while raping all the women, and killing all the elderly and crippled, because they are more "safe".

It's an Empire. Not everyone sees them that way. And even if you are a maniacal psycho, you wouldn't blow the bomb if some idiot in a bar would come to you and ask to, while actual Romans, for some reason, doing the same thing Caesar's Legion does, had lots of recruits from outside the Empire. Tenpenny Tower, I might add, is a ridiculous concept by itself.

-They have plenty of food supplies, there are many randomly encountered bands of hunter NPCs that carry meats of most types of animal, and dialog from NPCs, and items found on all NPCs person, confirm they eat those things, as well as food items found in food stores.

You must be joking... These sources wolud be far from enough to feed any reasonable population. If such popuklation is NOT reasonable, all those jumping around purifier become absolutely pointless.

On top of that, they have scavengers who comb the ruins for pre-war food, and a large supply trade with the point lookout area, from both Tobar the ferryman, and the smugglers, enough to keep every major food shop in the wasteland supplied with punga regularly.

OMG, are you even aware it's more then 200 years since the war? What food scavenging are you talking about?

And to further supplement that, it's mentioned that Rivet City trades fresh food grown in its hydroponics bay for scrap metal to fix the boat, and mutfruit is harvested from the various bushes around the D.C. area.

... which is the only shining point of adequateness in the kingdom of darkness. Still, hydroponics bay in Rivet City, IIRC, was too small to be of any actual use.

-What? Fallout 3 DOES have trade routes, there's 4 major caravans that walk it.
Heres the map of it

Spoiler

Compare them to caravans from Fallout 2 please.

-It would takes quite a while to clean out every pre-war building in a city as large as DC. Especially given that most people would have tried eating the animals first, which they do.

200. Years. Even special military conservation is trash at that point.

-You are aware that fission batteries are literally NUCLEAR reactors and have power to last for hundreds, and possibly thousand,so of years?

Are fission batteries used to power the houses? I thought in Fallout universe nuclear plants were used for that purpose.

Plot revolves around plausible conflict.

New Vegas
1. The entire "find Benny" plotline is ridiculous, and nonsensical. The courier, who has no real weapons, armor, skills, or money, who just got easily overpowered and nearly killed by this guy, has no idea where he is, or any reasonable expectation that he could beat Benny, going after him regardless is nothing but pure psychosis. Even Sawyer admitted it was a stretch and that they should have let the player leave the mojave via the Mojave outpost since going after Benny is something most people wouldn't logically do.

2. The next major plot arc, aka the NCR/Legion war, is even more stupid because the NCR should EASILY overpower the Legion without trying, and have only failed to do so because they were made into almost loony toon levels of incompetent, while the Legion has been played as these god like master of spying who have managed to infiltrate nearly every level of the NCR military without trying.

3. No one except House has ANY reason need or want the couriers help, since they have trained diplomats or spies to do everything they do ask you to do in the main plot quests, and the "BUT THEY NEED YOU TO GET OT HOUSE!" argument is bull since House can do nothing, and his small force of securotrons could be easily overcome by the NCR, Legion, or even the BoS, and without you, he would never get his large robot army, or upgrades.

Fallout 3
-Man tries to save people of the wasteland by creating a device that can mass purify water in the scale needed to farm.
-Man gives up goal after constant failure to try to at least give his child, which his wife died giving birth to, a good life
-After realizing his child no longer needs him, he tries to go back and finish what he failed at many years ago, still haunted by his inability to help the people of the wastes
-Child going after him because they were thrown out of the vault, and his father is the only remnant of the only life he ever knew.
-Father sacrificing his life to prevent people trying to use his device as a weapon of genocide.
-Fathers equally powerful old friends understanding the anger the player feels, but unwilling send to send against a force just as, if not more so, powerful then they are to recover a device they know doesn't work, and the thing that might make it work is nearly a fairy tale.
-The BoS then going after the Enclave after the child has the missing part stolen from him, since the Encalve can now actually use it as a weapon of genocide, as feared.

Now which is more plausible?

First one. Enclave has all the resources to commit local genocide in billion other ways, which renders all that plan pointless. Especially considering weakness of all Wasteland societies except BOS (which is, still, weaker then Enclave in this area). If they are aware of BoS main base location (and they'd be STUPID if they aren't), I also see no reason not to destroy it using additional useful stuff Enclave has while BoS hasn't. Like that fucking HUGE FLYING FORTRESS. Timing and planning.

(1) Our character in NV is a courier. He spent ALL HIS LIFE in Wasteland. Our character in F3 is vault born. He knows nothing about wastelands. Whose survival is more plausible?
(2) Stupid? Dunno. Google "Ukraine civil war 2014". Also, Legion is a force pretty close to NCR in power - at least, in this region. Just try to accept that large state with bigger military has to protect more objects, and thus is NEVER able to protect ALL of them.
(3) Both NCR and Legion are interested in player for an obvious reason: he has access to Lucky 38, and nobody was able to get inside. And yes, up until player upgrading the securitrons Vegas could be easily taken by NCR or Legion... But they are blocking each other from this action. If any side would make their move, other one would make their turn and devastate the other.

In Fallout New Vegas, every town you come across has some sort of renewable food source.

Except Primm, Novac, Nelson, and Nipton.[/quote]
Which, all being transit cities, can easily buy food: Primm and Nipton - from Goodsprings (which has good soil), Novac - from New Vegas. Nelson is a military base, and maybe when it was a city crops were raised there.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

snip

Actually, you dont use the GECK itself to fix the purifier, you use components of it to fix the purifier.

On top of that, Bruan himself tells you the GECK is unstable, which is proven when you turn it on and it kills you. It has no ability to discern between living and non living things, using it would destroy the CW, and everyone in it, via uncontrollable matter conversion, disassembling everything, every city, and every person, to make new plant life for a world that wpould now have nothing to live in it.

I stand corrected, but the end result is the same, really. You waste a device that can do something incredibly useful because your dad and his pals are incompetent.

The GECK is the size of a briefcase. So, just get into a Vertibird with the Brotherhood and fly to a uninhabited area a safe distance away from any settlements. Now leave it there with a robot to press the button, maybe some extra bots for security, wait until the GECK does its thing, then move into your fresh eden. All you'd lose is dangerous mutated beasts like Yao Guai and Deathclaws, maybe some mindlessly homicidal Super Mutants.

But then you'd be left without purified water. Water itself can't become radioactive, but can become contaminated with fallout. It is relatively easy to get those particles out with distillation and filtration. Time-consuming, yes, but way WAY simpler than cleaning irradiated soil. And like I said, there are already robots floating around that have working purifiers inside. Open one up, see what makes it tick and reproduce it in as large a quantity and size as you can. Except that is only a problem because the plot says so.

Spoiler: Screw it, I'm going to gripe some more

- Little Lamplight. How do they sustain their population? Once you're 16, you're out, exiled to Big Town. Mind you, kids have been living in that cave for two centuries, since 2077. Do they start fucking like bunnies as soon as they become fertile, plopping out as many kids as possible before they reach the critical age? Or do you mean to tell me Big Town sends their newborns to the kids that once kicked them onto the curb? Suspension of disbelief be damned, that is just stupid, bad writing.

- Also, Vault 87 is the birthplace of the Super Mutants in the Capital Wasteland. They had to get out somehow and the front entrance is completely blocked even if they are immune to the high levels radiation surrounding it. Which leaves the back entrance ... that leads you straight through Little Lamplight. Huh. Stupid, bad design.

- The modified FEV kills everything even the slightest bit mutated, leaving only the Enclave and people in Vaults. No problem, you come from a Vault. Except you weren't born there, but in the Wasteland, from parents who weren't Vault dwellers either. And you've been soaking up rads ever since you wandered out. And some quests actually have mutations as a result. Unless your character is a complete dumbass (like daddy) or suicidal, why would you ever agree to President Eden's request? Luckily the game forces you to take the FEV anyway, even if you refuse, because you can't leave without. Stupid, bad writing.

- The Enclave had the ability to rain destruction from satellites in orbit and could've wiped the Citadel off the map at any time they wanted. Why did they wait until Liberty prime was on their doorstep to use a weapon that could've won them the war completely unopposed? Stupid, bad writing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Fallout 3. I rather like the gameplay, but the writing and general world design in it annoys me more and more each playthrough. New Vegas has a lot of the same problems, but to a slightly lesser degree.

 

[Blachman201_v1legacy]

GECK stuff

The whole GECK thing is a result of a retcon. The GECK as described by Fallout 2 was just some farming and building supplies and some regramming codes for the Vault computer. The magical, terraforming GECK was merely the superstitions of the Chosen One's tribe based on holotape advertisements. Then Bethesda decided that was how the GECK worked for some reason.

But then you'd be left without purified water. Water itself can't become radioactive, but can become contaminated with fallout. It is relatively easy to get those particles out with distillation and filtration. Time-consuming, yes, but way WAY simpler than cleaning irradiated soil. And like I said, there are already robots floating around that have working purifiers inside. Open one up, see what makes it tick and reproduce it in as large a quantity and size as you can. Except that is only a problem because the plot says so.

The irradiated water the result of the Fallout universe running on SCIENCE!? and not real-world science. There was a situation in Fallout 2 where well-water was irradiated and poisoned a town, though I'm not entirely sure if that is comparable to the situation in 3.

Stupid plot and worldbuilding stuff

I wholeheartedly concur. And lets not forget that:

Spoiler

In the original version of the ending, all your radiation-resistant companions refuses to enter the rad-filled chamber with no other excuse than "IT'S YOUR DESTINY!", even though their intervention will mean that no one will have to die, and one of them even possibly helped you completely a similar task about 2-3 hours earlier.

 

[Giralin]

Fallout 3 has a much better main plot, and Three Dog, but New Vegas has better everything else, and the "you can't play after the game is over" thing isn't really a good argument. You are told when you get to the point of no return, and are asked if you really want to continue, so if you want to do more side stuff after beating the game save on a different slot after that point.

side note if you are buying for PC (which you should for Bethesda's games because mods) here are some mods you should look into
for Fallout 3
Fallout Wanderer's Edition: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/2761/?
the unofficial patch: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/3808/?
for New Vegas
Project Nevada: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/40040/?
Mission Mojave (an unofficial patch): http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/45104/?

these are basically the bare minimum you should play with, and the big overhaul ones (Wanderer's Edition and Project Nevada) allow alot of customization on how much the effect the game balancing.