Poll: Fallout 3 vs Vegas/ Fallout 4

GonzoGamer

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Apr 9, 2008
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OP has two different questions there: what's the better game and what has the better story.
F3 was the better game and F2 had the better story. NV had a really good story too in that it could go in a lot of directions.

And besides that. Haven't we beaten the bone dust of this dead horse enough? It's a great series in that each one is a favorite of many a gamer. But it's also a terrible series because so many gamers seem to love one chapter and hate the rest. I thought they were all quite good.
 

Ken Sapp

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Apr 1, 2010
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Having only had exposure to the openings of 1 & 2 due to not getting my hands on them until they were released on Steam, I can only honestly speak towards Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. Fallout 3 was my introduction to the world of Fallout, I had seen the boxes for 1, 2 and Tactics as when they originally hit shelves but at the time I had little disposable income for games and it went towards other games, mostly console titles, as I didn't really have a decent PC at the time.

I found Fallout 3 to be fun as my introduction to the world. The location was interesting and the Open-World aesthetic really made it work. Fortunately, it took me well over a year to progress the main quest past Rivet City as the sidequests were so much more engaging. I explored at least 90% of the Capital Wasteland just doing sidequests and poking about at whatever piqued my interest. Sadly, I went on to complete the Main Quest and that is where the game really falls flat for me. There were just too many points where the writing could have been done better or the circumstances better designed to make the options available or the forced helplessness more believable. Not to say that the rest of the world is not a giant cluster of fridge logic, but unlike the main quest the rest is interesting enough to allow you to overlook the questionable parts. The DLCs were interesting except for Operation Anchorage which could have been handled better and Mothership Zeta which was just dull, and both were buggy. Of the 5, The Pitt was probably my favorite.

Fallout New Vegas was a much richer world in my opinion. Its landscape had more diversity, the people had more character, and the quests had more leeway for determining how you wanted to fulfill them than the simple pass/fail state that most of FO3's quests had. The world itself was better designed with towns that you could actually believe to be somewhat self sufficient due to either the presence of visible agriculture or having an obvious purpose as in the case of Sloan and its quarry. And then the 4 story DLCs build upon each other and hints dropped during the main game to create an entire separate but backstory and character arc for your character. Dead Money I could easily live without as it was mostly just an exercise in aggravation, while Honest Hearts showed you yet another area where the survivors of the nukes had found a different path of adaptation to the new world. Old World Blues was fun and generated numerous laughs for me and Lonesome road brought me to the end of the arc between my character and mysterious Ulysses who was first foreshadowed way back in Primm.

Of the two games I would have to say that New Vegas was my favorite, hands down. I enjoyed both but ultimately, New Vegas took what had been been good from FO3, dropped or fixed the elements which were flawed, and used it to build a far richer story and location. Although, looking back I still have to criticize Obsidian for taking the engine which Bethesda had patched most of the bugs out of by the end of FO3 patching and using it in its unpatched FO3 release state. If nothing else they should have at least patched out most of the known bugs which had already been fixed in FO3. Other than that the only real criticism I can level at New Vegas that FO3 was not also guilty of is the use of invisible walls to keep you from wandering out of the approved areas. To open world designers, do not resort to invisible barriers to prevent players from going places you don't want them to, use natural barriers like vertical cliffs and other obstacles which at least give a believable reson the player "can't get there from here".
 

Catslade

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Jun 18, 2014
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I was lucky enough to play the original games when they came out, and I still love Fallout and Fallout 2 and play them from time to time, own them in hard copies and also in digital from GOG.com, bought them before GOG.com had to stop selling the Fallout games.
For me Fallout 3 is quite an interesting game, I like it and really enjoy the ruins of the Capital Wasteland, explore the metro areas and abandoned factories and offices. Fallout 3 wins at the map/world setting, but Fallout New Vegas wins at the game features and overall game improvements, also the ability of being able to join three different factions to beat the game or go wild and make your own is also a plus, Fallout 3 unfortunately had no side to choose from, couldn't join the Enclave, always had to fight them.
But to be honest and the main reason I just registered to post on this thread and participate in this poll is because I didn't see anyone mention a great project that integrates Fallout 3 and all of it's DLC's into Fallout New Vegas called Tale for Two Wastelands (or TTW for short). Unfortunately it is a mod so it only works with the PC version of the games and to install it requires an installed version of Fallout 3 and all of it's DLC's and also Fallout New Vegas with all of the DLC's installed (with the exception for the stuff packs or Courier's Pack, those are optional) and it does what I just said, you can play Fallout 3 and all of the DLC's using the Fallout New Vegas engine and features, the team there made a train station (using actual blueprints for the 1940's real train stations that actually existed in the real world) that requires a short quest to activate, after that just buy a train ticket and ride to New Vegas and play there, after that one can go back and forward using that train and buying new tickets, companions can follow the player from each of the wastelands to the other, items from New Vegas were integrated into the Capital Wasteland, so you can find doctor bags and Hydra, etc in the world and on vendors, iron sights for fallout 3 weapons, armors updated to be like in New Vegas, etc.
I really advise anyone that has both games to at least try this mod, you get all the setting from Fallout 3 and all the features and improvements from Fallout New Vegas, and it even makes Fallout 3 work better and with less crashes than just play Fallout 3 by itself.
The community is also quite friendly and helpful in case people have problems installing the mod or trying to play with added mods (both Fallout 3 and Fallout NV mods work, but the Fallout 3 ones need to be converted).
To find a Tale of Two Wastelands just google it, since the Nexus doesn't allow it to be hosted there in case Bethesda would get angry for some reason by the project.