Poll: Should I get Fallout 3 or fallout new vegas?

[Rad Party God]

Spoiler: Space Saver.

with the release of the Fallout: New Vegas ultimate edition on steam, I'm considering buying it or the GTOY edition of Fallout 3, and currently being a poor student, I can only get one, so which one gives "more value"? I know that they are essentially the same game, but is there any kind of continuation between Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, which would justify getting Fallout 3 first? or does one have better gameplay?
plus I've never played any of the previous games, so I'm also asking: which one is the better game to get into the series?
I know this will probably start a flame war, but I do want to know ahead of time which is worth the
money I'll be paying for it
or alternately, you could suggest a similar open-world game (yes, I have Skyrim, oblivion, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat) that would be worth my money more then the fallout series?

If you can, get both, although in my personal opinion, if you can only get one, make sure it's New Vegas, it's main story, coupled with it's amazing DLC campaigns, is much, much better than Fallout 3, even almost as good as the previous Fallouts (excluding Tactics of course).

Granted, I still enjoyed the heck out of Fallout 3, again, if you can, get both, if not, definitively get New Vegas.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

play 1 and 2 first, before playing 3 and NV. Gives you some idea and something to lean on when finally deciding if you like 3 and NV. The changes made to those games are controversial to say the least.

I'd love to promote this notion, but I can't.

To be able to play the first two (rather brilliant) Fallout offerings in 2012 A.D., some tinkering needs to be done. It's easy to just download them, but making them a little less offensive to the eyes on today's big screens, the out-of-the-imaginary-box experience needs som tweaking.

I keep both around, but I wouldn't want to play them in, say, a 640x480 resolution, as it looks absolutely ludicrous and gives me instant claustrophobia. It also has to be noted that when I first played Fallout, severe lack of the I in AI had me (and others) figure out rather elaborate and silly workarounds to keeping that darn dog alive, preventing my followers from accidentally turning each other into mincemeat or otherwise trying to shoot through each other when faced with a deadly threat. When replaying Fallout (1) before the release of Fallout 3, I came pretty close to some game-induced raging-vomiting-epileptic fits.

If so inclined, you're bound to find just about everything (patches/tweaks/mods) in the Steam forums and/or teh interwebs.

 

[jurnag12]

Both are pretty close in terms of gameplay, but I'd advise New Vegas. It's got better DLC than 3.
And Fallout 3's story can go die in a fire for all I care, because you know what? It could all have been avoided if James wasn't an impulsive jackass and most other people weren't idiots.

 

[kgpspyguy]

Get fallout 3 it was immersive the atmosphere was great and the story actually had some depth to it, new vegas on the other hand was a buggy bland cop out piece of crap.

 

[Brandon237]

If you don't have thick nostalgia goggles, FO3 is the better game.

I am sorry, but I lol'd. I have never touched any Fallout games other than 3 and NV, and 3 bored me after 50 hours, New Vegas I have 200 hours racked up and still enjoy it.

[HEADING=3]WHY NEW VEGAS IS SUPERIOR[/HEADING]

-It isn't so bloody empty, The Capitol Wasteland was a little bit TOO much of a wasteland, it is not like the Apoc happened yesterday in Fallout 3, it really doesn't fit that it is so dead.

-More standard guns and energy weapons. The game gives a nice variety of energy weapons, so you can play as any type of character (except stealth) majoring in energy weapons. But Plasma Casters don't need stealthing anyway. Also, a nice variety of conventional weapons, New Vegas goes all out giving weapons with a varied feel, and there is little more satisfying than putting a .50 MG armour-piercing round into a death-claw from 100 feet away...

-MUCH more freedom. The choices in Fallout 3 regarding the main plot were basically "Superman's saintly protege" or "cartoon-villain evil" and a lot of choices were unavailable to you simply because that is the way the game was made and not for any other reason.
In New Vegas you can side with 1 of 4 factions (1 of them being YOURSELF ) and actually influence those factions quite significantly. You can work for all of them up to a point, and once you have played them all for XP and lulz, pull out a final decision and decide to go on a nice little killing spree > You really get involved with the politics and personal side of the factions you work for, in FO3... good luck with that ^.^

-You cannot kill a death-claw at level 9, or break into Fort Knox at said level (as easily anyway, you can always break a game this big). Some things you are just not supposed to mess with, and that abandoned robotics factory with an army of robots and enough expensive crap to fund a whole new faction... you ain't getting anywhere without insane science and lock-picking skills. You feel like your character really moves up in the world.
In Fallout 3 though, Death-claws are not so scary and plasma rifle = 1 stop murder shop. And you don't have to wait all that long for them either...

-The whole companion system is handled so much better, and you get a lot more involved with them too.

-The ending of New Vegas sent a chill down my spine with its final sentence, after a hundred hours of the game, that quote (you will have to wait and see ;P) so expertly hammered the nail into the coffin that I sat in my place for quite some time just recalling that whole awesome adventure. Fallout 3 never gave that feeling, and after playing NV, I cannot go back to 3. Not possible...

 

[Benny Blanco]

Was just checking out the voice acting cast for the two games on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073664/fullcredits#cast
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706601/fullcredits#cast

and I noticed that it ranks Fallout 3 more highly (9.4 vs. 8.9) based on user votes.

I have to think this is because of the buggy nature of the latter game.

I have personally found that F:NV has more replay value, which is what I look for generally as a tie-breaker.

 

[Jaeke]

Ive said it once and ill say it againt....
Damn Obsidian.
Fallout 3 my friend.

 

[thehorror2]

does Fallout 3 have any DLC like GRA in New Vegas, which makes it way too easy?
or is all the DLC for Fallout 3 all separate areas, which you can access on your own time?

There is no DLC for Fo3 that is just guns and challenges, no. But picking on NV because ONE DLC pack is game breaking...

EVERY DLC pack in Fo3 had something gamebreaking in it. Anchorage? Gauss Rifle, Infinite use invisibility armor, nigh-indestructable suit of power armor. The Pitt? The Ripper. Mothership Zeta? Unlimited supply of Alien Blaster ammo.

OP: I personally enjoyed New Vegas more than 3. 3 is fun, but if you're a "story-first" kind of guy like I am, you'll never make it through 3. New Vegas is a classic Obsidian product: they got the license to a good, but straightforward game, and ran with it. It's got a whole bunch of little tweaks that ruin the previous game when you go back and expect them. Armor actually matters, for one thing. Guns are viable all the way through the game, even on difficulties above normal, you can craft stuff other than a few oddball weapons (that they strangely removed) and the story and world are much more multifaceted than the previous game.

That said, it is very much a game in the Fallout series, which means that a lot of the story is full of references you won't get, although it does stand on its own even if you don't know what a super mutant is.

tl;dr: NV is better than 3 in just about every way, but also harder and more grounded than 3. If you just want to screw around in a (painfully-green-tinted) wasteland, go with 3. If you want a good story, better gunplay, more verisimilitude, and the chance to have a little robot follow you around playing battle music, go with NV.

 

[triggrhappy94]

It's hard to say.
Actually kind of funny.
I remember when FNV came out everyone said F3 was better, then after the DLC everyone said FNV was better and that F3 sucked.

You really can't go wrong with either. F3 only really has the story and the initially shock-and-awe of exiting the vault with the only direction "Find Dad". It's akin to the opening sequence of Bioshock in amazingness.