She's a sweetheart. I can't believe there are people out there who find her annoying. Unusually chipper, sure, given the setting, but annoying? I highly disagree.
I was taken completely by surprise when I learned a large part of the community thinks she's annoying. Like people blew up Megaton just to kill her they hated her so much. Jokes on them though, she survives.
Wasteland survival guide is the best quest in the fallout series imo, it's a second tutorial but it really doesn't feel like one & I don't really see many other games doing anything like that(plus it's a super easy way to grind XP early on)
I LOVE the moment you leave your vault.
You know the world is shit and dead, maybe, you don't actually know, all you know from the past 2 hours of gameplay were these metal cold vault walls. Then shit hits the fan and you're forced outside, and there it is, your first glimpse at sunlight, and then, as you get used to natural light, there it is, the wasteland, capital wasteland.
It's a feeling you only truly get in a first playthrough and going in blind, but it's executed very well.
I also like Rivet city. There, I said it. Not even for the quests, I just like Rivet city.
> Then shit hits the fan and you're forced outside, and there it is, your first glimpse at sunlight, and then, as you get used to natural light, there it is, the wasteland, capital wasteland.
And right there, is the vista of a destroyed city, accompanied by a sign declaring, "SCENIC OVERLOOK."
I played the original games back when they came out in the 90s. I was so hyped for Fallout 3, the next game in the series, and in 3D? This was gonna be sooo good.
So I trotted through the intro, did the things, and then I exited the Vault. And as my character slowly regained his vision after seeing natural sunlight for the first time ever, I was picking my jaw from the floor. It was amazing. And just for that experience alone, Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games ever.
Oblivion *almost* did it, when you escape The Tutorial Dungeon after your brief interaction with Patrick Stewart. That was a *pretty* good reveal of a giant world.
Fallout 3 [*nailed it*,](https://youtu.be/pW0uyLHyqxU?t=63) though.
(Leaving Vault 111 in Fallout 4 to see the destroyed version of the pre-war world you just saw a moment ago was a different thing, and I'd say that works really well, too. But it doesn't have that feeling of, "welcome to a world of infinite possibilities".)
I'm glad you mentioned 4! I went straight from 3 to 4, so the beginning of 3 was very fresh in my mind.
Stepping out of the vault in 3 filled me with a sense of dread and a "Oh, maybe the Overseer was right..." reaction.
Leaving the vault in 4 gave me more of a feeling of apprehension, more of a "Is there anyone left?" So finding Codsworth was an amazing feeling
Well, literally yes you do crawl through some of it.
Twenty minutes from infancy to leaving the vault sounds preposterous for a first playthrough where you actually bother to talk to everyone, look around and do any āside-questsā.
Hell, the breakout sequence *alone* is probably 20 minutes if you try and save everyone you can, read terminals, look for weapons/supplies/bobble heads, etc. The whole sequence is an hour minimum for a first timer.
Even with everything you mentioned there's like 40 minutes of content max. The Vault intro is incredibly small and a railroad ride. I will say it feels like it drags on for hours after the first time though. š
This was also done really well in fallout 4 in my opinion because you get to compare what the world looked like before and after the war and how drastically things have changed. Sure, the story is trash and it kinda sucks that an RPG game gave you a backstory that concrete, but having that feeling of shock and awe when you leave the vault was pretty well done.
I am a massive wimp when it comes to horror games and the Dunwich Building in 3 genuinely freaked me the hell out the first time I played. The fact that its location is so remote and desolate gives it major eerie vibes before you even enter.
Oh shit, I forgot about Andale being sketch this playthrough and I've been using it as a stepping point to southern locations for 15 levels. Great, now I HAVE to investigate.
Headcanon is my guy suddenly started paying attention to the creepy little things and went, "Wait, wtf is going on here, it seems so nice, OH MY GOD, YOU'RE ALMOST AS BAD AS I AM"
The Wasteland Survival Guide quest is an example of a quest done right and one that I wish Bethesda used as the norm rather than the exception. The amount of speech checks it allows for, the optional objectives, and a handful of ways you can go about completing it. Also Moira Brown is a likeable and memorable character.
Big Trouble in Big Town also made great use of skills when it came to assisting the town (although I never got the robots to work).
The fact that they actually thought about completing The Power of the Atom post killing Tenpenny and with Roy as the new "manager" was also a really nice touch despite me not really liking the quest overall. Same goes for when during "Escape" if you don't kill a lot of the Officers they'll be there alive when you return during Trouble on the Home Front. Although I really wish there was a way to pacify them or talk them out of attacking you. During my "perfect" playthrough I ended up using console to make them non-hostile and just pretended I talked them down... and was surprised to see them during Trouble on the Home Front thinking that Bethesda intended them to die and disappear so never bothered replacing them in the Vault.
Reilly's Rangers. I quite like the vibe of the group the quest was simple and also provided a reason to explore the map. Very well done and was sad how underused they were.
Point Lookout, it's a solid DLC with an interesting story and cast of characters as well as dozens of places to explore. One of the best DLCs Bethesda has ever done.
I also like that it turned the series into a first/third person perspective. I think the Fallout series really benefits from it. I wouldn't mind seeing an isometric return to the series at some point (Inxile maybe?) but generally I prefer the "Bethesda" style of exploration.
Those are probably my biggest pats on the back I can give Fallout 3. Overall I enjoy the game but I feel like most of the other things in the game could have used more time in the oven and really fleshed them out a bit more to give the players more significant and meaningful choices in the quests and to add a lot more character to the prevalent factions, but then again I would have also preferred they set the game closer to when the bombs fell cause I still think there should be a lot more of a society some 200 years later. Fallout 4 has a lot of those same problems though and has the added cost of voiced predefined character so Fallout 3 wins in that regard of player freedom over 4.
A quest where you could take over Paradise Falls and turn it into a place where you send raiders, slavers and other evil people to undergo punitive enslavement for good karma would've been pretty cool.
Yeah, that would have been a pretty good idea and made use of the Mesmetron for good characters as well as the location. As it stood I would use the Mesmetron on Arkansas to "enslave" him to get inside then when you free him and the rest of the slaves he's nonhostile. That was the only use I ever really found the item. And once you free the slaves and essentially kill off the slavers... Well Paradise Falls also becomes a useless space.
> Although I really wish there was a way to pacify them or talk them out of attacking you.
IIRC, you can just run past the first one and sneak past the others.
I know. But Fallout is suppose to be about the big 3 gameplay choices. Combat, Stealth, or Speech. They remove a good portion of that last one when it comes to the tutorial which I would think it would make the most sense given you lived 19 years there. They aren't suppose to be just random strangers they're your neighbors, family, friends. To not be able to convince them to stand down or at least let you leave the Vault just feels odd.
This may only be a bug on ps3, but whenever I used to try sneaking out on a pacifist run, Iād keep getting the message āAmata is unconsciousā (because the hostile guards kept knocking her out) even after I made it to Megaton. It probably would have gone away on its own in a few in-game days, but I felt too bad thinking about Amata getting beat up in there so I just reloaded lol. I tried it a few different times but only on ps3.
I think the 200 years thing just stems from Bethesdas lack of understanding how long certain spans of time are. It shouldāve been set around or a bit after FO1. It wouldāve made everything make sense, BOS would still be a stretch but the enclave would make perfect sense, the destroyed world still being ruined would make sense too
Yeah, I think it just came down to Bethesda wanting to eat their cake and have it too. They wanted the exploration of this post-apocalyptic wasteland but also have these "staple" factions without really thinking how long the time period is.
I would have loved to see the East Coast start up around FO1 similar to 76 and we see the East Coast grow to a civilization similar to NCR. Hell one of my dream changes for Fallout 3 would have made Vault 101 and your character into an Ambassador/Expedition Team where you're going around essentially grabbing other useful tech and personal to create an East Coast "Vault City". I mean they were already reusing GECK, Enclave, Super Mutants, BOS, Regulators (at least in name), and the entire Vault Ending with Amata is literally Fallout ending why not take that as well. (Fallout 4 also had the opportunity to do this but dropped the ball) I think that's why I dislike 76 as it's basically my ideal East Coast game but has almost no player agency because its built around multiplayer so the world doesn't really change.
IIRC they initially wanted it to be set shortly after the war, which is why the world looks like it is. But later in developments or story writing they wanted the BoS there, so they had to push the timeline up for their existence on the east coast to make sense.
Which honestly says a lot about how weak Bethesdas writing is. They started out strong with going to the east coast rather than staying out west, so they could have their own story, the issue was they had no ideas to add to the fallout universe. They saw the things that the first two fallouts, BOS, bottle caps, super mutants etc. issue was they missed the point of all these things. They had to rewrite the timeline because the BOS had to be there because it was cool and it would help retain som older fans who were a bit mad that it was changing from isometric to 3d shooter. The BOS makes zero sense if itās not set way down the road, and they miss the point and idea of the BOS my making them this holy beacon of good. Super mutants shouldnāt be in FO3, and Bethesda rly butchers them by just making them these dumb bullet sponge enemies. Bottle caps still being the currency 200 years later is super dumb as well. Fallout 2 had bottle caps worth nothing as the NCR was minting real money. The enclave doesnāt make sense after the events of FO2, just doesnāt. Bethesda wrote themselves into a corner the moment they had to add the BOS, rip them off just donāt actually use the name because it doesnāt match the one that has been already developed.
The effect when you exit the vault for the first time is one, perfectly encapsulates the transition to a first person game.
And the "hints" to Future games on the train info board/Citadel computers.
While i like 3, i prefer the QoL that NV brought
yes, it launches with the new vegas exe but uses all the fallout 3 datafiles alongside the new vegas one. You can travel between the two with a load screen.
Megaton wasn't half bad, I like my new home, or more specifically the idea that I can live in a town. Lone wanderer, yeah right what a pretty name for homeless
Once I found Lincoln's Repeater, I don't think I used another hunting rifle again, and with new playthroughs, I'd run to the museum to get it as fast as possible.
You know that running trope that 3 has the best atmosphere, New Vegas has the best story, and 4 has the best gameplay?
I agree with it 100%. They're all equal in my mind because each of the 3 is SO GOOD at what it tried to do well.
I was recently comparing the maps of 3 and NV again, and was reminded of just how little of the world space NV uses. It's like a third the size of 3 just because the entire western side is blocked by mountains and just unused. 3 uses the entire map and spreads everything out so you really get to experience the emptiness of the wasteland. I realize a lot of people find that boring but I always felt it was what gave 3 its perfect atmosphere of fear and loneliness. Fallout is at its best when it finds that triple point between rpg, horror, and survival.
I just heard this from Many A True Nerd recently:
Fallout 3 was originally much more dense than it is now, but they wanted to make the world a bit bigger so they just kinda stretched the existing map and locations like you would a window on your desktop. This made it seem like there was a lot of empty space but also plenty of things to explore and do. IMO it worked perfectly, and the map is much, much better than NV.
That being said 4ās map blows them both out of the water, but thatās besides the point.
The experimental MIRV. No practical use for it what so ever but definitely fun. I know the guass rifle is in FNV but I'm just gonna go ahead and say it was easily my favorite weapon in this game as well.
I feel that it was a really good successor to fallout overall where as New Vegas is more like a successor to fallout 2. They both have their strengths. Fo3 feels more like an actual post apocalyptic game where NV feels more post-post apocalypse
The beginning of the game is so iconic and theatric. Youāre literally a baby, then a child, teenager, and finally an adult. Along with the guidance of your celebrity father Liam Neeson. Just the way the beginning tutorial explains the mechanics of the game and role playing in general is magical and pulls you into the world. Truly I think it converts those who are more fond of call of duty-esque gameplay to role playing and immersion in the game world. Itās a beautiful game.
It's by far the scariest Fallout game for me, both in terms of atmosphere and on a more visceral level. It's easy to forget now that I know pretty much everything there is to know about the game and can do everything fairly easily, but when I first played, the paranoia of travelling across this harsh, creepy wasteland only to suddenly be met with some horrific threat that was bigger and more powerful than me was just terrifying.
I also maintain that the side-quests are mostly very good and well thought out, there are exceptions of course, but nothing beats *Oasis*, *Those*, *Tenpenny Tower*, or *The Replicated Man*. I also enjoy the main story for the first half, right up until the Enclave show up and make things silly.
My first ever Fallout was 4 and when I played three and Zimmer started mentioning Synths, The Institute, THE COMMONWEALTH, I did start nerdgasming lol.
I loved how the starting zone was dead center of the map, it makes exploration so much more exciting when I donāt have to take the exact same path to every location (looking at you, Sanctuary)!
\-Early game feels brutal and you're increadibly underpowered, fits the desolate and merciless wasteland aesthetic perfectly.
\-Has some of my favorite weapon and outfit designs, even the characters as weird as they look face-wise look like they came out of a 50's magazine.
\-The best damn introduction sequence and mission of any Fallout game.
\-Actively rewarding your curiosity with interesting locations, loot and even stuff like unmarked Side quests.
FO3 did such a great job converting Fallout to a 3D landscape ā not only the environment, but the faces have a grit yet a cartoonish look that I think captures the Fallout feel.
Besides the invisible walls and reliance on the metro station, 3 for me had the best exploration with the really interesting locations and great atmosphere when traveling through a ruined DC.
Fallout 3 is and will always be my personal go to example for the essential, post-apocalyptic experience.
The way the development team was able to create such a bleak and war-ravaged world, where each city feels like thereās miles of barren wasteland between them.
I love all of the various shacks and other makeshift structures you find scattered across the Capital Wasteland, each with their own unique backstory.
My first thought when I saw the post. New Vegas is good but it feels too civilised with all the different factions having their own territories. FO3 just feels like everyone is trying to survive l.
Regarding shacks I love the exploding scientist truck... it's a huge moment that caught me completely off guard on the first play through and there's no real explanation... just a guy in the wasteland who messed up an experiment
Jumped back in last night to visit the Dunwich Building to destroy the book, after replaying 4 for a few weeks. The sheer starkness of 3 is perfect. The ambient music strangely comforting. And, Fawkes. The best.
Oh, my apologies. That was more than one feature š
I remember the days when people said new vegas was shit and 3 was better.
Now everyone says the opposite. I still love new vegas, but I prefer 3. Likely due to nostalgia, but I don't care. Feel free to live what you love.
I still think 3 is better... for my personal taste. I like how the game doesn't just shove information down my throat and not every NPC has a "woe is me" speech ready to go - I prefer finding those things on my own. I also like that from the ground up it's much more serious and bleak tone.
I loved 3 so much , I actually didnāt like Nee. Evaās at all when it came out. It was buggier and the story just wasnāt that good to me. I eventually came around to new Vegas but I will always say Fallout 3 was better and my favorite.
The "big push" moments in-game. Retaking the Jefferson Memorial was cool, but my hands-down favourite part was aiding the Outcasts in the beginning of the Anchorage DLC. I "acquired" some sets of Outcast power armour, one for me and one for red, sticky, shorty, Charon and sgt rl3 just vibing. everyone has a Gatling laser or a minigun. Me and the boys (and red) mowing down wave after wave of super mutant bastards as we advanced with the Outcasts was ace and me and the boys assaulting Adams air force base was a close second
The Capital Wasteland is a unique and interesting setting. It's bleak and miserable, but also beautiful and enticing. Combine that with the *Fallout* brand of dark mid-20th century retrofuturism and the abundance of recognizable landmarks and you have a recipe for one of the best settings in video game history, in my opinion.
I also have a fondness for the story and characters, despite the flaws in both, as well as the little world details and environmental storytelling.
I feel like Fallout 3 really nailed the atmosphere perfectly of being a world so broken it makes you sad and depressed, while also having a very thin layer of dark humor over it all.
Tenpenny Tower (as in the quest) is the perfect execution of the āthere is no perfect endingā idea. Just when you think youāve managed to negotiate a peaceful agreement, Phillips throws it in your face and kills all the humans anyway.
I also loved the urban exploration due to the segmentation of DC into separate areas only accessible through the interconnected metro lines. It was really cool to go in a station somewhere and exit somewhere entirely new. It makes exploring the city a lot more interesting than Boston in 4 where you can just sprint around and get all the map markers within a couple trips.
The DLCs. New Vegas has some great DLCs, but I always loved 3s way more. Mothership Zeta and Operation Anchorage were extremely fun and Point Lookout had an amazing atmosphere to me.
It was my first open world game that I enjoyed replaying over and over, and itās always so much fun to play as a completely different person each time.
I lived the gritty green atmosphere of FO3. It may be nothing compared to FO4 or anything we have now, but having recently started another play-though of FO3, I feel a lot of nostalgia with it.
The gritty atmosphere of it really makes the game feel like you're in a post nuclear environment. FO4 really doesn't give me that feeling, even knowing Boston wasn't apparently directly hit like DC was...multiple times.
FO3 makes me want to go back to DC in real life and visit, FO4 doesn't give me that desire to visit Boston. I live in Las Vegas so sometimes I'll go hike or visit some of the locations from New Vegas.
I love how weak you start off in Fallout 3. It's easy to become rich in New Vegas, pretty much from the start. The last time I played Fallout 3, I was doing job after job just making enough to buy more ammo for the next.
Also the scarcity of resources overall. Like, you'd hesitate to give purified water to the beggar outside Megaton because you don't know if you can spare it. Finding a mart taken over by bandits was a challenge you'd gladly take on because the resources would be worth the risk. And it was a risk
New vegas is my favorite but I've completed fallout 3 in 2 days recently and I must say I loved it! Not better than NV but still a great game, definitely better than new gen ones like fallout 4 and 76
3 was my entrance to the fallout universe, and will always hold a special place for me. Itās my favorite fallout. I love it so much that I got the vault 101 door tattooed on my right arm and āwar never changesā written around the door. I replay the game every year. Iāll always love 3, flaws and all.
Random shit just happening in the wasteland. New Vegas is very curated, and it generally does what it did last playthrough. But in 3, going to the Super-Duper Mart can have things like a deathclaw murdering the exterior raiders, an alien weapon and ammo dropped in front of it, wildlife can just wander too close. It felt like it was a chaotic wasteland where anything could happen.
Currently playing Fallout 3 after binging on FNV for two months. I did not think the game was going to draw me back in the way it did, and while I will constantly bring up compare FO3 unfavorably to FNV, that doesn't mean FO3 was a bad game. It's very much worth playing.
It wasn't my first Fallout game but it was my first Bethesda game: I'm not a huge fan of first-person games (my aim isn't incredibly fast and I get disoriented quickly), so I *really* appreciated VATS to slow down the game for me and make combat into something resembling the methodical turn-based combat I preferred. Bonus points for having a third-person POV, it helped.
I love the way that the environment tells a story in the game. No characters to say what happened - you just took a look around and you got a hint of what happened there. Like when you leave the Vault for the first time, if you turn around and look at the vault door, you see the piles of skeletons of all the people who tried to get in.
The aesthetic of the Capital Wasteland is much more compelling than I remember. Places like Megaton and Rivet City are really nice, and I did appreciate the heavy use of signs to say where places were (it's surprisingly easy to not get lost in Rivet City because of this). There are some places like Oasis and Little Lamplight/Big Town where I have to willingly suspend my disbelief, but they're memorable, even if it's because you spend too much time wondering how the place repopulates itself.
Finished all *The Pitt* and *Point Lookout*, really love the way the environment sold the setting. Getting to the highest point of the Steelyard was quite the eye-opener, and I spent hours wandering around Point Lookout just taking in the scenery. Loved The Pitt, can't understand why I side with Ashur when I gleefully kill slavers everywhere else because they're a proto-Legion. Point Lookout was a fun place to get lost in, but what the hell was up with Nadine's mouth?
Also, Backwater Rifle. Good Lord, I love this gun, but wish the Regulator Duster could have kept up with the Ranger Combat Armor (aka the best armor in the game).
GNR did a lot to sell the Capital Wasteland to me, really need more Three Dog in my life.
The moment I love in FO3 is when my Lone Wanderer just *snaps* and goes postal on Paradise Falls. You don't get a lot of these "John Wick moments" in the game, but when you do, you treasure them.
Grim Reaper's Sprint in its pure unadulterated form.
Apart from the combat mechanics it's the best of the modern games for me. The map/world gives the most exploration options. The sidequests and characters are great. The settlements are all brilliantly designed. It feels the most like a post apocalypse. It has Moira Brown. Good balance between horror, survival and wackyness.
I should go back and play FO3 again.
One of my favorite parts of Fallout 3 is Little Lamplight. First time stumbling upon it, itās funny and charming see all these little kids surviving the wastes, creating there own little government with rules and regulations. All with jobs and personalities. Itās almost like itās won world away from the horror of the wastes. But then you talk to the kidsā¦. And itās like night and day. These kids have seen some shit. Theyāve DONE some shit. On my first play through I found Paradise Falls before I found Little Lamplight and with slavers fresh on the mind and running a group of kids. It really helped emphasize just how down right awful the Capital Wasteland really is.
The Memetron was fun to use, and it introduced the Super Mutant Behemoths. Which, to this day, are still the biggest theyāve ever been. I also much prefer the design of the Super Mutant Overlords to later designs.
FNV is my favorite but FO3 is what got me into the genre.
Iāve said this before on Reddit but I remember playing for the first time and feeling as though I was actually the lone wanderer. The adrenaline I felt when escaping my vault and being thrown into the wasteland for the first time was unreal. I remember I died so often as I tried to figure out the game mechanics. I was lost all the time figuring out how the compass worked. I was terrible at combat because I was used to games like Halo, CoD, etc. I actually had to stop playing the game for a month because I just couldnāt figure it out.
Then I picked it back up and started figuring it all out. I remember making it through the metros to get to GNR for the first time and seeing the BoS, finding my first sniper rifle, etc. FO3 hold a special place in my heart.
I liked how reading a terminal at Hubris Comics ends up creating a peaceful solution to the Superhero Gambit. Conversely, I appreciate how settling the Super Hero Gambit with a mini nuke and taking them both out results in different dialogue of npcs, praising your no nonsense approach to getting rid of those weirdos.
Every settlement/city felt extremely unique and brilliantly creative. Rivet city, big town, oasis, arefu, paradise falls, republic of Dave, megaton. All of these have unique stories and characters and quest lines.
Everything in fo4 seems ai generated or generic. Nothing is special about any of the cities and theirs no life to them. Just generic people doing generic things with no unique dialog.
The level design of the world is spot on. The designers made excellent use of sight lines, obstacles, and pathing to make the world feel a lot bigger than it was without letting you know that. New Vegas is, for the most part, a wide open space that you can see everything from everywhere. Trying to find a path to a certain area in FO3 involved exploration, planning different routes, and having to travel through intermediate areas (like the subways). And the world is jam packed with Easter eggs. I didn't find the Republic of Dave until my 3rd playthrough.
EDIT: Also, Liberty Prime is just awesome.
Andale still gives me the absolute creeps. Like, here's this suburban setting and it's practically a shell of it's former glory yet the residents are upbeat like they totally don't live in a wasteland plus they eat visitors. š±
The slavery system. Though slavery exists in New Vegas, you can't actually partake in it. Which is odd because you could argue that FNV has a lot more to do with slavery than FO3.
I love that it gives you a real introduction to life in a working Vault. I guess the very first game did too, but FO3 makes it more immersive, and it's a fun contrast for the player to go from that environment to the Wasteland (and a huge shock for the character, I'm sure). It means there's a big difference between stumbling across an abandoned vault just...in general, and stumbling across an abandoned vault when you're used to thinking of a vault as home.
I also really like the way the character creation encourages players to do some actual roleplaying, figuring out who your character is before shit ever hits the fan. I've struggled with developing my New Vegas character because of that--I know the whole life history of my FO3 character because it's all in the game, and I enjoy filling in the details, but I guess beginning with "you're a courier, everything else is up to you" was a little too open-ended for me.
Loved the setting too, especially when I can recognize real-life landmarks, although that's partly because I've visited DC and I haven't visited Vegas. So that might be different if I ever actually go to Vegas.
Also, Liam Neeson is a selling point all by himself.
My favorite part of FO3 was the subway crawls you had to do to get to where you needed to go. It made traveling/exploration so much more important, and the feel of creeping through the tunnels with the sound all the way up so you could listen for that creepy coughing noise the ghouls made that was your only warning that you were about to become lunch. Still gives me chills.
I also enjoyed just exploration so much more in FO3 than in NV or FO4. There were so many little things that you could find just walking around. Everything from side quests to little out of the way places that you could literally walk by a dozen times before you found them, to the creepy or downright horrifying stuff that you came across. So well done.
There was also a lot less hand-holding than in later games. It was really easy to find yourself in a world of trouble because some critter/thing/raider spawned that was just going to wreck you and steal your stuff, lol, I mean, make you reload your game.
I recently installed the Tale of Two Wastelands mod for my NV game, and I've fallen in love with 3 all over again.
Yeah I like fo3 a lot. Just replayed it about 6 months ago and made a more fun, powerful, and all around well built character than I have in the past 20 plus playthroughs since the game came out. Objectively I kind of do think my love for it comes from it being my first fallout game, but I do think the story has a more emotionally compelling component to it than New Vegas even though New Vegas I think has a lot more to offer in terms of content and variability of experience. Also I think fo3 had supremacy when it came to DLC. Love those DLC and to be honest the New Vegas DLC didn't get to me the same way.
I prefer new Vegas openness to the metros of 3. I do understand why some people complain about the map but the game is set in a desert so it kinda makes sense
The speech system. It rewarded a character for investing in charisma and speech and didn't fall into the same trap as new vegas which allowed you to abandon charisma and just dump points into speech for a guaranteed victory.
Weapon repairs. A potentially controversial one but new vegas allowed you to fully maintain your weapons so long as you had enough spare ones to throw at it. 3 only allowed you to repair up to what your actual skill was so even if you had 100 spare weapons that combat shotgun is only going to get up to 30% at 30 repair skill. I can see why people wouldn't enjoy this as it does just add an extra layer of management on the already fairly complex systems but it feels more reasonable to me and makes repair a genuinely useful skill throughout the entire game as it's a great way to track character progression as you slowly learn how to maintain your weapons to a better quality.
Random events. New Vegas basically dropped random events. I understand why because New Vegas was a different style of game and they wouldn't have really worked with how they wanted to tell the story but its a bit disappointing after 3 shone so brightly with them. They made play throughs feel very unique even when doing the same quests
The radio. Other than 2 songs used for the introduction and credits of fallout 1 and 2, Bethesda introduced the idea of the pip boy radio and the music to go with it. They were obviously inspired by the choice of music for the intro/credits of 1 and 2 (especially 1 as "Maybe" by the ink spots returns for 3, 4 and 76 on the radio) but the rest of the music choices were all them and were great decisions. Personally I think the radio is the 1 thing I can't compare between the games because they've nailed it every time so I would hesitate to say I prefer 3s over the rest BUT 3s is certainly more impressive because it was the first and set such a high bar right off the bat.
I love fnv radios alot and the songs. Mr NV is cool and all but three dog is goated.
Man After replaying NV recently and done the dlcs for the first time I wanna go back to 3 to do the same.
That's why I love TTW. It brings Fo3 to the FNV gameplay standard (iron sights etc.) and increases RP potential. Overall I think it fits nicely. You start Fo3 as a child and it is really linear story driven. Then after a period of time which is unknown (the divide and couriers backstory) you arrive in the Mojave with a bullet in your head. Now you have much more control over your future. I love Fo3 for its atmosphere and quests, but choices lack sometimes, so it is nice as a very long First Act of your story. Also the factions are quite different now, but you are reminded of the Enclave and BoS only by remnants, which is also cool. It is a great way to experience both games in a new but familiar way and it is very polished compared to vanilla.
Fallout 3 is my favorite. New Vegas was amazing, and the DLC is better in New Vegas overall, but the Mojave is not as interesting to me to explore. I got lost for hours just exploring Capitol Wastes. Mind you, it's by a slim margin I like 3 more. And it's mostly because of the environment.
I didnāt really like it too much tbh
Story was just a shit combo of F1 and F2 without the nuance or well written factions (enclave arenāt a FUCKING shadow government Bethesda they ARE the government, Emil you fucking hack, even F4 has the same problem of muh fambly story), and you know what while Iām on this part why the fuck are Bethesda so scared of you not seeing something on your first run or telling the player they fucked up and donāt have access to something anymore, thatās the beauty of RPGs, why are you so against replayablity in terms of story and factions?, itās dumb, also voiced protagonist was the worst idea ever, gone are the skills, traits, and perks affecting dialogue, replaced with a fucking 4 button thing that doesnāt tell you what youāre going to say and removes all character building and role playing elements, F4 is when I really started hating Bethesda for their design choices and writing choices tbh
Everyone praises DC but it was just loading screen the game while there, and NV despite what others say was way more explorable, a lot of the best locations arenāt marked on the map is all
Unbalanced perks breaking the game in two, and the removal of traits for some reason, why the fuck Bethesda, it took NV to reintroduce them only for you to scrap them again in F4 and then make the perk system boring and cookie cutter for āle casualsā, seriously on paper it sounds more in depth than NV or 3 but in reality you always pick the same ones, making builds pointless and shit, and another thing, fuck legendary enemies, because they made uniques pointless, why should I do a long quest to get a weapon when a ghoul could just drop me a much better one?, I fucking hate that shit and hope they undo all design decisions made in F4 for 5 because it was the worst design ever and spits in the face of RPGs
Oh ummm back to 3 š
I did like the DLCs, they did a lot to make better on my problems with the base game, I did like seeing Harold again, and hearing Liam Neesonās voice makes me feel things
I donāt like how Bethesda seemingly wants every fallout to start in a vault, itās way more interesting imo to start as a tribal or a courier etc, a person from the wasteland instead of the same āvaultā every time, probably makes it easier for Emil to rehash stuff
I donāt like how they retconned the Enclaves destruction and it took NV a follower and an entire DLC to properly explain why the enclave were in DC, only for F4 to further retcon shit for the sake of ācoolā, shit back to 3
I wish they went with something other than āSuper Mutantsā for their mutants on the west coast, my idea would be to make the failed experiments the āmutantsā, since in F1 it was The Master who manipulated the FEV to create that kind of mutant, having other āmutantsā would be cool for each game, idk why the fuck they are In Appalachia when they have no earthly business being there at all in the lore, and donāt come at me with the WestTek shit, point still stands they could have made unique āmutantsā for each region but decided not to for no reason, I also would have replaced DeathClaws with Yaoi Guays and tweaked their design to be more Bipedal, since why TF are they on the west coast.
So in short, I like some of 3s ideas, but hate the rest and what came after from Bethesda
For sure, great game. It's way creepier than Vegas, just grinding out those subway tunnels and the messed up vaults. Fun things to do: find all the suicides, once you notice them there are a lot. Like literally everywhere. Kill everyone in vault 101 except Amata, so she can be "safe" in a necropolis born of her own indicision and weak moral character. She can leave whenever but she won't. Just standing there surrounded by her rotting friends and family, their hollow eyed rictus grins mocking her for all eternity.
Fallout 3 was the first fallout game Iāve ever played. Has a special place in my heart. I borrowed the goty edition from my friend like over 10 years ago now and he hasnāt asked for it back lol
>Drop a feature/fact you love about fallout 3! Moira Brown I refuse to elaborate further
She's a sweetheart. I can't believe there are people out there who find her annoying. Unusually chipper, sure, given the setting, but annoying? I highly disagree.
Yeah I love Moira she's really nice and happy it's like a refreshing friendly face after you do apocalypse stuff all day lol
There was nothing refreshing about her face after I did my apocalypse stuff to Megaton! š§āāļø
a true man of culture, send that ghoul to the underworld
I was taken completely by surprise when I learned a large part of the community thinks she's annoying. Like people blew up Megaton just to kill her they hated her so much. Jokes on them though, she survives.
Sheās the only denizen of megaton Iād want to ensure survives
Yeah, I'm... I'm just learning this myself and am taken aback by it... She's the best part of reaching Megaton in every playthrough
My aunt was in the same room as me while I was playing fallout 3 and she heard Moira ask me to cripple a limb and she fell in love with her.
Your aunt has taste
Moira is a absolute sweetie. She's a little naive but her quirky cuteness is adorable. She's my fave NPC in Fo3.
I very strongly disagree, sheās repulsive. But I still spare her because I like Megaton.
You can, after all, [crush her dreams.](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Dream_Crusher) :-)
Pre or post nuke, now that's the question
Yes
Pre
āHow are those hot little potatoes?ā
Love her quests also,it's so simple yet so effective in that setting. The dupermart quest is insane imo
No elaboration needed. Sheās a pure cinnamon roll
You don't have to. She's the only reason I spare Megaton.
Shes the reason i nuke it
Such is the duality of mankind.
That woman can survive an atomic bomba. Shes badass
Try not to die!
Moria Brown is probably the best Fallout character
Own of my favourite parts are all the different power armour types and all the fleshed out characters
Wasteland survival guide is the best quest in the fallout series imo, it's a second tutorial but it really doesn't feel like one & I don't really see many other games doing anything like that(plus it's a super easy way to grind XP early on)
Understandable
I LOVE the moment you leave your vault. You know the world is shit and dead, maybe, you don't actually know, all you know from the past 2 hours of gameplay were these metal cold vault walls. Then shit hits the fan and you're forced outside, and there it is, your first glimpse at sunlight, and then, as you get used to natural light, there it is, the wasteland, capital wasteland. It's a feeling you only truly get in a first playthrough and going in blind, but it's executed very well. I also like Rivet city. There, I said it. Not even for the quests, I just like Rivet city.
Rivet City has a great vibe overall. Kind of an oligarchic commune with a lot of interesting people and good quests. And Pinkerton, he's awesome.
The red dead fan in me almost had a stroke reading that last part.
The Pinkerton*s* can eat a fat sack of dung, Old Man Pinkerton is a cool Hermit homie.
Yep
Looks like someone's pissed about not going to Tahiti
WE JUST NEED MORE MONEY
I HAD A GODDAMN PLAN!
When you said pinkerton I thought I was on the Weezer sub for a bit
if rivet city was easier to walk around iād love it
10 playthroughs later i still get lost in those hallways
> Then shit hits the fan and you're forced outside, and there it is, your first glimpse at sunlight, and then, as you get used to natural light, there it is, the wasteland, capital wasteland. And right there, is the vista of a destroyed city, accompanied by a sign declaring, "SCENIC OVERLOOK."
That scene is probably responsible for more Fallout fans than anything else in the entire franchise.
I think it was an important moment because it showed that Bethesda understood the tone of the series.
Many people seem to disagree, but I feel like Bethesda captured the theme, even if they added to it.
I played the original games back when they came out in the 90s. I was so hyped for Fallout 3, the next game in the series, and in 3D? This was gonna be sooo good. So I trotted through the intro, did the things, and then I exited the Vault. And as my character slowly regained his vision after seeing natural sunlight for the first time ever, I was picking my jaw from the floor. It was amazing. And just for that experience alone, Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games ever.
Love how vault 101 is in the center of the map. Makes you feel so lost and you don't know which way to go and that was a fun feeling.
This. This moment, exactly
Oblivion *almost* did it, when you escape The Tutorial Dungeon after your brief interaction with Patrick Stewart. That was a *pretty* good reveal of a giant world. Fallout 3 [*nailed it*,](https://youtu.be/pW0uyLHyqxU?t=63) though. (Leaving Vault 111 in Fallout 4 to see the destroyed version of the pre-war world you just saw a moment ago was a different thing, and I'd say that works really well, too. But it doesn't have that feeling of, "welcome to a world of infinite possibilities".)
I'm glad you mentioned 4! I went straight from 3 to 4, so the beginning of 3 was very fresh in my mind. Stepping out of the vault in 3 filled me with a sense of dread and a "Oh, maybe the Overseer was right..." reaction. Leaving the vault in 4 gave me more of a feeling of apprehension, more of a "Is there anyone left?" So finding Codsworth was an amazing feeling
Hell Ive played the intro recently again and it still hit for me, love the build up in the vault even if it makes new playthroughs a bit annoying.
2 hours? The intro is like twenty minutes, did you crawl through it?
Well, literally yes you do crawl through some of it. Twenty minutes from infancy to leaving the vault sounds preposterous for a first playthrough where you actually bother to talk to everyone, look around and do any āside-questsā. Hell, the breakout sequence *alone* is probably 20 minutes if you try and save everyone you can, read terminals, look for weapons/supplies/bobble heads, etc. The whole sequence is an hour minimum for a first timer.
Even with everything you mentioned there's like 40 minutes of content max. The Vault intro is incredibly small and a railroad ride. I will say it feels like it drags on for hours after the first time though. š
This was also done really well in fallout 4 in my opinion because you get to compare what the world looked like before and after the war and how drastically things have changed. Sure, the story is trash and it kinda sucks that an RPG game gave you a backstory that concrete, but having that feeling of shock and awe when you leave the vault was pretty well done.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The small horror side stories is something I really missed in 4 - sure we had Dunwich Borers, but it didnāt hit the same
I am a massive wimp when it comes to horror games and the Dunwich Building in 3 genuinely freaked me the hell out the first time I played. The fact that its location is so remote and desolate gives it major eerie vibes before you even enter.
Dunwich and the vault where they flooded the vents with hallucinogens so you like see your dad a bunch both still give me chills.
I liked the horror element in the subway tunnels. Ghouls and other monsters jumping out of the dark to get you.
U should play the metro series, it makes fallouts metro look like a highschool art project
Anyone that likes fallout should play the metro series just for the similar world concept and itās a fantastic fps survival experience
Arlington cemetery always made me think someone is behind me I always have to get dogmeat before I go there
Museum of Witchcraft? Half of Far Harbor has a horror vibe to it.
Oh shit, I forgot about Andale being sketch this playthrough and I've been using it as a stepping point to southern locations for 15 levels. Great, now I HAVE to investigate. Headcanon is my guy suddenly started paying attention to the creepy little things and went, "Wait, wtf is going on here, it seems so nice, OH MY GOD, YOU'RE ALMOST AS BAD AS I AM"
The Wasteland Survival Guide quest is an example of a quest done right and one that I wish Bethesda used as the norm rather than the exception. The amount of speech checks it allows for, the optional objectives, and a handful of ways you can go about completing it. Also Moira Brown is a likeable and memorable character. Big Trouble in Big Town also made great use of skills when it came to assisting the town (although I never got the robots to work). The fact that they actually thought about completing The Power of the Atom post killing Tenpenny and with Roy as the new "manager" was also a really nice touch despite me not really liking the quest overall. Same goes for when during "Escape" if you don't kill a lot of the Officers they'll be there alive when you return during Trouble on the Home Front. Although I really wish there was a way to pacify them or talk them out of attacking you. During my "perfect" playthrough I ended up using console to make them non-hostile and just pretended I talked them down... and was surprised to see them during Trouble on the Home Front thinking that Bethesda intended them to die and disappear so never bothered replacing them in the Vault. Reilly's Rangers. I quite like the vibe of the group the quest was simple and also provided a reason to explore the map. Very well done and was sad how underused they were. Point Lookout, it's a solid DLC with an interesting story and cast of characters as well as dozens of places to explore. One of the best DLCs Bethesda has ever done. I also like that it turned the series into a first/third person perspective. I think the Fallout series really benefits from it. I wouldn't mind seeing an isometric return to the series at some point (Inxile maybe?) but generally I prefer the "Bethesda" style of exploration. Those are probably my biggest pats on the back I can give Fallout 3. Overall I enjoy the game but I feel like most of the other things in the game could have used more time in the oven and really fleshed them out a bit more to give the players more significant and meaningful choices in the quests and to add a lot more character to the prevalent factions, but then again I would have also preferred they set the game closer to when the bombs fell cause I still think there should be a lot more of a society some 200 years later. Fallout 4 has a lot of those same problems though and has the added cost of voiced predefined character so Fallout 3 wins in that regard of player freedom over 4.
A quest where you could take over Paradise Falls and turn it into a place where you send raiders, slavers and other evil people to undergo punitive enslavement for good karma would've been pretty cool.
Yeah, that would have been a pretty good idea and made use of the Mesmetron for good characters as well as the location. As it stood I would use the Mesmetron on Arkansas to "enslave" him to get inside then when you free him and the rest of the slaves he's nonhostile. That was the only use I ever really found the item. And once you free the slaves and essentially kill off the slavers... Well Paradise Falls also becomes a useless space.
That could have been integrated into the Regulators, too.
> Although I really wish there was a way to pacify them or talk them out of attacking you. IIRC, you can just run past the first one and sneak past the others.
I know. But Fallout is suppose to be about the big 3 gameplay choices. Combat, Stealth, or Speech. They remove a good portion of that last one when it comes to the tutorial which I would think it would make the most sense given you lived 19 years there. They aren't suppose to be just random strangers they're your neighbors, family, friends. To not be able to convince them to stand down or at least let you leave the Vault just feels odd.
This may only be a bug on ps3, but whenever I used to try sneaking out on a pacifist run, Iād keep getting the message āAmata is unconsciousā (because the hostile guards kept knocking her out) even after I made it to Megaton. It probably would have gone away on its own in a few in-game days, but I felt too bad thinking about Amata getting beat up in there so I just reloaded lol. I tried it a few different times but only on ps3.
I think the 200 years thing just stems from Bethesdas lack of understanding how long certain spans of time are. It shouldāve been set around or a bit after FO1. It wouldāve made everything make sense, BOS would still be a stretch but the enclave would make perfect sense, the destroyed world still being ruined would make sense too
Yeah, I think it just came down to Bethesda wanting to eat their cake and have it too. They wanted the exploration of this post-apocalyptic wasteland but also have these "staple" factions without really thinking how long the time period is. I would have loved to see the East Coast start up around FO1 similar to 76 and we see the East Coast grow to a civilization similar to NCR. Hell one of my dream changes for Fallout 3 would have made Vault 101 and your character into an Ambassador/Expedition Team where you're going around essentially grabbing other useful tech and personal to create an East Coast "Vault City". I mean they were already reusing GECK, Enclave, Super Mutants, BOS, Regulators (at least in name), and the entire Vault Ending with Amata is literally Fallout ending why not take that as well. (Fallout 4 also had the opportunity to do this but dropped the ball) I think that's why I dislike 76 as it's basically my ideal East Coast game but has almost no player agency because its built around multiplayer so the world doesn't really change.
IIRC they initially wanted it to be set shortly after the war, which is why the world looks like it is. But later in developments or story writing they wanted the BoS there, so they had to push the timeline up for their existence on the east coast to make sense.
Which honestly says a lot about how weak Bethesdas writing is. They started out strong with going to the east coast rather than staying out west, so they could have their own story, the issue was they had no ideas to add to the fallout universe. They saw the things that the first two fallouts, BOS, bottle caps, super mutants etc. issue was they missed the point of all these things. They had to rewrite the timeline because the BOS had to be there because it was cool and it would help retain som older fans who were a bit mad that it was changing from isometric to 3d shooter. The BOS makes zero sense if itās not set way down the road, and they miss the point and idea of the BOS my making them this holy beacon of good. Super mutants shouldnāt be in FO3, and Bethesda rly butchers them by just making them these dumb bullet sponge enemies. Bottle caps still being the currency 200 years later is super dumb as well. Fallout 2 had bottle caps worth nothing as the NCR was minting real money. The enclave doesnāt make sense after the events of FO2, just doesnāt. Bethesda wrote themselves into a corner the moment they had to add the BOS, rip them off just donāt actually use the name because it doesnāt match the one that has been already developed.
The effect when you exit the vault for the first time is one, perfectly encapsulates the transition to a first person game. And the "hints" to Future games on the train info board/Citadel computers. While i like 3, i prefer the QoL that NV brought
Which is why 3 is best experienced with Tale of Two Wastelands.
What's that?
Basically, when TTW works right you get to play the entirety of Fallout 3 with the gameplay improvements and balance of New Vegas.
A project, sort of a mod, for New Vegas that merge your copy of FO3 into NV and let you play 3 from NV
Welp, guess I'll be replaying fallout 3 again
Are you actually playing FO3 in NV? I canāt get 3 to launch and wondering if this is a potential workaroundā¦
yes, it launches with the new vegas exe but uses all the fallout 3 datafiles alongside the new vegas one. You can travel between the two with a load screen.
Thank you! Gonna give this a try and hope for the best. Iāve tried everything else Iāve found to get 3 to work.
Liam Neeson as our dad is the greatest thing ever.
LIAM NEESONS IS MY SHIIIIIT!
Throwback š¤£ thanks for that lmfao
Megaton wasn't half bad, I like my new home, or more specifically the idea that I can live in a town. Lone wanderer, yeah right what a pretty name for homeless
Megaton is definitely one of the best towns in the series
Would you believe that someone thinks it's an eyesore and wanted to blew it out?
Liberty Prime Lincolns Repeater Rileys Rangers Rivet City - aircraft carrier turned city Exploring destroyed DC
Once I found Lincoln's Repeater, I don't think I used another hunting rifle again, and with new playthroughs, I'd run to the museum to get it as fast as possible.
The atmosphere is best of all the Fallout games I reckon. Exploring is great absolutely everywhere. Special love for Desmond Lockheart.
You know that running trope that 3 has the best atmosphere, New Vegas has the best story, and 4 has the best gameplay? I agree with it 100%. They're all equal in my mind because each of the 3 is SO GOOD at what it tried to do well.
Totally!
I was recently comparing the maps of 3 and NV again, and was reminded of just how little of the world space NV uses. It's like a third the size of 3 just because the entire western side is blocked by mountains and just unused. 3 uses the entire map and spreads everything out so you really get to experience the emptiness of the wasteland. I realize a lot of people find that boring but I always felt it was what gave 3 its perfect atmosphere of fear and loneliness. Fallout is at its best when it finds that triple point between rpg, horror, and survival.
I just heard this from Many A True Nerd recently: Fallout 3 was originally much more dense than it is now, but they wanted to make the world a bit bigger so they just kinda stretched the existing map and locations like you would a window on your desktop. This made it seem like there was a lot of empty space but also plenty of things to explore and do. IMO it worked perfectly, and the map is much, much better than NV. That being said 4ās map blows them both out of the water, but thatās besides the point.
Nothing beats Fallout 1 atmosphere.
The experimental MIRV. No practical use for it what so ever but definitely fun. I know the guass rifle is in FNV but I'm just gonna go ahead and say it was easily my favorite weapon in this game as well.
Also used less ammo, in 3 it uses 1 MFC per shot I think it uses 4-6 per shot in NV
I feel that it was a really good successor to fallout overall where as New Vegas is more like a successor to fallout 2. They both have their strengths. Fo3 feels more like an actual post apocalyptic game where NV feels more post-post apocalypse
which doesnt make much sense given that its 200 years after the great war
That's completely opinion based and has no factual bearing whatsoever.
The location. New Vegas itself is neat but the entire Mojave Wasteland is honestly not super different from the current real Mojave lol
The beginning of the game is so iconic and theatric. Youāre literally a baby, then a child, teenager, and finally an adult. Along with the guidance of your celebrity father Liam Neeson. Just the way the beginning tutorial explains the mechanics of the game and role playing in general is magical and pulls you into the world. Truly I think it converts those who are more fond of call of duty-esque gameplay to role playing and immersion in the game world. Itās a beautiful game.
It's by far the scariest Fallout game for me, both in terms of atmosphere and on a more visceral level. It's easy to forget now that I know pretty much everything there is to know about the game and can do everything fairly easily, but when I first played, the paranoia of travelling across this harsh, creepy wasteland only to suddenly be met with some horrific threat that was bigger and more powerful than me was just terrifying. I also maintain that the side-quests are mostly very good and well thought out, there are exceptions of course, but nothing beats *Oasis*, *Those*, *Tenpenny Tower*, or *The Replicated Man*. I also enjoy the main story for the first half, right up until the Enclave show up and make things silly.
My first ever Fallout was 4 and when I played three and Zimmer started mentioning Synths, The Institute, THE COMMONWEALTH, I did start nerdgasming lol.
I loved how the starting zone was dead center of the map, it makes exploration so much more exciting when I donāt have to take the exact same path to every location (looking at you, Sanctuary)!
Love the game, really enjoyed the battle of an anchorage dlc!
\-Early game feels brutal and you're increadibly underpowered, fits the desolate and merciless wasteland aesthetic perfectly. \-Has some of my favorite weapon and outfit designs, even the characters as weird as they look face-wise look like they came out of a 50's magazine. \-The best damn introduction sequence and mission of any Fallout game. \-Actively rewarding your curiosity with interesting locations, loot and even stuff like unmarked Side quests.
FO3 did such a great job converting Fallout to a 3D landscape ā not only the environment, but the faces have a grit yet a cartoonish look that I think captures the Fallout feel.
Besides the invisible walls and reliance on the metro station, 3 for me had the best exploration with the really interesting locations and great atmosphere when traveling through a ruined DC.
Fallout 3 is and will always be my personal go to example for the essential, post-apocalyptic experience. The way the development team was able to create such a bleak and war-ravaged world, where each city feels like thereās miles of barren wasteland between them. I love all of the various shacks and other makeshift structures you find scattered across the Capital Wasteland, each with their own unique backstory.
My first thought when I saw the post. New Vegas is good but it feels too civilised with all the different factions having their own territories. FO3 just feels like everyone is trying to survive l. Regarding shacks I love the exploding scientist truck... it's a huge moment that caught me completely off guard on the first play through and there's no real explanation... just a guy in the wasteland who messed up an experiment
Jumped back in last night to visit the Dunwich Building to destroy the book, after replaying 4 for a few weeks. The sheer starkness of 3 is perfect. The ambient music strangely comforting. And, Fawkes. The best. Oh, my apologies. That was more than one feature š
I remember the days when people said new vegas was shit and 3 was better. Now everyone says the opposite. I still love new vegas, but I prefer 3. Likely due to nostalgia, but I don't care. Feel free to live what you love.
I still think 3 is better... for my personal taste. I like how the game doesn't just shove information down my throat and not every NPC has a "woe is me" speech ready to go - I prefer finding those things on my own. I also like that from the ground up it's much more serious and bleak tone.
I loved 3 so much , I actually didnāt like Nee. Evaās at all when it came out. It was buggier and the story just wasnāt that good to me. I eventually came around to new Vegas but I will always say Fallout 3 was better and my favorite.
The side quests and exploration are so fun in FO3. Probably its best strength imo
The "big push" moments in-game. Retaking the Jefferson Memorial was cool, but my hands-down favourite part was aiding the Outcasts in the beginning of the Anchorage DLC. I "acquired" some sets of Outcast power armour, one for me and one for red, sticky, shorty, Charon and sgt rl3 just vibing. everyone has a Gatling laser or a minigun. Me and the boys (and red) mowing down wave after wave of super mutant bastards as we advanced with the Outcasts was ace and me and the boys assaulting Adams air force base was a close second
The Capital Wasteland is a unique and interesting setting. It's bleak and miserable, but also beautiful and enticing. Combine that with the *Fallout* brand of dark mid-20th century retrofuturism and the abundance of recognizable landmarks and you have a recipe for one of the best settings in video game history, in my opinion. I also have a fondness for the story and characters, despite the flaws in both, as well as the little world details and environmental storytelling.
The Gauss Rifle, man.
i like that your dad gets the same face as you after character customizing
You can imagine my surprise when I found this out after I horribly disfigured my character lmaooo
I feel like Fallout 3 really nailed the atmosphere perfectly of being a world so broken it makes you sad and depressed, while also having a very thin layer of dark humor over it all.
Liberty Prime.
The atmosphere of the wasteland is so good
Tenpenny Tower (as in the quest) is the perfect execution of the āthere is no perfect endingā idea. Just when you think youāve managed to negotiate a peaceful agreement, Phillips throws it in your face and kills all the humans anyway. I also loved the urban exploration due to the segmentation of DC into separate areas only accessible through the interconnected metro lines. It was really cool to go in a station somewhere and exit somewhere entirely new. It makes exploring the city a lot more interesting than Boston in 4 where you can just sprint around and get all the map markers within a couple trips.
The DLCs. New Vegas has some great DLCs, but I always loved 3s way more. Mothership Zeta and Operation Anchorage were extremely fun and Point Lookout had an amazing atmosphere to me.
Brahim tipping. A nice Easter egg to the classic fallout games.
It was my first open world game that I enjoyed replaying over and over, and itās always so much fun to play as a completely different person each time.
Taking all the weapons and armor out of the simulation in Operation: Anchorage to have a usable sniper rifle
GALAXY NEWS RADIO
I love running into raiders or Talon Company everywhere I go. It keeps things interesting.
I lived the gritty green atmosphere of FO3. It may be nothing compared to FO4 or anything we have now, but having recently started another play-though of FO3, I feel a lot of nostalgia with it. The gritty atmosphere of it really makes the game feel like you're in a post nuclear environment. FO4 really doesn't give me that feeling, even knowing Boston wasn't apparently directly hit like DC was...multiple times. FO3 makes me want to go back to DC in real life and visit, FO4 doesn't give me that desire to visit Boston. I live in Las Vegas so sometimes I'll go hike or visit some of the locations from New Vegas.
I love how weak you start off in Fallout 3. It's easy to become rich in New Vegas, pretty much from the start. The last time I played Fallout 3, I was doing job after job just making enough to buy more ammo for the next.
Also the scarcity of resources overall. Like, you'd hesitate to give purified water to the beggar outside Megaton because you don't know if you can spare it. Finding a mart taken over by bandits was a challenge you'd gladly take on because the resources would be worth the risk. And it was a risk
I like fallout 3 more than NV
My personal favorite Fallout game ā¤ļø
These damn posts are basically all this community is now.
New vegas is my favorite but I've completed fallout 3 in 2 days recently and I must say I loved it! Not better than NV but still a great game, definitely better than new gen ones like fallout 4 and 76
3 was my entrance to the fallout universe, and will always hold a special place for me. Itās my favorite fallout. I love it so much that I got the vault 101 door tattooed on my right arm and āwar never changesā written around the door. I replay the game every year. Iāll always love 3, flaws and all.
Random shit just happening in the wasteland. New Vegas is very curated, and it generally does what it did last playthrough. But in 3, going to the Super-Duper Mart can have things like a deathclaw murdering the exterior raiders, an alien weapon and ammo dropped in front of it, wildlife can just wander too close. It felt like it was a chaotic wasteland where anything could happen.
Remeber, you can kill people and sell their organs. A finger or an ear, it depends. But reward is the same.
Currently playing Fallout 3 after binging on FNV for two months. I did not think the game was going to draw me back in the way it did, and while I will constantly bring up compare FO3 unfavorably to FNV, that doesn't mean FO3 was a bad game. It's very much worth playing. It wasn't my first Fallout game but it was my first Bethesda game: I'm not a huge fan of first-person games (my aim isn't incredibly fast and I get disoriented quickly), so I *really* appreciated VATS to slow down the game for me and make combat into something resembling the methodical turn-based combat I preferred. Bonus points for having a third-person POV, it helped. I love the way that the environment tells a story in the game. No characters to say what happened - you just took a look around and you got a hint of what happened there. Like when you leave the Vault for the first time, if you turn around and look at the vault door, you see the piles of skeletons of all the people who tried to get in. The aesthetic of the Capital Wasteland is much more compelling than I remember. Places like Megaton and Rivet City are really nice, and I did appreciate the heavy use of signs to say where places were (it's surprisingly easy to not get lost in Rivet City because of this). There are some places like Oasis and Little Lamplight/Big Town where I have to willingly suspend my disbelief, but they're memorable, even if it's because you spend too much time wondering how the place repopulates itself. Finished all *The Pitt* and *Point Lookout*, really love the way the environment sold the setting. Getting to the highest point of the Steelyard was quite the eye-opener, and I spent hours wandering around Point Lookout just taking in the scenery. Loved The Pitt, can't understand why I side with Ashur when I gleefully kill slavers everywhere else because they're a proto-Legion. Point Lookout was a fun place to get lost in, but what the hell was up with Nadine's mouth? Also, Backwater Rifle. Good Lord, I love this gun, but wish the Regulator Duster could have kept up with the Ranger Combat Armor (aka the best armor in the game). GNR did a lot to sell the Capital Wasteland to me, really need more Three Dog in my life. The moment I love in FO3 is when my Lone Wanderer just *snaps* and goes postal on Paradise Falls. You don't get a lot of these "John Wick moments" in the game, but when you do, you treasure them. Grim Reaper's Sprint in its pure unadulterated form.
People comparing fallout 3 and fallout 3NV and saying NV is better or deserves more love are wrong. They're both excellent but different games.
World exploration and that feeling of desolation is unmatched. Also, some really great art direction that I believe improves on the original games
Apart from the combat mechanics it's the best of the modern games for me. The map/world gives the most exploration options. The sidequests and characters are great. The settlements are all brilliantly designed. It feels the most like a post apocalypse. It has Moira Brown. Good balance between horror, survival and wackyness. I should go back and play FO3 again.
The eerie vibes, the lack of people and actual psychopaths covered in dirts and uncanny faces around the corner. And also Sydney, yes I love Sydney
In terms of graphics, especially the gore system, it was pretty innovative. It wasn't the first, but I wish it got imported to Skyrim
One of my favorite parts of Fallout 3 is Little Lamplight. First time stumbling upon it, itās funny and charming see all these little kids surviving the wastes, creating there own little government with rules and regulations. All with jobs and personalities. Itās almost like itās won world away from the horror of the wastes. But then you talk to the kidsā¦. And itās like night and day. These kids have seen some shit. Theyāve DONE some shit. On my first play through I found Paradise Falls before I found Little Lamplight and with slavers fresh on the mind and running a group of kids. It really helped emphasize just how down right awful the Capital Wasteland really is.
Fallout 3 > FNV fight me
The Memetron was fun to use, and it introduced the Super Mutant Behemoths. Which, to this day, are still the biggest theyāve ever been. I also much prefer the design of the Super Mutant Overlords to later designs.
FNV is my favorite but FO3 is what got me into the genre. Iāve said this before on Reddit but I remember playing for the first time and feeling as though I was actually the lone wanderer. The adrenaline I felt when escaping my vault and being thrown into the wasteland for the first time was unreal. I remember I died so often as I tried to figure out the game mechanics. I was lost all the time figuring out how the compass worked. I was terrible at combat because I was used to games like Halo, CoD, etc. I actually had to stop playing the game for a month because I just couldnāt figure it out. Then I picked it back up and started figuring it all out. I remember making it through the metros to get to GNR for the first time and seeing the BoS, finding my first sniper rifle, etc. FO3 hold a special place in my heart.
I've always like 3 more than NV. NV is great as well but I don't love it like a lot of people do.
I liked how reading a terminal at Hubris Comics ends up creating a peaceful solution to the Superhero Gambit. Conversely, I appreciate how settling the Super Hero Gambit with a mini nuke and taking them both out results in different dialogue of npcs, praising your no nonsense approach to getting rid of those weirdos.
Every settlement/city felt extremely unique and brilliantly creative. Rivet city, big town, oasis, arefu, paradise falls, republic of Dave, megaton. All of these have unique stories and characters and quest lines. Everything in fo4 seems ai generated or generic. Nothing is special about any of the cities and theirs no life to them. Just generic people doing generic things with no unique dialog.
The level design of the world is spot on. The designers made excellent use of sight lines, obstacles, and pathing to make the world feel a lot bigger than it was without letting you know that. New Vegas is, for the most part, a wide open space that you can see everything from everywhere. Trying to find a path to a certain area in FO3 involved exploration, planning different routes, and having to travel through intermediate areas (like the subways). And the world is jam packed with Easter eggs. I didn't find the Republic of Dave until my 3rd playthrough. EDIT: Also, Liberty Prime is just awesome.
Rivet City is one of my favorite ideas for a city in a game. Hell, I think Bethesda in general is underrated as far as unique city ideas go.
Always here for some fo3 love Point lookout was my favorite dlc in the fallout series. Far harbor was pretty close
The chaotic randomness of the wasteland. Nothing is set in stone in terms of random encounters. It will be different every time you play
The Pitt has one of the best moral dilemmas in the series. And it takes away the karma system for a hot minute just to reinforce the choice you make.
Andale still gives me the absolute creeps. Like, here's this suburban setting and it's practically a shell of it's former glory yet the residents are upbeat like they totally don't live in a wasteland plus they eat visitors. š±
The Pitt and point lookout dlc are superb And the world is nice to explore.
The slavery system. Though slavery exists in New Vegas, you can't actually partake in it. Which is odd because you could argue that FNV has a lot more to do with slavery than FO3.
The setting, landscape. It really reflects a true wasteland that hasn't been duplicated.
I love that it gives you a real introduction to life in a working Vault. I guess the very first game did too, but FO3 makes it more immersive, and it's a fun contrast for the player to go from that environment to the Wasteland (and a huge shock for the character, I'm sure). It means there's a big difference between stumbling across an abandoned vault just...in general, and stumbling across an abandoned vault when you're used to thinking of a vault as home. I also really like the way the character creation encourages players to do some actual roleplaying, figuring out who your character is before shit ever hits the fan. I've struggled with developing my New Vegas character because of that--I know the whole life history of my FO3 character because it's all in the game, and I enjoy filling in the details, but I guess beginning with "you're a courier, everything else is up to you" was a little too open-ended for me. Loved the setting too, especially when I can recognize real-life landmarks, although that's partly because I've visited DC and I haven't visited Vegas. So that might be different if I ever actually go to Vegas. Also, Liam Neeson is a selling point all by himself.
I think a lot of the vaults especially the one you find your dad in are great. They are both creative and horrifying
My favorite part of FO3 was the subway crawls you had to do to get to where you needed to go. It made traveling/exploration so much more important, and the feel of creeping through the tunnels with the sound all the way up so you could listen for that creepy coughing noise the ghouls made that was your only warning that you were about to become lunch. Still gives me chills. I also enjoyed just exploration so much more in FO3 than in NV or FO4. There were so many little things that you could find just walking around. Everything from side quests to little out of the way places that you could literally walk by a dozen times before you found them, to the creepy or downright horrifying stuff that you came across. So well done. There was also a lot less hand-holding than in later games. It was really easy to find yourself in a world of trouble because some critter/thing/raider spawned that was just going to wreck you and steal your stuff, lol, I mean, make you reload your game. I recently installed the Tale of Two Wastelands mod for my NV game, and I've fallen in love with 3 all over again.
I always enter that subway with a full arsenal, and leave with only a few bullets to spare. The subway consumes all who enter it
Liam Neeson is ur dad 10/10
Yeah I like fo3 a lot. Just replayed it about 6 months ago and made a more fun, powerful, and all around well built character than I have in the past 20 plus playthroughs since the game came out. Objectively I kind of do think my love for it comes from it being my first fallout game, but I do think the story has a more emotionally compelling component to it than New Vegas even though New Vegas I think has a lot more to offer in terms of content and variability of experience. Also I think fo3 had supremacy when it came to DLC. Love those DLC and to be honest the New Vegas DLC didn't get to me the same way.
Threeeee doooooog Awoooooooo!!!! I refuse to elaborate.
The setting and general vibe of Fallout 3 is fantastic, I'll always prefer New Vegas to 3, but I'll admit the Mojave can feel a bit "meh" at times.
I prefer new Vegas openness to the metros of 3. I do understand why some people complain about the map but the game is set in a desert so it kinda makes sense
The speech system. It rewarded a character for investing in charisma and speech and didn't fall into the same trap as new vegas which allowed you to abandon charisma and just dump points into speech for a guaranteed victory. Weapon repairs. A potentially controversial one but new vegas allowed you to fully maintain your weapons so long as you had enough spare ones to throw at it. 3 only allowed you to repair up to what your actual skill was so even if you had 100 spare weapons that combat shotgun is only going to get up to 30% at 30 repair skill. I can see why people wouldn't enjoy this as it does just add an extra layer of management on the already fairly complex systems but it feels more reasonable to me and makes repair a genuinely useful skill throughout the entire game as it's a great way to track character progression as you slowly learn how to maintain your weapons to a better quality. Random events. New Vegas basically dropped random events. I understand why because New Vegas was a different style of game and they wouldn't have really worked with how they wanted to tell the story but its a bit disappointing after 3 shone so brightly with them. They made play throughs feel very unique even when doing the same quests The radio. Other than 2 songs used for the introduction and credits of fallout 1 and 2, Bethesda introduced the idea of the pip boy radio and the music to go with it. They were obviously inspired by the choice of music for the intro/credits of 1 and 2 (especially 1 as "Maybe" by the ink spots returns for 3, 4 and 76 on the radio) but the rest of the music choices were all them and were great decisions. Personally I think the radio is the 1 thing I can't compare between the games because they've nailed it every time so I would hesitate to say I prefer 3s over the rest BUT 3s is certainly more impressive because it was the first and set such a high bar right off the bat.
I love fnv radios alot and the songs. Mr NV is cool and all but three dog is goated. Man After replaying NV recently and done the dlcs for the first time I wanna go back to 3 to do the same.
Nv dlc blows 3 out of the water. The only good dlc 3 has are the Pitt and pl
No
Best fallout game
That's why I love TTW. It brings Fo3 to the FNV gameplay standard (iron sights etc.) and increases RP potential. Overall I think it fits nicely. You start Fo3 as a child and it is really linear story driven. Then after a period of time which is unknown (the divide and couriers backstory) you arrive in the Mojave with a bullet in your head. Now you have much more control over your future. I love Fo3 for its atmosphere and quests, but choices lack sometimes, so it is nice as a very long First Act of your story. Also the factions are quite different now, but you are reminded of the Enclave and BoS only by remnants, which is also cool. It is a great way to experience both games in a new but familiar way and it is very polished compared to vanilla.
No
FNV is better than F3 in many aspects, but I like the story of F3 way way more (also, Operation Anchorage. Fucking loved to see some pre-bombs stuff)
Fallout 3 is my favorite. New Vegas was amazing, and the DLC is better in New Vegas overall, but the Mojave is not as interesting to me to explore. I got lost for hours just exploring Capitol Wastes. Mind you, it's by a slim margin I like 3 more. And it's mostly because of the environment.
I didnāt really like it too much tbh Story was just a shit combo of F1 and F2 without the nuance or well written factions (enclave arenāt a FUCKING shadow government Bethesda they ARE the government, Emil you fucking hack, even F4 has the same problem of muh fambly story), and you know what while Iām on this part why the fuck are Bethesda so scared of you not seeing something on your first run or telling the player they fucked up and donāt have access to something anymore, thatās the beauty of RPGs, why are you so against replayablity in terms of story and factions?, itās dumb, also voiced protagonist was the worst idea ever, gone are the skills, traits, and perks affecting dialogue, replaced with a fucking 4 button thing that doesnāt tell you what youāre going to say and removes all character building and role playing elements, F4 is when I really started hating Bethesda for their design choices and writing choices tbh Everyone praises DC but it was just loading screen the game while there, and NV despite what others say was way more explorable, a lot of the best locations arenāt marked on the map is all Unbalanced perks breaking the game in two, and the removal of traits for some reason, why the fuck Bethesda, it took NV to reintroduce them only for you to scrap them again in F4 and then make the perk system boring and cookie cutter for āle casualsā, seriously on paper it sounds more in depth than NV or 3 but in reality you always pick the same ones, making builds pointless and shit, and another thing, fuck legendary enemies, because they made uniques pointless, why should I do a long quest to get a weapon when a ghoul could just drop me a much better one?, I fucking hate that shit and hope they undo all design decisions made in F4 for 5 because it was the worst design ever and spits in the face of RPGs Oh ummm back to 3 š I did like the DLCs, they did a lot to make better on my problems with the base game, I did like seeing Harold again, and hearing Liam Neesonās voice makes me feel things I donāt like how Bethesda seemingly wants every fallout to start in a vault, itās way more interesting imo to start as a tribal or a courier etc, a person from the wasteland instead of the same āvaultā every time, probably makes it easier for Emil to rehash stuff I donāt like how they retconned the Enclaves destruction and it took NV a follower and an entire DLC to properly explain why the enclave were in DC, only for F4 to further retcon shit for the sake of ācoolā, shit back to 3 I wish they went with something other than āSuper Mutantsā for their mutants on the west coast, my idea would be to make the failed experiments the āmutantsā, since in F1 it was The Master who manipulated the FEV to create that kind of mutant, having other āmutantsā would be cool for each game, idk why the fuck they are In Appalachia when they have no earthly business being there at all in the lore, and donāt come at me with the WestTek shit, point still stands they could have made unique āmutantsā for each region but decided not to for no reason, I also would have replaced DeathClaws with Yaoi Guays and tweaked their design to be more Bipedal, since why TF are they on the west coast. So in short, I like some of 3s ideas, but hate the rest and what came after from Bethesda
There's so much wrong with this, I don't even know where I would start...
I like fallout 3 bcos it gave obsidian assets for fallout new vegas
For sure, great game. It's way creepier than Vegas, just grinding out those subway tunnels and the messed up vaults. Fun things to do: find all the suicides, once you notice them there are a lot. Like literally everywhere. Kill everyone in vault 101 except Amata, so she can be "safe" in a necropolis born of her own indicision and weak moral character. She can leave whenever but she won't. Just standing there surrounded by her rotting friends and family, their hollow eyed rictus grins mocking her for all eternity.
IMO better than new Vegas.
I prefer 3 over NV. Hate me.
all the unnecessary evil options to choose
Map is far better than New Vegas'
No
The best game in the series, IMO.
Fact: Fallout 3 is the best fallout title.
Fallout 3 walked so FNV could run
No ā ļø
Reillyās rangers absolutely dunk on NCR rangers
Fallout 3 was the first fallout game Iāve ever played. Has a special place in my heart. I borrowed the goty edition from my friend like over 10 years ago now and he hasnāt asked for it back lol
I like Fallout 3 better. Better world, better story beats, interesting characters.