Haha op you should know by now that this forum is just filled to the brim with fallout 1 and 2 fans and a poll like this is going to go heavily in their favor.
Just as asking in the fallout 3 forum will get you the reverse result i.e. its just a big expansion.
For me i'll have to wait till I finish the story lines and all the side quests to give you my honest opinion, otherwise it would be unfare to say how it compares.

Indeed. Not to mention that Fallout 2 (a fan favorite to be sure) ran on the same engine as Fallout 1, and probably had fewer overall improvements over F1 than New Vegas does over F3.

But yeah, I think New Vegas is by far the better game. While I really don't like the gamebryo engine, I'm quite happy they just went with that because it allowed them to create some really awesome content for the game and not have to spend time tweaking a new engine to work for the game. There are a great many possibilities to solve quests, factions to align with, characters to create. There is a real threat of running into danger from the first moment you step out of Doc Mitchell's house. The world/enemies have real teeth and are not half-baked, level scaled "tepid" challenges. There is real depth to this game, and a great deal of player interaction, that one doesn't see very often at all any more.

fallout nv, why i like it better? cause its new. i knew every step i could have done in fallout 3, i knew what happened when i blew up megaton, if i saved it, i knew practially every weapon in the game, i knew my way around rivet city,

fallout new vegas is a new frontier, and ill get bored after i know every inch. which could take some time since there seems to be alot more quests.

also the customability and ability to make ammo and convert energy, plus rex, this is fallout 3's bigger, stronger, cooler brother

FO3 by a mile. Not only was the story better but the game performs much better as well and I didn't need to go out of my way to download special .dll files just to get some better FPS. Also, the game's dialog did a terrible job of actually supporting my game choices. In fact, it did such a terrible job that I just restarted my entire playthrough after fifty or so hours. That's messed up.

Sorry, but NV is just really mediocre to me. Exploring kinda svcks, dialog being seriously disconnected from my choices svcks, and it's buggy as all hell. I can open up FOMM and play FO3 with 50+ mods yet vanilla NV would crash on me every two minutes inside of Gomorrah. WTF?

It's a bug ridden mess. Obsidian was handed an older engine with most of it's kinks already worked out so why is NV performing at a level less than FO3 and still managing to look worse?

Before anyone comments I have an i920, 12GB RAM, and a 1GB GTX285. I can't even run NV on high and expect to get more than 30 FPS (with the d3d9.dll fix) while I can play FO3 on ultra and get 60+ FPS.

How, exactly? By most objective standards (ie depth, intellectual complexity, attention to detail and consistency), NV's story blows FO3's out of the [irradiated] water.



What do you mean by this, exactly?

New VEGAS!

Ask me in a year or two, if I'm still playing F:NV, then I'll try and give an answer.

I'm having the opposite experience. Are we playing the same game? Wasn't Fallout 3's story mostly a re-hash of pieces of FO1 and FO2's stories...and a lot more static than NV's? What am I missing?


Let me stop you there. Fallout is not post-apoc TES. Fallout 3 was kinda like that, but the series overall isn't supposed to be a huge sandbox with a ton of places to scrounge for scrap metal and Wonderglue (god that was boring in Fallout 3...just thinking about it makes my mouse wrist hurt). New Vegas adds a ton of depth to other aspects of the game while pulling back on the random exploration stuff. To me it was a good trade. It would be nice to have both, yes, but I personally prefer the deeper, more interactive world of NV to the huge, shallow, fairly static world of FO3. Opinions, I guess.


I'm not having this experience. My guess is that this will be addressed with a patch just as a lot of the crash issues FO3 had were.


First of all, Obsidian was working directly with Bethesda on this, and Bethesda was overseeing the QA process. If the issues were something easily-fixable don't you think Bethesda would have helped out on fixing their (extremely temperamental) engine? I also have to disagree that it looks worse. I think the aesthetic is definitely different than that of Fallout 3, which is fine since they're on opposite sides of the country. If anything, though, I think Bethesda and Obsidian did a good job of improving things. There are a lot of new animations, and the new tech they're using for facial movement is a huge improvement over what they were using for FO3.


Weird...I have a machine with the same video card and a lesser CPU and I'm seeing better performance than that.

Fallout New Vegas improves upon almost everything.

It makes perfect sense. It makes SPECIAL a little bit more useful. You have to improve before you take on the harder enemies.

I cannot vote because you left out a third option, the vote appears to force people into voting one or the other, therefore I decline to vote, they are both good in their own way.

For a couple reasons, I prefer Fallout New Vegas. Fallout 3 is a great game, but upon playing New Vegas, there are a couple things I realized about Fallout 3. First, Fallout 3 went a bit too far with the wasteland feel. There are no roads, no safe paths, no form of stability outside of the settlements. Yet, we are expected to believe that Three-Dog can get info on happenings all around and that people regularly travel between settlements. Because of this, settlements feel like they're in a different world from the one outside, which is then magnified by the "theme park" feel of many encounters and locations. New Vegas does a better job of creating a believable wasteland, in my opinion, because locations are closer together and there are usually "safe" paths from location to location. The only exception is the somewhat less than exciting Strip.

Second, I prefer the kind of storytelling New Vegas has. Fallout 3's story wasn't bad, but it was classical. You have a hero or villain that goes around doing good or bad things, ultimately doing one really good or bad thing at the end. The interesting twist was your father, but I didn't feel that connected to the character. In New Vegas, there are more shades of grey. There are arguments for and against the NCR, or House, or even the Legion. At the end, you have to justify your actions according to your own sense of morality, rather than an enforced one. And the real characters are these factions that you meet along the way.

Third, the additions in New Vegas really shine. I didn't like the repair system in F3 because it felt like I was engaged in a constant battle with the inevitable inefficiency of my weapons. Between weapon kits and more advanced repair vendors, this is less of a problem. Speaking of weapon kits, the crafting system really made Science, Repair, Medicine, and Survival feel like skills instead of just skill checks. Statistically, it was nice having to specialize my character, particularly when it comes to perks. Making tough choices about what to pick increased the "ownership" I felt with my character. Modding weapons added versatility to older weapons and also a sense of ownership.

Lastly, Fallout 3 was a new area with old factions. Now, most people probably don't have a problem with this. But it felt odd that I was dealing with the Brotherhood, Super Mutants, and Enclave again, just in a new location. Aside from Talon Company and Reilly's Rangers, we don't see any other factions in DC. Moreover, the level of detail to these factions was low. The Super Mutants don't, apparently, have any leaders. The Enclave is basically the same people with a new leader. The BoS went through a change, but as a result they became less nuanced. In New Vegas, there are brand new factions with new story and evolution for existing factions.

uhm, do you realize that i know that, but the point is that in FO3 you cant take a book that gives u +500 points in a skill. please sir, piss off

But, you see, these books are actually really worthwhile, because NV isn't super easy like FO3, as you can't just reload until you get a success on that 9% speech challenge.

never saw a "they're both equally kick-ass" option

-may be a repost

FO 3 scaled the opponents based on your level.... so there were never any challenges. I remember seeing a yao-guai at level 4 and thinking.... "OMG, I am gonna die!" then 2 shot it

fallout new vegas is better simply b/c you have choices, if you're sombody that is all about achievements, itll still take multiple playthroughs, i love new vegas simply for the huge betterment of weapons, such a bigger choice, made bigger by mods

edit - when it came to FO3, deathclaws, and any robot, seemed way to underpowered, with fallout new vegas, deathclaws and robots, with the new DT mechanic, especially with robots and DT, are insanly powerful

YES!!!

This is exactly what I thought when I first played Fallout 3....

New Vegas Wins Just,

Although I think you cant compare the two cause those same differences that New Vegas has from Fallout 3 make it a whole different atmosphere, kinda like Comparing New Vegas to the Original Fallout, Or Fallout 3 to Fallout Tactics (And I dont care what anyone else says, Tactics was an awesome game). I would have prefered them allow you to get perks every level like in 3 but I also see the reasoning behind it, I mean in 3 it was pretty damn easy to make a character where you could kill a deathclaw with a combat knife if you set it up properly from the start.

Fallout 3 just has something that gives it the edge over New Vegas. I played over 500 hours of Fallout 3, and could easily go and put more in without the game feeling stale. With New Vegas, Im about 45 hours in, and I'm considering starting a new character because there just isn't as much to do. The Capital Wasteland is by far a more interesting setting IMO than the Mojave. More to do and a more compelling atmosphere. A real feel of survival. Famous landmarks reduced to rubble, holding a treasure of some sort that is being guarded by Super Mutants, Raiders or Enclave. The Mojave just seems bland. Long stretches of desert without many points of real interest and not much reward for explorers. Also, because there is so much civilisation around, it takes away that 'survival' feel slightly. To be fair, though, the tweaks made do improve on the gameplay. Things like the iron sights, the weapon mods and improved crafting system, are all pretty nifty. The Faction system and hardcoe mode are also big features lacking from FO3, and more weapons is never a bad thing. NV is definitely more balanced as well, in terms of enemies and levels. Instead of seeing Obsidian take over the franchise completely, as some have suggested, I'd like to see both them and Beth make a commited effort for Fallout 4. I just feel Obsidian's ability to write the quests combined with Bethesda's ability to make a map catered for exploration, would lead to a truly epic game. Oh, and I know it wasn't supposed to be a part of the criteria, but the buggy state NV was released in has to get a mention, as well as the ridiculous loading times.

Only 20 or so hours into NEW VEGAS and I'm getting bored. Compare with 400+ hours of FALLOUT3 and an itch to play it again rather than NEW VEGAS.

FALLOUT3 was packed with stuff, hidden places, radio transmissions, useful books to read, schematics to find, unique weapons to search, Bobbleheads, captives to free, Vault backstories to discover, etc. NEW VEGAS is sparsely decorated with boarded up buildings and piles of junk. It's not just the low density either; I'm level 12 and mobs are still dropping the same crap (varmint rifle, level 1 armor) as when I began my journey. The Stradivarius quest alone was more interesting, involved, dangerous, mysterious and rewarding than everything I've so far encountered in NEW VEGAS put together.

There is no sense of accomplishment or progression. Peeps in another thread muddled the issue with a defense against the "demigod" paradigm. At the risk of repeating myself: I'm not asking for an easier game but rather THE EXACT OPPOSITE. I played FO3 at highest difficulty, with an XP supressor, and gave myself strict rules for ammo capacity / sleeping / repairs. I saved all my FatMan ammo for use against bosses and those ridiculous uberGhouls from Broken Steel/Point Lookout.

And I was rewarded for the amount of strategy I put in: choosing which weapons to bring, carefully building and upgrading schematic weapons, building a character according to sensible RPG builds (loner sneak/sniper). NEW VEGAS is too much busywork for nearly useless rewards. Just like the real world!

Many peeps have stated NEW VEGAS is the true "successor" to FALLOUT 1/2. I'm afraid I have to agree.

New Vegas has plenty going for it. I'm enjoying the storyline more than Fallout 3's, the item variety more than Fallout 3's, and the game mechanics more than Fallout 3's, but I greatly miss the sense of exploration from Fallout 3 so much that, despite my great enjoyment of New Vegas, I think I like Fallout 3 better, to be honest. I miss the exploration far too much. The sad part is that I really enjoy New Vegas' atmosphere itself more. I love the more vibrant (with non-hostile life), cleaner atmosphere of the Mojave as well as the contrast caused by the Strip and the wasteland. Fallout 3 captured the more desolate and depressing theme more successfully, in my opinion, but I don't really like that feeling as much as that instilled by the Mojave. The problem is, for me, that despite having what I consider to be a superior atmosphere, New Vegas just feels too empty. I feel like running back to a combination of Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 just to get back some exploration. A week ago, I thought I liked New Vegas more, though, so my opinion may still change. Regardless, I love New Vegas and I'm looking forward to a few more spin-offs from Obsidian.

It was just a darker, more serious tone. When I think of FO3 I imagine BoS in grimy trenches fighting mutants day in and day out in truly destroyed environment. NV just isn't that. Not even close. So using "story" was perhaps incorrect as I was more referencing the atmosphere.



Well, I'm gonna try to avoid spoilers as best I can but the "You And What Army?" quest really messed me up. I know it said it was optional but because it was standalone quest I assumed it was an independent alternative to the other two options so I pursued it while ignoring the other two not realizing it was really just part of one of the other options. So when I showed up in the underground factory none of the dialog with Mr. House matched anything that had just happened.

Another huge choice/dialog disconnect was killing House because I just ran in there solo, guns blazing, hacked his stuff and vaporized him. Again, the dialog just didn't match the choices I was making at all. That was the final reason I scrapped my initial playthrough and will be starting over.

I just don't think Obsidian truly understood what the Oblivion/FO3/Gamebryo series was capable of. Maybe they've been just been making linear games too long and svck at sandboxes or something.

And all of that nitpicking aside there's also the issue that the game's performance is a complete disaster and it's a bug ridden mess.

iv played/beaten both and i likem both i just like vegas more because of the guns/ new armor an quest but it feels like they didnt put as many cloths/armor as they did in fallout3 (nerfing chinese stealth armor is complete bullshi... btw) and they reused to many cloths/guns but the guns they reused i like so thats not really a problem

It is a tough choice for me as i am new to the Fallout series (never played 1 or 2) so i have no real idea when the series started or just how far from the original ideas the series drifted. I can say that i like FO3 the story, environment, the characters, and the extensive mod ability of the game. I do wonder just how much the game being a Steam game will limit the modders. I will say that having played Oblivion, FO3 and now FO3 NV i like the leveling systemm of the FO3 series much better than the Oblivion system. In FO3 NV the addition of hardcoe mode, which i have not played yet, is something that i am really interested in, now add into the hardcoe mode the necessity of crafting for survival and a new dimension of game play has been added. I also think the old west feel the game invokes is an interesting part of the game and in the Mohave it works well.

Some have said that the whole beginning of the story as in you wake up talk to Doc set up your character and bamm you in the game was a disappointment to them but i find it is much better than 45 minutes to 1.5 hours it took to get your character set up, outside the vault, and shooting things. I would rather have the FO3 NV approach than the FO3, i want to shoot people in the face, rifle through thier stuff, and blowup/burn what i can not carry off, in FO3 NV i can do this in under 30 minutes. This has no effect on the story as there really is no story except the most important one, and that is the one I intend to write with this character. In alot of ways FO3 NV does this so much better than even the open ended world of the Capitol Wastes did, it seems like the developers made a world, allowed me a vast myriad of choices, and then got the hell out of my way and let me take over, granted with in the confines of programming. I would have liked to have a story line that was designed for me to play as a Ghoul, Raider, Super Mutant, Human, NCR, Legion, complete with a small back story just to add some depth to the character field, but you can not have everything. I sense a few DLC opportunities that if done properly should be able to seamlessly toss the player into any faction or race start while still not changing the main quest/story line.

I think both FO3 and FO3 NV both are games the developers can and should be proud of, bugs and miscues aside. Having to pick which one is better was a diffucult choice and one that even though there was a clear winner it was only because of the newer ideas that were added that really made me choose FO3 NV over FO3.

Asai