They're both the same rank of greatness IMO. FO3 shows what life would be like at the end/beginning of the Post Apocalyptic scale, wild & untamed with a couple of factions fighting for dominance & trying to bring order. FO:NV on the other hand shows what life is like if you move up the apocalyptic scale, Factions that have achieved order & stability, bringing some sense of world order to everyone under their influence, now looking to expand their borders. On the whole both stories are phenomenal, but it's natural for people to prefer one over the other when you consider what tastes each brings.
FO3 is 200 years after the Great War so it should not look like it just happened.
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FO3's story is "Go find Dad." Problems with FO3. One our characters age is set at 19. We know we are mom is dead and our dad is a nerd. Our background is pretty much set which svcks for character creation. The plot does not take into account of being a bad/evil person "what if we don't care about dear old dad." After all the guy took off without saying anything. Even if we do hunt the guy town to tell him off why would we care about fixing project purity? The story is ok if we play a good character (which is really the only type we can be).
New Vegas, our background is blank which is great. We survive being shot twice, which people can survive some crash things. So are motive is to find the man who shot us. Also not finding the chip can bring http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mojave_Express_Delivery_Order_(4_of_6) down on us from Mr.House. So once we find the chip we know have four outcomes we can pick from :fallout: