I just finished playing New Vegas (again) and went on continuing my Fallout 3 run.

I have to say, coming from a hardcoe New Vegas game, the simplicity of Fallout 3 is ... surprisingly refreshing.

- No longer do I have to collect endless amounts of crap because there are just a few crafting recipies. Most of the stuff I can sell without a worry in the world that I might need it for something later.

- I actually like how Fallout 3 handles the food and water issue. I regularly eat and drink in Fallout 3 because it's a poor man's stimpack. No need for hardcoe mode. Actually I eat and drink more regularly then in New Vegas. And I don't have to give a damn about storing food for the future. In my New Vegas game I diligently stored and crafted food ... and ended up using NONE of it. All the Desert Salads, Caravan Lunches and Gecko Kebabs are totally unnecessary. I ate simple steaks for the whole durating of the game.

- All those Ammo Crafting recipies and the crap that comes with them! Who actually crafts ammo? I don't know, I found it to be far to tiresome for the results it provides. I'd rather go kill a Legion Assassin squad, sell their stuff and buy ammo.

Which kinda leads me to the conclusion that Fallout 3 might be better in this respect. Fallout New Vegas has to much useless (or virtually useless - because you never use it anyway) crap which just fills up your inventory or gathers dust at your homebase.

I use it all and can't go back to FO3 because it lacks it.

It's just personal preference really.

Totally untrue! You do make a point but not with all things you said. I tend to craft ammo but very rarely since I usually can make below 10 rounds but it's still free ammo. Crafting food is something I never really cared for since it's quite useless, I'd usually just buy Sugar Bombs, Blamco Mac & Cheese, ect. And collecting things in New Vegas are actually better but it requires a specific skill at a specific level to make, like Stimpacks and Weapon Repair Kits which I find both very helpful and easy to make. But you can decide what to sell, I sell things I'd never use either it be a specific ammo type, weapon, or armor like Combat Armor.

I'm quite the opposite. While I enjoy the simplistic 'Hiking in a post-apocalyptic wonderland!' feel, going from New Vegas to 3 feels like someone dialed the fun down. I have to force myself to remember all the misc items in Fallout: New Vegas that had use are just random pointless clutter in 3, I forgot that food isn't as useful in Fallout 3 where in New Vegas it actually healed you. Ammo crafting is useful if you're a big ammo person, I've seen many people who enjoy it, myself however, my skills were more passive leveled. I do find crafting ammo can be fun when you do it with the right perks and effort.

If you think New Vegas has more misc clutter, you're so far wrong. You can't use fission batteries to charge depleted energy cells, you can't use scrap metal, wonderglue or wrenches for anything useful, you can't use flour for anything (not that I ever did, I just hoard it like some deranged baker), you can't use empty soda bottles to make sodas, you can't use pitchers and tubing to purify dirty water, you can't use medical supplies to make doctors bags for limb damage. Honestly, if anything, I'd call Fallout 3 OVERLY suffering from simplicity. I frequently find myself with nothing to DO in Fallout 3 but aimlessly roam.

On Guns characters in New Vegas, I craft ammo all the time and take all the perks that improve ammo crafting. Some very useful types of ammo can't be bought from any vendor in the game and have to be crafted at a reloading bench.

Once I have the Hand Loading Perk, most of my ammo is crafted. Jacketed Hollow Points get the job done.

Weirdly enough, I miss the crafting I can do in FO3 when I am playing NV. And, when playing FO3, I kind of like not having to worry about which ammo is loaded in my gun, it's all the same. So, really, it is just something that makes the games different from each other. That's a good thing.

That's exactly my point. Almost everything in New Vegas has some purpose, which encourages a ridicilous hoarder behavior (at least in myself).

In Fallout 3 I find myself happily leaving random junk behind, because it is not worth it to take it with me.

The fact there is so much to do and craft in New Vegas kinda suggests that you might need it. Sadly it's not true at all. I bet you can play the game just fine without ever crafting a single item.

I horde and pack rat and collect like nobodies business. I even collect stuff I can't use. I just let the sorters in the Underwater Home take care of it.

So you prefer a game where half the content has no meaning or purpose?

If you don't like making your own ammo, then don't. But I personally like using Hand Loader ammo because it's just plain better for 75% of guns. Having that option though? I don't see how you can complain about it. I also don't see how you can complain about a "hoarder mentality" when wtf, you can easily beat the game without saluaging a single misc item. It's not even CLOSE to being a requirement...

Ammo crafting is the single greatest feature in the game, i always have repair skill high so i can use it. Survival items crafting i don't like that much though Powerful items, no doubt, but keeping track of the items needed gets a bit cumbersome. I'd kill for an in game notebook

I do have that problem when I play a "survivalist" character, I collect no much random crap because I think it might be useful. It's a hassle, and honestly, I don't like it. But, I'm fine with it existing for people that like it. So, I usually play without crafting (and play Skyrim without alchemy), and like the fact that the stuff gives buffs if you want to use it, but I can be just fine with standard store-bought stuff.

I find the eagerness to pay $60 for less content and liking it... Disturbing.

Well, quality is more important than quantity. After all Skyrim has way more content than New Vegas, but it's definitely no more worthy of my $60.

That said...

If you don't like collecting stuff for crafting recipes then... don't?

If you don't like to keep food on you and play in hardcoe mode then... don't?

If you don't like to mess around with different types of ammo then... don't?

All these ways in which New Vegas expanded on Fallout 3 are optional. That isn't to say that they add nothing; I love hoarding everything and making weapon repair kits and counterfeit Sierre Madre chips, and I love actually living off the land and making food myself rather than shoving 200 year old dry macaroni down my throat,and I love making Max Charge microfusion cells for my modded laser rifle, or possibly the unique one; two other overly complicated systems which Fallout 3 refreshingly lacks.

Nah, I'd say it's not complicated enough -- or, that's a wrong word here, complex sounds better as there is a negative connotation with "complicated". Narratively it is (complex enough) and same with some derived effects like HC modes healing, weight and "needs" mechanics, but general gameplay and rules wise I felt quite unprovoked. There was certain granularity and impact missing from the progressive mechanics, everything was so smooth that I could hardly tell anything happened with my investment of SP's.

No, New Vegas is a very good game.

Here is a good video on the matter ==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toVNkuCELpU

From immersion and lore pov, crafting in New Vegas is meaningless,because the people on the East Coast have recovered and live better lifes than those in the Capital Wasteland.You can buy everything ,nearly everywhere.There are plants suitable for food everywhere,there is drinkable water everywhere.

In Fallout 3,there is much more feeling of despair,ruin and misery and has a more dark post apocalyptic feel than New Vegas.So crafting there and trying to make do with random junk actually makes sense.

I never crafted anything in New Vegas,except a few food recipes,because there is little RP satisfaction in it.+ i just buy all my bullets.

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Fallout 3 needs an official hardcoe mode,urgently.It would be much better there,than in New Vegas.

Yeah, just a few boring craft recipes that you'll probably never use except the dart gun to cripple legs... and with the Rock-it Launcher you need to horde crap to shoot with it. You aren't obliged to use the crafting system in New Vegas, I've certainly never used much of the survival skill.


That's a fault with the game (hardcoe mode is too easy) but hardly a point in Fallout 3's benefit. That doesn't even make sense, in non-hardcoe New Vegas food and drink is exactly the same as Fallout 3.


I always craft ammo personally, especially the .308 rounds for the Hunting Rifle or recycling energy cells.


It's hardly useless, just not your play style. Like ammo crafting is useless because you don't craft ammo?

I'm on the opposite side...I thought many of the FO3 weapon schematics were terrible..who wants a wet mop gun? Not me. I also thought FO3 weapons were awful compared to FNV. While I agree the New Vegas implementation could have been better in some areas, it serves as an invaluable modding resource. http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/36741/? is a good example.

Game complexity is very subjective; one mans trash is an other man's treasure. I prefer to play one great game a thousand times, than a thousand middling games once.

Like asking if you'd rather use an abacus or a calculator.