Woo! Another Fallout thread! Sorry guys

Buuuuuut, on a few fallout related threads I've seen people make comparisons about both games; what people think one does better or what one does a lot worse.

I thought it would be nice to have a thread where our opinions could be put tidily in one handy place

For me, three of my preferences:

I love the way NV does Companions compared to 3. Not only does the companion wheel make things a lot easier, but it is actually fun travelling with a companion. They actually have things to say, back story wise and you feel like you are travelling with a friend In a way. In 3 they are kinda just there. I find it hard to connect with the companions as they are so one dimensional.

Also, prefer the Star Cap hunt in NV compared to the Nuka Cola challenge (sorry mirocu ). I just find it more of a challenge finding the caps as the Quantums in 3 seem to easy to find.

BUT one thig 3 does have the edge on over NV are player housing. Bethesda have always done a great job with what their player housing has to offer, and Fallout 3 is no exception. In NV the player houses (if you can call them that) just never feel like home. They seem bland.

As NV is Steam dependent I will never play it so I can´t really give a fair opinion about it. But from what I´ve seen of it on youtube it looks awesome! And I agree on the companion stuff, looks much more vibrant and alive in NV and that´s the main thing I´ve been missing in FO3. I´d like to interact more with NPCs and in FO3 it´s hard to do that once the quest or whatever is finished.

While the weapons fail hard sometimes in FO3 (I´m looking at you, "minigun"!) I like the setting and think the Capital Wasteland should look just like that. However, before I knew NV required Steam I was gonna get that. I mean, who doesn´t like western themes in games??


Hey!

I too prefer Fallout 3. I think it displays Bethesda's most accomplished, professional writing to date. I loved the environment. I thought most of the characters and stories were memorable. I've actually been itching to play it again recently. I think I will, as soon as I finish my current Skyrim character.

I didn't 'connect' with New Vegas at all. I don't like desert environments so that was a huge turn-off for me. I also didn't connect with the whole quasi-Hollywood-style, pseudo-wild west vibe Obsidian seemed to be aiming at. It felt cheesy to me. Also the stories and characters in New Vegas did not engage my imagination as much as the stories and characters in Fallout 3.

I think FONV did the crafting much better than FO3. Being able to recycle used energy ammo, or convert them to different types made playing an energy weapon wielder a lot more viable than it is in FO3. It got more complicated than I liked crafting the regular ammo though. I preferred FO3's very simple ammo press from The Pitt. I just wish there was a press in Megaton...

FONV's main quest certainly gives you a lot more options than the FO3 mq, in the way you can try to recruit varying factions for the upcoming war. Though it still boils down to Legion vs. NCR in the end. But I am not really very interested in doing the main quests in Bethesda's games anway, so this does not really count for much for me. Ironically I have done the FO3 main quest twice now. I never had any desire to do any of the FONV main quest. I could just care less for the Legion or the NCR.

When it comes to radios, FO3 wins hands down for me. I love Three Dog, and hearing him relate my wasteland adventures to the rest of the world. Mr. Vegas just felt flat and dull to me.

When it comes to locations to explore, FO3 also wins hands down for me again. Half of the FONV map is blocked off and empty, with just a strip of places going down the center of the square. FO3 just feels so much bigger, with more to find and more to do. That of course is what I play open world games for, the joy of simple exploration.

The Bugs were definitely much worse in FONV. Even though I played the game years after it was supposedly patched, I still ran into lots of weird glitches, like animals being three-quarters underground. I could not shoot them, but they could still harm me. Or Scorpions that walked around doing handstands. Or a game-breaking bug I found with the quest for the vault overrrun with plants, that I only escaped from by using the console. The only issue I have ever had with FO3 was the occasional CTD for no apparent reason, which was fixed with a simple .ini tweak that made it play nice with my multi-core cpu.

All in all I vastly prefer FO3.

Oh that's such a shame! I feel NV is a different experience to FO3 in many ways (hence the thread). It's a shame you can;t experience it




Ahh see I agree with your thoughts, but I preferred the story of NV. For me, it's lack of depth worked as a benefit for me. It allowed me to create my own depth to the story haha

--

Another comparison.

Now this is a plus and a minus but i Like and dislike the choice of ammo + weapons in both FO3 and NV.

Sometimes I prefer the almost simple choice in FO3 compared to NV more complex, wide variety... but also vice versa.



Agreed.

I preferred the story in New Vegas because at the end it detailed more about the individual things that you'd done. There were many more options that had an effect on the ending.

I did enjoy that the interiors had more depth in FO3 because you'd enter and explore for 20 minutes vs NV's walk in, look around, leave in 5 minutes for most interiors.

I also enjoyed the depth of the weapons in NV much more. It was more realistic with multiple specialized ammunition types suited for different situations. As a firearm owner, I appreciate that the weapons handle more realistically and that you can actually look down the weapon's sights in NV.

Then there's the companion system in NV, it has more depth and allows companions to be much more useful than they were in FO3. The crafting system is similar, I only wish they'd let you craft actual weapons in NV like they did in FO3.

They were both amazing games but I have a strong preference for NV in most of the game mechanics. Both games had fun and interesting DLC as well as stories.

I prefer FO3 mostly because I like the environment better. I liked the weapon mods and aiming in FONV better, but the game was really glitchy, I thought the landscape was boring, and the main quest for me was less memorable and fun.

As a fellow explorer, this is a big thing for me and not being able to fully explore the map as I please is a huge, HUGE letdown and something I can´t accept. I didn´t mention it because I had forgotten about it, but this also made me get FO3 instead of NV. But I think I forgot the main thing why I even approached the Fallout franschise; an awesome lets play on youtube! Loved the game and the mechanics right away so I would have gotten FO3 anyway, but hadn´t it been for Steam I would have gotten NV as well.

Money stays in the pocket


That is so fun to see!


I had to make that change too but I still get the CTD once in awhile. Not so often but it´s a major pain if I haven´t saved in awhile when it does happen

Edit: Main reason to get NV: companion Willow. She´s just...
Needless to say she´s not a ghoul like in FO3

I think Fallout 3 is my fave...But that doesn't mean I didn't love, and put a goodly amount of hours into New Vegas...

I prefer wandering the Wasteland, and prefer the locations to explore...

But New Vegas has some of the cooler characters...Even from the start, Doc Mitchell is a blast, and I hate the fact that he's barely used after that...

Anyways...

I actually prefer the post-Dead Money BoS bunker house in New Vegas to the Megaton one...Just feels better...

There are many things that I don't like about both games, but I think the list is longer for New Vegas...Biggest minus being the fact that I can't do the MQ because it stops the game...I know that Fo3 was like that before Broken Steel, but at least I can still do stuff with the same character...There's no point finishing off a character that I've spent 100+ hours building up...

I love both games, but for me, Fallout 3 feels like the better game...

Although ED-E is a constant in NV, and that BoS bint (whose name I've currently forgotten) was an excellent laugh when I did the whole BoS thing, I've never used the other companions so I can't compare the two on that score...

I do love the Brotherhood of Steel in the two games...Do like me a good Knightly order... ...Not sure if anyone's noticed or not... ...

Aaamywho...

Yeah, Fo3...Top game...

New Vegas...Not far behind though...



EDIT...PS...I really should have waited before answering this...My brain is obviously still work-addled...Apologies... ...

It's funny you should mention that. I had no interest in Fallout 3 for years. But a Youtube video by SubRosa changed my mind.

I said something in the Oblivion forums about how I'd never bought Fallout 3 because I didn't like guns. And SubRosa responded with am awesome video of one of her characters kicking ass with a sword. I was astounded. I bought Fallout 3 because of that video. And I'm glad I did. So: thank you SubRosa!

This is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwN1RKvA57E

I´ve seen that video too but a long time after I was hooked And a funny note; you liked FO3 because you could use melee weapons Pseron, but I have never touched those weapons here as I get enough of that in Oblivion. I´m just in it for the guns

And the exploration... and the collecting of all things Nuka... and the exploration

Now that was a blast from the past Wyrd! Tomoe was a such a fun character to play. The slightly unhinged ones usually are. (she was convinced that she was the RL Tomoe Gozen from medieval Japan...).

Hey, Sub. You´re a modder, can´t you somehow get the companion Willow from NV over to FO3? It is a mod already but not made for the game I play.

Why I want her in my game? Well, I think she... would..... contribute alot to.... the gameplay. What? Do I think she looks pretty? Ooh, noooo it´s not anything like that, I swear.

I just took a look at her on the Nexus, and that would be a huge amount of work. She's no ordinary companion whose face I could just copy and paste between GECKs. She has unique dialogue, a unique race, new quests, what looks like a custom hair style, etc...

Ask the original mod maker if they will port it. They might do it. I have seen many mods ported between FO3 and NV.

It's odd. Once I started playing the game I discovered that I really didn't dislike guns as much as I thought I did, lol. In fact, after only a few hours in the game my character was gunning down everything in sight. She became a menace to the entire Wasteland. Nobody was safe.

I play in third person, so animations play a big part in how I respond to games. If I don't like a game's animations it may ruin a game for me. And I discovered I liked Fallout's reloading animations. That was what turned my attitude around. Even if she didn't need to do it, I'd have her reload immediately after a fight, just because it looked so badass. And then I was hooked.

I sent my character into Operation Anchorage right away, specifically to get Jingwei's Shocksword. But the dang thing ended up unused in her inventory 90% of the time while she mowed Raiders and Mirelurks down with Combat Shotguns and Sniper Rifles. *sigh*

Heh! I´ve been reloading right after a fight since forever, but with good reason. You see I hate thinking the fight is over, taking a few steps and getting ambushed by a new foe, only to discover that I could have used those five extra bullets I would have had if I had just reloaded immediately!

Never walk around without a full mag. Ever

The military teaches to swap mags after every firefight for that reason. For most of us, firefights aren't something we'll have to contend with in reality (luckily!) but it is good advice in any shooting game to reload often as well.

I admit it, I know nothing about guns. I know quite a bit about blades and bows, having grown up with them, but I know zippo about guns (aside from BB and pellet guns).

They're extremely dangerous in the wrong hands or if they're improperly handled but aren't dangerous at all in the hands of responsible owners.

Yes, I suppose that's true. I've done a lot of woodworking and general construction with power tools over the years. And I know that power tools are extremely dangerous in the hands of someone who is not trained in their use, but remarkably safe in the hands of someone who has been trained to use them properly. I imagine it's the same with guns.

I actually grew up around guns, living in a rural area of northern Illinois, I just never had occasion to use one myself. It seemed like every truck in the county had a gun rack. But for some reason my parents never owned a gun. They had all kinds of bows - they even gave me my own child's bow for my eighth birthday - but no guns. But they were all around us. During hunting season we could hear guns going off in the distance. On the way to the grocery store we'd pass trucks with deer on the hoods.

I lived a strange childhood.

Doesn't sound too strange. I'd like to buy a crossbow but I can't justify the kind of money a good crossbow runs.

I hope they put some kind of non firearm weapon in the next FO game like crossbows, although I'll bet almost all of their focus will be on firearms because that's why most people play FO.

Funny you mention it, but I was thinking lately that I might like to play a bow or crossbow character in the near future. Someone more low tech.

NV has better gameplay,story,and an arugably better world.

I love Fallout 3,I think it or Oblivion was my first Beth game and some of my first real RPGs,I'd never really played an RPG before,but Fallout 3 just isn't as good in my opinion and luck it wasn't a multiplayer game,because it has Games For Windows on it and that sucks and is annoying!

So I prefer NV.

I hear NV has more of those pesky invisible walls. Doesn´t sound too good to me

Not true.

You have to go out of your way to get to them.

They're harder to get to than Fallout 3,in FO3 they're quite easy to get to.

Anyway you need invisiable walls,games can't go on forever unless it's a randomly generated game like Minecraft.

Or as my Oblivion game. I can go on for hours and I will never reach the end!

I´d prefer natural boundaries such as inscalable walls. Not just a halt in mid-air.

NV has some inscalable walls,but it's hard to compare Fallout to TES because Fallout is supposed to feel empty so big empty spaces make more sense.

True, but tall mountains is not impossible in Fallout either. I have actually never met any invisible walls in FO3 except along the borders and in D.C which is supposed to be an outdoor dungeon so that´s ok. What I´ve heard about NV is that you can come to a halt just about everywhere where you shouldn´t because it´s quest-related or something. Can´t say myself, but some people seem really frustrated about it.

That's not true at all.

Unless it's in one of the DLC,which I've played one of which was fine and had no invisiable walls,only inscalable.

A bigger problem than invisible walls for me is New Vegas' use of high-level enemies to block our paths through the environment until Obsidian deems the time is right. This is just another invisible wall as far as I'm concerned.

When it comes right down to it I don't like Obsidian's whole game design philosophy. Obsidian is all about controlling the player. I hate that. The main reason I love Bethesda's games is because they try their best not to control me. Bethesda lets me mostly do whatever the hell I want...even if that means unbalancing my own game in the process.

Paradoxically, the freedom to ruin my own game experience is precious to me.