Years to late.

The hate towards Fallout 3 generally comes not from it being a 3D FPS/TPS but from how bad its story, writing, voice acting and consistency is. While New Vegas operates on the same engine as F3, it significantly improved all the things I mentioned and is generally considered a worthy sequel to the first two Fallouts.

On a side note, seemingly despite what I implied, I'm in the middle of playing through F3 once again as we speak. I found that if you think of it not as "Fallout 3" but "Capital Wasteland: The Game", steer clear of the main plot as much as possible (avoiding anything Brotherhood and Enclave-related) and don't expect the world to make much sense, it becomes quite an enjoyable post-apo exploration game.

TL;DR:
Fallout: New Vegas is a good Fallout game. Fallout 3 is an OK game but a bad Fallout game.

 

I played FO3 and generally enjoyed it, though I never finished it (which should surprise nobody here).

Should I pick up New Vegas then? I might have room for a new game in a month or so...

 

Not finishing F3 probably leaves a better impression of the game than doing so.

As for New Vegas, sure, I definitely recommend it. A great RPG with actual decisions and a compelling power struggle set in a coherent world, where new factions are interesting and old ones have (d)evolved in a convincing way. What's not to like?

I personally also quite enjoyed that while New Vegas, alike Fallout 2, would be more precisely described as a post-post-apocalyptic game, survival is an important factor and wildlife is something you quickly learn to respect.

 

Also, Deathclaws like hugs.

 

That thought reminded me of this.

 

People always seem to think that FO3 isn't that great, but I think most people are forgetting one thing - Liam Neeson is your dad. If that isn't any sane man's dream then I don't know what is.

What does FO:NV have in comparison? Chandler from Friends as a main antagonist - I know, he's terrifying. Following this ironclad logic, FO3 >> FO:NV.

 

Nothing could possibly top the fact that New Vegas has a Professor Farnsworth sound-alike as a DLC antagonist.

 

Well FO3 has Caligula/Alex from A Clockwork Orange as a main antagonist, if "but Liam Neeson is your dad" wasn't cool enough - which quite frankly it was!

 

My only problem with Bethesda games is the lack of voice actors they use. I can guarantee there would be hundreds of people willing to voice characters for free just so they could be part of it. So money shouldn't be the issue there, just time and well as we notice with almost every game these days they are always rushed out before they are complete.

 

...as a pedestrian. Now that's a role of a lifetime.

 

You talking about Old World Blues? If you are, I've just gained a lot of respect for you because that's my favorite DLC for FO:NV. Though I do loves me some Liam Neeson, too.

Oh, and Jojobobo, Benny (Chandler) isn't the main antagonist of the game. He's the only common antagonist for all players, but he's far from the main one.

On topic, though, I think Arcanum would be fine as a First Person RPG, but haven't we sacrificed enough to the First Person genre now? At the top of my head, perhaps it could work as a strategy RPG in the vein of XCOM: Enemy Unknown (The original, as well.) I'll have to give it more thought later...

 

That's why I used the indefinite article "a" rather than the definite article "the", as a common antagonist to any player it's pretty fair to say that he is a main antagonist. I've completed the game on about 10 separate occasions, have every achievement on the xbox version (including for all the DLCs) and have played through each of the DLCs multiple times too; I am well aware of the role Benny plays in the game and know it pretty much inside and out. Still, if you want to carry on addressing people like a butt weasel then feel free.

As a side note, any cool person knows that Dead Money was the best DLC by a country mile.

 

I bought that DLC, but never actually got around to playing through it. Guess I should go play it now. See y'all in a few weeks.

 

You should, it's very good. It deals with themes of obsession and has a haunting atmosphere, plus a compelling backstory - just try not to get frustrated with the bomb collars and speakers which lead most people to write it off; have fun. The butt weasel comment was in jest, don't take it seriously (which I hoped would have been obvious by its childish nature - if anything, take it as a term of endearment).

 

Re:

Oh, no worries, I didn't take it as an insult and didn't address it as I assumed that you assumed that I didn't assume it as such. Well, you know what they say about assuming.

Anyways, Dead Money is very enjoyable so far. The whole bomb-collar/radio/cloud thing doesn't bother me as not only are there little to no penalties to death (other than the load times), I also save like a madman as a side effect of playing Fallout 2 and unpatched Arcanum. Where, respectively, enemies are (almost) always fully capable of killing you in a few turns if you're not careful or the game will inexplicably crash out of the blue, both erasing several characters levels, a few pieces of equipment, a few hours of my time as well as a little bit of my sanity. That is, if I hadn't been saving like a mad man.

 

I too save a ridiculous amount but it never seems enough, honestly FO:NV seems to crash on me a lot on the xbox and always when I'm rushing to another quest so I've got complacent and haven't saved in half an hour or so (which is still a pain in the arse to repeat). If you hanker for skill books (like I always do) getting the bugged Duck and Cover! near Dean when you first meet him can be ridiculously challenging - yet at the same time if you manage it you'll feel like you're king of the world. I've literally spent an hour of my time trying to get it before, yet sometimes I can get it in a few minutes.

 

Re:

Good god, I too, play on the xbox and it can ridiculous with the crashes sometimes. I remember not doing the "Ghost Town Showdown" until I could get my skills at an acceptable level to convince everyone to join (except Easy Pete. Who needs dynamite, anyways?), then when I did a few hours later, I fast traveled back to goodsprings and it crashed. And corrupted the autosave I got from fast traveling.

Then 5 times within the next 2 hours of playing. Then several times more during the Van Graff's ambush on Caesars Legion, all because I shot an unconscious legionnaire in the head with an Anti-materiel rifle and the game didn't feel like loading his giblets.

(I swear, I had to replay that part a bajillion times because them brilliant NCR troopers kept thinking it was a good idea to step in between me wielding a tri-beam laser rifle and a legionnaire wielding a shotgun, the two of us being 3 feet away from each other at most :x )

 

Turning the autosave off can often help regards to preventing some crashes, maybe that'd be worth a shot.

 

Re:

I'll be sure to try that. Anything to stop the fast-travel based crashes.

Also, thanks for warning me about that bugged Duck and Cover! near Dean Domino. Indeed, it took me a long time to get it. Felt really triumphant when I finally picked it up, like looting Colonel Autumn's pistol and coat while he was "dead", except in New Vegas.