But when you think about how Fallout 3 takes place 200 years after the war and they still haven't built anything but shacks in all that time, it does bring up the question as to what exactly they have been doing since building those. Most of those shacks can be built in a few days at most, so the only explanation for them to not have built new post-war buildings or renovated pre-war ones (like they are doing on the west coast) is that they've been sitting around doing nothing the whole time.

Do you understand what strategic nuclear target means?

Do you have any idea how many important military bases were hit hard on the west coast? There's this place called The Glow that is just one giant radioactive crater that make's Fallout 3's White House look like nothing. Lore states that the west coast was hammered. Your argument holds no water.

The classic games show the populace interacting with a world that changed long ago that they now live in.

Bethesda wanted to create a world 10 years after global nuclear war... not 200.

Fallout was my first RPG... the first one I ever cared about anyway. Never understood the interest in JRPGs until Chrono Trigger years after it's initial release. I still remember how amazingly atmospheric exploring The Glow was. This incredible sense of unease as the geiger counter displayed lethal radiation levels and this tune played.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w-LZrSPs5Y

The more I think about it the more I realize no Fallout game since has captured the atmosphere and apprehension of the first time visiting The Glow. Moments like this were why I disliked the 'sillier' tone of Fallout 2.

Seems like no one has mentioned one pretty major detail.
NV is not infinite sandbox. 3 is.
In NV after the last mission that is all, the credits roll and you have finished it. No playing after the ending.
In 3 you continue with a story from DLC and infinite sandbox.


As for what is better NV or 3? None. They both are good.

I played Fallout 3 first and put over 200 hours in it. Now after saying this I will go to my grave saying this"I loved FO3 UNTIL I played Fallout 1 and 2. those games ruined FO 3 for me no question. Its always been hard to go back after the originals. Three has its moments but NV no question for me.

Agree 90% with this.

The 10% disagreement is because the areas in New Vegas - even those that have been "rebuilt" a while ago - far too much trash/damage in them. Some areas are understandable (as they're still rife with raiders and the like), but areas like the NCR embassy having filing cabinets lying on their side? The interior of the NCR's main base in the area looking like it's been trashed by raiders despite being supposedly taken over by the NCR for at least a year?

Then again, maybe the NCR are lazy AF. But these are minor complaints - NV seems to flow quite logically from Fallout 2 (in terms of background plot and development), plus it takes the idea of factions and politics from Fallout 2 (where it was mainly a background thing) and makes it more prominent.

I also always found it pretty irritating that in "official" places there was still lots of junk sitting about with nobody ever having bothered to clean it up.

Exactly this!

It makes it look like the NCR is run by a bunch of lazy raiders. Or that everyone in the whole game can't be bothered cleaning up the places that they live in.

It would make sense if there had maybe been a battle there recently, or maybe if they'd just moved in or something. But for the NCR to have occupied that base for about a year (or more?) and still not bothered to do something about that tipped over filing cabinet - well it makes it look like the officer has anger management issues and likes to trash the furniture!

Actually I believe there is a mod for New Vegas which "cleans up" a lot of that kind of trash, including the old newspapers etc. that seems to litter the floor of every building. I can't remember what it's called unfortunately.

I know which mod you mean, I am pretty sure it exists for F3 as well.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that FO3 is my hands-down favorite. I've played all of them (except 4), and 3 is the only one I've played to the end. Like a great movie or book, this game re-enters my mind at odd times and I am completely psyched that this is out on GoG and will play on Win 8. I love the atmosphere and the mechanics of this game. And unlike many here, I did not like the changes made in NV. Maybe it's because I'm just not that hardcore, I don't know - FO1 and 2 got frustrating and somewhat boring to me towards the end, but that's how I feel.

Completely fair point; as I said in my post at the beginning, I first liked F3 a lot more than NV as well, but for me most new mechanics make a lot of sensee, but oddly enough, only when comparing both games directly.

if you like a more open setting with a more little things to do like oblivion you will love 3 but if you want a more concentrated story with a bit better roleplay and gambling setting with suits and mafia looking dudes then go with new vagas. I personally love 3 more due to the setting for exploration and the tint is not brown like new vagas, EVERYTHING IN VAGAS HAS A BROWN COLOR PALLET and that gets to me, Like GTA 4 has a brown pallet but 5 has a more natural gray/ neutral color

One thing I also want to point out... New Vegas uses it's space far better than 3 did. Every interior location serves a purpose and has some element of backstory.

While Bethesda generally creates more interesting worlds, they often stuff the world with copy paste dungeons. The metro systems in 3 were incredibly annoying and repetitive.