Just finished playing fallout 1 (well the story line at least) and I just have to say, why don't they make games like this anymore.
Fantastic storyline, long gameplay, extremely polished, ron perlmen and the best video game ending history!!!
Too bad Bethesda ruined Fallout 3... Oh well, now, on to Descent 3!

I just finished this up last night as well. A friend on another board suggested I play back through it with a character that has "1 Luck, 1 Intelligence, Jinxed and Bloody Mess for hilarity."
Between that and the Fallout 2 download I just grabbed, it's going to be a jolly Christmas... at ground zero.

Grats on finishing the game, guys! I still have a ways to go, I have barely scratched the surface of FO1.

I wouldn't have said FO1 was very polished. There were a lot of little bugs and quirks that irritated me. But you're right they don't make games like this anymore, because the setting and storyling made me forget about most of those bugs :)
I finished FO1 a few weeks back, and now I'm a few hours into FO2. I must say, not only have they fixed a lot of the things that made FO1 frustrating (most having to do with your party), but the setting is even deeper if that is believable. Really great game. I've got F03 sitting on my shelf, but really want to play the first two first.

I just finished Fallout a few minutes ago for the first time and decided to come to this forum just for a thread like this. Awesome game and awesome ending. I'm getting FO2 for sure.
MadTaco

While I did enjoy playing through Fallout 1 just several weeks ago myself, I got to disagree with most of your points. Like bpops said some things are rather annoying, most notably the companions and clickety inventory and trading.
I also didn't think the storyline was too great. The setting definitely is and especially how unique it is. But in comparison I especially disliked the whole Super Mutants and Master thingie a bit. Well, I also just expected something else, something more realistic and not so "fantastic".
My biggest concern though, were the ending's of Fallout 1 and 2 alike. From all I've heard about the games beforehand I thought I was to expect something really, really great, but was rather disappointed afterwards. You are only told about the towns and folks in a very general way. You hardly get any details about individuals and what you were told about the rest was rather sparse, as well. Yes, you are told about the consequences of your actions, but only in one or two sentences and a static image per town, just a minute before the credits roll. At least I didn't really get a connection to these little final stories.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing these two Fallouts and I think they are very good games, especially Fallout 2. But all the hype and cult surrounding it made those really look a lot better than they actually are in my opinion. I guess part of this hype is how unfortunately unique they are, though, how rarely games are this very open-ended.
Lastly, I am seemingly one of those fortunate guys who were granted the ability to have fun with mostly any Fallout game, as I am presently having great fun playing through Fallout 3 and I think I'm also going to enjoy playing Fallout Tactics some time in the future :)

I actually never thought the endings were that great in Fallout 2. I really liked the Fallout 1 ending because of the little twist, but F2 was just blah. I enjoy the games for the freedom to do what you want and how you want to do it.

I haven't completed either of them yet, I'm hoping that the destination is as good as the journey.

How do you get the good ending for the Hub? I always get the ending where the town is overrun by the mutants.

There's a spoileriffic list of endings on Wikia which includes details of the prerequisites for each ending (or some of them at least).
Basically, you need to complete the game very quickly - several times quicker than you probably would on your first run through of the game.

No, Fallout 1 ends upon the completion of the two major quests, destroying the Cathedral and destroying the Mariposa Military Base, however you can do one by itself and still play, so if you blow up the Military Base but not the Cathedral you can continue playing, or vice versa.

Oh, sorry, I should clarify. I've never played before and assumed the Water Chip was the main quest. So now I assume I can just do the Water Chip quest and still continue playing with no time limit?

Yes, I think it goes without saying now.
In older versions of Fallout 1, there was an unseen time limit after returning the Water Chip signaling the mutant invasion, but the fully updated version does not have this time limit in place so you are free to explore however long you wish.
Well, until the game clock starts screwing up because you've been playing for so long, but that takes YEARS and the only time it only ever happened to me was when I was messing around with the game clock in order to understand the editor better for modding.

I just bought Fallout 1 and 2 yesterday and played for about an hour. So far I am very impressed! Excellent presentation, story, and RPG elements. Combat could be a little more lenient in terms of moving my character but I am sure this was the developer's intentions.
I've been playing Fallout 3 a lot since it came out and from what I can tell, Bethesda has stayed as true as possible to Black Isle's vision. Of course it will never replicate FO 1 and 2's experience perfectly but they have the rights to the franchise (single player actually, MMO is another story) and can expand, improve, add, or remove anything they want.
Hey, a game as big as Fallout 3 has to appeal to much more than the hardcore fans like those spoil sports at No Mutants Allowed.