I just finished installing both of the fallout's and I'm really enjoying Fallout. I've only gotten past the first "cave" or vault of whatever... but its really cool. is Fallout 2 much different? Here's the question I really wanted to ask, How long is Fallout? I read a review that said it was a loooong game. Well, off to play Fallout all night!
Byee

I do not know actual times, like wether it's 10 hours or 20 days. But, first of all, it's an RPG. They are usually longer then FPS etc. And it's an old game, they where usually longer then newer ones.
Also, like in most RPGs, the most important part is whether you want to finish it as fast as possible, or explore every single pixel and do every side quest. If you do everything you can, especially if you do it on your own (for many games, there are guides who tell you "first go there, there and there, and then there.. and finally there, so you can finish all quests at once"), it takes.
I played Fallout 3 for like 60-70 hours, and it did feel fast compared to what i remember from Fallout/Fallout 2. But thats totally subjective, and it's not like i would have played them right after another..

Well, it depends on how long would take you to finish, haha. If you know exactly where to go, you can beat the game in less of an hour. But if is the first time you play the game, as I suppose, it will take you 20-30 hours to finish it.
Regarding to Fallout 2, it's a little bit longer than Fallout, but has nearly the same interface, and some optimized aspects.

it takes as long as you want it to, with things like faqs, walkthroughs, and 7 minute gameplay videos.. and a quick run guide..

To me there is alot more depth in Fallout 1 & 2 than newer games. You could spend a very long time finishing and finding eveything. I personally enjoyed Fallout 2 better, probably because i never actually finished the first one, I better do that now....

It took me bout 40 hours to get everything and do all the quests in Fallout 3, which felt real short. So I am going back through and doing things differently and playing differently just to extend the play time. I personally think a game should have a price tag based on the average hours one will log into a game. Like Halo I logged in 10 hours, thus I feel it should be $10.
Other than that, I sped thru the original Fallout, and then I read around and found out that I just barely tipped the iceberg on this game. I thought it was 1 sidequest per town, sorta like Fallout 3. Instead, there are like 3-6 sidequests per town, a huge amount of ppl to interact with, and many different play styles to round it all out. The game played differently than Fallout 3, so I would suggest that if you never played a Hardcore RPG like Fallout, play Fallout 3 first then transit backwards to Fallout 1. I would suggest that if you have $12 or even $18, then you should get ALL the Fallouts on GOG.

hmmm weird, nearly all quests if F3 was
a) really stupid (easy, written by monkeys)
b) like quests for 5 year old kids - go there, kill him, and follow this arrow
c) tottaly out of mind - deactivate A-bomb, 25 explosives is just enought (but to disarm shotgun trap you need 65)
d) really really really short - go kill that guy over there, use your radar if you do not see him
e) rewarded quite frankly - oh, you just deactivated this oooold unfuctional unreal bomb, there you have new house.
So please, tell me where in F3 is this sense of story progression, hope you don't mean main story.

I don't like the quests in FO3 because they r way too easy, but the game is still fun and harder than Oblivion. I still like the first two Fallouts for their difficulty and lack of direction, thus giving you a need to explore. In the original Fallout, for example (spoilers abound), you were just given a starting location to go to (Vault 15), upon reaching there (possibly after Sandy Shades because you need some supplies, like ropes) and exploring you find that the vault has caved in at certain points thus you cannot get what you seek, so now you must ask around and that leads you... you get the idea. Unlike Fallout 3 where they instantly seem to know where everyone is at every given moment, in Fallout 1 you had to ask around and then hope the person was still there. Basically Fallout 1 had me talking to more people for information than Fallout 3 did. I do like the side quests in Fallout 3, where you can either "Kill Person X" or you can talk to him and his friends to find out why "Person Y" wants him dead, then you can find a peaceable solution to the problem.

And to the MMO comment, yes they do have an infinite price tag in a sense. The subscription price sorta factors in.

If it were like the original Fallouts you'd actually have to listen to Fallout 3's atrocious dialog to find out where you would have to go, and that would be unbearable.
*hyuck* *hyuck* *hyuck*

Great. Not that I'm a F3 fanboy but I just hate your lack of objectivity.
Fallout 2 for example had many infantile quests. Guard the moo-moo's for Torr. I mean come on. On the other hand Fallout 3 have many deep and interesting quests, where you can finish the quest in many different ways and it doesn't involve shooting enything, or anybody, for example "A replicated man". Great interesting quest and a refference to Blade Runner.
I hate to be in the position of defending the game which i find less good then it's predssesors but you are forcing me to do that.
Please before you write anything, think for a moment.

excuse me, but guarding cows for torr was at least logical, what would you do if you are retarded and something is killing your cows ? there is more logic then in F3 main quest (and lots of other F3 quests), and by the way, this guarding quest is chained with dunton brothers ;)
Tell me at least ONE deep and interesting quest in F3 (hmm moira's quest like, kill yourself, get yourself heavily radiated, et cetera), replicated man isn't deep or interesting for me, just another of "for kids" quest from bethesda. F3 is more shooter than RPG.

OK here we go:
1. The replicated man - as mentioned before. Great quest. Can you do anything but mock. "quest for kids" Any argument?
Link: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/The_Replicated_Man
2. You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head - Actually you do not have to shoot anybody in the head to finish the quest. It all can be solved in a diplomatic manner.
Link: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/You_Gotta_Shoot_%27Em_in_the_Head
3. Head of state - you can do the quest guns blazing, or be an asshole and sell the slaves to the slavers Quest with Metzger from F2 ring the bell?
Link: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Head_of_State
4. Tenpenny Tower: Very interesting quest. It doesn't have a good solution. Sort of a lesser evil kind of quest.
Link: [url=http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Tenpenny_Tower_(quest]http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Tenpenny_Tower_(quest[/url])
Those are really long and complex quests with many solutions.
Now let's look at some "ambitious" quests from Fallout 2:
1. Plants for Hakunin: go, kill the plants, collect the reward
2. Rescue Smiley the Trapper. - go kill the geckos, come back with smiley, get the reward.
3. Kill the rat god - do I realy have to write this?
4. Collect money from Fred - Fedex quest. Thank you.
5. Get book from Derek - Fedex
6. Deliver a meal to Smitty - aaa...fedex?
Those are "flashy" examples I admit. But i picked them for a reason. The same reason you picked those unfortunate quests from F3. You can mock all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that F3 quests aren't written by monkeys for kids. The problem is you see things the way you want them to see not the way they are. Sorry mate.
Do not criticise the game you haven't finished (you obviosly haven't, otherwise you would know what I'm writing about). Fallout 3 is not as good as Fallout 1 or 2. But it isn't nearly as bad as you present it.

as you want, your own ammo ;) but I don't have time to look for some good quests from F2 which can compete with F3 quests (looks like interplay haven't employed monkeys)
ad 1 - yes, it silly quest, at least i got chance to make healing powder
contra - nuke in megatown - oh great gods of bethesda, i am disabling this funky bomb with my explosives uberskill of 25 give me house with my own buttler, bed and shineys......
ad 2 - you know, you don't have to shoot all the geckos in their heads.
contra - moira - supplies from supermart - you know, NOW you have to shoot them all (like many of F3 Q, or you should get stealth really high).
ad 3 - i don't know (remember) which this quest is, sorry
ad 4 - fedex? fedex is borrowing money? you know that you can pay his depth for him and have profit from in in later game? Haven't seen any Q in F3 that influence game in later stages.
ad 5 and 6 - ok, every RPG needs those "starting" quest, but it is weird to have those quests in later game like F3, or better said, only quests like this, but i must admit, sometimes you have chance to use stealth and not to kill everyone, on the other hand, you have wasteland full of enemies :-D
I have F3 CE, finished game twice, played it over 50 hours ingame, just to find something positive on it, nope, not a chance, it is bad RPG (let me think, RPG is about story, F2 had 6MB of text, F3 6KB maybe....), it is bad shooter game, and bugged (lots of CTD nearly on any PC spec until patch, or try to jump in 3rd person)
regarding F3 tenpenny tower, another of those killemall quests :) and if you don't kill them all, someone else will do.
I was expecting RPG game, something with fallout canon, not some "not so well done shooter" there are inconsistencies in game, in story, in everything. There is no mainstory (just don't tell me that 5 hours long mainquest about cleaning water the harder way is something awesome), there is no room for character creativeness (just classic fighter - cqc/ thief- stealth, lockpick/ mage - guns)
let me think.... F2, much older game, that means it should be worse, they haven't know-how and posibilities of bethesda nowadays.
RPG element
F2 mainstory - loooong (without shortcuts)
F3 mainstory - shooooort (without shortcuts)
repleyability
F2 tons of posible characters, quests, endings
F3 just a few times to try F/T/M and good/evil
S.P.E.C.I.A.L
F2 - influence game heavily
F3 - just a light influence on game (i have tried those F2 funny extremes like int 1, lck 1 and others, no influence)
skills
F2 - nearly every skill was usable and have it's place in wasteland
F3 - just usefull to determine some basic game mechanics
we can continue in this way for much longer. F3 is better only in graphics, and it is 3D (I really enjoyed playing fallout game in FPS view and good graphics).
Can you tell me in which F3 beats that old and rusty F2, if we do not count graphics ? Where is that decade of improvement and better know-how ? Play some games from bioware to get feeling of RPG games (even mass effect was more RPG then F3, and have great mainstory).
P.S. and in F2 was SULIK, F3 cannot beat this ;)