Yep, me too, even with the add-on that ups it to 30, I always got to 30 well before the game ended. And you know what??? I know it's crazy, but the thing I missed the most, beyond getting other perks or skill points even, was the little "cha ching" you heard when killing something. LOL. It just wasn't the same without that.

Dammit, now I wanna play all three of them again RIGHT NOW. LOL. Oh well, back to 1 for awhile. Maybe I'll do that this time. Just play through all three back to back to back.

Oh, and IIRC, I think I read somewhere that Hard mode actually increased XP gained, but it made enemies harder. I might be misremembering that though.

That was a huge complaint, but the time limit was addressed in a patch. Either to increase or to remove it - can't remember :P Btw, the game doesn't end after you find and return the water chip. That is perhaps only approx 60/70% into the game iirc.
I want to go on the mother of post apocalyptic binges sometime this year, or next year :P Fallout 1,2,3 (some of its dlcs), New V, Stalker, Stalker Call of Pripyat...
I'm not even remotely sure where I'm going to find the time, A proper playthrough of Fallout 1&2 will take a week at least...

I usually like to solo my RPGs, or most of them at least. F1 is pretty easy to solo actually. I usually go for a gifted character with STR about 5-6, lots of INT to compensate for gifted, good perception (around 8), small guns tagged and energy weapons. Charisma is useless for soloing so it can be lowered to minimum, high agility is always helpful.
Fallout 2 can take even more, Fallout 1 is a lot smaller, so it can be done faster.

Yeah I probably should give a Wasteland a go sometime :P Being a fallout nut, I feel I have to give NV a go, even though (or perhaps because) I hear a great deal of mixed messages about it compared to Fallout 3. I gather that, things such as character stories, factions, quests are more interesting, but at the cost of a less believable and smaller wasteland...

Yeah, most of what's already been said about NPC AI etc. plus I thought the narrative structure was a bit too loose at times, I get that its trying to be an open world and not lead you by the hand but too often I felt caught up in a quest line/narrative arc only for it to peter out and come to nothing - the 3 quests for the thieves' guild for example leaving you scratching your head about where to go and what to do next - maybe if the Pip Boy notes were just a little more verbose and numerous...

Also you only seem to have 2 choices of build - tank or thinking guy which seems a bit limited I guess its missing a magic/psionic system - look at system shock 2 you have choice of tank guy, tinker/rouge/hacker guy and then psi/magic guy - maybe if you could secretly be a mutant with mutant abilities or something...

Awesome game though, saying all that - loved it!

I have tried giving Wasteland a go, but it's just to dated for my taste. I got stuck in the first conversation I had, I just couldn't figure out what question to type...

Well, uhm, you could get irradiated and have your skin and hair falling out :P

It's not MY problem, it's the problem of all the people who still haven't played it yet.

Yep, I understand it's going to be too dated for many who are used to the improvements that technology has brought. I got started on games like this (actually, the first PC game I ever played had ZERO graphics, you typed everything and everything was text. IIRC it was just called "Adventure" or something like that).

I can understand a lot of folks being turned off by a lot of the old RPG's that required one to make their own map too, something I've used more than one piece of graph paper to do in my day (LOL).

Plus, I can understand when it's just the graphics that turns people off to the point of not playing. My favorite example of this one would be Betrayal at Krondor, which to this day is in my top 5 all time favorite games, but because graphics do play a role (you have to "see" things to click on them") and because they are so bad I totally understand people not wanting to go there.

It's a shame, because IMO folks are missing out on some really great games, but it's totally understood. Hell, I'm not sure I've got it in me to go back to graph paper and making maps again (aka The Bard series as an example... NOT "The Bard" here at gog). And some of the old D&D games requiring that wheel thing would turn lots of folks off too. (Yeah, I've got a bunch of those old wheels laying around here somewhere, IIRC some of the original Eye of the Beholder games used those).

Dogmeat running into forcefields.

Ian getting killed by supermutants.

..in general i havent really managed to keep any follower alive in any fallout game.

Well that's just tough haha. They've been given away free a couple of times, put on sale on Steam for pennies so if they haven't picked them up by now then that's their problem really. It's been well known that the games were changing hands, anyone with some common sense would of bought them then. But that's in a world with common sense!

Some people simply didn't discover these websites yet. If you told me a little over a year ago there was a website providing old games that are playable on new computers I would have declared them insane, but apoparently this website was around for ages. Not everybody lives in the same "world of information" you do. It's pick and choose in these times.

It's not the "World of Information", it is the "World of Great Mighty Fantastic Awesomeness and Strawberry Cheesecake!". GET IT RIGHT!!! THE HUMANITY!!! ;)
Seriously, it's been plastered all over every gaming forum I have been on for the past 3 years. So if you haven't seen it then I am honestly quite surprised. Especially considering I don't browse online that often.

Video games with text input for me at least are too complicated without a good manual. And I had no help for Wasteland when I tried it and I felt completely lost :/. However when I was about 13 yrs old I've played the old Larry games and somehow managed to like them, so I think it has to do with the fact that today's games have spoiled me. I can't go back to play the original Tomb Raider games with their clunky mechanics after having played the 2013 version. For some games gameplay makes and breaks the game. However I can go back to some great classics like MOO2 even with the dated graphics. So it's not about graphics, probably it's about patience.