It's time for the showdown.
It's time for the showdown.
Why do we have to pit them up against each other
everything is wrapped in gray
i'm focusing on your image
can you hear me in the void?
They must be pitted against each other because New Vegas is fun and Fallout 3 is a boring pile of turds. It's time for that thing to be put out of it's misery like a lame horse or a dog that barks too much.
Fallout 3 is a smurfing incredible game. Until you play New Vegas and it's like when you leave Midgar in FFVII and realise there's so much more that could be done. The on-the-rails, you-will-fight-the-Enclave-same-ending-for-all Fallout 3 compared to the sheer freedom of New Vegas doesn't stand up well. Fallout 3 is still good though but in terms of writing, gameplay balance and quest mechanics it pales.
The only criticisms I've seen of New Vegas that had any weight are that is buggy. I've had less bugs on that than Fallout 3 after putting in a similar amount of time and from what I know, NV has been significantly patched since release.
Out of the long list of reasons I could go into about why New Vegas is superior, I need say only one thing.
Arcade Gannon is smurfing hard core.
NV bored me. 3 kept me playing for over 200 hours.
I had an unfortunate FO3 to FO:NV transition in that I had pretty much completed FO3 as much as I could ever want to - went to every map location, completed all DLC, etc. Then about two days later I got a surprise gift in FO:NV. Unsurprisingly, I was pretty damned burnt out on Fallout. I completed the bare minimum of NV and turned it off. I enjoyed it, but I just could not bring myself to explore the vast Mojave Wasteland, which is like 90% of the fun of Fallout!
I should probably boot it back up again and give it another shot now that it's been... 3-4 years (good god) since I played either.
I played quite a bit of Fallout 3 after it came out, but it was a dreary game and even without the on rails story was pretty lacking in terms of the number of things you could do and explore. I liked it more than Oblivion because I'm a sucker for the post apocalypse, but even at the time I don't think I would have said it was great. Then I played New Vegas and it has basically rendered 3 unplayable to me.
Fallout 3 for me, what I played of New Vegas I enjoyed but not quite enough to bother finishing it, whereas in Fallout 3 I did damn near everything and adored every minute.
I mean I tell my friends they'll probably like New Vegas better, but really I didn't play it much compared to Fallout 3. I think this is because when New Vegas came out I watched like three different people play it start to finish.
Whilst I do have many issues with 3 it does have a pretty great sense of exploration and stuff, crawling through the DC ruins and metro system is oppressive and tense as heck and Rivet City is a pretty great idea.
Pretty much everything else is either dumb as trout or too buggy to be enjoyable (railroad gun).
New Vegas on the other hand is a goddamn modern masterpiece.
If you want to know why Vegas is better than 3, here's a brilliant video.
Now, I appreciate it's long and the first ten minutes or so don't have anything to do with Fallout, and lord knows in the short attention spanned world that is the internet some of you won't want to watch. If this is the case, skip to 9:25. You're missing out on information on how to tell a good story and context to what you will see, but I think you should still get the gist.
Essentially, lol, let's put a town next to a nuclear bomb because it's COOL. And the Enclave want to take over the Wasteland because they're evil and the Brotherhood of Steel will stop them because they're good, I guess? As opposed to creating a realistic and believable environment containing factions and people that act in a suitable and believable manner.
And ultimately, you have the choice. Why the smurf can't I join the Enclave? Why do I give a trout who gets all the water? In New Vegas your choices have consequences. In Fallout 3, you only have two choices with any real ramifications. (Megaton or Tenpenny; Tenpenny or Ghoul Gang)
I can only really vote for Fallout 3 in this poll because I never played New Vegas, so I'll vote for that because I reckon Bert is feeling lonely.
I get that there's no accounting for taste, but it is literally unbelievable to me that someone could play both games and enjoy Fallout 3 more.