Just for kicks, after I finished fallout 4, I went back and played fallout 3. For me, Fallout 3 was better than Fallout 4. There were a lot of things that were taken out of Fallout 4, that I wish they had left in, for example: (Minor Spoilers)

- I wish they had kept skills and perks when leveling up, instead of the condensed version that leveling up became in Fallout 4.

- I miss how your stats could influence conversations. For example, if your medical skill was high enough, and you were speaking to a doctor, there were unique dialogue options. Or if talking to a scientist, and your intelligence was high enough, etc.

- I feel like the side quests in Fallout 3 were much more in depth and longer, where as there are too many rinse and repeat type quests in Fallout 4. Fallout 3 had side quests like "Reilly's Rangers", "Tenpenny Tower", "Blood Ties". I feel those were much more memorable than Fallout 4's side quests.

- I feel like Fallout 3 was more difficult than Fallout 4. In Fallout 4, I had 99+ bobby pins pretty early on, and then for the rest of the game too. Fallout 3 there were much less bobby pins and they were more difficult to find. Same with Stimpaks, much fewer in Fallout 3.

- I feel like Fallout 3 had more communities to find. The Ghouls in Underworld, Lamplight, Rivet City, Megaton, etc. Where as Fallout 4 didn't have that variety of places to visit for me.

- Fallout 3 had more wow moments for me. I remember being in Megaton and going with the Sheriff to confront the guy who wants you to blow up the town, only to have the Sheriff get blown away, and then finding out he had a kid. I remember purchasing the contract for Charon, only to have him turn around and blow away his former owner. I remember running into the Talon mercenaries for the first time, only to have Charon get blown away. All of these moments were great.

Of course I enjoyed Fallout 4. I just feel like I enjoyed Fallout 3 more, and that it was more memorable, than Fallout 4. I wish they had left some things the same.

Played 3 and New Vegas right before 4 came out

I don't think I can ever go back :/

- the major combat mechanics are just so much better

- we do finally have a city to explore... the chopped off areas of Washington and Las Vegas weren't even close to the way Boston feels and looks

- there is finally a reason for all that stuff laying around. It adds up to the apocalypse feeling, where junk may be important

- I disagree on the wow-moments ^^ first time stepping into Downtown Boston, first time seeing the Glowing Sea on the horizon in the night and actually being able to go there... I can remember dozens of moments and questparts where the game made me speechless ^^ Fallout 3 and NV did that as well, but I see a step in the right direction, as I have those moments far more often now

- I also see a nice difficulty increase in 4... being able to have a 95% chance on hitting the head in VATS early on, really ruined the difficulty in the old games. Now I'm 170 hours into the game and still feel like it's challenging... enemies still require several bullets, you still die occasionally, when being outnumbered

- there are plenty of bobby pins and stimpacks, but I never had a problem finding bobby pins or stimpacks in the old games either?! Is there really someone that wasn't able to pick a lock, because he didn't have bobby pins in the old games?

- I do love the way power armor works far more now

I agree on two things though

- I would love to see more communities as well... the settlement system took too much of it away :/ too many locations are full of repeating enemies

- I did feel like New Vegas offered more handcrafted quests, that were partly replaced by radiant ones in 4... that's a step in the wrong direction, while still being an improvement over Fallout 3

F4 was ruined by its voiced PC and unkillable companions. Bethesda don't understand roleplaying all that much. Some of my most memorable moments in their games has been when my companion has DIED. It adds genuine story to the mix instead of the more loot = happier player paradigm that Beth seemed to have resigned to.

No, it is tooooooo empty, no NPCs or enimies for miles, I would much rather play NV where their are people to talk to.

No. Fallout 3 sux.

I'm extremely thankful for the unkillable companions. Saves me a lot of reloading. (I do find it "funny" how people only complain about unkillable companions in Fallout 4, but don't breathe a whisper about how it's exactly the same in Fallout New Vegas. Having companions in FNV was a breath of fresh air compared to having to deal with them in Fallout 3 and the TES games that had them, and I'm glad that Bethesda decided to go that same route in FO4.)

I haven't ever really stopped playing FO3 though. It's one of those games that never gets deleted from my console and PC.

Neither of those have anything to do with roleplaying.

Like Immersion, Rolepaying is a term that just seems to be getting slung around as a form of criticism that's used in place of actually bothering to offer real criticism.

I like the new levelling system, it offers more freedom and increases the challenge. Seriously, you could have dumped a log of points into intelligence in Fallout 3 and NV and max every skill out long before the level cap. Now you actually have to work to level up hacking enough to get into master terminals, same with lockpicking.

Most skills were also utterly useless between specific points. 25 in lockpicking was no different to 49 in lockpicking.

I like Fallout 4 over Fallout 3 and NV, but not by much. I just feel it's a better game.

I played FO1 & 2, but not 3 or NV. Do you recommend playing them? I think they can be purchased pretty cheaply now.

I personally love having a companion, unless it's Strong.

No but I did decide to play Fallout 3 again before Fallout 4. Discovered a heap ton of more issues than I had remembered, from the absolutely awful perks, to realizing Blood Ties is the most nonsensical quest I've had the displeasure in experiencing. I wrote up an http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1532686-the-family-and-vances-nonsensical-logic/ ripping this quest to shreds if you'd like to read it. I certainly enjoyed ranting about it.

After playing Fallout 4, for some reason I feel like playing through Mass Effect and TES games again.

I did a Fallout 3 and New Vegas run after i beat Fallout 4 the first time. I still think Fallout 3 is quite average, and i will replay it more in the future, but never as much as Fallout 4 or New Vegas for that matter. After i am done with my new Fallout 4 save i will probably go back to TES for abit, maybe get Xcom 2 and Tomb Raider, after living in a bubble since November i realized that there are actually other games out there.

Fallout 3's quests and world design were awful. Blood ties made little sense and was trying to make wasteland vampire seem cool but they really weren't, tenpenny was a big heap of "your choices really don't matter", don't even get me started on some of the settlements and how they make no sense or the awful world design where it's just miles of nothing until you get to a ruin that has nothing useful in it and is really boring.

No, but I played FO3 for about 2 weeks before FO4 was released...

I did miss the dialogue from 3 and NV...was nice to be able to scroll through various dialogue choices..

Other than that, I didn't miss a whole lot more...

Not sure how you felt bobby pins and stimpacks were limited in FO3...I had tons of both very early in all 3 (FO3, NV, FO4)...I mean in FO3, before you even exit the vault, you can get around 20 or so pins, and IIRC, about 10-15 stimpacks..

As for difficulty...I think FO4 is probably the more difficult of the 3 (I actually think they are all easy)...the only difficulty I had in FO3 and NV, was free-aiming, and missing so many damn times..

Also I've had more wow moments in FO4, than 3...NV, eh, about even I suppose...(BTW, you can kill Burke before he blows away the sheriff)..

Oh, and I will have to disagree with keeping the skill system from FO3...I do not miss that at all, I'm one of the few that actually like the system in place in FO4..

Nope.

But I did play vanilla Fallout 3 (physical disc) and the DLCs before Fallout 4.

I might though 'cuz I decided to buy Fallout 3 GOTY from Steam when it was on sale... just in case my physical copy is damaged or lost.