Good day ladies and gentlemen,

Like many others, so I've noticed, I'm new to Fallout 3. I've played New Vegas before, but mainly stuck to Skyrim, and now I'm looking for some change, so I got Fallout 3 (the regular edition, no GOTY sadly). Now I was hoping some of you could enlighten me on what to expect from Fallout 3. I'm mostly used to Skyrim's ''this is an open world, just go explore'' mentality, but enjoyed New Vegas' more story-driven principle too. To which of these two does Fallout 3 stick mostly? I think I should be able to make a decent starting since I played New Vegas before, but are there any things that are drastically different in Fallout 3?

Answers are much appreciated.

Navelpluis

I'd say it's not as story driven as NV. There's more open world to explore in FO3.
I would recommend doing the Main Quest for the first time, although you can still do lots alongside that of course.
Keep in mind that without the Broken Steel DLC, the game ends when you finish the MQ.
(Broken Steel extends the MQ and lets you continue playing after)

There's no reload/crafting tables. No weapon mods either, but you can build more weapons from raw material and they are great (Railway Rifle FTW)
It's easier to become really powerful in FO3, NV made it much tougher to survive. (skill books everywhere but no magazines in FO3)
The skills are basically the same, except you'll see there's Big Guns and Small Guns, (and Energy Weapons.) No Survival skill, no hardcoe mode.
The world feels more crowded and full of encounters. A lot more "dungeons" to clear out and mini quests to find.
There's Bobbelheads to find hidden in the world which improve stats, instead of buying implants.
Charisma is even more useless in FO3.
Weapons and Armor have less stats to worry about. And there's only one type of ammo for each weapon. (no armor piercing rounds, etc)
The complex relationships between the Factions in NV does not exist here. No need to wear disguises. Not really any politics.
Karma plays a bit more of a role in how people treat you, but still barely a thing to worry about.
No "iron sight" on guns.

I've rambled on enough... there's more, but that should point out some of the big differences.
Overall, I think I like NV a little bit more. But FO3 has more atmosphere and interesting places/people to discover.

I too have just started playing Fallout 3. My first impression is that this game is more difficult than New Vegas or Skyrim at the earlier levels. I was able to roam pretty freely and without much fear of dying in the early levels of those two games but I have not found this to be the case here. My low-level character is continually running into enemies she can't fight. She does a lot of dying or running away. The lower levels of Fallout 3 remind me a bit of Morrowind, actually, in terms of difficulty.