Don't get me wrong, both games are amazing and revolutionary. In terms of gameplay, quests, smoothness of game, weapons, etc, FNV is better. But, the reason FO3 is overall better is simple: the atmosphere. The music in FO3 is amazing. Either very happy or very sad and it gets you emotional when you are wandering the hopeless, desolate, bleak Capital Wasteland. The music in FNV isn't bad, you can't go wrong with Frank Sinatra or any of the songs, but they aren't Fallout-y, if that makes sense. They are more positive, western songs. Also, FNV seems too rebuilt. And what I mean by that is sure there are problems in the Mojave, but overall, society is somewhat civilized now and rebuilt almost; big cities, big factions, etc. FO3 like defined the definition of a post-apocalyptic world. Unimaginable atrocities, desolate land with limited establishments, seemingly overrun by animals and enemies, not overrun by a government force, NCR or a formidable evil society that is strong, Caesers Legion.

I don't know if my rambling make sense, but FO3 is better overall. FNV is brilliant, but it's not bleak enough and the music for sure doesn't make it feel bleak like in FO3. Into each life some rain must fall, way back home, etc those beat jingle jangle jingle and blue moon any day when it comes to Fallout atmosphere. FO3 and FNV are amazing, but FO3 is better thanks to the atmosphere. If FO4 ever comes out, I hope they make it like FO3 in the atmosphere aspect, but FNV in every other aspect.

I agree completely! :thumbsup:

Yeah the whole cowboy west theme new Vegas had just wasn't doing it for me, not that it's bad but didn't go well with a post apocalyptic game. Fallout 3 music is very ironicin a way because even know the world is destroyed it still brings your hopes up with is good song choices.

well, over 200 years have passed since the bombs fell. I don't think civilization should stay locked in a forever state of anarchy. although I liked the atmosphere FO3 gave us, NV was refreshing, IMO. if every Fallout game they made was going to be the same kind of setting FO3 offered us, it would get rather dull... I agree completely with what your saying, FO3 has an amazing atmosphere. but I wouldn't want to see it in every fallout game.

the country music in new vegas is much more suited to the setting of a wasteland than the other music, the other music is good but classic country is the best for wandering, foraging, and being a lone gunslinger.

I agree absolutely and completely 100%. Well said and hear hear.

my personal preference is fo3, new vegas has a lot of improvements a lot of quest that crossed a lot of factions. in fo3 the quests are based on the main story linearity, so there's not so much complication in terms of understanding the goal of the lone wanderer. fo3 has a one sided story however, it is compelling and gets you a little bit carried away with the whole story flow and the ending makes you play a lot more, leaving you the significant question, "what the heck happened after the purifier was activated? did we get the rad free water in the wasteland? did my heroism actually made a difference in the Capital wasteland?"

in new vegas, the ending was pretty much said in all in the slide show, if new vegas does have a dlc where you can actually continue the game? what is left to be done? everything you have finished in the main quest was already on the slide shows, the aftermath of the courier's side quests and faction quest are already mentioned. if they do make a dlc like broken steel where you can play endlessly, then the devs will look at 4 different angles where the ending can be altered in 4 different ways.

in simplicity, classic rpg based and solid story, exploration, wide mapping area, good unification of dlcs, i would say fo3.

in terms of improvement of most things, npcs, followers, choices of factions, then new vegas is better, what only lacking for new vegas is a better and wider mapping area. and i will be better if there is an actual story about the courier, a past or any significance of his story before he was gunned down by Benny. but in new vegas there's still rooms for dlc. so we have something to wait for.

You know that there is no gonna be a DLC a la Broken Steel ???




Maybe thats fits with the old 80 and some of the 90 rpg games, but at this time the RPG needs more than one road to follow

The atmosphere was one of the things FO3 got wrong. Great War was over 200 years ago and nothing in DC has improved. No farming, no building with anything new, radation everywhere. Music well I don't care much about it. In both New Vegas and FO3 it grows old fast.

For FO4 I hope they at least add some living trees and farms and show people building and farming. I really hope they don't try to pass it off as Harold's doing if there is trees. Make the sky blue.

I liked that though. I don't really think the atmosphere was wrong at all. Fallout 3 was billed as a post-apocalypse game and I think it delivered on that.

When I play a post-apocalypse game I don't want to see rebuiliding, I want to see what amounts to a feeling of "what the hell did mankind do?" and contrary to what people may tell me I will never find such a setting boring.

Just my 2 cents.

FO1 and FO2 also "billed" as a post-apocalypse game and yet there were major signs of improvement in both games and radation was only in areas one would think to find it like an old nuclear plant.

As someone on here once said "just because its post-apocalypes does not mean there can't be trees and plants" or something like that. Post-apocalypse just means after the apocalpse does not mean it has to be right after the damn thing.

A great game for atmospere Fallout One. "Fallout, A POST NUCLEAR ROLE PLAYING GAME"

The Glow and and Vault 15 as a triiumphant examples of apocalypse mixed with rebuild

Agreed.

No reason why FO4 can't have areas with high radiation and ruins and both rebuilding and progress.

I agree with those who say we should be seeing both.


There are places which would NATURALLY have been hit hardest... and those places should be little more than massive, radioactive hellholes. There should be little sign of life, even less in the way of society or advancement, and plenty of mutated radioactive/genetically engineered creepy things to help and hinder us along the way. But these should be -places-... not the game world as a whole... and when we leave them, the world outside should be showing signs of rebuilding and expanding.

Natural things like this, are what would make the next fallout game truly excellent.

It's about getting the right balance... and maybe we'd be better off if the next Fallout was a look BACK rather than another leap forward. I have seen many who think a game during and immediately following the Great War would be a good idea... and I whole-heartedly agree! But I also think that a game which shows the end of the 'wasteland' and the existence of the 'new world' would be equally intriguing to me. A world where civilization as we know it has endured it's first home-brewed extinction-level-event.

The scenery was one thing that Bethesda did right. But atmosphere of an RPG, for me, consists of alot things - like the writing, general consistency etc. It's a sum of many things, and while FO3 did some beautiful and atmospheric scenery and music, it was all render flat due to the other things that factored in. For example the threathening feel of world was completely render flat by there being no threats at all (generally low level of challenge and the RPG mechanics not helping there with their lack of punch) --- the nice apocalyptic scenery didn't provide, because it was so out of place when cosidering the consistency of the whole setting as presented in the originals --- the overall quality of writing killed the story and characters. All in all the feeling of the atmosphere was plasticky and artificial, that of a virtual themepark instead of postapocalyptic world 200 years after the war.

Had Fallout 3 been my first entry to the series I might've liked it a bit more, but as it was made, it was but a hollow shell of what it could've been. FO:NV did much more right, though it too still has its set of flaws that I'd like to see fixed in the future.

The atmosphere was awesome. Then I realized it had been 200 years and this was Fallout.
Seriously though if you "can" overlook those two things then that's great but I simply couldn't.
But the problem is, there isn't suppose to be just one setting.
In FO2 and FO1 every town/city had it's own "feel".
So while New Vegas has it's own feel it's still very repetitive just like FO3's.

(Bring back map node system for FO4 damnit! :stare: )

Damn fine idea.

I third this.

Only if done right!

map node, refresh my memory please.

Instead of one big sandbox map: http://misterrandom.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/fallout-1-2-map.jpg
Travel from node to node and enter map.
Smaller map areas but more locations within realistic distance of each other.
Can also offer more unique locations while still having them make sense.
The total map size can still be equivalent to that of NV or FO3's map if all nodes are put together.
It's a win win, except maybe for those that still want it to be Oblivion With Guns and have one big map instead. <_<

Yiu travel from one map to another... Like in Assassin's Creed 2...

I third-and-a-half this.

I do like the free travel that is in F3 and FNV, but the downside is that you can only over very small areas whereas Fallout 1 and 2 covered almost all of California and parts of Nevada. FNV just covers the immediate area around New Vegas, and F3 the area around DC (excluding DLC, but they're pretty nearby aswell... except for the space ship)
Node system, if they improved alot in it, made it more interesting, I'd accept that if it would mean we could cover an entire state or something.

Oh you meant that, i always called it just a map

The other problem with not having the node system is that it seems strange in the pacing of the game, unless you make it pass time on purpose like I often do. On my latest playthrough, I spent the first week in Goodsprings (I did a quest per day with the Goodsprings Filler mod) and then I traveled up to Sloan, and having fought several Powder Gangers on the way up, my character decided to spend the night there before heading back to Primm. With the node system, the passing of time in a way that makes sense happens naturally, but with FO3/NV, you can accomplish the main quest in less than an in-game week.

I would prefer multiple places to travel between that have copy/paste wilderness around them for those who love endless killing of generic spawns and exploration.