I'm just curious how different F3 is each time you play it? I am on my 2nd time through and it's a lot different than the 1st time.

The 1st time I never saw an Enclave soldier until after they killed Dad and never fought one until I was escaping Raven Rock. This time through I had an Enclave soldier attack me when I was only at level 3 and only been playing a couple of hours. He was just in the middle of the Wasteland and fired at me. And I just had my 2nd Enclave encounter and I'm level 6.

And last time I ran into Brotherhood Outcast everywhere, this time, none at all.

Also the 1st time I played I never saw any ants until I went to Grayditch. This time the first thing I ran into when getting out of the Vault was an ant. I also just went to an area where I thought I would run into my 1st Deathclaw encounter, and instead I ran into a bunch of ants, nowhere near Grayditch.

So, what differences have you seen playing through 2nd or 3rd time?

i have started over a few dozens times. the are a few fixed places where you have a chance encounter with a enclave soldier. there a some locations where it seems there are random encounters but it is possible that the game places nasties according to your level.

Mine have been quite different. My first playthrough I didn't even see any power armor NPCS (brotherhood, outcasts, enclave, etc) until a good 30 hours in.

This playthrough i'v seen two enclave within a couple minutes. And when you got no small weapons skills, and all your good skills are high but you got no weapon for them. Those fights are touugh

I've played a lot of different characters and karma, and try to make decisions based on those characters. So yes, it is different every time up to a certain point. Say for example you went one way into a building. Go a different way; you will be surprised how different that is, like getting lost, triggering mines, getting hit in the head with an engine block.... I speak from personal experience.

Depends really.

If you're a 'good' character your first playthrough, and you're a 'bad' character on your second playthrough, there will be a lot of differences.

And the game has Random Encounters, rather than the encounters being scripted, causing the game experience to be slightly different.

That's actually a bug that was introduced by the Broken Steel XP. If you're playing on the PC, the Unofficial Patch fixes it.

Pfft. Def loved having those enclave fellas there.
Since I was going for energy weapons, big guns and explosives from the start, I had NO good weapons except my fists and a bat xD.
Luckily for me, those two enclave fella's provided me with my first Laser Pistol and Laser Rifles.

The differences keep coming. Deathclaws abounded last time, can't find one this time. No You Guai yet either. Last game for some reason Dogmeat wasn't at the scrapyard, so I never even knew he existed until someone told me(glitch last time?). Got him this time. The weapons and ammo amounts are completely different too.

FYI, I am basically replaying my last game the same because my GotY edition was a UK version and doesn't work with my prior saved games.

I loaded a save that I had before exiting the vault, made my oblivion character, went to the super duper mart and meet a enclave with a plasma gun and testla armor.
Meet several more enclave on my journey.
Oh yea I meet alot of deathclaws in a early level, I now hate them so much.

I found the 1st time was all about the game and the second time was all about the character. It was as if the second playthrough I knew what was ultimately going to happen so could concentrate more on the roleplaying.

I seem to be having the same experience with NV. The world and the story are too engaging to think too much about your character and what he is thinking, likes to wear etc.