Wahh Shtreet gangster, here. I am an old, spazzy player, and I love the exploration in FO3. I'm not really excited to hear that New Vegas is not in that vein. So, what games are there now that combine the awesome graphics of FO3 with the immense exploration that Bethesda has perfected? Are there any, RPG or FPS, that would give me the same thrills? Crysis looks pretty good, but it's not an exploration game, certainly.

Exploration in detail is a bankbusting, heavy investment for a game. Not many companies can bring it because of the man-hours they would have to order. Gothic 3 may be what you want from world excursions because the landscape was handmade. But it's not post-apocalyptic, and the release was such a mess that official patches and fanmade patches were brought in to un-break it. Need I mention Morrowind?

Going further back in time you would find Ultima 7, another not-the-apocalypse game. Deus Ex has exploration, I heard. Freelancer is big exploration... after you finish the main goal, and it's a space simulator. Psychonauts is exploration and comedy. If you want that GTA stuff then get Mercenaries... the 1st one not the 2nd one. The games I mention have that vibe that locations exist for a purpose for exploration.

If you want to be rewarded for your exploration, then certainly morrowind will float your boat, but the graphics are much much worse. Crysis 1 and 2 are both brilliant game, though the first one is less linear than the second, and exploration drives the storyline and info on the island you're on. However, more linear =/= less fun. I'd recommend both crysis games though, just cause they're awesome.

The STALKER games (the first game, Shadow of Chernobyl, and the third game, Call of Pripyat, are the best) offer a good amount of exploration. It's not quite as open as Fallout 3, but it's far more open than most other FPS games.

Thanks to all for the responses, and to povuholo, I think I'll go ahead and try the STALKER series, so thanks much on the heads up on the better versions. Morrowind is what got me hooked on open exploration, and I missed out on Oblivion, because the rig I was so happy with during Morrowind couldn't handle Oblivion. I'd gladly play Oblivion now, if I was assured that it will run on Win7.

I'm on Windows 7 64 bit, running both Oblivion and morrowind. It works

If you love FO3 you should definitely give NV a chance. There's a big world to explore, even if there's not as much to do in terms of big buildings, underground areas and random encounters as FO3.

Ultimately I prefer FO3, but I also love NV!

Yeah, for all my talk, I'm pretty sure I'll be playing NV when Skyrim comes out. And since 'fireal' has confirmed that it will run, I'm leaning towards finding out just how pretty Oblivion can be, now that I have a rig that won't bog down to separate frame per second slowdown at the big "protect the King" battle that forced me to quit playing.

So, while I'm kinda disappointed that there aren't a lot more of FO3's type of open exploration, and I'm not surprised since I do realize how much work is involved, I see I have some alternatives, as well as up and coming games to look forward to.

Thanks again, evabuddy.

I assumed you already knew about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Yes, that is exploration and survival, and horror. Very good game, I wouldn't put Call of Pripyat, its sequel, above it. Avoid STALKER: Clear Sky.

I would recommend Far Cry 2 which is just amazing if you can come to grips with it. Also there is Borderlands and Just Cause 2. None of these are set after a nuclear war, but they all have tones of exploration. :thumbsup:

There is plenty of exploration in NV. You are kinda lead on a loop at the start of the game but it is a very open loop with plenty to see and do. probably more since it isn't vast open space.

You don't have to follow the loop, but you will probably die if you go against the flow.



There is no need to try and find another game because none are going to come close as NV. Stalker is a different game altogether and doesn't have the same feel.




What you wanna do is play NV, there is a bit more structure to the map, but there is still the same great exploration.

Someone mentioned Freelancer, which is good. But may I point you in the direction of the X universe. Great if you like space and you don't have to follow the main quest and can nip off and build your empire,economic or military, heck do both. X2 and X3 have lots off player mods as well and good community support. Bit like here really but in space. The best bit for me was when I found out I could steal npc ships, yo pirates, lol.

It's good that you've done your research to save yourself from the crushing disappointment many have gotten when they realized how much worse the exploration in New Vegas is. When I first played it I tried to play it like Fallout 3 but you just can't do that. It's a linear RPG trapped in an open world body. If you do plan on playing New Vegas you need to constantly keep in mind that exploring just isn't worth it. As someone who explored Fallout 3 for 300+ hours, but couldn't explore New Vegas for 40 hours before getting bored enough to focus on the main quest instead, I can assure you that the exploration just isn't nearly as good, and it's my opinion that the people who think it is as good couldn't possibly have explored Fallout 3 enough.

New Vegas is non-linear, but the open world it's in is actually not so open. Since you value exploration I'm not sure you'd like NV, but it's an excellent RPG if you love role playing games.

I was quite irritated when trying to do some rock-climbing to see if there was anything exciting to be had and finding only collision barriers. Bah. Though there was little of interest to find in the wilderness anyway: while FO3 had all sorts of awesome stuff like abandoned wardrobes with an old iron in and stuff like that, FNV had rocks and dust. Bah².

I'll agree with the comments that the exploration in NV is simply sub par to that of Fallout 3. I hate all the locations that simply add nothing to the game. I prefer to do all the quests, rather than explore, when with FO3 it was the other way round. That said, however, Fallout New Vegas has given me 263 hours of gameplay, and if you're on a PC modding can add much more. I've just gotten re-hooked on NV after adding the New Vegas Bounties quest mod, which, by the way, I highly recommend.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R, as has been said, is also very good. The graphics are not supreme, but the world has a good gritty, dark and not-so-pleasant feel to it. I only got up to about 40 hours in the first one, simply because it is not as big as the Fallouts. It's a very good, addictive game though. Things like artifact hunting add a nice touch and there are a fair number of side quests to keep you relatively busy. The only downsides are that it isn't a game you could play over and over in many different ways, like Fallout 3 and NV. The world is also significantly smaller, and you may also get bored of having to run from one end of the game world to another as there is no fast travel. Still, it's a game I would highly recommend. don't rule out NV though, perhaps buy it off Steam if it's going cheap at any point, again assuming you are on PC.


*edited for a really weird typo.*

The 'STALKER Complete' mod series improves the graphics for the three games immensely though.

Though all three do make some gameplay changes that I don't really agree with. For CoP, at least, I can totally reccomend "I Work Alone", which is both an excellent mod and very pretty (On top of the already super-fantastic lighting system that even in SoC made the game into one of the most atmospheric I've ever played)

I honestly think FNV has a much more interesting wasteland. FO3 seemed to have a ton of look a like areas with nothing that special about them while NV is the opposite. Also the invisible walls have not been that big of a problem, I have only ran into a few and most of the time theres a path close by.

I'd have to disagree with you on all fronts there. The invisible walls really ruined the exploration for me, I like to be able to actually free-roam in a game like this. Even when I know ther's probably nothing up there I always try to climb to the top of mountains and stuff like that. Also, the wasteland in NV just didn't seem as cool as FO3. When I first stepped out of Vault 101, that first view of the Wastleand was like "Wow!" The same thing happened with Oblivion. Stepping out of Doc Curch's house into a boring desert town just didn't give me that feeling at all. And the actual city of New Vegas was a disappointment to me as well, there was really not a whole hell of a lot of excitement going on in Freeside or Westside. And couldn't they have at least let us explore the strip freely instead of splitting into three sections? In the end, Fallout 3 will always be remembered as one of the best games of all time. I really can't see New Vegas ever being in that category, no matter how awesome the DLC's may be. Oh, and the music selection was garbage too, except for the handful of Rat Pack songs, which were few and far between. I'm not a big fan of country.

Also, Fallout 3's wasteland is like one-third bigger than New Vegas's.

--On topic, I would suggest Just Cause 2, I really enjoyed it more than I expected to.

Explored it plenty. It all kinda' blends in, especially when an elementary school, bottling plant, game development studio, comic book printing press, military base, and office building with Lovecraftian overtones all look the same.

Yup it takes ALOT of time, effort, energy, and CPU horsepower to make a game. For the simple plugin I made adding in 1 area to FONV it took me about 3 days to get it tweaked, prepared, and functional. The sad thing is I used a pre-fabbed area/building however I had to erase the navigation mesh putting in a fresh one then having to fix it when it was borked. Not to mention making the outside area work in conjunction with the new portal to my hideout.

Though I do agree with the OP I really loved FO3 due to the uniqueness it brought along with the quirky humor and open ended exploration. FONV while great just felt like a bit of a copy cat of FO3 with a 1930's to 1950's paint job on it. Though the [censored]s, booze, and guns helped make it quite enjoyable. :disguise: :thumbsup:

yes wardrobes with irons in are ever so exciting

Sometimes you'd find a plunger too.

off topic:
Obsidian did the miracle again on FNV but this time without the craps in KotoR 2. Bethesda in FO3 had been what? 4 or 5 years in development and Obsidian took what? 2 years? Yes the engine's there so all they need is adding content and testing, but 2 years? come on guys, the scale of the game is just about right.

The invisible wall was quite obvious to me in FO3, but it just wasn't too invisible. Too many times I wanted to skip over the metro and everything to slip to where 3 dogs is, nope you gotta take it in the face. Nothing like FO1 and 2, but I let it go. With hardcoe mode on I enjoyed exploration in FNV a lot more than in FO3, this is the real Fallout I'm looking at. FNV satisfies Fallout fans a lot more than Oblivion fans, FO3 was a meh for many Fallout fans.