I cant even play skyrim after completing FO3 and FO:NV, the story was HORRIBLE, all of the quest's were jokes, and it was too easy to get to god mode. >.> I wish it was more like Morrowind in most ways.

I'm currently on "vacation." "Vacation" in the sense that I'm stuck in a boring town with nothing to do but play games.

I go through phases of playing New Vegas and not playing it. Y'know, cause it's a great game, but I've also played 930 hours of this great game so nothing is new, so every so often I need a hiatus from it, then when I come back things feel fresh-ish again and it's fun all over?
Well yeah, I started this "vacation" while on a hiatus from New Vegas, and it's kinda depressing how hard it is to play FO3 or Skyrim. When I get back into New Vegas, I'll sometimes spend an entire Sunday just playing the game, but here? I turn FO3 or Skyrim on for an hour or two, it gets dull and I decide to "take a break and go watch the news/random crap on youtube" and then I never end up going back because the games simply don't grab me.

I think a VERY clear difference between the two is that New Vegas has plenty to discover. "But Longknife, Skyrim r pro at exploration, New Vegas r teh svck1!1" I don't mean world exploration, I mean character-wise. I can start up New Vegas over and over, try a COMPLETELY different character build and stumble upon a build that finally makes a unique weapon I've NEVER used before a god-tier weapon. This gives me incentive to keep playing. This makes me want to keep going, to see what happens when my character unlocks that new perk or finishes that quest chain to see that new item. For example if I have a character that's great with Lucky, then I can't wait to get my next perk and take Finesse. Or if I have a character that's superb in VATS, I can't wait to see how well the different unique guns do in VATS now and I go around collecting them all. It's like an experiment every time, and there's always something new to discover.
Skyrim has world exploration yes, but why the HELL should I care what's in random cave #437? And what happens once I've seen cave #437? It's boring forever now, because I know what's in it. That sense of discovery is gone, and that sense of discovery dies quickly since the method of discovery -LITERALLY- just involves walking into every cave you see, whereas New Vegas requires some insight, research and/or creativity to discover a new character build that kicks ass. You may think the Sprtel-Wood 9700 svcks, until you realize how Laser Commander, Light Touch, and ED-E's Lonesome road perks work. Then suddenly you have a theory it'd be good and you can't wait to test it and see the results.

In that sense, I think that New Vegas has far more discovery to be had, and it's far more gripping than Skyrim. In New Vegas, I start a character with a theory of how to make him strong and I can't wait to prove it. In Skyrim, why would I say "omg I can't wait to see cave #437" if I'm not even yet aware that cave #437 exists, and when there's 436 other caves that were "meh?"

^THIS^ Well said! I also feel that, and someone else had mentioned it earlier, your skills play a huge role in the overall game. There are a lot of speech checks and you will miss a lot and so you won't find out about new interesting topics etc. Next time, you think, I will nail that one and you remember it when you create your character. And you put more points in INT or END etc.

PLUS, I can't say it enough, your actions have consequences. I LOVE that about New Vegas.

Definitely. New Vegas is much richer in terms of content, that Skyrim seems quite empty in comparison. Not only does Vegas have more weapons (and Skyrim has plenty of those), but it also has more ways to use them as well. Whereas Skyrim's combat is largely hack and slash, magic, or archery - you pick one, and the rest of the game is set out for you. Partly its due to the perks, which is something that you have touched upon before. New Vegas' perks open up new possibilities to enhance your character, whereas Skyrim's perks are mostly damage buffs, so you have to take them to stay in touch with the level scaling. Its all so true, and it makes New Vegas the richer, more interesting (and, dare I say it, more grown-up) game.

I'm coming to an end on my third Vegas character, after that I'll be taking on the fourth - an energy weapons specialist member of the Van Graff family . Really looking forward to it already, following the House storyline and taking on the Divide again. My one character in Skyrim was as much as I've had motivation to do. After all, other than making a mage or a theif/assassin rather than my warrior, everything else will be exactly the same.

Energy Weapons, you say?

Don't forget to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1ts_TVi-3w

Oh my...that's quite impressive.

I generally avoid anything from the 'big gun' family, and prefer rifles/revolvers (was planning a fully modded Plasma Rifle, and a modded Tri-Beam for when it absolutely has to die, coupled with a revolver type thing for critters) though I might make an exception for this, we shall have to see. I'll be playing on Hard difficulty, and taking on The Divide again, so I may need the extra firepower. Time will tell...

I never really stopped playing NV; I've played it pretty consistently since release. Skyrim however... I slogged down my obligatory month of play for my 60 bucks' sake and was done.

I'm about to go running back to the Mojave. I bought Skyrim on sale a few weeks ago and I've barely touched it since that day. Maybe it's because I play Fallout so much, but I just can't get into Skyrim. I love the environment, but that's about it.

Yes yes. If anything, Skyrim has increased my love of New Vegas. All I could think while playing through was "why can't I just cut Ulfric Stormcloak down on his throne?" or "why are you talking to me and telling me your war strategy even though I'm wearing Imperial Legion armour?" or "why isn't anybody reacting to anything I do?" or "why are all these characters the exact same?" or "why is the main story so boring?" or "why are all the faction side quests the exact same?" or "how am I supposed to do another playthrough when it'll be the exact same as this one?"

And other stuff.

I think the leveling system looks good on paper, but the problem is that such a system demands equal usage of ALL skills or EXTENSIVE testing to tweak just the right leveling speed for skills.
....Which Bethesda never bothers with. Leveling speech on your own, for example, is a complete joke. Alchemy and enchanting definitely level slower than smithing, sneak levels at insane speeds, destruction and alteration take ages, etc etc etc.

The way they're doing it they might as well cut speech ffs, they're not even TRYING to balance it.

Reason why i like fallout more then TES (Skyrim and Oblivion) is cause it has guns. And i like em big gunzz
But seriously, Beth made alot of mistakes in Skyrim, and lied in our faces, but as a true nord worshipping Talos proudly, while killing any elf i see, i approve of Skyrim, and i just cant see the problem with it (its a little mainstream, but hell it aint Leuge of legends)

I have done the exact same think, I have started noticing things much better in NV thank skyrim and I just think, wow did I really put up with that for so long. I feels nice to be back home i the land of fallout!

Something that really annoys me over in the Skyrim forum, is how when you bring up some element of the game that seems to be poorly made or lacking in some significant way, the old TES fans always come out with the excuse that "Well, XXXXXX has never been a strong point in TES games, and nobody expects them to do it very well in their new games (if at all)".

I just find it hard to grasp that fatalistic acceptance of ongoing, institutionalized mediocrity, in a game franchise. Just because Beth has really svcked at multiple aspects that are in need of improvement in those games, is that any reason we can't ask them to do better, and address those crappy elements until they are actually a plus to their game(s), instead of a nagging negative? Can't see why so many TES fans are so easily and acceptingly willing to overlook a lot of those critical things that really do need improvement in the franchise, which remain perpetually ignored by the devs.

In my opinion "It's never been done (or done right) in a TES game before, so why would you expect it now?", is not a very convincing or intelligent argument/excuse for explaining the ongoing mediocrity of so many key parts of the series. Obsidian took on the challenge and attacked it with a 'YES, CAN DO!" attitude, and made a landmark game in NV (in my opinion), even though they didn't have a lot to work with in the game engine. Skyrim, on the other hand, got a kewl new visual upgrade, vast open world, and a bunch of other game elements that range from 'functional' to mediocre to awful or even MIA.

But when you complain, it's "TES has never been good at that, or ever even tried to do that well, so don't expect it". My final question is, so, why haven't they tried? They certainly can't say they can't afford it anymore, now can they?

As what was said time and time again.

Yep after playing Skyrim for a good while I just want to go back to NV (well first FO3 but after trying to play it again after a good year and ahalf I honestly cant) everything just feels so disjointed in the game and unresponsive. Bethesda makes a fairly big map filled with so many ideas but never explore them indepth so just has the shell of a proper world. Also the whole do everything and do anything really doesnt work when 90% of things to do relate to every quest go in to dungeon and loot.
While I enjoy the gameplay and combat it all just comes to a stop when think "I dont really want to go in to a dungeon"

While obsidian has a more focused on ideas and quests and when they can conflict there was conseqences not like plus the few dungeons in the game were often more memorable and had a proper reward to them. The factions were alot more interesting and showcased there good and bad with proper conversations. my only real complaint is it would of been good to have a few more quests for House, Legion and maybe independant to set them abit more apart.



Also I always wondered how Bethesda can claim you can do what you want when they saftey lock the game for people where they cant kill everyone related to a quest or not

Games like Skyrim were obviously made for total nubs to gaming, or at least to true RPG gaming, to prevent them from screwing themselves up and suffering such a horrible thing as 'consequences' :shudder:

They went to the Barney Gaming School of Self Esteem. In NV, if you kill a quest-giving NPC and destroy a quest or quest chain, you get a BZZZT! Failed quest XXXXX notification. And that's how it should be. Live 'n learn, babes. Why any NPC or quest in Skyrim should be considered 'essential', is beyond me anyhow. They all svck hard, as far as I'm concerned.

Sigh yeah guess all part of that mainstreaming the series does, can remember playing Morrowind and being blown away by the amount of choice in the game, not in quest choices but just being able to mess up everything and as a result allowed for conseqences like messing up the entire MQ by killing one person or elminating an entire faction without having any essential NPCs to get in the way, allows for much more memorable experiance, plus while the quests were simple I enjoy the more basic fetch quests like collecting alchemy ingrediants or heading off to find/buy a rare book seemed much more down day to day life then heading off to save guilds, killing necromancers, being railed roaded into things you dont want to do and just dungeon raiding in general.

Wish Bethesda went back to more gameplay style of morrowind in terms of quest and conseqence design wont be good as NV conseqences but be good start goes with the sandbox style they go with

At least we have Wasteland 2 to look forward to. Besides that though, I don't think we'll be seeing a game like New Vegas for quite some time.

It's probably safe to say Bethesda are developing Fallout 4 right now, main story might have something to do with the Enclave returning and %#%@ING SH%# UP YO!

I've never completed a single Skyrim playthrough, I got bored of it. I doubt I'll ever return to that game, besides interesting locations and good visuals the game has offered me absolutely nothing - shallow characters, uninteresting story, boring quests.

On the other hand, I've completed several NV playthroughs and each was a unique, thrilling, enjoyable experience. And I still haven't tried all the faction endings, neither I discovered all unique or hidden items. I've started today another playthrough and can't wait to continue it tomorrow when I return home.

So, OP, I can only say that I completely agree with the fact that playing NV is a great feeling! Enjoy!

I guess im in the minority here because after wading through the vast shallow waters, I dived into the advlt pool of morrowimd. Dont get me wrong, I love fonv and storywise its fantastic with still my favorite dlc out ther dead money, but sDly after playing the game four different times for each faction, I was actually dreading my playthrus on ncr and cl, because the only downfall to fonv is its landscape and exoration. And its my beef With the game, might not be anyone elses. It seemed that alot of places was just fast travel merkers. I hate fast traveling in the game, but walking to point a to point b was quite boring. The enemies were always in the same location and didnt ever change. While u point a and when u got to point b, it was great, but the inbetween was very severely lacking. Withe me and morrowind just like yal that has an older game fulfills story, atmosphere, and exploration with choices all in one.
Fonv is awesome multiple playthrus with alot of people, and even though ive replayed quite few times, id have to say its an excellent game to do just one or two playthrus before u feel ur juat repeating the same game until the very end.

Also, I do love this game I really do and ive enjoy where the story has taken me, its just I need a bit more time to get back into it for another playthru.

Exactly the same for me, OP.

When I played Skyrim I had the time of my life. When I played Fallout 3 I had the time of my life.
Only recently I've started New Vegas (because I wanted to play it fully modded and thus skipped it when it just came out) and I'm 100% sure I'll enjoy it equally if not more than before.

Overall, I'd have to say I like Fallout more but that's not to say Skyrim is any less good. As already pointed out by some; both games attract different types of gamers. Skyrim is more standard fantasy orientated which attracts more. I did feel Skyrim became a little bland after 40+ hours but by then already enjoyed 40+ hours so there's no reason to complain. To be honest I felt the same about Fallout 3 **vanilla** after a while. Then loaded up on the mods (Wanderers Edition) and it became one of the best games I've ever played.

I'm doing the same with Skyrim, keep it on the shelve for now and will play it again with a [censored]load of mods, once they're finished, matured, completed and compatible with eachother that is.

According to steam I played 750 hours on skyrim. But last time I played it the creation kit was not even released. Instead I returned to FONV/FO3
OK, I am quite the modder so I am always adding/changing things (even right now in FO3), so the game is neverending and never the same.
Skyrim is not bad but too different. When I think of TES I'd prefer to start a new oblivion or morrowind game instead, if I had time.