Hello, I am new to the Fallout side of the forums. I have played Oblivion and Skyrim for several hundreds of hours each and people told me to try Fallout as it was a similar sort of game in the fact that you could spend hundreds of hours in it. While I can see it is a great game, I can't seem to get into it. Any hardcoe Fallout players got any tips on how to get into it?

Thanks any help appreciated.

Do you have any specific parts you're not getting?

But, more generally for a first time player: imo the most important thing is to follow the main quest at least until you reach Novac, and stick to the roads. Don't go north from Goodsprings. Invest in Speech skill, as there are a lot of Speech checks along the way.

Tips:

Read the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Divergence and listen to the intro.
Fallout is 50's science fiction. It's intended to be a bit corny and funny.
Play the past Fallouts. Fallout 1 is an absolute must and provides you the fundamental basics of Fallout universe. Fallout 2 is essentially a prequel to New Vegas and Fallout 3 has most focus on the Wasteland itself and "how we got here".

And lastly and most importantly, the Enclave is your friend! Rebuilding America's Future today! One mutant degenerate at a time...

I had the same problem as you in my first playthrough of Fallout 3, mainly because I couldn't figure out how to do the main quest (lol). But going through the stoty at the start rather than exploring right away can help a lot and give you some supplies and get your bearings of the whole wasteland. Other than that, just do whatever you want seeing as one of the best aspects of this game is freedom.

What really drew me in was the atmosphere. My advice would to just explore, you never know what you'll find. There are some pretty awesome characters, locations, and quests out there if you dig around enough. However, I would advise to save often in multiple files. You never know when you're going to stumble into a deathclaw nest at low level.

Go look for a faction and get really into it, i always find myself daydreaming about the faction playthrough im working on, some suggestions would be Brotherhood of Steel, NCR, Caesar's Legion, or Followers of the Apocalypse. But the most interesting part is the story of the fallout universe, when i first started with fallout 3 a couple years ago i read the entire timeline to get into it, also most of the stuff is much easier to understand then elder scrolls.

Try to do things role-playing wise, like writing a backstory for your character. Maybe you were a Desert Ranger before you were shot in the head, maybe you were a frumentarius for the Legion, maybe you were mercenary from the NCR who needed the money that the Courier job offered -- try something like that.

You can also do simple things like creating stash houses around the wasteland. Find abandoned buildings or shacks and stash some of your stuff in the containers there, then place mines around the entrance to discourage intruders. It's a simple thing but it can help you to get into the game and RP a little bit.

There are several ways to play, continue doing the mainquest at a fast pace, or stay at one place for a while.

I suggest stay at one place for a while, to complete every side quest and get to know the area around u. You never know what treasures u will uncover. RP is the meaning of this game as it is a first/third person shooter RPG. Scavenge everywhere to find things so u can always have a few caps to buy what u want/need, they are important when u get to Vegas.
And i suggest going independent if u want total freedom to shape a the Vegas u want it to be. Factions are optional, but......
Always plan what u are gonna do b4 u do it.

Depends what game you're referring to. Fallout 1 and 2 are much harder than the newer games. If you're just talking about the series in general, definitely try to jump into the back story.. that's what I love about Fallout. Identify some factions that you find cool/interesting. For all things Fallout, go http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki.

Wait until it's nighttime.

Turn of the lights.

And just start exploring.

That's one of my favorite things about Fallout. Just walking around, killing stuff. Just approach it however you usually approach Elder Scrolls. But I find the more you explore in the Wasteland, the more interesting things get

Thanks for your help guys, I played a bit of Fallout 3 ages ago and completed the New Vegas main quest ages ago, but that is all I did. I've read most of the timeline now, so thanks for the link to the wiki. I still haven't created my character yet, any build ideas for me? I am going to roleplay as much as I can in this and am going to try and explore as much as I can not focusing so much on the main quest straight away. Thanks again guys, any build ideas or additional info will be much appreciated.