Let's compare these two games in a variety of ways to see which facets were stronger in each game. This should give us a good idea of how the next Fallout title should be sculpted.

threads like this are inevitably locked in moments, because people can never handle how much better New Vegas is

It's all opinions, they are both great games. But Fallout 3 lacks some New Vegas elements like how New Vegas lacks Fallout 3 elements. It's equal. But I like Fallout 3 more because it seems more Fallout lore-friendly in the sense there is still the pre-war weaponry, unlike New Vegas with these modern-military weapons. But both games were very enjoyable.

There is no aspect which Fallout 3 did better than New Vegas. Not a single one.

And that's a fact.

There is too an aspect,

One's opinion and feeling towards how a game plays.

That cannot be denied by anyone.

Don't think vs threads are aloud and this is just begging for a flame war.

Setting I was tempted to answer Fallout 3 on a post apocalyptic basis but taking into account the in game history and lore plumped for New Vegas. And New Vegas for everything else.And yes this should be fun...

I enjoyed both and have put hundreds of hours into them. But once you fully enjoy New Vegas it becomes harder to enjoy Fallout 3 as it lacks things that should of been there in the first place. Fallout 3's world is more interesting and more post-apocalyptic survival feeling rather than post-post-apocalyptic western, action feeling in NV. If it wasn't for Fallout 3's terrible tint, getting shot at every 2 feet, and the hard to access DC area (makes or breaks your gameplay) then it would of completely blown NV out of the water in the world department all together.

But I am glad to have played both and I still love them both to this day even if New Vegas spoils me.


Which modern military weapons are you referring to?

I voted for FNV in every category except the setting. This doesn't mean that FO3 is a bad game, on the contrary, I find both games great and spent countless hours both in the Capital & Mojave Wasteland.

Man, this is going to end in tears...

To actually participate in this thread though, I voted Fallout 3 for main quest, NV for side quests, FO3 for setting, NV for NPC "Immersion" (I think the lack of NPC to NPC conversations kills a lot of immersion, but New Vegas does have some pretty interesting characters, both minor and major.) New Vegas for perks, since I loved the character archetype perks in there, and NV for DLCs, since Honest Hearts is my favourite DLC of any Bethesda game.

I still prefer Fallout 3 overall, since I feel the most important part of a Bethesda game is exploration and complete freedom in wandering. Although New Vegas had these as core elements, it put too much of its resources into building a main quest that ultimately is going to be avoided by many for cutting off the end of the game. Thankfully this paid off well in a large amount of really nice side quests, and the Mojave was still a joy to explore most of the time. I was just playing it today, im up to 712 hours, and I imagine ill be clocking a lot more now that I am getting serious about treating the restart disease.