For example what i think is really attractive in unarmed skill is the Paralyzing Palm perk
but the bonus you get from high strength in melee is also kinda attractive

I like both of them equally. Unarmed is a little more fun especially If you have the paralyzing perk. You gotta have a high Sneak skill otherwise both of these skills are useless.

No, that's untrue. I don't play stealthy characters and use Melee or Unarmed with just about every character with great success.

FO3 melee is better but not by much. I always have alot of ammo so it's not important for me.

The other Fallouts I would say unarmed is the best because you can knock people out and kick. Better your skill the more powerful kicks and punches you can learn. In FO2 I become so good at it I can beat the best Shi martial artists. There is nothing like round roundhouse kicking a man in the head and send him flying across the ring .

I thought melee was cool, but now it's unarmed for me every time. I don't know about the previous Fallouts, but the animation when dealing with a radroach is pretty sweet. Especially the last second or so of you twisting your foot to squish it. Although the Shiskebab is fun, I have a lot of fun with spiked knuckles, and on a rare occasion, Fisto!

I kind of prefer Melee because of the Shishkebab. That, and the fact that Unarmed attacks look ridiculous. If they made the punches look better outside of VATS I probably would have tried an Unarmed character like http://fallout.gamesas.com/eng/vault/diaries_diary7-10.27.08.html.

Unarmed. There is nothing more satisfying then punching a deathclaw to death with your bare hands. Other then killing it with a rocket launched teddy bear

They're both fun to play. Paralyzing Palm makes unarmed the more powerful of the two.

Has anyone else noticed that using bare hands cost more AP than spiked knucks? What's up with that?

I agree, and not just because of PP. With the three levels of Iron Fist all of the Unarmed weapons are much more effective than most Melee weapons and the Deathclaw Gauntlet is great against Radscorps (including Albinos).

Unarmed is my most powerfull character.
Meele is like small guns to me i only use it in the beginning of ze game. Energy weapons is powerfull too.

unarmed... what in the world is unarmed?

no seriously, ive NEVER used unarmed, maybe i should try... nah.

Unarmed: Iron Fist perk and Fisto!
Melee: Pyro perk and Shishkebab.

While I don't think you'll miss with either, I think the edge goes to Melee. But not by much.