hey,
i just picked up the fallout trilogy pack (fallout, fallout 2, falllout: tactics) for $4 and i'm about to start playing later tonight, and since i got into the fallout series from fallout 3, and since the gameplay and everything is completely different from the screen shots i've seen, i just wanted to check here to see if you guys could give me a few tips to get the most out of it.

thanks.

Only tip I can give really is play the game how you want to play it, and don't look up FAQs or let people dictate which skills to tag and so forth. It's much more fun that way.

That said... when you create a character, keep in mind that your SPECIAL stats and skills have a much larger impact on things than in Fallout 3. How you create your character will likely shape how you play the game a lot.
Also, read what NPCs say carefully and don't feel intimidated by the fact that there is no quest compass pointing you in the right way.

Hope you have fun with it!

More importantly you will actually have to read the manual. This was a game made back in the day where people were expected to read the manual before they began playing a game. If you don't read the manual first then you won't understand how to use the menu and mouse, will get confused and angry, and give up saying "why did they make it so hard" or something like that. If you know how to move, attack, use stimpaks, talk, use items, etc before you begin then you will have a much better first impression of the game.

My trilogy pack didn't come with a manual. Good times.

Sure? Which one was it? No PDF?

I got the trilogy pack too. My manuals were in the program file. They weren't hard copies.