Hey guys, I don't usually do this. But here goes.

I bought Fallout 3 and all the DLC content almost 12months ago. I was drawn to the the series after having played the TES series for a number of years.
In this 12months I've not managed to make it half way through the game.

Everytime I attempt I seem to loose intrest.
Now, I'm not bagging out the game at all, its brilliant. But it agonises me as to why I just can't seem to get into it. What am I missing here?
I've managed to play through and beat Morrowind and Oblivion about 10 times collectively.

I mean honestly, the only thing I can fault is the fact that there seems to be bugger all reason collecting all the loot, because no merchant has enough cash to buy it. (Funnily enough the complete opposite to Oblivion)

So guys, some suggestions please?

I think your problem might be the lack of civility and life. I mean, I enjoy the game, but spending to much time in that monotonous dreary doom and gloom gets boring. That's why I enjoyed Operation: Anchorage, it was an amazing change from the brown and....brown.

I've actually played the Operation: Anchorage. I did like it, although it got a bit tedius towards the end, and I didn't really understand what the hell was going of for the most part of it, due to the fact that I haven't completed the MQ or played any other Fallout games.

I had a friend who enjoyed Oblivion, but Fallout just wasn't doing it for him... He told me he just didn't enjoy the dark dreary feeling of the game, which is understandable. That dreary Post-Apocalyptic feeling is what drew me to this game. The use of weapons, guns in particular, and exploration of a ruined world where you don't know what's coming at you around each corner. No law or standard of morality. I suppose if those things don't appeal to you, or you just don't get that desire to keep playing, then maybe the game just isn't for you?

But see this is the weird thing.
I like the wasteland, I like the theme. From what I've seen the storyline ain't too bad either.

One complaint I do have, is that the combat is... a bit so, so. I mean, Oblivion isn't spectacular, but is it just me or is the VATS a complete and utter waste of energy?

I agree, I used to use VATS on like every enemy... It got boring QUICK. I watched a buddy of mine play for a while and he hardly ever uses it. He had much more epic battles and had to use stimpacks a lot more often... But I decided to try it out and I still use VATS every so often, like when a Yao Guai or something deadly is barreling down on me and I don't have a lot of time to line up a head shot... But when I'm fighting Talon Company or something I just bust out my Xuanlong Assault rifle and rain down on 'em...

Also I spent much more time using my sneak abilities, I'm a sniper to the core, so the sneaking ability played nicely into that and made it more fun for me when going into raider infested areas and such...

I like to play as a sniper also.
Namely because full frontal assaults are more often then not, suicide.

Honestly, I think my biggest bug bear with Fallout is that I've NEVER managed to find anything even remotely entertaining while hunting around. Just lots of stuff that leaves me crippled . Again, I'm from the land of TES, I've no idea what I should even be looking for.

Some suggestions maybe?

after my first playthrough, i went tot he wikia and made mysefl a map with locations of loot and points of interest and put it together as a dossier type of thing..
I cant explain the why, but it make the game feel immersive to me, having a guide of sorts, where i could draw up battle plans and such.

Righto cool.

Quick question. In Morrowind say, there was pretty cool armour items and unique weapons with an associated story behind them. Does the Fallout universe have the same thing?
I've honestly never found anything, nor have I found an NPC to suggest such things.

For sure. there are a ton of things like that in Fallout 3. Thats why I made up the plans.. after my first playthough, when i visited the wikia, i realized that i had only barely scratched the surface.

Righto, I'll take a look (I got the subtle "look for yourself you lazy ponce" gesture )

But, one other thing. Can someone throw me a bone?

Is there something like the Fighters guild in this game?
Or is it all random quests from unassuming NPC's?

There's no shame in saying a game's not for you. If you've tried to play several times but found it uninteresting then it's probably time to just say it's not your thing. I had a similar feeling with both Oblivion and New Vegas: they are great games and fun to play, but they are very much games to me, not a world I became immersed in like FO3, and accordingly I had to work a bit to see them through to the end.

If you're playing on PC then you might try some gameplay-altering mods to see if you can tailor the game to your preferences. The recent Honest Hearts dlc for New Vegas gave me back some of the old FO3 sense of immersion in that game, so it's possible that a change of atmosphere might work for you.

faction involvement isnt as good as it could be.. you cant really "join up" with anyone more than getting a somewhat honorary memebership.

If youre looking for unique items and stories that go along with them, you really just need to talk to more NPC's in the major settlements. even the ones tucked away in places you wouldnt go if you were just playign through quests. check out the Capitol Rreservation Society in Rivet City for instance.

I wont necessarily say go to the wikia, because it could spoil it for you if you want to do it all on your own, but if you really dont mind that, then do check out http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Capitol_Preservation_Society it's one of the better ones ive seen, and they link the different characters, locations, quests and loot together quite well, so you can see what all of the locations and NPC's have to offer without having to dig too deep.

Well their are factions, but theirs only a few you can "join" in a loose sense of the word. If you follow the MQ eventually you'll come across the Brotherhood of Steel, The Enclave, and a bunch of others. I'd advise you doing the MQ for a little bit. Also if your finding combat lack-luster, try coming up with tactics or strategies. It's very satisfying to come up with a tactical solution rather than going in guns blazing.

I'm on the 360 unfortunately.

I really do, honestly like the game. I just can't seem to actually find anything.
The biggest thing for me in TES, is the history and lore. Is Fallout light on in this aspect, or am I just a monkey giblet thats been left in the sun too long?

I'll have another crack at the MQ then, I have tried different strategies. Admittedly it's always boiled down to lobing a near useless grenade and then going Rambo on the big metal arses.

try different builds.. i found it pretty rewarding building a melee character, negating small guns, energy weapons and the like. It made me think about how to attack more efficiently.

Also, computer terminals and holodisks hold a lot of backstory for events before, during and after the great war.

I hope you stick with it and find youre aha! moment. There was a point in my first playthrough where it was getting a bit tedious for me as well.

Oh I will stick with it.

I payed money for this game. I will damn well get my worth.
I've done a few different builds trying to get something out of it, So far I've arrived at the following conclusions:

Big guns, Fun... If there was more then 3 rockets in the whole game.
Energy weapons, Are they like those laser pointers we have for budget presentations? They seem to have the same effect ([censored] all!)

I will give melee a crack how ever. Although I've noticed that there is three useful melee weapons.

I'm currently using small weapons, as it seems to make the most sense. I've used power armour in the past, but from memory it would have been more beneficial to encase myself in a slab of concrete. I'd have move just as fast, if not faster .
Though I do suspect I've gone critically wrong somewhere with my character builds. Which is odd, because I'm usually pretty spot on in the TES world.

melee, unarmed and explosives is pretty fun for me, but it can svck balls when youre first starting out- it doesnt really wind up paying off until youve leveled up a bit.

I dont usually heap points onto big guns until later in the game, cause they are pricey, weigh a lot and are generally overkill for most of the battles youll be fighting at lower levels.

if you play a build long enough, i think youll find its really hard to make a bad build, because you get perks at every level and can get up to like 23 skill points to allocate at every level.

I'll keep going with my current build for the moment.

I might be able to stick it out, IF I can find someone to sell my crap to.
What is it with Bethesda;
"Here's a merchant with infinity money"
"Oh cool, wait... There's NO [censored] to sell to him, wtf!?"

"Oh...., um okay. Here's heaps of crap to sell"
"You sadistic bastard, now the merchant has NO money and everything is worth a fortune!!!"

I will say one thing though.
At least I haven't been sent from one side of the map to the polar bloody opposite eighteen times to scratch and NPC's [censored] form them.

It sounds like you have a few things going on.

My first character build was atrocious and I spent my first 12 levels getting my butt kicked everywhere I went (I didn't give up though) I came from Oblivion and loved FO3 right away, guns, getting hammered and everything. It's harder when you don't like losing.

What I would suggest is you turn the difficulty down until you get a feeling for the combat. Once you get a handle on that it will get easier.

When you build your character do something like this.

S - don't waste points here. You don't need to carry around everything. 5
P - Important for the VATS perks. I'd say 5 as you will have opportunities to increase it to 6 for perks you will want later
E - Super important. You get higher HP and you won't be so easy to kill/hurt/knock over At least 5 maybe higher I usually go with something like 6 or 7
C - Unless you really want to talk your way through stuff FO3 isn't a highly Speech/Charisma game. It can be rewarding but you can save it for another playthrough. I often play with it at 7 or 8 and it's fun, but for a first time trying to fight and learn the combat you don't need it above 4
I - Intelligence is handled poorly in FO3. It only really controls how many points you get at level up. Go high with this if you want to get as many points as possible and want a very powerful character ultimately. Since you are on a console I would say do not go below 7
A - If you are going to be doing VATS, and I recommend that you take the time to learn it and then take the perks, you should make this at least 5
L - Luck controls your critical chance which affects some weapons in the Small guns category which is what I recommend you go with on an early character when you are learning the ropes. You might want to go with a middling number here 4 or 5

You'll need to balance those all out to get the numbers to come out right at character creation I didn't count them up. I always take Intense Training a couple of times to get my SPECIAL where I want it. High enough EN, PE and AG if I want the VATS perks. And if you do the bobblehead hunting don't forget that you don't need to put the points into your SPECIAL at character creation or at level up because you can go get those while you play. I highly recommend the VATS perks if you want to maximize how effective your character is in combat. Especially Sniper for headshots and commando if you use two handed weapons and Action Boy/Girl later on.

As for skills I would recommend this. Go with Small Guns, Repair and Lockpick. Or something very like that. Maybe Small Guns, Lockpick and Sneak or SG, Repair and Sneak. Those are some of the best builds. On the console repair is probably the most important skill and I would say lockpick after that along with your weapon but a lot of players love sneaking and sniping.

When you level up make sure to concentrate on putting points into your small gun skill. Try to keep it level with your level. So if you are at level 3 don't let it get below the 30's, if you are at level 4 keep it in the 40's, etc. That seems to keep you at the same level as the baddies.

Don't spread yourself too thin in skills. Keep your eye on the prize. Try this character only with Small Guns. You don't need another weapon skill. You can carry a set of spiked knuckles or a lead pipe for dogs, molerats and ferals or whatever if you are short on ammo in the first few levels and it will be fine even if you haven't put points into them. Don't use VATS for that. Just run in at whack at stuff but don't stand still or you'll get hurt. Remember to move around when you are getting hit or shot at. You'll get damaged a lot less.

With your other skills you need to distribute kind of carefully. Some quests will need you to have some science skillr. You can find items to up your skills that you can wear (There's a V101 jumpsuit that does that look for it before you leave the vault and another item you get from a quest ) and use that so you don't always need to put points into the skill. Also, lockpick is important because there are safes, doors etc all over the gameworld you want to get into. Some players really like Science for hacking your way into some things that also have locks. You don't need both.

Phew. That's all I can think of right now.

Well, thre will be fetch quests, but fast travel is pretty decent in avoiding that.

There are a lot of places to sell your loot, too.. you just ahve to fid them all.
it ridiculous how many caps you can get, if youre into scauaging.

I think its two weeks in game before vendors re-stock.
if you find more vendors and set them up in a cycle, youll pretty much always have someone to sell to.
and you can store extra gear somewhere, so you can save up items to be sold later.

Massive thanks for the time you took to write this. Very much appreciated.
But, thats almost EXACTLY what I've done already .

The game isn't so much hard to play, as it is, hard to play.
As I've said, my biggest issue has been keeping my interest. As thus far I've found Moira (who would truly love to rip her voice box out), Some drop kicks in Rivet city and Ten penny's tower. None of which have really offered me a tangible reason to care for their existence.
Though, I think my first error was looking for a TESesque faction system. Which evidently, doesn't actually exist. So perhaps I may turn to grinding the main quest line for a few hours and see where that takes me. It can't be worse then the Oblivion story line, so there's a plus!

lol! Well, if you don't like the game you don't like it. Like I said, I love it. From the second I exited the vault I was in love and even getting my butt kicked didn't stop me from loving every second in the Wasteland. Also, Moira, I know! Some players love her and some of us think what a pain. Although one of the things I most love about FO3 are the characters I love to hate. Also, the gameworld, as opposed to Oblivion, is filled with delicious and unique details and little stories. Not nearly as many identical "dungeons." Exploring, just for the sake of it, is very rewarding if you like that kind of thing.

Funny, seems like you're the opposite of me. I held off getting FO3 for ages, mainly cos I was still loving Oblivion so much, but also cos I thought it wasn't my thing. When I did get it for christmas I was instantly hooked. Everything about it I like, the exploring, the quests, the look, the NPCs, the combat. I am using a few mods to spice things up, but no overhauls.
Guess it's just horses for courses. Something about FO3 has really grabbed my and svcked me in!

I think the biggest bug bear for me was getting my buttocks handed to me by dogs ten minutes after I walked out of the vault. I thinks instill some unsurmountable fear of everything in the game. This strangely is a good quality in my eyes.

I think I'll just nut up and go dungeon trawling. I just have to get past the fact its not advisable to bash things about the head, it seems to cause them to hit me harder then what they would of otherwise, more then actually stopping them from doing it in the first instance.