What got you hooked to Fallout and why

The setting, storytelling and gameplay of Fallout 2 (and Fallout later on) back in '98 was such a unique and gripping package that I still to this day haven't found anything that would compare. It was not flawless, but the package it offered formed such an impressive whole that many of its shortcomings I could look past of (and still can).

Originally? back when I was 10? The gore, the art design, the retro-futurism.
Too young to understand most of the writing and I didn't exactly have high standards back then.
So it was generally how it looked and how it played.
Then as I got older I figured out how the gameplay worked and that 1 Luck was a bad thing.
And when I had learned enough english to understand the dialogue I started to appreciate the writing.

This ===> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBNKa2KXZE. The first time I ever watched it, I was hoocked.

Fallout 3 I seem to have phases of what i like in media as the i grow up (but reaching advlthood seems to halt that proccess). At the time in summer 2010 I was really enjoying modern military, near future, and apocalypse kind of feeling. So Fallout 3 seemed really interesting when my sister borrowed it from a friend.

But over the past year here, I have come to realize the importance of characters, writing, etc. Now fallout isn't the shining example of those things, but it is the fallout forum

I'd have to say the same; though in my case I played Baldur's Gate first, and after the intro ended and the gameplay began, I began to doubt and wonder if I'd made a mistake (due to the combat). Funny thing in hindsight, because the same thing happened to me when I first played Disciples 2... But in the end it was the combats (and in in FO's case also the dialog*) that endeared me to the series; and it's why I bought FO3 and Disciples 3.

*(For me the FO setting was context for the dialogs; and so... part of it in this instance. I doubt the setting alone would have been sufficient to keep me playing... Though I did like it.)

It was my first "sandbox-game", so i was just facinated by the fact, that i could do what i wanted, whenever i wanted. What kepted my hooked, was the giant world, and the "good" quests.

Some guy was doing a Let's Play of New Vegas when it had first came up. I liked his stuff and decided to check it out. I got hooked on his series and after a few episodes I wanted to get in on the action because he was making choices that I wasn't agreeing with.

As for the game itself, the wasteland and it's kinda accurate portrayal of human life post nuclear holocaust. But the game did something I hadn't experienced previously in many games. Choices that matter and speech.

undecaf, and gab said it all for me.

Same here, except at age 9, and leaving the retro-futurism aside.

While on the gearbox forums looking for news on Borderlands2 I saw a lot of comparisons to Fallout. I decided to try FO3 and loved it. After 3 playthroughs I preordered NV Ultimate and that's all I play now.