Why Is Fallout 3 So Hated? (And Why Is New Vegas So Loved?)

imo fallout 3 is good but not as good as new vegas and 4 is nowhere near as good as 3 it has the problem of coming out after new vegas not using ANY of it qol improvments

I gave up on F3 due to bugs.. I’m just realising that I also didn’t know about mods that no doubt fix those bugs so I should probably give it another try:)

Still.. I think FNV had more than good writing: It had some design principles that could have been easily adopted and integrated into following Bethesda rpgs, F4 and Starfield.. for example having essentially no unkillable npcs, and that avoided pressing a certain character on you, that lets you play as a paladin, murder hobo, diplomat, backstabber, drugged out cannibal throughout the game without being forced to break character to finish.

The apparent refusal to learn anything from FNV feels like a really toxic not invented here syndrome to me.

New Vegas was made with the engine of fallout 3. It was basically modded version of the game. A better version sure, but it was still based on what came before.

Fallout tactics is the only true fallout..

Just in case you don't know - Twenty Sided died in June last year.

Every Fallout games has their own strengths and weaknesses. I can't comment on Fallout 1 & 2, but Fallout 3 had a tremendous atmosphere, Fallout: New Vegas had phenomenal DLC's and Fallout 4 had great gun mechanics, customization, side quests, and more.

Most people that hate or trash 3 have barely played it. I think new vegas is better but if fallout 3 is trash then nv would be bad by that standard.

Fallout 3 was great. Yeah, great atmosphere of course. Great OST. Fun dungeons with rewards squirrelled away in all sorts of corners. Of course it's dated, of course the choices leave a bit to be desired. Of course the gunplay is clunky. Of course the story is too linear. People like to think that every settlement should look like New Vegas and that Bethesda has no idea what a post-apocalyptic world would look like. Nonetheless they managed to capture the Fallout magic in many ways. There are hidden gems all over the place, interesting interiors, unique settlements, and the classic eerie environmental storytelling. Is New Vegas better? Yeah. Plus Obsidian managed to get it done in a fraction of the time. Which is no doubt commendable. Sadly due to it not being in the oven long enough, the open world is sorely lacking and interior exploration is very few and far between. They both got their own things going on. I will always defend Fallout 3 for being a great game. I will always praise New Vegas as being one of the best games to have ever been made. I don't understand why holding both beliefs is impossible.

Fallout 3 open world was mind blowing to me and 1st FO I every played. Loved that game. New vegas just took it to next level. Generally loved both games.

I have a hard time believing anyone who enjoys fallout actually "hates" fallout 3. Loved all the fallout games 3 and up

I don't know. 3 is boring my opinion. I just leave vault, explore boring world few hours with bad quests and uninstall it

I played 3, NV, 4, and 76. I love 3 as it was my introduction to the series and I enjoy playing it multiple times and I love the dlcs. 76 is just a fun game to play, the hatred seems overflowed to me. NV was an alright game for me, I enjoyed playing it but doing a second playthrough really made it feel like a slog. And the dlcs felt like they should only be played once, Old World Blues was funny and great my first playthrough but felt like an awful slog to playthrough again, I didn't want to do Lonesome Road again because it was a pain my first playthrough. Dead Money was just broken for me, Honest Hearts was the best dlc only because of the landscape. And in base game NV, the map is so boring and has almost no interesting locations. 3 had so many secrets in its world that it made the flat desert of the Mojave boring to walk through. That's my opinion on 3 and NV with a lot of my gripes. 3 isn't perfect but neither is New Vegas. I also rarely crashed from 3, but new vegas would system crash everything if I jumped, that was a huge bother to me as well as my other gripes

WHAT DO I PLAY? FALLOUT 3, OR NEW VEGAS???

When fallout 3 came out it truly was mind blowing. Honestly it makes sense New Vegas is better it came out 3 years later and improved upon a huge risk Bethesda took taking an already existing IP and completely changing it. Fallout three pre Vegas was one of the best open world games at the time and really we should thank Bethesda for reviving the franchise!

For those who say that fallout 1 and 2 are the 'true' fallout games.

I say if they were so amazing, how come the developers had to file for bankruptcy and sell the rights in the first place?

It’s a child debate because they’re both great in different ways. New Vegas’ crafting system was highly improved upon but was also completely different than Fallout 3s where you could construct weapons like the Junk Jet and Railway Rifle etc. which you didn’t get in Vegas. Reputation replaced karma and karma in Vegas wasn’t worth a lot (literally only Cass reacts to karma). Fallout 3 combat and gameplay is ultimately more challenging than New Vegas’ but no one gives Fallout 3 credit for that. They’re both amazing games, twins.

Long story short. They’re BOTH Very Good.
You can’t have one without the other.

You seem a little mad about this. Tldr for me is that fallout 3 and 4s (most) stories and characters are boring. Btw i still like 3/4. Also dont think pref 1/2/new vegas makes you an elitist. Those game are just completely different than 3/4.

fo3 runs much better in modern pc than new vegas, nv runs like a river of shite and crashes often.

Fallout 3 was my first then I played New Vegas and went back to 1 and 2 fallout 4 was hit or miss for me at times but was still good the games are still worth playing 100%

I dont love or hate FO3 but I played new vegas first and fo3 right after and by comparison is was a pretty dry game but there's still a lot of things it does well if not better than new vegas and some cool shit to discover but overall new vegas was what got me hooked on fallout and 3 was just kinda like "hey this is where new vegas came from" yay I guess

I like this, its not some high and mighty bs about how new Vegas is the greatest game ever its a REAL video

2 of the dlcs had better stories than the main story. But they were really fun stories

Didnt it win goty?

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I remember before Fallout 4 came out, the general consensus that I got from the internet was that Fallout 3 was the best Fallout, not New Vegas. Only when people were disappointed with Fallout 4 did New Vegas receive the attention it deserved. Maybe I'm wrong? Does anyone from the community remember anything like that?

I havent played since 2010. I loved it then

Fallout 3 isn’t hated, and neither is Fallout 4, beyond the online fallout echochamber. Both games are pretty universally liked by most people. New Vegas is loved because it is the best rpg of the generation, but just because a game isn’t Nee Vegas doesn’t mean it sucks.

The thing is, oversimplifying games does not necessarily appeal to a larger audience. There are plenty of examples of games, and specifically RPGs, that are very appreciated by large audiences because of their amazing RP elements, good writing and freedom of choice (just look at anything Larian made in the past decade, or, a better example, disco elysium, which swept the game awards despite being an "old school" CRPG).
On top of that, merely understanding the themes and narratives that made the first two games great seemed to be too difficult for Bethesda to do, and much of the depth within elements (such as super mutants, who were reduced from nuanced, intelligent creatures left without a voice in the world, to generic enemies that cannot be reasoned with) was completely ignored in the process of making a game where you fight or help fallout-themed factions and collect fallout-themed items.
Also Tim Cain was mostly a programmer and did not contribute much to the writing of the old games.
The least Bethesda could do is pretend like they cared about the IP like they kept insisting they did in interviews.

Tale of Two Wastelands is the best 3d fallout game.

FO3 is one of my top3 games and I hated NV because of the setting.

first fallout game i played was fallout3 it was incredible but i ended up playing new vegas and dropped 3 entirely. I would say there is nothing wrong with change but when changes take away what made the game good will change opinions of many bad changes do exist.

Fallout 1 2 3 nv 4 and 76 are part of the franchise i dont get it that peaple said the all have super mutatants ghouls robots scorpion and some enemis from fallout 1 and 2 they are literally the same games but just different locations

At this point, I think people are just fed up with Bethesda writing in general. Basically everything after Skyrim, which released 13 months after New Vegas.
Fallout 4 wasn't as developed as 3 (let alone New Vegas) and people liked it's DC's more (specifically Old Harbor), and Fallout 76 didn't even launch with a story. They need an outlet to express their disappointment, and they can't really point to Skyrim because it has similar problems, but it does a better job immersing people in it's world.

Also... some critic. If you reference what someone said a video, it's better to actually show what they say other then to describe it after telling them to watch it themselves. It can come off as outrage bait otherwise (funnily enough what you are critiquing)

Fo3 is good but near nv it's looks underdevelopt

I play third because my PC won't run New-Vegas

FO3 isn't the problem. It was all good. FO4 and 76 on the other hand.... 😅

I don't like Fallout 3. My fav character is Zip, tho.

I have only played Fo3, FONV and Fo4, Fo3 being my first fallout. If I had to choose 1 game of the 3, it would hands down be Fo3. The environment just feels more like it should compared to the other 2.

I loved fallout 3. 3 complete playthroughs. 1500 hours

Honestly when I saw fallout 3 I just thought it would be a random fps game but when I played it I started to Like it more like new vegas

fallout 3 was the first fallout game i ever played, i was like what the fuck is this the fr=irst time i played it, thismis when i was 7, now the reason why i think new vegas is better is becuase i can gamble

I like New Vegas the least. But my favorite part of sandbox games is exploration.

I prefer 3. NV is better than 4 though.

Fallout 3 isnt hated ! New vegas was great fun but that game chrashed so much on me. Iff this chrased on an other game i would stop playing. But new vegas i would ''accept'' that its chrases 😂 and also fallout 3 i completed everything including dlc. In new vegas i never finishd the dlc because they where difficult. It recommends level 30 or something

I recently bought fallout 3 after beating fallout 4 and i gotta admit, fallout 3 is WAY better🤩

Bethesda's writers are incompetent and don't understand Fallout.

I don't really care if Bethesda felt they had good reasons to make the type of fallout they did, I don't like it and I like the black isle/obsidian games better, so if it's elitist who cares? It's a fictional video game franchise, if I want to be elitist who cares, what's it gonna do hurt someone's feefees

New Vegas is just more connected to the lore than the other games. Fallout four and fallout three have no connection to the original lore or at least not enough to where it’s a third game. New Vegas makes sense as basically being the spiritually third game. And spiritually closer to the originals. that’s why “new Vegas purism“ will never be overcome. Because it is simply true and part of the fandom at this point. And part of different peoples thinking process. Once you go back and play the originals and actually want to understand the series lore. You start to not like fallout three and four as much. I also think it’s clear by the sales of Boulders gate people never stopped wanting Games like this but game developers stopped making them. I feel like true RPG‘s have been vindicated and we may see more of them in the future. I think the original fallout formulas still works and I think that if people were to make more clones of the original or at least make a game in a similar way it would sell well. Boulders gate three is the continuation of that design philosophy of maximizing player choice and allowing us to tell different stories for a character

No I’m at three minutes and you’re missing the point it’s not that it’s made by different studios it’s that different people are playing them at different times and enjoying them at different levels in their life. New Vegas is an Old Man game fallout three in fallout four are games for children. Baby games if you will there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact I enjoy a quite a few baby games. Like I like Fortnite and you probably do too. And it is a baby game. or Minecraft solidly designed for autistic babies.