fallout 3 vs. oblivion

darkdiablo

Senior member
Jan 2, 2009
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which is better? i heard fallout is basically oblivion only its not in a mythical world but in a fucked up post-nuclear war USA. Which is more fun? Fallout 3 seem to be winning for me based on the screenshots I been seeing.
 

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
4,914
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Fallout 3 has a less annoying leveling system, in that you don't need to waste a lot of time training/power-leveling to get good bonuses.

I also disliked Oblivion somewhat because they picked such a boring, ho-hum province. Pretty much any province besides Cyrodiil would have been more interesting. Morrowind/Vvardenfell felt a lot more interesting and exotic, whereas Cyrodiil is just your typical high-fantasy/medieval setting that's been done to death. Your character in Oblivion is also just some random nobody with no history, unlike the main character in Morrowind or Fallout 3. It might have been more interesting if your character took over the role that Martin played and discovered your true history, similar to how it worked in Morrowind.
 

mundane

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2002
5,603
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I think Bethesda took a lot of lessons learned from player feedback in Oblivion and applied them to Fallout 3.
 

imported_Imp

Diamond Member
Dec 20, 2005
9,148
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Fallout 3 for the immerson, environment and 'world'. Magic, swords, elves and dragons have been done before. Getting around in a post-apocolyptic world hasn't been as much.

Edit: I forgot to add gibbing/blood/gore. It's been years since I've seen so much violence. Je l'adore...
 

lozina

Lifer
Sep 10, 2001
11,709
8
81
what do you mean fallout 3 vs. oblivion?

isn't fallot 3 just an official oblivion mod???

:D
j/k

but I think oblivion is better only because it is more diverse. I got pretty tired of the wasteland color scheme and scenery rather quickly. Little variety in stuff to fight and things to do... oblivion is much more open ended and much easier to get "lost" in and I mean that in a good way.
 

Absolution75

Senior member
Dec 3, 2007
983
3
81
Fallout 3 is much more interesting.

I never got into oblivion, monsters that scaled with your level didn't make sense to me, why bother doing side quests?
 

StinkyPinky

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2002
6,765
783
126
How Fallout 3 is better than Oblivion:

Better levelling, the perks make it more interesting.
Probably a better plot (although it is still not great)
VATS makes combat more interesting
More gritty and "real world" than Oblvion. I like the setting a lot more.
Better voice acting for the most part
Slightly tweaked graphics
More adult, not really for kids with the language and gore.
NPCs join you and can be useful (not like the muppets in oblivion)


How Obvlion is better:

More variery of enemies on the map
Larger world I think

I like Fallout 3 better.
 

darkdiablo

Senior member
Jan 2, 2009
212
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How long do you guys think it will take to beat the whole game? Talking about Fallout 3.
 

Dorkenstein

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2004
3,554
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Probably not long if you don't get into the side quests. I beat the main quest in much less time than when I played through and did everything I reasonably could. One mod I think helps a lot if you decide to do all the side stuff is a mod that lifts the level cap. I mean, come on, a level 20 cap? What is this, a D&D game?
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
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Originally posted by: darkdiablo
How long do you guys think it will take to beat the whole game? Talking about Fallout 3.

I think I was around 50 hours exploring about half the map for sidequests and random encounters.

I'll replay it eventually with a different character build (to use Big Guns and Explosives) and maybe playing evil, that should be good for another 20+ hours.

I put over 100 hours into Oblivion. It's bigger with more to see and do, but I'd still rate Fallout higher.

Hopefully there isn't some bizarre reason why you can only ever play one of the two. Buy both, play both, be happy.
 

Dorkenstein

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2004
3,554
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I need to actually finish Oblivion + Shivering Isles at some point. I spent so much time trying to mod the daylights out of it that it kind of killed the fun. That, and I never really found a way to make combat enjoyable.
 

Wheezer

Diamond Member
Nov 2, 1999
6,731
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Originally posted by: darkdiablo
How long do you guys think it will take to beat the whole game? Talking about Fallout 3.

it took me roughly a month or so, a couple of hours every night to beat it.

I did not follow the main quest as much as I focused on the side quests....Once you get to vault 87 the whole thing changes so I did a majority of my side quest before that....spent a lot of time just checking things out making money finding the best weapons, finding schematics for weapons....etc...etc.

the main quest is actually pretty short.
 

Nik

Lifer
Jun 5, 2006
16,125
2
56
Originally posted by: zerocool84
I found Fallout 3 boring

Same here. I played Oblivion shortly before playing Fallout 3, found the two of them so very similar that I continued playing Oblivion With Guns, finished basically nothing but the main story line in something like 10 or 12 hours (a few additional side quests but mostly exploring and swearing to myself that this shit is the same shit I was seeing/doing/playing a half hour ago), and haven't touched it or Oblivion since.

Ho-hum to both games. Even the worlds the two games are in are too similar. In Oblivion, there's forest areas and grassy field areas and nothing else. In Fallout 3, it's either the same old rocky ground covered in rusting post-war junk or sidewalks covered in rusting post-war junk. Both games have enemies with exactly the same tactics. They see you and they either run straight for you screaming or they stand in one spot shooting at you. No team tactics, even if there's a freakin dozen of them. They don't flank you, nothing. I dunno, maybe I just killed them too fast :p

 

KeypoX

Diamond Member
Aug 31, 2003
3,655
0
71
fallout 3. And it took me 43 hours to beat it, taking my time i did alot of side quests. But i think i could beat it fast now...

Will play through again as an evil thief hehe
 

FirewolfX

Member
Aug 31, 2008
155
0
76
Vanilla? Fallout 3 = winner.

Oblivion has many mods out there for it, Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul will totally change the game for you, give that one a try.

OOO Readme
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,190
185
106
They're both great games. I personally prefer Fallout 3, but Oblivion is certainly a much bigger world, with a lengthier main quest. I believe that the least that can be said is that both of them have things that are being done better in one when compared to the other, and being done worse in one when compared to the other. It's a very difficult choice, I don't think anyone should have to chose between any of them, they're both superb games on their own.

I must say however that the GameBryo engine more than shows its age by today's video games standards in many regards including textures quality (thanks to a console port), animations (which are absolutely horrendous) and stability, and because of that I think that Fallout 3 is a real example of a good game due to its game-play and not due to its visual and technical quality and presentation, in other words when people say that graphics don't count, just look at Fallout 3, and you'll realize that they're right.
 

hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
76
I enjoy playing Oblivion more. I feel like I'm part of a "real, breathing" world, where I feel disconnected with Fallout 3.

That might be because there aren't many breathing things left in the world of Fallout! ;)
 

ZzZGuy

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2006
1,855
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I like Oblivion better just because it's enjoyable to wander the world, I hardly ever use the fast travel. Combat is also better IMHO as there is a reason why your enemies are trying to bumb rush you, it's just silly at times in FO3.

Fallout 3 can be just too damn bleak sometimes. VATS is only good for nades and RPG loving people who are clueless when it comes to FPS's, also no effective range weapons.


 

Borealis7

Platinum Member
Oct 19, 2006
2,914
205
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Oblivion in its time, circa 2006, was a groundbreaking gaming experience which offered perhaps the biggest world and best graphics. it caused a jump in 3D engine graphics and made consumers purchase better VGA cards, it changed the way we think and earned its place in history also as one of the best sellers of the RPG genre.
these days oblivion may not be that special because we've had spectacular graphics with Crysis or STALKER and while Fallout 3 has very good graphics, its not cutting edge (evidently i was able to run it smoothly on my old X1950Pro) but the gameplay is great.
so each has its pros and cons, i enjoyed Oblivion back then and i enjoyed Fallout 3 a few weeks ago.
play both!
 

AlgaeEater

Senior member
May 9, 2006
960
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In a nutshell, Fallout 3 gives you a more polished package ready to go out the door. You can pop the game in VANILLA and enjoy it. Oblivion (Like Morrowind) needs a lot of help. Thankfully, help in the form of mods have been created in the truckloads, and can vastly increase your experience of Oblivion.

Fallout 3 is starting to pick up in the modding community however, so Oblivion definitely will be showing its age.

IN the end, I liked both games. If you're new to the either game, I would start with Oblivion. Playing Fallout 3 and then Oblivion will feel like a step backward overall, even a heavily modded Oblivion. Most mod work for Oblivion has hit a wall so to speak anyway, as now-a-days its pretty much making your characters look as "pretty" as you want them to. Namely, as slutty as you want them to.

If you just want a straight, no nonsense answer, then just go Fallout 3. There are already a few mods out there already that can vastly improve your first re-play, which in my opinion, is the funnest time in any rpg you play, because you now know the ropes and want to make the most optimized run though the game.
 

TheKub

Golden Member
Oct 2, 2001
1,756
1
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Fallout 3. I had 70 hours of exploring\side quests before I decided to move on with the main quest, and I?m sure there is still a number of other places that I still didn?t find.

Though I will also say that the game did end quite quickly once I started the main quest. I did unfortunately skip a few steps accidentally, I was randomly exploring and found the location where my dad was rather than going to the location listed in the quest to find out where he was.

My biggest recommendation is Do Not read any spoilers or look at maps, locations of special items, bobbleheads, or quests. A major part of this game is the discovery part and if you make a to-do list of things to pickup you will miss out on a lot of fun.

The one thing I guess that bugged me is the carry weight limitations. I am a packrat and like to be able to carry my spoils back home after a day of scavving but there are a number of cool and interesting weapons that I just never really got around to using. The fatman in particular. Never used it on my first play through becasue I didnt want to dedicate 15+% of my carry weight and wind up not needing it. Though I encountered several situations where it would have been the perfect tool but I was in a position\location where I wouldn't want to or was unable to fast-travel back to get it.

VATs is cool, but if you use it for absolutely every encounter I could see how it may get old. I tend to play stealth\ranged characters in RPGs, so I specialized in sneak and small arms so most encounters would start off with me one-shotting the closest\strongest enemy in normal mode so I could save my APs for the rush of enemies if they happened to detect me. If there was only 1-2 targets or a bunch of melee mobs I wouldn?t need VATs at all.

VATs has given me a number of very enjoyable moments. Shooting the grenade just before a raider has a chance to toss it and watching is body gib in slow mo. Sneaking underneath a walk way with 2 super mutants who detect me. I aim for the right arm of the one wielding the missile launcher to by myself a little time. Missile launcher goes flying and lands conveniently next to my feet. Pick it up and use it to blast them to bits, kinda poetic if you ask me.

Given that Im a packrat, and ammo is weightless (thus a great thing to trade for when the store runs out of caps), and most of my encounters were 1:1 kill\bullet ratio, I was absolutely swimming in ammo. So much so that I would use VATs to toy with my enemies before killing them. Making sure that I would disarm them, cripple both of their legs and watch them hobble around a bit then ending them with a head shot.