Fallout 3 vs fallout new vegas

Gertrude:

Fallout 3 or New Vegas – which one is better? When talking about which game is better, Fallout 3 or New Vegas, opinions are split, just like when people talk about Xbox One and the PS4.

Which Fallout is Better?

Personally, I like Fallout 3 for the much better atmosphere and great quests that kept me immersed into the game. On the other hand, Fallout: New Vegas has much more weapons, enemies, perks and opportunities to gather XP than Fallout 3 had.

Is Fallout 3 better than New Vegas?

Better atmosphere: Fallout 3 is modern post-apocalyptic and feels like “The Book of Eli” & “Oblivion”.
Powerful storyline – well except the ending where I don’t understand why can’t I send my radiation-immune friends to activate the purifier? It’s an easy job for them after all and everybody can walk out happy. Yeah, I know you can do it if you have the “Broken Steel” add-on, but since Fallout is an RPG with emphasis on choices, this option should have been in the main game!
Fewer choices, Fallout 3 being too restrictive. You can’t even join the Enclave for crying out loud! Or destroy BOTH the Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel.
Towns that make no sense, e.g. Megaton (built around a dormant, radiation-leaking, nuclear bomb), Little Lamplight ( built near a nest of insanely strong super mutants).
Fresh combat system, excellent weapons, especially after the “Operation Anchorage” add-on.
Also check out 40 Fun Things to do in Fallout 3 (Before you Die).
Fallout 3 loses the morality contest because it goes for the black&white approach, where you gather the forces of all that is good and beat the sh!t out of all that is evil.

Is New Vegas better than Fallout 3?

Worse atmosphere: New Vegas is post-fallout-post-apocalyptic, taking its inspiration from late 1970’s movies such as “A Boy and His Dog” and “Mad Max”. It continues the classic Fallout games and it’s more of a apocalyptic western than pure post-apocalypse.
Weaker storyline, but better choices: 4 major factions you can side with, and you can destroy them all if you want to. The fight at Hover Dam was pretty epic. There are 5 possible endings with hundreds of variations, if you count the DLC.
Better towns – also more believable, with water supplies, farms and hunting grounds. Besides, news of your good or bad deeds in a town are spreading fast to other towns.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills have better use: play as a dumb courier, add implants based on your Endurance, rake money at casinos if you have high Luck, companions hit better if you have high Charisma.
Satisfying combat with tons of weapons, armor and A LOT of fun. Fallout 3 has good customizability, but New Vegas introduced gun customization and bullets variation.
More powerful and varied enemies than in Fallout 3, enjoyable side quests and more choices when completing quests.
Hardcore mode that introduces new aspects of survival into the gameplay: bullets take up room, you have to sleep, drink water, eat, stimpaks heal you slowly, limbs get hurt and other stuff that make it really feel like you are trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.
New Vegas largely replaces the karma system with faction reputation, which changes the black&white (good or bad) individual morality with a system in which you are a more of a cog in the machine (at least at first.) As such you’re not really choosing your own morality anymore, rather following a system.
Unfortunately, New Vegas is swarmed with bugs and glitches and it crashes all the time.
Final Verdict
Fallout New Vegas is better than Fallout 3 if you want a more realistic approach to Fallout. However, if you want more “muh atmosphere”, Fallout 3 is better. Both games are incredibly fun to play though…