Starting out with Fallout Series

[mcshame]

Some of you may have seen me poking or thrashing around in the forum lately trying to figure out this whole modding world.  I'm an old timer AD&D guy who loved Utlima on my Commodore 64 and later 286 that had a gap in his gaming life until the kids were old enough to have a Wii and then our first gaming console PS3 near the end of that generation.  I couldn't believe what I was missing and when I got Oblivion and then played Skyrim as well as could be expected on that console.  So, I basically had a mid life crisis, built my first gaming PC and decided now I need to make up for lost time ;)

 

So, I got Morrowwind, Oblivion and Skyrim nicely modded and plan to enjoy them completely over time.  But one of the thoughts I had when building the PC was to be able to have a fully modded Skyrim and to be able to handle Fallout 4, modded of course.

 

But what's the rush for Fallout 4 when you haven't played the series at all, right? So I got Fallout 3 and New Vegas on the Steam sale and now wondering what the best strategy would be for my situation.

 

If you had never played the Fallout series, would you start with a modded Fallout 3, then do New Vegas followed by Fallout 4 way later when all the great mods are available? Only do one prior to Fallout 4 or just start with the latest?

 

I have read that Fallout 3 is unstable even on PC, is it corrected by the mods? Also was reading about TTW merging the 2 and Fallout 3 gaining stability as a result but didn't notice any guides such as those on this site for that build.

 

Love to hear your thoughts and experiences as all I know right now is Elder Scrolls. 

Edited February 11, 2016 by mcshame

[Guest]

Hmm, I'd say just play New Vegas and follow this. Bethesda Fallout games are trash. I came to realise that with Fallout 4 recently after I stopped building and started exploring. Fallout 3 is better, but still very forgettable. New Vegas is the superior title  in every way. The DLC is also the best of them all.

[GrantSP]

Agreed, FNV is superior to FO3 but I'd still play both instead of FO4.

 

FO3 can easily be played on current machines with no issue but if you do wish to try the TTW route, and you should, try this guide from @Adonis.

[EssArrBee]

I'd start with FO3 because it has tons of polish that FNV didn't get. FNV suffered from not having extra development time eventhough it was clearly written much better than FO3. There are some really good side quests in both games though. The followers in FNV are far better as well. Both games had pretty good DLC too. Old World Blues is about the best thing in the history of the Fallout franchise. 

[Kelmych]

I thought the Honest Hearts DLC in FNV was also very good. The DLC in FO3 are fairly good. FO3 has better ratings as an RPG but I think the two are close. As SRB mentioned, FNV had better writing although the main quest in FO3 (when Broken Steel DLC is added) is fairly good.  There are some good mods for both FO3 and FNV including a lot of high resolution texture mods and some very good quest mods.

 

FO4 has some excellent aspects, but I'm awaiting some modders turning it into an RPG vs. a console FPS with some character stats.

[mcshame]

Thanks for the perspective.  Since I'm not comparing to anything as I've never played either of them, would the TTW still be good modded version of the game that I will not loose out? Or it's still superior to take it up a notch by modding each separately?

[GrantSP]

I think running the FO3 plugins in the FNV engine is a great idea but... you will miss out on a few FO3 specific mods that aren't ported to FNV.

[Kelmych]

The Mart's Monster Mod for FO3 (and Oblivion) adds the best AI for creatures and NPCs that I've seen in Fallout. It wasn't ported to FNV because Mart and some other modders were not happy that Fallout NV required using Steam; Steam wasn't needed for FO3.

[EssArrBee]

Didn't like Steam, but was okay with GFWL? That doesn't make sense.