I love Oblivion and am thinking about buying the new Fallout. I was wondering if any one had any thoughts about how the two games compare....

Many people will say that Fallout IS Oblivion... it is just a reskinned, gun added version... I will say that if you like to play a game in a MadMax like environment, use guns instead of bows and arrows, wear makeshift armor instead of a shiny plate, give it a try... If you didnt play any of the fallout series, play them first... But if you like a game with visuals rather then content, dont play the fallout I and II... But all in all Fallout 3 is a great game, fun to play and you will feel the desperation and loneliness...

All in all I say buy it and try it, or if you are really doubtful about it, rent it and try it...

its less than oblivion, much less than morrowind but still kinda solid...
alot of features less and a lot of new features too...

I would say its Morrowind with oblivions real time combat but with the stats resulting from actions you actually did feature removed.

I would certainly consider it a preview of advancements to the Elder scrolls game engine in advance of ES5 appearing and there as been some great advancements in some areas and whilst other areas work for fallout 3, they would be a total disaster if used in ES5.

One of the things I am starting to notice that marks it out as very different from other games is that by default there is enough unique and special clothing to help the player look like the character he wants to play.

For example using the regulator coat, the deathclaw glove, the ghoul mask and some slaver guys hat I managed to pull off a pretty convincing freddy crooger look

Thats the nightmare on elm street bad guy.

I noticed some of those ignored items really do help the player get in to role, not sure if Beth intended that but the same thing was not possible in the default game, too much standard armour etc and not enough of those little things that make the difference.

Giskard

Oblivion was somewhat of a let down for me, after i had pinned away for it.
Fallout is an excellete game, but i have't had enough time with it to totally say either way.
I guess it really all up to who you are, and what your expectations are.
I Oblivion to be as awsome as Ocarina of time (look what happend)
So i say, get fallout and enjoy it as it is, forget comparisons. (the truth hurts)

Okay, i just wanna lay down the law here guys.

The idea of this topic isnt to put down either game or to say how much you do or don't like oblivion because the personhas already played Oblivion.

I dont think they want a comparison so much as whether or not Fallout is as good/lives up to/is anything like Oblivion or if Fallout is worth buying. Just my opinion of what he means. I'm no expert and I might be wrong because im often wrong on these forums lol

But yeah for me, I think I'm gonna get Fallout for christmas and Oblivion is by far one of my favorite games. So yeah I've heard good things about Fallout so i think you might wanna get it.

@giskard
the left out of skill improvement by doing is an utter disregard of the evolutionary and natural leveling style tes games had imo... this xp frenzy is too much mmorpg oriented for me

Skills and perks (which is a nice feature) aside.

Fallout 3 gives us a look at what morrowind on an oblivion engine would have looked like. Ignoring all the specific fallout features of course.

I find it interesting, especially the improvements to the AI animations, for example how many AIs do you see leaning up against a wall in oblivion

ES5 should be very good based on what ive seen in fallout 3, providing they do not toss away the detail we all love in the ES games. I do think Beth have listened to morrowind fans about the need for more quests and factions, fallout 3 delivers that.

Giskard

Well, as someone who has played (and played, and played, and played again) Fallouts 1 and 2, I must say that Fallout 3 is NOT part of the sequel. Yes, it's in the Fallout universe. Yes, they kept the stats/perks system. But all in all the game feels more like a futuristic TES game than it does an actual Fallout game. There ARE quite a few similarities between Fallout 3 and the first two, but it just doesn't -feel- like the first two.

That said, however, if you play the game with an open-mind and don't EXPECT it to be a true Fallout game, then yes it's great in it's own right. But if you're looking for the third installment in the Fallout series... well... wait until Bethesda gives us a CS and some mods come out to make it true to it's name.

Similar mechanics...it is based on the same game engine afterall. The magic system is hidden fairly well but you still can recognize "scroll" powers and spell effects.

Oblivion = Light, colorful and overall good-mood environment.

Fallout 3 = Dark, colorless and overall depressing environment and situations.

I won't re-state the other comparisons that have already been mentioned as they did a good job.

LHammonds

Ack, I forgot that Oblivion and Fallout 3 used the same game engine. Dunno how I could forget... heh. But Hammond is right, they did a good job hiding the fact, but sometimes you can catch it.

I'd say buy the game, just don't expect it to be another installment in the Fallout series, think of it as a separate game based on the same concept.


P.S. On a very, very off-topic note, thanks for the readme generator LHammond. One less thing that I gotta figure out how to make look good for my mod!

Personally, i think its an improved version of oblivion. the leveling system is better than the oblivion one, why? because the oblivion system bred a race of powergamers who needed to metagame the !@#$ out of it to get a "balanced" character. don't believe me? check gamespot, you'll find the evidence (guide). this system makes it so that you also can't really cap your level due to skills (boy does it iritate me when i get halted at levle 30 in oblivion, cause i only use blade block heavy armor and armorer). theres also more choice in it, hell, even eating meat from your kills can have concequences. I suppose its not my right to recommend, since I've only played killing one NPC in it, but from what I've seen, I already like it more than oblivion, if only because i might be able to make my guy look like a chaos raptor from warhammer 40k. In the end, all oblivion really has is a less hostile enviroment and a sea of mods. note that this is all personal opinion. oh, and I forgot something else awesome in it. have you ever been annoyed when assassinating someone when they survive your first shot? in fallout 3, you gets VATS! its basicly pause the game and use your mana (AP) to shoot at specific points on the enemy body, as well as see how accurate each shot will be. so you could walk up to someone and score like, 5 headshots before they can defend themselves, cause it happens in slow motion, which makes it look badass, and you can shoot their limbs off!

VATS is actually a dumbed-down version of the old Fallout combat system. In the first two, combat was turn based and you spent Action Points for movement, attacking, accessing inventory, healing, whatever. FO3 version of this is a cut-scene slow-motion god mode attacking system. And yes, you cannot get hurt in VATS. I've entered VATS with a sliver of health left right before a missile hits... during the 'cut scene' the missile blows up and I'm alive. Now, there are mods that remove the god-mode portion which makes VATS harder to use, and more fun.


But, I'm a very opinionated person and I wanting FO3 to the true with the first two (that includes turn-based combat) but I'd still recommend picking it up.

Fallout 3 Made me go out and buy the GOTY of Oblivion, I felt Hemmed in - Much more exploring to do in the Shivering isles - Both good games though.

Thanks for all the feedback folks!

Well, I've been convinced. I got the new fallout and after playing it out for a few days, i can easily say that I'm glad I did.

So, to answer my own question now for anyone out that might still be on the fence, my initial impressions are as follows:

The game looks great, but it's not as colorful and varied as the landscapes in Oblivion.

NPCs seem to walk around much as they did in Oblivion. That's too bad, I was hoping to see some variety in gaits or at least more natural looking animations for walking and moving around. However, the stark landscape of Fallout is made up for by the much more colorfully enhanced NPC faces. NPC's in Fallout are not just better looking than in Oblivion, your interactions with them are also much improved. Hearing people talk like people in colorful, "adult" language truly makes the G-rated dialogue from Oblivion seem stale and boring by comparrison. I would compare the dialogue in Fallout 3 to that of "Vampire: Bloodlines".

As others have mentioned, the Leveling system is stripped down and seems to work better and the many new Perks to choose from is very fun and adds both flavor and strategic variety to one's character. I can see lots of replayability potential already.

Of course, there are always going to be areas that need improvement, but of course, the wonderful thing about Bethesda is that they Open their games for talented modders to fix and customize the game however we want. So, I'm confident that as more and more mods surface, it's weak spots will be addressed.

I personally speaking love fallout 3 almost as much as oblivion and think that if it gains the momentum that oblivion has now with all the mobs it will only get better. My ONLY issue with fallout is the end. I will not spoil it for anyone but it is not like oblivion in that respect at all.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...n/420-Fallout-3

Yahtzee seems to like this Game. There is very little Rant in this Review, which is, by his standards, the highest Praise possible =)