Hi there, hope you all had a nice christmas.

I've been wanting to play through Fallout 3 for many years now and now I find myself on the brink of finally doing it once more. I would be happy about some advice, however: Would you recommend a Vanilla playthrough for first experiencing the game or should I go in with mods blazing? I found a pretty detailed modding guide online (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL77ECC4B6194E1685) that I would go with, because without a guide I'm basically lost when it comes to modding. From what I've seen so far, the Wanderer's Edition mod could lead to some crazy random encounters in the Wasteland (http://youtu.be/a7b0mjp1wRA) which looks absolutely incredible.

But then again: Modding takes time, which I don't really have, so I would only want to do it if it massively improves the experience and doesn't distract too much from what the game originally was like.

So: Is modding essential for the first playthrough of Fallout 3 in your opinion or is it completely fine the way it is (GotY edition with all DLC) and should I save the mods for a second playthrough, which is likely to never really happen because afterwards I will want to finally play through New Vegas and so... much... more? Thanks for your replies in advance and have a nice day.

Don't install any mods that will alter gameplay, because that would be a crazy thing to do on your first playthrough.

I played Fallout 3 the first time this year, I'm fairly certain that I didn't use any mods - most of what you need can be achieved with some simple alterations to some *.ini files and using console commands.

Do what you will. I played through the game with some quality of life mods to straighten out the parts I didn't care for. But I wouldn't recommend anything ridiculous or gamechanging until after you beat it.

I'd say vanilla, though at this point some graphical mods probably wouldn't hurt

Some graphical mods and maybe some content mods that add guns/equipment. Definitely don't go for game changing mods straight up, though.

The vanilla game is pretty great by itself, so if you don't care for the time it takes to look for and install mods you should just jump in. That said, there are some pretty cool mods out there for second playthroughs.

Fellout is practically required.

Mods make everything better.

I always like experiencing games as the creators made them myself.

I recommend just using the graphics mods, ironsights and Weapon Mod Kits.

Basically makes it New Vegas but without the good writing...

Just play New Vegas.

As somebody who mods the hell out of Fallout 3 and NV (I'm talking somewhere between 30-50 mods per) it is probably best to do it vanilla first, or with just a light sprinkling of mods you think will be good.
It is a buggy game, with some mods even more so, I would suggest avoiding the head ache of making them all work/experiencing crashes until you've gone through it once.
But if you keep your first go under like... 10 mods it probably wont be the worst thing.

I only ever played it on ps3, and it was a big highlight of that generation for me. I say vanilla.

The mods for fallout 3 are not as crazy and game altering as those for the elder scrolls, so i say go for it. The vanilla game is also complete enough so there arent a lot of must have mods. I would say the "must have" mods are better faces, better lighting (for darker nights), and streetlights.

I would never play these games vanilla, it's so much worse than with a handful of essential mods installed. Look at this guy's tutorials, the amount of time modding is worth it in the long run as you will spend a lot of time with the game! I would recommend at least basic UI, lighting, texture and bug fix mods as they make the experience objectively better.

People say new Vegas has better writing because it has more of it. FO3 is absolutely worth playing first, it introduces you to the world of fallout way more thoroughly, the vaults are actually key to the plot unlike in NV where they're just a sideshow, DC was the pinnacle of America and now it's a burning hole in the ground which is key to the atmosphere of the games and you're fighting the enclave and super mutants who have always been the enemy in all the fallout games. After 3 though, you should absolutely play NV, it's a ton of fun, and there is just way more stuff to satisfy your Fallout... urges. (Ewwwww)

I love new vegas, but it really shouldn't be viewed as a core fallout game, it's like a sidestory.

As to the question, vanilla is perfectly playable, but if you want better graphics, get mods for that. There is also a fan-made patch, which I would highly recommend, i'm replayinjg through with that and things have been a bit less janky it seems. The base game is very stable on PC but it doesn't hurt to be sure.

New Vegas is much closer in every way to the original Fallout games. Also a lot of the content comes from the original Fallout 3, Van Buren.

It think it has lots of call backs to the first 2 games, geckos, the NCR, the Khans and whatnot, but you're not even descended from a vault dweller, you just wake up on the side of the road with a desire for revenge, it's more mad-max than Fallout. The stuff that makes Fallout what it is, is on the edges. Some dude building a rogue state out of his casino isn't a very big deal in the context of fallout. I mean, you could go through the whole game without really even knowing what FEV is, that's absurd.

Before getting the Steam version last summer, I played about 150 hours on the 360 and thought it was pretty awesome. I recommend going vanilla at first, or at the very least only install mods that improve the lighting, textures, character models and so on.

I never play these games modded to hell, I just use bugfixes and occasionally stuff that makes the lighting better (especially for Skyrim where nights didn't look right at all). Nothing gameplay altering for me.

if you want to mod fallout 3 check out Gopher youtube channel he goes through mods ranging from graphical to game changing and more importantly how to install them getting into the right load order which gets a bit tricky if you haven't done it before but if you follow what he does then its pretty simple, I'm currently installing mods to play through fallout 3 again and installing a lot of mods

Play the game vanilla; see if there's anything that turns you off from the game be it graphics, glitches, stuttering, balance, and mechanics; and find mods to amend such issues.

I'd grab a simple texture mod or something to clean things up but stay away from any content type stuff.

@mikemcn: I find the story in Fallout 3 to be more like the depressing vibes in Mad Max compared to the humorous referential depravity of Fallout NV (stemming from Fallout 2). I understood Austin's opinion on post apocalypse storytelling to be that the rebuilding of society through factions is a more interesting scenario than the short-sighted dread of Fallout 3. Choosing which faction should progress based on their values and actions was a key part of the Fallout role-playing universe but I guess that is history now.

All that said, I think vanilla Fallout 3 is a decent game although I remember spending most of my time picking up tin cans in the metro. I'm replaying Fallout 3 with the wanderer's edition mod and it improves the gameplay IMO from a traditional focus of hoarding loot and managing encumbrance to survival mechanics where most of the loot and weapons serve a purpose. You can even disable most of the gameplay tweaks from ingame if you don't like them.

I highly recommend getting the unofficial patch and a UI mod for bartering. Anything else and you would probably require Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM) and Fallout Script Extender (FOSE).