Now i wasnt sure if i should bother with making a post as im sure these opinions and ideas have been talked about before.  I want to point out that i don't own any of the Fallout games, in fact this is more of a "should i go out and buy" question for myself that i want a few answers for :)

Even now looking at the 'front page'  of topics about  Fallout 3, there seems to be too many (in my opinion) which are talking about bugs and glitches. The perdantics out there will think  "mino... theres only 3 or 4 posts, what are you on about"  but in this day n' age where fanboys reign terror on the interwubs and people demand quality... why / HOW can Bethesda release content that i can't stop hearing people rant about how buggy it is.

The drawn out point im trying to make is:  Is it really worth it? A popular answer seems to be 'yes'... but the reason why seems to be because of the vast exploration that the game allows you to do. DO what you want to do as such. I can see why that is appealing, 'sandbox' games are pretty sweet.... when they work. Is that enough however?  Is it the reason that this game is a sucess because people keep expecting the next expansion to bring a more refined version with fixed content? or because of the large fanbase its built up from the previous quality?

Thanks for your time folks.

OK, I'll keep it simple. Fallout 3 is the first Bethesda game I have liked (I haven't played the previous Fallouts), and I like that game a whole fucking lot. Fallout 3 is probably my favourite game ever, if not then at the very least in the top 5. Sure it's crashed a few times, and it's occasionally buggy, but the story, exploration and side quests are all great, and I can easily look over its faults as I really believe Fallout 3 to be a masterpiece. Never before have I felt as immersed in a virtual world than in post-apocalyptic Washington DC, and I found myself loving every minute of it. Is it really worth it? Fuck yes.

well thats a pretty good answer to be fair! if u can over look the issues because of the immersion level then brilliant :)!!

the great aspects of the game overshadow the games faults!

"

I'm not as gaga for the game as the other guy, but I think it's a solid title.  If it was a school assignment, i'd grade it as a B+.  Fallout 3 has bugs but the game isn't broken by any means.  If you turn on auto-save you'll never lose too much progress because the game will save everytime you enter/exit a building and everytime that you fast travel.

To sum it up,  I want to stress this again:  THE GAME IS NOT BROKEN!!!  If you've gotten that impression it's because the internet is mainly used to give crazy over the top praise or crazy over the top condemnation and very few people can reach a middleground when they make a thread.

"

It's a hard one to answer as I think it's completely worth it as my 75ish hour game clock testifies, but I can easily see why people do dislike it. Indeed, I spent the first 6 hours just mincing about in areas I shouldn't have been in, way out of my depth, hated it and went and completed Dead Space instead. I came back a week later to give it one more chance from the start and fell in love with it. 

As already stated there are clearly points where you can see the limitations of the game, it looks a bit ugly, environments can be repetitive, there are a few AI quirks, and some bugs (infrequent imo, I've had one instance of having to reload a save in all that time). But then GTA III had all of the above too and it never stopped it being a classic. The immersion can conquer all.

Also, if it's worth anything, I hated Oblivion, so don't be tempted to base an opinion on that.

Yeah, it's ok. If you like RPGs and your type of game has to have guns, go with Fallout 3. If you want to be more engrossed in the world go with Oblivion. Whenever you're out in the wastes the only people you see are traders and raiders and when you're in town there still isn't that much to do. There's a lot less quests in Fallout 3 than oblivion and the VATS combat system is slow and repetitive, but entirely necessary because the guns are so innaccurate. I'm sure anyone who hasn't experienced a rich deep RPG world and mostly play FPSs will think Fallout 3 is good. But as for me, having played better RPGs, I can say it's average.

I am a big fan of Fallout 3; it is the first Bethesda game I have really loved. Sorry, but I never got into Oblivion. Fallout 3 has a rich world with a ton of stuff to do and see and it looks pretty impressive overall. Yes, there are glitches and bugs but in the long run they are easily overlooked because of the wealth of things to do. It may crash one to three times (it has only crashed once for me actually), but when I logged in over 55 hours into this one game, that is actually a feat in itself.

Fallout 3 is an okay game with okay character design, great music, and a big repetitive world. The best part about the game are the quests and side quests, and having your dad be voiced by Liam Neeson.

Compared to the older games, I dunno, it was a big let down. The shooting is crap, the AI is crap, animation is poor, but hey, that's Bethesda.

I wouldn't even consider this a proper RPG.

I ( and this whole post is of my opinion ) was expecting nothing less than Oblivion with guns and slow mo. If you like the post apocalyptic setting, or you're looking for a big sandbox game, than hey, go for it.

I've been playing it for like 8 months (since it came out) and I haven't even finished all of the available DLC yet.  I think it's a game that you definitely get your moneys worth if you enjoy it.  It's never completely frozen or crashed, just a few hiccups here and there.  But nothing ever made me want to stop playing it or made it any less enjoyable/rewarding.  Always wait a few days on DLC releases for fixes to come out.

I actually went back and picked up Oblivion because of it.

What I found surprised me the most with Fallout 3 was that playing the evil character felt right. The combination of the depressing story and setting and the somewhat nihilistic atmosphere truly makes it so that doing evil stuff feels, like I previously said, right. I have no idea whether or not that will help you in considering giving the game a try, but it's worth a shot.

" @TheMustacheHero said:

" Yeah, it's ok. If you like RPGs and your type of game has to have guns, go with Fallout 3. If you want to be more engrossed in the world go with Oblivion. Whenever you're out in the wastes the only people you see are traders and raiders and when you're in town there still isn't that much to do. There's a lot less quests in Fallout 3 than oblivion and the VATS combat system is slow and repetitive, but entirely necessary because the guns are so innaccurate. I'm sure anyone who hasn't experienced a rich deep RPG world and mostly play FPSs will think Fallout 3 is good. But as for me, having played better RPGs, I can say it's average. "

I entirely disagree. I loved Fallout 3 despite my customary hate for first person shooters and absolutely hated Oblivion. I dont know about the quest numbers, but there were more than enough to satisfy me, and I only played the ones that i came across naturally. Also, I found that the game is most fun if you combine using the VATS with manual shooting. For example, in a sneak attack or do-or-die situation I would use the VATS but otherwise I mostly just fought manually. As far as immersion goes, well, I actually felt like a scavenger going through every box trying to find useful tools and ammo while simultaneously keeping my load low enough for me to run around with, so i'd say it's pretty immersive. The only better RPGs that i've played were Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Tales of Symphonia, and Final Fantasy VI. That means that Fallout 3 is better than Mass Effect, and that's saying something.  "

I've never played a Fallout game before and I didn't like Oblivion, but I liked Fallout 3.

" @TheMustacheHero: Are you counting only the main quests for Fallout?

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_quests "