I'm partial to Fallout 3 just because of the time in my life when I played it, I was out of work, and had just recently gotten back into gaming after after a multi-year hiatus. So I was consumed by Todd Howard's take on Fallout for literally hundreds of hours.
Keeping that in mind, I think that the randomness to the world of Fallout 3 is done much better, and lends itself to being able to just explore the wasteland for much much longer than in New Vegas. I can't tell you how many times I would wander the same parts of the world, and crazy shit would pop off, just because of the random encounter system. Once I was on the roof of a mini mart trying to decide where to go next, and down on the street intersection, a group of Enclave soldiers ran across some Brotherhood outcasts as well as the Brotherhood of steel. It was amazing watching the way they dealt with each other, going so far as to loot corpses of killed enemies for better weapons and armor. I think the outcasts won the fight and left in someone else's gear. Then as they were walking off two Yao Guai's walked up (or maybe a couple giant Radscorpion) and killed them both. Then I went down and looted EVERYBODY!! The way that you could walk the same parts of the world and never know what would happen made it really cool.
Later in the main quest when the Enclave start to populate the wastes, the random encounters get really wild, at least potentially.
I also just find the atmosphere to be more oppressive, which gives everything a bleak feel that I really got drawn into,especially with the weird cheery soundtrack. Then after I got sick of the music, listening to the ambient sounds while wandering was fantastic.
Now New Vegas has much better writing. Most of the characters are more believable and the quests don't feel as slapped together for the most part. Also the mechanics of the game, as far as character building were really good. I played on survivor mode for the entire first play through, and it was pretty cool. There was a lot to micromanage but it was satisfying in a weird way. However, I couldn't get into the world, or the setting, it felt too upbeat for lack of a better word.
I think if Bethesda were to bring some of Obsidian's writers on for the next Fallout. You'd have the strong story and hopefully some of the better rpg mechanics of NV, on top of the second to none worlds that Bethesda make. To me that would be a winning combo.
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