I just have to get this off my chest and say it here, I'm giving up on Fallout 3. I've been trying to complete blood ties for about a week, and I just can't do it. Ammo is so scarce, and health is even more rare. I got to the point where If I was wandering the wasteland and saw a raider, I would have to re-load my last save. I just can't stop dying. You put clips upon clips and mags upon mags of bullets into an enemy before they die. After that, you're out of ammo and low on health, and the next blade of grass you see kills you. I just can't take it anymore. Dying and dying and dying. Such a great world this game had, such a shame it was ruined by awful, awful combat. 
 
Oh, and the "You're hurt, sleep, use a stimp-pack, or see a doctor." Alright, where's the fuckin' doctor, stimp-pack, and bed that isn't owned!? How come I can kill somebody, but I still can't sleep in their bed to get healed!? It's the little things like that that also pissed me off bad about this game. I just can't take it anymore. I quit. 
 
 
You can like this game, but I'm just saying it's the worst game I've ever bought. I've never let a game go to waste like this before, but Fallout 3 is just horrible.  
 
But, that's just my opinion.

huh? don't you survive longer / become more powerful if you level up? 

I guess the game can be kind of daunting to a new player. It's not for everybody, sure. But some of these problems are easily overcome by just exploring the towns and getting a feel for the games quirks which I admit may take a little while. I hated the game at first but now it's one of my favorite games of all time.

codes

I was kinda in the same boat early on.  Try lowering the difficulty a bit in the menus.  Helped me enjoy and experience the game the first time I played it.  And hey if not, It's no big deal, plenty of other awesome games to play. 

Starting a new game might help. When I started my first run it was just awful since I kept dying and running out of ammo. So I went for a second game and concentrated on perks that really mattered to me (Scrounger perk with lots of points into small guns) and then suddenly the game becomes really easy. Also, always aim for the head.

Wait someone's complaining that Fallout 3 is hard? Half the mod community slaved away for months just to make the PC version more difficult.

There's mods for the bed thing you know and if your playing a bethesda game on a console your a dumbass

Lower the difficulty?

Learn to conserve ammo?
 
Oh, and I believe this statement is necessary.
 
ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME!

" Lower the difficulty? "

What? the hardest part of that game is trying to decide what to throw away because of all the guns, ammo and health everywhere. 
Don't know if i got lucky but i was practically throwing away guns and Stimpacks because i either never used them or they just wasted space, and also there is an unowned bed in that Fire Ants infested town along with a ton of other unowned beds that i have seen. 
 
 
You might need to focus some of your spending into the Small Guns because i focused on that a bit and well pretty much every shot was a one hit kill or it never took more then 3
 
Also talk to the girl in the Craterside Supply place in Megaton and do her quests , the locations she tells you to go to have a lot of good Equipment. 

run close to enemy, open VATS, unload clip in enemy's head.

Bed that isn't pre-owned - Repair Skill 35+, Megaton (First actual inhabited town you come across). Disarm bomb, get house, save money, buy first aid station, never worry about health/radiation again.
 
Save Rad-Away, drink from fountains/sinks/fire hydrants, puddles or bodies of water (if you're desperate enough) or eat food for health, use Rad-Away if radiation becomes a problem.
 
Try Blood Ties later in the game. Maybe restart if you're in too deep of trouble.
 
I love the game, and found it kinda easy.

" There's mods for the bed thing you know and if your playing a bethesda game on a console you a dumbass "

The only thing i can think of would be to lower the difficulty
also
you are doing it wrong.

That game is offends my eye's that how much i don't like it, i really tried too; i like Bethesda and all but i just wasn't feeling Fallout. 

Psst, GO TO THE METRO STATION!, its just over the river........ when you find the ghouls, go in their radiation filled closet and climb down the manhole. Blood Ties quest solved....
 
Just don't do the THOSE! quest, that one was brutal, i've never had more hate for fire breathing ants, and believe me, 9mm bullets are not adequate for fending off hordes of mutant arthopods.

" Such a great world this game had, such a shame it was ruined by awful, awful combat. "

Thanks for the people that helped. I will probably re-start this game sometime in m life, but not soon...not...soon.

SORRY BUT the game is fuckin ez, even on hard...

One of my Fallout 3 characters has over 2000 rounds of ammunition for each of my guns and thousands of bottle caps, as well as over 200 Stimpacks. I should add that's on the 360 version, so no cheat codes were involved. Just.... get better I guess. You need caps most of all to buy the ammo and health. Do easy quests like the Survival Guide instead of wandering around when you know you don't have ammo or health.

In the beginning of the game it's tough to stay alive. Try to check out the quests given to you be a Moria Brown over at Megaton. I started out by doing all those before getting into the other quests since I repeatedly died myself in the beginning. After having done her quest your character has leveled up enough to take on the other quests. I'm not saying Moria Brown's quest are easy, but they are certainly easier than most of the other quests.

seriously? You are complaining because you were killed by a raider?   
 
    And also THOSE! quest is easy if you shoot at the (i think) the ant's antennas, causing them to go bezerk over over ants

 Just don't do the THOSE! quest, that one was brutal, i've never had more hate for fire breathing ants, and believe me, 9mm bullets are not adequate for fending off hordes of mutant arthopods.  

Mhm, best advice is lower difficulty and VATs-aim for the head. Honestly EVER fight I was in I used VATs. Maybe thats the problem? You aren't using it often enough? But the game is challenging early on. People here have given you some good advice already. You can save megaton and live there, or if you want, blow it up, get a bigger payout and live in a nicer place. In the tower (Tenpenny? I think it was called) there is a guard chief that sells weapons and ammo a plenty.

It's good to take a break when you're frustrated to clear your head.  Just remember to come back to the game some time later, and be sure to consider some of the advice given in this thread (especially lowering the difficulty setting while you're still getting your bearings).  You'll probably end up enjoying the game if you can get over the initial hump and find your footing.

Reading this post is actually making me reconsider my thoughts about Fallout 3. I always thought the hallmark of a real rpg was the fact that if you played it poorly you could completely screw up and make forward progress virtually impossible. I didn't think this was the case with Fallout 3, but maybe I'm just super badass? Anyway, based on your original post you seem totally out on Fallout 3, but if you're at all interested in giving it another go I do have some advice.
 
First, change the way you're going about combat. There are enough options in Fallout 3 that  combat should never reach the point where it is any worse than bland. I found that if you're planning on actually shooting (i.e. not using vats since you should definitelybe shooting) either focus on close range or long range with some form of shotgun or sniper rifle respectively. If that still isn't doing it for you, just get close enough that vats to the head is 95% and you shouldn't have any problems. Vats becomes especially unbalanced with things like grenades since enemies are frozen still as the grenade pauses before it explodes.
 
When it comes to leveling up, you should be fine as long as you're building your character to suit the way you're playing Just make sure you focus on what you need here and now rather than what you need later. Fallout 3 gives you a ridiculous amount of points so there's no need to plan out a long arc of character development.  The most obvious example of this is energy weapons vs. small guns. There's no point in dumping points into energy weapons at the start when you won't have access to them until much later, and shooting guys is so important that it's worthwhile to dump points into small guns at the start even if you'll never use them again after you get your first energy weapon.
 
I actually have a lot of problems with Fallout 3 myself, so don't think I'm telling you that you should push onward even if you're not enjoying it. However, if you are enjoying Fallout 3 outside of the combat I'd say give it another go and treat it like an rpg rather than an fps.

" One of my Fallout 3 characters has over 2000 rounds of ammunition for each of my guns and thousands of bottle caps, as well as over 200 Stimpacks. I should add that's on the 360 version, so no cheat codes were involved. Just.... get better I guess. You need caps most of all to buy the ammo and health. Do easy quests like the Survival Guide instead of wandering around when you know you don't have ammo or health. "

" Thanks for the people that helped. I will probably re-start this game sometime in m life, but not soon...not...soon. "

Weird I thought it was pretty easy. What difficulty are you playing on? And are you using VATS?

My problem with Fallout 3 was that with commando and a good plasma rifle or lincoln's repeater, the game just turned into a VATS click on his head fest. Absolutely no skill involved. So yeah, opposite of hard.

" Wait someone's complaining that Fallout 3 is hard? Half the mod community slaved away for months just to make the PC version more difficult. "

If you're playing on the PC, press the tilde key, click on the enemy, and type kill.
 
Surprisingly, you gain EXP and can pick up the loot.

" @natetodamax said:

" One of my Fallout 3 characters has over 2000 rounds of ammunition for each of my guns and thousands of bottle caps, as well as over 200 Stimpacks. I should add that's on the 360 version, so no cheat codes were involved. Just.... get better I guess. You need caps most of all to buy the ammo and health. Do easy quests like the Survival Guide instead of wandering around when you know you don't have ammo or health. "

same. 10000 bottle caps, 400 stimpaks, on average difficulty. 
@AlwaysAngry said:

" Thanks for the people that helped. I will probably re-start this game sometime in m life, but not soon...not...soon. "

 use VATS more often- you are invincible while doing so"

You should lower the difficulty if your having trouble with it.
 
I walked through that game taking off peoples heads in VATS, pretty easy really :/

" @DystopiaX said:

" @natetodamax said:

" One of my Fallout 3 characters has over 2000 rounds of ammunition for each of my guns and thousands of bottle caps, as well as over 200 Stimpacks. I should add that's on the 360 version, so no cheat codes were involved. Just.... get better I guess. You need caps most of all to buy the ammo and health. Do easy quests like the Survival Guide instead of wandering around when you know you don't have ammo or health. "

same. 10000 bottle caps, 400 stimpaks, on average difficulty. 
@AlwaysAngry said:

" Thanks for the people that helped. I will probably re-start this game sometime in m life, but not soon...not...soon. "

 use VATS more often- you are invincible while doing so"

NOPE! This is what pissed me off too! I've died so many times in VATS. But thanks anyway. "

I think you should just start over, lower the difficulty a bit, and go to the DC ruins hospital for 20 or 30 stimpacks.
 
And also if you just don't like the combat then you should probably just not play it.

" But, that's just my opinion. "

Sounds like someone is trying to play this like a shooter. 
 
Stop trying to improve all your stats. Focus on one aspect, then use that to kill stuff. If you have to put "rounds after rounds into enemies and they just won't die", you're doing something wrong.

" @AlwaysAngry said:

" But, that's just my opinion. "

personally, i never once ran out of ammo and i think i only had to reload from death once... maybe twice aim for the head maybe? if you have to shoot more than a mag into each enemy then you did something horribly wrong at some point "

AlwaysAngry, whenever you speak of this game you make it sound like it imposes design choices on you ("you have to get close to have a chance of hittim them in the head.")
All of these things are influenced by YOUR choices. If you want a character that is awesome with ranged weapons and can carry a lot of ammo, you should have MADE and DEVELOPED one. What are your characters strengths? Use them in combat. If your character doesn't have strengths, you've been playing it wrong.  Trying to build a "balanced" character is almost always a bad choice because you end up being good at nothing. Skill points and traits are important.
 
Turn down the difficulty, loot and level, then decide what you want to be.
 
Edit: Or there is simply a difficulty or balancing bug / error in your game. Fallout 3 simply is NOT a difficult game by any means.

VATS is your friend. Yeah, but the slow pacing in that game and just the overwhelming size of how much you can do just stopped me from continuing in that game.

I had problems in the very beginning, but after I really looted a dungeon or two, I had enough caps to stock up on ammo and weapons and never really was "challenged" again up until I raised the difficulty. So I can't really relate. I had a thoroughly amazing time finishing this and the Broken Steel add-on. I'm thinking about trying another DLC chapter soon, any recommendations? :P

" @NickL said:

" @AlwaysAngry said:

" But, that's just my opinion. "

personally, i never once ran out of ammo and i think i only had to reload from death once... maybe twice aim for the head maybe? if you have to shoot more than a mag into each enemy then you did something horribly wrong at some point "

You have to get sooooooo close before you even have a chance of hitting them in the head. "

I'm really baffled that you could be so stuck. The game is not that hard, and plus you can always lower the difficulty at any time. I'd give you advice, but it seems you've already past the point of no return on this game, so it'd probably just be a waste of my time. Really, not to be a jerk, but I think the problem is that you just don't really know what you're doing or how to play the game effectively. Being a scavenger is a big part of surviving in the Wastelands.