Well, I hate to offend anyone right off the bat, but F3 isn't what it could've been. After I finished all 'easy' side quests and the main quest, I had no desire to pick it up again. Not even the DLC could get me to comeback to it's boring wasteland and the multitude of guns. That suck. Here are the reasons it didn't click for me.  
1. Wasteland... and then... more brown deteriorated buildings off in the distance. Ooh look a radio tower. Ooh a rock. Boring, dry landscape. The only thing I will give to this game about it's scenery is the whole D.C. area. While D.C. had, at least for me, some annoying travel routes, (I.E. FUCKING SUBWAYS) I always came away from travelling there with some new (interesting) locations. And Rivet City was one of the most original and innovative ideas I have seen for a major city yet, i'm afraid I can't praise the rest of the game's menagerie of beige.  
2. The overwhelming combat/lack of sufficient goods to fight in all these battles. Don't get what i'm saying? Let's say Jericho and I are going to explore the wastes. Deathclaw appears. That falls after some pretty good damage to Jericho, not to mention I had little ammo before the Deathclaw showed up. Next up is a Giant Radscorpion. I have no ammo, melee weapons are not a substitute for a gun. I die. Once I hit a high level, every combat sequence was ridiculous like this. I went around mashing RB so if something came up, I could either A. Run away, or B. Chance it. When option B worked about one out of every 25 encounters, I decided enough is enough.  
3. Using stimpaks. Ok, but using stimpaks to heal specific limbs so I wouldn't walk like I stubbed my toe on a rock? Bethesda, stimpaks were hard enough to come by, why the fuck would you force the player to waste one on a crippled limb. I'm pretty sure it doesn't even heal you if you use it on a broken extremity.  
 
I have many more reasons why I didn't like F3 nearly as much as Oblivion. But to contradict everything I just said, F3 had some good moments. Playthrough 1 was better than 90% of all other releases that year. Also I favor the story in that much more to Oblivion's immersive, but old-feeling folk tale of a story. The entirety of it's post-apocalyptia, mutant, science-y story was for sure, it's strong suit. 
 
I'll post a part two about everything in Oblivion that trumps over Fallout 3 sometime between tomorrow and next weekend. 
 
Comment! I love to argue about what I love. Action-RPG's.

Well, I hate to offend anyone right off the bat, but F3 isn't what it could've been. After I finished all 'easy' side quests and the main quest, I had no desire to pick it up again. Not even the DLC could get me to comeback to it's boring wasteland and the multitude of guns. That suck. Here are the reasons it didn't click for me.  
1. Wasteland... and then... more brown deteriorated buildings off in the distance. Ooh look a radio tower. Ooh a rock. Boring, dry landscape. The only thing I will give to this game about it's scenery is the whole D.C. area. While D.C. had, at least for me, some annoying travel routes, (I.E. FUCKING SUBWAYS) I always came away from travelling there with some new (interesting) locations. And Rivet City was one of the most original and innovative ideas I have seen for a major city yet, i'm afraid I can't praise the rest of the game's menagerie of beige.  
2. The overwhelming combat/lack of sufficient goods to fight in all these battles. Don't get what i'm saying? Let's say Jericho and I are going to explore the wastes. Deathclaw appears. That falls after some pretty good damage to Jericho, not to mention I had little ammo before the Deathclaw showed up. Next up is a Giant Radscorpion. I have no ammo, melee weapons are not a substitute for a gun. I die. Once I hit a high level, every combat sequence was ridiculous like this. I went around mashing RB so if something came up, I could either A. Run away, or B. Chance it. When option B worked about one out of every 25 encounters, I decided enough is enough.  
3. Using stimpaks. Ok, but using stimpaks to heal specific limbs so I wouldn't walk like I stubbed my toe on a rock? Bethesda, stimpaks were hard enough to come by, why the fuck would you force the player to waste one on a crippled limb. I'm pretty sure it doesn't even heal you if you use it on a broken extremity.  
 
I have many more reasons why I didn't like F3 nearly as much as Oblivion. But to contradict everything I just said, F3 had some good moments. Playthrough 1 was better than 90% of all other releases that year. Also I favor the story in that much more to Oblivion's immersive, but old-feeling folk tale of a story. The entirety of it's post-apocalyptia, mutant, science-y story was for sure, it's strong suit. 
 
I'll post a part two about everything in Oblivion that trumps over Fallout 3 sometime between tomorrow and next weekend. 
 
Comment! I love to argue about what I love. Action-RPG's.

I thought the world in oblivion was bland, with the midieval setting, but the story for the guilds and sidequests were hilarious and great. Oblivion had more stuff to do, and more quests, but fallout had a better environment and was more compact. I probably only explored 25% of oblivion, at about 70 hours, and I probably explored 95% of fallout in the same time.

I actually thought there was no man on earth who could think fallout was better then oblivion but an opinions an opinion. Oblivion was definetly superior with its rich enviorment, fun combat and awesome side quests, fallout was super boring for me and the combat was a drag

Well I do agree with you about the cumbersome medieval setting, I much prefer the textures in Oblivion than the little variations of textures in Fallout 3.

" I thought the world in oblivion was bland, with the midieval setting"

They are bother pretty bad games. I dont think i could say one was better then the other.

Why topic title grammatically correct not.

Morrow wind is better than them both.

Oblivion was just a more enjoyable game for me. I spent way more time with it than i did Fallout 3. 

" I thought the world in oblivion was bland, with the midieval setting, but the story for the guilds and sidequests were hilarious and great. Oblivion had more stuff to do, and more quests, but fallout had a better environment and was more compact. I probably only explored 25% of oblivion, at about 70 hours, and I probably explored 95% of fallout in the same time. "

Oblivion gates were SO FUCKING STUPID!

" Oblivion gates were SO FUCKING STUPID! "

Morrowind>Fallout 3>Oblivion.
 
Oblivion's dungeon's that level up with you, items that are quest activated, and simply less interesting world made it suffer significantly. Morrowind has more territorial diversity... hell, it has more diversity just in general. Morrowind also looked weird, whereas Oblivion just looks like a traditional rpg environment with swords and giant rats. Oblivion goes out of its way to make things too easy, while combat was improved greatly, the rest of the game suffered too much from the less interesting game world and environment.
 
Fallout 3 and Oblivion? Yeah, Fallout 3 is fucking grey, I know. It is the brownest of greyest of brownish greys. But it's nevertheless more unique than Oblivion. You can do lot's of really weird crap in Fallout 3 and, more importantly, you can do whatever.
Oblivion suffers too much from its scaling environment. The guards scale to your level, the drops scale to your level, the monsters scale to your level... it's stupid. Often I found myself wondering why me, the level 12 warrior was supposed to save the world when all of these guards were stronger and better than me. 
 
Granted, Morrowind is still the best of the three, but Fallout is certainly more interesting and addictive than Oblivion which just feels bland.

" Morrowind>Fallout 3>Oblivion.  Oblivion's dungeon's that level up with you, items that are quest activated, and simply less interesting world made it suffer significantly. Morrowind has more territorial diversity... hell, it has more diversity just in general. Morrowind also looked weird, whereas Oblivion just looks like a traditional rpg environment with swords and giant rats. Oblivion goes out of its way to make things too easy, while combat was improved greatly, the rest of the game suffered too much from the less interesting game world and environment.  Fallout 3 and Oblivion? Yeah, Fallout 3 is fucking grey, I know. It is the brownest of greyest of brownish greys. But it's nevertheless more unique than Oblivion. You can do lot's of really weird crap in Fallout 3 and, more importantly, you can do whatever. Oblivion suffers too much from its scaling environment. The guards scale to your level, the drops scale to your level, the monsters scale to your level... it's stupid. Often I found myself wondering why me, the level 12 warrior was supposed to save the world when all of these guards were stronger and better than me.   Granted, Morrowind is still the best of the three, but Fallout is certainly more interesting and addictive than Oblivion which just feels bland. "

I don't want to start an argument, or even really a debate, because I can see where you're coming from on all of those points. But...
 
1.)  The fact that it's a wasteland is exactly the point. The world (or, at least, America) has been destroyed. It's a big, brown, deserted wasteland, and I love the art direction in that game. Think for a minute: what color is dirt? Brown. What color is decayed grass? Brown. Decayed food and garbage? Brown. The world is a dirty, gritty place. I think Bethesda does a great job of conveying the tone of the game through their art design, and if there was ever a game that could get away with "the brown effect" in video games, it's Fallout 3. I'm also amazed at what they could with the same engine that powered Oblivion.
 
2.)  I never had a problem with combat. At least, not after I learned the system. Like any game, it took me time to understand what works, and what doesn't. Just as in Morrowind and Oblivion, there are definitely aspects of combat and particular weapon types that work better either overall, or at least for my playstyle. I also never used Jericho, or any companion other than Fawkes or... ummm.. the ghoul character. And in his case, he was decked out in a suit of the best armor in the game. But companions aside, even solo-ing, enemies that everyone else seems so deathly afraid of, like Deathclaws, never bugged me. Even at lower levels, and with lesser weapons. Knowing how much damage output they've got when they get up close, you have to take that into account and never let them get close to you. Snipe them from afar, or bring your highest damage output weapon to the fight. 
 
As to running out of ammo and supplies, I learned my leson early on in the game and stockpiled everything useful that I ever came across. On top of that, you've got to learn to make every shot count. Aim for the head, and use VATS as much as possible to couteract the fact that manually aiming for the head in the Oblivion engine is pretty assy. That's why it helps to play stealthy, so you can sneak up for the opportunity to get as close to a 100% hit chance as you possibly can. Of course, I can understand wanting to play the game in a different way. I just sort of went with what worked and adapted to what would keep me alive.
 
3.) Conversely, I never had a problem with stimpacks. In my current save, I've accumulated almost 200 of them. Being a scavenger combined with stealth kills combined with being very cautious with their use meant I never had to worry. If you do run out of stimpacks, though, you can always go to any rest-able bed and rest away your wounds. You can also pay someone to heal you, but that's generally a waste of money compared to other methods.
 
But when I did have to use stimpacks when I had no other option, it was definitely annoying to have to waste singular ones of repairing specific limbs. Those things degrade with every shot taken, and there are times when it's unavoidable to take a lot of damage. I could imagine that being especially true with a non-stealth character.
 
I'll give you my biggest beef with the game, though. Encumbrance. It got so annoying that on my second playthrough I ended up using a mod that bumps your maximum weight allowance up to 999lbs. I got sick of taking a bunch of shit, reaching my load limit, backing out of the dungeon I was in to dump off supplies at my base, and having to backtrack all the to wherever I had come from. I'm really sick of the idea of encumbrance in games, in general. Realism? Sure. I guess. It sure isn't fun, though, and you'd best be sure to make things weigh what they'd actually weigh in real life, rather than applying a 1lb weight to a coffee mug.

I liked Fallout way more. 
 

• Better weapons.
• Better enviroments.
• Less bugs (on PC)
• Better Dialouge
• More Organized menus
• Leveling system was better

" @ThatFrood said:

" Morrowind>Fallout 3>Oblivion.  Oblivion's dungeon's that level up with you, items that are quest activated, and simply less interesting world made it suffer significantly. Morrowind has more territorial diversity... hell, it has more diversity just in general. Morrowind also looked weird, whereas Oblivion just looks like a traditional rpg environment with swords and giant rats. Oblivion goes out of its way to make things too easy, while combat was improved greatly, the rest of the game suffered too much from the less interesting game world and environment.  Fallout 3 and Oblivion? Yeah, Fallout 3 is fucking grey, I know. It is the brownest of greyest of brownish greys. But it's nevertheless more unique than Oblivion. You can do lot's of really weird crap in Fallout 3 and, more importantly, you can do whatever. Oblivion suffers too much from its scaling environment. The guards scale to your level, the drops scale to your level, the monsters scale to your level... it's stupid. Often I found myself wondering why me, the level 12 warrior was supposed to save the world when all of these guards were stronger and better than me.   Granted, Morrowind is still the best of the three, but Fallout is certainly more interesting and addictive than Oblivion which just feels bland. "

The fact that things didn't adjust to your level was what pulled me away from Morrowind. [And the ridiculous combat and all the FUCKING DARK ELVES] "

The Dark Brotherhood is what makes Oblivion better

Agreed. The world of Fallout 3 is just so bland. There is just so much to do in Oblivion. The world felt so much more alive.

As it's been said a couple of times now, Morrowind is better than them both.
 
Oblivion was a let down after Morrowind. More of a step backwards.

Oblivion's world was just so much more engaging. Killing an innocent without knowledge of the dark-brotherhood and being approached when I went to sleep was seriously one of the most unnerving, and cool experiences I've had in a game.

" Morrow wind is better than them both. "

" @eclipsesis said:

" Morrow wind is better than them both. "

this, i spent to much time exploring the place then actually doing quests in it, never saw all of it either. "

I love Fallout 3.  First game I ever spent 100 hours playing.

I agree I liked Oblivion better too. But picking on the wasteland is a mistake in this arguement because Oblivion was Elvish ruin after cave after Elvish ruin. There wasn't a lot of variety going on there.

 
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH 
AH 
AHAHAHAHAHA

Yay first post :)
Anyway I liked fallout 3 better. 
-Better looking and more diverse environments. 
-More unique things to find and do. 
-Better lore and story 
-The combat was above and beyond better. 
-Awesome loot and wide range of weapons, armor, enemies and allies. 
-Actually challenging.  
Oblivion was a good game but it was too easy and everything looked the same. Also the combat was horrible.  
But I also agree Morrowind was better than both of them. 

I think a lot of this comes down to personal preference. You found the Wasteland to be boring. I found it to be one of the most lively and interesting worlds I've ever experienced in a game. I freaking love the wasteland. Every single inch of it. One thing that really impresses me about the world that is created is just how distinct every area is, with perhaps the exception of the sewers. Any time I revisit an area, I know where it is, and I know where I am and just have a great feel for what's around me. Even if I'm only travelling to that area for the second time. Considering how enormous the map is and the fact that the game lacks such visually distinct places as lava or ice worlds, for instance, I think it really says a lot to how well designed the wasteland is. Plus I think the art direction is just brimming with style, and the attention to detail throughout the game completely astonishes me. Oh, and also, it may be worth noting that brown is my favorite color...
 
On the other hand, in Oblivion, I'd be visiting an area or scavenging a fort or cave, only to figure out 15 minutes into it that I've already been there before and seen it all already. That was one aspect that discouraged me in Oblivion. Sure, it had more color, but truthfully, much of the world was a whole lot of nothing, and nothing ever really stood out to me there or captured much of my interest. Look at the cities, man. So much of the architecture and design is pale and repetitive. Like the main city in the game, for instance, everything looks so similar that I often got the feeling I was in a maze. I felt the world in Oblivion really didn't have all that much to see. If you were travelling on foot, you could always count on a long walk across a bunch of nothing, if you were outside the major cities. Then there was the problem that I was ALWAYS wanted by guards, even though I was always trying to play as a good guy and would constantly get in trouble accidentally. When you're a fugitive on the run, it's best to avoid major towns at all costs, so that certainly just hindered everything. My friends would always tell me to just surrender and then I wouldn't have to worry about it, but the fact that the game is pretty much ruined if you're wanted at an early stage in the game and refuse to go to jail only proves how Oblivion kind of fails at being an RPG. I thought RPGs today were about choices, but apparently not. Also, your guy levels down if he goes to jail. Who the heck wants that to happen? Not cool, man. I think because of all the time I spent exploring the countryside to lay low, I probably saw more of it than most Oblivion players, and man, truthfully, none of it seemed that great to me. Sure, PC players will talk about the mods that make it more amazing, but how the heck can you give credit to Oblivion for user-made mods? If it wasn't in the retail game, it doesn't count towards Oblivion's so-called "brilliance".
 
Okay, so you commented about the lack of supplies/weapons/stimpaks, and truthfully, that shouldn't be the case at all after a little time with the game, and yet clearly you were far if you were encountering deathclaws. Heck, I probably have over 200 stimpaks with me right now and I'm only about 25 hours deep. As for weapons, as soon as you have a place to store them, you should have a ton. I got a whole collection going in a locker in my house, and there's a ridiculous amount of guns and ammo. More than I could possibly ever use. Heck, I kinda wish I could carry more. I have to limit myself to like 10 guns at any given time if I want to have plenty of room to pick up new items. I actually think item management and weight works loads better in Fallout 3. In Oblivion, I always had too much stuff and would just end up dropping things. That hasn't been a problem with me in Fallout 3. I just go home and store or sell things after I start getting too close to the weight limit. Personally I don't rely on VATS all that much in the game. You have a limited amount of that stuff, so I tend to use it in more crucial moments or against enemies that could otherwise really mess me up. I don't know how you ended up so unprepared at your stage in the game, but I imagine it's because you wasted a lot of stuff or just never really scavenged much. Also, you seem to use VATs pretty heavily, which isn't so ideal with long or medium range enemies, and could certainly waste more ammo than if you handled things in real-time like a man. 
 
I think the need to scavenge in Fallout3 really works beautifully in the apocalyptic setting. Like when you first come out of the vault, you go to that little town with all its burnt houses, and you start searching through stuff for anything decent you can find. Soon it becomes a regular thing, and you're always on the look-out for money, valuable items, and weapons. There's also perks you can unlock to help you find caps and ammo more regularly, which is helpful. In my experience, I never found stimpaks to be hard to come by. I think you probably just weren't looking very hard, or just using them whenever you got hurt. I consider them to be pretty valuable, so I'll use them only when taking heavy damage, otherwise I'll eat some food or drink some water to get my health back up. There's always plenty of rad-away to keep the radiation levels down. Still, better yet, I'll look for a bed to sleep in. Instant full health right there. You mention wasting stimpaks on limbs, but to me it always seemed pretty rare to have them crippled in the first place. Plus you could always try to stick it out until you can get to a bed, if possible.
 
Personally, I haven't really had to flee from enemies. Though I have found that warping to dangerous locations can really get you in some trouble. Heh, as crazy as it may sound, much of the time after warping back to Megaton, I start my journey from there and just walk to where I'm going or continue to explore in a new direction. Or I'll fast-travel to the last area I was at, which will be safe at that point because I already killed the enemies there. 
 
Really, all in all, I think Fallout 3 is the better game in every way imaginable. Honestly, I was reluctant to even play the game after being so disappointed by Oblivion, and also initially being uninterested in the post-nuclear-war setting. After about 10 minutes with the game, all that changed, and I was totally sucked in and have loved it ever since. I think the characters and story are far more interesting. To the point where I find myself caring very strongly about certain characters and events that occur in the story. The locations are certainly more original and fun to explore. Plus, like I mentioned earlier, they're much more distinct than the places you'll find in Oblivion. Hacking is a fun little mini-game, and lock-picking is no-longer the nightmare that it was in Oblivion. Combat is unquestionably improved and features a larger variety of weapons. Sure, the first person aiming isn't too solid and can't compete with a true FPS, but that's because this is running on the same engine as Oblivion. VATS does improve it, without a doubt. I think it's also more clear as to what items you should collect. In Oblivion, lots of times I'd be picking up things without knowing if it would be worth it later. With Fallout, there's a few unusual items you should collect to help you make weapons and such, but I think it was easier to determine an item's true worth. Don't get me started on how terrible the speech mini-game was in Oblivion. Not to mention the fact that people had virtually no expression when they'd talk to you. Their mouths would move, but they all looked like strange robots, making them awkward and boring to watch. Fallout 3 certainly improved on that issue. Then the game uses like 3 voice actors total, which is pretty pathetic and annoying. Fallout 3 also makes it more clear when you're hidden or detected, and handles the whole stealth aspect much more nicely. Not only that, but the inclusion of having allies and enemies appear on your compass is a freaking life-saver. I can't tell you how many times in Oblivion I approached guys thinking they were friendly, only to be attacked by all of them. Also, it doesn't help that most people looked alike in the game, making it pretty much impossible to distinguish good guys from bad guys until you were attacked. As mentioned by others, the fact that enemies levelled up with you in Oblivion was pretty retarded. You're supposed to grow more powerful in RPGs, but that kind of doesn't work when they're doing the same thing. 
 
Still, despite all my issues with Oblivion, I am pretty grateful it was made, because without it, we wouldn't have the Fallout 3 that there is today. Seriously, after probably 50+ hours total with Fallout, it's clearly shaping up to be one of my all-time favorite games, and while I haven't beaten it yet, it really just seems to get better and better along the way. Plus the inclusion of lots of solid DLC quests and locations sounds promising. Beats the heck out of horse armor, to say the least.

Oblivion was definitely hurt by it's bland environment, compass showing every single objective, scaling loot and legendary items only found by doing the daedric quests.  It made exploration pointless, and although the world was more visually appealing than Morrowind was..  There was just nothing there.
 
To me the arguement of Oblivion vs Fallout 3 is pointless, because Morrowind is still the infinitely superior game.
(except in regards to the combat)

"1. Wasteland... and then... more brown deteriorated buildings off in the distance. Ooh look a radio tower. Ooh a rock. Boring, dry landscape. The only thing I will give to this game about it's scenery is the whole D.C. area. While D.C. had, at least for me, some annoying travel routes, (I.E. FUCKING SUBWAYS) I always came away from travelling there with some new (interesting) locations. And Rivet City was one of the most original and innovative ideas I have seen for a major city yet, i'm afraid I can't praise the rest of the game's menagerie of beige.

2. The overwhelming combat/lack of sufficient goods to fight in all these battles. Don't get what i'm saying? Let's say Jericho and I are going to explore the wastes. Deathclaw appears. That falls after some pretty good damage to Jericho, not to mention I had little ammo before the Deathclaw showed up. Next up is a Giant Radscorpion. I have no ammo, melee weapons are not a substitute for a gun. I die. Once I hit a high level, every combat sequence was ridiculous like this. I went around mashing RB so if something came up, I could either A. Run away, or B. Chance it. When option B worked about one out of every 25 encounters, I decided enough is enough.  

3. Using stimpaks. Ok, but using stimpaks to heal specific limbs so I wouldn't walk like I stubbed my toe on a rock? Bethesda, stimpaks were hard enough to come by, why the fuck would you force the player to waste one on a crippled limb. I'm pretty sure it doesn't even heal you if you use it on a broken extremity.

I thought exploring in Fallout 3 was a bit more entertaining then in Oblivion. In Oblivion all there was to discover were Ayleid ruins, caves, and dungeons. In Fallout 3, you could discover all kinds of different landmarks and buildings from the DC area.

"Well, I hate to offend anyone right off the bat, but every game ever including Oblivion isn't what it could've been."

" @TheGreatGuero:  That was ONE LONG POST!  But I read through all of it, and might just give fallout another try when i have the time.. "

" @skrutop:  To reply with the, "Fallout is placed ontop of ground zero, of course it looks like that." rebuttal, they still could've impressed me with the terrain. I'm not sure, but wasn't DC bombed also? It still looks fairly interesting. I mean if the outside of DC was just as "nuked the shit out of" as DC itself, why does it not have more buildings out there? In real life i'm fairly certain, Washington has more than a big hotel and rocks outside of it. The school and the robot factory are just about the only 'noteworthy' pre-war buildings outside the District O' Columbia. "

The levelling system was so far superior in Fallout 3 that I don't even consider Oblivion to be on the same level.
 
Maybe it's just my personal tastes but an RPG should never make you question whether you want to level or not.

Oblivion is bland and charmless.  Fallout 3 has a ton of character and is far more fun.

People often seem to report having problems in Fallout 3 with the lack of ammo and items but I never had the problem, I was playing on the hardest difficulty but I think that only effects combat, and infact except for a few battles, randomly, I never had any problems murdering everything that moves or gives me funny looks. Although I would agree, personally, that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a better game since I got attached to the world more than Fallout 3's Wasteland (although the world in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind I find infinitaly more wonderful and varied) and for a short time (which in cRPG terms is about 15 hours) I was so sucked into this world and its mythologies that I used to take off my armour in town and change into "Civilian" clothing as well as walking/riding everywhere rather than fast travelling. Both are fantastic games but for me Oblivion has a bit more personality to it.

I really enjoyed Fallout 3 more. I like the setting better to be honest. Plus Fallout 3 has alien guns.

I liked Fallout 3s setting more than Oblivion. I still spent a lot of time in Oblivion, but I like Fallout 3 more. Plus Fallout 3 has alien guns and a gun that shoots out several nukes at once.

" @uber_schlummie said:

" @skrutop:  To reply with the, "Fallout is placed ontop of ground zero, of course it looks like that." rebuttal, they still could've impressed me with the terrain. I'm not sure, but wasn't DC bombed also? It still looks fairly interesting. I mean if the outside of DC was just as "nuked the shit out of" as DC itself, why does it not have more buildings out there? In real life i'm fairly certain, Washington has more than a big hotel and rocks outside of it. The school and the robot factory are just about the only 'noteworthy' pre-war buildings outside the District O' Columbia. "

Not in the Fallout universe it isn't.  The timeline for Fallout diverged from ours in the early 1900's, so DC didn't become this massive urban sprawl that it is today.  Think DC in the 50s, not 2000s. "