As with many people, this was the first Fallout game I ever played. I woke up, hungover, on the couch at my friend's apartment, and he was playing this. I watched for about 4 hours, and then went and picked up a copy for myself, which I then played, non-stop, for about 3 weeks. This opened up an entire genre of games for me that I didn't know too much about. A fantastic introduction to a world that I can't wait to visit, again and again.

Purists will decry the departure from the Fallout 1 and 2 formats, but Bethesda is nothing if not content (until recently). It's huge open world with countless side missions and encounters offer amazing opportunity for entertainment. Often the main storyline is forgotten (for better or worse) because of it.

As a hardcore fan of the first two parts I’ll never be able to not feel bitter about this one, but it’s a decent way to spend a few Hang-over Sundays.

Bethesda takes Fallout in a different direction, one which emphasizes exploration and some very dated gameplay. The world is still very engaging and interesting and makes use of characters, journals, and just about everything else to tell some solid stories. The best stories end up being the ones on the side as the main quest is probably the weakest part of this game. Still very worth experiencing.

Awesome game ,searching nuclear wastelands for stuff to survive and kill things with is fun.

I will die mad about these

Best in class for first-person shooters. Great, dynamic storyline and is worth multiple playthroughs for different outcomes.

"Oblivion with guns?" Well, kind of. The writing doesn't quite get what made the originals stand out, while the map is more than a bit dully repetitive as Bethesda games go. The combat's a mess in real time, but the whole constant slo-mo VATS spam had its cheesy appeal. It has its moments in the places and situations you come across, they're just buried in a long so-so loop of gameplay the later installments improved on considerably with better combat, crafting, character advancement, etc.

my first fallout game. best single player game ever. i loved when i had to use the armour and how it made me feel.

why

Fun gameplay with lots to do, but the writing is terrible.

Amazing, loved exploring the wasteland.

A good game but if you were looking for something gritty like Fallout 1 & 2 like me, you'll leave disappointed.

Some games you just can't into too even if you are trying to figure out why your friends like them. This and Zelda games. So I played this game and immediately was frustrated just to solve how to get out of the first room you are in. I won't even put any more effort into this game.

So bongo, bongo, bongo I don't want to leave the congo, Oh no no no no noooooooooooooo Bingle, bangle, bungle I'm so happy in the jungle I refuse to go. The songs are such an essential part of the experience of Fallout, I can't believe that some gamers turn the radio off. Blasphemy! I think my game save on this is 303 hours. I literally did everything possible, explored every inch of the map, searching everything, all side missions and DLC. You should see my storage locker. I am a hoarder.

another of my all time favs. my fav non-quest, unscripted, etc, journey i ever went on in any game was probably my first time going through the downtown wasteland and seeing a super mutant. i loved being in the vault and coming out and the father story the first time. and knowing what my mom woulda made the password. and my teddy bear < 3. it was a 100 but also too outdated now. i might even have to lower it lol. i spent soooo many hours on it though. like it might be the most for a non-pokemon

As a fan of the first two Fallout games, Fallout 3 was a massive, horrendous disappointment for me when it was first released. Ten years later, with the benefit of age and the wisdom that accompanies it, my appraisal of the game has mellowed considerably. Yes, Fallout 3 is a braindead, content starved game with truly terrible "comedy" writing and sleep-inducing gameplay, but at least it doesn't have paid mods, spyware, or an always-online restriction. 9 points for that.

By itself, a pretty entertaining romp through post-apocalyptica. Mods make this game better, but if you want a greater stand-alone story experience and various improvements, it's best to go with it's sequel developed by Obsidian, Fallout: New Vegas.

Fallout 3 is massive. No question about it. The problem with a world so large to explore is filling it with enough to keep coming back to it. Which it lacks when compared to the previous Bethesda titles. Although the wonderful atmosphere and fully realized post apocalyptic landscape is more than enough to compensate.

Better than 4.Some sequences in this are hard to match even today. Has a lot of shortcomings but ultimately a great experience.

for some reason the tranquillity lane simulation haunts my memories to this day.

Has some decent quests and decisions do feel consequential, but Bethesda raped the lore with this game and the writing was atrocious. The morality is laughably white and black with characters acting like edgelords for no discernible reason. The morality system is overly easy to cheese and manipulate. The RPG mechanics are there and functional, but VATS is so overpowered that it often trivializes whatever stats you build up and makes most combat encounters a breeze.

The game has plenty of problems and short comings but I have a major soft spot for apocalyptic settings and Fallout 3 has one of the most fully realized wastelands in any game

I should love this because I love post-apocalyptic stuff and I love the art design here, but I just can't fall for the Fallout games. Bethesda makes huge areas to explore and they excel at that but they also skimp a little on other aspects; the shooting is not satisfying, and although you don't technically have to use V.A.T.S. the game is still built around it and it's a stupid flow killer. Also, the story isn't great.

Never finished it, because like there was so. much. to. do. but it was a really cool world with cool storytelling, with gameplay that... hasn't aged well.

mindblowing for me when it came out, but it has not aged well. it looks ugly, even by PS3 standards, and a lot of the gameplay feels more like proof of concept than something full fleshed out in its own right.