Fallout 3 Versus Oblivion

So we are several weeks into the holiday season of video game releases, and no doubt many of you are already piled too high with games to play. Myself, I just finished Saint’s Row 2 over the weekend and have just jumped into Fable II as of yesterday. One game that I’m putting on hold so I can savor it in its entirety is Fallout 3, which has been good to me when I’ve had a chance to play it.

I know a lot of people are curious about how it stacks up against say, Oblivion, so CVG has put together a little article that stacks the two against each other head to head in terms of eye candy, combat, questing and the worlds that the games take place in. Looks like Oblivion wins, in their eyes. Definitely worth a look if you’re into either game.

Personally, it seems that Oblivion had way more interesting quests (dark brotherhood, wow), but Fallout 3’s story is very immersive, as is the world of the wasteland. What about you guys, what do you think?

Source- CVG

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11 thoughts on “Fallout 3 Versus Oblivion”

  1. THERE WILL BE SPOLERS!!! WARNED

    Ok this is something I have been waiting to discuss. Fallout 3 had more hype then I remember hearing about Oblivion. That being said I didn’t know squat about Oblivion (Obi for short) when it was coming out. After playing both I will put in my hopefully long 2¢ about these two games.

    Oblivion vs. Fallout 3
    To start both are simply amazing games, seriously they are great games that will get you sucked in and playing for hours. Oblivion ruled a lot of my gaming time in High School and I played it with multiple characters. Tons of fun. But when I look at Fallout 3 (F3 for short in this) I don’t see it living up to Oblivion.

    Gameplay – F3 is basically Obi as a shooter in the post-apocalypse wasteland of DC instead of the land of Cyrodiil. They are the 3rd and first person free roam RPG games. Great fun to be had by gamers of all sorts. Obi was chuck full of things I had never done before; it was my first real Free Roam RPG. F3 brought the same gameplay type that made Obi suck a solid game but brought a little bit more to the table. V.A.T.S. was a great new thing that helped make the idea of a FPSRPG more like an RPG. Fighting with guns is way different than with sword and shield.

    Story & Lore – Well what’s better than a game that has a good story and is full of back-story and Lore? It really added to what made Oblivion a great game. I thank Bethesda and its community for having such a deep desire to play out more than just ‘villain X wanting to kill blank’. Obi had more than just a story about saving Cyrodiil from oblivion, it had books and quests that all tied in parts of games, past and present, that take place in the Elder Scrolls world. It even just mentions plane lore from the universe. Fallout 3 falls very short of that. You have this plot that’s there…you don’t really know whats going on until you start learning about “Project Purity” and your mothers death and fathers mysterious vanishing. The story then spells itself out. It’s a pretty bland story if you ask me for one reason, no real substance. It lacks back-ground. Now this could come from not having played the other Fallout games but I did read up on them so I wasn’t lost. I know about the G.E.C.K. and things like the water purifiers so they didn’t just make this stuff up for F3. But it really was nothing more than just this plot that plays itself out blandly.
    Then the worst part happens, Fallout 3’s main quest storyline ENDS. Why is it bad? Your character you worked on, useless (Hope you saved before you entered Jefferson Memorial) You DIE. Now it makes perfect sense, given that the story WARRANTS complete change after the quest is done. You would have to completely alter the wasteland if you wanted a full change after completing the main quest. The water is going to be cured! I can see why they ended the main quest in that manner but I don’t like the fact that it really…ruins the moment for some gamers. I personally recommend not playing the main quest after you get the ability to wear Power Armor. F3s main quest is no where as fulfilling as Oblivions epic main quest

    Quests, Factions, & Locations – Both games are strong here. I loved how Oblivion had a ton of quests that took you everywhere. This is perfectly mirrored in F3. If you ignore the poop that is the main quest in F3 you have more hours to waste in the wonderful wasteland of DC with tons of quests. There are not really “factions” like the Dark Brotherhood or the Fighters Guild so much in Oblivion but there are plenty of groups other than the Brotherhood of Steel (which I think kinda sucks) Shoot, you can become a slaver! Go out and slave some people! Both games let you choose how you want to play and you can go out and explore to your hearts desire. Both games have amazing random places you can go. Obi did a massively fun job of putting in beautiful scenery and dungeons and caves all about the world that would just have you saying “wow”. Each one has plenty of good solid quests. After I ignored having started the last mission I went off with my character and have found new love of F3 exploring and being a menace in the wasteland. Both games are strong here and that’s what I think adds most to both of them

    Differences, Glitches, & Overall Thoughts – Really Fallout 3 and Oblivion are both good games. The games are really the same animal but each is so different. The gameplay is different in each game, traveling in F3 is much more tedious I feel than in Oblivion. Why? In part the nasty pathetic level cap in F3 makes me mad. But again I guess why they did it is because you can then not make the perfect character easily. If I were able to go to lvl 30 I would be maxed out in all skills (probably before lvl 30) so I felt hey put it in to keep it from becoming ‘too easy’ and people complaining things weren’t hard enough. I find that to be opposite of Oblivion where there was no cap and you really had to work hard on maxing out a character so you could get the fullest from them. In Oblivion, if your level got too high, some creature became a pain to kill. (Nothing like being lvl 45 and spending 5 min hacking a Deadra to death with 100 swords) The leveling is a major difference. Also making a second character is hard. The skill sets are diverse in F3 but its very frustrating to try and make some character types. In Obi I was able to make a guy who doesn’t fight or wear armor, he only summons and can only attack with absorb health attacks from restoration, no combat or destruction magic skills allowed. In F3, that will get you killed. Even my ‘evil’ second character has me yawning, Id rather just do it all with one character. Oblivion had the diversity of being extremely fun with each go through. Starting over wasn’t a pain in the butt.
    Then I would have to look at glitches. F3 seems more unstable than Oblivion ever was. (On PC that is) Mind you I played both on a PC so things are different. But after going through multiple game crashes it made me a little sad F3 was so unstable. Both games had their share of glitches, some fun some annoying. Its kind of fun when some object stretches across the landscape for a brief moment. But object collision seemed poorer in F3 than in Obi and there are times when I think detail work was not put in as much as in Obi.
    Overall I like both games. Both are fun and they will both give you hours of entertainment (just complete the F3 quest and then leave it to rot) But I wills ay after playing them both I will say Oblivion is far better than Fallout 3. Ill redo this review after I have more hours into Fallout 3. Who knows, maybe Ill change my mind. But for now, Oblivion outranks Fallout 3 in this gamers mind.

  2. I completely forgot graphics

    Graphics – Simple, go look at a screenshot of Obi on High on a PC, take in all the beauty of nature. Go look at fallout 3 on ULTRA, I dare you (that is if Ultra doesn’t crash your PC, seriously my 9800 GTX can handle that!) Who wins? Oblivion hands down. On High F3 seems…bland. Its kind of hard to make rubble look good though. Oblivion fills you with nature and bright colors, its inviting to your mind. Fallout 3 does have a nice nuclear explosion though!

  3. First, let me be honest. I played maybe about an hour of Oblivion, just enough to get me through the first gate. I was also killed by a fish, so that kind of turned me off.

    The main thing that draws me to Fallout 3 is the setting. Oblivion seemed like it was trying to hard to be the fantasy game to end all fantasy games. Cyrodill(I think that’s right) was a fine setting, but when you’ve got a long, convoluted opening speech, it doesn’t matter how awesome Patrick Stewart’s voice is, you’re going to lose some of your audience. Instead of paying attention, I lost interest after Mr. Stewart starting talking about Akatosh, or some such nonsense.

    In Fallout 3, because it’s based on an alternate universe D.C., it’s easier to follow directions as the game is more grounded in reality. (sounds strange, but it’s easier to understand when somebody says “go to the Lincoln Memorial” as apposed to some obscure location with too many consonants.)

  4. my god. congrats to the guy above, thats an essay. i have tp throw my vote to oblivion. i am a big fantay fan and oblivion was perfect for me. fallout three is, for me, harder to immerse in.

  5. Marth, That opening speech was the longest probably in the game and it was nowhere near as long as anything in MGS or other games. Don’t judge the whole game based on that, I think you would like it.

  6. [quote comment=”2149″]Marth, That opening speech was the longest probably in the game and it was nowhere near as long as anything in MGS or other games. Don’t judge the whole game based on that, I think you would like it.[/quote]

    Oddly enough, I do sit through the dialogue in most other RPGs, and even Metal Gear Solid. I think I may go back and try Oblivion after I’ve finished plowing my way through the holiday deluge.

    I don’t know, I guess I was expecting something else from Oblivion (don’t ask me what, I still have no idea). You’re right, it’s not fair to judge a game by it’s opening; rather a game should be judged by the sum of its parts.

    I’ve always wanted to do that Dark Brotherhood quest, too. I suppose I’m much more of a sci-fi nerd than a fantasy nerd.

  7. I have to say I like Fallout 3 better. Oblivion is great too, but I’m way more into sci-fi than fantasy. Plus I can actually pay attention to Fallout 3’s main quest. In Oblivion I just run around looking for side quests to do. Which is harder to do in Fallout 3, but maybe it’s just because I’m playing as an evil character so I’ve probably cut myself off from certain side quests for doing things like blowing up Megaton, and other crap like that.

  8. After sitting and playing F3 for about 1-2 hours (and having it crash….3 times, which is why I stopped) I feel the need to add Combat.

    Combat – Honestly this is kind of a no brainer. Fallout 3 has combat which I find to be more entertaining and fun. The V.A.T.S. system makes it very interesting and to be honest, Obi lacked in terms of combat. You just blocked and swung. Now there were defiantly more moves, you had power attacks in each direction, but honestly it just didn’t seem to offer the feel of an FPS. Dodging was always fun, guess that’s too much for F3. Combat seems more fun in F3, though in terms of substance, there is more diversity in combat in Obi. Not to mention you at least have magic. But shooting at enclave and robots becomes more fun in ways. Despite wanting to say that Obi has better combat, for myself, F3 can have combat.

    A little thing that adds into this: mods

    Mods – If you own Obi on PC and haven’t modded it go do it NOW. Drop whatever you are doing and search! Bethesda does one thing right, encourage modding. They release their own world builder with the game for pete sake! Fallout 3 has no DLC or Mods yet, they didn’t have the resources to put out a Construction Set for F3. Oblivion wins this hands down and honestly is the best I have seen from any game. From adding in extra worlds to major quest and faction add-ons like the amazing archeology guild (seriously best mod for oblivion) The modding community helped give Oblivion replay value out the wazzo. Now where this ties in with the above combat post is that there are mods for Obi that make combat really next generation. Im talking cutting off hands, heads exploding, decapitation and everything. The next Elder Scrolls game should take as much as it can from the modders of Obi. Oblivion touches F3 in replay value so far just from mods alone.

  9. Fall out 3 does combine everything good about a FPS and RPG, ad they go together flawlessly. It seems like the epitome of all video games to me. I’m also a sucker for gore, big guns and ESPLOSIONS!!!

  10. Sean, nice thoughts on both games. You raise a good question about the discussion of what’s more important, an actual story, or a rich world with lots of lore.

    I know lore is such a ludicrous word, but it’s something that’s missing from a lot of games these days. It’s the thing that makes ANY good fantasy worthwhile, is great lore, great backstory. Not enough games do this well, and it’s one of the things that I think is the most underrated about Mass Effect, which has an incredible backstory.

    I don’t feel that Fallout is a world that lives without me the way I did about Oblivion, but even still, the story itself moves better. I never finished Oblivion though, so I can’t really offer a full opinion. Great stuff!

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