I've never played 3. right now it's on steam for 2.99. If i bought it, it would be for the sole purpose of soaking up lore on Vault-tec, various factions, and recurring characters and likely deleting it forever. It's definitely worth 3 bucks to me, but 4 has already stolen more of my life than I care to admit. So I guess what I'm asking is this: Does it eat as much of your life as one would expect, and is it fun enough that I won't care?
I actually started a FO3 playthrough not too long ago.
(I wonder if this is an easter egg) I've been having fun roaming aroung. Note: the frag grenade HUD in the pic is from a mod.
After putting in quite a few hours I am able to make statements without looking through rose colored glasses. As a RPG, FO3 is superior to 4. As a FPS, 4 is superior. There are quite a few things that are much more refined in 4.
Combat is jankey. Most non scoped ranged weapons can't hit the broad side of a barn. Use VATS as much as possible, melee or scoped weapons.
There is no grenade hotkey. After playing FO3 for tons of hours since release, I recently learned it has item hotkeys like FO4.It is really unintuitive. Hold down 1-8 until a HUD element pops up then select the item you want to hotkey. Then use 1-8 to select hot keyed items.
Inventory management in FO3 can be maddening. Once you get used the the improvements made in FO4, it can be painful to go back.
Many say the FO3 MQ is trash. I feel it is just enough to glue together an open world. There are a lot of side quests to find when exploring.
Exploration in FO3 is much more rewarding. There are many easter eggs hidden all over. The tone is darker and the world is much more bleak like you'd expect it to be after total annihilation. Trying to navigate downtown DC requires some serious puzzle solving skills.
I would spend the extra couple of bucks for the DLC. They are pretty good. There is a lot of lore in Operation Anchorage.
I have the original retail DVD. That was a super PITA to get working on Win 10. In my journey to get up and running, I remember reading something about the GOG version being more compatible with Win 10 but the Steam version works as well. I still don't know what I did to get FO3 to be fairly stable and not CTD every time I entered a load door or teleported...
I can say you will need a few mods:
!Updated Dec. 2021! Centralized list of tweaks to get Fallout 3 to run on Windows 10 smoothly, without crashes.
www.nexusmods.com
A good information resource for FO3.
A collection of utilities related to both creating and using mods.
www.nexusmods.com
Because Vortex doesn't do a good job sorting the load order.(IIRC, MO2 works fine)
Say goodbye to screwing around with ArchiveInvalidation.txt!
www.nexusmods.com
Entirely remade patch that fixes bugs and fixes/restores cut content.
www.nexusmods.com
This patch requires a lot of other mods. Read the installation instructions thoroughly!
A lighter, more compatible version of the 64hz stutter bug fix from FOSR. Fully Windows 10 compatible, including Fast Exit. No more fiddling with inis on windows 10!
www.nexusmods.com
Increase performance by changing the initial heap size allocated by the game (similar to DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB in NVSE), from 200MB to 400MB.
www.nexusmods.com
These 2 help with stability.
This program allows you to do the following to Games for Windows LIVE in Fallout 3: -Stop Games for Windows LIVE from running in Fallout 3 and prevent its dll files from loading which reduces the tim
www.nexusmods.com
The latest Steam and GOG versions do not need this.
Downgrades the game for FOSE support and more. Includes 4GB patch, mod limit fix and GFWL removal. GOG, Steam and Epic Games compatible.
www.nexusmods.com
I do not have a version that supports this so I do not know how well it works.
Lucky Harith, Crazy Wolfgang, Crow and Doc Hoff just won\'t die, useful for those players on Hard or Very Hard difficulty settings, even those on Normal mode, Deathclaws could slay them quickly while
www.nexusmods.com
Because Beth in their infinite wisdom decided a random radroach could kill off provisioners....
A port of everyone\'s favorite Pip-Light mod! Changes the Pip-Boy light: - Increases magnitude (distance) from 15 to 45 to illuminate a greater area. - Decreases fade (brightness) from 1.2 to 0.5
www.nexusmods.com
The vanilla pipboy light is not very bright.
Adds centered iron sight animations to most vanilla guns
www.nexusmods.com