While I agree that FO3 is stunningly beautiful. It’s weird that you and I think that way - FO3 is a nuclear wasteland. Oblivion is Middle-Earth. (The nice new-zealandy bits)
I like FO3’s scenery but I also like Oblivion’s.
But… oh living OG the characters in Oblivion are hideous!
I would vote ‘neither’
Yeah, it’s a nuclear wasteland, but its such a beautifully rendered, massive, interesting one.
If I want to play an Elder Scrolls game, I’ll play Morrowind. Oblivion was good when it was new, but it hasn’t aged anywhere nearly as well as Morrowind has. Fallout 3 wins by default.
I do have high hopes for the next Elder Scrolls game, though. Fallout 3 is a good indicator of how far Bethesda has come since Oblivion.
Of the two, Fallout 3.
But if Morrowind was in there, I’d pick it nine times.
Voted for Fallout 3, but I don’t think it should be winning in a blowout. Oblivion’s is a bigger world, and I’m pretty sure I spent a lot more time on it.
Fallout 3 made me conclude that Oblivion, in retrospect, wasn’t that good of a game. Very pretty and interesting world to walk around, but the gameplay is a boring grind most of the time (in repetitive dungeons and demon realms). In fact, I’d say gameplay in general isn’t Bethesda’s strong suit. Combat in Oblivion involves running around in a circle with your enemy blocking and hacking. Combat in Fallout 3, while somewhat tactical with VATS, usually involves a group of enemies converging on you and advancing pretty much right next to you until they’re close enough to reliably hit you. There’s no reason why the combat couldn’t have been more robust and realistic (cover system, better enemy AI, quick weapon switching, less decapitations). The Operation: Anchorage DLC would have been the perfect opportunity for Bethesda to overhaul the combat, but I guess they were more interested in continuing to crank out new add-ons that they could sell.
That said, exploring the game world in Fallout 3 is an absolute joy and the missions and storylines are more interesting than Oblivion’s.
Sneak up on someone and use pickpocket, only instead of taking things, leave a grenade.
[crap, somehow missed Mekhazzio’s post when I typed that, oh well]
And I don’t agree with the too early level cap, unless you’re one of those that wants to max out everything (and if you are there’s nothing wrong with that). You get insanely tough long before you hit the cap. I mean, I never even hit the cap (and I didn’t have the expansion that raised the cap) and all I had to worry about when entering battle was getting my gear damaged, not being killed.
One thing that I think is worse in Fallout 3 is that you’re down to hat + glasses + other + weapon when it comes to customising your equipment, where Oblivion had, IIRC, gloves + boots + trousers + top + helm + weapon + shield.
I must be missing something. My FO3 level cap is 20…
As for the OP, I’d go with FO3 being more enjoyable for me. I have both for the X360 and I like the effects better in FO3 (and I don’t like post-apocalyptic genre games, books or movies normally).
I disliked Oblivion because I just didn’t care about the quest, the world, or any of the NPCs. In Fallout 3 I cared about all three of those things. So I’m going to go with FO3.