There has been a lot of debate as to whether which of these two fantastic games is the best. Since NV dropped fans of the franchise have gone back and forth about which game is better. Here in this post we’re going to look at the differences between the two games and leave it up to you guys to decide which you’d vote for.

(1) Story

When we talk about stories, admittedly the FO series have good ones but not the deepest, so they’re not winning any awards. However, they are good stories.

FO3 feels more personal while NV is more interesting overall. Even when it comes to the DLC which expands the overall story of the setting and many of the characters, NV is more cohesive overall. NV’s strength lies in the fact that the Courier’s role and actions are actually apart of the NV setting with enhanced choices and multiple endings, whereas in FO3 it’s more of a personal journey and the Lone Wanderer being a part of it and it being more linear. It’s hard to judge which story is darker as both touch on some pretty dark themes.

I did like a lot of the various side stories in NV such as the story of the Lonesome Road, Dead Money, the story surrounding Caesar’s Legion, Vault 22, missions like Come Fly With me; just there’s a lot to the story. But I can say that I did enjoy the story for FO3; Project Purity, Point Lookout, The Wasteland Survival Guide, the mission Blood Ties, Our Little Secret, The Superhuman Gambit.

(2) Worldbuilding

The Capital Wasteland versus the Mojave Desert, which is better. As much as I like the Mojave setting the Capital Wasteland is much richer in terms of content, intrigue, and tone. There are far more interesting locations, the landscape reflect the post apocalyptic tone that just makes the world so lonely and isolated. There are a lot of buildings and underground locations that can be explored with a surprisingly amount of depth.

A big part of the FO3 world is the underground subway system which players will spend a large amount of time exploring, especially since the tunnels link a locations in the game. Even, upon stepping out of Vault 101, players have immediate access to any location they want to travel to. NV is a little more linear during the beginning hours because leaving Goodsprings the wrong way will have you facing Cazadores, Giant Radscorpions, or Deathclaws.

There are a crap ton of locations in NV that just come off as cardboard cutouts with boarded up buildings. Even in areas like Freeside, there are more buildings that are boarded up than there should be. When you make the comparison between Washington and the Vegas Strip, there’s no getting over the fact that the Strip isn’t as expansive as it could’ve been. I will admit that I do like the Western theme but I just down like how shallow it feels.

(3) Gameplay

FO3 features a good combat system and a large variety of weapons. This combined with the repair system makes for unique combat. However, NV is more refined with its gameplay, especially when it came to Weapon Modding. This gives more depth to the weapons and ammo variety.

FO3 did a great job of bringing our favorites to life but admittedly NV took it a step further.  NV has a great focus on the different stages of the creatures’ lives.  There are young, adolescent, adult, and even legendary stages, offering a life cycle to the creatures, giving them more depth. Sucks that NV takes out the regular mirelurks, though they do keep the mirelurk kings.

Really the biggest problem with FO3 is that although they have interesting factions the problem is that they’re pretty shallow. There aren’t that many standout characters, there aren’t that many interesting missions, the locations aren’t really that interesting. Also, there isn’t a black and white karma system where being apart of one affects the others and this is where NV shines.

(4) Companions

I really do like the companions in FO3 but I can admit that the game really doesn’t give them as much depth as they deserve. There aren’t any missions or subplots that players can explore or learn about them. This makes the companions feel more like hired guns than fleshed out characters. The black and white karma system also makes the companionships limited but I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing. I think it makes the gameplay more strategic, being bad gives you certain characters, being good gives you certain characters.

NV however, does a much better job of giving interesting companions. The characters themselves have interesting personalities and backstories that do feel not only a part of the conflict between NCR and Caesar’s Legion, but a part of the actual Mojave setting. Each companion has story behind them, have interesting missions behind them. Even when it comes to the companion wheel, it’s more in-depth. Plus, it’s cool having characters with motivation.

(5) Quest Design

Now this category is a bit of a doozy because the there’s a lot to like in both games. Most of NV’s quests revolve around the main story and various factions. This isn’t a bad thing but because it focuses so heavily on the story and setting that it doesn’t give itself a chance to stir its creative juices. One of my favorite quests is actually the exploration of Vault 22 where we get to see the plant spore carriers. But I can say that FO3’s quests do feel pretty unique. There are a lot of great memorable ones. Blood Ties, The Replicated Man, Oasis, The Superhuman Gambit are some of the most memorable quests.

But as unique as FO3’s quests are, NV is better in terms of building upon its story and setting. The quests feed into the faction system in a way that make them more engaging.

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Well, there you have it folks. Here’s out comparison post of two of our favorite games. Thanks for checking out the post and in the comment section below let us know which of these two games is better.