Why can't I get into Fallout 3...?

Taustin Powers said:

Is there something wrong with me?

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No, nothing's wrong with you. Just because for other people Fallout 3 or other Bethesda RPGs are the best thing evah, it does not mean you have to feel this way, too.

I'm somewhat in the same boat as you: I have seriously tried to get into almost every Bethesda RPG of the last 15 years or so, but none of them managed to grasp me, no matter if Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim or Fallout 3. Fallout 3 probably was the one I put the most time into (20 hours or so) before giving up, mostly for the same reasons as you: a bland, not really believable world,* horrible NPCs, copied and pasted locations (including whole "dungeons"), an uninvolving and easily ignorable plot, clunky combat…

(* For instance, for a irradiated and desolate desert wasteland filled with dangerous monsters, it's completely unbelievable how many people you meet out there…)

The same applies basically to all of Bethesda's RPGs, including Skyrim.

Nope, there's nothing wrong with you. I also was never really into the Fallout games. The main thing that kills it for me is how boring/bland/ugly/grey the world is, not that I'd really expect anything different in a post-apocalyptic setting. It makes me not want to explore anywhere because it all looks the same.

I much prefer the Elder Scrolls games.

Good topic. I really want to get into Fallout too. My girlfriend is a fan of the series (has all the collectors editions, 200 hours+ into each). I've got them too on Steam but there's something that is stopping me from playing. It should be perfect for me but it isn't, or rather I haven't found the hook yet.

I played a lot of Skyrim, though.

Do the quest! Without those, the game is nothing. Most of the fun and quirkiness from the Fallout series is from the characters and the quest, otherwise you're running around a desolate wasteland.

There's some variety in there like running around DC and seeing the landmarks and recognizing other thing if you actually live near the area, but other than that, it's pretty bland if you don't actually interact with other people.

Dagless said:

I played a lot of Skyrim, though.

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This.

Given the genre, I should enjoy everything about fallout. However, despite liking everything about the game's lore and design, I'm really not a big fan of actually playing the game. It's hard to explain, but I've dedicated hundreds of ours in Skyrim and it's one of my favorite games. Maybe it's the difference in age...I'm really not sure.

Wow, great topic!

I am totally with you, OP. In fact, I've doubted my feelings given the love this game gets, and have tried this game from scratch three times now, each time getting a few more hours in. My last effort had over 25 hours logged, and I just . . . stopped playing. I literally just set the controller down and decided it just wasn't happening with this game.

Unlike other posters here, though, I am totally sold on Skyrim. I probably have about 300 hours logged on that one, and if they release another in the series, I'll be doing it again.

Besides the terribly ugly/bland/repetative landscape others have mentioned, I really took offense at the NPCs. Most of the voice acting just doesn't work. So many of the female characters are voiced with this incredibly irritating 1950s over-the-top cheerfulness, and if that was trying to be a statement given the situation, it missed the mark for me. The sequence in the vault (which I have gone through three times) doesn't make sense and just doesn't flow well. I don't want to kill the overseer, why would I? He's my best friend's father, and was a cult-like father figure for me my whole life, and I'm going to kill him because of an unexplained "catastrope" I wake up to? What-evs.

Right now, I'm having way too much fun with Borderlands 2 to care about Fallout.