Fallout 3 is my favorite game of all time. I kind of group New Vegas in with it though. My excitement for Fallout 4 is off the charts, bugs or no bugs. My PS4 Pip-Boy edition is pre-ordered. I have Thanksgiving week (US) off work, and the wait is nearly impossible. I’ve played plenty of great games this year (Dying Light, The Witcher 3, Until Dawn, Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V, and others), but I have high hopes that it’ll live up to expectations. Can’t wait!!!
I really need to get started on Fallout 1 soon to understand the concept of the series! It’s still hidden somewhere in my hard disk…
Actually, I’ve been playing the new Elite game (Elite: Dangerous) so much lately, I think I have developed an addiction 
I don’t think I could even handle Fallout on top of that…
You’d actually be fine starting with Fallout 3. You’ll get the idea: there’s always a wasteland, there are always vaults…
It depends if you like tactical party-based roleplaying games. If you do, Fallout 1 & 2 are a preferable starting point.
Yeah - while the settings are the same, the gameplay is very different (and much harsher) in 1 and 2. (They also take place on the other side of the continent from 3 and 4, so they only provide substantial backstory to New Vegas.) Unless you like party CRPGs with turn-based squad tactics, I wouldn’t worry about it.
3 has more open-ended, go-anywhere gameplay, while New Vegas guides you around the map a little more explicitly, but has better developed companions and, in my opinion, more interesting moral choices related to deciding the fate of the titular city. In 3 your choices are pretty much ‘be a saint’ or ‘be irredeemably evil’, but in New Vegas there’s a little more nuance in what ending you choose to go for (though there’s still an ‘evil’ faction). I preferred New Vegas for a lot of reasons (Veronica, a little better balanced skill system, the street gang composed of Elvis impersonators, etc) but it’s a matter of taste.
Geez I am looking forward to the new one so much, though. I love the idea that you can build you own little community and have romances and things!
I read “party CRPGs” as like “party games” and now I want to play one of these.
Aww, man, Veronica. She was so much better than every other damn character in the game that it was kind of depressing. Like ‘hey guys, if AAA games gave a crap about writing, things might be like this on the regular.’
I didn’t play Vegas, was Veronica the character Felicia Day voiced?