In my opinion, Fallout 2 was hands down the best in the series. The dialogue was well written, the jokes were laden with gallows humor, and it was so sharp you could cut yourself on it. The weapons had variety, were interesting, and they got the job done. It was, in so many ways the standard by which other games are to be judged. The console shoot'em up game was horrid, appealing to no one. The original and Tactics were both okay, though Tactics suffered from the problem of late game enemies laughing off your puny attempts to harm them.
Out of the series, though, I honestly feel that Fallout 3 was the weakest. It's not a bad game, by any means, and it is fun to play. It's just not as memorable as the others. I suppose it's possible that this is because I've seen it all before, and there's nothing new under the sun; but one of the major strengths of the series has always been it's dialogue, and while Three did have some funny dialogue, it just wasn't as hilarious, as say the CDEDBD ducks gag from the first one.
Moreover, the series has, in previous outings, included real world weapons, not so in Three, it's a small complaint, but the Desert Eagle has ALWAYS been a mainstay of the series. More than that, Three had the same problem as Oblivion in that all the encounters were level adjusted. This made leveling your character of questionable value in Oblivion (the game is actually easiest if you never level your character), and makes some things far more difficult than they have to be in Fallout 3.
One final thought on Fallout 3. The Elder Scrolls character development system worked well for The Elder Scrolls games. The SPECIAL system worked well for the Fallout Series. The attempt to mix the two resulted in a system that had far too low a level cap, and even when the level cap was raised, all that did was make it possible to max every single skill. The hard cap at 100 for everything goes against the entire rest of the series where the skills capped at somewhere around 255. The SPECIAL system allowed you to specialize (no pun intended) like no one's business, and if you thought you were going to max all the skills, you were crazy. The Three SPECIAL system not only discourages, but actually does not allow specialization. Not only because Small Arms are more or less worthless past the mid game, but because in order to beat the game at all, you have to use all the skills. You couldn't, say, make a technophobic character who refused to use energy weapons or computers. You wouldn't be able to finish the game.
Oh, and for those who don't know SPECIAL means Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck; these are the primary stats of the game.
Out of the series, though, I honestly feel that Fallout 3 was the weakest. It's not a bad game, by any means, and it is fun to play. It's just not as memorable as the others. I suppose it's possible that this is because I've seen it all before, and there's nothing new under the sun; but one of the major strengths of the series has always been it's dialogue, and while Three did have some funny dialogue, it just wasn't as hilarious, as say the CDEDBD ducks gag from the first one.
Moreover, the series has, in previous outings, included real world weapons, not so in Three, it's a small complaint, but the Desert Eagle has ALWAYS been a mainstay of the series. More than that, Three had the same problem as Oblivion in that all the encounters were level adjusted. This made leveling your character of questionable value in Oblivion (the game is actually easiest if you never level your character), and makes some things far more difficult than they have to be in Fallout 3.
One final thought on Fallout 3. The Elder Scrolls character development system worked well for The Elder Scrolls games. The SPECIAL system worked well for the Fallout Series. The attempt to mix the two resulted in a system that had far too low a level cap, and even when the level cap was raised, all that did was make it possible to max every single skill. The hard cap at 100 for everything goes against the entire rest of the series where the skills capped at somewhere around 255. The SPECIAL system allowed you to specialize (no pun intended) like no one's business, and if you thought you were going to max all the skills, you were crazy. The Three SPECIAL system not only discourages, but actually does not allow specialization. Not only because Small Arms are more or less worthless past the mid game, but because in order to beat the game at all, you have to use all the skills. You couldn't, say, make a technophobic character who refused to use energy weapons or computers. You wouldn't be able to finish the game.
Oh, and for those who don't know SPECIAL means Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck; these are the primary stats of the game.
