Seriously, if anything it ended with Fallout 2. Fallout 3 never even came close to the level of storytelling and immersion that Fallout set, despite their technical limitations. Fallout New Vegas is closer to that than Bethesda could ever hope to get on their own. Some places feel a little empty but it's a freaking Wasteland! There doesn't have to be something every 20 feet so trigger-happy player remain entertained. I just fail to see how anyone can like a game so inherently flawed in storyline and gameplay that also downright ignores set rules and throws the seriousness with which nuclear weapons were handled out of the window the first chance it got. In the two original games, there were two nukes, each time used only when there was no other way and this time everyone and their grandmother is lobbing nuclear Grenades at mushroom cloud-producing cars. Yes I am ranting about Fallout 3 but I am just incapable of understanding the praise it received. Nothing about it was memorable, the Dunwhich building that's so praised as great horror is an insult to H.P. Lovecraft as far as I'm concerned and the Supermutant army is just stupid. No clear leader or even organization structure while they are even dumber than second Generation Mariposa Mutants and still they can coordinate military operations and build defensive fortifications? How did the Brotherhood of Steel cross all of the US wasteland in so little time on foot since they obviously have no Vertibird or cars available? Why is the design of almost every weapon looking different on this side of the States than it did in California? Why could they not create a better ending sequence than running after an invincible robot killing stuff? There's too many questions that are just never explained. One might say out of convenience but I won't, I just want to know these things. On the other hand I have to grant it some slack since it has revived the series and opened it to a wider audience, gave it a graphical overhault and created the chance for New Vegas and more sequels, but I still despise the downright stupid quests Fallout 3 handed me, the boring NPC's always staring at you while you talk to them. (Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines could create better conversations on a Source Engine Alpha in 2004 so what's keeping Gamebryo?) And most of all, the ending that was then even retconned for another DLC. And all this said, I really freaking enjoy Fallout New Vegas since it finally seems to do some things right, given enough player mods to fix things and add old Fallout 2 weapons.
