Which version of Fallout to start with?

I have never played a Fallout game and now I am looking to get into it. Fallout 3 seems way too old so I am thinking either New Vegas or Fallout 4.

It seems to me that New Vegas is probably the most loved game in the series? So if I don't like it then no reason to buy Fallout 4 and thus save money as well.

If you suggest that I start with New Vegas then what version would you recommend? Standard edition New Vegas is $3.3 whereas the ultimate edition is $10. Is it worth the difference?

Fallout 4 is itself pretty cheap though so maybe I should just start with that?

If you have enough time start with 3 (my favorite). And don't worry about it being old, 4 is like heavily modded 3. Ultimate edition contains additional DLC's, so yea I'd say it's worth it. Just a heads up, if you really get into it you're gonna wanna play it again and make other choices or build your character differently, so it's gonna take a while till you move on to the next game!

The best 2 Fallout games are by far the first 2. They're old school isometric RPGs. Fallout 3 removed a lot of what made Fallout Fallout. If you're looking for a 3D Fallout game New Vegas is by far the best out of Fallout 3, Fallout NV, and Fallout 4. It actually has great writing, quests, story, and it actually feels like a Fallout game. That's mostly because it was developed by Obsidian and not Bethesda. Both FO3 and 4 are typical Bethesda games, awesome world with completely abysmal story, characters, and writing in general. That's not to say they aren't good games in their own right though. I definitely enjoyed both FO3 and 4, but they don't even come close to the first 2 games, and New Vegas to a smaller extent.

Also, the graphical differences between FO3 and New Vegas are negligible so if you're worried about FO3 being too old you'll probably find NV too old as well. However, Fallout has never been a series for people that just care about graphics.

If you're going to play NV I'd get the ultimate edition because most of the DLC (with the exception of honest heats for me) is phenomenal.

Fallout 3 GOTY you can start and end with that one :D

It isn't 'the most loved' game in the series. There's actually a big divide between people who loved it and people who didn't (it's the only Fallout game that I never bothered to finish because I didn't care for the story and the parts of the game that were broken made the entire experience extremely unpleasant.

1 and 2 are old-style rpgs. Many people consider them the best of the series, but if you don't want an old-style game, start with 3. 3 and 4 are both modern rpgs. I also recommend starting with 3. You MIGHT like Fallout: New Vegas, (a lot of people do). But just so you know, I didn't. 4 is not a HUGE technical advance over 3, so the fact that it is old should not stop you. If you haven't played it, there's no good reason to skip it. 3 is my favorite of the modern Fallout games.

Those who started before Fallout 3 and those who started at Fallout 3

Have you played the first 2 Fallout games? I'm just curious because like @MonsieurX said, it's typically the FO1&2 fans that vastly prefer NV over FO3 and 4.

4 looks best,runs best and plays best

3 and NV have aged badly,are unoptimized buggy messes and look and run like total *****

I have no issues playing games with outdated graphics or else I would have never enjoyed so many classics. But of course that doesn't mean I'll just go around and play Fallout 1. :P

Time is an issue though which is what is tempting me to jump straight to 4. But I guess Fallout 3 it is then? It is indeed one of the most legendary PC games in history so I probably should experience it. It seems like Fallout 3 has better critical reviews but New Vegas has better user reviews. And it seems like Fallout 4 has really bad user reviews.

Ignore the Fallout 4 user reviews. Everyone I know enjoyed the game. It removed a couple of RPG elements and fallout staples, but it's still a great game overall and that's the consensus I've come across. Also, why not try FO1&2? They're cheap and amazing games.

Regardless of what you choose, the entire series is good in my opinion, and although I think FO3 is the weakest game in the series, I'd still recommend it to RPG and Fallout fans.

fallout 3

its the first game in the new style fallout games.

also...no game is too old on PC. just crank up the rez to 4k 60fps and enjoy!

Yes, I started with Fallout 1 -- great game for its time, and 2 was even better (in some ways). But people forget just how buggy Fallout 2 was, and that it never was completely fixed -- good game, but also not without its frustrations. While I won't claim that Fallout 3 was a perfect game, New Vegas had the worst release of all of them, with the same problems as 2, only worse. And the even when the game worked perfectly, I stopped caring about the story and the choices the game forced me to make, not too long after I got to the title city -- part of that was simply the game-killing bugs and crashes, for sure. But part of it was the fact that I did not find any of the choices laid out in front of me to be at all compelling. At one point, I was given a choice in the game, and I simply thought "why am I torturing myself with this stupid game?" turned it off without saving, and never reloaded it again.

I know I'm in the minority here, but 99% of games cannot compete with the storytelling in a good book or movie. What I find compelling instead, is good gameplay, and being able to lose myself, not in a story, but in a world. And Fallout 3 did that better than most games that came before it (certainly more than 1 or 2). I would never ever argue that the writing is complex or better than it is in 1 or 2. But I was thoroughly sucked into that world. And that's why I spent so much time there.

Of all the various ways of telling a story, video games, to me, are the weakest. If you want good writing, I can recommend quite a few good books and movies. If you want good gameplay, you can't go wrong with Fallout 3.

@Gambler_3: start with fallout 3 goty edition I think its the best in the series, then new vegas ultimate edition, then fallout 4

You didn't really have to justify your picks to me but I did enjoy reading about them. We'll just have to agree to disagree. Both FO3 and NV are still a buggy mess. I can't even load up FO3 without falling through the terrain anymore and New Vegas still crashes like crazy. Also, I didn't even play them until well after launch so I'm assuming they were even worse. I do wonder how much more enjoyment I would haven gotten out of those 2 games had they actually ran better. That's one thing I give Bethesda props for with FO4. Sure they dumbed it down a bunch, but at least the launch was relatively smooth for the most part, at least compared to most Bethesda games.

Wrong assumptions were being made and that irks me when people jump to conclusions without any evidence. It's not correct that only people who never played Fallout 1 and 2 did not like New Vegas. I've found that people who make sweeping generalizations without evidence are always wrong (see what I did there?). It just rubs me the wrong way that anyone would think they can read me without knowing anything about me. It's insulting to be reduced to a stereotype, even when talking about things like taste in games.

boy oh boy....this is what we call a "loaded question"

first off, you got "new school" Fallout and "old school" Fallout

"Old School" Fallout is a turn-based RPG/tactics game from way back in the day that, frankly, most gamers don't even know about and have not played. They're incredible games of great story telling, rich gameplay, complex gameplay mechanics, and diverse ways to solve problems. Games in this "old school" series are Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics. I imagine when you are asking "what version of Fallout do I want to play?" you are not referring to any of these versions, but instead referring to "new school" fallout...

...which refers to anything including Fallout 3 and onward. These are essentially based on the "Elder Scrolls" RPG model of open world first/third-person action-rpg (heavy on the action, light on the rpg) model of game design. If you are refering to this, you should start with either Fallout 3 or New Vegas (either one is fine, why not both?! They're both inexpensive!). Fallout 4 is the weakest of the "new school" Fallouts.

So, in short: Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas. I guess it depends if you want to romp around in a city or a desert? New Vegas does have some really awesome DLC, though!

But this old gamer recommends Fallout 2, always.

So I bought New Vegas Ultimate Edition. Seems like the right balance between time and getting to know the series. If I had unlimited time I would have started with 3 but alas that's not the case.

@Gambler_3: You probably won't be disappointed. New Vegas is sweet. Although, I would highly recommend modding it. For a first playthrough (especially with no previous fallout experience at all), I wouldn't recommend using any mods that alter gameplay in any way. At least give it a run through as Obsidian made it, as they did a damn good job. But, don't hesitate the get hella visual mods. It's definitely dated graphically, and there's some BEAUTIFUL graphics mods out there for all of the (new, 3D) Fallout games.

Best Fallout game? Wasteland 2.

3, NV > 4. All are worth playing.

Yes I never use mods on the first playthrough. I'll see how I find it's graphics to be I think with DSR or supersampling it'll look acceptable.