fallout 3 is nominally better at creating a better devastated wasteland atmosphere which, if it was matched into the actual fallout timeline a little better, would work amazingly and be a huge net positive.

the thing is that the fallout series has never been post apocalyptic, it’s always been post-post apocalyptic. fallout 3 is the former, the fallout series as a whole is the latter. if fallout 3 had been set thirty, forty years after the nuclear war of 2077 then it’d be bang-on note perfect in terms of general atmosphere and the dysfunctional attempts at civilisation (ignoring the weird fanfictiony enclave/bos elements in the story), but compared to where the core region on the west coast (and to a degree large portions of the midwest is also achieving some form of functional settlement by 2277) is in terms of civilisation and society it’s a jarring blip on the timeline.

p much if fallout 3 had been fixed at a better spot in the timeline and otherwise been completely unchanged then maybe the fallout tag wouldn’t be full of people going ‘i don’t like fallout new vegas because it doesn’t feel like a post apocalypse game’ without realising that they’re entirely right, just not in the way they’re expecting.