Why does everyone like Fallout?

I love the Fallout series! Yes, these games are known for bugs and freezing issues, but there is so much to the games that those problems are small in comparison. I, unfortunately was unable to beat New Vegas because it froze on me during the second to last mission and corrupted my save data once I restarted the system. I played every side mission, explored every area I could and loved it! I just wish I would have been able to beat the game. That was years ago. I recently just bought another PS3 (my last one received the YLOD after over 6 years of use ... R.I.P. PS3!!!) and actually bought FallOut 3, FallOut: New Vegas and Skyrim again so I can experience them all again in all their glory....hopefully.

Everyone ranted and raved about Fallout 3 so I played it (GOTY, PC)

• Mediocre story (had its moments but was generally meh throughout)
• Slow paced (getting around is a pain, with maze-like buildings, awkward navigation/mapping)
• Mediocre FPS engine (cumbersome weapon/item selection, very RPG-esque and so not my thing).
• Buggiest game I've played in my life... This one really ticked me off. Felt like a broken product and to muster the patience to put up with the intermittent and often once-a-minute crashes was a supreme challenge.

And yes, I have put a lot of effort into remedy the instability, from limiting the number of cores/threads, to compatibility mode, to reinstalling, to experimenting with various combos of settings, etc. etc.

I can understand that some games just appeal to certain people for certain subtle reasons but I cannot understand the level of praise this game receives.

I mean, compare this game to the Mass Effect series, they just don't compare unless you're looking for all that generic interactivity that comes with the Fallout games.

XCOM has never crashed on me. FO NV ran perfectly on PC and it looked fine. I think it's your hardware that is at issue, OP. If you're crashing that much, you are probably experiencing some sort of overheating issue.

I would put Fallout 3 over all three Mass Effect games put together without even really needing to think about it. Bioware does not compare on any level to Bethesda, they are not even remotely as good at making fun games. Mass Effect games are pretty boring and mindless and bloated with WAY too much story. And it's not even it just being story, because Fallout 3 has a lot of that. It's how they present story. Stripping control away from the player, forcing the player to watch so much dialogue, it's insane. Absolutely the polar opposite of what I want from games.

I have no clue why people like them, but 4 looks promising

Fallout 3 and New Vegas ran fine on my Xbox 360, no crashing, only in New Vegas there were a few patches of spotty framerate but nothing as horrible as the problems I heard PS3 gamers had of characters heads spinning around like in the Exorcist. Anyhow, great games despite that. The first two Fallout games on PC were classics as well. People are into them because their IPs with a satisfactory history.

Now, on the other hand, I'm worried people gave Bethesda a free pass on Skyrim with those shitty auto-generated quests, and I fear this game is going to be stuffed full of them. So, in stead of writing out quests thoughtfully, the game is simply going to make up shallow auto-generated quests. Everybody gave Bethesda a free pass on Skyrim by refusing to hold their feet to the flames over the auto-generated quests and that lack of written and variable path quests, that's just an endorsement to keep doing what they're doing. Well, don't be surprised if Fallout is their next victim.

I have been playing F/O NV since it was first released. Five years? Well off and on of course and it never gets boring. I've seen five endings so far. There is just so many choices to make influencing the outcomes. So much exploring, and crafting. I once read a review that stated you could play the game over 50 times, and still find new things. I agree. I'm still amazed, as I approach 200 hours of gameplay, at the new things I stumble on. The great number of perks you can choose from, also make big differences in gameplay. Your leveling up in areas such as speech, science, medicine, ect also effect your game. In short, the possibilities are almost endless. You can be a bad guy, or a good guy. You can play through with or without weapons. Although other games I've played depend on player input, I think this game offers the most choices makeing

re playability a 10+. Fallout is like being the director in your own action movie, small scale. The script is there, but the player calls the shots. I've played all the Fallout games more than once. You're only limited by your imagination, despite a few freeze ups near the end.

I loved the original Fallouts back in the day. I remember being surprised when the game series took a major shift with Fallout 3, becoming a very different game but they still managed to capture that Fallout feel. It's become something else but I'm happy with the way it went. I wouldn't of minded if they kept it isometric and modernized it from that point of view, a bit like how X-Com did, and made the environment more alive instead of hand drawn backdrops, but what we got turned out pretty good.

I wouldn't go back to Fallout 1 and 2, I kind of did recently when I played Wasteland 2 on Steam. I enjoyed it for a while but lost interest about halfway, it's too many steps backwards I don't need that sort of thing.