Fallout 3 replayability vs. Oblivion: Different reasons to play the game again

So I've been playing both Fallout 3 and Oblivion lately, and it struck me that while these games are made by the same company, and they both have tons of replayability, but for different reasons. I know a lot of people have been putting up Fallout 3 vs. Oblivion threads, and in my opinion, you really can't do that. They are both great games, but I want to clarify why each game is worth going through again:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: So its really not hard to see why this game is worth going through. Like any RPG that features medieval weaponry, and class systems, it has a lot of reasons to go through it. See, each time you play through the game, you can play a different way. You can play a die hard mage, or a warrior, or a stealthy assassin, and it does dramatically alter how the game works. Also, it gives you range on what weapons to use, whether its because of their stat boosts, or overall damage, or whatever. This is the kind of dungeon crawler that makes you want to go through it again just to try things a different way. The problem is that there really arent any morale choices to be made. Sure you can sometimes make little decisions but they dont have as much effect as you might like. In the end, you are the champion of Cyrodil, and the head of the guilds, and whatever else you managed to accomplish, but it really doesnt vary much, which does steal some of the effect.

Fallout 3: This game is like the polar opposite of Oblivion. Unlike Oblivion, each choice you make has a drastic effect on the game world. It effects your karma, which characters will favor your and which wont, and how the story eventually plays out. Playing the different karmic roles gives a lot of variety, and gives you a lot of different story paths to follolw, and I for one was thinking about what it would be like to be evil before I even finished playing the game the first time. However, the problem really comes in with the combat. Now dont get me wrong, there is a whole perks system which is great, and skills that you can max out and raise, but in the end, you are just shooting. You are using guns, and it doesnt feel different if you are shooting as a saint or a sinner. For me, the combat killed a bit of the replayability. Perhaps if we could only use certain guns or something, that would have worked better because it would have given us variety, but thats not how it works. Though it has a lot of reasons to revisit, the combat does water down the effect.

So which game has more replayability? Which one has more reasons to take you back to the world of Cyrodil or War-torn DC? I actually think they are neck and neck. They each have a compelling reason to go through the game three times. In Oblivion, you go through once for every type of combat option (warrior, caster, stealth assassin) and in Fallout you go through for the different karmic paths (saint, neutral, sinner). Now Oblivion has way more to do, so it will take you a hell of a lot longer than Fallout 3, but assuming that you can complete either one three times,I would think you have way to much freaking time on your hands.

I liked Oblivion way better. But i'll admit i didn't make it exceptionally far into Fallout before i became bored with it. The game only wanted to make me play Oblivion.

But i disagree with something you said, i think they can be compared very well. Not only are they the same kind of game, but the are extremely similar even down to the controls.

oblivion-as for the replayability i say you go through it once really good and youve seen every thing. put the game down and let some time pass then and only then it might be fun again. the reason i say this is because you remember every thing that happened. sure you can go through it using dif armor sets and combat styles, but your stuck with the same quests. i wont speak for every one but this was my experience. i created a red guard custom assassin/thief type character seeing as i hate magic, atleats casting it, items are cool. i did every possible quest and seen my fav. easter eggs and got up to about 250 hrs including SI, KotN, Mrazor, and Thives Den and Vile layer expansions.

i tried to play through the game months later a glitch popped up at around 20hrs-kajiit warrior, so i quit lol. then tried again with a argonian another 20ish hrs and i felt like...man i remember all of this, i just cant get into it. so i started playing morrowind again. then i bought fallout3.

fallout3-as much as ive gathered from my 1st play through-i just beat it today (bought it like 2 weeks ago) went too far into the main quest and didnt complete every thing i wanted to. i started a new character more bad this time instead of good. you say theres good, neutral, and evil. imo thats only 2 i dont count neutral. i say you can play through more times you can in oblivion and get a WAY dif. experience. the quests have multiple ways you can complete them. in oblivion there was only 1-2 ways.

oblivion was great, morrowind IS still better. i hope they take lessons from this...hell look back at what made morrowind so great and use what they've learned and incorporate that into TES5. you shouldnt be able to go through that game with out any consequence for your actions