In Oblivion, Morrowind, and Skyrim, I have been able to ignore the main plots (which I often found the weakest parts of the game,) and just do side quests and experience the world, and there was still a huge amount of content.
It's been a long time since I played fallout 3, and I might do it again (through ttw.) Maybe my memory fails me, but it wasn't the same as the elder scrolls, was it? I mean, was it as content rich, if the main plot somehow vanished?
Being a replay without alternate factions like Skyrim or New Vegas, I'm not as interested in the main plot -- so I'll be concentrating on side quests and such.

I would definetely say if you've done Fallout 3 before however long ago it may have been, I would strongly suggest doing a TTW run. A few months back a newer member of GUN was explaining that NV was their first experience with Fallout due the time of it's release, and had never played Fallout 3. To anyone who's never experienced it I would say play the original but I would say play TTW if you've done it before.

A good way to jog your memory is looking over the achievement lists for Fallout 3, as all of the side quests are tied to achievements. The side stuff is secular in terms of they aren't tied to the main quest in anyway, but where it falls flat only in comparison to the elder scrolls series is that there are no guilds to joing (They tend to have over arching stories over a long time).

Hope this helps I don't tend to play the main story of the elder scrolls among revisiting them usually but the Fallout games don't cater to as much roleplaying as the elder scrolls does, in terms of the content available.

There are a number of fallout games ... 1, 2, tactics, 3, and 4 that very much tell you who you are and more or less who you are and/or where you came from.

New Vegas tells you that you had a job as a courier, and at least until the final dlc, makes no further claims about your past -- making NV a sort of "character origin" anomaly in fallout. I was vaguely annoyed by lonesome road because it seemed to be trying to contradict the head canon I'd innocently built up for my first courier, but I digress.

Compared to the "in prison for an unknown reason," the elder scrolls allow a LOT more choice in deciding (even if just in your head) who your character is and was, and will be. I think it allows "slotting in new content" a lot more easy, because there's no canon origin to violate. There's a "not the dragonborn" mod for skyrim, but I don't imagine there's anything like that for fallout 3 (no vault origin, no father to find, no main quest.)

New California would probably be a LOT easier to integrate, story-wise, into TTW if the vanilla fallout character was more of blank slate as far as origin/childhood. But I'm rambling now.

I'm pretty sure you can do a New California playthrough as part of a TTW run, but for the sake of how Fallout 3 starts I think that will always be the origin point of the story. You'll always be the Lone Wanderer, or you'll always start as that. There are some years inbetween for head canon to take place alongside the events of Lonesome Road

New California absolutely can't be done currently with ttw, according to both teams. They both make gameplay mechanics changes that are (so they say) incompatible, both have their own scripts at startup, and have contradictory stories that can't be reconciled -- it's been discussed a lot and would take a gigantic effort to find a way to get them working together without conflicting bugs, sadly.
One can't have two childhoods, two origins on opposite sides of the country, and two fathers that need finding. Someday, though, I have no doubt that some intrepid legendary modder will figure it out.

Ahh my mistake. If you couldn't tell I haven't played New California I guess it's down to what origin you prefer then, are you a frequent NC user? The last I seen of it I think it was still under a different name

IIRC the game was intended to distract the player from the main quest to encourage exploration. There are a lot of things to distract you in every nook and cranny of Fallout 3 that you will probably forget that you were searching for your dad.

Excluding quests, there are probably a little story going on in some random location that you stumble across if you just look at the place.

I think there was also this small mini puzzle that I still don't get the purpose of in a small diner I think.

Fallout 3 lacked much depth outside of the main plot for me.

This is also because I relatively enjoyed it and it sets the stage for my explorations in the Capital Wasteland. On their own, quests in FO3 are pretty random and unenjoyable but when you stumble upon them while playing through the main quest, they seem less out of place to me.

And for the record, I highly recommend TTW. It's the best way to play FO3.

Voyevoda1 wrote:

Ahh my mistake. If you couldn't tell I haven't played New California I guess it's down to what origin you prefer then, are you a frequent NC user? The last I seen of it I think it was still under a different name

I just like to imagine having a "fallout worlds" that combines as many fallout worldspaces as possible. Frontier will eventually be on that wishlist.

@ Sirdanest (Original Post)

And that, is the beauty of an open world RPG. Sure, you may have the main plot, but there is a whole world for you to explore, and there is nothing wrong with sitting down and playing a Bethesda (or Obsidian) game only to completely ignore the main plot with exploration, side quests, and making your own adventures. Play how you want man!