Is the game "Fallout 3" similar in terms of gameplay to "Mass Effect"?

Mass effect is one of my favorite games. Fallout 3 is my second favorite.

They’re very similar, except the story is less linear in Fallout. It feels a little less actiony.

No video cuts scenes in Fallout.

Awesome. since you play both, i wonder what resolution you play it at? I’d love to run it on 1920×1200 so it’s nice and crisp on my 24” screen.
Is it very graphic intensive? or is that similar to Mass Effect too, which I was able to run at max settings @ 1920×1200.

Both on the 360, so I really can’t help you there. Fallout is very pretty, though.

sweet. i ll give it a try. thanks for the input.

If you could run Mass Effect on max at 1920, I would imagine you can run Fallout 3 on max too. You might have to bump down the draw distance, but I doubt it.

I never played Mass Effect but my partner did and I watched him play through. I would say Fallout is similar but different. I agree that Fallout feels less actiony and more adventure-y. And funnier too.

Yes, Mass Effect is more like playing along with a movie. It’s more cinematic and sweeping in its story line than Fallout3.

Graphics-wise, I’d say both do an outstanding job. They are at opposite points of the spectrum, however, in that ME is set in space, so you have all the futuristic eye candy of nebulae, stars, planets, space stations, etc. The mail station has a very sterile feel to it, as does your ship. On the other hand, Fallout has somewhat of the same overall feel as Bioshock in that here’s a world that’s gone to hell. Everything is run down and dilapidated. And it has those elements of what the “future” would look like from the perspective of the early atomic age: the ruined cars all have the swooping taillights and are as “big as whales.”

You get far more interaction with the world of Fallout 3 than you do with Mass Effect. In this regard, Fallout 3 is very much like Oblivion (notice the general “nothing is coming to kick your ass” background music is exactly the same), and I would expect this since both games come to us from Bethesda Softworks. While ME spans a good chunk of the galaxy, you are limited to small plots on each planet, and (at least in my play), everything is always in the same place every time. This means evil doers are predictable with each game play. To an extent, the same thing applies to Fallout 3, but in my op., there seems to be a more robust game AI with Fallout 3.

Both games are outstanding, and are a good value as they will provide many many hours of game play. You couldn’t go wrong with either of them.

Just convinced himself to order Mass Effect.

Mass Effect is a blast! Fallout 3 is more of a blast…
I love both games but my vote is Fallout 3 because it’s open world and there is much more to do than Mass Effect. Also there are 3 DLC missions coming out for Fallout in the next 3 months. So thats even more stuff to do in a a decent sized game, no where as big as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion though.

@sacaver, thanks for the very detailed answer. Sounds like I will really enjoy Fallout 3. I just ordered it.

@richardhenry, it’s an awesome game. You won’t be disappointed.

@everyone else, thanks once more for the answers. i lurve fluther.

Mass Effect is more story-driven than is Fallout.