This was requested by a user on tek syndicate to compare and review the two games so this will be done a slight bit different that normal reviews.
The Story...
Fallout 3 -
Fallout 3 is in the same universe as the classic fallout games, a post apocolyptic world, Your story begins at birth, you create your character and begin your life after your mothers death.
You progress through quick events inside the vault you live in, at different stages in your life, so when your 1 year old you select your talent points, at the age of 10 its your birthday party and you get your pipboy 3000, at the age of 16 you do the G.O.A.T test to pick your skills such as unarmed, guns, speech etc. At 19 your father leaves the vault and you must escape the vault to roam the wilderness to find your father and find out what Project purity really is...
Fallout New Vegas -
Fallout New Vegas is set again in same world as its older games, this time your in the desert, your a courier shot and left for dead after carrying a high priority target, you awake inside doc mitchells house and must select your perks and talent points, this is a more streamlined version of the Fallout 3 character creation as it takes a lot less time.
You then venture into the wasteland and begin your quest to find out who tried to kill you while helping strangers along your path.
Comparison.
So the stories vary in ways, although your still trying to find someone in both games the plots are very different to say the least which is refreshing unlike games like call of duty which are the same story over and over.
Gameplay...
You cant really compare these games as 1 there in the same genre, 2 there the same throughout the game, you kill things using VATs or your sights (Iron sights are added in from New Vegas or can be modded in on Fallout 3) but what is here is good, there is hours and hours of content without DLC, i spent a whole summer playing the game, with little time spent playing other games. and i only had 2 DLC packages installed. Although i now own the GOTY!!! :P
The game involves in a nutshell the following ingretients.
Level up system for perks, skills and talents.
VATS aiming system or iron sights
Standard RPG quests but the storys are decent in the side quests.
Choices that must be made which affect the game.
also a down point, FO3 needs DLC to add into the game (BrokenSteel) to continue the quest, this isnt possible in New Vegas so complete all DLC before story!
Graphics!!!
Graphics dont compare to Skyrims level, there more cartoony compared to Skyrims more serious/realistic approach and its a nice fresh approach although the character animations in Fallout feel a bit weird and detract from the experience.
On PC which i play the specs are not taxing by todays machine specs. I used to run both at ultra using a Nvidia Geforce 250 GTS, Intel Pentium D 915 2.8Ghz Dual Core, 4GB RAM, so if you have a new system or a dual core or above you wont struggle at all running the games.
I find it hard to explain the graphics for this game, so ill give you web screen shots and you can decide (links are not my content)
(Fallout 3)
(Fallout New Vegas)
So as you can see both games are similar its the story that differs, there both good experiences but fallout 3 is better with the DLC over New Vegas as the DLC is a rather big let down excluding Old World Blues which is rather comical at times.
So pick these up on steam and have a good time!!