I’ve mentioned previously that I thought Oblivion was a better game than Fallout 3, despite the fact that both were created by Bethesda on the same engine, and despite the fact that Fallout 3 is a more recent game. Now I’d like to give you some concrete reasons as to why.

I’ll totally agree that Fallout 3 has better minigames. They got rid of that hideous conversation game and even the lockpick game in Fallout 3 is much improved. The new computer hacking game is simply awesome. Fallout 3 also has better character models and better voice acting. But all these things can’t change the fact that Oblivion was simply a better game.

First of all, Oblivion had much more creative and ingenious quests. The Daedric quests that granted special magical items, the arena, the dark brotherhood, the various guild quests, and the beautiful world-inside-a-painting are a few examples. Other quests in Obilivion had you trailing people, eavesdropping, following hand-drawn maps, and interpreting drawings on walls. Nothing that creative in Fallout 3. A few good characters and some funny conversations, but being able to talk through intercoms and watching static animations of vertibirds can’t match up with having to cast a high level lightning spell on an old stump in the middle of the wilderness to complete a quest.

Next up, the mods. Perhaps it was because I picked up Oblivion six or eight months after its release, and there’s also the fact that the Garden of Eden Creation Kit wasn’t released for Fallout 3 until months after the game was on store shelves. But for me, one of the things that made Oblivion truly great was the wealth of user mods. The BT Mod and Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul were by far the best Oblivion mods, but consider also the user-created music for Oblivion, the much needed No Psychic Guards mod, and a couple favorites of mine, the Darker Dungeons mod, which gave torches and light spells an actual purpose, and the Drop Lit Torches mod, which caused you to drop a lit torch when you drew a weapon. The torch would remain there on the ground, lit, and you could pick it back up if you needed. Fantastic.

What mods does Fallout 3 have? Mostly new and reskinned weapons. Of course, there are plenty of cheat mods and things to make you more powerful. They’ve got a decent start with the mods that remove slow motion from V.A.T.S. and allow you to use random logical items to repair weapons and armor, and Bethesda has blogged about some mods, but they’re nothing approaching the genius of the best Oblivion mods.

Third on my list is Alchemy. Here’s a genius engaging skill that has you hunting everywhere for different types of flora and vegetation and allows you to collect different equipment to create dozens of different potions, or mix multiple-effect potions as your skill increases. What does Fallout 3 have to compare? Collecting random junk like medical braces and lunchboxes to create a handful of weapons, many of which are fairly useless. Come on – did you really like the railroad spike gun? Did you find the Rock-It Launcher useful? Granted, the dart gun is great and I love the deathclaw gauntlet, but overall Fallout 3’s item crafting can’t match Oblivion’s alchemy system.

One of the primary things that made Oblivion better than Fallout 3 was the set pieces. The fall of Kvatch, leading a squad of soldiers through an Oblivion gate to try to close it, and stopping that crazy giant war machine were truly epic, and those are just the moments I can remember off the top of my head. What were Fallout 3’s set pieces? Umm… the giant robot at the end? The optional nuke? That’s all I can think of. Oblivion had a much more epic feel.

Lastly, the novelty. When Oblivion came out, it was brand new, and it was very impressive. But at the time Oblivion is coming out, we’re seeing the same NPCs, the same kinds of traps, and the whole same game engine. But no there are no spells, no new abilities as skills reach the 25/50/75/100 points, no shield blocking, and none of the beautiful weather effects that Oblivion had. The game’s drugs are a poor replacement for Oblivion’s alchemy system, and the weaponcrafting in Fallout 3 is extremely limited. I’d have felt a bit better if Fallout 3 had implemented a few vehicles. Even Oblivion had crappy, crappy horses.