With the excitement of the recent Fallout announcement and the way my friends have gotten excited for it, I decided to finally jump in and got 1-3 as well as Tactics and New Vegas all for around ~$30 on a Steam Sale. The thing is I know next to nothing and all I know is the smiling boy with the thumbs up.

Where do I start and what should I know to get the best experience?

Play 3...and nothing else...

Fallout 3...

In my opinion none of them are any good. But they narrate pretty good stories (albeit a little bit too sad for my tastes). The gameplay isn't very great in any of them...

But general consensus is that Fallout 3 is the best, so I suggest you start with that one.

Fallout 3 is one of my all time favorite games. I'd advice you to fully upgrade V.A.T.S. early on though so that the amount of real time melee and shooting is minimal because that's the weakest part of the game.

New Vegas is a solid game too and especially fans of Fallout 1+2 like the story and characters in NV way more than in 3.

I've tried 1 and 2 but not enough to tell you if you should start with one of those.

3 is where most people would have started by my estimation, so it's as good a place as any.

piqued

the 3rd one is so GOOD start with that one, and ive heard New Vegas is even better so make that the next one, and then after that just get the 4th one.

From what I heared part 3 is the best part.

Fallout 1, 2 & Tactics are completely different to new Fallouts and what F4 will bring. F4 should be closer to what we had in F3 and FNV. These videos show gameply, you be the judge:

Fallout 1

Fallout 2

Fallout Tactics:

Fallout 3:

Fallout New Vegas: