Step 1: Play Fallout 3
Step 2: Play New Vegas
Step 3: Wait
Step 4: Play Fallout 4

I just started playing Fallout 3 for the first time about 3 weeks ago. It's pretty fun and seems like a more than a fine place to start.

Start with 3 although NV is a much better game for the most part.

Play fallout 3 and new vegas. Find mods though, they make the game amazing. I think they're the games that need to be modded that most.

What kind of advice is this?

Don't listen to these people, OP. Fallout 3 is mediocre pile of meh. Poorly written, uninteresting 2-dimensional companions, and completely fucks up the Fallout lore. New Vegas is a far far far better written RPG. Glitchy? Yes. But a fantastic fucking game and one of the best RPGs ever made. After that go back and play the first two games because they're both great games. Tactics too.

Skip 3, it sucks. 

My fav is Fallout 3 GOTY, but I played them (F3 and NV) in god mode cos combat wasn't any fun. PC versions are awesome cos of great mods, like the one that allows playing after completing story, or the one that allows unlimited number of companions.

Depends on what you are looking for. If its awesome lore and funny quirky stuff. Then 1 and 2 is where its at. New Vegas _does_ bring the new generation closer to its roots.

Fallout 3 gave many fallout fans miss-givings, not me though ultimately. Seems quite a few people think 3 lost too much of the Fallout lore feeling (though it does keep the core of course) in exchange for the 3D modern gameplay. Again personally I loved the gameplay and I thought it kept enough of the core parts that make Fallout a great series that it was enough.

New Vegas I think brought it all back together in a near perfect package blend of modern gameplay with true Fallout feeling.

If you just want good modern Fallout gameplay (which you will probably get with Fallout 4) then go 3 then New Vegas, then possibly play 1 and 2 to round out your Fallout experience.

If you want what made most of us Fallout fans in the first place then do 1 and 2 then 3 and NV.

Tactics I personally would skip unless you are hard up for anything Fallout you haven't played yet.

Also, play without mods first.  Then after you complete them mod the everloving crap out of NV for extended gameplay and fun shenanigans. 

well considering you're hyped for the upcoming Fallout 4, you should start with Fallout 3 (my personal favourite game of all time).

Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics are made by a different developer who invented the IP. Bethesda then bought the rights.


Also it would be better to get the Broken Steel DLC for Fallout 3 (if you don't already have the GOTY edition), since that lets you continue playing after the end and adds to the main story. As an alternative you could use a mod, but I wouldn't advice using too many of them in your first playthrough.

Yeah, that's the problem when IP changes hands and goes mainstream, you have these new fans with their ideas.

As for F3, I was really sceptical about it when it was revelead, as much as I love Morrowind, Bethesda is really bad dev when it comes to stories and characters, and Fallouts were about that, and it turned out I was worried for a good reason. F3 really pales in comparisson to F1/2, though I can't really say it sucks, I quite enjoyed it for other reasons, and I can see why so many people love it.

Unfortunately, those who are not familiar with F1/2 don't know how much F3 lost of the original feel of the world, so, though I know chances are slim, I hope one day to see Bethesda and Obsidian working together on some game, since Bethesda alone will never be able to pull proper Fallout feel.

Fallout 4 will be like 3, so stick with that. The gameplay is simple but good, graphics not great but how in depth the world is, how lost you can get in it, exploring and doing missions. These things truely make the game(s) great.