Fallout and Skyrim are two games which define the Bethesda franchise. Yeah, Prey and Dishonored are good games as well, but they don't have as near a following as the Wasteland and well... Skyrim have. But fans of both and all franchises have been picky about which one is better and which one is worse.
Fallout offers a world in which a somewhat sad post-apocalyptic world awaits you as a character. Exploration is key to finding the truths of the post-nuclear (?) world. Skyrim has a different shade on the other hand. The Elder Scrolls offers a high fantasy experience in both a depressing and light-hearted atmosphere. Fallout has ghouls, deathclaws, and vaults (experiments). Skyrim has Nords, dragons, and word walls.
For this case, we're going to state the obvious: Skyrim is better in almost every way. It has more options and it enjoys a better universe with well established lore. You can do more in the world of Skyrim than you can in any other Fallout world. You've probably seen the best of Fallout and the best of Skyrim, so you know that it's simply true that Skyrim is superior (and Fallout suffers an inferiority complex). And if you don't believe me, we got the memes and the facts to prove it. So fly away with me as I whisk you into a world that proves my point. I bet you can't prove me wrong!
30 Eating 87 Raw Potatoes
Skyrim and Fallout’s food options are interestingly different. Of course with Fallout’s nuclear wastelands you’ve got slim pickings, but farmers exist and good food still exists such as tomatoes, jalapenos, beer, and noodles. So why are we exposed to the meat of every single possible thing in the Fallout universe?
Gecko steak. Ant meat. These things are slightly more realistic. But who’s so hungry that out of all the food they can find in shacks and old stores, and out in the wastelands, that they’re harvesting random bugs to eat? And even further, mole meat? Can we all have a collective, “Wat…?” At first, 87 raw potatoes sounds a bit weird, but throw in what Fallout has to offer and 87 potatoes is fine dining in Skyrim.
29 Bug Noises In Bethesda Game
You know the drill. Out exploring, sword sheathed, magicka filled to the brim, lots of stamina and health to spare. Just doing some exploring over that interesting hill there. Behind you you hear a buzzing sound. You’re startled, quickly turn around, and run after the noise! “New ingredients for potions,” you say as you fill your potions sack with butterflies and fireflies.
Now, the same drill but in a different land. You’re walking along, you find a small hill. You see a band of travelers heading that way. You decide to do the same. “A new trading post? A new location?” you think to yourself. Walking to same direction, you suddenly hear a buzzing sound. You immediately whip out your laser rifle and take some stims. You’ve got a battle on your hands! If you aren’t a high enough level, you’ll have to load a recent save!
28 Selling A Soul
Ah! You’ve found a new item! In Skyrim most useful items will fetch a fair price. You’ll be paid well for plenty of glass, nails, and golden objects. Also, plenty of easy to find merchants everywhere. Solitude has 3-4 shops. Dawnstar has a Khajiit camp. Plenty of shops all ‘round.
Whiterun has a market square!
Capital Wasteland and the Mojave? Heh. Gotta find the Brahman merchants, if they aren't being attacked or already gone. Also, one merchant per town. Difficult to find them, but asking every single NPC I’ve already conversed with should help. The Commonwealth? You’re on your own! Better get those weight-carrying perks. Increase your strength as well. You’re gonna be carrying everything you come by for a long time. Settlements and such…
27 Missing Skyrim
Playing a well-modded, exquisite game versus playing a newer game with the same engine as the old one with terribad, paid mods is something to perceive! It’s well known that Skyrim combat is a tad clunky. Melee fighting takes some practice, but bows and arrows (STEALTH ARCHER!!!) are fun, as well as using those high level destruction spells.
Then we have the guns in Fallout. Why do you thinks V.A.T.S. was invented? You ain’t gonna hit anything with your normal FPS reflexes! Guns, lasers, plasma bullets, etc. are abysmal. They constantly miss. And if you end up getting used to it, good luck going back to your old FPS games. Call of Duty will have you twitching, Overwatch will have you missing constantly, or you’ll be constantly wishing your FPS multiplayers had a system that allows you to stop time in order to hit your targets.
26 Fus Ro Duuhhh!!!
You’ve seen the meme before. Person disagrees with manager and he’s thrown out the window. However, in this case, Fallout’s got no power like the most well known power in Bethesda history (if not gaming history). “Fus Ro Dah” is dragon tongue for “unrelenting force”, a power which blasts those caught in its path a couple dozen feet in the force’s direction.
No power has more meme power than Fus Ro Dah!
Countless videos were made of the power being supposedly used by real life people. Mentioning Fus Ro Dah in a crowd of random citizens will notify everyone around you of your status of being a Skyrim player. What does Fallout have? Nothing comparable. No majestic powers that have the same spirit as Fus Ro Dah. How can anything compare to the dragon language anyway?!
25 He Proposed!!
You’re a traveler and a soldier in an army. Nothing rash has happened in your village for a few years. You decide to take a job with the local Jarl. He’s giving you money to defend his town from criminals and bandits. You’ve saved up enough money to propose to your long time girlfriend as well. You can now settle down and live an easy life policing almost crimeless streets in a police force that barely gets attacked.
And what if you were actually in a settlement in a nuclear wasteland? First of all, nuclear radiation everywhere. Or you live forever as a permanently disfigured ghoul hated by all of society. Secondly, always bandits and raiders attacking your settlement. The weapons don’t work half the time and you need mysterious strangers to come out and help you all the time. And they don’t even want to help!
24 Deathclaws & Dragons
Dragons. The enemy that cares very little for you. They seem to take only from those who they need something from (usually only the Dragonborn). Even if they appear in your realm, they most likely will not attack you. Quite peaceful, actually! Of course, they breathe fire, ice, and destruction. If you do get on their bad side, then they suck! But that’s once every couple thousand years!
And deathclaws? They hunt you down if they see you. They have no morality and an inferiority complex, believing they need to prove themselves to nuclear missiles that they are superior. They exist all the time and everywhere. Nobody willfully faces them, because it means they may pass away.
So who would you rather fight? The monster who can destroy you but doesn’t or the monster with the inferiority complex who is indiscriminate? I see you’ve chosen Skyrim again!
23 Topsy-Turvy
The reviews for Fallout 4 have been a bit topsy-turvy. Fallout 4 had built up a lot of hype for itself, but when it came out, people thought it didn’t live up to the hype. A lot of focus on settlements and such. Then the paid mods, creation kit fiasco came around. All of a sudden, Fallout 4 was considered an overwhelmingly negative game.
You can attach genre types to games and those with the most types selected become the new genre types. The Creation Club got “psychological horror,” “horror,” “dark humor,” and “memes” attached to it! On the front Steam page! Meanwhile, Skyrim sits at mostly to very positive reviews. Of course, a few hiccups here and there, but what can one expect of one of the greatest games of all time? With its open source modding community, it suffered no such fate as Fallout 4 did.
22 Size Does Matter
A larger world means a larger space of play, more content, and more possibility of DLC and mods to fill in the gaps. It also means more work was put into the terrain and the designers had more ideas for development. So when comparing sizes, Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 have nothing to stand against Skyrim’s map.
Fallout 3 we can understand. It’s a 2008 game. Although it did have many DLCs which could have extended the map. Instead they brought people to newer zones of smaller size. Fallout 4 was made 4 years after Skyrim. Why is it significantly smaller? They had the same engines, with updated lighting and graphics, and so much to learn from the Skyrim modding community (big maps pay off). Yet they squandered it!
21 Dragonborn’s Hierarchy Of Needs
We’ve spoken highly of Skyrim because it continues to sell in all avenues of sale. Consoles, new editions, and the joke that one can play it for hundreds of hours on end. It essentially fulfills a “need” that is greater than food and shelter. And gamers agree! Skyrim is definitely fulfilling and brings people back for more every time of every week! People need Skyrim!
What does Fallout offer in return?
Fallout doesn’t do much in the scope of need. No memes about playing it for lengthy times, no constant desire to stay on it, and no dynamic questing (other than helping settlements) make the game quite dull. The lack of narrative DLCs don’t help. Fallout is quite an unfulfilling experience in the long term.
20 Unlimited Mods!
If Skyrim is known for one thing, it is the diverse and bountiful mod community. Adding new zones, adding new armor, improved menus and such all allow for a great game to become even greater! Of course, the mod fiasco that was paid mods through Steam and Bethesda brought that down a bit. People accused the companies of trying to turn a free service into a quick dime. To the community, no one was buying into it.
And why would they? The mods go to extreme levels of fun for those who wish it. Ever wanted to play as Deadpool? Ever wanted to wield a lightsaber as your favorite My Little Pony character? Ever wanted to create Goku? Or play as an amorphous blob of whatever random mods you could load? Skyrim on PC had your back! Unlimited mods, indeed!
19 What Is This Place?!
Blackreach is that place where you wonder about all the time. What mysteries does it hold? Why did the Dwemer (Skyrim’s version of dwarves, but not small) build this place? How big is it really? Blackreach, upon exploring it fully, answers much of your questions, but also leaves much to be desired. It’s one of the many mystical places that Skyrim introduces. Go through random caves throughout the landscape and at one point you will find a random Blackreach as well!
Fallout has nothing like this to offer. The Capital Wasteland and the Commonwealth are both bland areas with interesting places, but little to no mystery in comparison. What Skyrim offers to its players are constant mysteries and quests with wondrous endings! Fallout offers a depleted, post-apocalyptic RPG where quests are railroads that lead to another random shanty town with an old-timey gas station.
18 Existential Crisis Simulator
Ever played on a VR headset? Some games do well with it, some games don’t do well at all, causing headaches and nausea. Some people can’t stand first person RPGs either. They all say it’s difficult to play them because they make the gamer who uses them sickly.
There is one exception though!
The general consensus is that Skyrim VR beats Fallout VR on so many levels. The problems with Skyrim (very little) end of going into Skyrim VR, but with an ultimately better experience. The problems with Fallout 4 go into Fallout VR and create new negative experiences as well. People with migraines are literally going back to Skyrim VR for more, pushing past the tension headaches. The opposite is true for Fallout VR. They’re probably playing too much Skyrim VR to care about Fallout VR.
17 What Else Can This Pip-Boy Do?
Fallout’s Pip-Boy is a unique technology for the wasteland. It tracks your health, radiation, poison, and comfort levels, as well as manages your inventory and aspects of your story. It’s so advanced, that it could possibly even play Skyrim on it! That’s right! You can play Skyrim on the Pip-Boy!
Of course, a lot of modding goes into it (something we’re not short of talking well of), but it is possible to have a screen where you play Skyrim with a Pip-Boy in the background. Ever tried to play it in Fallout 4? I wonder what modding power can go into that to make it come true? Anyways, chances are that if there’s a image of it, then it’s possible. Same engine, similar code, screen available. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a reality in a few years.
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15 Savior Vs. Dude
Skyrim is a world brimming with books, knowledge, spells, and lore. A lot of the lore is hidden, but also connects to your relevant Elder Scrolls world. It even mentions other games. Fallout has no books. It has computers that you need to hack to get by. No computer skills? No lore for you!
Skyrim has magic potions made from your at-first feeble fingers. Eventually you chose to master the potions within you, enhancing all of your abilities, strengthening you. In Fallout you take some medicine, but not too much, or else you’ll get withdrawal. And they only last for 30 seconds or so.
Wanna fight dragons? Doing so pays off well. You get insane experience, but also get treasures and special armor if you defeat it. Defeat a deathclaw? Waste all your meds first, and then get the reward of beating a bad creature for no reward.
14 Be The Skyrim!
Skyrim VR is superbly better than Fallout VR in almost every way! Skyrim allows you to see your favorite locations. The illustrious sky of Sovngarde, the face of Paarthurnax at the Throat of the World, a giant, hidden statue of Talos (the god whose worship is banned in Skyrim), and epic battles between the Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks are things you can all see!
Skyrim provides hundreds of highly detailed and specialized locations. Seeing them all would bring wonders to the eye. Yes, it has faults. But people seem to want to look past them. If you’re on the fence for which one is better, it’s clear cut that Skyrim VR is the way to go. The path is clear, and may Talos guide you!
13 Traitor/Sidekick
Someone’s dream Skyrim/Fallout film comes to life through this meme. Of course, the more interesting characters are from Skyrim. The hero is the Dragonborn. The redeemer is Jyggalag (one of the Daedric Princes). The hero’s leader is a knight. The villain is the Daedric Prince, Hermaeus Mora. The villain’s bodyguard is the first Dragonborn. And the villain’s henchmen are from Skyrim.
Fallout characters inhabit the other less fortunate places. The sidekick and the sidekick’s friend are a vault dweller and a ghoul respectively. The traitor (friend who turns foe) is a hired gun as well. Basically, people with guns are relegated to the lesser roles in this guy’s film. Definitely shows through in the games as well. Skyrim’s characters tend to have more depth and background. Fallout’s characters tend to be flatter and with less history involved.
12 Radioactive Slime Monster
Fallout gives you the ability to be a normal person who does some heroic and weird things. You can never be anything other than a 1950s look-alike, human being who at some point must wield a baseball bat and eat mothballs in order to get out of a fight. That’s the closest thing you get to becoming inhuman.
Skyrim offers you something else. You are the Dragonborn. Your job is to kill dragons and gain their power as souls. You are the supermutant! Of course, it doesn’t stop there! You wanna be a vampire? Get that throat! You wanna be a werewolf? Be enraged! Wanna be a cat? Khajiit has wares! Wanna be a lizard? You are the Argonian maid! Wanna be an Orsimer (Orc)? Make some armor! Wanna be in service to the Daedra? They want you! Skyrim is the land of character opportunity. Fallout is flat.
11 Safety Dance
In Skyrim your morality differs. Yeah, New Vegas has a faction system. Somehow doing a good deed halfway across the map alerts Caesar's Legion that you are a terrible person (nevermind that the factions are based on moral absolutism, which no single faction would be). Stole a sheep from the New California Republic? Welcome to Caesar’s Legion, baddy! Stole a weapon from Caesar’s Legion? Welcome to Caesar’s Legion, baddy!
Skyrim has a faction system only for the Empire and the Stormcloaks. The College of Winterhold does not care that you were once a well known thief. Just as the Companions don’t care that the Forsworn like you a lot. You can break down a door to someone’s house for a good reason in Skyrim! Just be willing to pay the guard off, or be thrown in jail, or fight, or use your position as Thane to get away with robbery.