I asked Fallout series executive producer Jonathan Nolan which he liked better, Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas, and he said 'Fallout 3' without even hesitating

Fallout series executive producer Jonathan Nolan once said that he played so much Fallout 3 when it came out that it "devoured about a year of my life" and "almost derailed my career."

He seems to have landed on his feet. Fallout Season 1 was a critical hit, and Season 2, which takes us to the setting of Fallout: New Vegas, begins airing on Prime Video on December 17.

I recently got the chance to talk to Nolan, and I asked him if he played Fallout: New Vegas as much as he'd played Fallout 3.

"I didn't play it when it came out," Nolan said. "I played it more recently when I knew we were going to Vegas. Actually, that's not true. I played a little bit when it came out, but I went back and dug in a little more when I knew that Vegas was on the horizon. And it's a terrific game."

I asked if I could pin him down on which game he preferred, Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas.

"Fallout 3," he said with not even a microsecond's hesitation—which may cause some Fallout fans to gnash their teeth since New Vegas is overwhelmingly regarded as the high-water mark of the Fallout games (or at least of the Bethesda-published Fallout games).

"Fallout 3 is where the journey for me started. I think I just finished a draft of the script for Batman, for the Dark Knight, or maybe The Dark Knight Rises," he said. "The last few weeks of getting the draft in is just terrifying, and you'd be a total train wreck. You just want to turn your brain off or divert it with something different. So I would go buy the latest triple-A video game release."

Nolan says he bought Fallout 3 on someone's recommendation. "I played it, and I just couldn't pin down… every 30 seconds the tone would take on some new, delicious flavor, right? It was in equal parts kind of dark and mysterious, but also gonzo and weird and funny and extremely violent," he said.

"And so my experience with Fallout began with Fallout 3, walking out of that vault and experiencing my first shootout with wastelanders, and realizing that I'd never played anything quite like it," he said.

On a side note, my own Fallout experience also began with Fallout 3, and even though I've played a hundred hours of Fallout: New Vegas and nearly 200 hours of Fallout 4… Fallout 3 is still my favorite Fallout as well. I would definitely say Fallout: New Vegas is a better game, and Fallout 4 is the game I play when I'm in the mood for some Fallout these days—but Fallout 3 was my first, and I think it'll always be my favorite.

Wishlist feeling a little light? Head to the 2025 PC Gaming Show Most Wanted Steam page to discover the games we and our council of gaming luminaries are most looking forward to, plus other games featured in this year's show on December 4.