This 2008 single-player Action RPG drops you into the open wastes of post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. You create a unique character and explore a vast world, fighting Raiders and Super Mutants while searching for your missing scientist father. Core gameplay blends first-person/third-person shooting with deep character progression, featuring the strategic V.A.T.S. targeting system. The central quest involves completing Project Purity, a massive water purification effort, while navigating factions like the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave. The game includes five DLC packs and a remastered version is available.
As an open-world RPG, the game emphasizes player freedom and deep character customization. Players create a unique character, shaping their appearance, skills, and moral compass through extensive choices made throughout the experience. The gameplay seamlessly merges first-person or third-person shooting mechanics with deep role-playing systems.
A core feature is the V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), which allows players to pause real-time combat to strategically target specific enemy body parts, utilizing action points for precise attacks. Exploration is central to the experience, rewarding players for venturing into derelict buildings, hidden bunkers, and irradiated zones to uncover lore, secure resources, and undertake numerous side quests.
The central narrative revolves around the search for your father, a brilliant scientist who has suddenly abandoned Vault 101. This quest propels the player out into the Wasteland, leading them toward a critical, pre-War initiative known as Project Purity—a massive undertaking intended to purify the region's water supply. The journey involves navigating complex political factions, including the militaristic Brotherhood of Steel and the remnants of the pre-War government, the Enclave, as you race to complete your father's life work.
While the core experience remains consistent, the game has received a remastered version available on modern platforms, enhancing its accessibility. Furthermore, the main release is supported by significant additional content, including five downloadable content (DLC) packs that introduce new areas, storylines, equipment, and challenges to the core experience.
Beyond standard real-time shooting, the strategic use of the V.A.T.S. system allows players to manage combat encounters by prioritizing weak points, adding a layer of tactical depth to firefights against the varied threats of the Wasteland.
This title is classified as a Shooter and Role-playing game (RPG). It was originally launched on the Xbox 360, PC (Microsoft Windows), and PlayStation 3.

In court documents for the FTC v. Microsoft court case, a remaster for Fallout 3 was leaked in an upcoming list of games from Bethesda.

Fallout Zero is a quest mod , complete with its own world and backstory set two months after the outbreak of the Great War. The mod includes several new game features: a reactive people helmet, a drivable metro car, craftable objects, an original basic needs system (hunger, thirst). The player is teleported to Zero world with a level 1 Character /see walkthrough video to see how to start this mod/, an empty inventory and the possibility to choose their character’s attributes. After completing the story, the player is ‘returned’ to the original world of Fallout 3, retaining the level and attributes their character had possessed before starting the mod.

A fully-voiced story mod for Fallout 3, There's No Such Thing As Bad Publicity adds a new quest line involving pre-War secrets in the nation's capital, and several new locations to explore.

Defy hostile alien abductors and fight your way off of the massive Mothership Zeta, orbiting Earth miles above the Capital Wasteland. Mothership Zeta takes Fallout 3 in an entirely new direction – outer space. Meet new characters and join with them in a desperate bid to escape the Aliens’ clutches. To do so, you’ll wield powerful new weapons, like the Alien Atomizer, Alien Disintegrator, and Drone Cannon, and deck yourself out in brand new outfits, like the Gemini-Era Spacesuit and even Samurai Armor.

Buy a ticket and hop onboard the Duchess Gambit, as Tobar the Ferryman takes you to the strange seaside town of Point Lookout. What secrets does the dilapidated boardwalk hold? Who lives in the sprawling mansion? Why is the Punga Fruit so important? And what horrors lie in the depths of the murky swamp? Point Lookout is the most open-ended DLC yet, and allows you to explore an entirely new and expansive gameplay area any way you’d like. A completely new quest line allows you uncover the town’s hidden secrets, and wield powerful new weapons like the Double-Barrel Shotgun against the swamp’s dangerous, and deformed, denizens. So venture to Point Lookout, if you dare. Just pray it’s not a one-way trip.

Cube Experimental is a single player modification for Fallout 3, set in a long deserted, underground scientific facility right below the post-nuclear Washington D.C.

You may have dealt the Enclave a serious blow at Project Purity, but their forces are still out there, and still pose a grave threat to the people and security of the Capital Wasteland. In Broken Steel, you’ll continue your current Fallout 3 character past the events of Project Purity, and work with the Brotherhood of Steel to eradicate the Enclave threat once and for all. You’ll travel to new locations like the Olney Powerworks, wield destructive new weapons like the Tesla Cannon, fight powerful new creatures like the Super Mutant Overlord, marvel at the destructive power of Liberty Prime, earn new Perks like the devastating Nuclear Anomaly… and play Fallout 3 all the way to level 30.

Explore a sprawling settlement ravaged by time, neglect, nuclear radiation, and moral degradation. The Pitt is filled with morally grey choices, shady NPCs, new enemies, new weapons, and much more.

Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders.