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For me Fallout 3 is a solid 8.5/10.

People need to remember how Fallout 1&2 had more than its fair share of flaws as well. The combat was pretty lame at times with random criticals being far too high in damage. You could die with a single shot no matter how well armored you were just because your opponent got a lucky shot. When a normal shot does 10 damage, it's a bit too much to see a critical do 200+ damage.

Fallout 3 definitely has more balanced combat. The trick lies in combining free aiming for aiming from a large distance and using VATS for aiming up close. You'll do more damage with VATS up close - especially when using laser weapons and headshots.

Fallout 3 is also about exploring - I was smart enough not to go for the main story until I explored nearly every part of the map. Fallout 3 has a LOT more interesting locations than Fallout 2 (I completed that a mere month before completing Fallout 3) - take Tenpenny tower as a good example of the kind of locations you could find.

Yeah, it's not perfect but I think people have rose tinted glasses on when looking at Fallout 1&2. Fallout 3 was a lot better than I expected to be honest.