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Fallout 3
Vault-Tec engineers have worked around the clock on an interactive reproduction of Wasteland life for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own vault. Included is an expansive world, unique combat, shockingly realistic visuals, tons of player choice, and an incredible cast of dynamic characters.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
20 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“when u got freedom to choose to be borderline hitler or jesus in an open world game”
“Really good game, just gotta get past the fact you need a nexus mod for it to even run. Its such an amazing game for exploration and just aimless wandering, as you will find something eventually no matter what direction…”
“Gameplay is good, side quests are fun, main story is alright but starting the game is a BIG pain”
15 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Dear Todd Howard and everyone at Bethesda, Your fans all around the world are eagerly waiting for Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters. Please take your time and don’t disappoint us. Preserve their aesthetics the…”
“Wonderful game. Despite being made a year before I was born, this has wonderful graphics for its era in my opinion. It became one of my favorites from Bethesda next to Skyrim.”
“Decent game, Has a deep dark atmosphere and story, Has better post-apocalyptic vibes than Fallout 4 or 76”
14 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“It says "played for 41 minutes" but it would only count my time on the launcher for some reason. I have indeed played it. I'd place it below NV and 4 but this is indeed worth the purchase and deserves all the praise it…”
“Decent game, Has a deep dark atmosphere and story, Has better post-apocalyptic vibes than Fallout 4 or 76”
“Gameplay is good, side quests are fun, main story is alright but starting the game is a BIG pain”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“FALLOUT 3 IS A CLASSIC, IT HAVE EVERYTHING A FALLOUT GAME SHOULD HAVE MAYBE NOT AS GOOD AS VEGAS BUT IT DID WHAT I WANTED AND MORE IT HAVE THE ATMOSPHERE, THE GAMEPLAY, THE STORY AND THE RADIO!!!!!!!!!! HOPE MORE PEOPLE…”
“Three Dog my goat”
“Great graphics. It's fun all around! Excellent and fitting music from that era! Cool creatures and bad guys! You can either just focus on the main questline, or freelance. I would suggest doing the freelance thing…”
36 of the 104 reviews raise this · 21 of them still recommend the game.
“troubleshooting for an hour just to get this slop to run and it crashes anyway what a waste of time, I wish you would go bankrupt bethesdumb”
“It says "played for 41 minutes" but it would only count my time on the launcher for some reason. I have indeed played it. I'd place it below NV and 4 but this is indeed worth the purchase and deserves all the praise it…”
6 of the 104 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“The game is good, it is very fun if you want a post apocalyptic action game. My only problem is, Washington DC, the area where a lot of quests are centered, is total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. You have to go through a bunch of cryptic…”
“The story is mediocre and the gunplay is worse, but the open world exploration is top notch. The ideal way to play is to get sidetracked because it's far more entertaining than following the main questline. Regardless,…”
“Funny game, Good game, lacks rpg elements for a fallout game, works perfectly in my horrible pc, play it is worth it PD: new vegas better”
6 of the 104 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Great game that originally had the worst ending in the franchise, and they had to fix it with DLCs. Can't recommend purchasing it via Steam until Bethesda fixes it. Unplayable for Intel users without the use of mods,…”
“The story is mediocre and the gunplay is worse, but the open world exploration is top notch. The ideal way to play is to get sidetracked because it's far more entertaining than following the main questline. Regardless,…”
“After having played FO: New Vegas and FO4, FO3 is the third fallout game i have played. Between the three, I would go with the consensus and say that New Vegas is the best. The main story, and even many of the…”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“The story is mediocre and the gunplay is worse, but the open world exploration is top notch. The ideal way to play is to get sidetracked because it's far more entertaining than following the main questline. Regardless,…”
“yo bro i tried to revisit my childhood memories with Fallout 3 on Steam but the graphics straight up roasted me 😭💀 like i booted it up thinking “bet, nostalgia hit incoming, wandering the Capital Wasteland again,…”
“its decent, not as good as new vegas though. its a very green game”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“ive played it before and its a great game HOWEVER when i got it through steam the game will not launch. i can open the launcher from the steam app then click play and it just all goes away. i have reinstalled contacted…”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 81.1% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“This is, in my opinion, the best fallout game. New Vegas is still PEAK dont get me wrong, and fallout 1 and 2 are absolutely fire. But fallout 3 and the CAPITAL wasteland just hits so different. yeah it has its flaws, but coming into fallout 3 as my first fallout game, it was SO…”
— a player, Steam review · 101 hrs played“This is a good precursor to Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4. The controls and graphics are just like New Vegas. However, it would not run in Windows 11 as downloaded from Steam. It took me a bit of searching for the solution to run it in Windows 11, but Reddit and the Steam…”
— a player, Steam review · 80 hrs played“maybe if the game doesnt crash every now and then i would recommend it to other players”
— a player, Steam review · 72 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-23 23:36 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Fallout 3 - Game Launcher Update
The Fallout 3 German Low Violence version has been updated and no longer installs Games for Windows Live dependencies. If the Fallout 3 German Low Violence version was previously installed on Steam, w
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From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition (2009)
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | RPG |
| Player tags | Open World · Post-apocalyptic · RPG · Singleplayer · Exploration · First-Person · Sci-fi · Moddable · Adventure · Action · FPS · Atmospheric (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Partial Controller Support |
| Languages | English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain |
| Estimated owners | 1,000,000 – 2,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://fallout.bethsoft.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Operating system: Windows XP/Vista Processor: 2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor Memory: 1 GB (XP)/ 2 GB (Vista) Hard disk space: 7 GB Video: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 or better/ATI X850 or better) Sound: DirectX®: 9.0c Controller support: Xbox 360 controller Other Requirements: Online play requires log-in to Games For Windows - Live Supported Video Card Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 200 series, Geforce 9800 series, Geforce 9600 series, Geforce 8800 series, Geforce 8600 series, Geforce 8500 series, Geforce 8400 series, Geforce 7900 series,