Fallout

It depends what you want out of the games.

Original Fallout (1&2 are both fantastic) are some of the greatest CRPGs ever made. Back when Western RPG meant trying to make computer games simulate Tabletop Roleplaying games (D&D). There are a TON of quest routes and decisions. You could make a slick evil character that manipulates their way through the entire game. That kind of thing. Hell. You don’t even have to finish the main quest in FO1 to beat the game. The turn based combat still holds up really well if you like that kind of thing. Action point systems are fun.

New Fallout (Bethesda and Obsidian). New Vegas. It has some of the OG Fallout creators on it (working for Obsidian). Play this if you’re more interested in sandboxy exploration while also having a bit deeper quest pathing than the Bethesdas games. But it does feel clunky from a shooter perspective. It’s the same game as 3 with much better writing and quests.

3 and 4 are more the Bethesda open world. Walk 10 feet, explore something interesting, walk 10 feet and explore something interesting. The actual ROLE playing aspect of playing a role is very shallow. 4 is probably a better choice if you’re not interested in role playing. The gun play and everything feels significantly better than New Vegas and 3. 3 was clunky even when it came out in most aspects. If you just want a solid sandbox game and don’t care about writing or story I’d say just play 4.