The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered has been a smash hit for Bethesda and Xbox, and it seems that a remaster of a Fallout TV show, with Season 2 well underway. Leaks and rumors suggest that a Fallout 3 Remastered may be released in 2026.

New Vegas first would be a huge mistake for many reasons, with the primary one being the amount of DLC content.

Fallout: New Vegas Doesn't Need A Remaster

Not A Lot To Improve

If Bethesda were to remaster Fallout: New Vegas in the same vein as Oblivion, what would it gain? The visuals will be improved a lot, and hopefully, the bugs will get fixed, but that's all I can think of. Fallout: New Vegas still holds up for the most part, thanks to its great writing, role-playing elements, and main questline.

Compared to Oblivion, which definitely needed more touch-ups, a remaster of New Vegas is not nearly as necessary. Besides some key areas, the majority of the open world wouldn't reap the benefits of a visual overhaul in the same way as Fallout 3. The open world is a big reason why remastering Fallout 3 is much better to do first.

Fallout 3 Has The Most To Gain Here

The Biggest Improvement

While New Vegas is generally seen as the better game out of the two, I think there's no denying that the open world in Fallout 3 proves to be far superior.

For example, the Deathclaw Quarry in New Vegas won't be much improved in Unreal Engine 5.

New Vegas's open world has a lot of lackluster, forgettable areas on the map, whereas Fallout 3 is jam-packed with memorable locations. An Unreal Engine 5 visual overhaul would work best at improving the game map of Fallout 3 since the quality is so high in the first place.

For example, the Deathclaw Quarry in New Vegas won't be much improved in Unreal Engine 5. To boot, the main sidequests are far more memorable and unique in Fallout 3. Those would benefit more from a remaster than New Vegas, which would improve most in its main questline. However, above all else, there's one key reason why Fallout 3 must be remastered first from all angles: the DLC.

DLC Is Why Fallout 3 Needs A Remaster First

You Always First Do The Heaviest Task

Fallout: New Vegas has four story DLC packs: Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road, plus an additional weapons DLC pack. Fallout 3, on the other hand, had a whopping five story DLCs: Operation: Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout, and Mothership Zeta. Due to this amount of content, a Fallout 3 Remastered would be a more taxing effort to make. Other publishers, like Sega, might want to do the less demanding remaster, but for a massive company like Bethesda, it's in their best interest to do the toughest remaster first.

Remastering Fallout 3 first allows the biggest obstacle to get out of the way. It makes a Fallout: New Vegas remaster significantly easier due to the numerous reused assets in that game. Konami appears to be using the same tactic with its Silent Hill remakes, starting with Silent Hill 2, which makes a Silent Hill 3 remake easier due to the reused areas. Think of it like card collecting. If you're collecting Yu-Gi-Oh! 1st Edition Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon, you must collect the heavy hitters first to get those wildly expensive purchases out of the way.

Starting off with collecting the Super rares is a terrible idea, and the same applies to making video games. Not only is remastering Fallout 3 first the best financial route, but, once again, the DLCs benefit the most from a remaster. The Mothership Zeta DLC is widely regarded as one of history, and a remaster could significantly improve its quality. I know many would prefer a New Vegas remaster, but first remastering Fallout's third installment would be for the greater good.