Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game, a fantastic experience, even today in my humble opinion. Now, I should preface that I usually play the game with Killap's Restoration Patch, so that will effect my ranking.
Character Creation: If you understand it, A++, if you don't F--, if this is your first go-around, I'd recommend seeing character builds online, as it is quite difficult to grasp, but once done it is excellent. For example, all of the seven primary statistics are helpful, you really don't feel, "Oh this one doesn't affect the gameplay all too much and it sucks, down to zero with you sir." Rather, it is a question of what is least important to your play-through, I, for example, tend to go for low endurance, not because it is a dump stat, but because my combat style is from far away, and besides, at the late game, 100HP vs. 300HP won't matter when some guy scores a 350HP critical hit that goes through armor. Another example, Charisma, you can absolutely raise it down to one, you will have less companions, sure, but you will be stronger to compensate, it isn't like the (otherwise impeccable) New Vegas, where most everyone has a Charisma of 1 and still is carried by companions and has a Speech of 100. However, there is one stat that rises above all the rest, Agility. With a low Agility, the game'll be hell for your first time, same with Intelligence. The former determines how often you can do anything in combat, the latter, well if it's too low, your character becomes a caveman. Traits: I simply love these. Fast Shot, implicitly changes the game into something harder at the beginning, but easier at the end, with burst weapons and what-not. Gifted, God-amongst-men, you get +1 to each primary stat, for -10% to skills at the start, and -5 skill points per level, SPECIALs are a rare commodity, skills are not. Skilled is also good, for role-playing. +10% to all skills at the start, and +5 skill points per level, at the cost of a perk being gained every fourth level as opposed to every third, good for low-Intelligence characters, as well as role-playing as you-know, someone who is skilled. The perk restriction is what makes it worse than Gifted, in my opinion at least. I've also played with Small Frame and Sex Appeal, the former is good for both min-maxing and role-play, and the latter just for role-play. As for the other traits, I've not played with them, truth be told. As for skills, any of the Combat skills, (besides throwing) are viable, though I had the most fun with throwing. As for active skills Lockpick and Doctor are usually my go-to. Science is useless besides a section of the game that I won't detail here, but you can get a companion that can help you with everything else Science-related, and you can just read to improve your Scientific capabilities. Ditto for Repair, except that companion can help with everything. Sneak is also great, just sayin.'
"Tutorial" If I were you, I'd run straight through it, just *zip* to the end, thus the quotes around "tutorial" As for locations, all are great, besides the last one, which is good, but not great, as it just feels some-what out of place. For example, in one of those locations, you can work for four mob bosses simultaneously, then betray the others and be a Made-Man in the one you sided with, GTA 3 style. You can also ride around the wasteland in a car, if you find the correct components, that is. Perks are rather rudimentary, the ones that stand out to me personally, are "Awareness" "Bonus HtH and Ranged Attacks" "HtH evade" "Bonus Ranged Damage" "Better Criticals" "Slayer" and "Sniper" The first is because it just gives you the info for how many HPs your enemy has, as well as his weapon and ammunition, need I say more. The second, well because the more you can attack, the more damage you do. The third, as if you're playing unarmed, you'll be hit a lot, so avoiding damage is helpful. The fourth, as with burst weapons, the +2 damage is per bullet, meaning a 40-round-burst just got +80 damage. The fifth, as you can (with high Luck) cause your enemy to die instantly. The sixth and seventh, both increase critical hits. The former just upgrades every melee attack into a critical, the latter makes the crit calculation change from 1*Luck to 10*Luck, meaning that with 10 Luck, you score a critical every time with guns.
Which game should I get? Most content for my cash? New Vegas. Shortest game: Fallout One. Best Atmosphere? Fallout 3. One with the most role-playing? Fallout 2.