Can I play Fallout 3 without any background to the Fallout Series?

I have heard the Fallout 3 is awesome. I want to play it, but I am wondering how much background I will need?

I played Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion (also by Bethesda) and I think I could have played Oblivion without having played the other two, but I don't know if they did the same with the fall out series.

Solution 1:

As far as i know the stories don't intertwine too much, just that it has the same setting: a post apocalyptic environment with a touch of 50s. You will encounter some items that are well known for the series e.g the bobble head, but all in all you don't have much to worry about.

Personally I've played Fallout 3 without playing the other 3 games and didn't feel the least out of the loop.

Solution 2:

Fallout 3 is set about a century after Fallout 2, and about 2500 miles away, in the Washington DC region, whereas the original two Fallouts were set on the west coast. While there are a few callbacks and references, you need not have any experience with them to enjoy the game - in fact, your character by definition, is incapable of having any knowledge of the various factions and characters being referred to, having grown up in an ostensibly sealed environment with no contact with the outside world.

Solution 3:

I've been paying fallout since the first one got out. Now I have all of the games. As said previously, it's the same setting, but a whole new story in all the Fallout games. For example, in Fallout 3 you starts as a new human in a "vault". You grow up there, and then the main story begins. In New Vegas, you starts in the role of a middle-aged man, a whole new man than before. Then a new story begins. The beginning of New Vegas's story, is in the clip at the start of the game. ;)