Well, after spending quite a time playing Fallout 3 I'm left somewhat disappointed. Yes, I'm one of those rabid Fallout 1/2 fans.

I'm happy to forgive some of the various glitches, the dodgy animations and lifeless character facial interactions. To me, the graphics don't make or break a game.

The dialog, on the other hand, is terrible. I'm also unhappy with how quickly and easily you can get skills up. I'm not a fan of how they handled the 'scientific' skill. Basically all it does it lets you hack into 'easy' 'average' 'hard' and 'very hard' computers, with no in between. The same for lock picking. The only other time the skill is used is in some dodgy dialog option.
As for personal stats they seem to have much less impact on your 'character' then then Fallout's 1/2.
Take intelligence for instance.
In Fallout 2, if you chose an Intelligence of 1, your dialog options were limited to 'err aaahhh uggg' and so forth. In Fallout 3, no your just as smart as with int of 5 or so. You just miss the odd bit of dialog and a few less skill points.

I like VATS though, it works well. I don't mind the FPS aspect of the game, I'd prefer it to be more character based then your own skill however. I'd also like it to be harder. My character shouldn't be able to take on a Super Mutant or enclave at level 4 and beat them with only minor scratches.

I personally would love to have seen a much better usage of the various skills other then the generic 'repair your equipment', 'pick a lock' and 'hack a computer'.

I do look towards the modding community, especially fellow rabid fans over at No Mutants Allowed to address these issues, which they will as long as a semi-decent mod kit is available for Fallout 3 (given that Oblivion has one, it seems likely).

Personally I don't believe that the game really is worth the 10/10's it has been getting. 8/10, yes. 10/10 No. As a Fallout Game I would rate it at 5/10.

The previous Fallout games were very much about your character and the skills/stats they had. Choosing one set of skills over another (or not) really had a deep impact on the game. In this Fallout, not so much. Around level 10, a large chunk of your skills are able to be at a decent level to do most of the stuff in the game.

Edit:
Also, some mods for Fallout 3 are already available:
Fallout 3 Mods: Round-up
It is updating as mods are released.
I very much recommend MTUI Mod It is basically a UI fix that works is designed for resolution of 1024x768 or up. It makes better use of the screen.

There are other bits'n'pieces there. Such as changing VATS so you take more damage and makes it less God-Like.
Removal of various quest way points, makes it harder and better for some as you have to explore for those quests.

I feel that the rabid fans will very much alter the game to make it more like the previous Fallouts.

Yer it is a good game, but it can be SO MUCH BETTER. Just enhancing the mechanics, adding extra usage of skills and rewriting the dialog would make it even better.

I have honestly played Fallout 1 and 2.

The FEEL is still there. It still leaves your brain to fill the gaps. It still feels gritty, bizarre and bombed the hell out of a world.

I think Bethesda have done a pretty good job reading the whole Fallout wiki (which was written by fans of the Fallout series) and adapting to the game and I REALLY think this is going to be the -last great- game in today's market of rush-gun-rush shooters. Sure Call of Duty 4 had a great story line and then there will be those people who go "But Bioshock was..." no... Fallout 3 is. It is a non linear world you can run everywhere shoot stuff up; explore; get irradiated; once again come back to whatever town.

The problem is that now we've "gone mainstream" with this whole gaming thing. We've got all this console(maybe even PC)-airhead-halo-3-drives-pimped-out-car-look-at-mah-blingbling-type people and these, are the same people who used to think that gaming as a context was nerdy or geeky. Of course these same people would of never gone and played games unless they looked like the car pretty much.

Sure 'these type of people' might of gone to movies just to watch them and not even soak up the story.

I like gaming cause it tells stories. Stories and immersion are what drives gameplay. Sure the animation in Fallout 3 might not be 'perfect' but thats why you read books (or used to) because your brain likes to fill gaps. In some ways computer gaming is killing off our imaginations and making us all stupider. Idicocracy indeed.

It also reinterates the age old stupid mantra "doesn't matter what you do, people will never be happy." least we be happy we got any Fallout product at all.

In many ways we could throw the ball back in your court and say. "Ok here is an unlimited budget, a world class team of developers... Go and make that legendary product." and once again you'd get the so called hardcore-whatever saying "OMG I HATEZ IT"

In the end, be happy it just is.

THe thing that pisses me off the most is the maps, the sub levels don't align with the country, its not open a all! everything is split up into very small levels. If you need to get somewhere you can't just run at it you have to f*** around for ever because every street is a dead end or covered by a 4 foot high fence you can't get over.

I havent played Fallout or Fallout 2, but I have been really enjoying Fallout 3.

I understand what you're saying about the skills, it seems like if you hit level 20 you would come close to maxing out most of them.

I think everybody who didn't like fallout 3 because they are a true fallout 1/2 fan needs to stop chugging vast quantities of c***.

Liberty is not negotiable!

Really? I would like to see that stand up in court. It's like saying all orange lighters in the world are mine.

just finished it. great ending. visuals are stunning.

it can only get better if they choose to do another.

this game has crashed for me over 7 times in the last two hours.... :(

DR = damage reduction
VL = value

i think?

Forget it! It didn't hold up in court!

CND as condition took me a while. Knew what it was but didn't put 2 and 2 together for a while

You mean 'r'?

this game has crashed for me over 7 times in the last two hours.... :(

Try turning off the autosave settings, mine was crashing quite a bit up until I turned it off.