I think Warcraft's in-game cinematics was able to be pulled off because of their 3D world and models. It was sort of an over-gratuitious shout on how nifty their engine looked (well justified shout, too). But that didn't stop them from making actual cinematics that were visually stunning. Just look at Thrall's and Grom's fight against Mannorath.
Personally, I think Fallout's in-game cutscenes weren't anything to be impressed with. For instance, in Fallout Two, when you see Frank Horrigan and two soldiers in Advance Power Armor waste a farmer and his family. It looked too cheesy. The dialogue was corny, the sort of stuff you'd find a cheap B-movie. I.E. "Take me to your leader", "Never! I'll never support your evil organization" blah, blah, blah. Then the family gets wasted in-synch, which had me saying, "......right." Horrigan turning around and saying "Stay out of this" had me saying, "Yeah, I can't do anything about it anyway, my screen's locked." And where they were supposed to walk-away dramatically is ruined since they have to zig-zag their way through hexes.
Bah, I'll probably eat my own words if Van Buren can achieve a nice looking graphic engine. So that's a challenge, developer guys. Prove me wrong and make me eat my own words.
