I'm trying to post a reply on siliconera, but I won't be surprised if it get's deleted by the mods, so I'll post here as well where I won't be stifled. Please read the article before the following, as it's made partially as a direct response to that.
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Sir, please go play the first Fallout two games before you praise this one. Once you have finished them you will surely be compelled to come back and write a retraction of any praise you have given Bethesda.
What Bethesda has done in it's infinite fear is refuse to stray from the path that they are familiar with and essentially made a mod for Oblivion. They were given a game with superior story and a large fan base already present and they were still too afraid to try something new to them. So they changed it, warped it till it became familiar, till they weren't scared, and till it wasn't Fallout anymore.
They now knew what to do, they've done it before, it's easy! But how often is the easier path the better one? Instead of trying something new, something hard and unknown to them, they tried to stay with what they already know and thus have alienated the fan base.
This game doesn't appeal to old fans as you can see by going to any of the long lasting fan sites still existing. Who will it appeal to then? Old Elder Scrolls fans. Their old fan base, not Fallout's. They seek to rejuvenate their own series while tarnishing a better, but older one. The development team claims that they're all Fallout fans, but that's clearly been evidenced as just marketing drivel. Why work so hard to say it again and again? Because it's not true. "Methinks you doth protest too much!" An apt quote for this issue. But you can see further that they do not care about keeping true to fallout in all these screenshots.
There are so many pretty pictures. Distractingly pretty. Historically why have most games overemphasized graphics during previews? Cause the gameplay sucks. But more than that, what else have they done with their graphics? Oh my, they've changed things. This game takes place just a few years after Fallout 2, but, for example, the super mutants have warped into Hell Knights from Doom 3. Are the Ghouls now looking like something ripped from Resident Evil? Bethesda keeps telling us to look at the gorgeous scenery while dodging questions about betraying he Fallout style with a quick recitement of "We're fallout fans, so do not question us!!". The original Fallout games and even the newer Fallout: Tactics didn't rely on shiny things to distract us, they just went and gave us good gameplay and story. This is why they're still so revered and continually played to this day, despite being a decade old.
Gameplay... gameplay never changes. Or does it? Bethesda thought that the tried and true style of TBS(Turn-Based Strategy) was archaic and useless, when all it needed was a little polish. So they decided to fall back on their own, Bethesda's preferred style of FPS(First-Person Shooter). Great, take away one of the biggest ties to the original games. Further alienation of the real fans. What's next? Take away the depravity so that you won't have Jack Thompson crying to you? Whatever is easiest, right? Whatever doesn't force you to work harder. This gameplay style was great, especially with Fallout Tactics giving you the choice of RTS or TBS. Why couldn't they stick with this? With some simple polishing up of the AI it would remove any clunky or slow feelings they claim to have. Personally I just say Bethesda is filled with twitch gamers wanting another shooter, but hey, I'm just one guy, so who listens to me?
Going back to graphics for a moment, I'd like to point out the poor integration of Fallout elements into Fallout 3. Interplay was always very careful about making it seem more lifelike and not mixing up the cartoonish elements with the realistic ones. For example, there was a image in Game Informer that showed an ad for the vault, which mixed normal humans with the famous PipBoy. This wouldn't happen before. PipBoy was around a lot, but it wasn't mushed in with other things. This is a good example of how they knew to keep things separate because it wasn't proper. But that's tossed away now. Also, Fallout has a very 50s inspired appearance, which I think most people are aware of by now. But this extends to many facets of the world. architecture, vehicles, decorum, etc. Bethesda hasn't put enough effort in and many parts come off as being generic and without definition of a proper era. Many things look like they were from the 90s even. A far cry from the original. But they're very well versed in removing things too, not just changing them.
Bethesda has publicly announced that they've removed the car from their game. Unfamiliar people are probably thinking, "Who cares? It's just a car." But for those that have played, they recognize it as a icon of the game. It's a classic part of the game and is a very good example of the Fallout world. To simply rip it out and say who cares is just one more sign that they really don't care about turning this into the next proper Fallout game. There are other things too that are very Fallout based, even if not part of the main story. Eye shots and groin shots were also ripped away. Bethesda claims that eye shots were removed because they want the head to explode anyway. Would it not be suiting that the target's eye disappear and blood gushes from it, thus causing the target to clutch their face in pain, effectively disabling them? Oh wait, but that's more work, something Bethesda fears. But fine, let this one go, why no groin shots? You can't just claim that it's too similar to another shot, because it's definitely a unique target. So why then? Dumbing it down and making it less edgy? More risque things like drug use and groin shots are far less acceptable by today's paranoid and ignorant public than just simple blood and gore, right? Taking the easy path again. So will we be seeing drugs, alcohol, sex, child death, and other distinctively Fallout aspects gone with the groin shot? Time will tell. Perhaps they can get that E rating they're shooting for by October '08.
So overall we have a game that is overemphasizing graphics, changing the traditional gameplay style to their own, failing to comprehend the true Fallout spirit and slapping together what they poorly perceive as Fallout symbols, removing aspects of the original game that made it unique, and generally just pandering to their own wants while neglecting the fans. Congrats Bethesda, I'm sure you'll love playing your own game. If you have the time, perhaps making a version for us, the fans.
