That's encouraging to hear.
As far as questions:
1) Does the dialogue/animations look to be as horrible as they appear?
The early stuff was a little juvenile on the swearing. It is a bit more balanced. It isn't perfect, but it's better. The animation is hit and miss. Third person perspective is wonky, as I said in my review. It's better than Oblivion, but still a little 'glidey'
2) The perks seem to be pretty useless overall. Is this the case?
I'll quote my review chunk:
While the traits and perks have been essentially combined for Fallout 3, I didn’t find myself missing them. What old school Fallout fans may notice however is that all of the perks are fairly positive in nature. While traits in Fallout and Fallout 2 may have brought negative effects with their positive bonuses, you won’t find that in Fallout 3. The perks grant bonuses such as the Thief skill which grants +5% to Sneak and Lockpick Skill. Later perks are more exotic, such as the Mysterious Stranger perk which grants a random chance of an unnamed NPC coming into your combat area and working with you for the duration of the battle. The four perks attainable at Level 20 are fairly overpowering, granting a full view of the entire map, instantly regenerating V.A.T.S. Action Points after a kill, enhanced ninja-like melee combat skills, or the ability to regenerate health while in direct sunlight. Since there is no “re-spec” available, you’ll find yourself agonizing over which perk to select – you only get 20.
They aren't useless, but the negatives that we are used to from F1 and 2 are gone.
3) The level matching from Oblivion still appears to be an issue. Is this evident?
Not sure where you got this info. It isn't like that at all. I got my teeth kicked in when I went to a Super Mutant camp too early. I came back later and ripped em apart.
Thanks for the input, and hope you feel better.
Thanks. This is WAY harder than I thought it was going to be.
you also seem to have called VATS sort of turnbased... makes you less than reliable in my book.
Sorry you feel that way. It is semi-turn based, as I said in my review. You pause combat, select your targets, and then they play out. The enemy can and will fire back during that sequence, making it not quite turn based, and not quite real time. Thus, semi-turn based.
