Shedding my biases for a second and trying to be as even-handed as possible:
* The initial impression is that they'll focus much more on the lead-up to the Great War. Might be wrong, mind you, but between the trailer's focus and the leaked casting calls, that's a very strong impression. Not sure what to feel about that. I feel like it's better to never have the full picture of the pre-War world and just experiencing it in bits and snippets, but if they limit it to a tutorial section it might work out okay.
* I'm really unhappy with the prospect of a voiced protagonist. The way I see it, there's no reason for the series to go in that direction, and, unless Bethesda seriously overhauls its storytelling, no commercial/critical benefit can be gained out of it.
* The art direction... well, there's good and bad, and I hope the bad will start looking better once I get to see more of the game and the good will continue to give me a good impression while the shine wears off. First, the bad: the tech level of the game looks a bit.. inconsistent? And the architecture and decors looks a bit uninspired too. Fallout 3 had a really good, consistent tone it aimed for in terms of architecture and technology. There were a few blunders along the way (I still don't really understand the goals of the Super Mutant redesign, and I think the Power Armors were far too busy and lacked strong silhouettes), but overall it was a nice package. From this trailer, Fallout 4 seems to lack that cohesiveness. Some of the tech (the airship) looks like it could fit in Dishonored, other looks like it's ripped from Fallout 3 but made shinier. As for the good, though: I'm pretty happy with their decision to shed the overwhelming color tints they've been using for the past 2 games (3 if you count Obsidian's New Vegas). While the shaders don't look phenomenal, I do appreciate the matte painting-like saturated look of some scenes, and the contrast will undoubtedly make a lot of scenes much easier to read.
* Graphically it's sort of underwhelming. It's not bad, but it reminds me of the first showing of Destiny, except with worse animations. When put against other comparable open-world titles like The Witcher 3, Fallout 4 simply doesn't look up to snuff.
* It's too early to judge, but it does look like Bethesda is actually trying to carve its own place in the Fallout lore this time around. There don't seem to be any obvious references to the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave, there aren't even ghouls in the trailer (unless they really *changed* their look the creatures shown in the supermarket section are something completely different), and while there's a couple of creatures that have a suspiciously Super Mutant-like silhouette at one point, they might well be something else too. This is cool! I don't like Bethesda's writing in Fallout 3 outside of a few largely disconnected short stories/setpieces, but I'm more willing to give them a chance on something new. If it doesn't work, no biggie either, because the failure wouldn't be on the shoulders of an old, beloved character and/or faction.
* There's a dog in the game. Not a Hairworks dog but I'll take it. A dog's a dog.
Overall, a lot of stuff that will make or break the game simply isn't part of the trailer. There are simply no elements to judge the writing, character progression systems, quest design, and world design. I'll leave those first impressions for when we actually get a look at them at E3.
Hm. It seems a bit early for a Sunset Overdrive sequel.
I'd be happy for a more cartoony/pulpier-looking Fallout, but I don't think that was the intention here.
Don't forget what Lexx said though, it is just the first of probaly many many trailers and teasers. In the end Fallout 3 was nothing like the first trailer. And from what Todd said I had very different expectations from the game - for example I actually thought that the inner city of DC was under full controll of the Enclave.
Did the Fallout 3 teaser trailer really look *that* different? I mean, the tech was what we got in the final game, and it did a pretty good job at conveying the general tone and atmosphere. That said, we might be talking about different things: do you mean the Fallout 1-like in-engine cinematic that ended with the Brotherhood of Steel dude looking at the camera?
