Ok, to be honest I never played anything that Bethesda made. I have heard reviews on the net. My point is that I want to say straight out that I am basing some of my opinion here on limited info.
That said.....
If it really took Bethesda 6 years to make Morrowind then that shows me that they have commitment, even if they would spend half that time making Fallout it would be more than I have hoped for. (and so much more than we were ever even promised)
Also, given the generally good reviews I have heard about Morrowind, here and elswhere, shows me that they have the skill to create a good game.
Thirdly, most importantly I have heard that Morrowind maintains the tradition of the elder scrolls serries very well (no first hand experience but rather what I have read on the net, I have always been meaning play them to but never got around to it), which shows me that these people are able to tap into the legacy of an old game serries and create a good successor. This last point is probably most important since we have been so disappointed before by games which had no apparent clue, other that sticking a few burnt vehicles in odd places, and generally introducing ideas not congruent with the previous games (hairy deathclaws anyone?).
Anyways, my overall conclusion is that this may be our break.
To get back to the screen shots, I think they look good. I do wish that the game will live up to that potential. I would like to point out, however, that as important as graphics seem to be today, Fallout was never really about the slick graphics. The graphics of Fallout were always about the atmosphere they created in conjunction with the music. I think we were all enamoured, and to a large extent we still are, with how great the game looked not because the graphics were so cutting edge, but rather because of the care, and thought, and artistic talent it took to create such an original setting with the tools they had. My point is that I could not care less if in three years, or however long, FO3 comes out and the engine used to create it will no longer be top of the line. I will care how that engine is used in acuratelly conveying experience of being in the FO universe.
I would also like to say that if you had talked to me three, four years ago I would have ripped you a new one for suggesting that FO3 should be made in 3D. Unfortunately FO3 never materialized and it is now what.... 6 years later? Well, technology has advanced, ad as much as I liked the 2D in the previous FO games, I must admit that it now seems perfectly plausible to reproduce the dusty, nasty atmosphere of nuclear decay and war that is so necessary to FO, in 3D. Even the HL engine, which is about six years old too, seems capable of conveying that "feel" of Fallout.(as so many people here seem to vehemently believe given the ever-present wasteland project)
Lastly I hope that they do not lock the view. I like being able to set the view to my own preference. I am well aware of the isometric view that was such a trademark of the FO series, I played FO when it was just a month old and the patches were still being updated, but I would like to be able to zoom in.
I think that there is a real danger that if too many things are kept exactly the same then it will not feel like a new game but rather a half-assed expansion, or mod to FO2, and we will all be here again complaining how somebody has tried to rape a good game world for some easy cash.
