Inspirational designed game! Very good Bethesda!
Don't worry i have played Fallout 1&2 and i'm old enough of a gamer to remember Wasteland game. But after the weird RPG experience of Oblivion (which, in my humble, opinion was a step down from Morrowind) i decide not to give a shot on Fallout. Well after a year i'm in the happy position to announce that i was completely wrong!
Thankfully the immerse killing "feature" of level scaling (Oblivion) is not here. Yes you can walk anywhere you want, as in any open ended world RPG, but be aware! Some enemies are dangerous at low character levels and one must be preparet for a .... "tactical retreat" :D
The game is still quite easy. The difficulty level, again, controls only the hit points of oponents and little else (e.g. like AI and their tactics) but, fortunately, the challenge is present and i cannot complain much about it. I will, tho, complain about the possibility to reach 100 in all skills. This is not a good feature for an RPG game. Much immersion is lost (along with re-playability value) and Bethesda should reconsider this "non roll-playing habit" which started with Morrowind.
I won't comment the game graphics,sound,scenario etc, the game is one years old and there's plentiful reviews out there.
There's 5 expansions (or DLC) included in GOTY edition making a big game ... a lot bigger. Its atmosphere is great, wasteland is detailed and characters and NPCs are in the "fallout" sequence.
As a fan of the older fallout games i was surprisingly satisfied with the game experience of Fallout 3. Solid 9/10 for this.This GOTY package is a great edition, everyone like me who haven't played it should take a look.