Fallout Franchise & Oblivion's Love Child
The game feels most like Fallout when we make it to the vast, beautiful, and tragic Wasteland surrounding Washington DC. The PipBoy 3000 has a familiar feel to it, for those of us who played the original Fallout games. Many of the items, weapons, and other equipment also are reminiscent of the Fallout franchise. Sadly, this is where the similarity ends. That doesn't mean Fallout 3 is a bad game, it just means it does not feel like the rightful successor to the Fallout series. This is because when it comes to gameplay mechanics, this game borrows too much from Oblivion and the FPS genre. Combat is by far more enjoyable when using VATS, but unfortunately we run out of the Action Points that govern when you can use VATS far too easily, leaving you with either the option of running or hiding while the APs regnerate, or using the clunky real-time FPS combat system, which because it is based on RPG die-roll mechanics, will lead to players "missing" even when the targeting reticle is squarely centered on your target.
The good news is that the overall experience is enjoyable, and those who are new to the Fallout franchise will certainly enjoy the game more then those of us with nostalgic feelings for Fallout 1 & 2. The game will likely benefit from either patches or modding community which will likely try to make the game more like original fallout games where possible.
It would have been entirely possible to make a true Fallout successor, but unfortunately it seems BethSoft was not quite up to the task. Had the IP been purchased by BioWare or Obsidian Entertainment, developers of Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2, we would have seen a game much more faithful to the Fallout franchise.