There is a trace of Oblivion here, but there is nothing that bit of a radiation can not fix!
I had waited this game for a long time, so I had no chance but to hope for the best and it turned out that all my concerns were unnecessary. There is a trace of Oblivion here, but there is nothing that bit of a radiation could not fix!
Game play is very balanced and it makes the game very enjoyable. Bullets, medication and pure water are scarce, so you live in an constant need for something. It actually sets you in this wasteland world pretty well, since you need to interact, steal, kill and barter to get by. It also make finding abandoned Vault with all it's treasures a really exciting moment! Sell the stuff to a wandering trader, sleep a night at saloon and enjoy your "Well-rested" status for awhile.
Quests are worth traveling for and you can easily gather a number of them just by hanging out in the world. You can activate a certain quest from your Pip-boy and after that it is pretty straight forward following objectives and map markers. But characters, places and enemies you run in these quests are something to experience, and all those stories fleshes the Fallout 3 world very efficiently. Also, finishing quests rewards you with good amount of exp. so it is also right way to level up. It's far more nicer than just grinding across the Capital Wasteland.
I have played the PS3 version. I decided to buy it regardless of -0.5 from Gamespot and it turned out to be the right decision. Game looks, sounds and plays great! I haven't encountered bugs so far and I feel it is unthoughtful for GS to take points out of one version, not that it matters.
Fallout 3 remains a masterpiece and I could almost say it is the best in the series, if they just tuned those character animations a bit!