the fallout elements are what saved this game from just being oblivion set in the future
it may sound bad but its not as bad as you think. its actually a pretty good marriage of the 2 games. i actually thought oblivion was pretty bad but the special system and vats just really works well in it even though i have a a couple big gripes with it.
on thing is the stat points dont effect things enough. they do have an effect but you really feel they arent that important compared to the skills and skill points.
my other is the dialouge in speech options arent as rich or meaningful as fallout 1 and 2s. its still a huge upgrade from oblivion but youre not left with the option of being a character with high charisma who can talk his way out everything. youre basically stuck with a combat character be it guns, explosives, meleee weapons, or sneaking around like a rogue character.
despite those major flaws the rest of the stuff is done pretty well. VATS in my opinion works real well and is what saves the combat system from being just average. the skill points and perks gives you decent options of customizing your character.
the environment also delivers despite the scenery being a a little bland at times with the locations to clumped together. i would have really like their to be more open waste land with a vehicle option. the radio stations are done well despite not having a very big loop.
one other problem i have with the game and not just the special system is the replay value. it may seem at first that you will have alot of options to come back to as an evil character or just maniac who kills everybody in your way. these options are suprisingly limited and you are basically stuck on the same quest chains with not much changing from the good or bad character choice. quest characters cant be killed either, just knocked out which is lame.
despite all the negatives of this game it still adds enough fallout elements into the game to make this a good oblivion/fallout hybrid. you should give this game a chance if you are a fallout fan, even if you hated oblivion.