Amazing game, very immersing, story that compels you to finish, great graphics, and a great way to spend $60.
So Fallout 3 has a story, and a very well put together one at that (Who wouldn't want Liam Neeson as their dad?). But what is really amazing about Fallout 3 is the side quests which stories are as good if not in some cases better, albeit shorter, than the main story. They range from simple tasks with little to no effect on the world, to blowing one of the primary hubs in the game off the face of the earth. And although it is sometimes a little too obvious for its own good, every quest has at least a good, and a bad way to complete it. Then some of the quests can literally be talked out of, which in some circumstances can be very cool. The only problem with the story is that the literal end is very mellow dramatic compared to a VERY cool lead-up, also once the game ends, well, it ends. That's it, and you can't go back. You have to start a new game, or load an old save which is a pretty big smack in the face when your game has tons, upon tons of side quests and places to explore.
The game play in Fallout 3 is great. I originally said if you like FPSs or RPGs you'd like this game. This is because the game is basically a fusion of a FPS and a turn-based RPG. It does a good job of this, by having the main game play be in a first person perspective, the twist is that if you hit the right trigger you go into V.A.T.S. which allows you to shoot specific parts of the enemies body. V.A.T.S. works great, and watching a super mutant's head explode in slow motion never gets old. It's the core FPS game play which suffers somewhat. In Fallout 3 the FPS controls feels sloppy and too slow when compared to a game like Call of Duty 4 which plays, in my opinion, perfectly. This is could be viewed in two ways. One way is that the the development team (Bethesda) has never made an FPS and just did a bad job. It could also be interpreted as the developers trying to nudge you to use the V.A.T.S. and not play through the game like it was Call of Duty. Either way the first person combat isn't broken, it just feels slow and a bit off (I'm not sure how exactly to describe it), while usable and in NO way broken.
In conclusion, Bethesda has done a outstanding job with Fallout 3. And while the game is not perfect, the things it does extraordinarily well outshine any of the minor issues. I know in a time of economic recession we all have to be more careful with our money, but Fallout 3 is truly worth its $60 price.
P.S. Gamespot lowered the PS3 version of Fallout 3's score by .5 compared to the Xbox 360 and PC versions. They said that the draw distance was not as far, and that it had more bugs. I found the draw distance was fine, and stretched for a very far distance. Also I had one bug were my character's gun would keep firing over and over without my pressing of any buttons, a simple restarting of my PS3 fixed this issue. My game also froze once, but since it was literally a step after I saved it wasn't an issue. So no game ending bugs just a couple annoyances.