A classic case of a mediocre game with an incredibly large advertising budget, influencing opinion with hype.
However
This is not that great of a game, at all. Sad, but true
In Fallout 3, it is the future, again, and you begin the game awkwardly talking to your dad about how you want to look in the future while still hovering uncomfortably between your mother's legs. You quickly grow up thanks to magical flashes of light which make you age VERY quickly, until your father breaks out to of the underground Vault which, supposedly, no one ever leaves. You follow him out of the Vault into the vast, post apocalyptic world, and begin your search for your beloved Papa.
First I will talk about the good, because it is a far quicker list to get out of the way, being epicly shorter than the bad. Graphics are impressive on the PS3 and XBOX 360, but then again, what graphics aren't impressive nowadays. Also the VATS system's results are gory and satisfying. I, surprisingly, never grew tired of blasting a super mutant in the teeth and watching bits of his skull fly away. It's also fun to get a critical hit with a BB gun on a Feral Ghoul's head and, as a result of being shot in the head, watching his 4 other extremities going flying over the horizon. And some guns, such as the Fat Man (mini nuke) are incredibly creative and impressive. Also the soundtrack is good and I never turned off my radio, even if Three Dog was talking. Which leads to another plus: voice acting. Kind of. Of course Liam Neeson was good for the 7 lines he has, but the majority of the voice acting was decent at best.
Now for things I noticed which NO ONE else seemed to care about.
This game is not immersive. By no means whatsoever, having questions shoved in your face for the first 10 minutes of the game is not character development. It is terrible pacing, instead of developing a character over time, you decide who you will be from the very beginning by deciding whether or not to share cake. Also, the vast environment is impressive at first, but grows stale when you realize it ALL looks the same. The exact same. Same highway, same rocks, same tunnels.
Also it's weird to have the option to customize your character when the game is a FIRST PERSON SHOOTER. Did anyone at Bethesda think about that? And if you want to see (the un-customized) back of your head (which is covered up by a helmet) you can go into to third person view. But beware, this is the poorest attempt at a third person view I have ever seen. Your toon runs like a badly animated Sims creation, and is almost dead center in the screen, covering anything you would like to shoot. Mass Effect, Resident Evil, Gears, there are so many good examples of over the shoulder combat, but this attempt in Fallout is so poor, it's as if Bethesda couldn't figure it out, but refused to research other games for tips. Sad really. And it's all very weird and seems rushed.
The combat is broken. Which is sad for a FPS/RPG, in which both elements of all those letters is bad. RPG elements are broken, after pumping in all my points into small weapons, assuming strong guns are strong enough, I still could not defeat a basic RadScorpion without emptying an entire clip of Assault Rifle ammo. Also it's a good thing VATS was done well, because operating the game as a regular shooter is like asking for a Laser bullet sandwich with a side of lead in the face.
Also letting the fact that Bethesda still cannot seem to make their NPC's gestures match their words is inexcusable at this point in the technology age. Their stiff posture every single time I talk to someone grew old the first time
This game is also subject to what I call the Mass Defect, coined from Mass Effect's HUGE flaw. Dialogue. I don't want to talk that much. It's annoying. I dreaded arriving to a new city, knowing I would have to quiz NPC's about the going ons around town and that they would tell me in the most long, drawn out manner possible.
This is not the worst game of all time, but it is by no means the golden Mountain Dew that the world was promised, and that fact should not be kept Secret any more.