If not for the relatively frequent glitches, this is a better game than Fallout3. In spite of them, its at least as good
Good:
1. Both the main story line and the side quests are significantly better than in Fallout 3. They still weren't compelling enough to me to rank this game as one of the best.
2. Same as in 3, the pitched battles against a whole faction is hysterically fun....taking out the Brotherhood in their bunker was great fun.
3. Thank god they made the weapons (and to a lessor extent the armor) not degrade as quickly. I made it through the full game with my sniper rifle :)
4, Another large world that is interesting (if not overly compelling) to explore.
5. VATS again is quite well done.
6. NPC interaction is vastly superior to Fallout 3.....its still not immersive, but a big step in the right direction,
Bad:
1, They're mentioned in every review and the glitches are still there. That said, they're more annoying than anything else (you keep losing karma for taking things from people you just killed....its an odd repiticious statement...made more annoying because its a completely meaningless stat!!). Freezes, at this point, aren't overly onerous...once every 5 hours or so.
2. This is still a game that relies more on its large world adventuring than anything else...combat revolves around the slowmo VATS system...there is little flow outside of that...still quite clunky for a shooter.
In the end, a good game that takes several large steps forward in the franchise, but still lacks the immersiveness of a really great game.