Okay, sorry it's taken me a while but I really wanted to give the game a good run before writing up my review of it. Keep in mind that I have never:

1) Played ANY of the previous Fallout games
2) Played Oblivion but I have a friend who did so this is kinda half my review and his
3) Own a console so as far as controls go, I'm basing mine off of the PC

So as I think I mentioned before, I was hoping for something along the lines of BioShock or Half Life FPS gameplay but with more of an RPG element to it. Of course, that's probably blasphemous for me to hope for since I'm sure fans of the original Fallout games would stone me for wanting it to have an FPS element at all. I know at least one friend of mine was a bit upset they decided to put the FPS element in since Fallout is first and foremost supposed to be a RPG. After a few days of playing it, I think I can put her and probably others fears to rest and let them know that Fallout 3 is definitely more a RPG than it ever will be a FPS. Even if you were to play it in third person view, I would still say it's a RPG over an third person adventure a la Resident Evil or Silent Hill.

Having played quite a few tabletop RPGs in my time, it was all too familiar when they asked me to allot attribute points (STR, END, PER, CHA, INT, AGI, LUK) and what skills I wanted to allot points too. It was kinda cute how they implement it into the 'intro' section of the game but you figure, after you've made one character, they'd let you skip it and just start from the part where you're escaping from the vault but no. A small annoyance for me but I'm sure some people will love it. It does give you a chance to reply to people a much more different way than you did the first time around so it has it's entertaining values.

In addition to point assigning, you of course get to determine what your character will look like. According to my friend, the characters look A LOT better than they ever did in Oblivion but for myself, after having so many ways to personalize my avatar's appearance on MMOs like LotRO and CoH/V, I feel a bit jipped. All you really get to adjust is your race and the appearance of your head. I guess maybe since it's post-nuclear war, they figure everyone has the same skinny, malnutritious body? Again, a small annoyance but for a game that boasted it's character creator, I think they fell short.

Getting back to the RPG element, I have to say I absolutely LOVE the responses your can give people. Even if I might not end up using a certain response, I find myself cracking up at nearly EVERY dialogue choice menu. You can really be a rat bastard or a Mother Teresa if you want to. It's nice to have neutral-ish 'I think you're crazy but I'll say it in a not so insulting way...for now' responses as well. I think a lot of people will have a lot of fun with this part of the RPG element more than anything.

And now onto the FPS element. Or should I say, what would be the FPS/third person shooter element if I didn't think using the RPG element didn't work much better for the most part? Seriously, you'll do SO MUCH BETTER if you just rely on VATS (Vault Assisted Targeting System) to do Called Shots for you. It's sad but true. I should've know it would be the better choice when they were talking about it in the demo. For the most part, the mobs are ALWAYS going to be, more spry and able to take many 10mm bullets to the head than your average FPS mob ever would. I mean, seriously, if you're CRIPPLED IN THE HEAD, usually, that means you're outta the damn game. Same with having a crippled torso or pretty much crippled EVERYTHING. I mean, again, going back to my tabletop RPG roots, I know what they were intending with it but for people that were hoping for the FPS element to have a bit more pull, it's just a little odd when a mob can take 10-20 shots in the head/chest and not die but if you switch to VATS, you can just use one bullet to get a critical shot. I guess maybe they thought they needed to keep it open to those that didn't want to depend on VATS much for the times that you're getting swarmed but even then, VATS can handle you chosing multiple targets soooooo...I dunno....

This kind of ties into game controls in that in most FPS games you play, you can assign weapons to Hotkeys so you can switch out on the fly but...none of that here. You have to go into your Pipboy, find the weapon you want in the long list of any other weapons you happen to be carrying, select it, back out of the Pipboy, then hope you can hit the VATS button before the mob gets a shot at you first. This bothers me quite a bit as an FPS player and even though the game is mostly supposed to be a RPG, you would think they'd at least let you hotkey weapons or quick scroll through them with your mouse butto or...SOMETHING. Maybe it's just my foolishness for buying it for the PC rather than a console but c'mon...throw me a friggin' bone here. :/

Lastly, the longevity of the game. I've been taking my time and doing as many side quests that I've come across but my friend kinda barreled along and mostly stuck to the main story quest line...and ended up beating the game. Now, we would've been fine with this save for the fact that after you finish the main quest...that's it. Game ends, roll a new character. No New Game+ for you. In other words, as soon as you enter the room for the last fight, that's it, you're locked in. And after you finish, you can't continue to explore from that point. You have to go back to a save point you had prior to entering the last room and finish all your quests before entering. That being said, the game is 'short' should you choose only to follow the main plot. And while it wasn't something I was expecting myself, you are pretty much limited to DC and the immediate areas around. My friend told me that in later quests, they talk a lot about California and Canada so he was hoping he'd get sent there but...nope! Soooo...maybe they're thinking expansions but according to my friend, the way they wrap up the game, it would be kinda odd to do it as a continuation. So I'm taking my sweet time and doing all the side stuff before I do anything else with the main plot for as long as I can. LOL

So in closing, I DO like Fallout 3 but there are definitely some annoyances that make gameplay a bit cumbersome for me. It's definitely a great looking game, even on Medium settings. And I've been told that it works just fine on the new MacBooks (just MacBook, not a Pro, mind you), which is pretty damn amazing considering the last generation of MacBooks couldn't even run things like Rollercoaster Tycoon. For someone who hasn't played the former Fallout games, it's not the best game that's come out this year but it's still rather shiny and definitely keeps me entertained. I think the dialogue choices are the most entertaining part of the game hands down. I'm pretty happy for picking it up and I think others will as well but I'm still holding out for Mirror's Edge and Left 4 Dead, LOL.

Hope this was useful and/or informative in some way. If you have questions about something I didn't or did cover, feel free to ask. :3