I really can't get into this game...
My gripes:
- I don't much care for open-world focused games to begin with, but in Fallout 3 it seems there is nothing motivating you to do the side-quests other than curiosity and the main quest line didn't seem all that interesting either. Couple that with it taking FOREVER to get from point A to point B just in the first 10 hours, I can't imagine what it will be like in the late game. Overall I was not impressed with the story.
- The shooting mechanics were really bad in this game. Unless you use VATS continuously, accuracy is a crap shoot early on since characters skills are more important than the player's skill in determining hit. I can understand some judder and muzzle rise with automatic weapons, but even single shot pistols and rifles were a pain in the butt to aim. I can't put my finger on it, but the aiming feels off for some reason as well, despite playing around with the sensitivity. The over-reliance on VATS to be proficient in combat is also somewhat irritating, I dislike having to pause the action to select abilities (one of the reasons I couldn't finish DA:O), especially in shooters, but I understand it doesn't really bother most people. IMO the mechanics are overreliant on ability scores and the accuracy of weapons was just annoying to me.
- The inventory system is HORRENDOUS. No hot-keys to bring up individual menu pages or even the map. You have to flip through the PIPBoy pages just to get to the screen you want. That's not even mentioning how uninformative the equipment manager is, but I wont go any more into that. Feels like the menus were designed for a console and were not streamlined for the PC at all.
Positives:
- I have to admit the graphics are still pretty impressive. The lighting and shadows are great. Models and animations are also well done, as is particle effects and fogging. Textures are very impressive on my mid-high end system at 1920x1200. My one complaint here is that facial models are rather unimpressive.
- The characters are fairly interesting for the most part, even if the story isn't all that impressive. I actually cared about a few of them, which always helps.
- Lots of varied weapons and skills to chose from, lots of customization for your character.
- I experienced no bugs or crashes either major or minor.
- Can approach situations in a variety of ways from stealth, to sniping, to run and gun and even negotiation.
Conclusion:
Just not my type of game I guess. I can see why the Oblivion crowd, would enjoy this, but then I didn't care for Oblivion. If I had to pick one major turnoff it is that the game seems unfocused. You just get dropped out of the Vault and given a vague task and a ton of side-tasks that really have no bearing on the main storyline. Not to mention there is little motivation to spend almost as much time traveling as you do actually playing or exploring. The terrible inventory management (read: PIPBoy) was the kicker for me. Can't recommend this, IMO I'm being generous with a score of 6.