I\’ve spent about an hour with Fallout 3 so far, and unfortunately the one thing that\’s stood out to me so far has nothing to do with the game mechanics.
Did Bethesda\’s graphics programmers spend the last three years giving each other piggyback rides? That\’s the only explanation I can think of for why Fallout 3\’s character animation shows just about no improvement over Oblivion\’s. Both character animations and facial animations are terrible, and nowhere near the standards that have been set by more recent games. I mean, hell, they aren\’t even up to the standards of Half-Life 2 and that game is four years old now.
This might sound like nitpicking, but honestly, when the opening scene has you as a baby looking up at the Valium-induced-shitfaced-grin-bearing-expression-never-changing face of your father, it leaves a pretty bad first impression.
As for the game itself? It seems alright so far, I suppose. It feels like Oblivion through and through, although I don\’t think anyone was expecting it not to be. I\’m honestly wondering if I should put this game aside until I beat the first game, if only to get some proper perspective on whether the change is for the better or not.