Fallout 3 Preview

Bit-tech.net is the latest to preview Fallout 3 and, to be harsh, they start right off the bat with what could be construed as a fanboy angle.
But, let me tell you, getting to see Fallout 3 before it was released was like a dream come true and, as one of the biggest fans of the series in the world, you can take it as a huge endorsement when I say that the game looks fantastic.

The sequel to Interplay's classic RPGs of the early nineties, Fallout 3 has been a controversial game to say the least. The sale of the game license to Bethesda may have revived the failing Interplay, but it also incensed fans who reacted strongly to the shift of developer and perspective.

Can one company's seminal isometric RPG be another company's first-person sandbox RPG? Never mind the fact that it has shifted to the makers of The Elder Scrolls series is such a thing even possible?

Yes. Yes, it is.
Sounds like we got all that "impartial" nonsense out of the way. But to be fair, they do pick up an interesting angle here.
On the downside, it does seem like Bethesda has polarised the enemies a little if you ask me. One of the things that made Fallout stand out was that there never was a true sense of right and wrong as such things as chivalry had long died in the wasteland.

On the one front, Bethesda has mirrored this once more by using Karma to track the player's actions and popularity, but on the other you won't be finding any friendly mutants like in past games. Pete confirmed with us that all the Super Mutants are dead (Once a creature, always a creature.)

While that definitely makes the game a lot simpler and more accessible to players who want to boil Fallout 3 down to little more than a shooter, it does kind of feel like some of the greyness has been lost as a result. A world of black and white and clearly defined sides isn't bad, but it is a little less involving.
That Pete Hines quote scares the heck out of me.