First off, I stand by my claim that the interface sucks. Well, it's not entirely the interface. It's partially the interface, partially the controls, but more than that, just little quirks with how the game works - none of which seem like a big deal at first, but they grate on you more and more the longer you play. A few examples off the top of my head: Only one character can occupy an individual space at a time. That leads to getting trapped in rooms when an NPC stands in the doorway. Moving the screen (or the camera, or your line of vision, whatever it's called) around so you can take a look at your immediate area is surprisingly awkward. It's the screen you're moving around, after all, not the character. And yet you'll be hitting arbitrary invisible walls all over the place. Also, there's two "modes" that you have to keep switching between, one where you move around and one where you interact with people or objects. It's clunky and it's unnecessary. Why not simply do what any other game would do - just assign the left mouse button to movement and the right (coupled with a drop-down menu, of course) to interactions?
That was just a few examples, like I said. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that any of them are huge game-breaking flaws. What they are is annoying, especially after dealing with them for hours and hours. And what makes it worse is that I think they could have been fixed with just a little tinkering around with the technical side of things. I loved the material of the game, so to speak, and it's a shame to see it, well, not ruined, but certainly hurt somewhat by all this.
Speaking of which, let's get to the good parts. The world itself is a lot of fun to explore, especially the settlements. Obviously it's not as visually impressive as the one in F3, but I definitely prefer Interplay/Black Isle/(eventually) Obsidian's style of writing, which was clearly the guiding force in how they designed their world. Bethesda has some fun ideas and all, but at the end of the day, that's all they are, fun. Here, you can actually take something away from all the places you visit, all the people you see, and all the quests you do. There are themes here. There's social commentary. Pretty much everything about the Hub, for example, is a sharp critique of capitalism. They even have their very own underclass.
The main story is...decent. What drags it down a bit is the beginning, which is kind of boring. You've got to go find a water chip, because insert technobabble here, and off you go. Snore. I know that the main quest isn't the bulk of the game, like I mentioned before, and it's really just a pretext to get you out into the world. It's the journey, not the destination and all that. But it's a weak pretext, and as rooster pointed out, it's not much of a hook. The second part of the story, in which you have to deal with the Master and his army of Super Mutants, is a lot more interesting. Bonus points for some truly disgusting concepts and visuals. Centaurs are even more horrifying in this game than in F3 and NV, and the Master himself has one of the most freakish designs I've ever seen in a video game.
What else is there to say...a handful of roles are voiced, and they got some fairly well-known actors to handle them. There's Richard Dean Anderson, David Warner, Tony Shalhoub, Brad Garrett (perfectly cast as a Super Mutant), and a couple of others. They all do a good job, even though their presence is all too brief.
Finally, there's the turn-based combat. It can be annoying at times, but I know what they were going for. It's tactical and strategic, you have to use your head, you can't just button-mash your way through, blah blah blah. It's not particularly polished, but I can't think of anything (beyond the technical quirks I alluded to above) they could change without defeating the purpose entirely. There are definitely some gamers out there who will take one look at the combat and have an "Oh, hell no" reaction, and I don't blame them too much. That being said, it definitely has some advantages over FPS-style combat, and it grew on me after a while. So, if you're at least open to the idea of turn-based combat, you might like how it works here. If you're not, then this is absolutely not the game for you.
tl;dr: Fuck you, read my review.
On the notion of pontificating:
17:38 Crudblud Saddam: That was a fair review, although I disagree with your assertion that F3 has a more visually interesting world
17:38 Crudblud It looks like the aftermath of a Roland Emmerich movie
17:38 Crudblud in fact, that's a good way to sum up my feelings about F3
17:39 Saddam Write a long and rambling rebuttal, Crudblud
17:39 beardo I don't know who Roland Emmerich is
17:39 Crudblud It's like Roland Emmerich was hired to direct an adaptation of Fallout, and F3 was the tie-in game
17:39 Crudblud Saddam: I agree with most of what you said though
17:41 Saddam The problem with Emmerich movies aren't the visuals, though
17:41 Foxbox The visuals are one of many many problems
17:41 Saddam It's that their (derp) loud and dumb and have shitty stories and characters
17:42 beardo If F3goty went down to 9,99, I could consider buying it
17:43 beardo I have no idea why I've seen New Vegas on sale many times, but never F3
17:43 Crudblud I don't think NV was as financially successful
17:44 Saddam Crudblud: Junktown is a settlement caught between the positive influence of Shady Sands and the negative influence of the Hub
17:44 Saddam Represented by Killian and Gizmo respectively
17:45 Saddam The struggle between Killian and Gizmo, therefore, is not just physical, but also ideological
17:45 Crudblud Saddam: No shit
17:45 Blanko d33p
17:45 jroa Pussies.
17:46 Saddam The Vault Dweller's actions determine whether Junktown will become a progressive force for good in the Wasteland, like Shady Sands
17:47 Saddam Or descend into greed and corruption like the Hub
17:47 Crudblud Well, Shady Sands eventually becomes NCR, which as we see later on falls prey to bureaucracy
17:47 Crudblud And over expansion
17:47 Saddam Yes, but that downfall isn't part of F1's timeline
17:47 Saddam It's a future problem
17:47 Crudblud I know
17:48 Saddam The point is that every journey begins with a single step
17:48 Saddam And F1 is concerned with the first step of every settlement's journey
17:49 Crudblud To an extent, although they are all well established by the time you leave Vault 13
17:51 Crudblud Walled cities with businesses and farms and trade networks and so on
17:54 Saddam But symbolism and shit