When I heard the Bethesda was making an open ended rpg game with a post nuclear war setting, I was eager to learn more. I read the posts of hardcoe fallout fans on these forums and the comments made on site such as gametrailers. These fans were terrified by the idea of anyone other then Interplay, a company I had only vaguely heard about, making a 'Fallout game'. Now, I have played games since I was old enough to mash buttons on a controller, so i knew that only a great game could have such dedicated followers. Therefore, i tried out both fallout 1 and 2 prior to the release of the 3rd 'true' installation in the series.
Man, did those two games blow me away. Sure, the graphics were outdated and the gameplay had a steep learning curve, but i had never played games so ahead of its time. All of the characteristics that Mass Effect was praised for (the good vs evil decisions that actually had consequences and multiple dialogue options that didnt feel tacked on) could be seen on these two outdated games. Truely, respect needs to be paid to these two games. Many games that are being introduced to the fallout world for the first time have only a handicapped understanding of the complexity and well done world behind the series.
On the other hand, hardcoe fallout fans disregard fallout 3 injusticely and feel taht bethesda betrayed teh series. People, Bethesda saved fallout! Sure, Interplay developed two great games with fallout 1 and 2, and I wished them all of luck with their Fallout Online project; however, Interplay was not succeeding in making a transition of the original fallout to a more modern approach. This resulted in spinoffs that were merely shadows of their predecessors. Fallout, despite all of its glory, was doomed to the fate of other highly influencial games such as Shining Force, Street Fighter, Sega in general (how seriously plays Sonic anymore?), and other series that were the pinnacles of gaming of their time but failed to adapt to the changes in the gaming industry. Bethesda, with their experience from making Morrowing and Oblivion, had the ability to do such a thing. I truely salute Betheda for three things: 1) Keeping the feel of the original Fallouts without being a mere mimic 2) Improving on all the flaws of the Oblivion system and 3) Going beyond just having a 'if it ain't broken, dont fix it' additude in improving on there earlier mistakes by making huge changes in the gameplay system of the series.
These views are my opinion and i feel eager in hearing yours.