Having some advanced knowings of how things are set up behind the curtain with prior experience with Skyrim, FO3/NV, and Oblivion, I had a sudden epiphany at how power armor may function under the hood. This explanation may be more understandable to those who have GECK/CK chops.

Recall in FO3 how Power Armor really didn't look quite right with the conventional NPC animation rig, which had animations better proportioned to not be wearing such a plodding machine. They looked slimmer, and not quite as impressive as they could have been.

In Fallout 3/NV, the return of "creature" actors capable of dialog was an improvement over Oblivion (which did not have dialog-capable creatures). In Skyrim, they took it a step further: they completely unified all actors, both creatures and NPCs, under said "Actor" label. All "races" of actors, be they the Ten Playable Vanilla Races, to the draugr, to horses, to dragons, were under this category. The Armor/apparel system was changed around to accommodate this as well, with discretely separated referred forms for the item itself in the inventory screens or laying out there in the gamespace, and the selected armature-rigged model set to display for any given race (ARMO and ARMA forms to those who are CK-savvy) so that an actor of a playable race could take an apparel item off of an actor of a non-playable race without any scripting voodoo. The most most prominent examples of this would be the Dragon Priest Masks, or the differently-shaped beastmen race helmets.

Another thing this enabled: Werewolf transformations. Transformation into a race with a completely different animation armature and behavior setup than before. Using a simple SetRace script command (and a lot of papyrus safeties and other scriptings for the visual dressing of the transformation), a character of the Ten Playable Races was changed into a werewolf.

I think a similar "changing race" under the hood will enable the power armor to have an animation armature and behavior set far more suited than the standard "human" race(s) to the methodical plodding of an exoskeletal frame bearing the weight of hundreds of pounds of metal plate, and maybe even have some utility customization options for extra fun.

I think that's why the power armor in the video looks so much more bulky than they did in FO3/NV. I think it's not on the standard human animation rig anymore, but its own, so they can make it bulkier. It could be freed this time from an animation setup that isn't really suited to portray it well.

Just an educated prediction. Might make some who are GECK/CK-savvy go "Huh. That does make sense" or "that's as crazy as your moniker suggests you are, MadCat!", might make some others go "err... huh?" I just wanted to put it to words. If we see a power armored guy plodding about in E3 gameplay footage, and it's moving differently than how the unarmored people walk, then it may point to "true prediction".

This also makes me wonder... could a face-gen system be set up for super mutants? Ghouls in FO3/NV were an NPC race had the advantage of fitting into the "human" animation system and got the face-gen advantage, but super mutants were "creatures". If the unified "Actor" system is (in all likelihood) still present, could muties with unique faces be coming up too?

I am hoping this is how it is done. Power armor could also use an assortment of additional mechanics. Speech options, different NPC reactions etc. It is really ridiculous how NPC'S act like they could just destroy me in combat when all they have is generic clothing and some rifle whereas I have Power armor and a Gatling Laser. It really breaks immersion.

Well, knowing BGS's attention to details of gameplay balance, that could still happen. My detailed supposition focuses more on how the model and animation system could work to make power armor look and feel the part.