Still. Fallout 3 offered from the others lacked...The abilility to see the world through your characters eyes. The Third Person says to me "I am this character, I will live his actions and his choices. He is my avatar in this series of events". The Isometric View says to me "I control this character. He is my tool, my instrument. A mere figurine to move about a rigid grid."
I never play like that :shrug:
It always seemed to negate the point of creating a character and giving them a name. I always approach an RPG as an abstract "what if" sort of experience. The PC lives in his/or her/or it's own world, with their own history, and perspective about it. The PC is not me.
If I have a Cleric (for instance) then I consider the Cleric's goals ( which may include donating most of the party's gold if they can justify it
), or refusing to be party to something that is against their faith and ethics (IE. They leave the party, or at least stay behind). Thieves go it alone (or with like minded), and don't bring the Paladin along to support them when a robbery goes sour. That sort of play....
I prefer single player multi-character games mostly; (Like, BG1 & 2, and... most of the BlackIsle line up in fact
). Fallout handled the NPC's full time (BG handled them part of the time). I almost always treat PC's exactly as you disparage. They are [to me] a window into a world that is not my own, each sees that world a bit differently. [To me] they are not a costume to venture around in, and function more like ... like the claw you see in that http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/sports-fan-bus-plush-toy-crane-rede.jpg in arcades and department stores. (its flimsy and not very accurate ~but that's what you have to work with.)
They are your implement to affect what is inside the box (in this case, the game world), and [ideally] you are completely constrained (or enabled) by their personal abilities, strengths and weakness.
This is how I approach most RPG's if possible, and in this respect I think FO:NV will actually
not be as good an RPG as F1 or 2, but I do think that minor aspects from those games [and designers] will improve NV over FO3.
[ In My Opinion ]
It would appear to be a no lose situation for Obsidian, as the FO3 framework already existed, and everyone involved had 20/20 hindsight to go on, in their new work... So I could not imagine pro studios like these, not producing an improved title; Obsidian or Bethesda in collaboration or on their own.
Eh...the thing is, the top-down view isn't some kind of old-timey style that will die out. It's a design choice that actually makes sense for games with strategic elements to things like combat. For a single-character RPG (which arguably Fallout is) the first-person perspective is a perfectly valid choice, particularly if the combat is going to be action-oriented, but if you're managing more than one character in a game that forces to use multi-unit tactics/strategies a top-down view is necessary. Now, if you don't like games with multi-unit strategy that's perfectly fine, but to say that the entire top-down perspective needs to die out is really short-sighted. More than a few game styles that are alive and well depend on it.
In many (many, many) ways Fallout and BG were similar to the original SSI Gold Box games. In (SSI's) combat you had PC's and could hire mercenary's ~the mercs were never under your control, and were "loose cannons" on the battlefield. In these games you could lose all but one PC, but still have your mercs. and have a situation exactly as you find in Fallout's regular combat. The way I saw it, the player must adapt tactics to incorporate what the NPC's are doing ~and its still quite strategic; just different.
**Way back when (7-9 years ago), I always hoped that future Fallouts' would incorporate the idea that military NPC's follow orders, while civilians and mercs did not (or to a far lesser degree due to no training or ego).
It never bothered me that Ian did his own thing, but it did bother me that the Brotherhood squad assigned to you at Mariposa were indifferent, and did not take orders. (even though that's not really an option in F1)