I have it preordered, I plan on picking it up after work today. The Gamefaqs forums are ablaze with idiots, which is of course, business as usual.

Should be getting it tomorrow. According to the email I got anyway.

I'll have it in a few minutes, almost there.

Hey Weclock, when you play the game, could you see if there is some kind of "violence meter" in the settings a la the first two. I really don't find the amount of gore this game is supposed to have appealing at all, and would like the ability to turn it off. Thanks!

my major gripes so far:
inability to barter with anyone who gives you significant dialogue
barterscreen is ghey
no violence meter
third person does suck a donkey baseballs
it's all very dry there are only a few people who have personalities that scream at you, but they're boring as hell.
can't kill major npcs, if they're no longer major even.
pretty easy to get lost in megaton
pretty hard to find the right person in megaton
messages like 'you do not have enough karma to do this' or 'your level must be higher to try to pick this lock'
lock pick minigame..
if you're a big fan of fallout, don't waste your time.
if you are ok with games like morrow wind and oblivion, try it out maybe.

It's a pretty good game, not quite falloutish as I'd like, a bit too easy so far and WAY to much ammo/weapons around.
I'd recommend it as a game, I don't know yet if I'd recommend it as a fallout sequel.

I've been LOVING Fallout 3. Yeah, it's more like 50/50 in terms of "is it Oblivion or Fallout?" but the game is massively enjoyable and shows no sign of slowing down my enjoyment.
RE: post about "getting lost in megaton" -- you get used to it and learn your way around. The first time there I was overwhelmed, but now I know where things are. The town looks awesome.
If you're an Oblivion fan, then get excited because this game is way better than Oblivion, and fixes a lot of issues (i.e. the retarded joke/insult/intimidate minigame is GONE! Woohoo!).
If you're a fallout fan, you might be somewhat let down, but hang in there. Yeah it's got some differences, but the soul is still there and this game tells a good story.
Overall, 9/10.

I don't like it. Played it approx 4 hours and yes, this is NOT Fallout. But still... I got bored very fast. I don't know, if I will play it very much...

I totally agree, I find it boring, too.
And really now, the OMFGBBQ VATS system, although visually exciting the first few times, is just a big gimmick, and not much of anything in gameplay terms.
Do I even have to mention how much I miss Mark Morgan's music?

Oh, and yes, it IS Oblivion with guns.

i got fallout 3 last night and played for a few hours. so far i'm enjoying the game quite a lot.
i'm a big fan of the fallout series (1, 2, and yes, even tactics), and i think that bethesda did an excellent job recreating the atmosphere and universe of the fallout series. in this way, i think fallout 3 is just as immersive as the original games, and sometimes even more so. the opening sequences within the vault do an great job of introducing the player to what it is like being in a vault your entire life.
i didn't get too far -- just out the vault and into megaton -- but there was still a lot for me to do. i spent a lot of time walking around megaton and talking to people, taking on quests, and learning new information. fallout's "multiple methods to solve any quest" is evident. choices were available in almost all of the situations and dialogues i have played through so far.
combat is not bad at all, and i even like using VATS. using VATS is not much different from my tactic from the originals -- run up to your enemy and unload a burst shot from point blank range. in VATS, i can do virtually the same thing, just that running up is done in real-time, and that i can only target the head/arms/legs/torso so far. i've even noticed that fallout 3 takes critical damage to particular body parts more seriously than the original games. i've crippled many a limb and head, which does have noticeable effects on the enemy for the rest of combat. plus it's freaking awesome to watch your character shoot the enemy's head clean off. sorry, but that'll never get old, much the same as the ultra-violent deaths of the originals never got old. i don't think VATS is gimmicky, and it operates in a similar way that CTS (continuous turn-based system) worked in fallout tactics.
bethesda made fallout more realistic too -- for example, in the originals the player could steal most anyone blind. anywhere i went in fallout 1 and 2, i'd open every locker/desk/bookcase/etc at least once to see if the characters around me would react. most of the time they did not, so i could just take whatever i wanted. as much as i enjoyed doing that without consequences, i like that bethesda has added in consequences to stealing. even if you are able to sneak into someone's house and steal from them, you'll take karma hits for everything you take. so now i put more thought into stealing.
you are able to kill some NPCs -- i can't say all, as i think bethesda mentioned that some very important NPCs would just go unconscious or something. i was able to kill the overseer, for example, who i think is a pretty important character!
i also like the messages telling you the limits of your abilities. this is great because i can remember many times trying to use a skill in fallout 1 and 2, only to fail again and again. without an indication of my percent for success, i wasted a lot of time trying to unlock doors or trying to use science on a computer. with the extra dialogue options that open up because of speech skills, for example, there's also a percent success rate, so i can see if it's even worth my while to risk closing that line of dialogue forever if i happen to fail (which does happen.)
i played the lockpick game too, and it's really easy. it gets even easier the higher your lockpick skill. much better than the lockpick mechanic in oblivion, which was really tedious. i didn't play the hacking game, though (since i killed the overseer to get his password instead), so i don't really have an opinion there. but i really like the computer aesthetic. so retro.
i haven't traveled far in the game world, so i'm wondering what random encounters are like, or if they are even still in the game. i do agree with another poster that the barter screen is a little strange and confusing, and it is disappointing that you're unable to barter with any character you can dialogue with. other gripes -- i do miss the text box. reading about critical hits was a nice bonus in fallout 1 and 2, not to mention that the text box served the role of providing the player with cryptic hints. i think the pipboy in fallout 3 does something similar, but i haven't played enough to make a judgment. also, there doesn't seem to be different firing modes; however, i've only used two firearms so far (the red ryder bb gun and the 10mm pistol), so it could just be that i haven't used enough equipment.
but those things are really minor in the larger scope of the game. i think i'll be playing this for quite awhile. i would recommend the PC version (if you have the hardware) just because using a traditional console controller is difficult in combat. you'll want to target your enemies' heads most of the time, which is a lot easier with a keyboard and mouse. on the other hand, VATS makes this really easy for the PS3 and xbox versions, so it depends on whether or not you like using VATS.

My biggest problem with the game is that the combat just isn't that fun. The shooting feels clunky. The saving grace is VATS, without which I'd redo my character for melee combat and run around whacking things to death. They tried to make it a first-person shooter, but I don't think they did a particularly good job of it. I mean, the game's still enjoyable, but it could've been a lot better. I wish that either they'd made it more of an RPG or that they'd taken the BioShock route and ensured that it was a "kick-ass shooter" (as Ken Levine kept touting BioShock) as well as whatever else it was.
Also, the third-person view has the single worst camera that I have ever experienced, bar none. It probably doesn't help that I just got through The Witcher, whose over-the-shoulder camera was one of the better third-person views.

keep in mind that bethesda wasn't really trying to make a FPS, just an RPG using the first-person perspective. all of your shoots in fallout 3 are still governed by your stats, no matter how well you aim.

I find sometimes without using vats I'm more accurate.

Yes and no. I don't think they put enough work into the RPG side of it. Additionally, the instant you need to aim and shoot at things from a first-person perspective, you have a first-person shooter, and the mechanics for it just aren't gratifying. I understand and am fine with the stats governing the accuracy of the shots, but the shooting just doesn't feel right.

i don't entirely agree. having a game in which the combat mechanic involves firing guns from a first-person perspective doesn't necessarily make that game a first-person shooter. it's just the combat mechanic which is only part of the larger game. on the other hand, for a game like doom, shooting things in first-person is the game. there's a lot more to fallout 3 than its combat mechanic.
so far, i've found fallout 3's RPG elements to have a lot of depth. SPECIAL is there, the skills are there and all of them interact with the fallout world. dialogue is very important, and there are many ways to obtain and solve quests. as far as the RPG stuff goes, i haven't noticed anything absent that was in the first two games.