Thanks for the IGN article. It was more informative. Apparently Dogmeat can permanently die. That's a good sign that they're putting in more of the traditional Fallout "screw around and we'll punish you" gameplay. Hopefully there will also be real consequences to illegal actions.
The combat bit was interesting. One thing that worries me is that it's pretty much completely real-time action and it involves actually aiming your weapons. Which means that if Bethesda doesn't work hard to fix problems with that engine, you'll be forced to play it as an FPS, which IMO is definitely inferior in an RPG to BioWare's excellent Mass Effect third-person style.
It looks as if they're sticking closely to the SPECIAL system. That's a good thing.
One line that kinda pissed me off in the piece:
"This is going to be a heck of a role-playing game, and the combination of Fallout's ironic sense of humor and cool setting with Bethesda's experience and expertise looks like a match made in heaven."
He mentions ironic humor in the last line but in the rest of the article, there isn't one mention of anything even remotely funny. This is probably the aspect of the game that worries me most. If Bethesda chickenshits out and softballs the Fallout world, most of what made the first two games so bloody brilliant will be lost.
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