Sadly, I won't be getting Fallout 3 anytime soon since I need to eat and have a place to live. But it'd be nice to hear about it from people who've purchased it. Game mechanics, interesting experiences, production quality, etc.

I`ve just got it [ finally they gave me one copy to test, did i say that i love my job?:) ], so i haven`t got enaugh time to "look around" but first impression is good.
We will see how it will look after more minutes spending on playing.

Feels like a Fallout game so far. The character creation, graphics settings, and a lot of other things are very detailed, just the way I like them. No DRM and it runs just fine on my laptop at very high settings.
I couldn't be more happy to tell you the truth.

it won't be released till friday here in australia :(

I've posted my impressions in the fallout forum, as well as ilive who has a much more detailed section.
to me it feels like oblivion, i played oblivion on pc, and am playing fallout on the 360, but it still feels like oblivion to me.

It's a pretty game. Decent voice acting. The main story, while only beginning, is just awesome thus far. Seems pretty stable too. Throw in the limited copy protection and you have a winner. I purchased mine on Steam, and unlike the steaming piles of dog shit known as Far Cry 2 and Crysis, the only DRM is the standard Steam DRM - but I digress... All in all it was well worth the money - I recommend selling one of those extra and useless organs (you only need one lung!) to fund the game.
Protip:
If you're dumb like me, and you find that Fallout is running slow and you program Direct3D stuff, and you have the DirectX SDK installed... ensure that you don't have the Debug runtimes set. I keep forgetting about those stupid things and as a result my framerate dropped dramatically in some areas. On the up side, the game still ran pretty good with the debug runtimes until it got into areas with a bigger FOV and/or alpha blended stuff (i.e. particles and whatnot). That's some pretty decent code they got going on there

Think oblivion style graphics.
Thus far story is decent... maybe fallout 2 just set the minimal bar for the series but my expectations for 3 is pretty darn high.
Hopefully I'll remember to tell you guys more tomorrow... already hitting up some funny side quests (funny in good way)
and the VATS/fps shooter aspect? not a big deal. Fallout was never about the combat anyway! (nah all joking aside it works out nicely), But it is no longer turn based....
the game does seem slightly easy though... fallout 2 was pretty harsh on you... you could easily die...here I never really felt I was in danger except during my first combat in the outer world when I was just taking in the scenery =P
overall score right now? 8/10.... will be modded up or down as I progress through the game!
edit: q6600, 4gb ram, 8800 gtx, vista 64 bit (all non overclocked). settings on high. thus far I I have not seen any performance issues yet...

I went with a coworker to pick this game up at midnight last night.
(Note: This was the PS3 version. I will be picking up the PC version shortly.)
We encountered a few really serious bugs. At one part in the beginning, you take a classroom-style 'test' to determine where you should invest your skill points. However, the test interface never appeared and we were unable to have our character leave the chair in which he was sitting. No amount of loading, choosing different interaction paths, etc. would fix the problem. Eventually, we found an option through which you can bypass the test and were forced to use this.
At two other points, the game just totally froze. These freezes occurred mid-attack (when the screen is blurred) after targeting an enemy using the VATS system. I left and went to bed after the second crash. :(
Fallout 3's dialogs and gore seem to be quite in tune with its predecessors, which is great considering the Australian censorship fiasco a few weeks ago. The environment is also very convincing and has lots of small touches that really give it the post-apocalyptic/nostalgic feel.
I can't wait to play the PC version!

They say killing some enemies is hard, maybe I just took some good skills, I've been able to take down super mutants and deathclaws at only level 3.

Using what weapons, Weclock?
I've only been playing it for about 3 hours, and since I take my time, this means I've only made out of the vault and into Megaton so far. But up to this point, I'm liking it a lot. No performance issues, no freezes or crashes:
E6750, 8800 GT (512 MB), 2 GB RAM. My rig's overclocked as well.
Picked up the collector's edition, so I'm geeking out with my lunchbox, bobblehead, the art book, and I'm thinking I may peek at the 'making of' DVD before I head to bed.

hunting rifle, frag grenades.
EDIT:
also that pipboy is wearable, i didn't get one, and I'm slightly regretting it.

Just a question: Don't you guys think that the adaptive difficulty (enemies' levels depend on your own, increasing as yours do) so very much typical to Oblivion, also present in Fallout 3 is a bad idea?
I mean, I may be old school on this one, but I appreciate my RPGs to make me feel stronger as I progress in the game, and to do this by providing me with the chance to totally obliterate a low level foe with so much as just spitting in its direction. And this is so much easier to do in an open-world game such as this.

Sure, this would bring up some issues too, but as far as I'm concerned this adaptive difficulty seems like a really bad design choice in an RPG. I think I first encountered it in Final Fantasy 8, as far as I can remember, and have been hating any form of it since.

So far I like it a lot! :) Have only explored Megaton and the immediate neighborhood. So far no bugs or crashes. Plays very smooth with most settings on high (e6550, 8800GT 512mb x2, 2gb ram). The world and the atmosphere is suitably grim. I like the VAT system, and (because way deep down I am just a tad twisted) the slo mo critical hit scenes are, well, awesome. Third person sucks, but I don't like third person perspective games as a rule so I'm biased that way.
The lunch box edition goodies are cool. :)
I keep hearing the comparisons to Oblivion. Never played that game so can't comment. Oft times I think folks can get so caught up in trying to compare things like games, movies, books, etc to each other they miss the real differences. Fallout 3 isn't Fallout 1 or 2 so if you go in expecting that, you might be disappointed.
But hey, I'm having fun... ;)

Singapore has a crappy distributor for FO3. It'll be released only on Nov 13th. :(

+1, here you go :D In exchange you could tell me how exactly are dialogues handled.