VE3D has posted their preview of Fallout 3. Highlights:

Life after the apocalypse isn't pretty. Nor is the Wasteland population particularly friendly. Radioactive free meat is hard to come by; and to a Mutant, you look like an ultra-tasty, walking, and talking, 180-pound chunk of prime rib. Combat in Fallout 3 is what I like to call "Freeze-Based-Combat". It's not precisely real-time, nor is it truly turned-based. After clicking on an enemy, the V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) comes on-screen, dividing the target into what can best described as a butcher's chart. You have a percentage chance to hit whatever zone of the body you're aiming for, each with a different possible effect. For example, if you do X amount of damage to a leg, there's a chance you could cripple or even blow it off. If you try to shoot a weapon out of someone's hands, there's a chance to disarm for opponent, or even break the item in question. I'm not 100% sure if you can run around and play in all real-time, but they didn't seem very keen on the idea of making Fallout 3 a run-and-gun, twitchy first-person-shooter.

We get an idea of game length:

How long is the game? The main story will take about 20-hours of your time. The side-quests tack on another 20. Can you play it longer? That depends. Once you clear an area, it stays cleared.

It won't require Vista!

From a technological point of view, the lowest common denominator will be lower to mid-end PCs. You won't need Vista to run the game on your PC, and it's coming out on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 if consoles are your cup of tea.

Read the whole thing here.