All this will come alive with a level of detail that's much higher than in Oblivion. Fallout 3 uses an enhanced version of the Oblivion graphics engine, but many lessons have been learned from that game. One thing that Bethesda has had to work on is making the nuclear wasteland actually look good. Many of the locations in the game need to look completely dilapidated, so a lot of work was done to make surfaces look pockmarked and gouged. The interior of Vault 101 borrows a lot of contextual themes from the original games, and it exudes a cool, retro-tech feel to it. The creatures in this game also look impressive, like the super mutant behemoth, a gargantuan foe that could have been ripped out of the postapocalyptic sci-fi shooter Gears of War for the Xbox 360. Even the human characters look far more lifelike than their counterparts in Oblivion because they now have realistic-looking skin and facial features. Even better, the human characters will stand out more as Bethesda has enlisted between 30 and 40 voice actors. So not only will the humans all not sound the same (a problem in Oblivion), but they'll also have unique dialogue. That should rectify one of the major issues with Oblivion, which was that most characters had no personality and their only purpose was to serve as an information kiosk of sorts. However, that wouldn't be Fallout because the series is known for its memorable characters.

• The game takes place 30 years after the events Fallout 2. The events of the much-maligned Fallout: Brotherhood and Fallout: Tactics never happened in the universe of Fallout 3.
• The game will feature a day/night cycle and changing weather.
• There will be 21 collectible bobbleheads hidden throughout the game for Easter egg lovers.
• The game will feature 20 licensed songs from the '40s that will be played through radio stations accessible via your on-arm PIP-Boy and radios peppered throughout the game world.
• There will be no drivable vehicles in the game, but you can travel between locations through subway tunnels.
• There are children in the game, but the team isn't sure yet if they will be killable as they were in the previous Fallout games.
• The game will have no multiplayer mode and no demo is currently planned.
• Downloadable content and player-created mods are being considered, but nothing has been finalized.
• The game will feature nine to 12 endings based on how you've played it.
• The game's version of Washington D.C. will include iconic landmarks and the general topography of the real city, but will not be a street-by-street recreation. The downtown area represents about one quarter of the in-game map.
• There will be fewer non-player characters in Fallout 3 than in Oblivion, owing to the game's post-apocalyptic setting. Almost all the NPCs will be killable.
• You'll be able to hire mercenaries to aid you as in the first Fallout game. You won't have much direct control over them.
• Among other statistics, the demo's loading screens contained a mysterious metric of "corpses eaten." "We're not talking about that stuff," Executive Producer Todd Howard said when asked about the stat.