Bethesda seems to honestly want to make this the Fallout game we've been waiting for. Here's something for you cynics to consider:
This announcement is proving to be HUGE. Fallout 3 is so early in development that they don't have a feature list or a plan - that's all being hammered out right...
I've posted a followup to that question. This should clear things up a bit:
GameGestapo: So is it safe to say that we can count on the more mature elements remaining intact?
Pete Hines: I would hope so. We don't plan to strip out important elements that made Fallout what it is. We want to...