Oh, Jeff, you lazy douchebag. About half of his complaints can be attributed to the original Fallout games as well, or his own ineptitude. It's the usual kind of shit that makes me not like Jeff as a reviewer at all, not because I think he's a terrible writer or a bad guy or doesn't have insight, but because he whines about shit that shouldn't matter. He doesn't like the way the game autosaves, yet openly admits the situation he was complaining about came about because he didn't save his game. Well, whose fault is that, Jeff? Yes, let's blame the game for not saving for you properly. He doesn't like the encumbrance system. Well, make a character with more strength, Jeff. Inventory management was a huge deal in the first two games, and it was often annoying as hell. You always had more stuff than you could possibly use and had to be pickier about what you'd carry into the wastes. Pick up every gun and bit of ammo you find and you're sure to get nowhere fast.
I think his complaints with VATS are probably valid, though. Looking at videos and stuff, I'm getting the impression that it makes the game far too easy and that 99% of people will be picking whatever headshot perks there are so they can just use VATS, aim for the head, kill dude, end combat. Which sounds awful. So I'm a little disappointed in the way that may work out, though obviously I'll reserve final judgment until I play it for myself. I'm guessing that to some degree this may be a problem because Bethesda wanted people to know this wasn't just some FPS and that all the non-combat skills actually are important and do matter to the game and your character, so they may have overcompensated a little to make it more attractive to pick some non-combat options? I don't know. Still, if that turns out to be less than perfect, it'll get modded out. It isn't a complaint for everyone, though, so it may have to do more with the kind of character you end up playing.
One of the commenters made an interesting point, though. He gave GTAIV unabashed high scores despite technical flaws, but seemed to focus more on the flaws for FO3. My guess is it's because there's no hip-hop in it or gangsta rappers he can try to impersonate.
