Gaming

To be faaaaaaaaaaaiiiiir, a lot of that was tied up in the switch from overhead isometric view to first-person view.

Fallout 1/2 didn't focus on graphics, they were in many ways point-and-click adventures. A lot of things you had to hover over for "flavor text" and every once in a while something only four pixels wide exists that you need to notice.

So the gameplay actually actively eschewed graphics in favor of things like flavor text and reading.

Further, the switch to first person broke the SPECIAL system, because how to you even manage a gun skill in a first person shooter without it feeling absurd? It made sense in isometric, even if it was often frustrating to miss an enemy when you had a 79% chance to shoot them in the balls. Putting that in a first person when you mag dump into someone standing right in front of you and half your shots feels a lot less realistic, and can quickly become frustrating in a more fast-paced first-person-shooter environment. The SPECIAL system feels absolutely slapped on as an afterthought in Fallout 3.

Also, the writing in Fallout 3 was that shitty Bethesda writing. The writing was just subpar compared to the prior two installments. Especially the fucking stupid ass end of the game.

I'd say a lot of those complaints were driven more by the perspective switch than anything else.