Fallout 3 - Previews #2 Updated

We'll start adding a second round of Fallout 3 previews here:

Kotaku:

On Story - The main storyline of the game will run around 20 hours, with side quests fleshing the total out to around 40. The game currently has 9-12 endings in place, and the devs seemed to suggest there could be even more down the line. The story is highly mutable, meaning you can make choices that destroy entire quest lines and or open new ones.

Shacknews:

The main result of all this is that Fallout 3's content is packed much more densely. The slightly smaller world and drastically smaller number of NPCs means that individual characters and locations can be infused with more personality. Bethesda hopes to eliminate the issue of "cloned" NPCs--each character should be unique, not simply exist as a walking signpost. The company has even bumped up the number of voice actors it is hiring to somewhere between 30 and 40, to avoid having to use the same lines again and again.

Along with this comes the next big set of improvement's to the studio's proprietary Radiant AI. While the underlying artificial intelligence behind Oblivion's NPCs were impressive--to the point that Bethesda had to tune it down to prevent them from being too unpredictable--it did not always make for an end result of entertaining actions. Characters frequently had their own agendas, but many times such an agenda would simply be to take a walk.

• Major Nelson's Xbox Live podcast with Pete Hines (Fallout 3 starts at 39:07 - thanks GameBanshee
• Duck and Cover talks about two "uncovered" locations in Fallout 3
• Preview @ Yahoo! Games
• Preview @ GiN