Okay, I just came off of the Turn-based thread over in the Fallout Series Discussion, so I'm not going to get into that over here. (Though I think I agree with SteveDog, by and large. And yes, Fallout 3 did very well with physics and individual items - but if that makes for a better real-time game, how does it not also apply that it would be cool to have in a turn-based game as well?) Besides, all that talk's probably better kept to one thread; and it doesn't sound so much like that's what the OP wanted to talk about in the first place.
Anyway, there's rather annoying extremists on either side of just about any conflict imaginable. If it's possible to have more than one point of view or opinion about
anything, there's going to be lots of people with some pretty extreme feelings one way or the other. Yeah, some people really dislike what direction Bethesda took the Fallout franchise in. But you know what? That's their prerogative. They're not "wrong" for feeling that way - it's just the opinion they have. And taking a step back, they're not any more (or less) annoying to listen to, ad nauseam, than those who approach Fallout 3 (or Bethesda as a whole) with such devotion that they feel the game is beyond reproach, or that their favorite things have an
inherent worth beyond that of any other thing.
I feel the most rational response possible to a conflict of opinion would be along the lines of "well, that's how you feel; but I feel differently - and these are the reasons why." What I find just as annoying (personally) as even the worst "oldschool extremist hater" is when people take the approach of "no, you
cannot dislike this thing that I like! I like this thing so much that you
must be wrong to not feel as I do.!"
For my own two cents: I rather liked Fallout 3, overall. I was initially excited to see what Fallout would look like rendered in this particular view. (I don't call it FPS because I can play it in third-person - and do so almost entirely.) What I feel to be Bethesda's greatest strength as a developer is in creating highly-detailed and vividly "alive" environments. I feel that even if they took some license with the visual style, that the art direction in Fallout 3 was absolutely astounding. (To me) it probably looks even more "Fallout" than the original games did.

I'd even go so far as to say that a move to real-time action was the right one. (I prefer turn-based, but if you're only controlling one character, then I think real-time is the more natural choice. More than anything, I believe in adapting the gameplay to the sort of game you want to make - and not trying to shoe-horn bits and pieces into a game just for their own illusory merit.)
That said, I do have some reservations about the specific way they've manifested their vision in Fallout 3. At this point, I don't feel like getting into it all, here. (And after two years, I think I've talked about most of that at length by now...) It's not a perfect game. I don't think a perfect game is possible, however. See my sig - I believe it's possible to be a fan of something while still being able to see it's flaws, as well. Or to overall enjoy something and be happy with the final product and yet still have reservations about it - or to wish that some things had been done a bit differently. (It's not always a question of "horrible," or "awesome," so much as the difference between "good," and "even better.")
So there - I'm about as oldschool as they come, and those are my feelings. We're not all "haters." But coming from "the other side," some of the "lovers" aren't any more fun to listen to, either...