The plaudits that this game has received confirms for me that computer games are still a long way away from meriting the snob value given to the more established art forms - it's very poor. (tho my version is for PS3, so who knows)
I wholeheartedly disagree. The graphics on the Xbox version are great , mostly the scenery though, the people don't look that fantastic- read any review though and it'll undoubtedly mention that the conversion to the PS3 console was atrocious.
The scope is enormous, and there is a lot of detail and realism (walking over half an hour to your next target, often being severely limited in the way of things to ensure your survival, radiation poisoning, addiction to chemical stimulants, weapons malfunctioning etc.). The story (so far) isn't brilliant, but the general atmosphere of the game and how it plays out is very intense - it plays like a Cormac McCarthy novel.
Also, you can't have played much of it to say the references are shit. I think I've caught at least 15 different science fiction/post-apocalyptia references so far, aside from the Orwell one: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Phillip K. Dick, McCarthy.
It may not be the most inventive or experimental thing to ever have been made, but I find it an extremely welcome change from the never-ending barrage of Halo and Call of Duty games mostly on offer for Xbox.
/nerdout
This all probably should be in another thread really.