Bethesda Softworks has a lot to prove with Fallout 3. Not to regular hardcore gamers like you and me, of course, nor the millions of fans who have enjoyed the company's previous work with the Elder Scrolls series. It goes without saying that Bethesda's record for quality is proven.

But the Maryland-based developer took on a whole new challenge when it wrested the hallowed Fallout license from Interplay's cold, deathly grip a few years ago. Now Bethesda's unenviable task is twofold: First, bring the traditionally PC-oriented Fallout series to modern consoles and make it appeal to a broader audience who may have never touched a Fallout game before. Second, and far more difficult, build a game that honors Fallout's decade-long legacy and at least try to appease its existing hardcore audience, whose love for the franchise runs a narrow spectrum from adoration to outright fanaticism.

Vice president of PR and marketing Pete Hines isn't fazed. He and the design brass at Bethesda have paid close attention to all of the feedback (some of it scathing) those diehard fans have submitted so far. Taking fan suggestions into account is one thing, but "we still have to make the best Fallout 3 we can make," Hines says. In other words, the design team has had its own vision for Fallout 3 since day one, and with the move to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, that vision has to consider a much larger audience, one composed of people for whom this Fallout will be their first.

I'm one of those people, and as a big fan of Oblivion, it looks like Fallout 3 has enough of the same hooks--the open world, the freedom of choice, the action-based role-playing--to really pique my interest. Except this time around, you get the added benefits of handheld nuclear bomb launchers and grisly exploding mutant heads.

Fallout 3 sticks close to the franchise's basic mythos: a nuclear holocaust sent survivors underground, froze the era's 1950s-style pop culture right in the middle of its wide-eyed optimism, and populated the landscape with bloodthirsty mutants. Generations later, you're one of the lucky few born among all the rubble and ash.

But while the general background is the same, none of the characters or locales from the original two games will make an appearance. Those games' storylines were set on the West Coast, while Fallout 3 has famously been moved to Washington, DC. Not only does that give the writers a chance to start over with a fresh storyline grounded in Fallout's familiar milieu, but it also lets them address questions that never came up in the original games. For instance, what's been going on in the nation's seat of power since the first bombs dropped? What happened to the governmental infrastructure? Is there even anyone left to govern? Hines says you'll explore the answers over the course of the game.

Before you get that far, you'll have to learn to walk. And before that, you'll have to crawl. Bethesda has talked before about the game's contextualized character creation process, which will depict a handful of milestones in your young life. This time around, Hines was ready to show off that process in the opening moments of the game, which literally starts with your birth. Seconds after you've been delivered by your father, an offscreen voice asks about the gender of the baby, and you'll choose it from a menu. Your father's answer (provided by Liam Neeson) will follow suit, and you'll get to pick all your physical attributes--facial features, hair and skin color--with the usual menus and sliders.

Flash forward to one year old, when the game will acquaint you with the walking controls by letting you toddle around your playpen. Here, you'll also notice your father's facial appearance has been derived from the same choices you made in the last scene. Approaching a whimsically illustrated baby book entitled "You're Special!," you'll flip from page to page, each showing one letter of Fallout's SPECIAL system (that is, strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck). This is how you assign your character's attributes. The last phase of this intro scene I got to see depicted your character's ninth birthday party, where you'll receive your very own wrist-mounted PIPBoy computer, which will act as your inventory screen and other menu functions once you get out into the wide, irradiated world. You'll also get to interact here with some of the good and bad kids who will presumably become your adult counterparts later on.

In adulthood, your father's unexplained disappearance is what will finally lead you outside the relative safety of your fortified vault. But where the story goes from there, Bethesda isn't saying yet. It may not be a lonely world out there--what with super mutants, the mercenaries of the Talon Company, and the cult-like Brotherhood of Steel all marauding across the landscape--and it sure isn't a friendly one, either. Luckily, at least one friend will accompany you on your travels. Man's best friend, in fact. Early in the game, you'll find a courageous dog named Dogmeat and his master under attack, and when the master meets his inevitable end, Dogmeat will quickly become your loyal companion. When and where this happens will be randomized, so it should fit seamlessly into the flow of the game.

Dogmeat is basically a combat assistant that you can direct in battle. You can make him attack enemies directly, as well as get him to perform support actions like running ahead of you and returning with a dropped weapon. Of course, Dogmeat won't have lines of dialogue, per se, but you can still hold branching conversations with him, punctuated by barks and whimpers, that will let you build a rapport. Be careful, though: Dogmeat is expendable. He won't die easily, but if he does, he ain't coming back. None of the game's quests or story elements depend on Dogmeat's presence; he's just there to make your life easier in battle. But sentimental players are advised to protect their pooch, all the same.

Turn the page for more on tactical battles and the overall scope of Fallout 3.