Why does everyone assume that Bethesda is forcing an engine onto Obsidian that is not even their own proprietary engine? Is there an actual basis for this?

I just assumed part of the licensing agreement was that they use the same engine that FO3 used.

I would hesitate on buying it if it was Isometric, and all the Fallout 3 kids would pass on it as well... a camera option would be better ALA Witcher.... Witcherstyle i would still buy but straight ISO.. heck no....
BTW there is an isometric Total Conversion for Fallout 3 thats almost complete... makes the whole game turn based and changes a lot of the skills and such to reflect a neat face only zoom in for dialogue and the camera stays ISO...

Alternately it may have been based on pure common sense; the best way to follow up a successful game is by making another along the same lines, and by recycling the engine and some assets they will have greatly reduced the time and money it will take to make the game. A quicker release maintains interest in the series and keeps everyone happy.

ala dragon age, which has if not a fp, a damn near fp mode.

Sounds potentially better then fallout 3. Hopefully it will be good. Maybe soon, I should buy fallout 3 and get some appreciation out of it before the new one over shadows it.

Is the writing in fallout 1 or 2 any better?
I haven't played 2 yet. I have 1 from gog and i tried playing it a few months back and got totally bored. There seemed to be no flair to the writing or characters at all. The descriptions and dialog options all seemed very dull and dry, and none of the characters I met seemed to have any unique personality. Heck, I even somehow gained a follower/friend called ian. But i have no idea about him. What's his background? What's his personality? What does he want? What does he look like? Why is he following me around?
I probably didn't give it enough time.. i only got as far as junktown and killing some big fat mob boss. (i didn't want to kill him, but the game's interface meant that a misplaced click triggered an all out gunbattle, and i couldn't be bothered to go back to an old save game. )
At that point I kinda lost interest and got distracted playing Chains, Indigo Prophecy and now Albion.
Maybe the writing gets better later? *hopes*

It sounds like they are fixing the Karma system from Fallout 3, which is good. It was way...um, crappy.
I really prefer the leveling system of FO 1 and 2 over three, makes me a little sad to see it will likely stay the same. I miss the ability to pump stats to 300%

2 is muuuuch better.

1 is great. Have patience.

No. In my opinion, the romanticising of Fallout 1 & 2 is a combined case of people only remembering their favourite bits rather than the whole package, the "things were better in the good old days, not like these new fangled things" dismissiveness of modern sequels to old games and tall poppy syndrome.
To me, the writing in Fallout 3 is of the same standard as Fallout 1 & 2, that is to say, fairly ordinary. The original creators made a marvelously imaginative and detailed alternate world and then did sod all to make the game set there anything special

But Moira!
You might be right, but I don't think Fallout 1/2 had as many moments that were just ridiculous. I do remember one in Fallout 2 where there was a girl named Dorothy looking for her robot Toto, which just felt out of place. But outside of that, there was no Church of Atom, no crazy Tenpenny looking to blow up Megaton because it looked ugly, no Republic of Dave (okay, that was a bit humorous at least), etc. The Brotherhood was more complex, Harold wasn't a forest and no cult was following him, no vampires, etc. Most importantly, it felt like people were trying to survive in Fallout 1/2, especially 1. I think that thematic consistency made Fallout special and gave it a charm that Fallout 3 didn't have.

Well the church of atom sort of makes sense, as far as any religion can, its people trying to ascribe meaning to something destructive and self defeating. Not much different than the idea of living a life of denial for the promise of being rewarded after you die...
Harold DID have a tree growing from his head the first time you meet him and 3 is set a few decades after 2 and so growth of a tree in that time isn't too unrealistic (once you accept the tree growing in a ghoul thing)
Vampires are kinda crap, I'll grant you. Then again there are ghouls who are basically zombies.
The special encounters in 2 were more than a bit weird but then they were only there as a cheap laugh really.
Tenpenny was a rich arsehole, enough of those in previous games and blowing up megaton was a dick move but he's playing into the rich arsehole trope

I beg to differ, my friend :)

This "hardcore mode" is a great idea :) I hope that New Vegas will be at least as good as the 3rd part.