Pete Hines on Fallout 3
Pete Hines on Fallout 3
Interview - posted by Vault Dweller on Tue 27 March 2007, 01:05:50
Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Fallout 3NMA has posted a PC Zone UK article, featuring Pete Hines, the PR legend, talking about Fallout 3:
Bethesda's Pete Hines speaks out on the mixed emotions surrounding Fallout 3.
"We've said this before and we'll say this again: not everybody is going to agree with the game we are making: it's a solid-gold lock," exclaims a tired and emotional Pete Hines when we ask him about the forthcoming Fallout 3. He's just spent a long day plugging the hugely anticipated Oblivion expansion Shivering Isles and the inevitable query about Bethesda's 'other' RPG has reared it's head. "Some people will like it, some people will hate it, and they don't even know what we're doing yet!"
Few developers have been so honest in regard to a game's potential reception, but then again few developers have had to face a fanbase quite so rabid, rigid and (sad to say) repeatedly screwed over as those of the post- nuclear role-player. Hines, however, is insistant about how dedicated to the wastelands cause Bethesda truly are. "I have it on my laptop here, I play it on the road. We're all big fallout fans, we play Fallout, Fallout 2, we play the non-RPG ones, I mean, I play Fallout: Tactics, I played Brotherhood of Steel (the abysmal Xbox 'action' game) because I felt I had to give it a look. And I was sorry I did so.
"We feel that we're doing Fallout 3 having done one and two, even though we didn't. Much like the Elder Scrolls, we look at what worked, we look at what didn't; we look at where we want to take it, how to move it forward and keep it relevant. But we also want to stay true to the stuff people remember and took to heart in Fallout, which was the kinds of quests you did, the choices that were laid before you, the way the game would play differently depending on how you were role-playing and the setting...That sort of stuff."
You also shouldn't expect the lewdness of Fallout 2, as Hines reckons it got "a little too caught up in trying to be funny or controversial or whatever." Which is a shame as certain PCZONE staffers thought, choosing to be a low-paid fluffer at a post-apocaluptic porn studio, only to find the fluid exchange left them with a traditional RPG poisoning, the height of hilarity back in 1998. Whatever the case, the smart bets are for Fallout 3 to be a free-roaming, first-person action/RPG with more dialogue, violence and grit than the Elder Scrolls has ever seen.
Unconfirmed rumour has it that the game will take place on the America's east coast, rather than the original's iconic west, while promotional posters suggest that the franchise's cheery combination of optimistic 1950's propaganda and arid, desolate solitude will remain firmly in place. And what with the only other hope for Fallout being an extremely unlikely MMO being crafted (possibly) by the remnants of what was once gaming giant Interplay, it's safe to say that a lot is riding on its success. Internet buzz, meanwhile, is suggesting an official unveiling at some point this summer, perhaps at the revamped E3.
Hines, however seems to think it inevitable that no matter how happy bethesda are with their offering, there are bound to be murmurs of discontent from the more radiation-soaked parts of the Internet. "People will have to take it for what it is. If they like it, great, if they don't like it... Well some folks just aren't going to give it a chance out of the box. And you know what? That's your choice. If you don't want to give it a shot, there's nothing we can do about that..."Discuss.
Bethesda's Pete Hines speaks out on the mixed emotions surrounding Fallout 3.
"We've said this before and we'll say this again: not everybody is going to agree with the game we are making: it's a solid-gold lock," exclaims a tired and emotional Pete Hines when we ask him about the forthcoming Fallout 3. He's just spent a long day plugging the hugely anticipated Oblivion expansion Shivering Isles and the inevitable query about Bethesda's 'other' RPG has reared it's head. "Some people will like it, some people will hate it, and they don't even know what we're doing yet!"
Few developers have been so honest in regard to a game's potential reception, but then again few developers have had to face a fanbase quite so rabid, rigid and (sad to say) repeatedly screwed over as those of the post- nuclear role-player. Hines, however, is insistant about how dedicated to the wastelands cause Bethesda truly are. "I have it on my laptop here, I play it on the road. We're all big fallout fans, we play Fallout, Fallout 2, we play the non-RPG ones, I mean, I play Fallout: Tactics, I played Brotherhood of Steel (the abysmal Xbox 'action' game) because I felt I had to give it a look. And I was sorry I did so.
"We feel that we're doing Fallout 3 having done one and two, even though we didn't. Much like the Elder Scrolls, we look at what worked, we look at what didn't; we look at where we want to take it, how to move it forward and keep it relevant. But we also want to stay true to the stuff people remember and took to heart in Fallout, which was the kinds of quests you did, the choices that were laid before you, the way the game would play differently depending on how you were role-playing and the setting...That sort of stuff."
You also shouldn't expect the lewdness of Fallout 2, as Hines reckons it got "a little too caught up in trying to be funny or controversial or whatever." Which is a shame as certain PCZONE staffers thought, choosing to be a low-paid fluffer at a post-apocaluptic porn studio, only to find the fluid exchange left them with a traditional RPG poisoning, the height of hilarity back in 1998. Whatever the case, the smart bets are for Fallout 3 to be a free-roaming, first-person action/RPG with more dialogue, violence and grit than the Elder Scrolls has ever seen.
Unconfirmed rumour has it that the game will take place on the America's east coast, rather than the original's iconic west, while promotional posters suggest that the franchise's cheery combination of optimistic 1950's propaganda and arid, desolate solitude will remain firmly in place. And what with the only other hope for Fallout being an extremely unlikely MMO being crafted (possibly) by the remnants of what was once gaming giant Interplay, it's safe to say that a lot is riding on its success. Internet buzz, meanwhile, is suggesting an official unveiling at some point this summer, perhaps at the revamped E3.
Hines, however seems to think it inevitable that no matter how happy bethesda are with their offering, there are bound to be murmurs of discontent from the more radiation-soaked parts of the Internet. "People will have to take it for what it is. If they like it, great, if they don't like it... Well some folks just aren't going to give it a chance out of the box. And you know what? That's your choice. If you don't want to give it a shot, there's nothing we can do about that..."
