Interview Pete Hines on Fallout 3

[User was nabbed fit]

The Father of Lies feels no emotion. He only uses the illusion to add to his potency.

I just can't get myself to trust him. Every single word feels like a slimy tongue, trying to go as far up my ass as possible.

MMLOL.

 

[Sol Invictus]

The only reason it'll be situated on the East Coast is so they can base the entire geography of the land on that of Maryland.

Just like Cyrodiil.

 

[elander_]

"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. "

Considering that who is working on F3 is the same team that worked on Oblivion...

Dialogue is always good when it's actualy. I can't remember any Dialog in Oblivion that is even acceptably entertaining.

Violence and grit lolololololol, it's going to be awesome.

Action/RPG that tells a lot. In the worst scenario it's going to be Oblivion with guns all broken up and with level scaling. In the best scenario it will be like DeusEx but without the borders and the very specific zones made to play specific events that contribute for a limited but interesting role-playing scenario.

Free-roaming - the Wastelands had free roaming on the wilderness and so did Fallout. Otherwise most "zones" were inaccessible unless the player would get the right skills or the right connections with other npcs.

But didn't they say that Fallout 3 is going to take place all in a ruined city? If this is the case then it might actually be interesting. It would suck to play a large piece of land like Fallout in a area that when immersed in the game looks like we are making a trip to Disneyland. This breaks immersion completely.

 

[don_tomaso]

The ruined city is just a rumor.

 

[Ladonna]

Who is going to be the big Foozle in this one? Any takers?

 

[Texas Red]

Who is going to be the big Foozle in this one? Any takers?

Probably the Chinese. Everybody is doing it.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Puuk, aka Damien Foletto (ex BIS developer), has made the following comments on the interview:
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewto ... 960#380960

Reading that interview has left me with questionable hope for a Fallout 3 I'd enjoy. I'm visualizing a teen rated, XBox 360/PC co-release, third person action romp with creatures and NPCs that level along with you like in Oblivion (which I really hated and killed any sense of character accomplishment, imo). I'm seeing overdone 50s references to the point of not being relevent to the Fallout universe (hence the word "overdone"), static, mechanical NPC quest givers and sub-quests that are more interesting than the main plot. However, since the best part of Oblivion was the Brotherhood plot-lines and quests, I do have a glimmer of hope there will be some things interesting and fun in Fallout 3, but I'm very skeptical about it feeling like a Fallout RPG.

I hope I'm wrong and the game rocks. We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Section8]

We've said this before and we'll say this again: Fallout fans are not going to agree with the game we are making: it's a solid-gold cock in an unconsenting arse," exclaims a tired and emotional Pete Hines when we ask him about the forthcoming Fallout 3. He's just spent a long day pumping the waiting mouths of those who anticipate Oblivion's expansion Shivering Isles, and the inevitable query about Bethesda's 'other' RPG has reared its head. "Furries will like it, Fallout fans will fucking despise it, and we're far too predictable for them to not 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, pretends to be insistant about how dedicated to the wastelands cause Bethesda truly are. "I have it on my laptop here, and wish Fallout fans would go play in traffic. We're all pretending to be big fallout fans, we briefly played 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. It's exactly what we'd intended to make, yet failed miserably, and we're not sure why. Back to the old dart...I mean drawing board.

"We feel that we're doing Fallout 3 having done one and two, even though we couldn't possibly, at our very acme have done anything even comparable to the lesser of the two. But, let me explain:

It's like having a new girlfriend, and she's all like - "My last boyfriend used to make sweet, tender love to me with the passion and fire of a thousand sunsets." And then we're like - "Yeah, but we feel as though we were the ones who already did that, and so we're pushing you in a new direction. And that direction is this street corner, bitch."

Much like the Elder Scrolls, we pretend everything we did was flawless; we look at where we want to take it, how to sell more copies and keep it as retard-friendly as societal decline dictates. But we recognise a minor market potential in paying lip-service to those who want the game to stay true to the stuff people remember and took to heart in Fallout, of which we have no fucking clue, but will spout something we hope sounds about right."

You also shouldn't expect the lewdness of Fallout 2, as Hines eloquently explains, 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 completely safe, and free of anything likely to cause offense to the puritanical sensibilities of parents and political groups.

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, albeit bastardised to the point of unwitting self-parody. 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...Reverse psychology totally works. I mean totally doesn't work."

 

[kingcomrade]

And I was sorry I did so. It's exactly what we'd intended to make, yet failed miserably, and we're not sure why.

 

[Claw]

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.

How cute. If I don't like it, that just shows I didn't give it a chance to begin with.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

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.

How cute. If I don't like it, that just shows I didn't give it a chance to begin with.

That's why Beth-fanbois say, "lol u shud try teh game b4 u say it scuks!!11"

 

[MacBone]

Thanks for the translation, Section8.

 

[Joe Krow]

Will it have radiation in it or do we roleplay that?

 

[Texas Red]

Will it have radiation in it or do we roleplay that?

Radiation will give you superpowers. Biowhore proved that you cant possibly have any kind of a game without some form of magic. That would be blasphemy.

 

[Veracity]

The mutileveled irony is mind-boggling. I mean, the PC Zone writers actually imply that the porn bit in Fallout 2 was an example of bad taste, right?

Perhaps so, though that's not how I read the quoted snippet; I've no clue whether PC Zone particularly affects an attitude that'd make it unusually inclined to scoff at the adolescent-targeted bollocks most of the gaming industry labels 'mature content'. Fallout 2 was certainly overburdened with such material, but my own admittedly vague recollection of Fallout was that it was hardly averse to trying rather too hard in a similar vein. Either way, it's a feature that probably gets blown somewhat out of proportion - I wouldn't expect it to have that much impact on whether a new game manages to feel faithful to the old setting.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

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.

And then they shrugged, scooped out everything and replaced it with cheese.
I am glad Todd isn't my dentist.

 

[Claw]

Fallout 2 was certainly overburdened with such material, but my own admittedly vague recollection of Fallout was that it was hardly averse to trying rather too hard in a similar vein.

Care to be less specific?

 

[Drakron]

Sex in Fallout 2 ...

Well there were the Bishop women, the farmer's daughter and son, then there was that mechanic in Reno, the super mutant in the mining town, some guy in that town with the jet addicts ...

It really depended on gender, male characters had a shoot at the Bishop daughter but females did not (the wife was both ways, same with the farmer's daughter and son) ... I also do not think the Reno prostitutes would do anything with a female character.

Funny thing what I remember the most of Fallout 2 is "winning" the game, get to Reno and then the priest giving the "Fallout 2 game guide" that was a hell of a cheat item ...

 

[Thrym]

Choosing to opt out of "Adult Content" is bullshit and completely separate from whether the content worked in FO2. Besides the sexual content, which is necessary for any real "tragic" post-apoc story, the violence in the fallout games was rather astounding. I don't see Bethesda having the balls for the multitude of animations FO had for individual death throws, maybe not multitude but more than most games today, nor as they have stated, willing to try and make sexual themes work. Porn magazine parodies do not make a game funny, but denying their existence in a war torn world is impossible. There needs to be acknowledgment of themes that occur in any human beings life. If I'm stranded in a goddamn nuclear wasteland trying to save my dying tribe, I am not going to pretend sex doesn't exist. Slave traders, crimelords, & tribal chieftains, are going to be the order of the day, and they had damn well better be raping and pillaging. Nor is my hero some "super" man who never thinks of rest, never knows the longings for that other. Whether I satisfy it in a brothel, or with the farmer's daughter, or with the city consul, should only be up to the player, not excluded from the game. It's been obvious that they're only interested in making a simulated Fallout adventure, this point is just, as they say, fuel for the fire.

 

[gc051360]

^In economically poor situations....like what would be the case if the world ended....prostitution goes up. Crime goes up. Drug use goes up. Everything bad goes up. Violent dictator like leaders rise, usually with much popular support. Crime lords would be everywhere. Slavery, rape, murder, would all be present. But Bethesda doesn't care about logic, or being realistic. They are all about the scenery.

The only reason they wanted to make Fallout was to have an excuse for wide landscapes with not much going on besides looking at the rocks. "What do you expect....it's the end of the world."

 

[Greenskin13]

Bang bang on the door, baby.

I remember females can have sex with Metzger to get him to drop the price on Vic.

I always just stole his shotgun and shot him in the eyes with it.

 

[Drakron]

...
But Bethesda doesn't care about logic, or being realistic. They are all about the scenery.
...

There was huge drop from Morrowind to Oblivion in that ... Morrowind had the basic of a local economy (mines, fields, etc ...) as Oblivion have nothing of that sort, its a very illogical place.

Bethsoft only got the Fallout license to get the dumb reviewers to say they created Fallout ... its "creed" as if Fallout 3 automatic gives then the success of Fallout 1 and 2 and likely, most reviewers will fall for that.

 

[gc051360]

Morrowind had the basic of a local economy (mines, fields, etc ...) as Oblivion have nothing of that sort, its a very illogical place.

logical thought...much like consequences....get in the way of freedom. I want to be able to hit a man in the face with an axe...but still complete the mission to save him. Which is good, because my Axe is a blunt weapon and only knocked him out cold.

And now they are dismissing sexual content as "cheesy" or "cliche" or "just trying to be controversial" no...just trying to be realistic. In a post apocalyptic wasteland...there would be whores. Filthy diseased whores. And strongmen seizing control of towns. And organized revolts against that strong man in favor of another. And these same warlords ransacking other towns...a post apocalyptic wasteland...is not a pg-13 type of place.

 

[Drakron]

I think the issue is deeper, the Oblivion team sucked at design ... at least who did the IC.

Take the Imperial Palace, its not designed as a place were people live but was designed as a very poor Thief level because of the Thief Guild quest line, the poor councilor have to go up about 10 flights of stairs to reach his room ...

Another is the Golden Road ... its logical design would be farms and villages would dot the road since its supposed to be the agricultural central of the province and instead we got ... wilderness.

Of course what really beats it all is the land road that blocks the river exit to the ocean.

You know ... Fallout 1 had no sexual content outside a prostitute in one of the towns that never allowed the Vault Dweller the use of her services, sexual content really started in FO2 so its really a no question and that just shows how Bethsoft knows the Fallout license if they are dismissing it like that.

 

[gc051360]

You know ... Fallout 1 had no sexual content outside a prostitute in one of the towns that never allowed the Vault Dweller the use of her services, sexual content really started in FO2 so its really a no question and that just shows how Bethsoft knows the Fallout license if they are dismissing it like that.

You made some great points about the logical design of things in Oblivion....if we use logical thought. In an economically desolate world....prostitution and crime looms large.