Game News Pete Hines responds some more

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Fallout 3

<b>Mr. Teatime</b> over at <A href="Http://www.duckandcover.cx">Duck and Cover</a> has been talking with <b>Pete Hines</b> of <A href="Http://www.bethsoft.com">Bethesda</a> about the recent blurb in <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/&e=747">GameInformer</a> about <b><i>Fallout 3</i></b>. He says it's <i>LIES</i>, as you can read here:
<br>
<blockquote>There's a very big difference between direct quotes from us, and assumptions on the part of a game magazine or web site. <u>Fallout 3 will not be a survival horror game</u>. Call of Cthulhu will be a survival horror game.</blockquote>
<br>
Maybe <b>Exitium</b> is right and <A href="Http://www.bethsoft.com">Bethesda</A> is the most misquoted and misinterpretted publisher-slash-development house in history. If that's the case, then I suggest one of two things happen from this point on:
<br>
<ul><li> Mr. Hines request to proof read all previews and interview they officially support for accuracy.
<br>
<li> Mr. Hines only give previews and interviews to magazines and web sites that don't feel the need to just make shit up on the fly.</ul>
<br>
Either that stuff is actually coming from <A href="http://www.bethsoft.com">Bethesda</a> to test waters for ideas, or gaming journalism is even worse than we've been pointing out for the last two years.
<br>

 

[Sol Invictus]

There have been plenty of assumptions made by the gaming press over the past few years on titles like Fable and Deus Ex Invisible War. Yes, it's true that Peter Molyneux had a tendency to hypothesize a lot of the bullshit but a lot of it just came from the magazines, whenever the editor or whoever wrote the article decided to do a little hypothesizing on his own based on what he "understood" about the game. They'd read the term "Emergent AI" from the developer quotes and conclude that the game's storyline could be altered to whatever you wanted it to be.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Great news! The peasants at DAC are cheering. Doesn't take much, does it?

Anyway, it seems to me that most people disregarded this quote:

But no, we can't talk about it. And it does say "survival-horror-esque", not "this is a survival horror game".

Can't talk about what? I thought that there is nothing to talk about? Pay attention to that -esque thing, if you look carefully, you'd see that there is no denying there, he didn't say "survvial? horror? what kinda nonsense is that?", but pointed out to the important difference. So, looks like clevar Pete got away on technicality this time.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Well, Fallout was pretty survival-horror-esque in parts. Remember the Deathclaws?

 

[plin]

Say if you (in reality, and since it's a role-playing game, you're supposed to role-play -duh right?-) were living your life in the wasteland as the vault dweller trying to survive, I would agree it's survival/horror in that sense. I mean shit, imagine seeing a ghoul or the master in real life. Going to the ghoul place before and after the masacre. Giant scorpians, mutants, the decay of civilization etc.


I dunno about you, but I'd piss my pants from any of those.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Isometric view doesn't support the horror part of the survival-horror-esque very well. FP/3d person view does.

 

[plin]

Isometric view doesn't support the horror part of the survival-horror-esque very well. FP/3d person view does.

Supported it fine for me when I played the original. You know, it's one of those rOlE PLaYInG GaMESSSSS!!!@@@#

 

[Brillo]

You know, of all the worrying stuff that's been said and reported, this one bothers me the least. Todd Howard apparently said something about how much more dark and violent the game would be, and the mag writer told his readers to imagine survival horror-esque.

This wasn't a quote from Bethesda. It was something from the mag writer trying to explain things to his console readers.

If you want to jump on Bethesda ask em about that goggles for your light sensitive eyes bussiness.

 

[Vault Dweller]

So, when you saw a deathclaw for the first time, because you're such a role-player, you screamed, soiled your paints, and ran away in horror? Please. Now, System Shock 2 is a survival-horror game, regardless of your mad role-playing skillz.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Todd Howard apparently said something about how much more dark and violent the game would be, and the mag writer told his readers to imagine survival horror-esque.

Dark and violent !=survival-horror-esque-crap, so I can't see how such an assumptions could be made. Fallout was pretty dark and violent even before Bethesda got involved.

 

[Brillo]

Dark and violent !=survival-horror-esque-crap, so I can't see how such an assumptions could be made. Fallout was pretty dark and violent even before Bethesda got involved.

Name some other extremely dark and violent console games that the mag's readers might recognize. Most all are in the survival-horror genre. Remember, the kids reading that mag aren't going to have the same frame of reference as you.

 

[plin]

So, when you saw a deathclaw for the first time, because you're such a role-player, you screamed, soiled your paints, and ran away in horror? Please. Now, System Shock 2 is a survival-horror game, regardless of your mad role-playing skillz.

pfft, system shock 2 was shite. Oooh, make some noises behind me then spawn a scary/shitty looking zombie man or monkey to come after me. Then make me conserve ammo. TRUE SURVIVAL HORROR THERE OMG LOLS.

 

[Vault Dweller]

What happened to your "rOlE PLaYInG"?

 

[plin]

What happened to your "rOlE PLaYInG"?

It's still there. I find that a post apocalyptic world by nukes is more plausible and realistic (and could very well happen these days), and because of that, I find it that much more scary than a zombie/monkey scare on a space ship in the future because a bitch supercomputer AI wants to take over the world, or whatever lame ass story that game had. Not to mention one relies on cheap tricks (thrills) to scare you, the other paints a picture I could truly be scared of, and truly imagine being in.

But whatever, It's probably just because of my MAD rOlE PLaYInG skills. Or you just like shitty horror.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Back when I first entered the Necropolis, that place really spooked me. I'd call that survival/horror. I remember jumping out of my seat when I encountered a ghoul. I was glad to be back in The Hub.

 

[plin]

Not to mention the talking heads. Those especially could be (and were) used to that effect.

 

[almondblight]

Ehh...not all horror is survival horror, is it? Or maybe it is. I mean, in every game I'm trying to survive, so I guess all games (except graphical adventures and whatnot are survival games, or could be. But I always thought that survival horror was something like Clocktower, where you were always on the run, not just a game where you have to kill a lot of zombies with low ammo.

Hate these buzzwords.

 

[jiujitsu]

I can see how in some ways Fallout could be considered horror. I think of it more as a dark comedy. It shouldn't be Doom3 kind of horror though. That just isn't what Fallout is.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Fallout... dark comedy? What? There's no comedy in it.

Fallout 2 made a mockery of the original game.

 

[DamnElfGirl]

Dude, there were plenty of funny bits in the first Fallout game. I'm not sure if I'd call the entire game a dark comedy, but there was a good deal of black humour going around.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Well, yes, there's a jokes here and there like all that stuff about radiation and how Necropolis has 'bad weather, rain or shine, if you get my meaning' but it's definitely not black comedy.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Well, yes, there's a jokes here and there like all that stuff about radiation and how Necropolis has 'bad weather, rain or shine, if you get my meaning' but it's definitely not black comedy.

What about Doc Morbid and the Iguana on a Stick thing?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Since Rosh doesn't come here often, I will have to bring some of his common sense here:

Yes, we've seen where "direct quotes" worked so well for Bethesda's PR in the past... Just recently, there were some excellent gems from Todd. Direct quotes, in fact.

Here's a funny concept:

Make sure before you hand the befuddled fuckwits some information, that they have a clue about what they are talking about. Do NOT expect them to have the brains to figure out what to do with them on their own. These are kids out of high school who have perhaps played a few games. Most of the hiring in gaming rags is done on a buddy system or how well someone can type about the highlights of modern gaming, without any standards or care to do much background research at all.

If they are going to act as nothing more than media reprint whores, then give them the verbatim information that you want them to print. Either that or check over their publication BEFORE it turns into a publication SNAFU.

You ARE allowed to see what the final article will look like before it goes to print, PR guys. I'm sorry to be the one to clue you in on that.

EDIT: Correction. Sorry, Pete, but BULLSHIT.

Then you just tried to be dishonest with us about it. That was your mistake. There was far too much information and with the implied confirmation from the beginning that puts the words into your company's mouth, plus a claim attributed towards Todd. (But that can easily be excused because it wasn't a "direct quote" LOLOLOLOL!!!) There's also many more points about that article, to try and use the "direct quotes" bullshit when the only point contested was "survival-horror" is a straw man argument at best. Poor form, Pete.

If it were the mag's error, then that should have been corrected from the start. Frankly, I think they DID go directly according to what they were given, which is some nose candy idea someone got after watching the Fo2 intro, but nobody expected people to care about the press release other than wank material. Otherwise if all that information were false, there'd be a cry from Bethesda about it being false. Instead, Bethesda's PR plays the "direct quotes" sleaze routine. Pete, a simple clue. I don't like it when people are being dishonest with me, or try to do their best to not do their job.

Fallout wasn't about violence, but the setting was violent. There is no need to claim it the "most violent game EVAH". The death scenes were dark, the society was a bit dark, but there's no reason to make the violence surpass say...The Suffering or anything akin to that.

Or is Todd hoping you can help him out of that little blunder? Or are you going to blame that on Game Informer as well? You might want to start blaming every other mag that he's been interviewed in.

You forgot to put the spin on something:

Quote:
with all the things you expect out of the series still intact, but with deeper, more immersive gameplay


Come on, Pete. Do your amazing PR magic on that one!

There must be some reason why you will pull out that no details are given/for sure because there's no devs assigned to it, but on the same hand that doesn't stop Todd from doing his best Chuck Cuevas/Herve Caen impersonation; I'd like to hear the reason.

It's nice to know that not everybody bought the bullshit and started blamed the mag.

Still didn't get it? Fuck, you are dumb. Ok, let's try that again, only with shorter quote:

If it were the mag's error, then that should have been corrected from the start. Frankly, I think they DID go directly according to what they were given, which is some nose candy idea someone got after watching the Fo2 intro, but nobody expected people to care about the press release other than wank material. Otherwise if all that information were false, there'd be a cry from Bethesda about it being false. Instead, Bethesda's PR plays the "direct quotes" sleaze routine. Pete, a simple clue. I don't like it when people are being dishonest with me, or try to do their best to not do their job.

It's so beautiful, like poetry.

 

[Whipporowill]

Wheter it's a big faux-pas on Beth's hand - not reading and still OK'ing the article or blatant lying - giving the article a big thumbs up, it's still a pretty shoddy PR job. I could do better PR than that for christ sakes...

 

[Anonymous]

There have been plenty of assumptions made by the gaming press over the past few years on titles like Fable and Deus Ex Invisible War. Yes, it's true that Peter Molyneux had a tendency to hypothesize a lot of the bullshit but a lot of it just came from the magazines, whenever the editor or whoever wrote the article decided to do a little hypothesizing on his own based on what he "understood" about the game. They'd read the term "Emergent AI" from the developer quotes and conclude that the game's storyline could be altered to whatever you wanted it to be.

Well, Fallout was pretty survival-horror-esque in parts. Remember the Deathclaws?

Exitium <3 Bethesda's cock

Seriously, you're such a whore for PR. They throw a few pretty screenshots at you and you're out as their 'hay mebbe is isnt so bad u no' jerk. Whats next, giving a review with a score of 98% to get free exclusives?

Oh well, not like it matters, you'd go on about how every 'Next Big Thing' MMORPG is the greatest thing ever and you like Final Fantasy, no credibility.