Fallout 3 Interview

[GameBanshee News]

Kieron Gillen interviewed Pete Hines for Eurogamer, about the Fallout license, fans and Fallout 3.

Eurogamer: What I've never quite understood about Fallout 3 is why would Bethesda buy the licence? Arguably "Bethesda does post-apocalyptic game" is a bigger story than "Bethesda makes Fallout 3". Fallout is a relic to modern gamers. If you'd made your own world, you'd have sidestepped all the stress of dealing with over-protective fans.

Pete Hines: It's like, if George Lucas died tomorrow - God willing, he doesn't - and you're a film director. And you've grown up making big epic films - maybe you're Peter Jackson. And he finishes whatever his big next film is. And someone asks him, "what do you want to do next?" And he says, "I always wanted to make a big space movie. A big epic movie full of action." And they ask, "do you want to do generic space movie that you make up yourself, or do you want to do Star Wars." And he says, "I could do whatever, but I grew up as a kid and Star Wars made me want to get into making movies. It had such a profound impact on me, I would love to pick up this thing I loved and cared so much about and make the next one. And I'm not the guy who did the originals, but it means so much to me, and would mean much more to me to work in this world. It would be easier, perhaps less controversial and less pressure to do my own, but I'd rather do this thing that someone else did so much more."

That's the best analogy I can use. We could have made anything and people would have been interested in it, probably, but Fallout meant a ton to us, and we love the tone and flavour of that world, and how meaningful it was for its time, how different it was from other stuff that was out there. We said, "we could do anything, but what we'd really love to do is Fallout". Use that character system and that world that's so unique from anything else that we might come up with. We'd rather do that than come up with our own thing. Bring that to life - and bring it not to just people who played the it before, but people who've never got to play or experience it. There's this great game and world which somebody came up that we really think you'll want to play.

I love a party with a radioactive, toxic atmosphere.

Eurogamer: You're driven by love. Do you think that's something the very hardcore Fallout fans miss?

Pete Hines: I don't know whether they miss it or not - it may be that they don't care and think, "that's all well and good, but you're not the ones we wanted to make this". I don't pretend to know exactly what their motivations and thought processes are. Those guys are very enthusiastic - we're talking about the very hardest of the hardcore Fallout fan. They're very passionate about this thing and protective about it. And that's okay. It's something they've clearly got a lot of attachment too. At the same time, we are making the very best game that we can. It's not for any one group of folk - we're making the best game we know how for a lot of people who'll come to play and enjoy it.

[Brother None]

Eurogamer: You're driven by love. Do you think that's something the very hardcore Fallout fans miss?

There you go, people, ZeniMax invested 6 million dollars because a handful of devs from Bethesda really love Fallout



Do they honestly expect anyone to buy that?

[Xandax]

Originally Posted by GameBanshee News

I don't know whether they miss it or not - it may be that they don't care and think, "that's all well and good, but you're not the ones we wanted to make this". I don't pretend to know exactly what their motivations and thought processes are. Those guys are very enthusiastic - we're talking about the very hardest of the hardcore Fallout fan. They're very passionate about this thing and protective about it.

I'll tell you what our motivations and thought processes are ... well mine at least.
I want quality over fluff. I do not want dumped down CRPG lites that my pet gerbil (if I had one) could play.
I do not want catering to the lowest common denominator. I do not want "Radiant AI" mucking up a game with anything but AI. I do not want difficulty to be simply "lets place 10 monsters instead of 5, that's difficult". I want choice and consequences - if I kill person X, I want it to actually matter in the game. I do not want to have to play some silly console port type interface - utilize the fact that we have keyboard and a mouse.
I want to be able to use non-combat skills to actually solve problems and quests and I want actual quality puzzles and quests which requires the player to ... well, I don't know - *think*, instead of having the game making decisions for me and just showing them as a pop up.

So to summarize - I want substance, not perdy graphics instead of substance.
That means, most of all - I would like to have Fallout instead of a game called Fallout.

If you can provide that, I'll be happy - but given track record with dumping down into Duh'Blivion - I'm not holding my breath.


(yeah, I know - there's no place for me in modern gaming)

[kyle]

Yeah, yeah, let the flaming of a game that hasn't even come out yet continue...

You know what? All future posts by people who don't like Bethesda developing FO3 will suck. How can I say that without seeing them first? Exactly.

[Brother None]

Originally Posted by kyle

Yeah, yeah, let the flaming of a game that hasn't even come out yet continue...

You know what? All future posts by people who don't like Bethesda developing FO3 will suck. How can I say that without seeing them first? Exactly.

If I know a poster is a troll, and only posts to troll, don't I know his next post will, most likely, be a troll?

I will never know for sure until he posts.

Uwe Boll buys the rights to make a Planescape: Torment film. I say it'll suck. Do I know it'll suck 100% for sure? No I won't.

But guess what? Both of the above are educated guesses, made valid by reality.

And guess what? So is the opinion that Bethesda's Fallout 3 doesn't not fit the Fallout franchise. And so is the opinion that Bethesda's Fallout 3 might not be a good game. I personally consider the former to be nearly established fact, the latter I don't know, I kinda liked Oblivion for what it was though I doubt I'll be able to look at Fallout 3 with the same eyes.

What's that? I should forget everything I know about Fallout, Bethesda and their games and just pretend I can't make any educated guesses about Fallout 3? Uh-huh, I could do that, if I thought ignorance was bliss. But I don't.

[Xandax]

Originally Posted by kyle

Yeah, yeah, let the flaming of a game that hasn't even come out yet continue...

You know what? All future posts by people who don't like Bethesda developing FO3 will suck. How can I say that without seeing them first? Exactly.

Difference is that I base my opinion on past behaviour and releases from Bethesda, and not marketing spin or hype. I've seen similar statements way to many times before to start believing them now, without them being backed up.

I sincerely do hope Bethesda will produce a good RPG for once, but I fear they'll just produce another mediocre and get it hyped again so the masses buys it and thinks that hype is the state of things.

Thus, I want substance over fluff. So sorry for being critical of the spin, if that doesn't fit into the plan of hyping yet another game, and relying on marketing instead of quality.