Interview I saw a Fallout 3 interview the other day

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Fallout 3

The No Mutants Allowed folks <a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35688>report</a> that our friend Todd Howard has given up some of his precious time developing <a href=http://fallout.bethsoft.com/>cool Xbox 360 action titles</a> for an interview over at Next Generation. While the piece is titled <a href=http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5093&Itemid=2>Facing Fallout</a>, there's not actually much about it:<blockquote>Characteristically, Bethesda isn’t saying much about the game itself but Howard is happy to talk about the company’s approach to the problem of bringing a classic franchise into a development environment where original IP has generally held sway.
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“We had known that Fallout had been left behind (when Interplay went bust). The developers were saying ‘we’re really interested in doing something with this IP’ so the business people came back six months later and handed it over saying ‘have fun’. We liked the previous games, but we really loved the world. It’s so unique we were really excited about the idea of working on it.”</blockquote>Nothing says "Fallout fan" like implying the setting was more important than the gameplay.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.nma-fallout.com/">No Mutants Allowed</A>

 

[Lumpy]

That's probably because, in their opinion, games consist of:
- Graphics - Fallout's are dated.
- Gameplay - Cool action, quest markers and stuff - Fallout doesn't have any.
- Story and Setting - the only thing left, and considering that Fallout is supposedly great, that must mean the setting is great.

 

[psycojester]

Howard says he wants the team to keep an open mind about what it’s trying to achieve. “We’re fortunate in that people are allowing us to make these big virtual crazy games. No feature is off limits, right? It’s a role-playing game and you do what you want, so almost anything we think of we have an avenue to put into our kind of game.

I think i just felt my spleen crawl up my spine

 

[Micmu]

Fallout == any kewl game in post apoc. setting and funny valutboy icons
This is nothing new. When he was asked about SPECIAL all he could come up with was: absolutely!1 bloody mess and humourous iconic interface kewl!1

 

[Hazelnut]

“All of us in the office play a lot of games. So the first thing is we make them for ourselves. People here tend to try and entertain each other. There are more ideas than we can ever possibly do every week. Videogames are absolutely the most energizing creative thing you can ever work on. You have this technology magic and then you have story telling and gameplay. It’s all open. You can get motivation from everything; just from walking around looking at things and going ‘oh that’s really neat’"

Not necessarily a bad environment at all, but surely needs a firm hand from a 'leader with a creative vision' type for anything other than incoherent mediocrity to be produced? Is "oh that’s really neat" the end of the story then? (I still reckon I'd rather work for Beth than EA though)

“The expansion is successful. Financially, the obvious question to ask is, ‘why don’t we do more of this?’ But we have always viewed ourselves, over the last 20 years, as a boutique. We have some crazy ideas and we get it in there and we get a lot of them right and we get some of them wrong. That process has worked for us. We’re really getting into the stuff we’re doing with Elder Scrolls and Fallout and I guess we’re shy about having someone else start making content. It’s very personal to me and the guys I work with so it needs to be nurtured and well fed.”

As most of you will have observed, I'm not really much of a Beth Hater (or Apologist either) but even to me this sounds like saying:

We haven't got the first clue about design (let alone game design) so we just make it up as we go with whatever crazy shit springs to mind. For that reason we're really scared that if some other developers gave it a whirl they could show us and our 'design process' up if they have any design talent at all. Is there anyone in a position of significance at Beth who actually knows what the concept of design is I wonder?

As someone said in another thread, the old Iplay tag line "By Gamers, For Gamers" really seems appropriate here... Beth can make wildly successful games for the modern gaming hordes because they are largely the same. "By Retards, For Retards" if you will, although that's a bit strong and hyperbolic really.

It's ironic that Beth have almost the most ideal situation for a game developer where they don't have a publisher pulling the strings (and funding) and can do the game they want to do... if only Troika had been in that position. Can you imagine? Oh, the injustice for all the intelligent long-time gamers. Ho-Hum.

 

[Futile Rhetoric]

Every single thing that comes out of these assholes' mouths pisses me off more and more. It's like being tied up and having to watch as your significant other is repeatedly raped by things that crawled out of a Romero movie (hey Todd) with fitty cent playing at max volume for added effect. Fucking mung-sucking felchmasters.

 

[MF]

Nothing says "Fallout fan" like implying the setting was more important than the gameplay.

Actually, I'll be quite happy if they make Oblivion with guns and get the retrofuture setting right. And I do mean right. I'll just consider it visual art. Having Fallout's gameplay would be awesome, but that's a pipedream. Considering the fondest memory I have of Fallout are of its art design and general atmosphere, I'm really hoping they nail that.


I don't have too much faith in it, though, I can already see that inappropriate Hummer carcass lying around in the beautifully rendered Desert of Bloom.

 

[spacemoose]

one good thing I see coming with bethesda's fallout is the possibility of getting giant cities. don't tell me you never wanted to walk through the ruins of chicago or new york, with all the blasted skyscrapers. it'd be like the fallout intro with mr handy and that tv.

 

[Amasius]

one good thing I see coming with bethesda's fallout is the possibility of getting giant cities. don't tell me you never wanted to walk through the ruins of chicago or new york, with all the blasted skyscrapers. it'd be like the fallout intro with mr handy and that tv.

Yeah, giant cities like cyrodiil. Awesome!

 

[Gambler]

Nothing says "Fallout fan" like implying the setting was more important than the gameplay.

Yeah, who needs Fallout setting in a Fallout game anyway?

 

[taxacaria]

"I saw a [insert term here] the other day" is becoming a running gag which will follow Beth from Oblivion to eternity.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Nothing says "Fallout fan" like implying the setting was more important than the gameplay.

Yeah, who needs Fallout setting in a Fallout game anyway?

Arcanum pretty much was the spiritual successor to Fallout - and guess what, it had a different setting.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO "HMMM"!

 

[Jason]

Wow, I hate you so much for putting that shitty song in my head. Thanks.

 

[Joe Krow]

We liked the previous games, but we really loved the world. It’s so unique we were really excited about the idea of working on it.

Translation: We're using the "world" and scrapping the rest. Have a nice day.

 

[Chinese Jetpilot]

That article makes a lot more sense if you insert the word "bad" in place of "crazy"

 

[Gambler]

Arcanum pretty much was the spiritual successor to Fallout - and guess what, it had a different setting.

Arcanum was a different game with a few borrowed elements. In fact, most of the spiritual succession was due to the fact that Arcanum had high non-linearity and utilized skills/perks/traits, many of which did not relate to combat. IMO, any good CRPG should be reasonably non-linear and have non-comabt skills. That's not something unique to Fallout. On the other hand, the setting is unique to Fallout. That's why I think that a game that is true to the setting would be a better sequel than a game that it true to the game mechanics, provided that the former one is still non-linear and has "peaceful" skills.

 

[Claw]

"By Retards, For Retards" if you will, although that's a bit strong and hyperbolic really.

Have you visited Bethesda's Fallout forums lately? :shock:

one good thing I see coming with bethesda's fallout is the possibility of getting giant cities. don't tell me you never wanted to walk through the ruins of chicago or new york, with all the blasted skyscrapers. it'd be like the fallout intro with mr handy and that tv.

Are you kidding me? I've asked for that since Unreal Tournament. Those damn elitist mapper fags don't want to do it. They always want to create smallish high-detail environments instead of using the polygons to create large maps.

However, that wouldn't satisfy my desire for Fallouty goodness, and I refuse to reward Bethesda for such an effort.

Yeah, who needs Fallout setting in a Fallout game anyway?

I'm not against "same setting, different gameplay" as a matter of principle, but if I had to chose between that and "different setting, same gameplay" the latter would win without contest.

"I saw a [insert term here] the other day" is becoming a running gag which will follow Beth from Oblivion to eternity.

I saw a Bethesda game the other day. Horrible things! I avoid them whenever I can.

 

[kingcomrade]

one good thing I see coming with bethesda's fallout is the possibility of getting giant titties.

 

[Amasius]

one good thing I see coming with bethesda's fallout is the possibility of getting giant titties.

And if there aren't enough giant titties in Fallout 3 we only have to wait for Tessera to mod them in.

 

[Chinese Jetpilot]

Giant tits with fugly faces.

Count me out.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

IMO, any good CRPG should be reasonably non-linear and have non-comabt skills. That's not something unique to Fallout.

How many games in the past have used the SPECIAL system, a non-linear narrative, turn-based combat, multiple global and local endings, and allowed extensive use of skills across the gameworld?

How many games in the past have used a post-apocalyptic setting?

While I find both the setting and the gameplay inevitably contribute to what Fallout was, the gameplay set Fallout apart from other RPGs in its time and for the most part still does today. Yes, any good CRPG should be reasonably non-linear and have non-combat skills - how do you measure how Fallout stands next to other such good CRPGs: because of its setting or its gameplay?

 

[Hazelnut]

"By Retards, For Retards" if you will, although that's a bit strong and hyperbolic really.

Have you visited Bethesda's Fallout forums lately? :shock:

I have, and it's truely horrible - an experience not unlike showering in a cascading waterfall of sewage at times. I could swear that there have been more spelling mistakes at the Codex since the Fallout 3 forums opened.

There are some signs of intelligent life of the non-fallout fan kind, but it's completely drowned out in the noise. I find it hard enough to keep up with this place sometimes so I certainly have neither the time nor the desire to keep up with the posting over there.

They're still not actually retards for the most part though, although it often seems that way from our perspective. They're just not that bright and are poorly educated in the arcane arts of listening, reasoning and debate. (Oh, and taste. )

So are you going to continue to bathe in the stench Claw?

 

[User was nabbed fit]

I saw a Fallout 3 interview the other day

Fallout 3 interviews. Terrible things. I avoid them whenever I can.

 

[gc051360]

We’re really getting into the stuff we’re doing with Elder Scrolls and Fallout and I guess we’re shy about having someone else start making content. It’s very personal to me and the guys I work with so it needs to be nurtured and well fed

lol. Yeah. Nothing would annoy someone like somebody else messing with the game they make.

We liked the previous games, but we really loved the world

Another quote to add to the pile. Bethesda has a hardon for the scenery.

 

[Chinese Jetpilot]

Fallout 3 [NSFW]

Image obtained from Fallout IRC.