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Game News Todd Howard talks about Fallout

Vault Dweller

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Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Fallout 3

<a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/>NMA</a> reports that Todd Howard has answered <a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=36055>a few questions</a> about this and that on the Bethesda forums.
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<blockquote><b>What are your inspirations...</b>
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Oh, whatever. You guys just ask these questions because you’re subversively trying to get a better understanding of who we are and what makes us tick, because that will give you insight into what Fallout 3 is and what’s going to make it tick, so I’m not going to answer the questions, since I think you guys have proven you deserve something more, straight from “the horse’s mouth”.
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Obviously I can’t talk about the game itself yet, but I can give you a look into how I/we approached it. When we first got the license in 2004, I was pretty ecstatic, I pushed pretty hard for us to get it, because I really liked the first game and thought Fallout would be a great fit for us, it has all the big things I love about RPGs – player freedom, big world, go do what you want type of stuff. But once you have it – you obviously get to work on how to approach an icon like Fallout. And it’s much harder then you think, because it’s certainly a game that has grown in its legacy as time goes on, it’s hard to sift through what its “essence” or “soul” is, because it’s aged, and people often discuss it in nostalgic tones.
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I obviously replayed the games, and Fallout 1 remains the truest inspiration for what we’re doing, but again, it can be hard to get at the “soul” of it, because of its aging. So I look to things like the first game’s manual. The fiction and tone of it. There is also a great, great section in the Fallout 1 hintbook, “One Woman’s Path through the Desert”, which is a journal of going through the game, as if it was real. In some ways, that section is a better look into the game then the game itself. I also read old-reviews, because they gave me a better understanding of how those games felt then. Again, removing the aging.
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I obviously looked at all the PA movies – Boy and his Dog, Mad Max, Strangelove, etc. Though I find the actual PA movies end up fairly generic, and don’t capture what is special about the Fallout world, and that’s not the world that you end up with, but the world of 2077 that gets destroyed, and then built upon. I became far more interested in the “pre-war” world, then the “post-war” world.
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I also looked a lot at my own reactions to other franchises that have had long gaps and were reborn/updated again in another era. Mostly movies, and such, The Lord of the Rings, Superman, Batman, etc, etc. Now, I’m a recovering comic book junkie, so I’ll probably be throwing around a lot of superhero references, and I hope they make sense. Speaking of which, I’d really like to sell a bunch of long-boxes from my basement if anyone wants them, you just can’t have my signed Frank Miller Dark Knight. Speaking of Dark Knight, Batman remains my favorite (one day I’m gonna rock the house with an open-ended gotham city Batman game, mark my words). The recent Batman and Superman movies, or even their earlier counterparts are pretty good examples of classic iconic franchises that were reborn again. I love…love…Batman Begins. Chris Nolan is a @#$*!^& genius. See the Prestige if you haven’t. Now, I have problems as a huge Batman fan with it, but the pure “soul” of Batman beats in the heart of that movie, and Nolan’s current “I believe in Harvey Dent” tease from The Dark Knight is further proof of his genius.
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I also love the first Superman movie, and I think I draw many parallels from Bryan Singer doing Superman Returns, which tries to follow Superman 1 and 2 and ignore 3 and 4, to our own situation. Reg Richard Donner’s Superman, one of my mantras, and it’s a word he used for making that movie, is “verisimilitude”. Look it up if you don’t know what it means. Donner made a sign of it and put it up (maybe I’ll do the same). I want to bring that to Fallout, I want to make it real again, and come alive like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen it. Treat it with respect, and don’t cheese it up.
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I wish I could give you real, true, insight into what we put into our games, and this is not me just trying to sell you, or smooth you over, because I’m Ok, really, if you don’t love what we do. We’re fans, we’re passionate about what we do. We go on a crusade to make the best game we can. We make the game we would run to the store and buy, we argue, we debate, we scream, we stay up all night, we clap and cheer the highs and curse the lows. One day we’ll find a way to make you a fly on the wall in one of our design meetings – they’re pretty damn inspiring. And I wish you knew all the faces of the 80 people busting ass to make this game great. The secret superstars you don’t know of like Istvan Pely, Mike Lipari, and Scott Franke. I could go on and on.
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I’m often asked about the fans and our forums, and I think you all want to know if your opinions are heard or it you’re shouting into a black hole. And I can assure you that we have these forums so we can hear from you. And yes, we read most of it. It’s like a car crash you just have to watch sometimes, lots of violence and parts exploding, but there is something awesome in its power. Your opinions do matter, and we want them. We are influenced by what gets said about us on these forums, in the press, the letters we get and so forth. Speaking of letters, we do get a lot, and the letters are different then the forum posts. One of the popular letters we get is from someone who’s had a life-changing experience, or gone through a bad time, and had to write us to tell us how much Morrowind/Oblivion meant to them. That it became a real world to them, that they got to escape and play a stronger/different person then they are in real life, and it helped them. You have to pretty jaded to not have that affect you. And that’s why you come to these forums and that’s why people outside of RPGs and/or Fallout may think you are crazy. Because they are not just games, they are worlds, and for the time you play them they are as real as anything you have experienced in life, they become part of you and you care. That’s why you and I are both here.
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To say we care about Fallout would be an epic understatement. We are excited/humbled to be the ones to bring it back. I know we don’t have all the right answers, or the one’s you would make when it comes to how it should be or look. We can only do what we think is right and what makes us the most excited, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve left no stone unturned in trying to find Fallout’s “soul”, but those decisions are ours, not yours. I just hope you give the game a look and decide if that soul is there for you.
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I think I know what it feels like to adopt kids now, because we adopted Fallout and for the last 3 years we have been doing our best to care for it, and now I love it like it had been our child forever; and soon, very soon, we can show him to the world again. I think he’s got something to say, and I think it’s important.
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You may not agree, you may be too cynical to look at it objectively anymore, but I’m going to guess that you’re reading this forum because Fallout really does matter, and it does mean something far more to you then just “a game.” So for my final superhero reference, I leave you with this quote from Christopher Reeve; insert Fallout:
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"I've seen first hand how Superman actually transforms people's lives. I have seen children dying of brain tumors who wanted as their last request to be able to talk to me, and have gone to their graves with a peace brought on by knowing that their belief in this kind of character is intact. I've seen that Superman really matters. They're connecting with something very basic: the ability to overcome obstacles, the ability to persevere, the ability to understand difficulty and to turn your back on it.”</blockquote>Todd sure likes to talk. He's like that guy who replies to an innocent "what's up?" with a detailed, but absolutely meaningless up-to-date account of his life. So, yeah, great. It's gonna be like the Lord of the Ring, only with Superman and Batman instead of Frodo and Sam. Awesome.
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Since I've read poopers third installment of the fallout sitcomt I picture Todd as a sinister, bitter, brutal tyrannt who sexually absuses his employees.

I never saw it that way, but when I'm looking at a picture of him now its totaly fits. Poopers has done a disturbing but also heartbraking analysis of the monster's soul. Give him teh noble price.

I obviously looked at all the PA movies – Boy and his Dog, Mad Max, Strangelove, etc. Though I find the actual PA movies end up fairly generic, and don’t capture what is special about the Fallout world, and that’s not the world that you end up with, but the world of 2077 that gets destroyed, and then built upon. I became far more interested in the “pre-war” world, then the “post-war” world.
What the fuck
I'm trying hard, but I'm not able to find out what he aims to express by this chaos of half finished sentences and commatas.
 
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He. Its hard to get fallouts "soul" because it "aged" so he wathced LOTR instead. Awesome stuff.

Edit: Ok ive read it all now, the guy is so brainfucked it isnt even funny anymore...
 

Red Russian

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Translation: Todd Howard And Friends: A Biography

What the fuck
I'm trying hard, but I'm not able to find out what he aims to express by this chaos of half finished sentences and commatas...

He doesn't read, remember?
 

Globbi

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I can't get it wheather he answered to the question
I wish I could give you real, true, insight into what we put into our games, and this is not me just trying to sell you...
I’m often asked about the fans and our forums, and I think you all want to know if your opinions are heard or it you’re shouting into a black hole...
To say we care about Fallout would be an epic understatement. We are excited/humbled to be the ones to bring it back...
What about inspirations? Ahh, yeah, he talks about movies etc. and says that those movies are not his inspiration.
 

dagorkan

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I don't know, some of what he said is positive. Probably he has good intentions and he has tried to get at the 'soul' of the game. The only important question, for me, is if he and his employees are competent to make a good RPG with interesting quests and real interactivity.

If he ends up making a good game but it's not Fallout I'd buy it, and I think a lot of people will. Expecting a franchise to 'stay true' and have the same 'feel' after ten years, a change in developer and totally different team is insane and ludicrous. Look at what they did with Fallout 2 and that was just a couple of years and with pretty much the same team.

So I am not one of those rabid NMA weirdos who's obsessed with the canon. Now I personally doubt they'll make a good game, because they never have in the past, but this bullshit fantacism about the 'feel' needs to stop. Stop thinking of Fallout 3 as a 'spiritual sequel' to Fallout 1, it won't be. At best it could be what UFO:ET is to XCom1. It's not XCom, it's not a classic, and it has a few failures but it's still worth playing and moddable so that the worst failures can be fixed.

If you faggots are still obsessed with the setting and reject Beth solely on that basis, please shoot yourselves.
 

callehe

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One of the popular letters we get is from someone who’s had a life-changing experience, or gone through a bad time, and had to write us to tell us how much Morrowind/Oblivion meant to them. That it became a real world to them, that they got to escape and play a stronger/different person then they are in real life, and it helped them. You have to pretty jaded to not have that affect you.

What can change the nature of a man? Oblivion, according to Todd.

You may not agree, you may be too cynical to look at it objectively anymore, but I’m going to guess that you’re reading this forum because Fallout really does matter, and it does mean something far more to you then just “a game.” So for my final superhero reference, I leave you with this quote from Christopher Reeve; insert Fallout:

"I've seen first hand how Superman actually transforms people's lives. I have seen children dying of brain tumors who wanted as their last request to be able to talk to me, and have gone to their graves with a peace brought on by knowing that their belief in this kind of character is intact. I've seen that Superman really matters. They're connecting with something very basic: the ability to overcome obstacles, the ability to persevere, the ability to understand difficulty and to turn your back on it.”

wtf. does this guy have delusions of grandeur or what? He thinks he's fucking Jesus and he's gonna save us all with Fallout 3...
 
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dagorkan said:
If you faggots are still obsessed with the setting and reject Beth solely on that basis, please shoot yourselves.

Uhm, stop talking bullshit. Were not NMA, while the setting is one point, most people are concerned about the gamplay characteristics which defined fallout and the fact thatt, as you even said yourself, Beth has done only shit since daggerfall (and even this is arguable).

I for myself like the style and setting of fallout very much, but I dont pretend this whole setting and consistency thing to be the holy grail.
Maybe thats the reason why I quite liked Fallout 2 and dont hate it nearly as much as your average hardcore fallout fan.

What exactly you thought sounded quite positive? I dont know, he managed to write so much text saying practicly nothing about the game, only drawing wierd-ass analogies to other popculutre IPs and telling us about comic books and stuff.

Why didnt he continue on about what the relaplaying of Fallout has shown him? Almost immidiatly after he mentiones that he replayed Fallout he abandones that point and starts making completly irrelevant stuff up.
 

psycojester

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Nonono you've got it wrong, Todd Howard died recently. This interview was given by his severed head on the pillar of skulls in Balor. Thats why it seems like 100 lunatics gibbering away at once, instead of an intelligent human responding to a fairly simple question.
 

dagorkan

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TalesfromtheCrypt said:
Uhm, stop talking bullshit. Were not NMA, while the setting is one point, most people are concerned about the gamplay characteristics [...] I for myself like the style and setting of fallout very much, but I dont pretend this whole setting and consistency thing to be the holy grail.

Yet there are fifteen+ pages ANALyzing a handful of concept art pictures and one music track, that are not even 'official'. Sure we don't know about the mechanics yet but still. There are many people who are obsessed with the setting to the exclusion of everything else... like there are people obsessed with keeping the GURPs ruleset or isometric view. And there are many people here and on the official forums who've said they won't buy F3 if it doesn't contain/do [pet gripe].

That's retarded.

What exactly you thought sounded quite positive? I dont know, he managed to write so much text saying practicly nothing about the game, only drawing wierd-ass analogies to other popculutre IPs and telling us about comic books and stuff.

He showed that he's researched the stuff, so they're not just going with the first half-assed idea they could come up with. There was probably discussion, discussion is rarely a bad thing. And yes, research outside of the actual game is important, simply copying what someone else did without making any effort doesn't work. I know some 'fans' would prefer that Beth religiously followed the 'Fallout Bible', but they are wrong.

Maybe their research will turn out to be shit, but at least they're trying. If they have anybody like that concept artist, there's a chance the setting might be improved, regardless of the gameplay. That guy obviously did research, looking at real historical architecture and symbols of a specific era to put into his art. I personally think he went overboard with the symbolism, the beached carrier looked stupid, but some of it is interesting.
 

doctor_kaz

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It worries me when I read an interview like this, because nowhere in it does he mention that actual gameplay as being significant in what made Fallout and Fallout 2 good games. All of that other stuff -- the toungue-in-cheek 50's theme, "War Never Changes", Pipboy, etc. You could put that into a card battle game if you wanted to. It wouldn't make it a good game though that somebody would want to play for 40 hours.
 

jiujitsu

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Todd Howard said:
We can only do what we think is right and what makes us the most excited, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve left no stone unturned in trying to find Fallout’s “soul”, but those decisions are ours, not yours. I just hope you give the game a look and decide if that soul is there for you.

He wouldn't have said this if he didn't already know that they did something with Fallout 3 that would piss us off. :lol:
 

Lumpy

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doctor_kaz said:
It worries me when I read an interview like this, because nowhere in it does he mention that actual gameplay as being significant in what made Fallout and Fallout 2 good games. All of that other stuff -- the toungue-in-cheek 50's theme, "War Never Changes", Pipboy, etc. You could put that into a card battle game if you wanted to. It wouldn't make it a good game though that somebody would want to play for 40 hours.
But Fallout is a Comedy RPG, don't you remember?
Anyway, not buying it unless it has Ron Pearlman.
 
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Someone HAS to do a Photoshop about what Todd just said.

it's not going to be Fallout 1997, that's for damn sure. I just hope it's fun to play and has some depth, I'm sure it wont based on the dodgy article, but we'll see.
 

elander_

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SimpleComplexity said:
Is he the president?

Damn, what a long text, its TOO BIG FOR MY XBOX360 ONLINE SCREEN L0L.

The only thing that matters for TES tards is OMG Todd said something to us OMG OMG.

"We can only do what we think is right and what makes us the most excited, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve left no stone unturned in trying to find Fallout’s “soul”, but those decisions are ours, not yours. I just hope you give the game a look and decide if that soul is there for you."

The soul of Fallout is unavoidably linked to PnPs. An action rpg that is true to PnPs is possible at least with dialog and non-combat role-playing, but i doubt this is going to happen with the obsession to pimp that famous actor image to the limit with pruitty stuuries.
 

OSK

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I got through half way before I said to myself, "Why the hell am I reading this?"
 

Zomg

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That was dang strange. Half syphilitic ramble, half nerd hugs.

Anyway, make the fucking game, sell it, we'll criticize it, all will be right in the world.
 

mindx2

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There is also a great, great section in the Fallout 1 hintbook, “One Woman’s Path through the Desert”, which is a journal of going through the game, as if it was real. In some ways, that section is a better look into the game then the game itself.

This is the part that worries me. The linear walkthrough he found the most exciting NOT discovering all that was ACTUALLY in the game when he played it?!!!. His inspiration is hollywood movies... that "cinimatic experience", not gameplay, not character creation or evolution, not choices.
 

aboyd

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jiujitsu said:
Todd Howard said:
We can only do what we think is right and what makes us the most excited, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve left no stone unturned in trying to find Fallout’s “soul”, but those decisions are ours, not yours. I just hope you give the game a look and decide if that soul is there for you.
He wouldn't have said this if he didn't already know that they did something with Fallout 3 that would piss us off. :lol:
I think he's seen the Codex reaction to Sawyer & Gaider, which is to say that he's seen us get all reasonable when Josh or David says, "we built our game a certain way, and we're not changing it if kiddies don't like it." Honestly, I think Todd is trying on that hat, trying to see if he can do the "we built what we know, deal with it" thing.

But he's got it all wrong. He doesn't understand that when Sawyer or Gaider do it, it is usually because someone wanted them to dumb something down, and they're just bluntly refusing. However, Todd seems to be doing it as a defense because he did dumb something down. So I think he may have misunderstood. We don't love the STFU defense because it's a STFU defense, we love it because it defends something good.

Also, Josh & David seem to be willing to underplay their decisions -- "we made a choice, maybe you won't like it and will say the game sucks." But just a paragraph or two after Josh tries the STFU defense, he's talking about how Fallout will change the universe and make all of us re-evaluate our lives. This is just ridiculous -- "we made this decision, you will love it and will say it changed your life."

In order to get a fair shake at the Codex, you have to back up your words with at least some token gestures that maybe you are thinking of the fans. So far, from the uber-leet voice actor press releases to the very wrong music, I'm not seeing any good developments. It seems like a standard Bethsoft game marketed in the standard Bethsoft way. So all of Todd's talk doesn't help much.
 

Araanor

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A smatter of sincerity, a bit of delusion and a lot of air. Yup, that's Todd "Boobies" Howard alright.
 

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