Todd Howard on Fallout 3

Mr. Teatime writes "I've interviewed Todd Howard from Bethesda about Fallout 3. It includes an editorial from DarkUnderlord, another staff member on the site. Todd mentions a number of new things, including the fact that they plan to use SPECIAL in Fallout 3." From the interview: "Fallout really set the standard for me on believable people, good dialogue, and character choice and consequence. With Elder Scrolls, we do aim for something enormous, and we simply can't focus on say - 20 to 40 really deep strong characters and just do them."

Deus Ex

[kaellinn18]

If it's done well, it really doesn't matter to me. Deus Ex (the original) was the perfect hybrid game. You had the action of a first person shooter, and the in depth character development and storytelling of an RPG. If Bethesda can pull off the same kind of thing with Fallout 3, it will just freaking rule.

Great.

[Txiasaeia]

"With Elder Scrolls, we do aim for something enormous, and we simply can't focus on say - 20 to 40 really deep strong characters and just do them."

Considering my past experiences with Bethesda, this means they're going to create face templates for 100 characters and change their hair, eyes & skin colour in order to create thousands of "unique" characters.

The advantage of 20-40 well-developed characters in FO1 and 2 was the fact that they *were* well-developed and not just cookie-cutter characters with different lines. The fact that the original team focused on a smaller number of characters indicated that they wanted a few realistic characters instead of many obviously artificial characters. I guess Bethesda missed the point on this one.

Re:Deus Ex

[Txiasaeia]

Yes, but Deus Ex 1 had a tight (as in narrow) storyline to go with its excellent engine. Bethesda is planning on giving us the entire irradiated country and saying "There's fifty cities! Go find them! Oh, and don't mind the bajillions of spawned monsters in between here and there!"

Bethesda hasn't yet proven that they can make a game with a good focused plot instead of hundreds of tiny plots thrown at the player simultaneously.

Re:That's great, that's wonderful...one question

[Sir_Brysonic]

I was pleased to hear that they were planning to stick with the SPECIAL system since IMO that's one of the things that made the first (and second) so great. It allowed you to create whatever type of character you wanted, and the game felt quite different each time through as a result. Want to be a sharpshooter? Some points in agility gives your character more shots per turn, perception gives you better accuracy and a few points in luck result in a nice chance for a critical hit. How about a frontline melee character? Strength and endurance come in handy for that path, plus you can try your hand at boxing and become the New Reno boxing champ. Maybe you'd rather be a diplomat who talks his way through the surprisingly deep (and often hilarious) dialogue trees. Then you could try charisma and intelligence, and what you lack in personal combat ability is offset by your ability to recruit more followers. The fact that there were so many equally viable options was an important part of the originals, here's hoping Bethesda puts some effort into that aspect.

Rated T?

[Sir_Brysonic]

One of my bigger concerns is what the game will be rated. Bethesda hasn't put out anything with a rating higher than Teen (to the best of my knowledge). Will they follow suit with FO3? I just don't think it would be the same without the foul-mouthed NPC's and the glorious critical hit kills that blew your enemies, quite literally, to pieces. Oh and lets not forget the prostitutes and porn stars!

Except...

[cnelzie]

...I heard "eeehhh Outlander..."

So many times as to make me ill from hearing it, in that game. Almost every NPC greeted me the same way, there was a bit of a plot behind the beautiful engine, but little straight direction as to what to do and where to go to get things done.

Don't get me totally, wrong. The Morrowind, the Elder Scrolls was a great start to what could have been an amazingly awesome game. They had a level editor, they had slick graphics and some excellent opportunities for gameplay. They left out the Multi-Player bit, which ruined its long-term playability for me.

I have more fun with Neverwinter Nights then I did in Morrowind, the Elder Scrolls.

Heck, the game would have been hundreds of times better if they had included the ablity to have 3 other people join in a game with you. If they put that bit of code into Morrowind, it would have a rabid following, possibly larger then the following that Neverwinter Nights currently has.