Ciekawy wywiad:
CYTAT
Crispy Gamer: What about the gameplay — what new stuff have you added or changed this time around?
Hines: Much of the basic gameplay systems and character systems are still there: SPECIALs, skills, perks, XP-based leveling up, etc. We’ve spent a lot of time working on the quests, characters, and dialogue in the game to have it match up with the tone of the original games. It’s still a “go where you want, do what you want” game, which is, of course, what we like making. But the game is played in first- or third-person, rather than the isometric view of the originals. The combat is also different; it’s a mix of real-time and this new paused mode, called VATS, where you spend action points queuing up attacks and then watch it play out using a special camera system. Our goal was to capture as much of the originals as possible while still trying some new things we think will add to the experience.[...]
Crispy Gamer: In a way, the game seems like it’s going to be a first- or third-person shooter but with deep RPG elements. Am I wrong?
Hines: It is a deep RPG with shooter elements. How to handle combat doesn’t define the game. Just because you’re holding a gun and shooting at things doesn’t make it a shooter, although some people are going to see it that way, which is okay. If you decide to play the game because it looks like a fun shooter, we don’t mind. Whatever reasons you have for giving it a try, we hope there is enough compelling gameplay to make you want to keep playing. You may not buy it because of the quests or dialogue, but if you play the game and end up really enjoying the game for those things, where’s the harm in that?
Ultimately, what makes Fallout 3 somewhat unique is that the game is all about what your character can do, which is decided by you. What you want to be good at, what kinds of things you want to do. Those choices will affect your overall experience and how you decide to play the game, but there’s nothing wrong with getting in a big fight with some Super Mutants and having a great time running around blowing things up. Many really good RPGs have quite a bit of combat to them, so we might as well make that as fun as it can be.[...]
Crispy Gamer: Do these choices have any real consequences, though? Like if you play as a dick the whole time, will certain areas be closed off to you, but if you’re nice, then you get to sleep with the blue alien lady?
Hines: To some extent that may happen, but it’s mostly about what happens in each specific instance.[...]
Crispy Gamer: So what do you think Fallout 3 does better than Oblivion?
Hines: Guns. Much better in Fallout 3.
Crispy Gamer: And what, if anything, do you think Oblivion does better than Fallout 3?
Hines: They’re really very different games. We’ll let folks like you guys debate the merits of those things. We’re just trying to make the best game we can every time out.[...]
Crispy Gamer: Finally, in a 2006 interview with TheEscapistMagazine.com, Leonard Boyarsky, who worked on the original Fallout games, said that Interplay’s decision to sell the rights to Fallout “…felt as if our ex-wife had sold our children that she had legal custody of,” though he did qualify this statement by admitting to be “possessive” of the franchise. How do you think he, and other people who worked on the original games, will feel about Fallout 3?
Hines: You’ll have to ask them. I can certainly understand that the people who created Fallout would feel strongly about it. But we saw a franchise we loved sitting there not being used, not being worked on, and it was something we really wanted to work on, so we did. We hope the folks that worked on the first two will play Fallout 3 and like it and find a lot in there that stays true to what they created, just like we hope people who played and liked the first two games will like this one as well.
Preview od SPOnG'a:
CYTAT
The VATS method of attack is a throwback to the combat system in previous Fallout games. However, does the presentation of an FPS give a confusing message to the player expecting RPG action? Pete Hines thinks not, telling me, “We don’t believe in beating people over the head with the term ‘RPG’. It’s like you have something to prove, or you need to show your 20-sided dice to get in the door. The idea is that you pick up and play the game however you want to. And if you want to be a power gamer and a number cruncher you can, whether you play in VATS or in real-time those numbers are still meaningful.”
Just like a classic RPG, you can level up in Fallout 3, with a number of points being given to you to assign to different skills when you do. These skills are required for certain side-quests and dialogue options – a good ability in the ‘Speech’ department will allow you to wing your way through tricky situations, and even lets you barter for more cash for a quest if you want to get greedy.
“One of the things we really tried to avoid, and that we don’t like, is surprising the player with whether they’ve been good or bad. We wanted to make it clear that you’re making a conscious choice to be one or the other, as opposed to being confused about it. It may be a surprise in terms of exactly how the character reacts or what they say to you, but not the inherent good, evil or neutrality of it. The VATS method of attack is a throwback to the combat system in previous Fallout games. However, does the presentation of an FPS give a confusing message to the player expecting RPG action? Pete Hines thinks not, telling me, “We don’t believe in beating people over the head with the term ‘RPG’. It’s like you have something to prove, or you need to show your 20-sided dice to get in the door. The idea is that you pick up and play the game however you want to. And if you want to be a power gamer and a number cruncher you can, whether you play in VATS or in real-time those numbers are still meaningful.”
Just like a classic RPG, you can level up in Fallout 3, with a number of points being given to you to assign to different skills when you do. These skills are required for certain side-quests and dialogue options – a good ability in the ‘Speech’ department will allow you to wing your way through tricky situations, and even lets you barter for more cash for a quest if you want to get greedy.
“One of the things we really tried to avoid, and that we don’t like, is surprising the player with whether they’ve been good or bad. We wanted to make it clear that you’re making a conscious choice to be one or the other, as opposed to being confused about it. It may be a surprise in terms of exactly how the character reacts or what they say to you, but not the inherent good, evil or neutrality of it.
“Megaton is pretty much an extreme and most clear cut example of this – we don’t have to tell you that if you decide to blow up the nuke that the whole town and all those quests will go away, it’s kind of obvious. But it’s also pretty fun to see exactly how it happens. You can also live with the consequences because you knew what you were doing when you pressed the button.”
“No fucking way. Absolutely not. With our experience on RPGs like Elder Scrolls, things like Lore and Canon we hold very dear. We get anal about which buildings should be in Washington DC, with giant piles of books on architecture on DC and we ask what year buildings were made. 1955? It’s out – it wouldn’t have been in this universe. If we’re going to be anal about the landscape in this game, we’re certainly not going to make jokes about stuff that would not have been part of this world at all.”
Sounds like Bethesda could well be the studio that can make Fallout fans very proud, then. Fallout 3 is being released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this Autumn.
“Megaton is pretty much an extreme and most clear cut example of this – we don’t have to tell you that if you decide to blow up the nuke that the whole town and all those quests will go away, it’s kind of obvious. But it’s also pretty fun to see exactly how it happens. You can also live with the consequences because you knew what you were doing when you pressed the button.”
“No fucking way. Absolutely not. With our experience on RPGs like Elder Scrolls, things like Lore and Canon we hold very dear. We get anal about which buildings should be in Washington DC, with giant piles of books on architecture on DC and we ask what year buildings were made. 1955? It’s out – it wouldn’t have been in this universe. If we’re going to be anal about the landscape in this game, we’re certainly not going to make jokes about stuff that would not have been part of this world at all.”
Sounds like Bethesda could well be the studio that can make Fallout fans very proud, then. Fallout 3 is being released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this Autumn.