1UP interview with Emil

[Per]

1UP posted an interview with Emil Pagliarulo called "Fallout 3 Afterthoughts".<blockquote>1UP: This could easily be a case of not being quite observant enough, but it seems like there are references to previous Fallouts, but not quite direct connections. For example, the Chosen One in Fallout 2 was supposedly a direct descendent of the Vault Dweller in Fallout. Is there a familial thread in Fallout 3 that I just didn't notice? And if so, was there a particular reason to not tie the Fallout 3 Vault Dweller to the previous games?

Emil Pagliarulo: Looks like your observations were pretty dead-on, actually. It's true there are a few references to the characters, events, and locations of Fallout and Fallout 2, but they're mostly there as cool nods for fans that played those earlier PC games. And, yeah, there's no familial thread -- your character in Fallout 3 is not a descendent of the Vault Dweller in any way, shape, or form. It just didn't seem necessary. We wanted to tell our own story, without too many direct ties to what had come before.

1UP: Fallout had the Master and the Supermutant army as the main antagonists, and then Fallout 2 featured the Enclave. Why did you decide to feature the Enclave again, rather than introduce a new faction/antagonist? Was there ever a story draft that featured a different faction?

EP: No, actually, there was never a draft of the story that featured a different faction -- it was always the Enclave. Why? For us, it just made so much sense. I mean, Fallout 2 established the Enclave as the remnant of the U.S. government, yet they'd set up shop on an oil rig off the coast of California. Wouldn't they eventually want to get back to Washington D.C. -- the nation's capital -- and set up shop again? Our game's set in D.C., so they were the perfect antagonists for us.</blockquote>There are a number of spoilers so I won't quote anything juicy, but there are among other things talk about the logic of the endgame, why there were so few Behemoths, and where you can find a special ghoul.

Thanks to sonicblastoise.

 

[Gentlemen]

Lawlz. They screwed up the ending because they didn't think it through. I would have put up with a one month delay just to not have such a god awfully stupid ending.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Wouldn't they eventually want to get back to Washington D.C. -- the nation's capital -- and set up shop again?

Of course, it doesn't matter that Washington was flattened, it's still a good place because OMG IT WAS TEH CAPITOAL!!11

Emil, you suck.

 

[sonicblastoise]

just one more thing, i thought when i found this article:

this is EMIL guys. not anymore of those "meet the bethsoft team" lackeys or even art designers. this is the GAME DESIGN LEAD. and his philosophy is still "coolness" = "quality"

!FRUSTRATION! but it explains so much! as much as it allows me to stop blaming pete hines (which i still do), it makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE NOW

 

[respatex]

1UP: Somewhat related to that: Why are companions not an option for inputting the Project Purity code? You already have the option to have Sentinel Lyons input the code in your place. There are three viable options for an alternate to input the code: Fawkes, Sergeant RL-3N, and Charon. The player has already experienced a situation where Fawkes can enter an irradiated room and perform a task, RL-3N should follow his programming to obey you, and Charon would not only become healthier due to the radiation, but he's established as essentially a slave who will do whatever his contract-holder orders him to do. To the player, the inability for either to input the code seems really contradictory.

EP: That's a great question, and one that's obviously come up quite a bit in different forums. Let me try to shed some light on why the game is like that -- it's a pretty interesting look inside the development process.

All of the followers were implemented into the game fairly late in development, after the main story had already been nailed down. So, you know, we had the scene at the end of the game, with deadly radiation, and never really compensated for the fact that you could have a Supermutant, or Ghoul, or robot, who could possibly turn the purifier on for you. We'd only ever planned for you sending Sarah Lyons into the purifier, because we knew, from a story standpoint, that she'd definitely be in there with you.

What we could do -- and what we did ultimately do -- is cover that stuff in dialogue. You can ask those followers to go into the purifier, and they'll tell you why they won't. We felt that fit with their personalities, but really, they didn't "sell" that to the player in a single line of dialogue. So, in the end, the player's left with a, "Huh, why the hell can't they do it?!" sort of feeling.

So the story does kind of break down. But you know what? We knew that, and were OK with it, because the trade-off is, well, you get these cool followers to join you. You meet up with Fawkes near the end of the game, and it's true you can go right with him to the purifier. So we could've not had him there as a follower, and that would've solved the problem of him not going into the purifier -- because, at that point in development, that was the only fix we had time for. But we kept it, and players got him as a follower, and they seem to love adventuring him with. Gameplay trumped story, in that example -- as I believe it should have.

So if we'd planned better, we could've addressed that more satisfactorily. But considering how it all went down, I feel good about the decision we made there.

wtf? wtf? wtf? is this guy a total retard? thats the lamest excuse ever...

 

[Per]

Stop the personal attacks.

 

[sonicblastoise]

personal attacks aside, this interview really reveals the overarching design philosophy that bethesda had going into the project.

it's just upsetting to see the truth so baldly. sorry.

 

[respatex]

bet they made that awful ending in order to make people buy the dlc and change it

 

[sonicblastoise]

see, but they didn't. the interview gives me the impression that they didn't really have much of a structure to begin with.

essentially, the whole game was created with the idea that "don't worry, we can retconn everything through dialogue and holotapes"

and the saddest part is, they even now admit that their explanation through dialogue was still inadequate! which recalls the whole "we didn't have money to spend on infinite monkeys and typewriters" (pete hines)

you reap what you sow. unless you have a giant advertising campaign behind you and thousands of magazine reviewers on your payroll.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

1UP: Fallout had the Master and the Supermutant army as the main antagonists, and then Fallout 2 featured the Enclave. Why did you decide to feature the Enclave again, rather than introduce a new faction/antagonist? Was there ever a story draft that featured a different faction?

EP: No, actually, there was never a draft of the story that featured a different faction -- it was always the Enclave. Why? For us, it just made so much sense. I mean, Fallout 2 established the Enclave as the remnant of the U.S. government, yet they'd set up shop on an oil rig off the coast of California. Wouldn't they eventually want to get back to Washington D.C. -- the nation's capital -- and set up shop again? Our game's set in D.C., so they were the perfect antagonists for us.

I always suspected a combination of incompetence and lack of original thinking on Emil's side, to me its pretty much confirmed.

Emil lacks any ability to come up with original ideas and rather reuses old ones, sort of how I felt about the producers of Enterprise during its first two godawful seasons.

They claimed they did that to build up some kind of continuity, it felt more as if they were unable to come up with something new.

 

[Blazerfrost]

see, but they didn't. the interview gives me the impression that they didn't really have much of a structure to begin with.

Ah, but wait! This time round they'll do it right:

But no worries: We have a sinister master plan....

... we wish!

Wouldn't they eventually want to get back to Washington D.C. -- the nation's capital -- and set up shop again?

Oooh, I dunno... maxbe because they were blown to bits at the end of Fallout 2? This doesn't just show unoriginal thought to me but lack of logical thought as well.

 

[Dabrinko]

They first designed the story without any companions. Then they realized that several of the potential companions are immune to radiation.

Didn't work that well in the end, I suppose.

 

[TychoXI]

nitpikin' time!

Allistair Tenpenny came to the Capital Wasteland from Great Britain to seek his fortune, so that alone tells you that the U.K. was also hit in the war. And if he came to U.S. to succeed, that says a lot about how screwed up Europe must be. So we just allude, a little bit, to the state of the rest of the world. We like to leave a lot to the players' imaginations, and somebody like Tenpenny serves as a catalyst for those thoughts.

Ermm... so Tenpenny arrived from the UK funkin' post war???? Whatsmore it never catalyzed nothing on me because I never found out he was from there!

I wanted to be a kid, dressed up as a clown, murdering people. I thought it would be sick fun. Was I wrong?

And still killin' children in wrong....

"You know what? Fallout and Fallout 2 ended. We should end our game, too."

FO2 allowed you to go on after the enclave... they even made the world acknowledge what you had accomplished or add those thingies that gave you lotsa xp...

also how long has lil' lamplight been in existence? Unless they kidnap babies it should be deserted in a few decades....

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

They could've been praised even by NMA, but no, COOLINESSE IS EVERYTHUNG!!! AAAAARCK!!11

Man, Bethesda sucks at history and planning.

SPOILER:

Frankly, I think the ending could've been much better if, instead of deciding who dies, you would decide what to do with something like Project Purity. Give free, clean water to anyone? Take control of the purifier and exchange water for all the other cities in the wastes joining you in a new governament decided to rebuild the world? Give control for the BOS? Help Colonel Autuum and his Enclave to rebuild the USA? Kill non-pure humans of DC?

 

[yester64]

After playing Fallout 1 for awhile, it comes apparent that Fallout 3 is 'just' a RPG for the mass and so it behaves.
If you played just Fallout 3 it is not bad at all. But if you expect a continuation of the previous story, its getting bad.
I suppose thats what happens if an IP goes to a different company and get partly stripped of his soul.

 

[generalissimofurioso]

Huh, so the Commonwealth is Massachusetts.

That answers one question, while completely failing to raise any sort of interest in me.

 

[TheWesDude]

slaughter:

dont ruin FO2 for Emil...

oh wait, he wont ever play it. i guess its ok for you to tell Emil that FO2 didnt end.


EDIT:

and that some quests could only be completed AFTER you killed horrigan.

 

[bhlaab]

ugh what a lazy, confused design philosophy.

I'd take, you know, COHERENCE over a super huge world any day

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

ugh what a lazy, confused design philosophy.

I'd take, you know, COHERENCE over a super huge world any day

From what I remember Emil or Todd once said themselves that they do very little on preparations, they more jump into game development right away without thinking to much what they are making.

 

[TyloniusFunk]

It's true there are a few references to the characters, events, and locations of Fallout and Fallout 2, but they're mostly there as cool nods for fans that played those earlier PC games.

You say "mostly", who else are they there for? Why didn't your "nods" come in the form of design elements instead of mutilated ephemera?

Singular Behemoths:

...it would've felt like we were just reiterating something we'd already done.

Yeah... like those terrible games where you just run down the same dark subway tunnel.

Enclave:

Our game's set in D.C., so they were the perfect antagonists for us.

"Provided you ignore all but the most superficial details about the lore."

Grand Canyon Plot Hole:

So, in the end, the player's left with a, "Huh, why the hell can't they do it?!" sort of feeling.

Out of context like this, the statement seems to refer to Bethesda's inability to make an adequate Fallout sequel. Interesting.

Wandering into design philosophy:

In general, it's really tough to try and pinpoint where certain ideas or creative influences come from. It's not usually that specific. When inspiration strikes, it strikes, and creativity follows.

Deep. On the other hand, Grand Canyon plot holes seem more like random acts of god when you let yourself believe things like this.

Little Lamplight:

As for having a town of little kids? It just seemed like a good addition to the fiction, showing yet another way people in the Wasteland have survived over the years.

The kind of survival that farms or a proper city would only imply? Because a society based on banishing the strongest, most skilled and knowledgeable is geared towards survival? Oh, no, because you had to come up with SOMETHING quick or else look like a hack.

Optimus Prime:

Liberty Prime is kind of an interesting case. We knew we wanted to have this big, pre-war, anticommunist robot. In the original plan, he was going to be massive, and the player was going to ride in his head, anime style. And, well, yeah -- that never happened! And then there's the name.... He was actually named long before the Transformers movie, and long before Optimus Prime sort of reentered the American consciousness. Honestly, he wasn't named after Optimus Prime, as most people suspect. At least, not intentionally -- but the subconscious is powerful thing, and I pull a lot of stuff from there unintentionally.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Emil isn't this stupid, missing his own Optimus Prime reference, and just assume that it's a legal issue. That being said, Emil, you nerd-swag whore.

a simple guy, named Dave, who wanted to start his own republic

What simple guy knows what a republic is?

Allistair Tenpenny came to the Capital Wasteland from Great Britain to seek his fortune, so that alone tells you that the U.K. was also hit in the war. And if he came to U.S. to succeed, that says a lot about how screwed up Europe must be. So we just allude, a little bit, to the state of the rest of the world.

Brahmin-shit. A British person lent sophistication to your most Fallout-y quest so you made up this weak excuse to justify it. Tenpenny is an icon of the writing weakness in this game.

1UP: On a related point, is there a way to finish Tenpenny Tower where the Ghouls can move in, but not end up killing everyone?

EP: Nope, there's not. For us, it was about reinforcing to the player that, you know, the Capital Wasteland is a brutal place, and sometimes, not everything is black and white -- or has a completely happy ending. If that's not the essence of Fallout, I don't know what is.

The whole game is set up in black and white terms except this one part of this one quest where we should look to see the essence of Fallout. Fuck you.

This interview is a sad moment for video game legitimacy.

[Edit] Removing general bitching, the more offensive language.