Bit-tech.net posted a preview a few days ago and follows it up with an interview. Imagine how busy we'd have been if every E3 preview had been accompanied by one of these.<blockquote>BT: What about the differences in how people play? Do you see differences there between seasoned gamers and newcomers?
Pete: Uh, yeah actually. The people who are more hardcore, they tend to pick up the core elements a bit quicker and then they usually start delving right into the stats a lot more. They start with the numbers and powergaming.
The casual guys though, they just play. They grab a gun and shoot stuff. It becomes a story driven shooter for them and they find big guns, put points in big guns and just do the whole big-gun, energy-weapon thing. It’s about roleplaying though, so there’s nothing that says some aren’t supposed to play like that.
If you’re into the stealth and the dialogue and so on though then you totally can, but we see that the people who do that tend to be the hardcore gamers. They tend to look for which perks line up perfectly with their play style.
BT: Is that why you’ve moved the game to a first person perspective? To make it more accessible to players?
Pete: Uh, no, I think we moved it because we thought that would make the best game. Like, what we’re able to do from a first and third person point of view that we can’t do from an isometric view is put the player in the world so that you aren’t always looking down and detached from the world. You’re really experiencing all this destruction around you.
First person just gives you a much bigger sense of space. When you leave the vault for the first time and you have that really cool effect where you come outside for the first time and you’re blinded by the light. The whole world is slowly revealed to you. It’s hard to give the player that same level of ‘this is all free for you to play in’ from the isometric point of view.
It’s about immersion, so honestly it’s about keeping true to the franchise. Just look at the first Fallout – that was pushing the graphics for its day. It did full lip syncing and animated faces. It did everything! It didn’t just do one thing. If it was just great dialogue then it’d be Zork. It had violence, graphics, dialogue and everything else on top.
[..]
BT: What do you think is the most important thing Bethesda has bought to the franchise then?
Pete: Other than that it exists? Um, that’s a good question. At the end of the day, I’m not sure. I hope what we’ve done it bring forward the game so old fans can enjoy it all over again and the new gamers can discover it. I don’t know if there’s any one feature though – we’re just trying to balance between having the old tone and reinventing the franchise.
We’ve seen it so many times before, that if you just keep reiterating on what was done before then your franchise will die. We have hundreds of examples of games that we used to play and which are no longer around because all they did was copy the last game. We want to shake things up a little bit more.</blockquote>Also, PS3s are "big machines" and taking them on a press tour is "a nightmare". Now you know.
Pete: Uh, yeah actually. The people who are more hardcore, they tend to pick up the core elements a bit quicker and then they usually start delving right into the stats a lot more. They start with the numbers and powergaming.
The casual guys though, they just play. They grab a gun and shoot stuff. It becomes a story driven shooter for them and they find big guns, put points in big guns and just do the whole big-gun, energy-weapon thing. It’s about roleplaying though, so there’s nothing that says some aren’t supposed to play like that.
If you’re into the stealth and the dialogue and so on though then you totally can, but we see that the people who do that tend to be the hardcore gamers. They tend to look for which perks line up perfectly with their play style.
BT: Is that why you’ve moved the game to a first person perspective? To make it more accessible to players?
Pete: Uh, no, I think we moved it because we thought that would make the best game. Like, what we’re able to do from a first and third person point of view that we can’t do from an isometric view is put the player in the world so that you aren’t always looking down and detached from the world. You’re really experiencing all this destruction around you.
First person just gives you a much bigger sense of space. When you leave the vault for the first time and you have that really cool effect where you come outside for the first time and you’re blinded by the light. The whole world is slowly revealed to you. It’s hard to give the player that same level of ‘this is all free for you to play in’ from the isometric point of view.
It’s about immersion, so honestly it’s about keeping true to the franchise. Just look at the first Fallout – that was pushing the graphics for its day. It did full lip syncing and animated faces. It did everything! It didn’t just do one thing. If it was just great dialogue then it’d be Zork. It had violence, graphics, dialogue and everything else on top.
[..]
BT: What do you think is the most important thing Bethesda has bought to the franchise then?
Pete: Other than that it exists? Um, that’s a good question. At the end of the day, I’m not sure. I hope what we’ve done it bring forward the game so old fans can enjoy it all over again and the new gamers can discover it. I don’t know if there’s any one feature though – we’re just trying to balance between having the old tone and reinventing the franchise.
We’ve seen it so many times before, that if you just keep reiterating on what was done before then your franchise will die. We have hundreds of examples of games that we used to play and which are no longer around because all they did was copy the last game. We want to shake things up a little bit more.</blockquote>Also, PS3s are "big machines" and taking them on a press tour is "a nightmare". Now you know.
Have you noticed how many FREAKING TIMES he says the word "just"?
