GameSpy Fallout 3 sound interview

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GameSpy interviews Fallout 3 sound designer Mark Lampert.<blockquote>GameSpy: What real-world weapons did you use to create the sounds of the ones in the game?

Mark Lampert: Quite a bit of the action on the game's small arms (pistols, rifles, shotguns, etc.) is actually recorded from real firearms. A colleague kindly brought two pistols and three rifles over to my place where I could set up a couple of mics and record the sound of the bolt being opened and slammed shut, magazines sliding into place and being taken out, dry firing, etc. The actual sounds of the game's weapons being fired were composited together from field recording libraries, as well a as little bit of Foley recording in places where I might want to add some extra bass or exaggerate the sound of the weapon's action.

Even in the cases of the game's more exotic firepower such as energy-based and custom-built weapons, I still came back to those small arms recordings in order to add different "clanks" and "ka-chunks" here and there. I'm happy to say that the bb gun which the player receives for their tenth birthday was composited together with a mix of two different pellet guns that a couple of other co-workers brought in for me. I was looking for something that sounded sort of cheap and flimsy, and both of these guns were definitely that. Still, anything that can take care of a RadRoach is nothing to sneeze at.</blockquote>
 
Too bad Lampert didn't want to tell the interviewer how many voice actors were used in the game. His explanation also suggests that they weren't too many...

Oh well, nice interview nonetheless.
 
That was one thing that stood out when watching the game footage they released a while back. Most of the guns sounded pretty good. It's amazing to me how often an FPS game comes out featuring lame gun sounds like it was just an afterthought. Anyway, props to the sound team for nailing that minor detail.
 
The audio is definitely one of Fallout 3's strong points. The surround mix is full and the sound effects are mostly top notch, with the exception of the weak sounding pistol, but if you have a subwoofer it adds quite a bit of punch to it that's missing from the videos. The ambient FX and music are also surprisingly good and better than what I expected, though sometimes the music is a little distracting and it's arguably not as good as Mark Morgan's work on the originals.
 
Cimmerian Nights said:
I'm certainly not in favor of bad sounds, but this enhances the role-playing aspects of the game how?
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Thus spoke the buzzword oracle:

-> IMMERSION <-

Ha. But seriously, while hopefully secondary, think of how distracting bad quality (or arcade type) sounds, voices, and yea even graphics can detract from the believability and enjoyability of an rpg setting.
 
Cimmerian Nights said:
I'm certainly not in favor of bad sounds, but this enhances the role-playing aspects of the game how?
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It doesn't enhance the poor gameplay, but it certainly keeps FO3 from being completely mediocre in every way. Plus, I'm a total audiophile and can appreciate good sound when I hear it. The only other problem I have is with the voice over work, but it's really not this guy's fault.
 
I want to know if he used an actual cash register for the "Cha-Ching" sound and an actual train whistle for the "Choo Choo" sound.
 
EnglishMuffin said:
I want to know if he used an actual cash register for the "Cha-Ching" sound and an actual train whistle for the "Choo Choo" sound.
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Zenimax probably used the "Cha Ching" sound clip at all of their board meetings when they were talking about mauling the Fallout franchise to pander to grandmas and hyperactive 10 year olds.
 
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