Two new Fallout 3 interviews, both with Pete Hines. Shacknews.<blockquote>Shack: So what about Steam? Are you guys thinking about getting Fallout 3 on there?
Pete Hines: We're thinking about a lot of stuff. I don't actually know if any of that is set in stone yet, but hopefully there will be multiple digital distribution options for folks that want to go that route.
Shack: Did you put a lot of work into optimizing the PC version, and accounting for people with older machines?
Pete Hines: Yeah, we've been working with folks like Nvidia and having them do compat testing and optimization stuff, and looking at how the game plays on Nvidia cards. We've been doing some stuff with Alienware, specifically testing on different configurations of their machines. So we are trying to do our due diligence on the PC and make sure it runs as advertising.
But the problem on the PC, it's just not--you have a 360, you have the same thing that everyone else has. When you talk about a PC, how much RAM you have, do you have the right video card driver, the right sound card drivers, are you running all kinds of applications in the background that are eating up memory or trying to interrupt the process of the game and makes the game crash--you don't have any of those problems on the 360 or PS3.
So we try as much as we can for account for everything that we can account for, but the killer is all the variables you have no control over. I don't even know if I have the right drivers for anything on my home PC. It's something that you have to spend a bit more effort as a consumer. </blockquote>Xbox Evolved.<blockquote>XE: There are a lot of fans of the previous series that will be getting the game, but even more will be buying the game that never heard of Fallout before Fallout 3. How do you find the balance between pleasing the fans and easing in the newcomers?
Pete Hines: If we can make the best Fallout 3 game we can, we’ll be ok. People who played the originals will find plenty in there to make it feel like a true Fallout game, and people who don’t have a clue, just see a cool game they want to play. In our experience, millions of people got their first taste of The Elder Scrolls with Morrowind - they had never played Arena and Daggerfall years before. Millions more started with Oblivion. So people who know the series get more out of it, appreciate references and lore more, but the base game can still appeal to a wide group and not exclude one for the sake of another.</blockquote>
Pete Hines: We're thinking about a lot of stuff. I don't actually know if any of that is set in stone yet, but hopefully there will be multiple digital distribution options for folks that want to go that route.
Shack: Did you put a lot of work into optimizing the PC version, and accounting for people with older machines?
Pete Hines: Yeah, we've been working with folks like Nvidia and having them do compat testing and optimization stuff, and looking at how the game plays on Nvidia cards. We've been doing some stuff with Alienware, specifically testing on different configurations of their machines. So we are trying to do our due diligence on the PC and make sure it runs as advertising.
But the problem on the PC, it's just not--you have a 360, you have the same thing that everyone else has. When you talk about a PC, how much RAM you have, do you have the right video card driver, the right sound card drivers, are you running all kinds of applications in the background that are eating up memory or trying to interrupt the process of the game and makes the game crash--you don't have any of those problems on the 360 or PS3.
So we try as much as we can for account for everything that we can account for, but the killer is all the variables you have no control over. I don't even know if I have the right drivers for anything on my home PC. It's something that you have to spend a bit more effort as a consumer. </blockquote>Xbox Evolved.<blockquote>XE: There are a lot of fans of the previous series that will be getting the game, but even more will be buying the game that never heard of Fallout before Fallout 3. How do you find the balance between pleasing the fans and easing in the newcomers?
Pete Hines: If we can make the best Fallout 3 game we can, we’ll be ok. People who played the originals will find plenty in there to make it feel like a true Fallout game, and people who don’t have a clue, just see a cool game they want to play. In our experience, millions of people got their first taste of The Elder Scrolls with Morrowind - they had never played Arena and Daggerfall years before. Millions more started with Oblivion. So people who know the series get more out of it, appreciate references and lore more, but the base game can still appeal to a wide group and not exclude one for the sake of another.</blockquote>
