Gameplayer Australia has a "state of the RPG" feature with several quotes from Todd Howard, and a kind of odd opinion from themselves on what Fallout 3 is all about.<blockquote>Todd Howard, executive producer of the proudly Western Fallout 3 at Bethesda, puts it more simply. “We stay away from all the big cut-scene/story-telling stuff, to be honest,” he says. “We’re more fans of the ‘make your own story’ idea.”
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Todd Howard feels the same. “Player expectations move with the technology,” he says. “Gamers are sophisticated enough to know what the all the new hardware can do and they certainly aren’t going to let something off just because it’s an RPG.”
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Howard emphasises the importance of getting off to a good start: “You always want the first few hours of the game to be nice to any player, “ he says . “No matter how good they are at games, they haven’t played this particular one yet, so you need to ease whoever it is into it.”
Here at least, the RPG has an advantage: it’s fundamentally designed to train you up from nothing, as Howard points out. “It’s often easy in an RPG to keep layering on the complexity with new abilities. It actually makes the game more fun and addictive then if you gave all that stuff out at the beginning.”
After that, it’s all about the grind – specifically, disguising it so you don’t notice that it’s there. Howard again: “Mostly it’s about plenty of player progression and making repetitive actions, such as combat, interesting. If the basic monster-killing is fun and exciting, I will do it over and over for hours on end – especially if it unlocks new abilities.”
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The final RPG that’s got us excited is the upcoming Fallout 3, which should be out by the end of this year. The fact that this is a sequel to an ageing franchise that hasn’t had an entry in ten years shouldn’t matter – this is Bethesda’s next project, and if Oblivion’s anything to go by, it’ll be a cracker. Expect jet-black humour and people juice everywhere – the combat system will allow you to pause the action at any particular time and target specific body parts.
Howard fully expects Fallout 3 to push RPGs forward by “mixing genres and providing plenty of unique interactions” for the gamer. This could be a potential game of the year. And let’s not forget that there are also Elveon, Age of Conan, Too Human and Cry On waiting on the sidelines.</blockquote>Link: State of the RPG on Gameplayer Australia.
Spotted on Blue's News.
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Todd Howard feels the same. “Player expectations move with the technology,” he says. “Gamers are sophisticated enough to know what the all the new hardware can do and they certainly aren’t going to let something off just because it’s an RPG.”
(...)
Howard emphasises the importance of getting off to a good start: “You always want the first few hours of the game to be nice to any player, “ he says . “No matter how good they are at games, they haven’t played this particular one yet, so you need to ease whoever it is into it.”
Here at least, the RPG has an advantage: it’s fundamentally designed to train you up from nothing, as Howard points out. “It’s often easy in an RPG to keep layering on the complexity with new abilities. It actually makes the game more fun and addictive then if you gave all that stuff out at the beginning.”
After that, it’s all about the grind – specifically, disguising it so you don’t notice that it’s there. Howard again: “Mostly it’s about plenty of player progression and making repetitive actions, such as combat, interesting. If the basic monster-killing is fun and exciting, I will do it over and over for hours on end – especially if it unlocks new abilities.”
(...)
The final RPG that’s got us excited is the upcoming Fallout 3, which should be out by the end of this year. The fact that this is a sequel to an ageing franchise that hasn’t had an entry in ten years shouldn’t matter – this is Bethesda’s next project, and if Oblivion’s anything to go by, it’ll be a cracker. Expect jet-black humour and people juice everywhere – the combat system will allow you to pause the action at any particular time and target specific body parts.
Howard fully expects Fallout 3 to push RPGs forward by “mixing genres and providing plenty of unique interactions” for the gamer. This could be a potential game of the year. And let’s not forget that there are also Elveon, Age of Conan, Too Human and Cry On waiting on the sidelines.</blockquote>Link: State of the RPG on Gameplayer Australia.
Spotted on Blue's News.
"...If the basic monster-killing is fun and exciting, I will do it over and over for hours on end – especially if it unlocks new abilities." 
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