WorthPlaying interviews Pete Hines.<blockquote>WP: Going from the style of Fallout 1 and 2 to the style of Fallout 3, where you're using an updated version of the Oblivion engine, how did your developers and designers attack that, and was there any concern of alienating fans who are used to the style of the first two games with such a drastic switch?
PH: We said, what is the best way to bring this world to life and make it as real and immersive as possible, and we felt that a first- or third-person approach, since you can play the game in both, was most appropriate and the thing that we would be the most excited about and wanted to do. As far as if that alienates fans, I guess if you're beholden to one perspective and say, "I will only play the game if it's this," then yeah, you probably could be alienated, but if you're willing to at least open your mind to the possibility of making a Fallout game that doesn't look exactly like the originals, I think there's something to be said for what we're doing with Fallout 3.
We felt that, to make the best game that we could, we had to take advantage of what games today could do and how they could look and feel as opposed to what they could do 10 years ago, and we're trying to hold onto and really adhere to a lot of the ideas of the first Fallout games. They were pretty graphically advanced for their day for what PC games looked like, and they were really violent and presented it in a rather interesting way that, for its time, was very different from other games. I think we're trying to do those same kinds of things in Fallout 3, given the environment that we're in today, what other games look like, and the technology that we have available.</blockquote>If only Bethesda had been willing to open its mind to alternatives to the first-person perspective they've used for 10 years now. Talk about being beholden to one perspective, Pete.
PH: We said, what is the best way to bring this world to life and make it as real and immersive as possible, and we felt that a first- or third-person approach, since you can play the game in both, was most appropriate and the thing that we would be the most excited about and wanted to do. As far as if that alienates fans, I guess if you're beholden to one perspective and say, "I will only play the game if it's this," then yeah, you probably could be alienated, but if you're willing to at least open your mind to the possibility of making a Fallout game that doesn't look exactly like the originals, I think there's something to be said for what we're doing with Fallout 3.
We felt that, to make the best game that we could, we had to take advantage of what games today could do and how they could look and feel as opposed to what they could do 10 years ago, and we're trying to hold onto and really adhere to a lot of the ideas of the first Fallout games. They were pretty graphically advanced for their day for what PC games looked like, and they were really violent and presented it in a rather interesting way that, for its time, was very different from other games. I think we're trying to do those same kinds of things in Fallout 3, given the environment that we're in today, what other games look like, and the technology that we have available.</blockquote>If only Bethesda had been willing to open its mind to alternatives to the first-person perspective they've used for 10 years now. Talk about being beholden to one perspective, Pete.
