No Magic In Fallout 3

Gamepro has a new interview with Todd Howard:

GamePro: To Oblivion players, what will Fallout 3 feel like? It’s obvious (to us at least) that combat mechanics and design play a much larger role in Fallout 3 than Oblivion.

Todd Howard: The overall game flow feels like Oblivion, in that you make your own character and then explore a huge open world and do whatever you want. The basic gameplay of Fallout 3 is similar, which is one of the reasons we really wanted to do Fallout in the first place. I’d say the amount of action is similar to Oblivion, not more, not less. The basic combat in Fallout 3 may seem more complex then Oblivion’s, but at the same time, there is no magic in Fallout 3, so we felt we needed to do as much as we could with the guns and add a nice layer of being able to shoot body parts and feel the effects of a crippled leg and such.

GP: How many Perks do you plan for the final game? Could you give us an example of a low-level one and a high-level/godly one?

Howard: The Perks are still being tweaked, so we’re not ready to talk about them just yet. Sorry.

GP: There were quite a few rifles and assault rifles in the early press preview. What other weapons are waiting to be found?

Howard: Shotguns, yes. Flamethrower, yes, Pistols, yes, Submachine guns, yes. We have a lot of weapons, even melee attacks.

Later Rostere at the Bethsoft Fallout 3 forum asked this:

Rostere: From a recent interview with Todd:

“The basic gameplay of Fallout 3 is similar [to that of Oblivion], which is one of the reasons we really wanted to do Fallout in the first place.”

Could someone with a better understanding of Bethesda and the English language explain to me exactly what this means?

Matt “Gstaff” Grandstaff explained this:

I can tackle that one…I was actually a bit confused on the matter myself until I emailed Todd. To be clear, here’s the answer Todd actually wrote:

Todd Howard: The overall gameflow feels like Oblivion, in that you make your character and then explore a huge world and do whatever you want, so the basic-nut of the game is similar, which is one of the reasons we really wanted to do Fallout in the first place.

So again, Todd was comparing the gameflow of Fallout 1 with Oblivion. He never wrote, “gameplay of Fallout 3.”

One last note on something else Gstaff said:

I think you’re right. I think he’s [Briosafreak] done a heck of a job covering Fallout news in the past year.

Wow thanks! Now how about some exclusive gameplay videos and stuff?… oh ok…

So Much More Than That

Just saw on RPGWatch that Bit-tech.net has posted an editorial column by Joe Martin on the perils of fanboyism that mentions the Bethesda Games Fallout 3 forum:

This portrayal is mostly true of console fanboys and, as I mentioned before, I’ve run into a few of them since I started here at bit-tech. It isn’t just the console fans who are guilty though. Hardcore games fans may also end up damaging the games they love, even if only to themselves. The Fallout 3 forums are already bristling with rivalry and uberfans who, in their attempts to guide and shape the expectations of others, end up pushing their own hopes so high that they cannot help but be dashed.

Fallout fans always try to reach for the sky and try to land on their feet, it’s our nature.

Speaking of fans MMORPG and gaming blog Random Battle has a list of the top 10 games of the author life:

2. Fallout 1&2 (PC) – Fallout and its first sequel were eye opening experiences for me. I had no idea that games existed with this much freedom and complexity. I remember the friend who introduced me to the game describing it as “a PC game where you can do anything, kill anyone, take drugs, and have sex.” While that sounded pretty interesting to my 14 year-old self, what I found was so much more than that. The cheery 50’s style set in the dreary post-apocalyptic world was fantastic, the moral complexity of the game was amazing, the story was deep, and the world seemed enormous. The random encounters were meaningful and memorable, and the best part was that you could just go play the game without worrying about the story. Fallout, of all the games I’ve played, is the game which has come closest to the experience of a pen and paper gaming session, and I love it for that.

And kudos for that Cameron.