Gamespot (UK) has a video interview with Pete up now. Meanwhile in reading format, we’ve got new interviews with Pete in a variety of places.

First, the folks Gamesindustry.biz cover a lot of ground in their inteview Surviving the Fallout:

Q: How far are you going with the ‘go anywhere’ sense in this game?

Pete Hines: Very. If you want to see how many of the hours you can play without seeing an hour of the main quest, give it a shot - it will be lots. You could spend 50 hours, 70 hours, just doing stuff in the world and never once make an effort to figure out what happened to your dad. We want it to be a self-directed world, for players to just see what happens.

And the idea is that the main quest is not the only cool stuff going on - there are tonnes of miscellaneous free-form things out there for you to do that will be a lot of fun, that maybe you’ve got five or six quests at any time where you can figure out what to do next.

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Around the Web, Fallout 3, Matt Firor, Pete Hines, ZeniMax Online | 3 Comments »

Here’s a few new places you can read up on Fallout 3 coverage — both in print and online.

As a follow up to Kieron Gillen’s preview for Fallout 3 last week, Eurogamer has a new interview with Pete up on their site. Here’s a sample of their conversation:

Eurogamer: Bar Liam Neeson, any voice actors you can talk about?

Pete Hines: Not that we’re talking about. The bulk of the voice acting will be voice people - people who are more in the voice-acting business. We’re not going for an all-name cast. So we pick out key roles for people and who we’d like for those roles and what kind of presence we thought they’d bring to it. And we always thought Liam was the perfect father figure. We have one or two other roles which we have things in mind but the bulk of it - and we have a lot of voice-acting in the game - is done by voice actors.

If you’re in Portugal, PSM3 has a second look at the game in their latest issue. Those of you looking for a new magazine to read and you’re in the UK, there’s a few new previews to check out. Issue #165 of Play (UK) has a two page spread covering the game. Likewise issue #42 of 360Gamer has a six-page preview. Finally, the latest issue of OXM (UK) has a two page second look, and the game cracks the magazine’s “Your Top Five” list at #5.

Around the Web, Fallout 3, Interview, Preview, Q&A, Second Look | 4 Comments »

Since most everyone at the office is just waiting to play GTA IV next week, I decided to ask folks what websites they check out in their free time. Looking at the submissions, I feel like I visit at least some of everyone’s favorite sites…err, that was the case until I read Fred’s submissions. I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous about clicking on Bootie Blog, but it turns out it’s work safe.

That’s it for this week. Let us know the sites you visit/what games you’re playing/etc. Have a great weekend!

Fred Zeleny, Information Junkie: A few highlights from my Google Reader list – Order of the Stick, The Steampunk Workshop, Ectoplasmosis, WebUrbanist, Avant Game, Sexy Videogame Land, Judge A Book By Its Cover , Culturizer, and Bootie Blog. All guaranteed to twist your brain and prod your oddity.

Gavin Carter, Foreign Language Hater: reader.google.com, marketwatch.com, fool.com, seekingalpha.com, penny-arcade.com, cnn.com, gametab.com, neogaf.com

Chris Esko, Systems Programmer: www.gamerswithjobs.com, www.boardgamegeek.com, Microsoft Developer Network

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Around the Web, At the Office, Developers | 4 Comments »

Here’s a few things to check out/be on the lookout for to help get you through your day and into the weekend.

Tonight on G4, Todd Howard will be talking Fallout 3 with the folks from X-Play. For those planning on going out tonight, be sure to set your DVR for 8 PM (Eastern Time).

Speaking of Todd, he’s one of several folks in the game industry sounding off in a feature at 1Up.com called “Chairman of the Boards.” Written by Robert Ashley, it’s an interesting community feature that focuses in on the influence of one particular gaming forum — NeoGaf. In addition to Todd, Microsoft’s Jeff Bell, Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal, and God of War creator David Jaffe are among the other guys “in the biz” that discuss the relevancy of this popular gaming site.

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Around the Web, Fallout 3, Preview, Second Look, Todd Howard | No Comments »

Coverage keeps coming in from Europe and I wanted to post some links to additional stuff that’s gone up.

Videogamer.com has their preview up now. Here’s a blurb from their piece:

“On to the dangers you’ll face then. During our demo these came in the form of mutants and Ghouls. Super mutants are your biggest foe in the game, with super mutant strongholds being set up across the wasteland. You’ll also face Ghouls (humans exposed to extreme amounts of radiation), with one particular variant being so full of radiation that it glows. How easily you spot these enemies depends on your perception stat, with high level characters seeing enemies on their radar much sooner than beginners.”

Hit the jump for more previews and interviews.

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Around the Web, Europe, Fallout 3, Interview, Second Look | No Comments »

Getting my feet back under me after a couple weeks of traveling and showing off some new stuff on Fallout 3, and in going through my emails I came across quite a few notes on coverage going up. Also of note are three new Fallout 3 screens that were released today, which can be found on a variety of sites as well as on the official site as well.

Bit-Tech has a three-page preview up that talks about the various aspects of the demo I showed to Joe (who describes himself as “one of the biggest fans of the series in the world”). Here’s a snippet:

Fallout 3 is, like the first game, a post-apocalyptic adventure. It isn’t a post-apocalyptic musical comedy and if you’re looking for a game with that 1950s comedy feel then Serious Sam 2 may be more up your street. Here all we have is The Inkspots providing the soundtrack and buckets full of deadpan and gore.

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Around the Web, Europe, Fallout 3, Preview, Screenshots, Second Look | 1 Comment »

Yesterday there was quite a bit of new Fallout 3 coverage, but previews are still popping up in a few places. At GameTap, Thierry Nguyen shares the “Seven things you need to know about this post-nuclear wasteland.” Here’s a snippet:

“Watch out, for there are creatures like radscorpions and deathclaws about. Beyond those, there are quite a few supermutants–slobbering freaks that wander around and kill people for the heck of it. There’s also the supermutant behemoth, a gargantuan mutant that runs around swinging a lamp post as a club. Ghouls also make a return from previous games, but now there are three different types: ones that can still think and talk (like Harold from previous titles), feral ghouls that simply act on an instinct to kill or eat you, and “glowing ones.” The last type is heavily irradiated to the point that their presence can make you sick and heal any other ghoul nearby.”

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Around the Web, Contests, Fallout 3, Gavin Carter, Modding, Oblivion, Preview, Second Look, Vault Boy, video | 3 Comments »

This week Pete’s been pretty busy showing Fallout 3 to some of the gaming press over on the west coast. Beginning this morning, many of these sites are starting to share their impressions.

Here’s where I’ve spotted previews thus far:

• Destructoid
• Kotaku
• 1Up
• IGN
• Joystiq
• GameShark
• Gamespot
• Games Radar
• Shacknews
• Team Xbox
• GameSpy

Whew, I’ve got plenty of reading to get through. As more previews come out, we’ll let you know.

Around the Web, Fallout 3, Pete Hines, Preview, Second Look | 6 Comments »

You probably figured out already that we’re not doing a lot of talking at GDC this week — it’s been pretty busy around here with everyone cracking on Fallout 3. Still, if you need a break from all the GDC news, here are a few newsworthy mentions I thought I’d share.

I noticed Destructoid has shared the results of their “which one game has eaten up more hours of your life than any other game ever has” debate, and both Morrowind (#6) and Oblivion (#2) made the top ten. Even combining votes, these games would still end up trailing World of WarCRACK craft. No surprise there.

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Around the Web, Lists, Oblivion, PC, Preview, Shivering Isles, Star Trek Legacy, The Elder Scrolls | 7 Comments »

As you get ready for the weekend, here’s some of the latest Fallout 3 coverage you can read as you head out for the weekend.

Clint McCredie of Australian gaming site Gameplayer has a five-page piece based on an an interview he did with Pete. After reading it, I realized that I probably need to take some time and refresh myself on the works of Charles Dickens. All I could think of when I read Clint’s intro is, “Where’s the mentions of Tiny Tim and the Ghost of Christmas Past?” Dickens references aside, here’s a snippet from the interview:

“We wander further and come across the settlement of Megaton, one of the larger piles of junk that are called towns in this world, and are allowed in by a security droid. Inside, the city’s grim and dirty, like living inside a drainpipe. We’re a bit perturbed that there’s so many people left alive in the town, especially as we can’t work out what they’re doing to survive. Where do they get their food from? ‘Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer, had me read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road,’ explains Hines. ‘If you read his take on the post-apocalyptic world, then yes, everything should be absolutely dead, and there’d be nothing left to eat except canned stuff. If you take that view, then in 200 years nobody should still be around.’”

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Around the Web, Fallout 3, Interview, Pete Hines, Preview | 4 Comments »