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Fallout 3 Fan Interview #2 |
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Todd Howard on Fallout 3 |
This week’s Inside the Vault revisits Fallout 3 Lead Designer, Emil Pagliarulo. I thought it would be fun to do a Q&A that was a bit different. So, before heading down past the break, gentle readers, let me know if this slight change of pace is a good one or not. We have lots more Q&A’s with developers on the team coming up, too.
Just a brief note for today. Emil sat down yesterday with Kris Graft from Next-Gen and some of his colleagues for a discussion on all things gaming. You can hear the results of that session in a podcast over on Game Theory where Emil chimes in a variety of topics.
In addition, Kris posted a short interview with Emil over at Next-Gen that covers some of the discussion from the podcast, such as:
Next-Gen: Because it’s different for every game designer, give us your idea of what storytelling is in games.
Pagliarulo: I think it changes all the time. I think even with the release of GTA IV it has even changed again. Who knew that GTA IV would progress narrative in videogames. I don’t think anyone saw that coming. But for me story in videogames is about writing for the medium. It’s getting people who understand videogames and how to craft a story for videogames, so that you have a mix of a solid narrative that the player can understand and be involved with, while using the medium of a videogame to let the player craft his own narrative. I think there’s a mix of both, and you need to have people who understand the medium in order to do that, or to give the player what they want in that regard.
Thumbing through the April issue of Game Informer (be on the lookout for the Alpha Protocol cover), I was pleasantly surprised to see Emil’s Op/Ed piece entitled, “A Question of Character.” I suppose I should have known it was in there, but it’s hard to be thinking about April when you’re still in March. Anyhow, within the editorial, Emil explains the challenges and importance of creating believable characters in RPGs. Here’s a quick sample:
“If we accept that all video game characters fall under one of three literary classifications — prototype, archetype, and stereotype — it’s easy to see the appeal of the archetype. This is the established, easily-understandable character model. The badass space marine or seductive sorceress. The prototype, while imaginative and interesting, is too easily viewed as ‘weird,’ and that means inaccessible. The stereotype? Overused, oversimplified, and more often than naught, offensive.”
Want more? Keep an eye out for the April issue of Game Informer.
Following up on naming him as one of the Top 25 Developers of 2008, Kris Graft over at Next Gen has put up an article based on an interview he did with Emil recently. The article covers a variety of topics with Emil such as his sources of inspiration, feedback from fans, and a couple other things. Here’s a snippet:
“Life itself is pretty fascinating if you look at it. There’s a lot of inspiration to be drawn out there. I think that people sometimes make a mistake when they limit their inspiration. It’s easy to say, ‘Oh my god, I loved Star Wars and I want to be the next George Lucas,’ and copy what George Lucas did. Why not look at George Lucas’ inspiration? Look at the things that inspired him; look at the Kurosawa films that inspired him and what inspired Kurosawa. There’s a chain there and the further back you go, generally the better the source I think.”
For the full piece, head over to Next Gen.
Emil was named one of Next-Gen’s Top 25 Developers for 2008, coming in at #24. Here’s a snippet:
“Before coming to Bethesda, Pagliarulo hung with the greats at the sadly defunct Looking Glass Studios, lending design work to well-respected classics like Thief II: The Metal Age.”
For the rest, head over to Next-Gen and check out the other 99 folks on the list. Also keep your eyes open for an interview Emil did in conjunction with this list that may be popping up one day this week during GDC.
So to kick off the new year Emil took some time to dive into the question of what, exactly, are the Brotherhood of Steel doing in DC, and what are they up to? Well head over to the Vault on the official site to read his recap of what the Brotherhood of Steel are about, and the answer those questions, or at least as much of an answer as he’s willing to divulge at this time. Here’s an excerpt:
In Fallout 3, the Brotherhood of Steel is one of the most important and influential factions you’ll encounter. And while it’s true they are a military organization, the Brotherhood’s values and command structure are actually more representative of a medieval knightly order. Like the Templars of old, in their own eyes, the members of the Brotherhood of Steel are pure, they are just – they are truly human in a world filled with both physical and moral corruption.
The diary also includes a number of new concept art pieces, including the one pictured above.
A variety of things going on that I thought I would mention.
Matt did an interview with the folks at Games Radar for an article they were doing on “Are Developers Even Listening?” Matt’s responses are included along with folks from Lionhead, Rare, Epic, and Bungie. Head over to read the full article.
Primotech did their Game of the Year awards and voted Shivering Isles the Best Expansion. From the article:
Bethesda’s last expansion pack does more than throw open the door to a land suffering from a split personality. It adds nearly twenty to thirty hours of new quests, complete with plenty of gear to acquire and the opportunity to find out just how insane a Mad God can really be.
Where we talk about stuff we love…
Here is Emil Pagliarulo, lead designer on Fallout 3, to talk about some of his personal faves.
Thought I’d share a few links to some Leipzig coverage of Fallout 3 from the past week.
Spanish gaming site HardGame2.com seems to have enjoyed their screening of the demo at GC. The game walked away with their award for “Best RPG” on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game also captured their “Best Xbox” game award, as well as the “2nd Absolute Best Game in the Show” behind Mafia II. If you’re fluent in Spanish, you can also read Roberto Hidalgo Burgos’ preview that’s on their site. We’ve got a bit of it translated below:
“Even if at E3 it was barely shown, at GC we enjoyed an in-game demo of more than an hour, where Bethesda left us completely stunned in the same way they do about a year ago with Oblivion. Fallout 3 unites again in a title a wide and diverse gaming experience, with top-notch graphics, all wrapped with a rich and highly immersive background, promising dozens of gaming hours.”
In other international coverage, Scandinavian game site Game Reactor is hosting an interview up with Emil Pagliarulo in which Emil talks about his favorite elements of Fallout, some of the creatures that will appear in the game, and more.
Finally, back here in the states, GamePro writer Vicious Sid has put up his preview that covers some of the basics about the game:
“Just before the war, many sought refuge is massive underground bunkers called Vaults. Once sealed, the Vaults are sealed permanently — nobody enters, nobody leaves. This is the dark world of Fallout, a cult hit on the PC in the late 90’s and now an upcoming action-RPG from Bethesda Softworks, creator of The Elder Scrolls series.”
Update: Looks like there’s another Spanish preview up on Meristation. Time to head over to Babelfish.
If you haven’t been looking around, there’s some interesting coverage for Fallout 3 this week…
Apparently there will be an interview with Emil on GameTap this weekend (I’ll update the blog when it surfaces). This morning, ActionTrip posted an interview with Lead Producer, Gavin Carter. Here’s a quick look at it:
ActionTrip: As we understand, the team is also keeping itself busy with balancing combat in the game. If you can, please tell us about the advantages of V.A.T.S. Do you think hardcore RPG fans will enjoy the cinematic aspect of it?
Gavin: A big advantage is that during VATS mode, time is paused and you’re given a wealth of information about your situation. Every targetable enemy and object is highlighted and you can pan around and get a sense for where things are coming from. For each individual target, you can see their overall health, and the condition and the likelihood of landing a shot for each body part. This is the part that I feel separates VATS from standard “real-time with pause” systems in that it gives you information to base a tactical choice on. You may find that you have a high chance to hit a mutant’s torso, but then you notice that landing one more risky shot to the arm will cripple him, severely reducing his ability to aim. Recently I’ve been replaying Oblivion and find myself hammering the VATS button unconsciously whenever I get jumped by an enemy.
Elsewhere this week, Eurogamer has followed up their E3 preview with an interview with Pete from last week’s GC in Leipzig:
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