I had a chance to chat with Inon yesterday and ask him some questions about his background, experiences, and thoughts on music and gaming.

Tell me about your career as a video game composer. How did you get your start?
I started composing music for video games about 1997. The first game that I composed was Planet Academy. I got to know my agent Bob Rice at this time, and he introduced me to Interplay. I did many games for them, at least three of the Star Trek games, Icewind Dale 2, and Baldur’s Gate, Throne of Baal, and also Fallout Tactics.

This is actually where my relationship with Fallout started. I really fell in love with this kind of musical concept, which is totally different from other games. It’s totally mood driven rather than thematic or rhythmically driven. The music is basically trying to cater to a certain mood, while not using much of what you’d really expect from a regular score. It’s a little different.

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Fallout 3, Inon Zur, Interview, Music | 8 Comments »

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.

Emil Pagliarulo, Fallout 3, Interview, podcast | No Comments »

We just sent out a release announcing Inon Zur as the composer for the Fallout 3 soundtrack. Here’s a quote from Inon from the release:

“Fallout 3 is one of the most engaging and demanding projects I’ve scored,” said Inon Zur. “It was very rewarding to put all my creative energy into supporting Bethesda’s vision for the game. I’m very proud of the outcome, and look forward to sharing the music with the players.“

Over on the official site in the Downloads section you’ll find a couple sample tracks from the game’s soundtrack. Head over and take a listen. If you want to read more about Inon Zur check out www.inonzur.com.

We’ll have a short Q&A with Inon up in the next couple of days, so stay tuned.

Fallout 3, Music, press release | 10 Comments »

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 »

Yes, Bethesda Softworks will be at this year’s E3 in LA.

Yes, we will have Fallout 3 there.

No, I don’t know why the ESA sent out a list that did not include us, just like they did last year. Maybe it’s because they had to go to print at a certain point and we hadn’t picked our space yet. No idea.

But we’ll be there and so will Fallout 3.

E3, Fallout 3 | 2 Comments »

Last year, once all the dust cleared from our initial unveiling of Fallout 3, we provided you guys with a chance to ask some burning questions about the game. Given we’ve just had another blitz of previews come out, we figured now was as good of a time as any to give you another opportunity.

Starting today in the Fallout 3 Discussion thread of the BGS forums, you can start suggesting questions you’d like to see answered. You can also share your questions in the comments section of this blog post, or simply by emailing us. To help make sure we’re answering the questions you guys want to know, I’ve entrusted three of our community members to help out with the process — Alexander, Briosafreak, Gizmo. If you’ve got suggestions, or think you might be able to help them out, drop them a line.

If you want your question considered, you have between now and Sunday, May 18th to post your questions through the channels listed above. Once we’ve got the final questions, we’ll work on getting answers back to you guys.

Fallout 3, Interview, Q&A | 11 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 »

On Friday we let you know that Todd would be making an appearance on G4’s popular gaming show X-Play. If you missed it or forgot to set your DVR, you can watch the video above.

In other Fallout 3 news, Play.tm posted an interview with Pete discussing the game. Here’s a sample:

Play: What have you learned from Oblivion and how important a release was this, in relation to Fallout 3?

Pete Hines: Every game we make always helps us learn how to make these types of games better. There are lots of things we’re doing differently in terms of quests and gameplay balance based on our experiences with Oblivion, but also realize that Fallout 3 is a different game in terms of scope. There are fewer people living in this post-nuclear world, and so that change alone makes it a lot easier to give everything more depth and meaning that when you make a game like Oblivion that has so many more characters living in this one place, and all these big, thriving cities to account for.

Lastly, Video Game Media has their latest preview for the game up on their site. Here’s a snippet:

“Character creation is a feature that seems to improve as more companies continue to enhance it. Bethesda was able to take it to a whole new level in Oblivion by allowing you to customize almost every aspect of your character, ranging from the shape of your nose, cheeks, and mouth to even your age. This time Fallout 3 will feature a new way of character creation that will be a first in games. Creating your character will literally start from birth. A hazy cinematic sequence will start with a perspective from the operating table as you are being born from your mother. This is where you will choose your character’s gender and name. “

That’s it for now. We’ll keep you updated as more coverage comes out.

Fallout 3, Interview, Pete Hines, Preview, Todd Howard, video | 6 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 »