Welcome back to another edition of Bright Shiny Things — this week brought to you by Fallout 3 Lead Producer, Gavin Carter….

Death in games is traditionally something to be avoided. Yet I’m sure in moments of weakness and frustration, we’ve all indulged in the urge to purposefully send our ill-behaving digital characters to their doom down some spiky pit or fiery furnace. For those who can’t get enough of such anti-social behavior, I recommend downloading Karoshi and Karoshi 2.0 by 2D Cube (aka Jesse Venbrux), a pair of hilarious puzzle platformers.

“Karoshi” is a Japanese term that translates literally into “death from overwork.” Playing a suit-clad businessman, the object is, quite simply, to kill yourself. Each level is laid out using a variety of very simple elements — blocks, spikes, safes, and a small variety of set dressing pieces. The game controls like a standard platformer, and death can be visited on your character a number of ways. Whether you collide with a set of spikes, fall off the world to your death, or get your head smashed in by a falling safe, you’re rewarded with a cloud of blood and and an explosion of limbs guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

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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’s Inside the Vault is about Gavin Carter, our lead producer on Fallout 3. Gavin is responsible for one of my favorite Elder Scrolls quests - Tribunal’s A Star is Born, which involved the player acting in a play. We tried to reprise the concept of the “play” quest for Oblivion, but unfortunately, it ended up on the cutting room floor. Gavin has been involved with Fallout 3’s development from the very start, and he will be responsible for getting it to the finish line, as well (No pressure, Gav).

This will be our last Inside the Vault for 2007. I believe these interviews are a great way to learn more about the passionate, fascinating people working here at the studio. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them as much as I have.

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With most of the big gaming events (TGS, Leipzig, E3) behind us, the trickle of coverage for Fallout 3 has subsided a little bit. That said, this week Gameshark was able to sit down with Lead Producer Gavin Carter to discuss a few items about the game. Here’s a sample of what he had to say:

Gameshark: The SPECIAL character development system from the first two Fallout games is back. How will it be different (if at all)?

Gavin: We’re using the SPECIAL character system and making few changes to it. The stats all play nicely with our gameplay design. For instance, Perception still feeds into seeing enemies and Agility still affects your action points, which are used for VATS mode. Any of the SPECIAL stats (as well as skills) can be polled in dialog and give you access to different options. Some perks also require a minimum score in a SPECIAL stat for you to use them, as well.

Head over to Gameshark to read the rest of the interview…

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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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Emil Pagliarulo, Fallout 3, Gavin Carter, Interview, Istvan Pely, Preview, Todd Howard | 4 Comments »