Pete’s back at the office after a busy week at Leipzig (the above pic shows folks lining up to check out the game on Wednesday), and new hands-on impressions are starting to appear online. Click on the links below for new impressions of the game, but keep in mind that since some journalists are getting to spend more and more time with the game, some of the previews have information that could be considered spoilers. You’ve been warned…

• Gamespot’s Guy Cocker gets a second chance to go hands-on with the game at Leipzig.
• David Clayman at IGN had an opportunity to play the game on both PC and 360.
• UGO blogger Rusty shares his unique hands-on experience from Leipzig.
• GamersGlobal also had a chance to play the PC version of the game.
• Prior to Leipzig, MTV Multiplayer’s Steven Totilo went hands-on for 90 minutes with the game in New York.

That’s all for now, but you can expect new coverage in the coming days.

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For the past few weeks, we’ve shared Game Trailers’ Bonus Round series entitled “Music in Gaming,” which  features Fallout 3 composer Inon Zur. Yesterday, the final segment went live on Game Trailers. This time around, Inon discusses some of the music projects he’d like to see in future games, and how various genres of music are being revived by music — including classical music. If you missed any of the episodes, you can check them out here.

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Around the Web, Fallout 3, Interview, Magazines, Music, Pete Hines | 1 Comment »

Above is the latest edition of Game Trailers’ Music in Gaming series. This week’s discussion focuses primarily on distribution of music on gaming platforms — with Fallout 3 composer, Inon Zur, sharing his opinions on the matter. Next Sunday, the final segment on this series will air, with the panel discussing the future of composition in games — should be interesting to hear Inon’s thoughts on that.

Elsewhere, there’s a new press coverage out of Europe to check out. At Gamers Universe, there’s a lengthy video interview with Pete where he sounds off on topics ranging from VATs to DLC discussion.  New interviews can also be found at Bit-Tech, GamersGlobal, and Guardian.co.uk. From the latter, here’s a snippet of Pete discussing pacifism in Fallout 3:

Can you tag Medicine, Repair and Barter, and focusing on those skills, still be able to  complete the game?

Pete: Sure. We recently had someone play through the game and finish it while only killing one thing very early in the game…a Radroach. I’m not saying I recommend everyone run out and try to play the game as a pacifist, but if you want to give it a try, it has been done.

For more news, hit the jump…

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If you’re looking for new Fallout 3 previews and interviews, there’s plenty to check out.

First, the above is the cover for the August issue of Peelaja-magazine (Finland) which just recently made its way to newsstands. If you’re over in Finland, be sure to check it out.

There’s quite a few new interviews with Pete stemming from his busy trip to Europe last week. Crispy Gamer has a five-page interview conducted by Paul Semel. Here’s a sample:

Crispy Gamer: Over time, your guns in the game will wear out and ultimately become less accurate. First off, how quickly will that happen? Am I going to have to buy a new gun after every battle?

Hines: All weapons in the game degrade over time. Many are beat up when you first find them. You either have to repair them yourself using your Repair skill, or find people who can repair it for you. It’s not an immediate thing, but as you use a weapon you can see it start to degrade at what feels like the right level. So you have to find more of that weapon to repair it yourself, or pay someone to do it. If you have to do it after every battle, you’re probably wasting a lot of ammo and are a terrible shot. It doesn’t happen that fast.

Additional interviews with Pete can be found at the following sites:

• Guardian
• IncGamers
• TVG
• AtomicGamer

There’s several new hands-on previews as well. Hit the jump to check them out.

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The previews for Fallout 3 continue — with new coverage popping up following Pete’s European Adventure last week.

Gamespot has a featured preview on their site after Guy Cocker from their UK office went hands-on with the game for about an hour. Here’s a snippet of his playthrough:

“Above ground once again, we started to head out of town and toward downtown Washington, DC. We knew that we wouldn’t make it there in the short time period that we had, but we figured it was a good direction to head in. We started to come across some new enemies such as the feral ghouls, which are humanoid characters that had obviously been affected by radiation. We also encountered a trader with a hut full of goodies and a couple of dogs, although considering that we didn’t have any money, we couldn’t buy any of the items that he was offering.”

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Around the Web, Europe, Fallout 3, Hands-On, Pete Hines, Preview | 3 Comments »

E3’s just around the corner (the fun begins a week from today), and folks around the web are gearing up for next week’s madness.

At Next Generation, there’s a new article up from Joe Keiser listing their 30 most anticipated titles of E3. Head here to read the top ten, which includes Fallout 3 at #1.

In other pre-E3 news, IGN has a few lists of their own. Their PC and 360 editors rank Fallout 3 as their most anticipated game of E3, while the game is also listed as one of the most anticipated games confirmed for E3 by their PS3 staff.

Speaking of IGN, their Australian site has a new interview up with Pete. Here’s a sample of one of their questions:

IGN AU: Surely a post apocalyptic wasteland is a tough thing to make look sexy. Were the visuals a challenge?

Pete Hines: Absolutely. That level of detail when you’re talking about destruction… and you get down to those DC areas where you’ve got bars sticking out of concrete and you’re rendering out everything… or you’ve got Megaton with all those wires… Those little details are hard to render and pull off well. But you know for us the benefit is that this is our second go around on this hardware.

As E3 nears, we’ll keep you updated on new coverage.

E3, Fallout 3, Interview, Pete Hines | 3 Comments »

Today on Gameplayer, Chris Stead has an 8-page preview with new impressions of Fallout 3 based on a recent meet up with Pete. Here’s a snippet of the preview:

The theme of Fallout 3 is Sacrifice and Survival. Or more to the point, what will you sacrifice to survive? The whole diverging paths and user-defined narratives that we have been experiencing in RPGs over recent years has become less of a gimmick and more of something truly emotional this generation. Who did you kill in Mass Effect, for example? Fallout 3 takes this feature and powers it with atomic energy. There is a full moral see-saw to ride in the game, referred to as karma. Various decisions you make in regards to completed and uncompleted quests, in combat and in conversation act to split your experience into multiple parallel universes.

Meanwhile, over at Gamespot’s Australian site, you can check out new impressions of the game, as well as an interview with Pete on their show Crosshairs. If you want to skip ahead to the Fallout 3 stuff, fast-forward to around the 11-minute mark of the video.

Update: Here’s two more Australian preview to check out — one from PALGN and another over at The Age.

Around the Web, Down Under, Fallout 3, Interview, Pete Hines, Preview, Second Look, video | 8 Comments »

Fallout 3 coverage continues to make its way online as Pete’s travels around the globe continue.

We begin with a video interview Gamereactor TV did with Pete at the Ubidays event in Paris a few weeks back. To watch the video, head here.

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Around the Web, Down Under, Europe, Fallout 3, Pete Hines, Preview, Q&A, Second Look | 1 Comment »

Today at the office, we received the 1,000th issue of Entertainment Weekly (since it’s a double issue, it’s actually issue #999-1,000). To celebrate the occasion, EW has a lengthy feature about the “New Classics” — where they list off the top 1,000 films, books, and albums of the last 25 years. While not as robust as some of the other lists, there’s also a list of the top 50 videogames from the past 25 years, with Oblivion making the list at #47.

For more news, hit the jump below…

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Around the Web, Down Under, Fallout 3, Interview, Lists, Magazines, Oblivion, Pete Hines, Playstation 3, Second Look, Xbox 360 | 7 Comments »

Happy Monday! Here’s a few that you might want to check out.

After sharing a handful of updates on Fallout 3 a few weeks back, TGR has a new interview with Pete Hines up on their site. You’re not going to find any new insight on Fallout 3, but if you’re curious about the ins and outs of Pete’s job, you might want to give it a read. Here’s an excerpt:

THE GAME REVIEWS: Those are very rare talents. What would you suggest to somebody who is looking to get into the industry either in PR or marketing?

PETE: I think the biggest thing is to know how the system works, and get games. When I am looking through resumes or applications, I look at where they went to school and job experience. I interview many folks who are interested in doing this, and they don’t seem to know much about games. If you really want to do this for a living, then it better be something that you enjoy and take seriously on some level so that you can participate, have knowledge and make an effort at it. If you are going to talk to me, you better know what we publish, what we make and have made an effort to play those or have an understanding of them.

If you’re dying for more insight on getting a career in gaming related to marketing/PR, check out this blog post from Pete.

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Fallout 3, Interview, Oblivion, Pete Hines, Preview, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »