Peter Hines grilled on Fallout 3

We sit down as launch nears

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Do you think the manner in which Fallout 3 blends elements of the FPS and RPG genres is something unique?

Oh no, we did this sort of thing in Oblivion. Its just it has a different feel when you're doing it in this kind of game. You have guns and so forth... you know, with Oblivion, we spent a lot of time on the combat system. Trying to make the action more fun, noting the stuff people spend a lot of time doing and trying to make that as fun as possible. You know Fallout is much the same - if you put a gun in someone's hand there's a certain expectation, people playing this game will try to run and shoot stuff because its fun... so we need to make that, on its own, really fun and interesting. If that's what you spend 30 seconds doing then its the best 30 second of the game for that moment. All the time we're working on this, making sure people enjoy doing it.

Liam Neeson plays the lead character's father... what's it like having a bit of star quality in your game?

We really feel like, that the right people in the right role really brings a quality to the performances... like Sean Bean in Oblivion as the Son the Emperor, and having Terence Stamp there. You know, having these guys in these roles really does bring... they're well known actors for a reason, and they're really good at acting, having somebody like Liam who has this presence as a father figure and does it so well. It does make that character more believable and interesting. There's a much better sense of personality, Malcom Macdowell has it too as the narrator; a presence; he's an iconic part of the series so we had to have him. I do find that using that talent does bring a presence we might otherwise not get.

What do the actors think of the game... do they play it?

Liam, I don't believe has played it, he was the one... we were like "it's Liam Neeson, are we going to be able to get Liam Neeson?" but for this particular role... you know, a father who leaves his only child behind, you've got no mother - your dad is your only role model - you're going to spend the first part of the game growing up with your son, then you're going to leave to go and do this other thing. I think he was compelled by the setting, and the role, and the approach. It sort of struck a chord with him. Hearing him talk about why he did the role... in terms of what they think of the game... I'll have to give him a chance to play it. None of our actors are real gamers... but maybe their kids are! So, we'll see what they think.

Which element of Fallout 3 are you perhaps most proud of?

Well... its tough. I'm happy with the whole package in terms of it being the great sandbox game we wanted it to be, where you can play wherever you want. You can approach things from so many different directions: sneaky, good, bad. Focus on combat, etc. All the different ways you can play the game.

But if there was one feature I really like, it's the VATS system. The way of doing a stat-based game, and doing guns, that can be easily pulled-off. The lead designer and director had this idea for really wanting to do gun combat in real-time, as well as another way that was a nod to the original Fallouts and how combat worked there, but still within the context of a first or third-person game. That didn't slow down the game too much, that was fun and balanced. How much time and effort the whole team put into that and how much fun it offers... that ends up being as great as we hoped it would be when we first started talking about it. Todd and Emmo would sort of leap around pantomiming how VATS would work. Going from that to how it now works is very satisfying. Its great to see people are taking to it, because it is a pretty different idea... it was a risk we took. We did something that was an unknown... will it be fun, will people like it, and it seems they do.

Did a piece of Fallout 3 artwork end up on a terrorist website a few months back? What happened with that?

The gist of it, from what I recall (I was traveling); some intelligence group had found a piece of our concept art on a forum or website for some organisation linked to terrorism. This is where I'm not sure what happened... he said, she said... it alluded to the idea that perhaps the terrorists had come up with this graphical representation of what Washington DC might look like after an attack or something like that. People then started reporting on it. Our response was bemusement! Does anyone realise this is from a videogame? We weren't going to go out there and try to correct anyone... we'll let the geniuses figure that one out. We were like, its an alternate universe, its not ours, its a game. It did get sussed out. We just stayed out of it. That's not our job.

No such thing as bad publicity?

I guess!

Does Fallout 3 mark the beginning of a Fallout renaissance?

I hope so. Our desire is that people who loved or enjoyed the original games will find a lot to like, but that it will also open itself up to new audiences who didn't get to play it before. Hopefully it brings them in to become fans of the series as we are, we think its a great series, its why we went out to get it. Hopefully all these folks will find it really is the one that makes them like Fallout, and want another one, just like there are tonnes of folks who like Oblivion but never played The Elder Scrolls or even an RPG before. People might say "this is the one that brought me to the series, or role-playing"... I hope. All we can control is making sure we have the best game possible, and make sure that people know about it. Hopefully it will stick!

In general, do you think consoles are starting to increasingly get the kinds of games PC gamers have been enjoying for some time?

I think so...

BioShock, etc.

I mean even with Morrowinds in 2002, everyone thought we were crazy to create what had been a traditional PC, hardcore role-player on the Xbox. People thought console players wouldn't 'get it', there's this notion that console gamers are idiots who only know how to shoot stuff. You know, we ended up doing unbelievably well on the Xbox with Morrowind. It sold millions of copies. After that, we thought 'gamers are gamers', it's not like the people that own this system only have interest in a particular type of game. They're pretty smart and want different stuff. It was an eye-opener, and it made us realise all the platforms have an audience for our games.

Would you do a Wii or a DS game, perhaps?

Our thing is... if we can deliver the game we're making on a platform that will support it we will, so, we can't take this game as it exists and stick it on a Wii. It would be a completely different experience. But, if at some point we wanted to do a different version of this that would work on those platforms then maybe. But, for us, the team making this game, we're only interested in the platforms that will support what is there. In this case its these three.

Does the game have an ending?

It does! The main quest ends, you get an ending customised to your actions during key points in the game... if you want to keep playing there's lots of other stuff you can keep doing - if you reload a saved game and play without reaching the title's end. Likewise you can just start again and try new options.

Thanks for your time, Peter.

Thank you!

By Luke Guttridge