GameRadio.de interviews Pete Hines

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Pete Hines continues the interview circuit, this time hosted by GameRadio.de.<blockquote>GameRadio.de: My next question is about the graphics. I saw some screenshots where exactly the same car-model was placed three times side by side. Were these bugs you’ve fixed by now?

Pete Hines: Even when travelling around here we sometimes find buildings where they built a set of apartments and they’re all built in a similar style and are part of a group of buildings. In Fallout it’s obviously a destroyed world. We try to vary the destruction in terms of “What would actually be here? How would this city have been built up first before it got destroyed?” We do spent a lot of time thinking about the variation of the architecture and what would it all look like once it was destroyed.

GameRadio.de: Did you get some inspiration of the russian shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the setting?

Pete Hines: No, not really. All we really need for inspiration is the original “Fallout”-games. We started in 2004 with asking “What do we want this world to look like? How do we bring the world that we saw in Fallout 1 and 2 to a firstperson- and thirdperson-game in a really high level of detail?”. That was really our approach the whole time and thats what we focused on. I’m pretty pleased with how the game has come together and how it looks and feels and how it plays.</blockquote>Links:
Video of the interview
Transcript of the interview

Thanks to Denise Bergert.
 
I like how he brushes off the question about re-using models the same way his fanboys do, without addressing the issue that even the damage is exactly the same. The same rust spots on the cars, the same boards hanging in the exact same spots on "different" houses.
 
Pete Hines said:
Pete Hines: No, not really. All we really need for inspiration is the original “Fallout”-games.
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Yeah, right...Totally explains why Fallout 3 does not feel like the original games at all... What an arrogant answer by the way.
 
GameRadio.de: My next question is about the graphics. I saw some screenshots where exactly the same car-model was placed three times side by side. Were these bugs you’ve fixed by now?

Pete Hines: Even when travelling around here we sometimes find buildings where they built a set of apartments and they’re all built in a similar style and are part of a group of buildings. In Fallout it’s obviously a destroyed world. We try to vary the destruction in terms of “What would actually be here? How would this city have been built up first before it got destroyed?” We do spent a lot of time thinking about the variation of the architecture and what would it all look like once it was destroyed.
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Nice dodge. He asked about 3 identical cars (probably with identical damage and orientation), and he talks about how apartments are identical in real life. Not a bug of course, just lazy level design.

GameRadio.de: Did you get some inspiration of the russian shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the setting?

Pete Hines: No, not really. All we really need for inspiration is the original “Fallout”-games. We started in 2004 with asking “What do we want this world to look like? How do we bring the world that we saw in Fallout 1 and 2 to a firstperson- and thirdperson-game in a really high level of detail?”. That was really our approach the whole time and thats what we focused on. I’m pretty pleased with how the game has come together and how it looks and feels and how it plays.
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It would have been a better idea to take more inspiration from STALKER, since they're focused on making FO3 into a shooter with minor 'RPG stats' more than anything else. Even so, the talent just isn't there.
 
GameRadio.de: And why didn’t you put in a multiplayer-mode?
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Yes, asshole, because multiplayer was so pivotal to the originals. That's about on par with Eurogamer poo pooing Bethesda over not following Mass Effect's dialog direction.
 
Did this guy just call lazy world design a "bug"? Yeesh, and I thought people calling logic errors and programming hiccups in games, "glitches" were bad.
 
Umm, the interviewer was a girl, not a guy.And it looked like she read the questions, not made them up. Anyway, its too bad she asked about cars and not the DAMAGE on buildings next to each other being identical, but we can not have everything.
 
I think bashing the limited model resources and their use in the world is nitpicking. Didn't Fallout 1/2 have similar repeated models thrown all over the place?

Point is, we should focus on critiquing gameplay mechanics and canon/story elements rather than repeated use of models.
 
Sigoya said:
I think bashing the limited model resources and their use in the world is nitpicking. Didn't Fallout 1/2 have similar repeated models thrown all over the place?

Point is, we should focus on critiquing gameplay mechanics and canon/story elements rather than repeated use of models.
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No actually it didn't. Fallout was built with tiles, and while they shared tiles, BI actually made unique buildings out of them. But you'd know that if you actually played the first two games...
 
Eyenixon said:
Did this guy just call lazy world design a "bug"? Yeesh, and I thought people calling logic errors and programming hiccups in games, "glitches" were bad.
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English isn't the interviewer's native language, so I wouldn't harp on this angle.
 
back off, man! its a nice german girl asking nice question!

as i wrote in the german news forum: i really liked the "stalker" question. tho there were only hints of stalker in the air in 2004 (shortly before the publication drama ensued) fo3 more and more resembles something like a stalker lookalike to me, minus certain positive achievements stalker had. namely athmosphere, credible map design, graphics, combat and weapon realism, anomalies and artifacts.

ofc gsc gameworld has severe issues with the definition of *gold* status, since they appear to use their buyers as betatesters (but what the heck, we should have business cards printed with our names and the status "beta tester" since windows xp) - i expect fo3 to be way more *golden*. but, shoc had all the athmosphere that made it a gripping pa game - and, from what we saw, thats where fo3 has its issues.
 
Paul_cz said:
Umm, the interviewer was a girl, not a guy.And it looked like she read the questions, not made them up. Anyway, its too bad she asked about cars and not the DAMAGE on buildings next to each other being identical, but we can not have everything.
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I only read the transcript, I could care less about watching the video with these unattractive people and their unattractive ways.
 
Beelzebud said:
I like how he brushes off the question about re-using models the same way his fanboys do, without addressing the issue that even the damage is exactly the same.
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Actually, he took it a step further. He responded to "why didn't you vary the destruction?" with "we varied the destruction a lot". Goddag yxskaft, as a Swede might cryptically say.
 
GameRadio.de: How do you plan to limit the gameworld? Will you use invisible walls?

Pete Hines: For the most part we usually find that people go to the edge of the world just to see what happens when they get there. So we could come up with fake terrain that would keep you from leaving, but most of the time folks get to the edge of the world and then they get a little message that says “You reached the edge of the world. Turn back”. And then they’ll move on. So we try not to overthink stuff like that.
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Yeah, it'd suck if you actually did something interesting, unique, and, the term you love so much, immersive.

GameRadio.de: I played “Fallout 3” yesterday and I saw you have some violent scenes in it, heads blowing off for example. Will you have to cut the german version of the game?

Pete Hines: That’s still to be determined. We actually don’t believe in talking publicly about the differences between english, german or australian versions. We will make sure that the game is out and available in germany, but we don’t want to get into discussing what changes we might have to make.
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And this is just jackassery. He just turned the problem from being one solely of foolish local law to one of Beth being assholes and not telling gamers what they'll be getting. This is a German interviewer so the least he could fucking do is tell them what had to be cut from the game when specifically asked about it.

The car question, though poorly worded and not followed up upon, had it's heart in the right place. It'd be nice to get some real journalists who call these people on their bs and try to dig for information.
 
SpecialtyDrone said:
GameRadio.de: And why didn’t you put in a multiplayer-mode?
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Yes, asshole, because multiplayer was so pivotal to the originals. That's about on par with Eurogamer poo pooing Bethesda over not following Mass Effect's dialog direction.
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Considering Morrowind and Oblivion are often called offline MMORPG I don't see what's wrong with asking why they don't just add co op.

Pete Hines: That’s still to be determined. We actually don’t believe in talking publicly about the differences between english, german or australian versions. We will make sure that the game is out and available in germany, but we don’t want to get into discussing what changes we might have to make.
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Hurray for the marketing department.
 
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