Fall Ahead

The new Fallout looks a lot like the old Oblivion, but how does it play?
8/1/2008 5:11 PM | 3 Comments | Page 5 of 5

Crispy Gamer: Did you ever consider changing the look for Fallout 3 because of BioShock, or did seeing the reaction to BioShock's graphics make you think you'd made the right choice?

Hines: We tend to focus on what we're doing and not worry about everyone else. They're very different games, both in what they offer and how they look. BioShock was a wonderful game, I loved playing it, but there's no point while playing one that I ever think it looks like the other.

Crispy Gamer: Did that game's success ever prompt anyone to suggest changing the name of your game to FallOut 3?

Hines: No. We always intended to make another game in the true spirit of the series. We're not afraid to say we're doing another game in the series and not just some spin-off or a Fallout game with a subtitle.

Crispy Gamer: Like Oblivion, Fallout 3 boasts some big-name actors, most notably Liam Neesom. How did you get him in the game?

Hines: We asked, he took a look at the game and the story and the role, and said he'd like to do it.

Crispy Gamer: Why did you think he'd be good for the role of your father?

Hines: He's just the perfect fit for that role in the game, the presence he brings. Turns out he's a very, very good actor and he brought that to the game and his role in every way possible.

Crispy Gamer: Do you think that he might've been more open to doing your game because of the people you'd gotten for Oblivion, or do you think it was something else?

Hines: I'm not sure he knew what Oblivion was.

Crispy Gamer: This, of course, isn't the first time someone famous has done a voice in a Fallout game: Tony Shalhoub, Ron Perlman and Richard Dean Anderson were all in the original, while Michael Dorn and Dwight Schultz were in Fallout 2. Do you think that gamers now expect, or even demand, that there be a big-name actor in a game like yours, or do you think that gamers don't really care, but other people think it's a selling point so you have to do it?

Hines: We do it where it makes sense and we think it makes the game better. I think people expect a certain level of quality and effort from us, and if voice talent is part of that, it's ok with me.

Crispy Gamer: Finally, in a 2006 interview with TheEscapistMagazine.com, Leonard Boyarsky, who worked on the original Fallout games, said that Interplay's decision to sell the rights to Fallout "...felt as if our ex-wife had sold our children that she had legal custody of," though he did qualify this statement by admitting to be "possessive" of the franchise. How do you think he, and other people who worked on the original games, will feel about Fallout 3?

Hines: You'll have to ask them. I can certainly understand that the people who created Fallout would feel strongly about it. But we saw a franchise we loved sitting there not being used, not being worked on, and it was something we really wanted to work on, so we did. We hope the folks that worked on the first two will play Fallout 3 and like it and find a lot in there that stays true to what they created, just like we hope people who played and liked the first two games will like this one as well.