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Fallout 3 screenshot

VideoGamer.com: VATS was clearly developed with Fallout in mind, but do you think there were any lessons learned from its development that might be carried over to other Bethesda games?

PH: I think that what we've found and really enjoyed is the fact that VATS is fun, but that the best part of it is the gratifying killing blow - whatever it is. There was something that happened here yesterday that I heard about both from one of my PRs and from the boss of the guy who was playing at the time - they both came up to me to tell me about it. Here's what happened: the player throws a grenade at this guy in VATS. He kills him, but he also hits this vicious dog that was running in front of the target. The dog now has only one tick of health left, but as soon as he comes out of VATS its almost upon him. So the guy panics. He goes back into VATS and pounds the trigger without thinking about it - boom boom boom! He thought he had a grenade, but he'd run out so he was actually unarmed. The dog jumps for him, and the player just punches it in the head, mid-air, and kills it. Everyone went nuts.

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So yeah, a gratifying ending to a battle is really fun, and perhaps that's something we'll take forward in some way. But it's like the whole Oblivion-with-guns argument. We come up with stuff custom-built for Fallout. Just because we've done something with Oblivion doesn't mean we'll do it in Fallout, and things we've built for Fallout won't necessarily go elsewhere. What works with guns, in this game, might not work in another - so it depends on the weapons available, and how the combat works.

VideoGamer.com: Clearly you're all gearing up now for the initial launch, but do you have any plans for a Shivering Isles-style expansion pack?

PH: Our big focus at the moment is on the downloadable content we announced a while back, exclusive to Windows and the 360. That will be our priority at first. Whether or not we'll do a full expansion... no announcements yet. But DLC is a big part of the way we plan to support the game, post-launch.

VideoGamer.com: In terms of loot, is there going to be a lot of stuff for people to seek out in Fallout 3?

PH: The Fallout series is known for its Easter eggs. One the big things in this game is bobbleheads. The idea is that Vault-Tec would have brought out all these collectables of Vault Boy in different poses. Hidden throughout the world are bobbleheads corresponding to each of your skills and specials, and every time you find one it'll give you a boost in that area. Then if you get a house in-game, you can get a little display stand to line them up on - a completist will want all the bobbleheads on their special Vault-Tec rack!

VideoGamer.com: We have another question relating to how Fallout 3 compares to the older games. In the first two entries in the series, you could play through the whole story as a complete pacifist. Is that possible here?

PH: You can finish the game having killed only one creature - and that's actually a rad-roach that shows up during character generation, when we teach you how to use VATS. That's the only thing you have to kill, otherwise you can have other people handle battles for you. You'll never have to pull out a weapon again.

VideoGamer.com: Is it quite a challenge to play the game that way?

PH: Oh, it ain't easy! There are a lot of things in the world that have no interest in talking to you, they're just out for blood. You have to sneak, run and talk your way out of situations - but you can totally do it. One of our artists actually went out to see if how far he could get, and he went all the way through. It wasn't like it was a major goal for us, that you had to be able to finish the game without fighting.

VideoGamer.com: On a final, combat-related note... what has your approach been to the levelling of enemies? Oblivion took some flack for the way it dealt with this issue.

PH: There were two major things that people objected to in Oblivion. One was the issue of "what used to be X is now Y," - when I left it was a skeleton, now it's a friggin' dread wraith. The other example of something that jarred with people was the levelling of bandits, how they got better armour as the game went along. You got tougher, they got tougher. Now our rule is that a creature is always a creature. When you go away and come back, it's still a bat. In some instances, a mutant that used to have a nail-board will now have found a rifle - but it's still the same creature; it won't have turned into something way more dangerous. The other approach we took is that we set areas of the world to be of a certain difficulty. If you get there and you're not prepared, you're going to die a lot or you're going to want to leave. You'll come back later, and when you do you'll be the same but you'll be tougher, and will kick ass. Then you'll feel good about your new weapons and armour.

The feedback that helps us the most is when someone has played something and responded to it. So this was an example of where there was something in Oblivion that people reacted to, and we knew it needed to be handled differently. Obviously we had our own thoughts too, as we're very critical of our own stuff. But certainly with these kinds of things there's going to be feedback on Fallout 3, what people did or didn't like, and those are the things we may carry through to the next game, whatever it may be.

VideoGamer.com: Peter, many thanks for your time.

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