We had Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, and more last year, but other than Fable 2 what are our RPG releases for the rest of this year? Well, Fallout 3 should end up being the Oblivion of 2008 (especially considering they're from the same developer). The continuation of the post-apocalyptic dark-humor-filled isometric PC RPG of yesteryear has been in development for a while now, and is still slated for a Fall release. Bethesda's VP of Marketing, Pete Hines, sat down for a ridiculously long interview with the guys from gameplayer.com.au, and the interview is well worth reading even for folks who don't consider themselves either Fallout or Oblivion fans. And if you're either (or both!) of those then this is absolutely required reading.
Keep reading the post though, and you'll hear about the vaults ....
In the interview, Pete goes into really depth with discussion of the universe and it's history. The game takes place 200 years after a devastating war, in post-nuclear Washington DC. Your character has been isolated in a bunker their entire life, then is released into the sprawling wasteland to find their father. That's the premise, but the world is so much deeper and Bethesda's dedication to the IP is really apparent over the length of the interview. The game itself has real-time or a form of turn-based combat, and features choices that actually effect the storyline (which has at least 9 different endings).
So, vaults, from the sound of it they function similarly to the dungeons in Oblivion, only these things have much more backstory to them. Vaults in the Fallout universe were bunkers people hid inside during the nuclear war, vaults were also places where the resident big-brother-type-company performed strange experiments on the people housed inside. Hence each vault will have more sense of place, belonging and story than any Oblivion dungeon. As an example, what follows is a snippet of some of the vaults mentioned in the interview (which are from the game's lore, whether they will be locatable in-game remains to be seen.)
Vault 101 Your character's. Meant to remain permanently shut.
Vault 68 Contained 999 men, and one distressed woman.
Vault 69 Contained 999 women, and one happy, sore man.
Vault 106 Psychoactive drugs were released into the air filtration system ten days after the door was sealed.
Vault 55 All entertainment tapes were removed.
Vault 56 Same as vault 55, except one tape was supplied of a very bad comic actor. Sociologists predicted that this vault would fail long before vault 55.
Vault 34 This vault had an overstocked and unlocked armoury.
Anyway, there's way to much to relate here, so go read the interview and get back with your take on things.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-15-2008 @ 2:34AM
Yuccadude said...
I especially liked Vault 70's premise. Hilarity ensued.
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2-15-2008 @ 2:48AM
Terrence Stasse said...
Indeed :)
2-15-2008 @ 3:17AM
the.cha.guy said...
lost odyssey is an rpg this year.
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2-15-2008 @ 3:34AM
Terrence Stasse said...
aye, but matching them two for two wouldn't have been as interesting of a lead-in.
2-15-2008 @ 11:55AM
itsburnsie said...
"aye, but matching them two for two wouldn't have been as interesting of a lead-in."
But it would have been... oh what's the word... um.... more accurate?
2-15-2008 @ 12:16PM
Terrence Stasse said...
Sorry, No.
If you read the story, it says: "what are our RPG releases for the rest of this year" I'm fairly sure that Lost Odyssey isn't releasing in "the rest of the year"
I'ts already come and gone. This is about upcoming games.
2-15-2008 @ 2:54PM
itsburnsie said...
Look Terrence, I didn't come here to start a fight with you... We (the few and proud 360 RPG fans) were just trying to point out that you missed LO is all.
And as long as you're worried about the accuracy of your lead, you forgot about "Infinite Undiscovery" which is being published by Square-Enix and is set for a 2008 release.
2-15-2008 @ 3:02PM
itsburnsie said...
AND you forgot about Too Human.
2-15-2008 @ 6:23PM
Terrence Stasse said...
Blog Comments. Serious Business.
2-15-2008 @ 3:59AM
Digital Limit said...
Wow, the vault concept makes this game *really* intriguing.
After some lackluster screens, it's nice to know other things seem to be falling into place.
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2-15-2008 @ 7:41AM
Nixon said...
The info on the vaults is from original design documents by Interplay/Black Isle... these documents have been out in the wild for some time.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault
there's the full run down.
the vaults are a lot more than surrogates for oblivion's dungeons. a lot more.
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2-15-2008 @ 10:32AM
Terrence Stasse said...
I was talking more in the gameplay sense. They seem pretty similar thaere: You're walking aroud the overworld, you come to a "door," you load, go underground, fight badguys and get da phat lootz.
In terms of story I thought I stressed that they were far different, in fact I said: "Hence each vault will have more sense of place, belonging and story than any Oblivion dungeon." My apologies if I did not emphasize it enough.
And thank you for the link, I had no clue there was a Wiki for them (*quickly updates post, then leaves to read*)
2-15-2008 @ 10:45AM
Terrence Stasse said...
though there is way, way more to the game than just the vaults!
2-15-2008 @ 11:38AM
J said...
I'm really torn and can't wait to try this game out. I never played any of the other Fallout games. I thought that Oblivion was really boring and didn't give it much of a chance, but this game has really piqued my interest.
I'm especially interested in how it is based in a post-Apocalyptic DC, because that's where I grew up.
These vaults, and the groups people from them that you'll probably interact with definitely sound more than interesting, but I'm having a really hard time wrapping my brain around how the gameplay ultimately feels.
The idea(s) sound great, but I just don't know...
A demo would certainly be nice, but something tells me that this isn't the kind of game that will end up having one on Marketplace.
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2-15-2008 @ 2:59PM
Digital Limit said...
Despite the vault information being old news, I appreciate it. New for some, as they say.
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