Todd Howard responds to some of the less-critical criticism

Post by **King of Creation** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 5:24 am

[ Game -> Interview ] - More info on <a href="#Fallout 3">Game: Fallout 3</a>

By now, everyone is aware of some pretty major flaws with Fallout 3. Todd Howard, in an attempt to spin some of the criticism, <a target="_self" href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... cisms">has responded</a> to a few points brought up by <strike>The Escapist</strike> MTV Multiplayer: <blockquote>Did you feel that the ending wasn't satisfying? Did you find yourself becoming bored at higher levels? Here are your answers.

Bethesda's post-apocalyptic RPG, Fallout 3, is an amazing game to be
sure, garnering near universal praise and game of the year honors from
such outlets as Gamasutra and IGN. Just like every other game out
there, however, it's by no means perfect and for fans of the series,
Bethesda has a lot of questions to answer. The most common of which
being, "What was up with that ending?" MTV's Patrick Klepek took three
of these common grievances and laid them out to Fallout 3 executive
producer Todd Howard.

Criticism the first is an odd one, being that when judged as a
first-person shooter, Fallout 3 comes up short. Howard's response is
curt and to the point: "Agreed." I hadn't heard of this one myself, as
comparing Fallout 3 to Halo would be like comparing Grand Theft Auto IV
to Gran Turismo. Just because you get to race cars in the two games, it
doesn't mean that they should be held to the same standards.

The second criticism is one that a lot of players feel quite
strongly about, which is that the ending isn't very satisfying and,
when compared to previous Fallout titles, it doesn't quite stack up.
"Based on the feedback I've seen, most people are pissed off that it
ends, not the 'ending' itself," levels Howard. "That's another thing
we're changing in ["Broken Steel," the third piece of downloadable
content due in March]. We really underestimated how many people would
want to keep playing, so that's probably the last time we'll do
something like that."

For those unaware, completing Fallout 3 renders your current game
essentially useless as you can no longer continuing playing with that
character unless you made sure to hold on to a previous save. Reversing
this decision via downloadable content opens up a whole other can of
worms, specifically for PlayStation 3 owners. While Xbox 360 players
have downloadable content to look forward to and PC users can easily
modify their game to go around the ending, PlayStation 3 fans are
essentially boned with neither option being made available to them. To
be fair, its not as though these gamers weren't given proper warning,
as word came as early as July 2008 that Fallout 3 DLC would not be made
available for the PlayStation 3 edition of the game.

The final criticism is that V.A.T.S, the auto-targeting system
found within the game, is boring once your accuracy rating makes for
easy head shots later in the game. Howard responds, "Depends on what
you find entertaining. I like to blow people's heads off, so, well, it
never got old for me."

Agreed.
</blockquote> How about responding to some of the real criticisms that people have of the game? These are pretty much slow-pitch old man softball criticisms. I think we all miss the old days when devs were straightforward about everything and didn't try to pander so much to two-bit gaming publications. Thanks to Frater Perdurabo for the tip.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 8:52 am

link to article? I feel the urge to post on their forums about it.

Post by **King of Creation** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:10 pm

I didn't have much time to find the original this morning. Turns out it was just MTV Mulitplayer interviewing Todd and not the Escapist - hence why the questions are so weak.

Post by **Retlaw83** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:34 pm

Those questions are kind of like if someone were to ask, "Why didn't you eat the whole corpse?" to Jeffrey Dalmer instead of "Why'd you kill all those people?"

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 5:31 pm

This is what I hate most about Bethesda, there refusal to admit anything turned out differently than they were anticipating. If anything was wrong with the game it was because it was so good like this statement "Based on the feedback I've seen, most people are pissed off that it ends, not the 'ending' itself," he completely twists the criticism to work in his favor.

I would like to see them show some honest post mortem in their games instead of trying to explain that if something was bad it was for a logical reason for the game to be enjoyable.

I can totaly guess what Todd is trying to play in this one "Criticism the first is an odd one, being that when judged as a first-person shooter, Fallout 3 comes up short. Howard's response is curt and to the point: "Agreed."" He will say because it wasn't designed to be a FPS but an RPG despite it being both.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:05 pm

St. Toxic · Post by **St. Toxic** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:29 pm

The second criticism is one that a lot of players feel quite
strongly about, which is that the ending isn't very satisfying and,
when compared to previous Fallout titles, it doesn't quite stack up.
"Based on the feedback I've seen, most people are pissed off that it
ends, not the 'ending' itself," levels Howard.

Oh God, make it stop.

Superhaze · Post by **Superhaze** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:31 pm

Selective memory ftw!

Blargh · Post by **Blargh** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:01 am

D5it-m38 wrote:

Such eloquence !

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:54 am

POOPERSCOOPER wrote:This is what I hate most about Bethesda, there refusal to admit anything turned out differently than they were anticipating.

MadBill · Post by **MadBill** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:52 am

Mm Tzeentch its been long years.