Fallout 3 E3 Preview
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Those who have played Oblivion cannot help but compare (and contrast) leaving the Vault to emerging from Oblivion's initial tutorial dungeon into the idyllic hills and fields of Cyrodiil. The extreme difference in setting, however, is only one crucial difference between the mentalities behind each game.
For one thing, Oblivion's third person mode has been greatly reworked in order to allow all of Fallout 3 to played in either first or third person mode without feeling crippled. Howard admitted that a third person mode was added to The Elder Scrolls somewhat as an afterthought, and the team was surprised to hear how many players wanted to use it extensively. Now, third person mode can operate with a Resident Evil 4-like over-the-shoulder perspective, a pulled back camera in line with the old games, or anywhere in between. Howard showed off some concept art detailing the evolution of the iconic blue vault suit, of which you will be seeing a lot in third person mode. The team apparently went through hundreds of iterations, with changes down to the stitching in the pants, and the end result is very evocative of the original Fallout.
The team members demonstrating Fallout 3 also made frequent references to more fundamental systems employed in Oblivion. While this served to highlight the game's technological lineage, it was just as frequently instrumental in pointing out significant differences in design philosophy from Oblivion.
Perhaps most significantly, given the nature of the love for the original game, Fallout 3 has a much different scale than Oblivion. Its world is smaller, and it has only a fraction of the number of NPCs--a few hundred rather than some 1500. Where Oblivion consists of dozens or even hundreds of hours of gameplay, most of which is comprised by what one might call "side quests" in another game, Fallout 3 has a much greater emphasis on its core narrative. Bethesda expects a balance of more like 20 hours for the main quest, and 20 hours for additional optional material. Of course, the world will still be quite large compared to most video games, and there will be some form of fast travel, but Bethesda refused to elaborate.
