Fallout 3

Before you read any further, there’s one thing you should know about Fallout 3: Just because it’s being created by Bethesda — the same studio that brought you The Elder Scrolls — doesn’t mean it’s “Oblivion with guns.”

Well, okay, maybe it is. But not really.

Confused? The real answer depends on why you’re making the analogy in the first place. “When we started this, we would go to great lengths to explain the differences from Oblivion,” explains Fallout 3’s executive producer, Todd Howard. “If you’re talking to an enthusiast, there are so many differences, and we feel it’s under-selling the game to say it’s Oblivion with guns. But when we started talking to more consumer-oriented magazines, we’d have, like, two seconds…and we’d say, ‘It’s like post-apocalyptic Oblivion with guns.’ And they’re like, ‘Awesome!’ To Joe Public, it’s a mainly first-person, wide-open game and you get to do what you want. The game it’s closest to is Oblivion. So now when someone asks, ‘Is it Oblivion with guns?’ my answer is, ‘In all the best ways.’”

The truth is, the list of comparable titles is pretty short. As Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo puts it, “How many massively single-player role-playing games are there?” We counted them on one hand, which makes Fallout 3’s post-apocalyptic landscape all the more inviting. And when the game appears this fall, Oblivion may be a strong, fond memory — once you’ve seen the end of the world, there’s no going back.

Sheltered Childhood
The game actually starts with the beginning of the world, of sorts: your own birth, in a private hospital deep within the radiation-free fallout shelter known as Vault 101. The screen goes from dark to light, and you can press the A button to cry. When the doctor asks if it’s a boy or a girl, respond by choosing your gender. The doctor also turns out to be Dad, and he mentions the Gene Projector — a futuristic device that will let him see what the child will look like when it’s older. It’s a clever way to let you choose your in-game appearance, but there’s an interesting reverse twist to it: the choices you make for your character’s look will be reflected in that of your father. Your dad’s face is hidden behind a surgical mask and won’t be fully generated until the next scene. “If you give yourself a big honking nose, Dad will have a much larger nose — a percentage of what you did,” says Howard. “He’s not a duplicate, but he’ll look like he’s your father.”

Leap ahead to a year later — your speech skills are now upgraded to saying “Dada” with the A button, plus you can walk, open the playpen gates, jump on the bed, and a few other basic functions that cleverly mask a controller tutorial. You’re also old enough to interact with a book titled You’re SPECIAL! — an acronym for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Choose your character’s core aptitudes carefully: upgrade opportunities will be rare.

You’ll soon flash forward to your 10th birthday party, where you’ll learn social interaction with the party guests. Your gifts include your very own Pip-Boy 3000 wrist computer, which will serve as your health and inventory interface throughout the game, and a BB gun, complete with combat training at the shooting range. Things get even more specific by age 16, when you take your Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test, or GOAT. It’s a personality test with situational dilemmas that will, like all classic aptitude tests, Determine Your Future. For instance, if you’re hypothetically called on to eliminate rad roaches from the cellar, would you smash them with a pipe or shoot them with a gun? Pete Hines, Bethesda’s VP of public relations and marketing, says your answers determine “the three [skills] you’re going to focus on that get a big boost at the start. Every time you level up, you get points to spend on improving any of your skills, so that’s what is increasing as the game goes along.”

By the time you’ve grown to age 19, you’ll finally kickstart the game’s tale in real time. Nobody’s ever left Vault 101 — until your father suddenly escapes, without so much as a hearty handshake goodbye. Still, the Vault’s Overseer thinks you’re involved, and as the pressure mounts, you decide the only way to learn the truth is to follow in Dad’s footsteps — even if that means wandering the contaminated wastelands of what’s left of Washington, D.C., circa 2277.

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