00:00After Morrowind and Oblivion, the difficulties Bethesda had in pivoting to sci-fi for Fallout 3
00:06are well documented, but one major thorn in the studio's side proved to be one of the
00:11apocalyptic RPG's most iconic features. Speaking to Edge magazine, lead artist Istavan Peli says
00:18that the studio had to prove that we could pull off a totally different genre, the opposite of
00:24fantasy. Fallout 3 remained very much an RPG, but that could make for an unenviable situation
00:29for the player. We had to work out how your character's abilities would factor into your
00:34ability to shoot, Peli explains. Your skills aren't good, so when you shoot at things, you're missing,
00:40but does that feel good, or is it just frustrating? Enter VATS, which could have been the perfect answer
00:47to Bethesda's questions, but instead offered some significant challenges. Peli says there was a long
00:52period where it was like, is this even fun? Is this worth doing at all? Is anyone even going to
00:58use
00:58this? One of the biggest issues was camera positioning, and eventually Bethesda had to
01:02write an entire algorithm to make sure it didn't get stuck behind an object during the slow motion
01:07playback. Getting the system right took so much time that Bethesda only just got it working in
01:14time to ship the entire game. Clearly, the team's fears were largely unfounded. While VATS isn't necessary
01:20for everyone, it's remained a core part of Fallout's identity.
Comments