GameBanshee interviews Feargus Urquhart

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Brother None

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The lives and times of Feargus Urguhart on GameBanshee.<blockquote>GB: As someone who has been directly involved with the Fallout franchise over the years, what is your honest opinion of Bethesda's version of Fallout 3? Given the game's design and the success it has enjoyed, do you think it will affect the way your team approaches Fallout: New Vegas?

Feargus: My honest opinion is that they chose the right direction. I could nitpick some of the game systems and how they did certain things, but they would really be nitpicks - and you would probably get a very similar list out of Todd Howard. I can say that I've really enjoyed playing Fallout 3 and the thing they absolutely NAILED was the feeling of actually being in the Wasteland. Ultimately, that is what Fallout is all about; it's about being in that world and running around in it and that's what Bethesda did with Fallout 3.
(...)
GB: Of all the role-playing games you've worked on at Interplay and Obsidian, which would you say that you're most proud of being involved with and why?

Feargus: Ultimately, I think it really is Fallout, but for different reasons than may seem obvious. It was incredible to work on Fallout and I'm really proud of what we were able to do - and for the things that I personally did right (get the Hub working and the .223 pistol quest) and the things that I did wrong but learned from (the Turbo Plasma Rifle). What I'm really proud of is that Fallout seemed to really pave the way for all of the other RPGs that came out in the next four or five years. It seemed to set the stage and wet people's appetite for Baldur's Gates, Arcanum, Neverwinter Nights and Planescape: Torment.</blockquote>Thanks for the reminder, zag.
 
Meh, sounds like a great advertisement for Bethesda.
Personally I don't give a damn anymore what the man thinks or feels.

If he feels that this is the right direction perhaps its time he leaves the game design to other people and just sticks with administrating a company.
 
Would it make a different if they DIDN'T ask for his "honest"opinion? Would he say anything different?

I lol'd, anyway.
 
I like the aestethics, but it does not make you feel like the war was a long time ago, it all feels to close, this is where it fails. But still, the art direction would have been spot on if it was described as a close war.
 
Also tripping over people, towns, guns, food and critters every 5 metres really isn't helping me feel this wasteland vibe.
 
DexterMorgan said:
Washington DC not being a cluster of glowing craters is not exactly spot on in my book.
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Indeed, I envisioned Fallout Washington DC to be a large collection of craters too, with perhaps a few scavenger towns at the edge of the craters but for the rest barren and lifeless.

Landmarks like the Washington monument and the rest of the Mall would have been wiped off the map, just like the Capitol Building and everything else that was still standing in Bethesda's Washington DC.
 
roggles said:
What is it that was badly done regarding the turbo plasma rifle?
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It's really badly balanced.

Also, Feargus always has been a bit of a producer-first developer-second, but we need those kinds of guys too, even if they always shoot for the most marketable. I say more power to him, better Obsidian under his eye than no Obsidian at all.

All these Qs targeted at Obsidian devs regarding Fallout 3 are really pointless, tho'.
 
Well, at least in this interview he didnt give senseless quasi-moronic answers... It would seem he's one of those guys that reacts to his interviewer's IQ... if his interviewer is dumb, like the gamasutra guy, he will answer bullshit... now when the guy is making some decent questions, he'll also give decent asnwers...

on the other hand it would also seem like this interview was via chat/email and the gamasutra one a transcript of his spoken words. Well whatever, I lol'd when reading Feargus contributed to Solitaire Deluxe for Windows!
 
Feargus:....and the thing they absolutely NAILED was the feeling of actually being in the Wasteland. Ultimately, that is what Fallout is all about; it's about being in that world and running around in it and that's what Bethesda did with Fallout 3.
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Now i understand that the whole interview is bogus, but "feeling of being in the wasteland"? The setting is so inconsistent and idiotic that there is hardly any feeling of a wasteland at all! It's not a wasteland, it's a bizzare set of objects in a sandbox pretending to be a wasteland...
 
It's 100% clear that he will or can not answer the "honest opinion" question in a bad way for Bethesda. This question is just totally obsolete, even if it is really his true opinion.
 
Can people just grow up and accept the fact that Fallout developers like Fallout 3? Also wandering through a wasteland of nothing but lifeless craters would get real boring, real fast.
 
terebikun said:
Also wandering through a wasteland of nothing but lifeless craters would get real boring, real fast.
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yeah that's the point of having dialogs, plots, roleplaying, all that stuff that apparently fallout wasn't about.
 
I thought Fallout was mainly about emulating PnP games into a cRPG genre, and about telling the story.

If it was about being and running around wasteland, they should've just made it in FPP back then.

Fallout 3's world feels more like a cheap war game, rather than post-apocalyptic "wasteland" game.
It's like, Fallout 3 can be compared to "Enemy at the Gates" movie, where Fallout 1&2 more like Mad Max or A Boy and his Dog.
 
Todd Howard said:
Fantasy, for us, is a knight on horseback running around and killing things
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Feargus said:
that is what Fallout is all about; it's about being in that world and running around in it.
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Resistance is futile.
Bethesda: RPGs for people who hate RPGs.
 
Yes. I still shudder when I read about that comment(s). I mean without any offense, but I still dont get it how one seriously gets in a buisness with developing RPGs when its somewhat clear that he doesnt really like them at all. Killing things from a horseback is everything fantasy? (ironicaly in Oblivion, even if requested by many that exactly was not what you could do fighting from a horseback is a big no no in Oblivion and was only made possible by its mod community like many of the better features ...).

One can only fear what is still coming in the future of Fallout. Particularly when looking on all this meaningless "shooter" like DLCs ...
 
zag said:
terebikun said:
Also wandering through a wasteland of nothing but lifeless craters would get real boring, real fast.
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yeah that's the point of having dialogs, plots, roleplaying, all that stuff that apparently fallout wasn't about.
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Meaning no offense, but if it is in fact actually a wasteland of nothing but lifeless craters, then there is nothing with which to conduct dialog, plot, or roleplaying, unless you want to do an abstract existential experience with the character talking to him/herself and to various hallucinations. Since A Mind Forever Voyaging wasn't exactly a huge seller, that is probably not a very viable development direction.
 
Sure, the world outside of the towns was a wasteland of nothing but lifeless craters, but inside the towns it was different. :)

Imagine Fallout 1 and 2 - you wander from Klamath to Den and every two pixel on the worldmap you meet someone who wants to give you some stupid task. It wouldn't be much better. In fact, I think it would be really annoying.
 
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