A Conversation With The Bat
Recently while being lost in another dimension (that happens to me sometimes), I encountered a reality with a certain DC Comics property in the flesh! That said, he isn’t QUITE the Batman we know and love (or, even more scarily, he is), but I managed to record my brief encounter.
Below is a transcript of that conversation.
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Fallout 3: Developer Q & A with the Press (Part 2)
(Continued from Part 1- be sure to have read that first!)
Q: Will there be character titles that you gain from certain actions / quests? (Like “Destroyer of Worlds”)
A: Yes, there will be titles related to your level and your alignment on the sliding scale of Karma/Reputation.
Q: How is the AI different from Oblivion?
A: They have updated the AI a lot to make all of the characters inhabit the world more realistically, in Oblivion they quoted about 1,000-1,500 NPC’s while Fallout 3 will just have a few hundred. They focused on getting more interaction with NPC’s, and if someone was doing something they wanted to get it on screen so that it was clear to the player what the NPC was doing. The dialogue has also been created to be more believable on an NPC to NPC basis, which was very evident in the demo.
Q: What about the radio on your Pip-boy? (Pip-boy pictured below)
A: You can tune in to various of the world’s stations (such as Galactic News Radio) and either listen to it passively as you play the game and hear about events that are taking place, or even possibly pick up random signals in the wastelands that could lead to quests or give you a heads up on some raiders heading your way. Though the radio is mostly flavor stuff, they’ve licensed about 20 songs from the 40′s and there are DJ’s in game that talk about what’s going on in the game.
Q: What is there as far as Melee combat?
A: They’re not talking about this yet, but they did say they are making ammo scarce in game and so melee will be playing a large part if you don’t manage your resources carefully.
Q: Will the storyline feature any current political commentary?
A: Very little, if any, as it is all centered around the fictional world of Fallout. There is a lot of in-game propaganda about China, having invaded during WW3, and some super mutants were carrying Chinese built rifles.
Q: Will there be a lot of old stuff from the Fallout games, and/or will there be a lot of new stuff?
A: There will be a lot more old stuff than people are expecting, but new stuff as well. [Read the rest of this article]
Fallout 3: Developer Q & A with the Press (Part 1)
After seeing the demo at the press event, and after an excellent lunch, we were brought back into the theater to have an extended Q & A session with Todd Howard, Emil Pagliarulo, and Pete Hines. These questions were all asked by various members of the press who attended, and I have absolutely no idea who asked what aside from Adam Sessler so I apologize for that.
Q: What happens when your character levels?
A: You gain points in your skills (not specified if they’re automatic or assigned?) and on even levels you gain perks. The maximum level in the game is 20, mainly because the game has a definitive ending which is triggered by the main plot. They mentioned anywhere between 9 and 12 possible endings to the game, possibly depending on side quests and choices made during the main quest lines.
Q: Will the PC Version require Direct X 10? (what kind of computer nerd asked this?)
A: There was no direct answer that I heard, but Todd Howard expressed his distaste in games (Shadowrun) doing “bullshit” like requiring Vista. They noted that there will be the option for changeable font sizes on the PC to resolve some of the issues with menus that were encountered in Oblivion.
Q: Does all Radiation in the game dissipate over time?
A: There are a few events which cause extreme levels that will never go away, but most radiation from things like blown up cars (nuclear engines) and the mini-nuke weapon will dissipate given a little time.
Q: Explain more about the style of Dialogue / Storylines?
A: Again they stressed the fixed ending, with multiple possibilities, and that your actions throughout the game would determine how the main plot resolved. Also that your choices of dialogue can open up more quests, more options for places to go and things to do in the game. Emil really seemed to stress a high level of detail written into the game as far as Dialogue and Quest interaction.
Q: Are all versions (PC/360/PS3) at the same stage of development?
A: Yes. We were shown the demo run on a 360 because Todd claimed it, “shows better in the theater”.
Now, during the demo, there were many loading screens which displayed random stats from your time in the game, one of which popped up said, “Corpses Eaten: 0” Someone asked about this and Todd Howard seemed kind of surprised that it had gotten in to the demo, simply saying it is a “perk thing”. [Read the rest of this article]
Interview: Fellowship of the Dice
Back in December, I tried to round up all the D&D and gaming related movies on DVD that I could find. Even in the course of four months, even more have come out. One of the most promising of the new releases is the Mocumentary/Documentary Fellowship of the Dice, which was just released on DVD on April 24th.
This is the official description for the movie:
Starring indie favorite Aimee Graham, Fellowship of the Dice follows the plight of Elizabeth, a recovering party girl desperate for a new group of friends. After a chance meeting with avid gamer Sanford (Alastair Surprise) lands her an invitation to play the popular fantasy role-playing game, “Wizards, Warriors and Wyrms,” she spends a long afternoon and evening plagued with confusing rules, high adventure and nerdy drama. Jasper (Jeff Coatney), the Game Master, rules his gaming fiefdom with an imaginary iron fist. His painfully shy wife Gwen (Lucia Diaz) spends most of the game quieter than a deaf-and-dumb church mouse. Kevin (Jon Dabach), a temperamental eleven-year-old trapped in a twenty-five-year-old’s body, continuously locks horns with Jasper over everything from missing DVDs to his tyrannical and unfair use of the game’s rules. Larry (Jon Collins), the gregarious aspiring actor, struggles to keep the peace. Things quickly spiral out of control and Elizabeth is forced to decide if she just wasted a night of her life, or if she truly has something in common with these oddball weirdoes.
Seamlessly blending an improvised “mockumentary” with facets of a real documentary, Fellowship of the Dice is unique. Peppered throughout the film are interviews with seasoned gamers, describing their love for the game while introducing the uninitiated to this eccentric hobby. It is this combination of real and fictional elements that make Fellowship of the Dice a singular film experience, something that both gamers and non-gamers can enjoy.
Critical Hits was fortunate enough to conduct an email interview with two of the movie’s creators, Jon Collins and Tom Hietter. Here’s what they had to say:
Exclusive Interview with Warren Ellis about DOKTOR SLEEPLESS
If you live at all in the comics world, chances are you’re familiar with Warren Ellis. His biggest splash was in the seminal work Transmetropolitan, combining Hunter S. Thompson-style gonzo journalism with a cynical, megalopolis future. More recently, I adored his superhero tale Nextwave, easily one of my favorite comic series of the last year.
Warren has been promoting his upcoming work, Doktor Sleepless, heavily on his site and his mailing list. He was kind enough to grant us this exclusive three question interview about it. (Of course, he granted ANYONE with a comics website who is on his listserv an interview, but that doesn’t make it less cool!)
Here’s what we asked about Doktor Sleepless:
