Great interview! And having Jesse Heinig here at the forum! Christmas is early this year! Here are my favorite parts of the interview:
I like the Mad Max movies, Star Trek and Star Wars as much as the next sci-fi gaming guy, but I also think that sometimes the "pop" part of pop culture does a disservice to good SF. When fans complain about movie studios "ruining" a given graphic novel or book in a movie adaptation, oftentimes they're really griping about the fact that the studios have changed fundamental elements or conflicts in in the story just to appease the mass audience. If you sell to the mass audience, you're selling to the lowest common denominator, and that doesn't have a very high threshold for science fiction, which often presumes some actual scientific understanding on the part of the reader/viewer.
*Applause* Reading this, I feel "finally! someone who understands!"
I'm an RPG fan; I like stories, character development, personality quirks and conflicts, and drama. I find such elements intellectually satisfying. I like the way that computer games allow the player to be a participant in the unfolding story, as if you're reading a novel and then you can change what the protagonist does or alter the direction of the tale.
I think that what I would like to see in a future Fallout is the same as addressing my only real issue with the game: All of the old familiar elements of the Fallout world migrated to the east coast, so we have the Enclave, the super mutants, the Brotherhood of Steel; I'd like to see more new groups, more power factions and societies that have sprung up in a big way. I get the feeling from Fo3 that there's a sort of "power vacuum" in the east and that these groups moved out there to fill that hole, but this is probably not the way things are going everywhere. I bet there are other big groups out and about making their mark on the wastelands, some of whom may have crossed swords with the existing power blocs, others who have never heard of 'em. (See Caesar's Legions in the design docs for Van Buren - a large, organized power group that runs the show in a particular area of territory.)
This is a heavy opinion of my own, and it has been discussed a lot. I also have some other criticism that I think need to be adressed in a future FO - the game needs more overall depth (quests, NPC's, main story etc.). I just didn't find Fo3 intellectually challenging in the same way as FO & FO2. And while I can live with the VATS, I REALLY miss the strategic turn based combat from FO & FO 2 and I still would like to see some sort of hybrid between real time fps adventuring and isometric turn based combat. I understand however that this is never going to happen, but one can always dream.
Lastly, I want to thank you for being one of the people who gave us Fallout, Jesse Heinig. Judging from the interview you seem to be a intelligent person, with good taste in music, literature and movies.
I really hope Bethesda bring Jesse Heinig in for Fo4. That would be great.
» Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:03 pm 
