Fallout 3 to be smaller than Oblivion

Pete Hines of Bethesda recently revealed some facts on the size of the Fallout 3 world, and it’s apparently a significant amount smaller than that of Oblivion’s.

“The world is much smaller than Oblivion, but packed with stuff to do. We’ve never bothered to walk across the world, but it’s between 50 to 80 per cent of the size of Oblivion” Hines informed Gameplayer.

“One thing we did well in Oblivion was the relative distance between you and things to do in the world. Drop a ball on the map and there’s stuff to do within a certain distance. A world of endless space and meaningless walking is just not fun.”

In the interview Hines also hinted at the size of the game’s missions; the central quest will be around 20 hours, with the side-quests totalling the same, plus there’ll be an as-yet-unknown amount of miscellaneous quests.

There seems to be a massive emphasis on the choices the player makes through the game, meaning it isn’t possible on a single play-through to acquire every achievement.

There are to be 9 to 12 different endings, with your style of play depicting which one you’ll see. At many points in the game you can decide whether to act either in a nice or slightly more evil manner.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the world of Fallout; the world is post-apocalyptic, and the inhabitants are quirky. Nuclear bombs have all but destroyed the planet, very little is left and scavenging and repairing items are key gameplay components.

The graphics are to be an improvement on Oblivion’s and the combat system will incorporate an optional turn-based mode if the player chooses not to point and click in an FPS-stylee.

Check out our interview with Pete Hines or preview to find out more, or head over to the game hub for images and videos.