14 DAY TRIAL // Fallout 3, the post-nuclear role playing game from Bethesda Softworks is a highly anticipated game - and each time new details about it pop, we better understand why. So far we are aware that you have a limitless freedom, the power to solve problems, quests and, basically, live your virtual lives exactly as you feel like - as the dastardly villain or the good Samaritan or something in between. We'll have a great deal of visual details and a "mind-blowing AI", as well as 12 endings.
Uhm... did I say 12 endings? Well, that's really old and outdated news, because Todd Howard did the official Xbox podcast and talked about the game and he said, among other things, that it will have no less than 200 endings available! Over 200 endings, to be more specific. This is absolutely huge and probably it is not a Molyneux-like statement - and all these should make Fallout 3 the most replayable game in the history. Still... 200 different endings is just unbelievable and I already see a new category in the Guiness Book of World Records, the Gamers Edition: how many different Fallout 3 endings did you get?
Endings apart, Howard also gave some bits of interesting information, via the Fallout3 blog. For example, the game is twice as big as they thought it would be in the first place, while only the main quest offers 20 hours of gameplay, which can be extended to up to 100 hours if you really want to take your time and do everything that's possible. This means that, if somebody wants to get all the endings, he or she should play about 4000 hours. This means about one full year of gameplay (breaks for sleeping, eating and other really necessary things included). And this really scares me. If Fallout 3 is really as good as it seems to be, with its 200 endings and basically unlimited replayability it could also change the way video games are developed. Or not... nobody knows.
Other things mentioned in the podcast are that the game is "absolutely tracking at fall 2008" and it is finished, but needs a lot more polishing and testing - and while they do this, they are adding extra stuff, too. You will have no more than one humanoid companion and another NPC like Dogmeat - and Dogmeat can die (but not so easily, because they are working on his health and how you maintain him), but you can also give him assignments if you need some extra help.