Fallout 3 perception "mismatch" due to secretive reveal plan, says Hines

Speaking to VG247, Bethesda's Peter Hines has said that people may have been surprised by the level of violence in the Fallout 3 E3 demo simply because little of the RPG has been shown so far.

"I would chalk up the 'mismatch' to the fact that we hadn't shown a ton on the game to folks up to this point, and that was intentional," he said.

"We prefer to hold cards close to the vest and continue to put out new info on the game right up until it's out, rather than having tons of info out there 9 or 12 months before launch and not having anywhere else to go.

"Once you show folks gameplay, and let them play the game, there's a very different dynamic from that point forward when it comes to the press and public, and what they expect and want, and we're very aware of that."

Hines went on to say that the violence in the game is supposed to have a comic edge to it, despite Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road - a distinctly unfunny book - being cited previously as a heavy reference.

"I'm pretty sure we've been pretty clear all along that it's a violent, harsh world," Hines added. "I don't know if people thought we were kidding about that or what. But the original games definitely had that aspect to them, and we felt it was important to preserve it. Now, the way it's handled in Fallout 3 is a bit over-the-top intentionally so that it's more comical than disturbing.

"And it isn't all you do in the game, so it does require context in that it isn't the only thing you can do in the game, as the folks who spent a half hour in dialog proved. We follow the lore and canon of the Fallout universe when it comes to what's going on in the world, the violence, etc. So McCarthy's The Road is brilliant, but it's a very different take on a
post-apoc world and so while there are ideas and themes in that work you will also find in Fallout 3, they're coming at it from very different places."

Fallout 3 releases in the US for PC, PS3 and 360 on October 7. We're still waiting on a European release date.