Fallout 3's world '50 to 80 percent' as large as Oblivion

by Justin McElroy { Feb 15th 2008 at 7:30PM }

It's said that bigger is not necessarily better, and it's a mantra that Oblivion dev Bethesda seems to have subscribed to for their next sprawling adventure, Fallout 3. In a massive interview with Gameplayer, Bethesda spokesperson Pete Hines said that, though no one had walked Fallout 3's post-apocolyptic D.C. from end to end, it's probably 50 to 80 percent as big as the world of Oblivion.

That said, it's not necessarily bad news. Fans of the series (or opponents of walking) might be relieved to hear that Bethesda is taking the quality over quantity route. Not to mention that 50 percent of Oblivion's land mass is still pretty darned big. Check out the rest of the interview for a vaultful of other non-geographic info.

Tags: bethesda, fallout-3, fallout3, oblivion

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

severian00 @ Feb 15th 2008 7:55PM

If the smaller world size means that the game will have fewer crash bugs then I'm fine with it. Besides once you went to a place you never walked anyway, since it was slow plodding to walk from place to place all the time.

jrhawk42 @ Feb 15th 2008 8:21PM

hate to burst your bubble but it will probably mean more crash bugs. Condensing assets tends to cause more crashes since you have more systems interacting. Really though if you're expecting this game to be fairly bug free you should really re-think your expectations. Bethesda is a great studio, and fallout is a great IP which means the envelope will be pushed, and bugs will happen.

t_m @ Feb 16th 2008 10:19AM

Bugs are part of the fallout experience! If they remove the bugs then this won't be a real fallout game and I'm boycotting it!! /fanboy

Lone Starr @ Feb 15th 2008 7:58PM

Oblivion was about 16 sq. mi. so that makes Fallout 3 about 8 to 13 sq. mi.

Still pretty big.

modified @ Feb 15th 2008 7:59PM

This isn't bad as long as there is some variety. Most of the towns and dungeons in Oblivion looked too much alike.

emagius @ Feb 15th 2008 8:59PM

I've seen games with worlds one-tenth the size of Oblivion's that manage to be substantially more interesting, interactive, and engrossing. Let's hope Fallout 3's smaller size correlates to a better developed world.

cranium @ Feb 15th 2008 7:59PM

"50 to 80 percent"? probably means about 45 percent.

Raikage Apple freaking DF (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Feb 15th 2008 8:12PM

Sigh... I love Oblivion... I'd give it GOTY 2005 fo sho.

Leonidas @ Feb 15th 2008 8:18PM

I would too, if I hadn't encountered a glitch at the end of the final quest for the Thieves Guild making finishing it impossible.

Hopefully less landmass=less bugs.

Raikage Apple freaking DF (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Feb 15th 2008 8:21PM

OH that sux!

I loved the Dark Brotherhood quests, even though they are not the main part of the game, most of those missions really stuck out to me.

Leonidas @ Feb 15th 2008 8:24PM

I always cheered when I would drop the Chandelier on the old guys head.

Funnest part of the whole game.

Raikage Apple freaking DF (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Feb 15th 2008 8:27PM

I loved the arrows in the "house party" making them flip over the railings is great, also, when you shoot that guy taking a bath, I was on the roof and shot him in the face... good stuff. Don't forget that certain Head...

Einhanderkiller @ Feb 15th 2008 9:04PM

I never finished the game because I got bored of it. (I played around 20 hours.) Now I just load it up every once in a while to test graphics card settings.

jynxycat @ Feb 15th 2008 8:14PM

Does that mean that 50% of the locations in the game won't look identical ?

Oblivion may have been a large game, but every dungeon/cave/castle looked the same.

Cesaria @ Feb 15th 2008 8:18PM

I want to do terrible, terrible things to your avatar. Just sayin'.

eugene @ Feb 15th 2008 8:31PM

I'm just hoping for some mines and maybe a few derelict freighters to explore.

Ah, this is the MK II deep space freighter, you can tell because containers are stacked differently from the MK I.

ThornedVenom @ Feb 16th 2008 12:52AM

Thank god Cesaria's comment wasn't for Samfish.

Cesaria @ Feb 16th 2008 12:13PM

Samfish has a pretty sexy avatar as well. Or is that TMI?

Note to self: stop fantasizing over avatars.

Maestro @ Feb 15th 2008 9:40PM

Don't know if it was Fallout 1 or 2 but that intro with the Louis Armstrong song playing was awesome...Think it was 2 for some reason...

Anni @ Feb 15th 2008 10:33PM

I'm not really sure if this is a question, but yes, that was the intro to Fallout 2.

gLitterbug @ Feb 15th 2008 10:05PM

I don't care just how small they make it compared to Oblivion if they manage to make it actually interesting apart from simply being yet another iteration of their sandbox that promises to be superadvanced, but then turns out the same with newer graphics tech. Non-ugly characters wouldn't hurt either. What use is having a gazillion sliders for your face if every single one of them makes it more ugly?

Yuccadude @ Feb 16th 2008 1:08PM

I don't know why this makes me think of it, but I was making a pretty decent looking Argonian when I rotated the head and found out it had a giant lump on the back of its head. I then freaked out and changed my character to a Redguard and without changing anything, it looked exactly like Marlon Brando. With a super-athletic body.

Trowa @ Feb 15th 2008 11:23PM

Hopefully it won't be 50 to 80 percent as boring as Oblivion world was.

Darth Abe @ Feb 17th 2008 12:15AM

...50-80% as boring?
wouldn't that be a good thing?

John McPoop @ Feb 16th 2008 12:00AM

I can't wait for this game! I [sadly] have never played the other Fallout games. oblivion was pretty fun at first but got very meh after about 12 hours or so.

crappy mccrappy @ Feb 16th 2008 5:28AM

This game is going to suck so bad. So, so bad.

This will fail.

t_m @ Feb 16th 2008 7:36AM

So Daggerfall was 50% as big as Arena.
And Morrowind was 25% as big as Daggerfall
And Oblivion was 33% as big as Morrowind
And Fallout 3 is 50% as big as Oblivion.

WHich means... er... 1 2 3 4.. Arena was frickin big!

Magetto @ Feb 16th 2008 9:34AM

Oblivion was bigger than Morrowind.

t_m @ Feb 16th 2008 10:25AM

no it wasn't

Basketball @ Feb 16th 2008 10:41AM

I'm bigger than you.

t_m @ Feb 17th 2008 8:53AM

no you're not

TwEE @ Feb 16th 2008 2:20PM

Gawd I hope they're making an actually fallout game instead of a reskinned Oblivion..

How dose this game compare to Fallout 1 and 2 in size, is what I want to know.. tell meeeee..

L4Flare @ Feb 16th 2008 2:31PM

I dont mind Fallout 3's world being 50% as big as Oblivion, I thought Oblivion's world was a little too big tbh

DP @ Feb 17th 2008 1:25AM

Soooo this game will still be the shiz.

Deuxhero @ Feb 17th 2008 10:21AM

Wow!? Oblivion was already stupidly stupidly small. I didn't think they could make it smaller.

ZippyDSMlee @ Feb 17th 2008 2:21PM

Welcome to nuvo gaming friend where the smaller a game is and less complex the level layout is the easier it is for the publisher to push out 2 or 3 titles int he same time frame it took them to make one.

I really don't see how thy will make this more than mediocre...since the last game they made was a tad underwhelming....