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An Inside Play To Sway Video Gamers
Fallout 3, which won't be available until late 2008, will allow players to explore the Washington region as a post-apocalyptic wasteland and hear the voice of actor Liam Neeson.
(Bethesda Softworks)
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"I've been to bigger events," Masson noted from his perch in the fourth row of Bethesda's private theater, as the crowd waited for the presentation to start. But the Fallout games hold a special place in his heart because the first major review he ever wrote was for a game in the series.
In the game, which will be available on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the personal computer, players take on the role of a character who has spent his or her life growing up in a large nuclear shelter in the northwest suburbs of Washington. It features the voice of actor Liam Neeson as the main character's father who mysteriously disappears one day. The player's mission is to venture out into the radioactive, monster-ridden world and find out where he went and why he left.
The previous Fallout titles, first released a decade ago, are beloved by many computer gamers for their quirky, dark sense of humor. The franchise still has rabid fans who anxiously pore over and debate every scrap of information Hines makes public.
Some fans of Bethesda Softworks' last blockbuster, Oblivion, still stake out the company's front parking lot, hoping to chat up employees and score their autographs. One tried to sneak into the Fallout 3 preview event.
"That's why we have security," the receptionist at the front desk explained.
A few hours into the promotional event, Mike Reilly, a jovial New York-based reviewer with the Web site Game Revolution drinks a beer at the Helix Hotel bar. He's reflecting on the perks his job affords him. He enjoys the trips and the company of people who are as obsessed with games as he is.
"I love the junket," he says. "I love seeing the herd of nerds, I love seeing the power of geek."
Reilly is wearing a T-shirt for the game Stubbs the Zombie and has a wallet embossed with a vintage Nintendo controller.
But do events like these things just buy good reviews? Nah, says Reilly. If he wrote positively about a game that was a stinker, he would lose his credibility and eventually his audience.
"The reason I got invited is I have readership," he said. "The only way I keep readership is by staying honest, by calling it how I see it."
Rob Smith, editor of PlayStation magazine PSM, was reluctant to declare Fallout 3 a blockbuster so far ahead of its release, but said he was impressed.
Masson of PC Jeux delivered a similar verdict. "I like it," said Masson before the private party, complete with an '80s cover band, kicked off at Chloe on 18th Street in the District. "I want to play it."
Masson had just returned from London for an event sponsored by Sega. This month he flies, on another company's dime, to Montreal.
Staff writer Sabrina Valle contributed to this report.
