11 Ways Fallout 3 Will Beat Oblivion

Notch another one up for the “Oblivion used to be great, but we can criticize it now to praise Fallout 3”-list. Pretty explicit.

1. More voice actors
Oblivion had 13 credited actors on its voice cast, but you’d never know it from playing the thing. No matter which of the game’s hundreds of inhabitants you talked to, they always sounded suspiciously like the same four or five people, with no effort whatsoever made to disguise their voices. That won’t be a problem with Fallout 3, however, as the new game will have a much bigger pool of voice talent on which to draw. Bethesda’s not saying exactly how much bigger, except that we can expect at least twice as many.

More interestingly, Fallout 3 also features the voice of Malcolm MacDowell, a man who’s not only endlessly entertaining to listen to, but was almost talented enough to make Tank Girl watchable. He’ll be providing the voice of President John Henry Eden, and unlike, say, Patrick Stewart’s here-then-gone turn in Oblivion, you’ll hear quite a bit of MacDowell’s voice throughout the game. As president of the Enclave, the tattered remnants of America’s government, Eden frequently broadcasts fireside chats, which you’ll be able to hear by tuning in to Enclave radio, or through the floating mechanical eyes that float aimlessly across the landscape.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of characters and how they’re presented, it’s worth pointing out that faces in Fallout 3 don’t look like they were molded by pounding a lump of soft clay with a hammer. Well, maybe some of them do, but this time it’s because they’re horrible radioactive mutants.