Fallout 3 Interview

The Washington Post has published an interview they did with Bethesda’s Todd Howard about the role Washington, DC plays in Fallout 3.

Q: Were there any advantages or disadvantages to using D.C. as the backdrop for a game?

Howard: I think there were a lot of advantages to using D.C. We used the Metro System as a great connectivity piece and a scary dungeon. The Metro by itself, the architecture of it — the big curved halls have this retro feel to them automatically.

The other thing is, you have this nice mix, in D.C., of neoclassical architecture that we could mix with 1950s stuff that we assume they would’ve built, that would’ve been even bigger in the Fallout world.

It really helped, because it really has its own unique flavor that we could mix with this sci-fi stuff. So, you have the Jefferson Memorial but it’s been turned into this giant industrial site with pipes coming out of it. So it’s, really, really cool imagery.