In a recent interview with Next Generation, Fallout 3 design lead Emil Pagliarulo was asked whether Bethesda had a response to accusations from Fallout's most loyal fans that the developers were deliberately dumbing down an FPS adventure that was originally from a series of hardcore tactical RPGs. Pagliarulo was quoted to have responded with:

It's funny. I look at Fallout when I play it every day, and I sometimes think that there's a lot of old-school hardcore PC stuff in there too, and part of me thinks, "God, is this too inaccessible for console players?" There's a lot of dialogue to read, a lot of just hacking computers and looking through things like "VAT." I don't know. Sometimes I think it's just the opposite. So I don't feel like we're dumbing down the franchise.

Some time after Bethesda Game Studios rolled out the red carpet to announce the next installment to the Fallout series, the game company drew negative feedback when they also revealed that Fallout 3 won't be delivered in the same fashion that the first two titles were served.

As information points out, the game would be centered on FPS-over the shoulder action, with RPG elements on the side.

Later on, the company ignored continuous clamors to change the game back to a tactical RPG, saying that they would rather make the game as fun as they feel it should be and make it accessible to the console base.

Recently they backtracked their stand, and instead offered that Fallout 3 was still an RPG - just now with more up-front, over-the-shoulder action than role-play, and none of the isometric, turn-based tactics that made its predecessors into legends.

Bethesda even took flame-licking from fans of The Elder Scrolls franchise, who opined that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was a "yawn-fest" compared to a technologically inferior predecessor. That predecessor, however, was claimed to be more RPG than Oblivion could ever be.

Pagliarulo hopes that Fallout 3 will be ready for release by fall of 2008 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. But if the continuous bickering, the eerie silence at the official Fallout 3 forums, and the apparent holding back of any playable demo is any indication, we won't be crossing our fingers in anticipation of a warm, welcome party.

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