oblivion wasn't open-ended, it was open world. Opened ended means you can beat the game any time {like chrono trigger or fallout 1/2}. Oblivion was linear and you couldn't bypass quests to get to the end faster. I guess the bullshit hype has already started.

I, for one, want my 12 endings, though I'm sure I'll only get the good and evil ones.

If it's anything like the earlier games, they may mean there are 12 different chunks of ending that you can get through doing quests. In Fallout 2, for instance, there was a mission to deal with a leaking reactor that was making trouble for two factions. Depending on whether you destroyed it, patched it or completely fixed it the ending would change.

I hope they mean completely separate divergent path endings, not just changing and adding 2 more lines of dialog. I'd even be for not being able to access certain paths of the story line when making certain decisions.

I'm with you on the multiple endings thing. I think the only game that I've ever played enough to see the different endings is Symphony of the Night, and that doesn't really even count because you could see one of the "bad" endings, then reload your save and go further in the game to see the "good" ending.

Chrono Trigger rocked and had many endings. And for the sake of replay, I will never begrudge a company trying to add more of it. If you don't want to see the nine endings, don't, but don't think it a negative because you don't have to view it while many others might want to.

Well I'm a little sceptic about Fallout... The original, and the second one had wonderful atmosphere, and I loved the turn based combat.

I hope it won't become just another FPS...

I think Chrono Trigger had it just right. You could see all the endings by just playing through a second time, just by completing the game at different points.

Jim you should start checking my blog, we know that since June.

And yes the game will follow the path of Blade Runner, that had 12 different endings and was really replayable, although far from free form.

Since the original Fallout RPGs were more about how your character affected the game world and the game world affected your character, instead of being a story driven game, the idea of having only a few definite endings but tens of combinations on the game end slides that showed what would happen to the zones you've been and the NPCs you've met was very appropriate, and provided for a fresh ending every time.

I would prefer that to so many definite endings, but we'll see, might work, might not work.

Like bluemeep said, if it's like Fallout 1 & 2, it will simply be that there are different endings for each area that can change depending upon what you do in that area. These are usually just minor things that don't really much affect the overall "real" ending. For example, Shady Sands in Fallout 1 could thrive and they start the NCR (of Fallout 2) if you do the good quests, or Shady Sands could wither and die if you kill the leader of the village for some reason, and several of the areas would be overrun by Super Mutants in their endings if you took too long to defeat the Mutants (I usually get those endings myself, because I tend to take my sweet time and just putter around alot). But none of those ultimately affect the fact that you eventually beat the Super Mutants and then get exiled to the desert by the Overseer (and go off to start Arroyo for Fallout 2).

Then again, they may actually be going for the whole "two or three criteria determine the entire ending" thing, kind of like how the Silent Hill games do it, except that Silent Hill usually only had four or five endings instead of twelve. On the one hand, if this is the case, I'd rather have the twelve endings for replay value purposes if they're all distinct and good quality endings, but on the other, I'd rather not have them if all but one or two of the twelve endings are just crap, or if there are only minute difference between them. If it's the latter, I'd rather they just cut the crap and spend more time developing the non-crap endings.

Here's hoping for a Dog Ending.

Well i still have my Chrono and for endings and replay value its at the top of my collection. I'd totally welcome multiple endings, and to be honest more games should do this to encourage reply value.

Fallout will be on my list now.

i agree with those saying Chrono Trigger had it right. it's the ONLY game i've ever went back to and gotten multiple endings... though that could be because i was little and had nothing else to play.