Todd Howard: Being that we are Bethesda…everything gets a bit big. So as of last week we’re over 200 endings. That is not an exaggeration, but it deserves some description. 200 endings…that’s a lot. So originally when we started, we had various iterations of the ending. The ending is kind of cinematic, that’s dynamic based on the things you’ve done.
When we started, it was kind of fuzzy, it was like “well there’s like 9 maybe 12″ and we started adding things to it. So if you had done this or not this, you’d get this other tweak to the ending. And we kept doing that. And you know even just two weeks ago someone had this idea, “Oh we should add this idea to the ending” (sorry I’m not going to spoil what that is). And I said, “oh that’s a genius idea, we have to do that.” But then it became, “oh, but there’s four versions of that.” So i was like, “okay there’s like four different versions of that part,” and that multiplies by, at the time we were at about 60 endings…so now there’s four versions of that, so now there are around 240 versions.”
The games on paper when we get started…they’re alot smaller, and then as we go they get bigger…we can’t stop ourselves. We’re have tons of people with good ideas here, and if they’re good and fit the tone, we’re going to try to jam as much into the game as possible. Fallout is probably twice the size of what we originally had on paper…it’s pretty big, so that’s what’s happened with the endings.
So some of that stuff is the big things of what you do very late in the game, some of those are things like your karma — how you’ve lived your life from the beginning of the game — you get certain scenes based on your karma. But we kind of like the ending as much as like the game itself at the beginning is you tailoring your character and then you play throughout this game, and unlike Elder Scrolls, where it’s a game where you can keep playing, Fallout 3 has a definite ending. So we wanted to go to efforts to make sure that the actual ending you get when you finish and get the ending, and make that ending reflect and make it individual to the user’s experience. We’ve definitely gone a little overboard.
Contest:
7:37 AM on 03.25.2008
| 
Play through fallout 3, mess around and do your own thing after you beat it. Months pass and you start downloading custom addons for the game (like oblivion / morrowind has) and you eventually stumble upon more endings while going through the experience. Then a couple of years pass and you miss the experience of fallout 3. Now perhaps you will get something different from the first time you played through. \
Like I said they havent really described how different the endings are from eachother, they could be very very small differences, but if they are large, then by george I'll take it!
Good/Bad (2) * Male/Female(2) * Rich/Poor(2) * SavedNPCBob/Didn't(2) * ReachedLevel:2,5,10,20(4) = 64 endings.
The great thing about Bethesda is the mods. The community will step up and fix everything wrong with Fallout 3. Like they did with Oblivion. And Morrowind.
Bethesda: We make games, you fix them, but we keep the cash.
considering the different ending combinations you could get in fallout 2 for example 200 endings doesn't sound ridiculous at all. i never replayed it to get every possible ending, but it's nice to see something different each playthrough.
Yeah same here. There is just no way you have 200 completely unique, from the ground up endings in a game.
"HarassmentPanda says:
03/24/2008 18:12
Yeah, I imagine Fallout 3 will have a lot of variables that produce different results in the conclusion. So, the "200 hundred endings" will be combinations of the different possible results."
As a MEGA fan of Fallout 1/2, and a total non-fan of Oblivion, I'm still excited! I hope Bethesda can do this as well as I hope!
If you don't know how the Fallout games dealt with the end game ask someone who does, you'll see it's a very similar aproach.
If you do know the classic Fallout games then you just need to know that there will be less permutations (at this point) and karma will have a central role on how they will occur. But as I said before in the end it is very similar, on this issue there will be some continuity, and that's good.
And I think this is totally in keeping with the previous Fallouts (1 and 2 at least) in that, no matter how many times I play through the damn game (and it's upwards of 5 or so each at this point) I feel like I'm seeing new stuff every time.
Well done, chaps. Well done.
But then again, I also think it's crazy people get obsessed over dumb things like Gamerscores and Achievements...so I'm obviously baffled by "hardcore gamers" in general?
Whoever gets them all is a god.
then we can compare "your" ending with that of fellow-gamers and see where the differences lie... I think its a great idea, plus I kinda needed that kind of engine anyway for the fakegame I posted on my blog last week :-)
Also, 200 permutations!
To me it seems they are taking that concept to the next level with endings to reward those choices, which is AMAZING! No matter how you played your game in Oblivion, the quests pretty much end the same without any really impact on the world itself, expansions being the only real exception. I can't wait for Fallout 3. Its going to fantastic.
when are we going to get to see some actual gameplay!?????
The good thing about having this many endings is that now the actions of what you did or didn't do in the game will stay true with the ending. If so-and-so gets killed during the final showdown, I doubt they'll be there to congratulate your heroism as soon as the fight is over. It keeps everything within the game consistant.
psst... this was ending #144. only 199 left to go!
Thank you Jesus!
ending # 37 - You find daddy and have 5 children, happily ever after!
Extracted from NMA
"Fo1 has 19 different endings, with 360 possible permutations. Fo2 has 47 endings with 1,105,920 permutations. If 200 is the number of permutations for Fo3, they are seriously behind. That would correspond to maybe 10-20 endings. But I'm assuming they'd have to be talking about permutations since you should know when designing a game whether you'll have ~12 or ~200 endings. You don't accidentally hop from 12 to 200 endings late in the development process and send in an order for 188 additional voiceovers from Ron Perlman (because he will KILL YOU). With permutations it would be thinkable, at least."