In keeping with the radiated and mutated 1950's Americana theme from the previous titles there is even a radio station with over 20 period tracks to play. What tunes are included, are these really that good in a gunfight, and tell us more of the radio-messages feature.

Right now we're not talking about the licensed music, beyond those we played in our - Tex Beneke's "A Wonderful Guy," Bob Crosby's "Happy Times," and of course the Ink Spots' "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire." I have to say, honestly, that listening to these songs in a gunfight is all kinds of awesome. Because, really, that's the essence of Fallout's sense of ironic, dark humor. You're in this crazy firefight with Super Mutants, bullets and laser beams are whizzing past, heads are exploding... and it's all set to the dulcet tones of someone like Tex Beneke. You really have to experience that to truly appreciate the hilarity of it all.

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As for the radio feature, you can also use your Pip-Boy's radio receiver to pick up frequencies from the Wasteland. You'll get quests this way; you'll be able to listen in on some enemy transmissions, stuff like that. So it's entertaining to listen to the music, sure, but there's also some pretty compelling gameplay in there as well.

What kind of muscle will we need in order to keep up with the and PS3?

We're still pretty far off from determining the PC requirements. We're pretty adamant about making sure the game runs with or without DX10, though, so players don't have to upgrade to Vista.

Ron Pearlman's voice over is reminding us that war still never changes. What hopefully is all-new is the plot. What sort of overarching plot is there?

Fallout 3 is really strongly character driven, and we really concentrate on the relationship between the player character and his/her father, voiced by Liam Neeson. Dad has raised you in Vault 101 your whole life, and then one day, he takes off. He leaves the vault. Nobody has ever done that. Why did he leave? Where did he go? So you leave the vault in search of your father. Along the way, you learn about the Capital Wasteland, the plight of its inhabitants, and Dad's connection to this "outside world."

Was it always the intention to go for a full world or was consideration ever given to continuing the top-down tradition?

There was never any question that 3 would first/third-person, fully 3D and interactive. For the first time, we're allowing Fallout players to fully enter into the universe they love so much. It's what we do best, and we're immensely proud of that fact.

Will Dogmeat make a return?

Amazing how often this question comes up! We do love to please our fans, so who knows...

Will there be a wide variety of voice talent for Fallout 3? Oblivion suffered from a paucity of different voices so although there were numerous races and faces they all wound up sounding very similar indeed. Or will we see a repeat of the cloning accident joke from FO2?

In Oblivion, the NPC voices were defined by a character's race. Nords had the Nord voice, Khajiit had the Khajiit voice, etc. Fallout 3 uses an entirely different system, and we've got upward of thirty different voices types. So yeah, there's definitely a lot of voice variety in Fallout 3, much more so than in our previous games.

It's been a long time since the last Fallout and this will be the first appearance on a console of a proper Fallout RPG. How will the world be introduced to players who are completely new to Fallout?

From the start, Fallout 3 has been designed so that you don't need to have ever played any previous Fallout games to understand or enjoy it. If you have played the previous games, there are obviously plenty of things you'll appreciate - little nods and inside-jokes, a deeper appreciation and understanding of some of the factions in the game (like the Brotherhood of Steel), etc.. But Fallout 3 definitely stands on its own. Setting the game in Washington D.C. after the events of Fallout and Fallout 2 has really allowed us to tell our own story without treading on all the great fiction from the previous games, which were set on the West Coast.

On a related note, what sort of changes can old PC fans expect and will there be any significant differences between the PC and console versions? For example, will the PC control system take into account the existence of more than eight buttons?

All versions of the game offer completely identical gameplay. For PC players, we're planning on more robust interface options, something we feel was a bit lacking with Oblivion on the PC.

Have all the problems with the Radiant AI been sorted out to the extent that you are confident that the quantity of NPCs will not create unforeseen problems?

Depends on what problems you mean. If you're talking about NPCs becoming semi-sentient and completely screwing up the game world, then yeah, those problems we've got a pretty good handle on!

You know, using a system like Radiant AI, you really have to ask yourself, "What does it mean to have 'smart' NPCs?" And, an even more important question, "Does having super smart NPCs make for a better game?" Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes the answer is no. In Oblivion, sometimes it was fun to walk into a town and have a huge brawl going on, because the NPCs were acting of their own accord and got into some kind of no-holds-barred rumble. Other times, the player's lack of feedback in these situations could be frustrating. What's going on? Why are they fighting?

In Fallout 3, what we're really trying to do is use the Radiant AI to put NPC behavior in front of the player, onscreen, in scenarios that are easy to understand and add life to the game world. NPCs that are talking to one another realistically, Brotherhood of Steel soldiers practicing in their training ground, a burned-out Wastelander accosting his ex-girlfriend, stuff like that. It's all about making the world come alive.

What steps are being taken to ensure that players cannot exploit zoned in areas by returning to them when levelled-up and more powerful?

Well that's the key term right there, isn't it? Exploit. Video games always have been, and always will be, an imperfect medium. If a player wants to use exploits or power game, if they're bound and determined to beat the system, there's usually little you can do to stop them. Now, with that in mind, we're doing everything we can to ensure that the player's challenge level is consistent and balanced throughout the game, and we've spent a lot of time any energy re-evaluating Oblivion's creature levelling system to find just the right balance for Fallout 3.

It's a completely different team working with a different set of procedures and outlook. How hard has it been to retain the Fallout atmosphere and humour when you take that into consideration? When you factor in the change in combat system and graphical perspective it must have been a daunting prospect at the start of the project. At this stage how satisfied are you that you have managed to create something new while retaining enough of the essential Fallout elements to 'keep it real?'

On a personal level, I'm incredibly proud of how well we've been able to nail the "soul" of Fallout. It's not something we took to lightly. From the earliest days of the project, we took great pains to make sure Fallout 3 had the right tone and feel. This thinking has penetrated every single element of Fallout 3, from the sound design to the art direction to, of course, the quests and gameplay. That was the Fallout legacy we really wanted to preserve.

You know, E3 was a big vindication for us. For those who saw the game, for those who experienced firsthand where we've taken the series, it became clear that we may have put Fallout into a bionic body, but it's the same old heart beating inside.

By Duncan Lawson & Sam Gibson