RipTen Videogame Blog » Pete Hines

Skyrim Creation Kit Coming Tomorrow

Ben Nanke — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:03:33 +0000

If you’re like me, you’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of the Creation Kit for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim since the game’s release back in November. Also, if you’re like me, you’ll be excited to know that it’s coming out tomorrow.

HOORAY!!! Ahem…

All this is according to a tweet by Pete Hines, the VP of PR and Marketing for Bethesda. In addition to announcing the Creation Kit, Hines also hinted at a surprise that will be included. Horse Armor, maybe? Dragon Riding? MMORPG? My answer is, “probably.” But in all reality, we will just have to wait and see tomorrow. The Creation Kit will be available through Steam in the Tools section. Be sure to jump in there and grab it as soon as it gets released, and get started putting chests of Daedric armor in Riverwood. You deserve it.

Only a few more hours, guys!

Skyrim Will Not Have Weapon and Armor Degradation

Dave Oshry — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:59:40 +0000

If you’re a role playing gamer like me, you’ve become used to certain things in your favorite games.

One of those things is repairing your armor and weapons, which tend to degrade over time.

Well, much to the joy and also the chagrin of Elder Scrolls fans, Bethesda has confirmed that you will not have to do so in Skyrim.

A fan asked BethSoft Marketing VP Pete Hines this:

See, in Skyrim you can now craft and improve your armor and weapons, but you will not have to repair them.

Is this a welcome change, or does it break from some of the game’s realism?

For more on Skyrim be sure to check out my epic hands-on preview – I hear I confirmed Vampires ^__^

One Hour With Skyrim Finally Made Me a True Believer (Hands On)

Dave Oshry — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:15:02 +0000

Sheogorath, my lord and protector… why did I ever doubt your madness? Had I lost my own mind? Did I truly think that the unimpressive demo I’d witnessed at this year’s E3 expo would be indicative of your final product? Oh, how I was wrong!!… Can you ever forgive me?

As many of you know, I was rather “unimpressed” with Skyrim at E3 this year. In fact, Stephiroth Gutowski and I were so mind numbingly disappointed by the demo we were shown that we gave it an award for the, “Most Heart Shattering Disappointment”

We were so wrong.

Yes, I still think that the E3 demo of Skyrim which we were shown was disappointing, and I would still not have given it best RPG over Reckoning, but after being given the chance to play Skyrim for an hour behind closed doors, I am exuberantly happy to report that I am now a true believer in the 5th iteration of Bethesda‘s flagship series, and you should be too.

You see, I’m a harsher critic than most when it comes to this sort of thing. As many of you know, I’m a PC RPGamer and an old school Elder Scrolls fan.

I’m the guy who kept the Mantella all to myself in Daggerfall. I’m the guy who retrieved every item for the Museum of Artifacts in Morrowind… only to steal them back later. I’m the guy who closed every Oblivion gate and collected every treasure in Cyrodiil, only to have to mod extra display cases into my house in Skingrad just to hold it all! And for what?! Nobody else in the world will ever venture inside the confines of my Elder Scrolls homes, see all of my priceless in-game artifacts and collections, and yet I do it anyway! Yet, you know I’m not alone.

I ... Need More Display Cases...

Perhaps you too have the “Pelvis of Elvis” adorning the fireplace of one of your many Oblivion homes… but I digress. That’s simply the sort of Elder Scrolls player I am. I live for the immersion, the escape, the beauty of a world completely original and unlike anything we could ever hope to see in our own. The freedom, the choice, and often the consequence.

So, jaded as I am, I mocked many of my detractors who said I was crazy after E3. I said that they were simply johnny-come-lately Elder Scrolls fans who wouldn’t know their lore if a Dremora lopped their head off with a Daedric Crescent! I figured they were blinded fanboys whose Elder Scrolls adventures began with Oblivion. These kids clearly know nothing of Daggerfall or Morrowind! They’ve never modded a damn thing, they’ve never even heard of Nehrim! They’re wrong, I’m right, BAH humbug!

But they weren’t wrong, I just failed to believe.

Dave... I am Disappoint.

So, after playing Skyrim for an hour straight, being allowed to do whatever the hell I want and loving every single minute of it… I am here to apologize.

I want to apologize to our readers, I want to apologize to my friends, I want to apologize to Bethesda and I even want to apologize to all those johnny-come-latelys who believed in the scrolls when I had lost faith. I’m sorry.

Yet, that’s not why you’ve come here today, is it? You want to hear all about my adventures in Skyrim, don’t you?! Very well, so be it.

As I walked into a lush hotel suite populated by several other members of the gaming press and a sea of Xbox 360 consoles and flatscreen TV’s, I was told by Pete Hines and Todd Howard of Bethesda that we would be starting off our adventure as a prisoner in a cave, and could go anywhere we wanted from there on out. That was all the instructioin we got and that was all the instruction I needed.

The character creation in Skyrim is just as deep as you remember from Oblivion, if not more so. I mean just look at all these possible combinations you can make! But there was no time for me to mess around with such a deep system, I only had an hour.

So I quickly selected a few traits… Bosmer… tattoos… mohawk… good enough… let’s go!

Skyrim Same Sex Marriage Confirmed

Dave Oshry — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:49:59 +0000

In today’s edition of news that shouldn’t really be news because this is America and I believe in freedom of choice – Bethesda has confirmed that you can marry “anyone” in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

This was confirmed today by Bethesda PR guru Pete Hines via his Twitter account:

However, when he was asked by another user if that meant you could engage in Beastiality (/facepalm), he clarified:

Get ready for hot Argonian girl on girl action on November 11th.

What, you were totally thinking about that too…

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collector’s Edition Announced

Stephanie Gutowski — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:33:20 +0000

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, one of the most anticipated games of 2011, finally has a collector’s edition and it’s full of things you probably want. The question is, do you really want to cough up $149.99 for it? Yeah, probably. Take a look at what Bethesda’s offering in exchange for your cold hard cash.

Alduin Statue. Created in conjunction with the IP Factory, this collector’s only statue stands 12” tall and is made of high quality PVC. Modeled from actual in-game 3D digital files, it showcases Alduin, the World Eater. He stands perched atop one the game’s many dragon walls that teach the player the lethal language of dragons.

‘The Art of Skyrim’ Official Art Book. Featuring over 200 pages of striking, full-color illustrations, sketches and models, this stunning 9 3/8” x 12 1/8” coffee table book showcases the characters, creatures, environments, and weaponry of Skyrim. With a foreword by game director Todd Howard and commentary from Bethesda Game Studios artists, readers will be guided through the game’s iconic visual style.

‘The Making of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ DVD. This documentary DVD contains exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage, including interviews with the Bethesda Game Studios team as they take you from concept to creation and provide insights into the story, gameplay, setting, legacy of the Elder Scrolls franchise, and much more.

“We all want one of these!” says VP of Marketing for Bethesda, Pete Hines. I’ll just bet you do– probably because you can afford it. I, on the other hand, might have to qualify for a loan first.

You’re probably debating whether or not you’d rather have a dragon statue, or be able to afford food this coming November. Do the right thing. Pre-order the collector’s edition before you change your mind. You have until November 11 to decide.

The Fallout from Fallout 3’s Piracy

Justin Arnold — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:14:35 +0000

Vault 101 just got plundered.

The eagerly anticipated Fallout 3 is nearly upon us, yet a full three weeks before its release rapacious pig-fuckers cracked the game and offered it via various torrent sites.

This is the third AAA title that has been hacked and cracked in as many months, leaving publishers frothing at the mouth as they consider even more draconian digital rights management.

To the casual observer this may seem like an overzealous response to retain the vast sea of greenbacks the industry seems to float upon. And that certainly is a concern, after all Electronic Arts is not motivated from a position of altruism. This is about control of their product, control of their intellectual property, and control of the consumer.

Flinchingly I have read DRM proponents scathing insinuation that, and I’m paraphrasing, that “nothing is safe! Nothing is sacred! We must protect ourselves at any cost!” Yet the price of that protectionism is at the expense of the consumer. Pirates care little for the mores of the videogame industry and will, and are, molesting their games as we speak. However it’s not the pirates that are feeling the brunt of the industry’s wrath, it’s us.

Citing piracy concerns, EA slapped DRM restrictions on Spore that prohibited more than one installation per copy, turning it into a $60 rental. Yet that did not keep Spore from being cracked and on the day before its release.

Activision recently pounced and monetarily mauled some assclown for distributing their wares on torrent, and rightfully so. Yet has their Torquemada approach to prosecuting infidels resulted in scaring away such a nebulous enemy? Perhaps, but not enough. Swinging a big stick in a fight is only good if you can find someone to hit with it and so far, it’s been hit and miss.

Fallout 3’s rape and pillage is unfortunate. I’ve interviewed Pete Hines and have gotten the distinct impression that this was a fellow who, along with a talented and motivated crew, created something worth spending my hard-earned money on. And I don’t mind spending that $60 because A) I feel I am buying a superior product and B) spending that kind of jack will only encourage another Fallout title, but hopefully encourage the same stringent adherence to quality and making a game worthy of its namesake.

The piracy of Fallout 3 is an unfortunate byproduct of the age we live in, a casualty of commerce. Yet it’s not the rallying cry that DRM proponents are looking for. If anything it’s a rude awakening that DRM isn’t working as intended.

Restrictive DRM that affects the end user will only drive off wary consumers and if nothing else, encourage reporters such as myself to call companies who employ it on their collective shit.

Games shouldn’t punish gamers. Selah.

Pete Hines: Fallout 3 Mod Tools “Not On Our Schedule Right Now.”

Wade Larson — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:51:58 +0000

According to an interview with Pete Hines from Rock, Paper, Shotgun; the PC version of Fallout 3 will not come with a mod kit out the gate, and while he doesn’t rule one out in the future, it’s as good as locked in a vault for now.

Hines said that producing the mod tools takes a helluva lotta time and effort, and that people have become to accustomed to having them in Bethesda games, but this time, no dice.

“Folk probably took for granted that every time we make a game, there’s a mod tool. We explained to folk that it takes a lot of time and effort to get that tool ready for release, and it’s not on our schedule right now. We need to get the game done and out. It’s not to say we won’t do it. It’s that right now we have an enormous amount of work to do, for three platforms and all these different languages to get it out around the wall. Right now, we can’t say definitively ‘there will be mod tools, and here is when they’ll be out.’ That work remains to be done.”

Hines went on to say that he and the team at Bethesda support modding, but don’t have the time or the manpower to put together a mod tools package.

“Is that to say it’ll never come out? No, I’ll never say that. If we have the time, we’d absolutely like to put them out. As we’ve seen with Oblivion and Morrowind those things definitely create a sense of community and there’s tons of people out there modding. We have our own little blog we run from Bethesda, and every week we’re out there interviewing people from our mod community – so it’s clearly something we support, something we take interest in and something we place value in and spend a lot of time highlighting good mods. It’s just the tools take time. They don’t magically appear.”

Surely, if they put the game out there some enterprising gamer will make their own mod kit somehow or another. But for those disinclined to tamper with their post-apocalyptic wasteland, we might just have to wait for them to get around to it.

Read the full interview here.

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

Peter Hines Talks Xbox and Fallout 4

Dylan Duarte — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:06:44 +0000

Bethesda’s Peter Hines recently touched on why they prefer the Xbox 360 over the PC and other gaming systems and also confirmed plans for Fallout 4. Read it up after the break.

“If you have the PC as your lead machine you have the problem of not knowing what configurations people have, how many gigs of RAM or what graphics card they have.”

“Obviously we are more familiar with the Xbox because we have used it for longer and the other thing is that the Xbox is much easier to take to tech shows. We can just pop the hard-drive off the Xbox and put it on any machine which is an advantage. Taking the PC or PS3 to these things just isn’t convenient.”

He also drove home the fact that the downloadable content that will be available for Fallout 3 is exclusive to PC and Xbox 360.

“When I say exclusive I mean it is exclusive to just the Xbox 360 and PC. If you want to play the Fallout 3 downloadable content you will need to have an Xbox 360 or a PC.”

And finally, we have confirmation of more Fallout after Fallout 3.

“We didn’t buy the Fallout franchise to just do Fallout 3 and then stop. But let’s get this one out of the door before we worry about the next one.”

I think a lot of gamers are already worrying about the next one, Pete. I can almost guarantee it.

Source: Tech Radar

Making Babies in the Vault and Making Corpses Outside: Fallout 3 Interview with Pete Hines

Jonathan Zungre — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:36:30 +0000

I don’t think it showed, but I was completely flustered when I conducted this interview. That’s not an excuse, that’s testament to how absolutely blown away I was when Andrew and I finished our thirty minutes with the game. I’m just glad that every question wasn’t, “Hey, remember when that was awesome, like 30 minutes ago, and… tell me about that awesome.”

Click the jump for Pete Hines’ take on Fallout 3′s Achievements, violence, and why Fallout was better than Fallout 2.

Before we start, you should probably watch the Fallout 3 trailer below, since 1. we talk about it a lot, and 2. it’s hilariously… awesome.

Zungre: Pete, what attracted you to the Fallout series, originally?

Pete Hines: We were looking for something else to do, besides the Elder Scrolls. We talked about what kind of game we wanted that to be and, honestly, it was just the discussion that nobody’s doing anything with Fallout. And we really love that kind of game and it sort of fits with some of the things we like to do well, but it’s very different at the same time. And “wouldn’t it be cool if we got that.” We talked with our senior management about it and they went out and got it for us.

Zungre: Was it easy to get people excited about doing a game like Fallout?

Pete Hines: (chuckling) Yeah. Absolutely. That was like a no-brainer sell. Everybody was like, “Oh my God, I can’t wait, when can we start?”

Zungre: Were you a fan of the game when it came out?

Pete Hines: Absolutely. Actually, I was a journalist back then and Interplay was one of my companies. I still have a Fallout 2 shrink-wrapped box, never been opened. I was a big fan, actually more of [Fallout] than [Fallout 2].

Zungre: Why so?

Pete Hines: For me it was the tone.

Zungre: Because I jumped in on Fallout 2, and then went back to the original.

Pete Hines: You know what, there was the stuff in Fallout 2, you know, I liked Fallout 1′s more serious treatment, not the Monty Python references, not going overboard with the sexual references, like with the porn star. That wasn’t what I enjoyed most about the first one. The first one I liked, you know, the storytelling and the violence and the combat and that kinda stuff. That, sort of, stuck with me more than the second one.

The violence in Fallout (top) is very present in Fallout 3 (bottom).

Zungre: Well, one thing I noticed when we saw the trailer, which was amazing by the way, hilarious…

Pete Hines: Thanks.

Zungre: …was what the announcer said when he was talking to little Sally. “Hey little Sally, you can find that special someone in the vault” and repopulate the earth and it shows the babies popping out. And she’s all unsettled. But does that play a part in the game? What’s the sexual tone of the game?

Pete Hines: It’s pretty mild, we don’t go overboard. We focused more on the violence and the struggle to survive in this world, as opposed to people trying to make a living as porn stars or whatever. It’s 200 years after the war and the world is not doing well. Humanity is not making a comeback, they’re barely hanging on. So it’s more about survival, as opposed to whackity-schmackity jokey stuff.

It doesn’t get any more not-whackity-schmackity than the nuke launcher…

…also found in replica form at Bethesda’s booth.

Zungre: Okay, so you’re not going overboard with the satirical.

Pete Hines: No that was really more designed to be like, you’re watching it as if it was made pre-war. They make a commercial where they don’t even know, they don’t even realize that that’s not appropriate and the dad and the daughter, you know, exchanging that really uncomfortable glance, as Dad’s thinking about his little girl and her repopulating the planet.

Zungre: Did you have a hand in creating that trailer?

Peter Hines: I did actually. I had this idea and I was talking with Todd and Emil Pagliarulo, who is our lead designer, in his office and I was like, “I want to do our trailer and I want to do a live action thing.” And I talked to the ad firm and they were like, “we love that idea, can you write it up?”

Zungre: Yeah, that’s awesome.

Peter Hines: So I wrote up the whole thing for it and they went and said, “uh, what you proposed would be awesome and it’d cost a bazillion dollars.”

Zungre: (laughs).

Peter Hines: And so they said, “But we can take [your idea] and shoot it on a single set and it would be easier to do.” And I was like, “Alright, well let me see that.” So they took what I did and turned it into more of a single set.

Mine was a vault tech salesman driving down the street in the car and looking at the white picket fences in the neighborhood and then coming into the houses. So they took that vibe and did it in a single location and we worked back and forth with them and came up with [the trailer]. But it was a ton of fun to put together, honestly.

Zungre: It was super-fun to watch.

Pete Hines: Oh, you know, no bones about it, we’re immensely proud of it. It really nailed what we think is fun about the game: this optimism and this, sort of, warped sense of reality, and then post nuclear violence gone crazy set to funny Bob Crosby music.

Zungre: Right, exactly. What about the moral choices you make in the game, I remember hearing that stressed a whole lot. There seems to be a lot of games that make you make moral choices and they punish or reward you accordingly, but what separates Fallout 3 from those other games? And did you want to make the player feel something when they make a choice?

Pete Hines: Absolutely, yeah, we definitely wanted it to be about “in the moment.” Like you’re presented with dialogue options, you’re presented with choices on how your going to complete this quest, and, you know, what are you going to do? It’s like, “God, I’m really not sure if I feel comfortable doing X or Y”, or you know, maybe it’s really funny because it’s really evil. “I totally have to do that, just to see what happens.”

It’s more about presenting the player with interesting choices that are obvious and seeing which way they want to go and having that be satisfying. It’s also fun to allow the player to see if they can figure out their own way of doing stuff and then account for that. So like, “oh, I don’t wanna do that, I’m going to try this. I’m gonna see what happens if I kill this guy.” And then the game has planned on that and reacted to it.

Zungre: Really…

Pete Hines: You think, “oh I’m going to kill this guy, the quest giver, and then there’s nobody for me to go back to and finish the quest.” But we steer you in a different direction. So we try to account for letting you be who you want to be.

Zungre: Right, because in Oblivion there were people that you couldn’t kill, right?

Pete Hines: There were a lot of essential characters, and we try as much as possible for this one to account for things like character death.

Zungre: So it will redirect you, so if I cap the mob boss…

Pete Hines: Not in every single case, but in a lot of cases [if] the guy who gave you the quest ends up getting killed there’s a plan B. His successor or somebody else ends up being the guy you finish things with.

Zungre: Fantastic. Now do you have any affection for [Vault Boy]?

Pete Hines: I mean, I love him. He’s everything you need to know about Fallout.

Vault Boy giving his good friend Pete Hines an affirming shoulder squeeze.

Zungre: It really sets the tone, right?

Pete Hines: Yeah it does, totally.

Zungre: I was actually going to get a t-shirt in high school with Vault Boy on it, but I never ended up doing it.

Pete Hines: Vault Boy is a huge part of what makes Fallout, Fallout. Yeah, I mean, he’s everywhere. I just think he does a great job of communicating what the game is all about.

Zungre: What about something the you’re especially proud of? Is there anything you’d really like to highlight, just you personally?

Pete Hines: You know for me, honestly, I’m really proud of the team as a whole for what they came up with for V.A.T.S. That’s the pause combat. Just how much work went into putting that together. And [for it] be part of the flow of the game and not interrupt [you when] you’re running around and you slow down and you [use V.A.T.S.] and it’s really dramatic and then it speeds right back up again. Just the timing of that and the camera angles, just how it looks and feels and plays. It was a huge undertaking and a ton of people spent a ton of time on it.

V.A.T.S. Targeting mode.

Just watching people play it [at E3] and seeing how much they enjoy V.A.T.S. mode and slow-mo, watching a guy’s head get taken off and you just start busting out laughing. Like, that’s kind of the dark humor of the game right there. Whack a guy with a sledgehammer, his head comes off, like, that’s funny. So the amount of effort that went into V.A.T.S., and knowing what those guys went through to get that working and how long it took us to get it where we were really happy. For me that’s what i was most proud of.

Zungre: And Xbox 360 Achievements, anything you like about the Achievements you guys are going to have for the game? Any favorites there?

Pete Hines: Yeah I definitely have some but we’re not talking about those yet. But there are some really good ones.

Zungre: Like hilarious good?

Pete Hines: Yeah, hilarious good, but that ties into hilarious things in the game itself. Rewarding you for doing stuff that’s just ludicrous and hilarious.

Zungre: Like stuff the players wouldn’t normally think of? Stuff where you guys were like, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if we made the players do this…”

Pete Hines: There’s a couple that are, yeah, things that [you wouldn't think of.] Folks will know beforehand. They’ll sniff out [the Achievements] beforehand and then go try because they know what it is. But it’s just one of those things where you wouldn’t necessarily be like “Oh, I bet I get an achievement if I go do this.” It’s probably stuff that you wouldn’t even think to try, honestly. It’s stuff that if we never mentioned anything, I wonder how long it would be before somebody actually figured out, “Oh if you do this, this actually happens. Oh my God, that’s hilarious.”

Zungre: Wow, very cool. Well thank you so much, Pete.

Pete Hines: Yep, nice to meet you.

And with that, Pete whisked out of the room to tend to the many salivating journalists populating the Fallout 3 console stations. So i took this opportunity to ask Vault Boy for a picture. He graciously agreed.