We’ve known that Bethesda is working on a virtual reality-enabled version of Fallout 4, however details for this curious new project have been essentially under wraps since its announcement. Now, we’ve finally gotten something of a beat on the project, confirming it’s still alive and well, apparently.
Game director Todd Howard confirmed the project is still going. “Fallout is going great. There’s a lot of work to be done, but it’s super exciting,” Howard said in an interview with Glixel. “We are doing the whole game. You can play it start to finish right now, and the whole thing really works in terms of interface and everything.”
When asked how difficult it was to adapt a more “traditional” game to virtual reality, Howard was steadfast in his confidence in the project. “I will say that Fallout works because of the interface,” he said.
“The Pip-Boy is on your wrist and we’ve been able to present so that it works the way you expect. You look and there it is. The fact that the gunplay is a bit slower than in a lot of games has certainly helped us but we have V.A.T.S., so you can pause or slow down the world.”
“I assure you, V.A.T.S. in VR is awesome. We love it,” he continued. Howard also talked up the regular issue of in-game locomotion causing motion sickness:
“We’re lucky that the action isn’t super twitchy,” he said. “Locomotion is definitely the hard part, I will admit. Given the size of the world and the amount that you’re moving in Fallout 4 that part is tricky because you’re doing it a lot. Right now we’re doing the teleport warp thing and that’s fine, but we’re experimenting with a few others.”
Finally, in regards to how they’ll approach moving and interacting with the game in virtual reality, Howard said they’re looking to ship the whole enchilada: “Our plan is to ship with as many as we can, because it’s different for everybody,” he explained. “There are a lot of indie developers and students that are working on prototypes and thinking about how to move in VR and so we’re looking at a lot of those. ”
There’s no release date for Fallout 4 VR, but Howard said the game’s development is progressing nicely.
