Former Fallout 3 dev: the game “was not what we intended” as technical limitations plagued Bethesda's vision
After Bethesda confirmed that Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters are in development, many discussions and opinions have popped up online. But what carries actual weight are statements from developers who actually helped create the original game back in 2008.
Nate Purkeypile worked as a world and lighting artist on Fallout 3 before lending his talents to Skyrim and Fallout 4, contributing to early Starfield development, and eventually becoming Fallout 76’s lead artist. The Fallout 3 developer is excited to see the Capital Wasteland get the second chance it deserved because, according to him, “it was not what we intended.”
Sitting down for an interview with YouTuber Steven Lake on The Examined Game, Purkeypile said he’s genuinely looking forward to seeing the Capital Wasteland get the remaster treatment it deserved because the team never really got a chance to fully realize its intended vision for Fallout 3.
In the interview, while reminiscing about his Fallout 3 development days, he explained:
“I’m personally looking forward to the Fallout 3 remaster, because we were like, super tech-constrained making Fallout 3. You could only place so many lights.” This limitation alone restricted what Nate could do as a lighting artist. Texture sizes were small even by today’s standards. Nate stated that he spent much of his time during Fallout 3’s development “constantly worrying about the memory budgets or how much stuff you’re putting on screen.”
A sizeable gap between the team's vision and reality
Looking back at how Fallout 3 turned out in terms of fidelity and lighting, he candidly explained that there was a real gap between the scope of his ambition and the reality of what the team could achieve on the Gamebryo engine. He stated:
“It’s 100% not what we intended, and it was very, very constrained. I get why people are upset over movie remakes and stuff, but in the case of games and particularly the art side of it, it’s 100% not what we intended, and it was very, very constrained.”
In Nate’s eyes, a modern remake or remaster of Fallout 3 isn’t erasing the past, as skeptics often comment online, but simply delivering on what the team hoped the 2008 original could have been. He used the example of recent remakes, such as Capcom’s Resident Evil lineup. However, he isn’t hoping for a lazy cash grab that just bumps up the texture resolution and adds a sharpening filter.
“I think a lot of these remakes have been done, frankly, better too. Like the Resident Evil ones and stuff, those were fantastic. Whereas, for a while, I think a lot of those updates were just like, ‘Oh, we made the textures a little bigger and threw a sharpen filter in Photoshop.’”
For now, there’s no official release window for Fallout 3’s remaster or the highly anticipated Fallout: New Vegas remaster, which is being developed in collaboration with original developer Obsidian. Nevertheless, if Purkeypile’s account is accurate, fans might just get to see Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland and Fallout: New Vegas’ Mojave Wasteland the way the studios originally pictured them.
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