With all of the furor whipped up in the wake of Spore's restrictive digital rights management system, DRM is a hot-button issue with PC gamers the world over. In an interview with Shacknews, Bethesda spokesman Pete Hines reveals that Fallout 3 - one of the year's most anticipated games for the PC - won't come with any sort of DRM at all.

Pretty similar to what we did for Oblivion, which was—we basically don't do any—we do the mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to get into what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when it comes to that stuff.

Note that Oblivion only required the disc in the drive, a restriction that even players who buy a copy are likely to overcome with a hack for the sake of convenience. Not as good for Bethesda as something more secure, but the fans will surely appreciate the hell out of it.

The Fallout 3 PC Interview: Bethesda on DRM, Censorship and Consolification [Shacknews via GamePolitics]

Oblivion had tons of girlie things for me to do. I could pick pretty flowers, collect pretty crystals and buy pretty clothes. Fallout 3 is distinctly un-pretty, but what did you expect from an irradiated post-apocalyptic Earth? The only flowers you'll find here contain death, and you can forget those fancy brocade gowns.

I never played the first two Fallouts and have very little sentimental attachment to Pip-boy, Vault 101, or Dogmeat. When early impressions of Fallout 3 labelled the game as "Oblivion with guns," I thought: sign me up. But many diehard fans and purists don't want that. They want an experience that's true to the spirit of the original Fallout, a game that builds on the innovations and atmosphere that evolved in Fallout 2.

After being filled in by Manfriend, I was able to take a look at Fallout 3 and judge for myself if it has more in common with Oblivion than it does with Fallout. And after three hours with the game, I've decided... it's 50-50.

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Having played Oblivion on PC, I can safely say that user-generated mods saved that game. Fixed the AI, improved the graphics, that sort of thing. Same goes for their last few games as well. But what of Bethesda's next game, Fallout 3? Things are less certain. Pete Hines:

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.

Sad to hear. Maybe modders can step in and get mods working?

Interview: Pete Hines On Fallout 3 Mods [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Remember when we all watched with gaping maws at the ignorance of politicians and pundits on ABC1's Q&A program? Remember when Daniel Silk wrote a substantial letter of complaint to the ABC about how poorly the discussion was handled? Well Daniel has had something of a result from his letter, which led to an assessment of the program and an apology and admission that some of the remarks made by Tony Jones could be "confusing and misleading". A footnote has been added to the Q&A webpage for the particular program. It doesn't fix what went wrong on the night, but a GG to Daniel for raising the alarm in an official capacity -- and the Q&A team will probably be more careful to get things straight should gaming come up again in future.

The full reply letter to Daniel from the ABC after the jump. [Thanks to Daniel for sharing!]

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Seems Pete Hines is quite talkative now! First the news that the Aussie-edited version of Fallout 3 is the only version, and now the one (yes, single) change made to the game to conform with classification guidelines. First, some background from Pete:

The chems in the original Fallout used fictional names...Buffout, Jet, Rad-X, etc. Those all appear in Fallout 3 in exactly the same way as before. We had added a new chem to Fallout 3 and had given it a real-world name, Morphine. Questions were raised about the use of that real-world drug, not only in Australia, but other territories as well.

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Australia's getting an edited version of Fallout 3? According to Bethesda's Pete Hines, that's technically not true. Turns out the version we're getting is the same as the rest of the world's.

How can this be, you ask? It's simple - the edited build of the game is the only build. Yes, everyone will now get to see the reduced incentives and rewards for drug use. Here's the reasoning behind the decision, from Pete:

"To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories."

Fair enough. I suppose if Bethesda's confident enough to make it the default build, then the alterations can't be too bad.

I did find the following comment a little bizarre, however:

Calling the idea of an Australia-specific version of the game a "misconception," Hines told us, "We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform."

Well Pete, I hate to say it, but having a company policy where you don't answer questions about the topic is going to lead to this sort of thing. Sorry!

Censors Force Fallout 3 Changes [Edge Online]

You are doing it wrong! You are supposed to wait until AFTER a game is lauded as a bona fide classic before you get its iconography indelibly etched into your flesh.

Sure, Fallout 3 is looking good and all signs point to it being a decent game.. but you have know that somewhere there is a sheepish body art fan walking around hiding his Too Human inkage under a heavy wool shirt.

Reader David Lo sent in some snaps of what we assume is his actual arm, now forever marked with a colourful rendition of Vault Boy cheerily gibbing someone with a handgun.

It is nice work, but.. well, we hope it works out for you, mate.

Fans of little graphics popping up on your television telling you how good you are at the game you are currently playing are going to be a little disappointed when they pick up the PlayStation 3 version of Bethesda's eagerly-anticipated Fallout 3. In an interview with PlayStation Universe, the company's dashing Vice President of Marketing Pete Hines revealed that trophies won't be making an appearance in the game...at least not initially.

"Not at launch...It remains to be seen what we do down the road. It wasn't something we were able to incorporate into the game for launch".

Not all that surprising, considering the company's documented preference for the Xbox 360. Hopefully trophy support will be added somewhere down the line, but Pete sure doesn't come off as that enthusiastic about the idea, does he?

No trophy support for Fallout 3 at launch [PSU]

Bethesda's PR man Pete Hines won't talk specifics when it comes to classification and its titles, but give him a more general angle, and he's all over it:

"The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different 'hot buttons'." ... "In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine.

On a related note, I recently asked the Classification Board a bunch of questions, if you'd like to take a look.

Bethesda: Multiple censorship laws 'frustrating' [CVG, via PALGN] [Pic]

A few years back, Bethesda released a sprawling, open-world RPG on the 360. Then, when it came time to release some DLC for it, they dropped the ball. Released some horse armour, whole thing didn't go down too well. So it's just lovely to see that, when it comes to Fallout 3's DLC, Bethesda will be releasing content that's more in line with their later Oblivion stuff - like Knights of the Nine - than the earlier stuff. Pete Hines:

We want stuff that's going to be several hours. Not just like a one-off thing, but something like where you can download it and play it for X number of hours.

It'll be similar to what we did with Knights of the Nine in Oblivion, where it's like whole new quest lines, new stuff, that kind of thing.

Good to hear, good to hear (unless you're a PS3 owner, that is).

Fallout 3 Interview: Bethesda Addresses DLC, World Design, and 'Oblivion with Guns' Comments [Shacknews, via Eurogamer]