Finally, we jumped ahead to a highly advanced area just outside the capitol building, where the once-splendid square had been transformed into a massive war zone, complete with a network of World War I-style trenches dug throughout the streets. In this sequence, we watched a powerful character wearing power armor (the signature armor of the Brotherhood of Steel--the technically advanced faction of "knights" that attempts to keep the threat of mutants at bay) and wielding several powerful firearms go after an army of wandering super mutants. We went after these powerful brutes with a minigun and then switched to the Fat Man grenade launcher to flush out a few entrenched super mutants who blasted us with rocket launchers. In several cases, we were rushed by our enemies in the trenches and had several harrowing experiences in real-time combat where our minigun's clip emptied out just as we were cleared to fire back and--coupled with the weapon's startup delay--put us back in the line of fire at that very moment.

The game is currently still in an alpha state of development--content is still being added and taken away. According to a Bethesda representative, the primary game is shaping up to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 hours of gameplay, though it will offer dozens of hours of other stuff to do for players who enjoy exploring side quests and other types of content. For instance, you'll find multiple outcomes available to different quests as you side with different factions, and you may also receive random quests as you pick up communiques on your PipBoy, such as distress calls or new missions to perform.

In fact, Bethesda is on record in saying that Fallout 3 will be a noticeably smaller game than Oblivion overall, but I hope that smaller scope will allow the developers to fill the world with a greater density of content, like quests, extra gear, and optional storylines. Hines estimated to me around 25 hours of time to complete the main storyline, with another 40 to 50 hours of optional gameplay available. Those numbers are still in flux as development progresses, as is the number of variations on the game's ending (which Hines half-jokingly now puts at around 500).

One thing Bethesda is sure about is that Fallout 3 will be out on all three platforms in 2008. Hines cites the rocky nature of making games early on the 360 and PS3--consoles which at the time were themselves still in development--as the primary culprit for Oblivion's lengthy production cycle. Now the team at Bethesda has plenty of experience on all the available hardware, so you can rest assured you'll be traversing the radioactive wastes by the end of this year.