ince announcing that it would be taking the reins of one of the revered Fallout series, Bethesda has faced a barrage of feedback. Some saw the decision to move from isometric, turn-based gameplay to a more action-oriented, third-person game as an inevitable step. Technology has changed since Fallout debuted in 1997, so it stands to reason that a newer incarnation should take advantage of those advancements. Others in the fan community likened that move to blasphemy, saying that Bethesda had abandoned core components of the game. Worse, the company didn’t seem to have any idea what made the original such a classic—the humor, freedom and environments.

At the center of this debate is Bethesda’s Pete Hines, the company’s VP of PR and Marketing. We spoke to Hines about how the team handles such criticisms and what players can expect to see when Fallout 3 launches in 2008.