Video gamers who survive will fall into ‘The Pitt’

‘ ‘ ‘ Can’t Pittsburgh get a break from zombie attacks? It’s enough that the city has to handle… ‘ ‘ ‘ Can’t Pittsburgh get a break from zombie attacks? It’s enough that the city has to handle its ‘Dawn of the Dead’ legacy, but now it must face apocalyptic mutants. Poor Pittsburgh. ‘ ‘ ‘ This fine city will act as the setting for a new add-on to the popular video game ‘Fallout 3’ created by Bethesda Softworks. ‘ ‘ ‘ Except don’t search for an exact replica of Pittsburgh. ‘Fallout 3’ takes place in an alternate reality full of atomic wastelands and mutants. Jeff Gardiner, the lead producer of the ‘Fallout 3’ downloadable content packs, including ‘The Pitt,’ explained this future. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Imagine that the technological vision of the 1950s became real. Cars powered with small nuclear generators, ray guns, robot butlers. Fast-forward to the year 2077, a nuclear holocaust occurs. The entire world is plunged into an anarchistic abyss,’ said Gardiner. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Fallout 3’ begins 200 years after the bombs drop. The survivors regroup, but not everyone is on the same side. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Some hunt for ancient technology. Others try to re-establish a fascist vision of America. Others huddle together, just trying to stay alive,’ said Gardiner. ‘ ‘ ‘ Pittsburgh, the lucky city it is, avoids the bombs but still deals with radioactive fallout. A group of survivors calling themselves Raiders take over the city and restart the steel mills by using human slaves. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ”The Pitt’ is a deep, multi-faceted quest line with a branching story based upon players’ decisions. The player can interact with the world in many ways other than through shooting and throwing grenades. You can make decisions on whether to help people, hurt them or leave them to their fate,’ said Gardiner. ‘ ‘ ‘ Throughout the game, the player has to make tough moral decisions, and not just whether to blow up a mutant with a rocket launcher or a grenade. One of the imperative components of ‘The Pitt,’ though, is that the player proves himself in a fighting pit controlled by the Raiders. But when players aren’t flailing in a pit full of vicious mutants, you can always go and sight-see the rest of ‘Fallout 3’ Pittsburgh. ‘ ‘ ‘ Erik Caponi is a designer for ‘Fallout 3’ and helped develop the landscape of an apocalypse-ravaged Pittsburgh. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘One thing that was particularly important to me was that we nail the skyline. Pittsburgh has a very distinct downtown vista, and even people who have never visited the city can recognize it,’ said Caponi. ‘ ‘ ‘ As much as Caponi would have loved to copy every detail of the ‘Burgh, the ‘Fallout 3’ world is still different than today. For example, in the timeline of the game, Pittsburgh’s steel industry never imploded, and so the steel mills are thriving closer to Downtown. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘We wanted to have the general architecture of Downtown be familiar, but avoid having it be a specific recognizable location in order to reinforce the idea that this is a settled island in a dangerous urban ocean,’ said Caponi. ‘To people who know the city, it should be both familiar and strange at the same time.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ To create the game’s version of Pittsburgh, Bethesda sent its staff to Pittsburgh to photograph buildings and landmarks used in the game. Then, the designers built a mesh ‘mdash; a three-dimensional wire frame ‘mdash; and refined it with texture, lighting and reflections. Then the object was inserted into the game and tested to see if it was compatible with game play. ‘ ‘ ‘ It’s fun to imagine the University’s campus as a creepy decrepit mutant lair. Picturing hungry inside-out monsters crawling through Posvar Hall or Hillman Library creates a frightful mixture of awesomeness and terror. But could Bethesda ignore the Cathedral of Learning, one of the most frightening buildings on campus? ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘We had talked about using the Cathedral of Learning as a location at several points in development. I don’t want to get too specific, but Pitt students might find that Ashur’s ‘Palace’ looks familiar,’ said Caponi. ‘ ‘ ‘ Hopefully the Cathedral will get what it deserves in ‘The Pitt.’ Before the soot and grime was cleaned off the Cathedral in 2007, the building already looked as if it was the victim of nuclear holocaust. It would fit right into a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh.