http://kotaku.com/371657/fallout-3-has-over-200-endings

" It seems Bethesda's changed plans for Fallout 3 quite a bit since I first got a glimpse of the game in action back in June of last year. When they originally stated they were going for 9-12 endings, I was seriously impressed, imagining the sort of replay value that would generate. Now Bethesda's Todd Howard has appeared in the latest OXM podcast, saying that the game now has more than 200 different endings as of last week. 200 endings? That doesn't even seem like a real number, does it? Considering he's also saying the game is twice as long as they initially estimated (40 hours with side quests), I am pretty sure you could play the game forever. Todd says the game is finished and on track for Fall 2008, but needs a ton of testing and polishing. Hit up OXM below for the full story while I try to wrap my head around the whole 200 ending thing."

I was looking to post this in that other Fallout 3 thread I saw, but I couldn't find it, oh well. Anyway, wow over 200 endings, that's crazy! I haven't played Fallout 2 in a looooong time('98/'99, I forgot), but wow, Fallout 3 is shaping up to be a monster. I can't wait for this game to be released.

Problem with something like that is it just screams it's not full endings, but slightly changed dialog. Heck fire emblem on the gamecube could be considered to have hundreds of endings based upon combinations of people that die. Could have 200 full ones but I doubt it.

200 endings probably about 3 or 4 that are really different. Still nice to see they're putting lots of effort into, Fallout fans deserve it.

Fallout 1 & 2 also had hundreds of endings, technically.

Bethesda is probably making the same type of consequences overview as Fallout 1&2. It means when you finish the game you will see the consequences of your actions in the game, like what happens to X town after you saved it from raiders, or the fate of Y village where you helped the local thugs control it, etc...

First good news about Fallout 3 in a looong time...

200 Endings, 40h? Damn I really hope they have not done their Bethesda magic and made a Oblivion in the Future. I want a Fallout dammit. No generated country-side, no generated NPCs. Please I just want a good story.

200 ending? I'm all for replay value, but 200 ending is just crazy.

On another note, how awesome do you think the manual will be. The fallout instruction manual definately amused me.

It's impressive until you know what it really means. 200 endings is the number of permutations in the endings.

If you've played the earlier fallouts, they ended with a slideshow where each town had say, 2 or 3 possible outcomes based on what you did. So in fact, Fallout 2 had 47 different SETS of outcomes, making for over 1 million possible endings.

The way Fallout 3 is described, it actually has only about 8 different sets of outcomes, thereby making 200 possible endings.

The news is far less exciting than they make it sounds and is actually a downgrade from past series entries.

Supposedly there will be 9-12 original endings and the 200 number will be variations on those dozen endings. Still, 12 completely different endings sounds great. They also mentioned there will be many new cutscenes during gameplay depending on what you do.

 Manuals for the older computer games used to be a great experiance, like Fallout.  Now of days the box and manuals are lackluster.

Sigh. I remember back in the day when reading the manuals to the new computer games I bought was one of the highlights of the game for me. Oh well, I not like the manuals and Boxes are the most important part of the game, but I wish they would receive the attention they deserve.