So how smart is the AI? Will they envy your sentience, or at least, pretend to be envious?

Pete Hines: We try not to go too overboard, and we've had to scale things back simply because we don't want things going on that the player doesn't understand. For instance, we don't let AI characters steal items from you - it sounds like something that would be cool and fun, having to lock your house and stuff, but the problem is that when you come back to your house and there are items missing, it doesn't feel like somebody's stolen them, more like the game's broken. We try to make sure that happenings in the game are understandable and are something that you can see and control.

And finally - how's Fallout 3 coming along?

Pete Hines: We've got a lot of folks working on that game now, and what I've seen of it so far is looking really good and has me very excited - I'm a big fan. We're approaching Fallout 3 as if we developed the first and second games - we're developing it just like we developed Oblivion. Fallout 3 is our baby, we want to stay true to what it is and we want to deliver something that all the fans think is worthwhile. We're trying to move the series forward, keeping it fresh and cool while staying true to its roots. When we're ready we'll let people know, and hopefully people will be excited about some of the ideas we have and some of the stuff we're up to.