fallout 3 train head.png

Believe it or not, developers cut corners all the time when it comes to making games - especially if it's a particularly big project. And Bethesda, the studio behind The Elder Scrolls and the recent Fallout games, is no stranger to such practices. Usually crafting titles that are absolutely massive in scope, it's no secret that Bethesda tends to pull a few unorthodox tricks in order to get things to work - but this newly discovered development workaround from Fallout 3 really takes the biscuit.

In the PlayStation 3 title's Broken Steel expansion, you end up blasting your way through an abandoned metro station. In it, there's still a working train that you're tasked with powering up, but it turns out that this public transport system's got a dark secret.

PC Gamer has found that instead of actually building a working train, Bethesda decided to simply stick the model onto a non-playable character who exists beneath the tracks. When you climb aboard, a script fires that sends the NPC sliding down the tracks, simulating a moving train. Incredible.

What do you make of this? Did you ever wonder how Fallout 3's creaky old engine was able to handle a moving train, or were you always thinking that something wasn't quite right? Don't try this at home in the comments section below.

[source pcgamer.com, via kotaku.co.uk]