Fallout 3 DLC and Games For Windows Live Woes 121
A reader writes with news that the Operation Anchorage downloadable content for Fallout 3 has been released. Rock, Paper, Shotgun details the extensive difficulties encountered by users of Games for Windows Live while trying to locate and install the new content. This is the first in a series of three DLC releases, and they are exclusive to the PC and Xbox 360. The last, Broken Steel, will allow players to continue within the game once the main story is finished. Unfortunately, Bethesda apparently doesn't plan to patch that ability into the PS3 version.
So tired (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm starting to be a bit tired of all the "games for windows", "rockstar whatever club", "funny happy spend-five-minutes-filling-info superfun club".
It's starting to ressemble the forced trailers in movies, the "don't copy or I kill you" warnings, and all the other crap that only pushes people more and more towards downloading movies and cracking games.
The school of thought based on countering the flaw "people won't like it" with "fuck'em they'll buy anyway" must die, now that "they won't necessarily buy".
Re:Umm... (Score:1, Insightful)
Maybe your character was literally vaporized. Mine chickened out, thank you very much.
And no, it's not ridiculous. What's ridiculous is that there is a radiation filled chamber, there's a guy who is immune to the radiation standing next to you, but he refuses to do the deed. My hope is that the DLC will fix that little problem, thus enabling you to continue on your way without also being a douche.
Re:So tired (Score:4, Insightful)
There will eventually be a point where even the most hardened PC gamer will think: why am I bothering with this crap when all I want to do is play the fucking game? It's not worth the effort when a console provides a much smoother experience.
The sad thing is that PC gaming CAN provide a superior experience - but shit like this isn't helping.
Re:So tired (of all this bullshit) (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm starting to be a bit tired of all the "games for windows", "rockstar whatever club", "funny happy spend-five-minutes-filling-info superfun club".
Absolutely. This kind of bullshit, combined with aggressive DRM, is turning the first twenty, thirty, or more minutes of 'gaming' on the PC into an experience equivalent to filing tax returns.
All the top dogs in the industry are barking on about piracy being their biggest problem. Their biggest problem is that if you take the FUN out of an entertainment product, it fails, utterly, in its most crucial objective. The clue is in the word entertainment.
You can remove enjoyment from a product in a number of ways: directly, by making mediocre games or by forcing you to jump through hoops before you can play them... but also indirectly: by acting like such an asshole that nobody can relax long enough to get into your game.
Seriously... if you went out to the local bowling alley, and the guy on the desk said 'You're a fucking thief, and a liar, and we'll be watching you. Here's your shoes and have fun!' ... I would not be having fun at the bowling alley.
Even on the off chance that I didn't leave immediately, I'd spend eight frames thinking 'What a fucking asshole' instead of getting into the bowling.
If you have DRM that makes my purchase into a rental, you don't get my money. That's a given. But there's a bigger problem than that:
I no longer care enough to pirate most of these games. They're the work of assholes.
Screw the DLC (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So tired (of all this bullshit) (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously... if you went out to the local bowling alley, and the guy on the desk said 'You're a fucking thief, and a liar, and we'll be watching you. Here's your shoes and have fun!' ... I would not be having fun at the bowling alley.
The guy at the desk also have to tell you to wait 20-30 mins, even though all the lanes are free, because that's how long it takes to fire up a lane.
And then he says 'Yeah, we're just rigging security cameras to make sure you don't play more than ten frames, or get any redos, or let a friend share your go... (whispers) or bring their own shoes. We know you're a fucking cheat, and a liar, see. This is for your own good. If we didn't spend millions on our high tech security system, and pass the cost directly on to our customers, whilst simultaneously alienating them, and disenfranchising them from the whole bowling experience... well... if we didn't do that we might go out of business.'
Re:Umm... (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with Fallout 3's ending was that it was short and stupid.
Close your eyes if you don't want to read a spoilers
The first bit of stupidity is how you die (if you go in). Recognizing that I was about to jump into some heavy duty radiation I dutifully jumped into my rad suit, popped some radaway and rad X, and pumped up on rad resistance. I walked in and watched the old Geiger counter slowly tick up. Awesome. I can stick around here for a good 5 min before anything really bad happens... I hit the button... and the game tells me that I am dead.
WTF.
The other problem is that the story is surprisingly short and narrow. Fallout 3 isn't as "big" as Fallout 1 or 2, but that is ok. The problem is that the story makes it artificially short. In the original Fallout games, the story would lead you to most major locals. You could explore on your own, but you could trust the story to lead you to the highlights. You didn't have to stick around and do all that there was to do, but you knew it was there. In Fallout 3 no such thing happened. The story basically takes you to two towns and a couple of glorified dungeons. If you follow the story you miss out on a massive hunk of content.
The story never gives you much of a chance to breathe and enjoy the world. In the original Fallouts, getting dumped into a town clueless was a pretty common occurrence. You often took breaks from the story because you had to. In Fallout 3, the story is "urgent" and you feel compelled keep up with it. If you do this, you will burn through the thin and shallow story quickly.
Finally, the story sucked. The world wasn't half bad. I personally thought that it felt "emptier" (and not in a good way) than the originals. Characters said less, the world was less complex, the factions more dull, the personalities more transparent, etc. Other than being pretty, the world was shallow. The story made it worse. The story was extremely shallow. You get a taste of what it might be in the opening scenes... but it falls flat on its face.
It is probably unfair to compare, but I know that my response to "winning" the original Fallout was profound. To this day, I still have an emotional response to the song they play as you walk away from the vault with Dogmeat. I can safely say that Fallout was the first game where the ending made me really feel anything and swallow hard a few times. The ending to Fallout 3? Eh. I was annoyed that the game declared me dead despite being basically invulnerable to radiation and annoyed that the game ended with me seeing only a fraction of the world.
I am not trashing on Fallout 3... it is great for what it is. I had a good time and I am glad I played, it is just that Fallout 3 is no Fallout.
Re:So tired (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, trying to be more like the consoles is precicely what causes most of these problems. Games for Windows Live, Rockstar Super Adventure Club, and Steam (which for some reason usually gets a free pass) all attempt to create a more console-ish experience. Fuck that, it doesn't even matter whether they succeed or not. A decent server browser works perfectly fine, somehow I don't think a half-competent developer will have a problem implementing it if Epic could get it right back with UT99.
All the points, achievements and all the other pointless shit can fuck right off. And really, what's with the idea of yet another instant messaging system? PCs have this thing called "multitasking" which allows us to use existing communication channels to talk to friends. But no, apparently that's too hard for some of the drooling retards to understand. And of course the whole DLC thing is another bastardization of an old PC concept, known as Expansion, Add-on, or Bonus Pack. Buy it if it costs something, download the content, run the installer, and BAM! There's the expansion, right next to the original game.
Contrary to how it might seem from this post, I'm not actually foaming at the mouth. Still, I'll probably have to play some Quake Wars to release some steam, as it's actually one of the few recent (if you can call it that) games that gets almost everything right. There's no DRM besides the serial, the game doesn't really need to be "installed" and I think can even be played from a network share. The server browser is very nice and has plenty of useful filters, while the friends system is simple and unobtrusive, and the permanent statistics have no impact on the game besides your virtual dick size. Just the way it should be, unfortunately judging by the sales figures people enjoy grinding XP just too much.
Re:Minimal problems with xbox version. (Score:2, Insightful)
I play with headphones all the time and have never had sound issues. I use the onboard sound on my 680i motherboard.
VATS never lags at all for me, and I have very similar system specs...an extra gig of RAM and an 8800 instead of a 8600. That being said the 8600 is (no slight intended on the card) a budget model, so maybe you should try NOT running everything on max settings and see if VATS still lags.
Finally, saying they have optimized for the XBOX but not the PC is silly. The XBOX has set hardware and driver. For the PC, what will you optimize for? AMD or Intel CPUs? ATI or Nvidia graphics cards?
Its like the old red herring argument about Macs never having blue screens and driver issues...well I'm sure if MS made a MS PC with certain hardware you couldn't swap out it would run great too.
Sue Bethesda (Score:2, Insightful)
If I paid for the PS3 version of Fallout 3 only to find out I'm not going to get the same treatment as those who own it on PC or 360, I'd be suing the living shit out of Bethesda for anti-competitive practices and bait-and-switch. Note that the *MICROSOFT* systems get the Broken Steel DLC the *SONY* system will not.
This is BULLSHIT.
Re:So tired (of all this bullshit) (Score:3, Insightful)
I am a diehard PC gamer, and I wholeheartedly agree.
I now read reviews first and foremost to find out what manner of fucktard-inspired DRM and compulsory tracking/on-line registration is involved. I also return games which contain these things but do not say that they do on the box (e.g. I recently returned Company of Heroes because if it detects an Internet connection it phones home to Relic to let them know you're playing... no, not ok).
I only wish reviewers included specific and exhaustive details of the DRM and on-line 'features' of every game they reviewed. It is more important than whether they give it an 8.0 or an 8.5.
If you haven't already, check out Good Old Games: DRM-free PC classics, re-released with XP and Vista compatibility.
Re:How to play Operation: Anchorage without Live (Score:3, Insightful)
Yaarrrr, there be ways, matey.
Bethesda: Fix your shit and dump Windows Live, or customers like me will have to do the dirty deed instead.
Re:Minimal problems with xbox version. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes. why the fuck am I paying them money for?