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Fallout 3 Gets Leaked, Goes Gold
Fallout 3 is due to be released in a few weeks, and Bethesda recently announced that all versions of the game have gone gold. They provided the systems specs for the PC release as well. Unfortunately for them, the Xbox 360 version was leaked onto torrent sites almost three weeks early. Bethesda is "looking into" how the game was distributed. In preparation for the launch, game director Todd Howard spoke at length with Gamasutra about the scope of the project, and the differences from their previous games, such as Oblivion. CrispyGamer recently ran a three-part series detailing their four hours of hands-on time with the game. We've previously looked at some gameplay videos for Fallout 3, and discussed the fact that no mod tools will ship with the game.
Ahh, good old torrent leaks. This brings me back to ought 4 when the French released Halo 2 weeks before the official release date. Those were good times...
One man with a gun can control 100 without one
I came here to say exactly this. They wouldn't have any problems with early leaks if they made it available for downloading as soon as the final image was mastered.
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Simply put, marketing. It's alot easier to compete with no other AAA title the week of release. The upcoming weeks are pretty crammed with titles bringing alot of hype. Dead Space (this week), Fable II (next week), Gears of War 2 (11/7), etc. And that's just on the 360
Instead, their biggest competition will be Guitar Hero World Tour, which I don't really seeing big competition to Fallout.
Fine by me.
I torrent games to use them as somewhat of a Demo. I play it to see if I like it, if I like it and am still interested I go out and buy it.
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
Either this is the greatest troll of all time, or you really missed out. Go and play Fallout. Then play Fallout 2. You'll realise why the rest of us pretty much gave Tactics a miss.
Now, I give it ten minutes before some old bugger with a three-digit ID comes along and tells me to play Wasteland.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
I dealing with the other component of the the complaint-- I'm not sure Bethesda won't do a good job here. Oblivion had a few problems, but IMO it showed at least a technical competence to make a good Fallout game. The writing and voice acting in Oblivion need to be improved, and I can definitely see lots of things that could be refined. I also hope that, in Fallout, they don't level enemies throughout the game.
In case anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about, in Oblivion, enemies everywhere become more difficult as you level up. That means you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything early in the game, but there is less payoff for leveling up. The old Fallout games took a different approach, making enemies harder in certain areas, those areas being places that you shouldn't really get to until later in the game.
But with Oblivion, Bethesda has succeeded in making a big and open world that feels relatively organic. You can find lots of little side-quests and explore on your own, and your choices make at least a little bit of a difference in what happens. Plus, you can really specialize your character, and what kind of character you build has a substantial effect on how you can approach problems, as well as how people react to you. Take all that and mix in a little Fallout style, and you have a game that I'll play. It might not be everything that I've always imagined Fallout 3 might be, but it should be interesting.
That's my take. I'm not sure if it will be the Fallout 3 I always wanted. However, still looks like a very entertaining game in the somewhat-spirit of Fallout. I am waiting for a few reviews, esp. from those journalists that understand the history of the series a bit before I just run out and buy it. SO far it is certainly on "will buy more than likely" list.
Just a note on Fallout 3 - the level scaling is pretty much nixed. Thee is a bit of here here and there (kinda like an instancing level scaling), but some areas will screw you over outright, and some places will be very easy when you return to them later on.
I disagree. Once you've made the single hardware modification, you never need to jump through that hoop ever again. Also, the people who sell the hardware to you provide enough instructions so that even a 10 year-old who has played with legos can successfully mod their xbox. Anyone who knows how to torrent a game is going to have the mental capacity to successfully modify their xbox.
PC games, on the other hand, require a different software patch depending on the copy protection scheme that you need to get around. This can be something simple like copy-pasting a crack, or you may have to install other software packages. And this needs to be done for EVERY game.
Pirating an xbox game is just as easy as pirating a PC game the first time. After that, pirating an xbox game is MUCH EASIER than pirating PC games. The people who think otherwise have never actually tried both.
Sigh.. Yes, i miss Black Isle. And their Fallout 3 (which was codenamed Van Buren, btw). I tried it, the tech demo has been released on the internet. And it seemed REALLY promising. And to think they was to release Baldurs Gate 3 on the same engine? Incredible engine. Well, i dont remember where i got the tech demo, but here's a youtube of Van Buren: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uuDKrY7eW0 I do not believe Bethesda will be as true to the source as the Van Buren engine got...