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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.
Was there a "Falling Out" with a disgruntled employee?
There will definitely be some "Fallout" for the leak.
DISCLAIMER: This post was not checked for speling and grammar- if you complain- you're a whiner
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 want the PC version leaked!
I think Linux isn't better than Windows hence in the slashdot realm I'm a troll
Better for everyone because it makes them come out with the game sooner!
What boggles my mind is why sit on the game until some arbitrary release date and why not sell it sooner?
I noticed a crapload of games slated for end of oct/begining of nov. Stuff like Fallout 3, gears of war 2, wow: lich king. Who's great idea was it to flood the market at some seemingly random time?
Sell the damn game when it's ready!
Unless it's some marketing ploy that's sold as a "Fire your employees before the game comes out so you can cash in on it's success even better(TM)".
Going with Bethesda? Bethesda BOUGHT the Fallout franchise from Interplay (which has gone down the shitter near 100%) 3-4 years ago. In fact, the IP Interplay is using for the Fallout MMO (that they are supposedly working on) had to be licensed from Bethesda to use after the sale of said IP.
There are not a lot of 360's out there that can run pirated games, this may help the game more than it will hurt it.
Maybe from Sony's perspective, Blu-ray was an extra hurdle to help reduce piracy. There are a lot more DVD burners than Blu-ray burners, for now.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
The leaked 360 version isn't retail, but is a review copy. The interwebs have given a lot of flack to SEED4ME about their releases.
In fairness, the number of people who actually download and run the Xbox 360 leak will be tiny compared to what the effect would have been with a PC-version leak. Getting pirated games running on a 360 involves the kind of hardware modification that is beyond the level of the average user and, in any event, makes the machine unusable on Xbox Live.
The impact of this leak will be fairly tiny in terms of lost sales. Plot spoilers etc are going to be more of a concern.
Interplay WAS working on a Fallout 3 back in 2003. Then the project was canceled and the entire Black Isle Studio team was laid off. In addition, most of those employees had to legally fight to get their pay that they were owed. Most employees didn't get a settlement until a few years later. Interplay went bankrupt (chapter 7 style). Basically, Herver Caen (the CEO), since he took over the company in the early 2000 (do I have that right) basically took the company for a Titanic like ride and pretty much gutted it for anything worthwhile. The Fallout franchise sale was a probably a way to liquid assets it had to cover legal and back-pay costs they were racking up. While Beth may not make the best F3 game in the world, honestly, could have been a lot of worse companies to give it to (I'm sure a few better ones could have been thought, also).
Just some clarification. Interplay was going down the tubes, so they sold the rights to Fallout sequels to Bethesda. After a few months, and more fines and such piling up against Interplay, they sold the rights to the entire Fallout franchise to Bethesda in exchange for some more money and rights to a Fallout MMO.
Learn something new.
Getting pirated games running on a 360 involves the kind of hardware modification that is beyond the level of the average user and, in any event, makes the machine unusable on Xbox Live
The Xbox Live part was true for the Xbox, but not the 360.
Thanks for keeping us posted one the minutia of your life, man. Be sure and post here to let use know about all the other stuff you don't have or aren't able to do. We're dying to know. /. dude)
Isn't that what twitter is for?(not the
I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
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.
BeOS, please. And my friends here would like copies for Amiga and RiscOS.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Will a four digit ID do?
I played Wasteland on a C64.
I can remember swapping disks around to get a full inventory to the shop in Las Vegas..
And killing that massive bot at the intersection.. What was it some sort of Scorpion bot?
From TFS:
They provided the systems specs for the PC release as well.
Nope, I guess not.
It's in the article.
Same as Oblivion a CD check and that's pretty much it
I remember that damn scorpion bot...took like 10 LAW rockets and lots of full burning of clips to bring it down.... I played it on the C64 too...great game..
Aaahh... Innocence...
Rhymes well with ignorance and nonsense.
With incense too, but that is from another song.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Ummm.. Diablo 3 dumbed down???
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Diablo games aren't/were'nt that complicated in the first place! You could play Diablo 1 and 2 with one hand on the mouse. Really when you look at it Diablo is really just a Gauntlet clone with good storytelling. There's never been ANYTHING complicated about Diablo.. Which in my opinion is what makes it great!.. No need to think about anything, just click and play.
Scorpion tank :) It had good loot, law rockets.
Best game ever.
That's what I get for not RTFA.
---- Liquid was a patriot ----
Getting pirated games running on a 360 involves the kind of hardware modification that is beyond the level of the average user and, in any event, makes the machine unusable on Xbox Live
The Xbox Live part was true for the Xbox, but not the 360.
Yeah, modding a 360 to play pirated games is absolute cake and involves virtually zero risk to the hardware or your Live account. I'd bet that a lot of people knuckle down and mod their systems just to play this release.
I personally save quite a bit of money on my gaming habit as a result of modding my 360; I no longer buy or rent games to try them, I just download and burn. At $2 or so per DL DVD+R, it's a no-brainer.
Wasteland was an excellent game in its 16 color 1988 glory. 20 years is a long time. I'm sure most people these days wouldn't be able to handle it very well as it's pretty much a text adventure with a map and some repetitive pictures.
F1 and F2 were great games and I enjoyed Tactics, it was different but it was still Fallout...turning off real-time combat made it playable.
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
You never said easy.. you said "Dumbed down for the consoles". There are MANY console games that are also far from easy. My point is its not being dumbed down for consoles. Its the same damn gameplay elements that are in all the other Diablo's.. And for the record I have finished all the Diablo games. Please try to put some filler in your discussion other than " you obviously havent played it".
Diablo isn't that complicated of a concept to begin with. As I said in my previous post its really like a evolution on the original Gauntlet with a beginning and an end and great visuals and a great story. Theres NOTHING to dumb down in the first place. Get over it.
I first played it on the C64 also, and burned the floppy drive out with it from swapping the disks so much. Insert disk 2, insert disk 1, insert disk 3 insert disk 1...but the Citadel was TONS of fun despite the swapping =)
The Scorpion thing...that was best to split your team up so they all didn't get taken out all at once. Medic skills came in super handy at that time. So many great story bits in that game...
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
Not true.
I have a modded 360 and I have a copy of fallout.
Since I've started playing fallout I haven't connected to live because they do search people's accounts to if they played the game (achievements and such.) Before fallout, I've played copies of guitar hero and halo 3 online. (I do own the retail copies of these games.)
Usually this isn't a problem but since it was released weeks early, hiding is the best course of action.
Btw, the game is complete. Achievements, endings, story lines... I don't see anything that's missing.
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.
It all depends on how you compile it. Once you get it to run on your platform of choice, no file system is actually required to see usage information. The recommended system requirements would be to have a file systems supported by fsck to get maximum use out of fsck.
It must be really cramped in there to be creating gaming hardware inside of an Xbox 360. ;)
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.
... Damn you.
---- Liquid was a patriot ----
I found the environment in Oblivion to be a modern miracle to behold, absolutely gorgeous and stunning. The leveling system I found to be frustrating to the point of near unplayability, very much harming the enjoyment of the game. I also found the storyline to be underwhelming. But wow, those environments! I could wander around for hours just soaking it in.
How's Fallout stack up?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Getting pirated games on a 360 involves:
1) Opening the 360.
2) Taking the DVD drive out.
3) Connecting the DVD drive to your PC.
4) Turning on your PC.
5) Running a program on your PC.
6) Turning your PC off.
7) Putting the 360 back together.
That's a "hardware modification"?
Please don't say the abbreviation f*, as we all know what it really means. I find your post vile.
I don't know what the hell Microsoft is thinking wasting time on the 360 mess. The system is considered the worst console ever made and it is selling just as poorly worldwide as the first Xbox disaster.
Wake the fuck up Microsoft and dump this Xbox shit and put your efforts into reviving the PC gaming market.
The system is considered the worst console ever made? By who? You?
The opinion of one idiot does not measure up to the fact that around 20 million Xbox 360s have been sold worldwide so far. In North America, the PS3 lags far behind in both sales and game selection.
The 360 is way more profitable than PC gaming will be from now on. MS stands to make money off software and accessory sales to 20 million customers. Do 20 million people upgrade their video cards so that their PCs are able to run any modern games?
Microsoft is wide awake; you are fast asleep.
Not played either but a quick google reveals Xenogears and Chrono Cross.
This is getting off-topic now though isn't it...
Yeah Wasteland did not age well. Tried it again about 2 months ago. Ack.
Yes, it is, and that's why I will never be doing it for any consoles I own. It's all down to step 1) Opening the 360. Doing so voids all warrantees on the system, so if the system breaks down later for whatever reason, even unrelated to the mod, you'll still get a nice big bugger off from the company. When it comes to hardware, this is a big deal for me, and even more so to the population at large. PC pirating, even though more complex, does not suffer from this type of problem, which is a large part of why is it so much more popular.
Soldering some wires, attaching a modchip, those kinds of mods would be hardware mods. Updating firmware, however, that's a software modification. Feel free to put that asshat back on.
Think of it this way - if you don't buy 4 $60 games because you can borrow/rent them and burn them onto a $2 DL DVD, you can buy a brand new Xbox when you get the red ring of death. Simple economics.
"But this one goes to 11!"
yea, you're probably right. i meant games similar to Fallout. for instance, i heard Silent Storm has a similar feel to Fallout, although it's set in World War II and leans more towards spy-fi. but i guess there probably aren't a lot of games like that. it's pretty rare that you find a game that mixes a good plot, rich back story, and original gameplay.
You can play chess with one hand on the mouse (or occasionally used to move pieces on the board, if you wanted) and the other hand down your pants. Is chess dumbed down too?
More computer game-ish, NWN and NWN2 played just fine using only the mouse if I recall correctly. Needing only the mouse doesn't mean it's dumbed down (though NWN2 and especially NWN1 was somewhat dumbed down from the traditional non-computer D&D ...)
My problem with Diablo II is that it made my clicking finger ache. :)
Diablo was a Nethack clone (or at least a rogue-alike), not a Gauntlet clone. This was more obvious in the frst Diablo where everything moved at the same speed. D1 was turn-based in early development, really just Nethack with graphics, but at some point the devs saw the light. (Then the devs went on to found Flagship Studios and become the laughing stock of the industry, but that's a different story.)
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Firmware is just software stored in flash memory. It is not generally considered a hardware mod to upgrade a cell phone or a dvd player or an ipod. Supertusse's definition is the common usage, your definition is not.
A firmware is a piece of software, which runs on hardware. This is similar to how the OS runs using hardware. This is still a modification of software, but at a lower level than most software mods are applied. *Refrains from throwing around insults*
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
*speaks up in tiny voice*
Erm, as someone lucky enough to have a Wii, a PS3, and a gaming rig, I find myself wanting to play more of the shooter-type stuff on the PS3 rather than on my PC. Why?
--bigger screen to play on
--controls are easier (no keymapping shit by hand)
--Smoother performance (even with a gaming rig, for stuff just runs smoother on a dedicated machine).
--
I'm currently waiting for Bioshock for the PS3 to come out, and may do Dead Space also. Mind you, I also still love my PC for more complex gaming (Conan and Hellgate London, may join the WoW cult also)(yeah yeah yeah whatever).
So, I don't think it's a matter of killing PC gaming via the Xbox or whatever; I think that you'll just see a more natural progression of more complex games staying on the PC and anything that CAN be reduced to a controller pad WILL be and will be big on the consoles.
I enjoyed Oblivion, but I cheated a lot to gain that enjoyment. There was no penalty (that I could detect) for not sleeping, you only leveled when you slept for an hour, and skills appeared to continue going up regardless of your level. So I played most of the game at level 9 and then when I got tired of those critters and gear, stopped "waiting" (which did not level you) and did 4 1 hour "sleeps". Then did the same thing later.
To me it was a very pretty sandbox game with a storyline. I expect more of the same with Fallout. I hope the voice acting is implemented better. I hope that generic bandits don't start out with with bows and hide armor in the beginning and then 10 hours into the game come equipped with chain lasers and plasteel powerarmor in the sameareas. We'll see.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
No, you have to open the case. There are add-ons like the Xeno Top Gear that insure you only have to open the case once, but open it you must to flash the firmware on the 360.
Contrary to what you're being told, Microsoft DOES ban consoles with modded firmware on Xbox LIVE. Not all consoles all of the time (certain older consoles are unblockable). However, my understanding is they'll kill your Xbox Live Gold account (cancel it with no refund), so you'll want to keep the modded hardware off XBOX Live. This means, as a practical measure, many people will need 2 360s and if you want to play games online, you're probably going to have to buy them.
BTW, The are reasons for banning other than piracy. Some people use firmware hacks to cheat in online games, notably Halo 3.
Getting pirated games running on a 360 involves the kind of hardware modification that is beyond the level of the average user and, in any event, makes the machine unusable on Xbox Live.
False.
A) Flashing the DVD drive on most older Xbox 360s involves nothing more than plugging the drive into the computer. It is beyond the level of the average user, but not beyond the average user's geeky friend who they can convince to do things.
B) Flashed 360s are totally usable on Xbox Live. I think maybe you're thinking of the original Xbox, which indeed had no easy, publicly available way to play burnt games on Live until recently (when what amounts to a backport of the 360 drive hack was released).
There was a period when Microsoft tried to detect flashed firmware and ban it on Live, but it was easily circumvented by new firmwares and resulted in a lot of false positives / bannings, so they've laid off.
I don't really understand why you're modded insightful, but it sure as hell made me laugh :)
Firmware flashing is not "hardware modification". It simply IS NOT. Flashing firmware is rewriting the SOFTWARE stored in flash memory. The original poster was concerned about opening the case on his 360 because doing so would void the warranty. He wanted a solution to play backups on the 360 without opening the case (this currently does not exist). Simply opening the case of a 360 IS NOT hardware modification, and that's all we're talking about here.
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...
Bleh...another shooter. Talk about UN-original.
Really, I like shooters but it's starting to get redundant. Where is the creativity (other than the creativity of the art in the games)?
And not 100% true for the XBox either, I can disable my chip, load the retail BIOS, and use the retail Dashboard.
They give some BS reason about not being able to give the "full experience" of Fallout 3 in a demo because they would have to ship the entire game. Ummm, sure whatever. You can always tell when they're lying and frankly it's insulting.
Anyway they've been whining about piracy but all this will do it make sure that everyone goes out to piratebay and downloads it for free. In this economy people don't want to pay $50-$60 to try out a game and a) hope their system runs it well and b) hope they like it. But hey, what do I know.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Wasteland was pretty cool. My cousin had it on his Tandy 1000; never ran it on mine 'cause I was too busy playing Operation Overkill ][ on BBSs.
Now that was a great post-nuclear game. In a lot of ways, it gave me even more appreciation for the first two fallout games.
Convincing Slashdot to upmod you for saying "Let's transfer money from video game studios, which we love, to Microsoft, which we hate, because they have hardware problems". Really, there needs to be a meta-meta-mod for subverting anti-capitalism like that. I'd love to see your take on how we should abandon Linux to tie up MS' support lines, spend millions on iTunes to DDOS Apple's DRM servers, and vote straight-ticket Republican to convince everyone the Diebold voting machines must be rigged.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
You can play chess with one hand on the mouse (or occasionally used to move pieces on the board, if you wanted) and the other hand down your pants.
You must REALLY like chess...
And I thought I enjoyed intellectual pursuits.
Ride the skies
No 3-dig ID, but the fact that Fallout wasn't Wasteland 2 stopped me from playing it then. I was pretty pissed at the time. Now, I try to go back and see what the fuss is and the interface is horrid. -sigh- I've been spoiled by good interfaces and it really bugs me. I did recently purchased the 3-game set, but that UI hurdle is still stopping me.
I've heard the interface on 2 is better, but I'd really rather play 1 first.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
So... you get it cheap, on demand, and DRM free, and you complain that it's not old enough?
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
I've played both Fallout 2 and Oblivion and I sincerely hope Fallout 3 will be nothing like Oblivion.
The autoscaling of everything was pretty much the worst thing in O3.
It meant that you could go and beat the Big Bad Guy with a total wimp. It meant that if chose your skills wrong, you'd get slaughtered just by traveling along the main road when you were on a high enough level.
I meant that there was almost no point in exploring. You could search the most remote ruins and only find broken knives if you were on low level and once you had enough levels under your belt, every damn critter dropped stuff worth a fortune.
Lots of side quests? Sure. Your choices make a difference? Oh really...
Sure you could choose if you wanted to join the mage guild or the fighter guild or thief's guild or save the world or just do all of these. None of it mattered except within that quest. Sure you just saved the world, became the top fighter on arena and became the leader of the mage's guild - but when you decide to join the fighter's guild, no one has even heard of you. Hey, if it had been more like 'Oh, you may think you're the big hero, but in here you're a nobody' I'd have been overjoyed but the harsh reality was that all the quests were totally separate.
And did you have actual choices? What if you wanted to be the good guy and actually arrest the notorious thieves guild leader? Nope, as soon as you joined the thief's guild, even your journal assumed you had become a bad guy. And the only options were to complete the quests as a bad guy or to totally ignore them. I've heard one of the last quests even involved a 'traitor' who was basically trying to get the thief's guild leader arrested - and you could not actually leave the room unless you killed him. Choices indeed...
I don't even want to talk about combat except to say that compared to the highly tactical, engaging battles in Fallout 2, Oblivion was just totally boring.
Now Fallout 3 may turn out to be a good game, but after Oblivion I have serious doubts about it.
Interplay, when they sold the rights to Fallout, kept the right for an MMO, at least according to the articles at the time.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
This game turned out to be a disaster.
Did it? I haven't played it yet, but from previews and reviews, my impression is that it's not all that bad, particularly for a Bethesda game. Not as brilliant as FO1&2, but definitely a good buy.
And I just learned that a CD check is all the copyprotection it's going to get, so DRM is no excuse to boycott this game either (although I still intend to get the no-cd patch).
Damnit! Then this whole leak was pointless! Ok, what system do you have? We'll get working on it right away!
Could you leak it in a Debian install package?
Yeah it's less time to wait, but in another way that's almost more frustrating. If there's a long delay you can put it down to localisation, production times, etc., but with only a single day between each region that's clearly not the case - it's like they're deliberately doing it to rub our noses in it that we come last.
No, it's more like it's simply a distribution issue.
It looks very nice, but I can't tell if it's first-person or a hybrid first/third. At one point in the first video it looks like we see the player from the back. I'd hope it can be played as a hybrid as I can't play first-person games for more than about 20 minutes before I get motion sickness. Really sucks as there are obviously a ton of games out there I just can't play.
Bark less. Wag more.
Meh. I got a gold account when my brothers gave me the 360 last Xmas to play CoD4 with them. That got old inside of a month so since then I've only used it twice (to get the 2-player-only achievements in Lego Starwars) with one more coming up (the same in Lego batman). I don't buy games on live since I've heard too many horror stories about red-ring + DRM == unplayable, so yeah. BFD.
Unfortunately, I suck at soldering.
This is Bethesda. Between to extremely long load screen, downloading 3rd party fixes, and wondering why it's so damn slow you will ahve plenty of time to piss..and eat..and sleep..and pretty much go on vacation.
Smart money is on waiting 3 months.
If there was a line of people who released games, and Blizzard was o the extreme right of quality, Bethesda would be on the extreme left.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Hey, Porn Chess..GENIUS!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In theory, this might be true. But in practice, it's bad for business indirectly. Most sales right now are thru traditional retail channels, and those channels will be really pissed off if a publisher were to do this. They would view it as a betrayal, as sabotage. From their perspective, if this is done, they will lose a lot of sales to the online transfers.
Sure, if it was the next Halo, they'd probably suck it up. But their displeasure will manifest itself in other ways that you won't really like -- the next time you want to do a heavy marketing campaign to shore up a mediocre game, for instance, they might block it in their stores. Pissing off your main partners -- the people who move 90% of your units -- is a death wish.
This is changing, as electronic distribution will change everything eventually. But even then, they might move to press-on-demand (they'll have a machine in the back to literally manufacture a copy on demand). The other main reason stores are good? People like to browse. They'll buy other games just because they see them in the store. Electronic distro threatens THAT as well.
Are you high or something? That's basically the same game ... You would rather have another game identical to fallout1 and fallout2? What's the point? Even with the better graphics, it doesn't make any sense ...
This is nothing. Talk to the UK and Australian Rock Band fans if you really want to see "fuck you".
No soldering is required.
"Modding" the 360 involves removing, or partially removing, the DVD-ROM drive and flashing the firmware on the DVD-ROM drive using a Windows PC (I do not know if there are Linux or MacOS tools available).
You CAN buy mod chips that DO require soldering. Most of these work by effectively putting new DVD-ROM drive firmware "inline". This has a couple advantages:
1) Different 360s have different DVD-ROM drives and some are more "hacker-friendly" than others. Using a chip will allow you to bypass these restrictions.
2) Most of the chips have a USB port that will allow you to flash the firmware on the chip, which is more convenient.
3) Most importantly, using a chip allows you to TURN OFF the hacked firmware. This is very handy if you want to go on XBOX Live.
You're definitely better off with the chip, but it's not required.
There is absolutely no evidence to prove that people who have flashed their drives on their xbox with the latest firmware will recieve a live ban. Hence why no firmware update for almost a year now.
But XBOX Live updates HAVE blocked users with modded firmware in the past. It's just a fact. There haven't been many XBOX Live updates for the past year due to all the effort put in to the new XBOX Live Experience (with avatars and other crap) due out in November. That update will possibly affect current modders and if not, there is noting to prevent Microsoft from pushing out new updates. We certainly can't say that Microsoft has "given up" on
Flashed drives can only play exact replica games not ones moded for cheats.
This is simply wrong. Flashing drives breaks the "locking" that requires you to have an exact boot image. You can boot altered game images for this reason. I've seen modded copies of Halo 3 with different menu screens, so I have to believe you can make other changes. Though, as you pointed out, chipping defeats even the limited anti-cheat measures.
But why chip? Only losers would really be that bothered about cheating online, a flashed drive is free
I'm not recommending cheating in online games, I'm just saying that it's possible. And to be blunt, I'm virtually certain many of the players on the Halo 3 leaderboards are cheating with a combination of mod chips and XFPS keyboard/mouse adapters.
And I point out in my other posts, there are good reasons to go with a chip. A chip is a lot cheaper than a new console if yours gets banned.
Man I loved that Operation Overkill game. I found some telnet BBS's a couple of years back that were running it and it was still a lot of fun. That game was so active during the glory days though. Now you've done it. I'm going to have to go google up some telnet BBS's and get hooked again. You monster.
Microsoft can't do that. According to the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, the warranty remains in effect unless Microsoft can prove (and the onus is on them, not you) that the modification caused the problem.
Of course, the real issue is that you might not want to reveal the intent of the modification (i.e., copyright infringement).
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz