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Fallout 3 Launches Amidst Controversy
Earlier this week, Bethesda released Fallout 3 after a long campaign of defending and protecting the game's reputation from claims that it contained inappropriate content. Ads for the game in Washington DC's subway system were pulled after they upset some touchy travelers over the depiction of post-apocalyptic Washington landmarks. Shortly before the game's release, early trailers were removed as well. Earlier this year, the game was banned in Australia for its in-game use of morphine, causing the drug's name to be changed to Med-X. On the issue of sensitive content, Bethesda's Emil Pagliarulo wrote in Edge Magazine about the design decision to disallow the killing of children in the game. Gamasutra ran an opinion piece on the same subject, and the Washington Post discusses the role of Washington DC in Fallout 3. On the DRM front, the game does come with SecuROM, but Bethesda says it's only used for a disc check. Reviews for the game have been overwhelmingly positive so far, despite reports of bugs with the save system and occasional lock-ups.
With all of the controversy surrounding Fallout 3 I'd have to say that Bethesda's doing a good job at keeping the game's reputation alive. I haven't ordered it yet but I'll be getting the deluxe version with the booklet and DVD.
Actually, I'm not doing anything more important so...
I'm a bit disappointed that you can't kill kids in the game but I suspect someone will find a way to patch it so that you can. Either way, it is a must have game for me with or without DRM.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
"The people of our city do not need a daily reminder that Washington is a prime target for an attack," wrote Joseph Anzalone in a letter to the editor of the Post which was noticed by GamePolitics. "We do not need a daily reminder of what our worst fears look like," added Anzalone. "Since any First Amendment objection would be irrelevant (the ads do not present a true viewpoint or political message and would therefore not be protected), there is no reason for these ads to be part of our daily panorama," he continued. "The ads should be removed, and the appropriate office at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority should be directed to exercise better judgment regarding what can be displayed in our transportation system," concluded the concerned citizen.
As a resident of the Washington DC metropilitan area, I fully support a multiple multimegaton nuclear apocalypse targeting the city.
Whoa whoa whoa, who said the ads were pulled? I was just in Metro Center yesterday and I can assure you, the Red line platform is still decked out with "Vault Life" and pictures of the Capitol and Washington Monument in apocalyptic splendor.
Even the article quoted only references a letter to the editor saying the ads should be pulled, nothing says they were.
I agree there is some controversy, but lets not go too far.
Quick background: in the game, there are several ways to restore hp (sleeping, eating, etc). Most food and drink is, however, contaminated, and will have a tooltip reading something like "+10 hp | +3 rads" indicating that while it will restore hp, it will also slightly irradiate you.
... unorthodox sources is one such solution to basic nutrition.
So, I'm rummaging through a restroom in the first shanty-town outside the safety of my vault. I notice the urinals can be used, and seem to restore health. My thought is "ok, I suppose that makes sense, holding it forever would certainly cause eventual health problems.."
Needing some hp, I hit use. The camera drops halfway to the ground as if my character was crouching. There's a slurping sound. I'm baffled as to what's happening until my horrified fiancee, watching beside me, declares, "Oh my god, you just drank from a urinal."
There's more than one way to solve every puzzle in Fallout 3. Apparently, drinking from
Oh yeah, that makes PERFECT sense. You can kill ANY other living creature in the game, EXCEPT kids.
ESRB: Ohhh, you can't release a game that shows killing kids. After all, if someone sees it done in a game, SURELY that must mean that they will follow up with going on a child-slaughtering rampage through the countryside.
Give me a fucking break! If I decide I want to play the game by killing every last person and become the sole survivor, with this new rule, I get to be the sole adult survivor... but of course surrounded by CHILDREN! Oh yeah, that's not FAR creepier than decimating everything.
It's an adult game for adults! If parents do their jobs, then kids won't SEE in-game kids getting killed. Or anyone getting killed.
And TFA's comments about their decision for that. What does killing children add? Oh, I don't know... freedom to do whatever I want in an imaginary universe in which death, decay, and destruction are among the MAIN SUBJECTS!
Planet Zebeth - Metroid with a twist
Funny thing. The SecuRom is only on the launcher. You can instead use the setup.exe on the DVD, which is clean, to install the game. Then use Fallout3.exe instead of FalloutLauncher.exe to run the game. You don't even need to have the disc in the drive that way.
Bethesda hasn't been evil so much as plain silly on this one...
As an Australian, I find this both hilarious and infuriating.
I just spent much of this week playing a game that revolves around surgically amputating the limbs off deformed people using such delightful weapons as plasma cutters. In fact, just before I completed my first play-through, I acquired the achievement for "1000 limbs amputated". The game, of course, has mass amounts of blood and gore.
Yet, a game that references a real-life drug? That crosses the line!!
Honestly, this just shows how out of date and simply stupid the Australian classification boards guidelines are. If you asked the average person what they find more offensive/disturbing, a game that has enormous amounts of blood and gore (and passed through the ratings process without issue), or a game that references a painkiller, I think the answer would be obvious.
Stop pretending like you are justified for piracy. You're aren't. Piracy is a person decision. Man up and just say you want to steal the game. Don't claim that you are forced to steal it. You could buy an XBox 360 or a PS3.
As for a portable XBox 360 - http://benheck.com/
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
1) Publisher/retailer/other-asshats in the chain demand ShitROM.
2) Developer puts in a DVD and says "Sure, all you marketing morons who have autorun enabled, there's your ShitROM! See, it's right there in the launcher!"
3) (while whispering under its breath "and for those of you who just run the setup.exe and the real game executable, you're just fine")
DRM: It only inconveniences morons, because it only appears on systems administered by morons. The corollary, however, is that it becomes very easy to convince morons (like the ones in marketing, or whoever else in the organization is responsible for the cramming of ShitROM onto games) that the DRM is actually installed in the first place.
Seriously, if what you said about the launcher-vs-installer is true, someone at Bethesda's not being silly, they're being brilliant.
1. As a Fallout geek, I don't even understand the fuss. The drugs in Fallout 1 and 2 were already called stuff like Buffout, Jet, etc. So, lore-wise, it's a change for the better.
I mean, sure, I could live with a name like "Morphine" too, but I see no reason to run amok about their respecting the canon either. It's Fallout, people. Getting upset that the drugs in the Fallout universe have Fallout names, is a bit as silly as getting upset that a LOTR game has mithril. Sure, you could call it "titanium" instead of "mithril", but it won't actually make the game better. It's the canon for that world, silly.
2. If I were to bitch about a name change there, I'd rather bitch about the weapon names. Fallout always had real weapon names, like the G11 or AK-47 or FN-FAL or whatnot. Now suddenly we have non-descript stuff like "chinese pistol" and "chinese assault-rifle." WTF?
3. In fact, I wonder if the whole "let's name the drugs RL names" thing was just a PR stunt to cause a lot of talk.
I mean, if you look at the whole thing, it is schizophrenic to the extreme. The weapons get changed to non-RL names, the canon be damned, _but_ at the same time they supposedly really wanted to change canon-correct drug names to stuff like "Morphine". It makes no sense. There is no coherent plan in there.
My guess is that they never actually planned to release it with RL drug names, and just pulled a PR coup to get a lot of talk about their game. I.e., that this isn't as much a censorship story, but really a story about PR bullshit.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
So if someone sitting in a car sees you walking along the street and locks their door, does that mean you'll carjack them?
No. It means he'll go to his garage and construct an exact duplicate of that person's car.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
should be, why didn't they finish the game?
For an RPG it has huge immersion breaking holes in it. You can shoot someone's bodyguard right in front of their eyes, strip their store of everything not nailed down, and they'll still greet you with "Oh, hi, you're the new guy! So nice to meet you!" less than a second later.
Save a guy's life? He'll be eternally grateful during the scripted conversation afterwards. Talk to him again immediately after the event ends and he might go "Speak punk, before I put a bullet in you".
It's almost as if Bethesda never made one of these games before. Or never thought of a concept like a state machine for the conversation/reaction trees. I find it quite baffling.
This thing is begging for an enhanced edition like Witcher got. I bet it won't get it though :(
Exactly. As the hitchhiker's guide says, if there's any discrepancy between the guide and reality, reality has it wrong.
Just another example of 'old people' thinking.
What if this were a book, or a movie, or a TV show, instead of a videogame?
There are thousands of books in which children are killed, drugs are used, that have post-apocalyptic imagery based on real places on the covers, and in the books themselves.
Movies too, number in the thousands that show the killing of children, the use of drugs, and the destruction of public property.
And Television shows, again, there are many where children are killed, drugs are used, and property is destroyed.
So why, then, the hysteria of a videogame portraying the same?
I think I've suggested an answer to that in the subject of my post.