Fallout 3 DLC and Games For Windows Live Woes

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.

Comments

Such a mess...

[ActionJesus]

According to one of the comments in linked article, the manager for Games for windows has been recently fired.

Im glad to see someone taking the fallout for such a mess!

Sorry, Ill go back to my corner now.

How to play Operation: Anchorage without Live

[Aggrajag]

Make sure that hidden files are shown in Windows Explorer, check the settings! Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Xlive\DLC Vista: C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\XLive\DLC Copy the files to: C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Data (change the drive letter if necessary) You have to use the launcher to select the mod: click on "DATA FILES" and check the box next to Anchorage.esm.

Re:Play Operation: Anchorage without Live (fixed)

[Aggrajag]

Fuck

This is the last goddamn time:

Make sure that hidden files are shown in Windows Explorer, check the settings!

Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Xlive\DLC

Vista:

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\XLive\DLC

Copy the files to:

C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Data (change the drive letter if necessary)

You have to use the launcher to select the mod: click on "DATA FILES" and check the box next to Anchorage.esm.

So tired

[Thanshin]

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:So tired

[GF678]

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

[mobby_6kl]

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:So tired (of all this bullshit)

[wild_quinine]

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.

Re:Screw the DLC

[filekutter]

I totally agree with you on that... Bethesda sat on their hands while the players spent months finding fixes just so we could play a $50 game. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it immensely, but I don't get any feeling of snuggly goodness from that company at all. And then to top it off they jump in bed with Microsoft whose GFWL is the most annoying piece of navigating I've ever seen... I give up. Bethesda should have made the first DLC free as an apology for their mangled product release. Though I want to play the add-on there is no way I'll give them any more money.

Re:So tired (of all this bullshit)

[wild_quinine]

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.'

Planning to pirate my first game in years...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not about Windows Live! and not Fallout 3, but still somewhat on topic.

All the games I had for the Amiga 500 were, of course, pirated (I did not even know you could actually BUY games). Then I switched to PC and started to buy my first games (Tie Fighter was the first one, I think).

For years the I played a lot of pirated games and some bought ones (as my money allowed; you could say noone lost anything since I could not afford more than I had already bought).

Then came the time of 10Mbit-Ethernet-LAN Parties and basically everything I had was "for free" but as years went, I started to get less and less copied music, movies, and games. Up to the point where I for over half a decade only had bought and no copied games. I was happy with that but then came DRM.

I bought Mass Effect, even if it caused some pain in my stomach, I also bought Fallout 3, which I felt a bit bad about. Each time I thought "Why am I supporting it". I would have bought GTA 4 quite some time ago... but the DRM and other crap scared me away.

Now, after nearly a decade of "basically no pirating" and some five years of "virtually no pirating at all" I'm back at the point where I really consider just downloading some cracked version of GTA 4.
Great achievement, large publishers. It's a bit like I'm 12 again and sit in front of my Amiga, asking myself why anyone could even think of spending the saved pocket money on games... it's not that I could not find other industries which will gladly take *the amount of cash I have available to spend on fun-stuff*.

Re:Planning to pirate my first game in years...

[garylian]

Wait, so you are just now figuring out that DRM is a hassle, after all these years? What rock were you under?

I remember the days of the Apple II/II+/IIe when the copy protections were often more evil. Remember the code wheels with "Align the 3 symbols and then enter the word into this box" protections? Remember the "Look on page 26, paragraph 3, 8th word, and enter it here" protections? I remember the speed copy protections that games like Wizardry used that got so annoying that I eventually had a hole drilled into the side of my 5 1/4" drives so I could get the speed closer before using the keys for fine adjustments. And yes, you had to have the game in the drive to play...funny how that seems like such a hardship these days!

Game makers have been putting protection onto games since back the early 80's and probably even in the late 70's. Many of them make today's DRM seem easy, and made curbing the 2nd hand market a little easier. Losing the code wheel meant nobody else played that game unless you cut out the protection. A task a lot harder back then than today's simple "oh, I just use Daemon Tools" type workarounds.

As for the price argument, I remember paying I believe 39.99 for Wizardry back in 1982. More than 25yrs later, games generally release at 49.99 on the PC, or about a 50% increase. A paperback book back then cost around 3-4 bucks. Now they cost 7-9 bucks, or about a 125% increase. I don't see folks screaming about paperbacks, and they still sell, even with a nice 2nd hand market that is probably better than for games.

I fully understand that buying games only to find out they suck is a problem. I've downloaded games before, and tried them out. If they are any good, I almost always buy them, especially since they are usually so buggy that gameplay sucks on the pirated version. This, I am convinced, is on purpose. Game developers want people to pay for the full product, so they leave easy to spot bugs in game so that pirates famous "0-day" releases are crap. Notice how fast those patches come out???? But if a game sucks in its basic gameplay, I won't buy it.

I use pirated software as a demo, since demos are generally the absolute flawless section of the game, and often some of the best play. It's a highly polished lure, but I'm tired of being a fish.

Justify it any way you want, but the bottom line is you don't want to pay for your games. Why not be honest about it, instead of building up these straw houses?