Fallout 3 - Roundup #10

Dhruin

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The most important thing in this short Fallout 3 roundup is news of an imminent PC patch from Eurogamer. Here's a snip from a transcript of a recent chat with Pete Hines:
Will there be a patch to add southpaw controls for the left-handed people out there? And what about a fix for the various PC niggles?
Pete Hines: Well on the 360 the console itself actually handles that. You change it in your control options, so we don't bother doing it in the game. I'll have to check on how PS3 works.
As far as fixes, there's a PC update coming out later today that will address a few PC-specific things that have come up. Can't give you any details yet beyond that as far as what else might be in the works for any of the three platforms.
Edge Online says Fallout 3 is topping all three charts in the UK. It's interesting to see the format breakdown:
It was the 360 version that sold the biggest share of Fallout 3 discs, representing 55 percent of the title’s total purchases, with PS3 and PC versions attributing to 28 percent and 17 percent respectively. Yet despite the 360 version taking twice as many sales as the PS3’s, and three-times as many as the PC’s, today the game sits atop all three platform charts.
...and NMA has converted a Vince D. Weller Let's Play from the Iron Tower forums into article format. It chronicles Vince's first five days playing with lots of screens.
More information.
 
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What's this about adding controls for left handed people? Surely you can customize the keyboard controls for the pc, right? Please say it's so...
 
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What's this about adding controls for left handed people? Surely you can customize the keyboard controls for the pc, right? Please say it's so...

Yes you can. You can set the keys and mouse buttons up however you like.

I think they are talking about on consoles for that (which the consoles themselves handle apparently).
 
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Okay... thanks. At least I don't have to worry about that while I'm deciding whether or not to buy FO3.
 
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It was the 360 version that sold the biggest share of Fallout 3 discs, representing 55 percent of the title’s total purchases, with PS3 and PC versions attributing to 28 percent and 17 percent respectively. Yet despite the 360 version taking twice as many sales as the PS3’s, and three-times as many as the PC’s, today the game sits atop all three platform charts.
83% of the sales of a PC game is for consoles? Thats pretty good considering the console versions cost 10-20 euros more and only the PC version might get the powerful mod tools. I can only guess how much PC players pirated this game.
 
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It's not a PC game. ;)

North America is console territory. The sales number balance will look different in Germany and Eastern Europe.
 
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Oh good grief. I really wish I hadn't read that NMA piece. They've gone from not liking it to being bitter about it to taking puerile potshots at it. What drek. They can't even make a decent polemic about the game being bad. The site's starting to get a bad reputation; almost as silly as Toonerville Trolley's hidebound Republican, Grandpa Sims.


As a purely objective guess, I think NMA's relevance is going to diminish. Instead of going after people with an attitude of "Well if you liked that, let me show you how good Fallout 1 is", they've decided to take the shrill fool route: "Thou heathen! Thou sinner! Speakest not of that third game in approving terms. It is apostasy!!"
 
What's this about adding controls for left handed people? Surely you can customize the keyboard controls for the pc, right? Please say it's so...

Only partially. For example, you can change the key to open container objects to something closer to the cursor keys, but the key to close it again is always the hardcoded E key. Very inconvenient, and there's bazillions of containers, too. It's pretty clear they didn't give much thought to the PC interface, just like with Oblivion.
 
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Oh good grief. I really wish I hadn't read that NMA piece. They've gone from not liking it to being bitter about it to taking puerile potshots at it. What drek. They can't even make a decent polemic about the game being bad. The site's starting to get a bad reputation; almost as silly as Toonerville Trolley's hidebound Republican, Grandpa Sims.


As a purely objective guess, I think NMA's relevance is going to diminish. Instead of going after people with an attitude of "Well if you liked that, let me show you how good Fallout 1 is", they've decided to take the shrill fool route: "Thou heathen! Thou sinner! Speakest not of that third game in approving terms. It is apostasy!!"


I'll retract most of the sentiment. The rest of the article (yes, I know, I read half the piece and then posted... I blame Intarweb Syndrome) backpedaled a bit and didn't go where I thought it was going. Still not inclined to *hang out* at NMA. I've got a copy of CA's Fallout Bible and that's enough.
 
I can only guess how much PC players pirated this game.

Both the XBox 360 and PC versions have been freely available through P2P since release.

If you look at seeders and leechers alone, several hundred thousand would be the answer.
 
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Both the XBox 360 and PC versions have been freely available through P2P since release.

If you look at seeders and leechers alone, several hundred thousand would be the answer.

Makes me think about the usefulness of DVD copy protection. Here I am having payed the full price for the game and having to cope with the DVD noisily spinning up three times each time my computer wakes up from sleep mode - which as a side effect blocks my operating system for half a minute, usually when I am really in a hurry and do not have the time to wait - while people who pirate the game neither have to pay nor are they annoyed by DVD troubles.

Under these conditions, I feel foolish for not pirating the game myself, to be honest.

People would pirate a lot less if the copy protection mechanisms were not as annoying and intrusive, and seeing that SecuROM et al. are not really effective anyway, I wonder why game developers and publishers even bother using them. One way of minimising the problems for the customers would be to allow for alternative internet validation of a game, so people can get rid of the DVD when they are online, but it seems to be always one or the other, either DVD copy protection or some overly restrictive online activation.

I wish more companies would follow the example of Stardock, who incidentally did well with Galactic Civilizations II despite a very relaxed copy protection scheme.
 
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It's not a PC game. ;)

Its originally a PC game series. Say one game series that was originally a console one and what has sold more on PC than on consoles? Halo? Metal gear solid? Final Fantasy 7? Console sales > PC sales always.

If PC game series is ported to consoles it has a habit of becomming mainly a console series. Somtimes its even worse and PC version is almost totally forgotten i.e current PC version of NHL2009 is based on old 2006 PS2 version - EA hasnt even bothered to port a modern version from xbox360/ps3.
Both the XBox 360 and PC versions have been freely available through P2P since release.
Still PC version sold only 17% while xbox version sold 55%. This shows how significant it is that pirating for PC is easier than on xbox. You can d/l the torrent for both and run PC version instantly but for xbox version you need to do extra work.
I wish more companies would follow the example of Stardock, who incidentally did well with Galactic Civilizations II despite a very relaxed copy protection scheme.

They changed their mind since and are now fully developing their own DRM. You cant expect sales to work simply based on peoples honesty. Thats like believing that communism will work.

The main idea in communism is-- "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs". What that means is, every citizen works however much they can honestly work, and they get paid according to how much money they need in order to live.

This means that the system works on honesty- the govenrment expects you to be honest on how much you can really work, and they pay you according to how much money you need.
 
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They changed their mind since and are now fully developing their own DRM. You cant expect sales to work simply based on peoples honesty. Thats like believing that communism will work.

The main idea in communism is-- "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs". What that means is, every citizen works however much they can honestly work, and they get paid according to how much money they need in order to live.

This means that the system works on honesty- the govenrment expects you to be honest on how much you can really work, and they pay you according to how much money you need.

I am not saying that copy protection should be completely abolished. But DRM that primarily serves to annoy honest users, e.g. StarForce and SecuROM to name only two technologies, while it does not prevent people from pirating games effectively is harmful both for the customers and for the companies using them. In my experience, both from talking to colleagues and friends and from reading internet reviews, people are seriously annoyed by these DRM measures and that is not a good basis for selling products even if not all of them will immediately start pirating.

Regarding communism: yeah, it does not work. I was born in the GDR and even though this was 'just' socialism, it was bad for everyone but a few who exploited the system, and even their relative comfort paled in comparison to what many people in 'the west' could afford. Unfortunately though people are quick to forget about the negative sides of the past and remember only what was better.
 
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I'll retract most of the sentiment. The rest of the article (yes, I know, I read half the piece and then posted... I blame Intarweb Syndrome) backpedaled a bit and didn't go where I thought it was going. Still not inclined to *hang out* at NMA. I've got a copy of CA's Fallout Bible and that's enough.

Just because you backpedal later on because you know the ground you are standing on isn't safe doesn't excuse the rest of the drek. Totally agreed with your first post.
 
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The quoted numbers (17% on the PC) were for the United Kingdom, not North America ;) .

Okay, then I'm officially surprised the PC numbers are so high. The gaming habits in the UK are beyond hope. ;)
 
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Just because you backpedal later on because you know the ground you are standing on isn't safe doesn't excuse the rest of the drek. Totally agreed with your first post.

I read the comments at NMA sometimes when I'm bored and need a laugh. Internet foolery like that amuses me, like comments from a teenager on a YouTube video.

I haven't read the entire "My First 5 Days" article at NMA because I don't want spoilers, but I can imagine the tone. Some of the regulars at NMA are much worse than Weller, though, and make me laugh with glee.

I think it's interesting and educational to witness how someone can be so caught up in their own world as to be completely unable to comprehend any way of thinking other than their own. I'm the opposite; I should probably form a more stable opinion of things that is my own. ;)
 
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