Fallout: New Vegas - Fall 2010

Damn you, Bethesda! Now it's personal!!!

Actually, i just ignored them because i thought they were part of the box decoration around the lists. Weird thing is that i read the manual UP TO the point where the Special and skills stuff is and then stopped and missed everything after it. A quick check shows that this is where they discuss bartering and containers... which is where they discuss this.

I still prefer to have tabs. Much more obvious and intuitive to me since i tend to see <> as brackets... especially because of the minigame. It doesn't help that the person you're dealing with has their name inbetween the arrows as well which, to me at least, provides no context to their use. i.e. You don't shift between people during a conversation (though that might be an idea for future conversation trees).

I think i've sunk around 200+ hours into the game and never knew this.

CelestialNavigation wrote:

I'm a little concerned that Alpha Protocol has received rather lackluster reviews. Since Obsidian's doing both of them I truly hope they haven't lost their ju-ju.

I'd like to think they threw AP to the wolves and used all their ju-ju to make New Vegas incredibly awesome.

BlackSabre wrote:
CelestialNavigation wrote:

I'm a little concerned that Alpha Protocol has received rather lackluster reviews. Since Obsidian's doing both of them I truly hope they haven't lost their ju-ju.

Yea, that has me a little worried too. But from what I can tell, they have different people working on them. Besides, all they have to do is add content. The engine and framework is already in place. They just need to tweak it and add a new story and it should (hopefully) be good.

Most of the complaints about Alpha Protocol seem to be about the engine, how combat works, etc. The story and choices are supposed to be good.

Duoae wrote:

I think i've sunk around 200+ hours into the game and never knew this.

That reminds me of the bit in podcast 189 about accidentally making games harder by missing things that you can do.

(And a recent discovery I made in another game... hm, maybe I'll attempt some necromancy on that thread, rather than taking this one further OT.)

I've sunk way enough hours into Fallout 3 that I fear that I'd be bored within an hour or two of New Vegas. I'm still struggling to get the gumption to finish Broken Steel, so I think this is a pass for me.

Nothing to see here. I'm not tagging this thread.

Hmm... I'm just curious. I wonder where DLC for this game will take the player. Mexico? L.A.? Salt Lake City?

farley3k wrote:

Most of the complaints about Alpha Protocol seem to be about the engine, how combat works, etc. The story and choices are supposed to be good.

Yeah, I don't really see how they can screw up an engine that's been fully developed and just handed over to them. The way New Vegas is being developed definitely plays to Obsidian's strengths.

ruhk wrote:
Tigerbill wrote:

Any chance of saved games crossing over? I figure it's unlikely, but I had to ask. If not I'll be getting it for the PC at launch, if they magically do it's back to the 360 for a couple hundred hours.

Probably not. It's a different character and different story on the opposite side of the continent.

I've also heard the weapons are all different. Not that it'd be hard to port them in if it's the same game engine.

Grubber788 wrote:

Nothing to see here. I'm not tagging this thread.

Hmm... I'm just curious. I wonder where DLC for this game will take the player. Mexico? L.A.? Salt Lake City?

I seem to recall hearing somewhere that they're not planning to be as aggressive with DLC expansions as they were with Fallout 3.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle....

Fallout: New Vegas uses Steamworks for achievements and other features (such as friends lists, cloud storage of user preferences and so on). Use of Steam will be mandatory at retail. So what does that mean? We've implemented Steamworks in as light and unobtrusive a way as possible. Yes, you will have to install Steam when you install Fallout: New Vegas if you don;t already have it. And yes, you will have to be online at the time of that initial install. However you can install the game on as many systems as you want (with no restrictions!), and you do not have to be online to play the game after your initial activation. Not only that, but once the game has activated on Steam, you can throw out the game DVD entirely and just download the game over Steam. If you don't even have a DVD drive, you can just take the CD-Key from the box, enter it into Steam, and download it without ever using the disc at all.

For those concerned, this will have no affect on mod development whatsoever. Modders will still be able to create and distribute their plugins the same way they have in the past.

We made the decision to use Steam after looking at all the various options out there and decided that it provided the best, least intrusive experience for PC gamers. We think you'll agree.

I bought Fallout 3 over Steam so this is good news for me.

Vector wrote:

I bought Fallout 3 over Steam so this is good news for me.

Same here, I will be buying it on Steam anyway but I might just get the collectors edition than hmm.

Scratched wrote:
developers wrote:

We made the decision to use Steam after looking at all the various options out there and decided that it provided the best, least intrusive experience for PC gamers. We think you'll agree.

Haha. I like this part though i think they missed out a word or two in the highlighted part. Least intrusive [what] experience? I mean, without steamworks on install it'd be even less intrusive. :p

[edit] I actually do think this is a shame since Fallout 3 did not require an internet connection to install. Was the game so heavily pirated? I never heard any complaints from the developers/publisher after release...

So, for a game that will be digitally distributed, how do you want them to protect it, yet not be intrusive in some measure?

Looking forward to coverage of Fallout: New Vegas at E3.

Scratched wrote:

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle....

Fallout: New Vegas uses Steamworks for achievements and other features (such as friends lists, cloud storage of user preferences and so on). Use of Steam will be mandatory at retail. So what does that mean? We've implemented Steamworks in as light and unobtrusive a way as possible. Yes, you will have to install Steam when you install Fallout: New Vegas if you don;t already have it. And yes, you will have to be online at the time of that initial install. However you can install the game on as many systems as you want (with no restrictions!), and you do not have to be online to play the game after your initial activation. Not only that, but once the game has activated on Steam, you can throw out the game DVD entirely and just download the game over Steam. If you don't even have a DVD drive, you can just take the CD-Key from the box, enter it into Steam, and download it without ever using the disc at all.

For those concerned, this will have no affect on mod development whatsoever. Modders will still be able to create and distribute their plugins the same way they have in the past.

We made the decision to use Steam after looking at all the various options out there and decided that it provided the best, least intrusive experience for PC gamers. We think you'll agree.

Hmmm... I wonder if this means it won't be a GFWL title. Personally steam is my new best friend and I was planning to get it on Steam anyway. Pretty much all my games from now on will be from steam.

Jonman wrote:

I've sunk way enough hours into Fallout 3 that I fear that I'd be bored within an hour or two of New Vegas. I'm still struggling to get the gumption to finish Broken Steel, so I think this is a pass for me.

Personally I've loaded fallout 3 back on about a month ago now and put on some really cool mods and it's great fun. I'd sunk well over 300 hours into fallout 3 and it is still a fun experience for me now. So Fallout New Vegas is going to be awesome (I hope).

BlackSabre wrote:

Hmmm... I wonder if this means it won't be a GFWL title. Personally steam is my new best friend and I was planning to get it on Steam anyway. Pretty much all my games from now on will be from steam.

If it's using Steamworks for achievements and friends and installation, there's no sane reason it'd use GFWL. Absolutely none.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
BlackSabre wrote:

Hmmm... I wonder if this means it won't be a GFWL title. Personally steam is my new best friend and I was planning to get it on Steam anyway. Pretty much all my games from now on will be from steam.

If it's using Steamworks for achievements and friends and installation, there's no sane reason it'd use GFWL. Absolutely none.

You're assuming game developers are sane?

I didn't say they wouldn't do it, just saying it wouldn't be sane.

Scratched wrote:

So, for a game that will be digitally distributed, how do you want them to protect it, yet not be intrusive in some measure?

Erm...

Not only that, but once the game has activated on Steam, you can throw out the game DVD entirely and just download the game over Steam. If you don't even have a DVD drive, you can just take the CD-Key from the box, enter it into Steam, and download it without ever using the disc at all.

What about the retail version? The game isn't solely digitally distributed. I wasn't being facetious for the sake of it you know.

The DVD serves as a way to install the content. Am I missing something?

Fallout 3 was both as well but did not require internet to install. I voiced my opinion that it was a shame that it's effectively a step backwards. You question why that is supporting it with your argument that it's fine because it's a digitally distributed game. I pointed out that it's not solely digitally distributed.

You can't see that a DVD is not the same as DD?

I'm wondering if i'm living in another universe lately. People say a very specific thing and then when i point out that it's incorrect they seem to feigning ignorance of reality.

It's not the first single player game to require the internet at some point. I don't see fallout as a special case.

Duoae wrote:

You question why that is supporting it with your argument that it's fine because it's a digitally distributed game. I pointed out that it's not solely digitally distributed.

You can't see that a DVD is not the same as DD?

Essentially there are two parts to the equation.
-How you get the content, you can install on disc, or download it. Every valve game has been available on disc.
-How you manage the license.

While the money to develop these games is coming from a company that has to take steps to try and make people pay for it, they will have to use some copy protection. Offline disc based authentication is now inadequate for this, I cannot remember one that wasn't compromised before release. I can't remember a recent high profile game that didn't have some online authentication.

So apart from your answer being tangential to the issue that was being discussed there are quite a few suppositions in your post:

1) it's not a valve game
2) so piracy wasn't an issue for fallout 3?
3) just because other sp games have required it means that it should be standard across all games
4) offline-based authentication is inadequate even though online activation games get cracked and played all the time

Besides all that i wasn't looking to get into a discussion about the reasons behind and for/against DRM so maybe we should leave it there.

It seems i'm incapable of putting my point across in a way that other people understand so i guess i'll shut up now.

I think it's because you don't capitalize your I's.

Hyetal wrote:

I think it's because you don't capitalize your I's.

You're clearly jealous of my roguish charm and my "flouts the rules" mentality.

Bah, complain about the online portion all you want but I'm more then happy that it is Steam native rather then fastened on to that abomination GFWL.

Being online has never been a problem for me because frankly my computer is always online whenever I turn it on.

Don't mind Duoae. He hates Steam, and all things likened to it.

He's dumb.

If I am going to have to put up with DRM in PC titles, and it would appear that this is the case, I prefer it to be Steam rather than some other half-wit scheme.