In fact, once you associate your Live account with your game it will ask you to sign in every time you wish to play. If you already have a Windows Live account the process is much simpler I guess – you just sign into it within the game and that’s it. I mean, sure – I could probably start this process online without the game running in the background and cut the number of sudden context switches in half, but no one told me that when I started. I’m not sure who is at fault here but this is pretty shitty user experience if you ask me.
How do you upgrade it? Well, the game minimizes itself, opens a browser aaaand… Do you see the pattern here? I think the whole process took me in and out of the Fallout menu screen 4 times. Then it does some authentication, and it tells you that your Live version needs to be upgraded.
You have to fill out registration form in the browser, submit it, close the browser and then maximize the game again. How do you sign up for it? Well, you launch the game, then you click on the Live button, then you navigate through some menus, then the game minimizes itself and opens a browser. Initially I chose to ignore this whole Live thing, but then I realized that signing up for it is the only way to actually get the downloadable expansions. It’s a bit like the Steam achievement system, but worse in just about every aspect.
I was not exactly sure what this meant, but I gathered that Windows Live the PC version of that silly X-Box system that let’s people have gamer tags, earn achievements and etc. In addition to DRM my copy of fallout included Windows Live integration. That said, since my computer is already infected with evil DRM I might as well play the damn thing and enjoy it. The fact that you are using it is enough for me to re-consider ever buying your product again. Way to betray my trust! See if I buy another one of your games, assholes!Īnd don’t give me that “we only use it for a disk check” crap. Yes, I wanted to give you my money so that you can make more games that I can add to my favorite list. I could have pirated this game, but I didn’t! I actually went and bought it because you guys made Morrowind (my favorite game evar) and Oblivion (my other favorite game). So I wanted to use this occasion to say: thank you Bethesda for infecting my brand new computer with the nastiest shit on the market. As you may imagine I was not happy about this surprise DRM getting installed on my brand new system. Feel free to correct me in the comments if this is not true. I mention Steam because I think that the version distributed via that system is Securom-less.
I purchased Fallout on CD rather than on Steam which means I got a fist full of Securom with it. These are purely usability and customer experience gripes that I need to get out of the way. Still, before I can talk about the actual game, I really need to go through this laundry list of whiny complaints that have little to do with actual design, plot or game mechanic. Let me preface this post by saying that so far I’m actually enjoying Fallout 3. This way I don’t suffer yet another crushing disappointment and you don’t need to listen to yet another blogger ranting about how F3 did not live up to his expectations. So as I do often in situations like that, I set my expectations to the lowest setting and decided to give the game a chance to entertain me on it’s own terms. If you approach it as the third installment in the epic RPG saga you likely won’t enjoy it as much. Then I heard that this is actually a horrible idea.Īpparently if you approach Fallout 3 as Oblivion with guns, you will have a rather positive experience. I figured I could take a crack at these games before tackling the Betsheda release. I have considered playing the previous games – especially since you can legally buy both of them for next to nothing at Good Old Games. Please keep this in mind when you read this review. Or for that matter with the Fallout franchise. I figured it is time to post about my first impressions with the game. In the last week or so, I probably mentioned Fallout 3 on this blog few dozen times.