I’m sure we’re going to be seeing a lot of extra Vaults out there in a couple weeks — Fallout fanfiction forums are, I’m sure, just flamin’ hot right now.

With any luck, they’ll make a few dungeons that are actually challenging. On normal difficulty (I know…) I ended the game with about 80 stimpacks and at least 20 mini-nukes unused. At that point, I could decapitate a super mutant brute with a single shot. Come on!

Get the G.E.C.K. here and check the modding wiki before you break your game.

Yahtzee seems to be not too opinionated on Oblivion with Guns, which I believe means he loved it. I’ve just embarked on the main quest after getting the best unique weapons and armor on the entire map, and the game just got really easy.

Or so they say. There aren’t a lot of actual sales numbers back yet, but THQ has shipped over two million copies of the well-received GTA-like game to retailers and seems to be riding high, while Bethesda’s highly-anticipated Oblivion With Guns has shipped nearly five million copies, and I don’t think that includes Steam, which was how I bought it.

I guess technically they’ve shipped an infinite number of copies to Steam, but quoting their shipping levels as “literally immeasurable” may be considered fiscally dishonest.

There’s an interesting comparison here between Bethesda’s two major works of this generation, Oblivion and Fallout 3. In the end, it seems Oblivion “won,” although the reasoning is pretty flimsy. Now, I think the idea of a comparison in the first place is flawed, since it stands to reason that for two things to be compared, they must first be different in some way. And the only difference I have found after extensive play of both is that, well, Fallout 3 has guns.

Yes, yes, there are some other little differences in the way things work, but really both games are just the same thing painted different colors. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; the formula works, it just won’t do to call it anything other than what it is.

Earlier this month, one of the Fallout 3 developers at Bethesda described the intended DRM for the game as the “mildest form possible.” Well, Securom7 isn’t really the mildest form possible, since it has a serious problem coexisting with drive emulation software like Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%. Now, they could have done a lot worse, and to be honest, it doesn’t interfere with most users. But it doesn’t seem to be deterring pirates (I count about 50,000 people downloading it on TPB as I write this), and after making a serious statement like your DRM will be “basically nothing,” the vocal minority will have its say. Even the pirates will complain! (look on the right)

The solution? Get that sucker on Steam. I did. No disc, no worries, and it doesn’t seem to have any trouble living next to my Daemon Tools, either. Clicky there –>

The risks associated with digital distribution are all but eliminated at this point, while the difficulty of using discs becomes greater and greater. Like Blu-Ray, boxed copies are going the way of the dodo. It’s too much effort to go kicking and screaming so I’m just going to go limp.
[thanks for the tip, Matt]

It’s been a ridiculously long time since Fallout 2 hit the scene (10 years ago) and available today is Bethesda’s much hyped and highly anticipated RPG Fallout 3. Thousands of retailers stayed open into the early morning last night to quench gamers thirsts for destruction and gore. Some folks in DC didn’t take too kindly to the ads because they depicted our nation’s capital in a decrepit and post-apocalyptic nature. To them I say, “get over it.” The game takes place in 2277 and it’s just, you know, a game! NYC keeps getting bombed and terrorized in movies, but you don’t see the residents of this fine city bitching and moaning about it.

On a related note, game trailers have been pulled from multiple sites for not complying with ESRB guidelines. Read More

Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360 has leaked onto the Internet, and it’s available on all the big BitTorrent sites, Usenet, etc. You’ll needed a modded console to play it, obviously.

The 6.52GB file leaked sometime yesterday, only a few days after the game went gold.

I would say this is the second biggest leak of the year—Grand Theft Auto IV’s leak, I think, was a “bigger” event.

Bethesda, the game’s developer, has yet to release an official comment.

The game is scheduled for release on October 31 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Goooooooold! Fallout 3 is ready to go and will be available on store shelves and online in North America on 10/28, in Europe and Australia on 10/30, and in the UK on 10/31. Take that, you limeys! I’m going to make it a personal goal to beat it by the time you lay down your pounds sterling at Ye Olde Games Shoppe or whatever. This is revenge for being more charming than me, so yes, it’s personal. System requirements aren’t so bad; you can probably run it (but I can run it better). Specifics after this commercial message.
Read More

In an informative interview with Shack News, Bethesda developer Pete Hines talked about the hotly anticipated game, addressing piracy, platform differences, and so on. Most refreshingly, he said that Bethesda would not be party to the draconian DRM schemes others were trying out; there will be no install limit and probably just a traditional CD-key security system. They also say they’ve done a better job at localizing the PC version than with Oblivion, which is good news, as the most popular mod for Oblivion (BTmod) was the one that corrected the console-ish looks.

At the end there was a little stinger about DLC being released for 360 and PC at once. That’s good, but it also makes me think they’ve already got DLC coming down the pipe before the game is done, which I have objected to before. Anyway, this isn’t a place for me to air my petty grievances. This game is going to be great, it’s a multi-platform release done right (hopefully), and I’m going to be buying it day one.