Fallout 3 has released its first batch of downloadable newness. The DLC, called Operation Anchorage, is apparently available now. You’re trying to gain access to a shelter, which requires you complete a military simulation of the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska, set between 2076 and 2077. Once it’s installed, it’s announced on the radio, and you can hot-leap to its location. There’s a smattering of new content, including a new perk: Covert Ops. What follows is my attempt to get it.
You need to know that I’ve not read previews of this, nor indeed about the DLC for the game at all. I am now aware that it’s a Games For Windows Live affair, but this wasn’t a piece of information I’d picked up before today. I’ve not touched GFWL since its redesign. None of this may be relevant to you, or happen to anyone else. This is what happened to me.
My first instinct, and you’ll laugh, was to launch the game. I have the Steam version, and wondered if it would auto-update to let me choose to buy the new content. It costs 800 Microsoft Points, it seems, and while I’m not sure how one would spend those on a PC, I was confident I’d find out.
There was first a hefty update. I hadn’t tried to run the game since before Christmas, and the patch has appeared since then. The game opens. Sadly, the “DOWNLOADS” option was greyed out. Never mind, I thought, I’ll look on the Fallout 3 website for details. With the announcement of the launch today, it must surely be the big news story… Um, no. Instead the patch from the 13th presided. (Steam Update News? Last entry, October 31st.) In fact, if there’s a clue about it on Bethesda’s site, I can’t find it. There’s nothing under Downloads either.
Looking in the comments on the ShackNews story, I saw that it requires Games For Windows Live. Aha! Back into the game, and the “LIVE” option. Down pops the slick new interface, and asks me to log in or create an account. I have one, of course, so popped in the details. It needed to update. Good old Windows. Without asking my permission it quit out the game and downloaded its updates, then vanished without telling me it was done. Nice.
So I restart Fallout 3 and DOWNLOADS is still greyed out. Go into Live, tell it my account details again, and this time it downloads my account. Ta-da! The DOWNLOADS option is there! I’m surely almost there. I click it.
“No new content available.”
I see.
Back to the ShackNews comments. Ah, it seems you need to run GFWL. Quick search of my hard drive, as I’m sure I installed it once. Maybe not. Let’s screw that, I thought, and just download it again. I find the download on the site, get it, run it, and it’s installed. No option for a shortcut on the desktop, etc, but it’s there in the Start Menu. Any second now!
Run it. I require a hotfix for Windows XP to install GFWL. Apparently this couldn’t be included in any of the four hundred thousand updates Windows XP likes to install each week. So I click the option to get it, and find myself on this page, which eventually has the link after discussing error codes I haven’t seen. Download it, run it, and I have successfully completed the KB938759 Setup Wizard! It now requires a restart. Oh good Lord.
Restarted. Run GFWL. Log in. And there it is. The evidence that Operation Anchorage exists. My MS points balance is empty, which means it needs to launch IE (dust flying everywhere) and asks me to log in again 30 seconds after logging in. You can’t buy 800 points, obviously. You have to buy 500 or 1000. I don’t want 500 or 1000, I want 800. £8.50 for 1000. Of course it requires a credit card, there’s no option for Paypal or Google Checkout. Nor even a Switch card. It’s gotta be about those credit cards! Fortunately mine’s already registered from 360 excursions, so that will save time.
No it won’t! Of course it won’t! It was funny when I said it would save time, wasn’t it? The valid, working card is greyed out, the radio button next to it unavailable for checking. “You have no valid cards on file.” Apart from THE ONE YOU’VE GOT LISTED THERE. Ah well, there’s an “Edit” button next to the card entry – I’ll reassure it that it’s fine. Oh no, silly me. The “Edit” button doesn’t do anything, does it. Nor does “Add a new Credit Card”. I click on another link to another page of the site. Click the link back to the “buy” page. Re-enter my password, because it’s been over a minute. This time I’m allowed to add a new card. Well, exactly the same card. Money spent.
It’s a 352MB download, which begins.
Thank goodness the uncontrolled madness of being able to buy the content from the publisher’s website, or worse, from inside the game, has come to an end. I’d love to tell you all about it, but I’ve run out of time. However, there’s lots of info here on this unofficial page.
PS. If I’m logged into Live I can’t access my save games. Sign out and they come back, but I get this message:
Edit: Eurogamer have given the DLC 5/10. Also, solutions for this savegame bullshit are in the comments below – thanks guys.
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Funny how I bought the DLC, and ten minutes later the fan melted off my graphics card…
CONSPIRACY!
I ripped F3 off, enjoyed it so much and despite the curse of DRM I went out and bought a retail copy. Played it non-stop for 5 weeks solid now, I am in desperate need of sleep. MS hear this now! I’m buggered if I am going to pay in “funny-money” for you to dick about with my carefully crafted set up. The F3 standalone crashes enough on me, without having you balls up my system32 dir with all your crap DRM gear.
I will wait for the DLCs to be hacked loaded onto my local torrent server. I will then wait for Bethesda to see some f**king sense and release the trio on hard media. Then I can at least still play it in a few years time in VM if necessary, without MS shafting me for 30 quid!
GFWL made me spent two hours trying to run the DoW II beta yesterday. It is hellish. It is the opposite of Steam.
I got your story mentioned on Slashdot:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F29%2F0840207&from=rss
Hope it did hit your server too hard,
P.
Its funny really when you think of it. The pirates will be done playing with the DLC before the people who paid for it have it installed.
You sound like a mega-noob. From start to finish I had no troubles at all. Maybe you should go back to console gaming, probably the Wii would be best for you.
Hey look, it’s available on the pirate bay! It works, no need to install games for windows live, no credit card hassle, no having to pay for extra credits you’ll never use…. All in all, a better offering from pirate bay. I think I’ll send Bethesda a letter in the mail with an 8$ check and a note explaining my reasoning. It just seems smarter to pirate this… Not just cheaper, that’s moot when it comes to an 8$ game… but literally, smarter.
Bought it, played it, finished it. Playing the expansion was no more fun than trying to buy it. It’s riddled with bugs, from trivial up to CTD severity. It’s also not much fun. I can’t even recommend pirating it, it’s that bad.
I’m one of those few people left in the world who still tries every day not to hate MS, because the alternative seems to be unconditionally loving apple. I am a PC gamer, and as a PC gamer, I am forced to use windows. I try to like it. I try to see the good side of Microsoft.
But how can I when they pull shit like this? How is it that a company with so much f**king money to throw at a problem manages to churn out a wave of bullshit unparalleled in pc gaming? How can they get it SO WRONG?
Funnily enough, I just installed my review copy of the DLC and it all went rosy… Downloaded it through the pretty poor (but better than EADM) GFW:Live program after putting in my review code, patched F3 and it was sitting there, ready and waiting…
Strange really.
Figures that it would take Microsoft a while to screw this whole DLC thing up, and only a day or two for internet pirates to pick up the ball. I have to use piracy to watch movies I own because I have to go to hades itself to get Windows Media player to work on legit DVD’s, I’m not surprised GFWL is driving people to piracy to get a trouble free download of Anchorage.
What does GFWL stand for?
Someone told me it was Get Fucked Windows Live…
Games For Windows Live.
Like XBox Live, only without the charm. Or quality. Or stability. Or fun.
I have to say, I’m a big fan of Betheseda, and I picked up most of the Oblivion offerings when they were released, but that was a gloriously painless process.. (And yes, I payed for the horse armour. And you know what? My horse looked FLY bitches! *gives the world the finger*) But all this malarky? The temptation to just go grab one tiny easy little .esp file is rising rapidly, and this is for a game from one of my favourite developers!
I’m ashamed to admit it, but were it a developer I had less love for, I would have pirating this quicker than you can say “GFWL sucks balls, burn it, BUUUUUUURN IT!!!!!”
I was more than happy to pay for the game, in fact I was happy to pay for the add-on till I saw this. Well done Microsoft for losing business. THANKYOU Mr Torrentmaker :)
My confession:
I bought F3 over Steam. Caused me quite a grief because it took a while to figure out which version I really get in my country (you know, those english/german translation woes). Anyway. Happy that I bought it, has it quirks, but I’m fine how I spent my money.
The DLC? Over “what”? GWFL? Yet Another account? Steam updates lately and suddenly silently installs me this *thing*? I uninstalled it and F3 didn’t start again? Didn’t auto install it again, had to seek and download from M$ site (first took the wrong version, how should I know?). Later discovered that the right installer files are inside the Steam application directory. How should I know? Read the frightening stories about DLC O:A only available in translated version in those German countries. Wtf? I took great length to assure I do not get such a @#$@& versoin, now this is it? Other issue: I need to buy “points”, but more I need to spend anyway? Ok, nice price probably. But, M$/Bethsoft “I AM NOT INTERESTED!” in yet another account/registration/whatthe%&&#soever.
I downloaded some torrent with the data files, copied them into the right place, voila. No hassle, quick, works and it’s not @#$@#% translated into a language I don’t want (even I’m speaking it native).
I would, but I could not pay. I’m not interesting in yet another account thing, especially not something connected to Microsoft. I made something illegal because there’s basically no other way to get it.
As soon as there’s a sane way I’m happy to spend my money for O:A, consider it paid already.
Totally excited for OpAnch, I kept trying to dl it on release day. The “Live” option took me repeatedly to xbox.com. I mistakenly decided, finally, that I guess I’m supposed to download it here… after matching the instructions from the GFW website (and considering the goddamn game and bethesda website directed me straight to xbox.com), I guess I figured, who the hell dl’s xbox games from their PC? Purchased the 1000pts, spent the 800 on OpAnch, entered my DL queue. I don’t own an Xbox, so I didn’t know wtf was going on, and after trying multiple times to get it to dl, FO3 finally began updating. I thought it was finally nabbing my DL content. No, it was giving me the new GFWL client. Then it showed me I could dl OpAnch for the PC. Of course Xbox Live wouldn’t refund my MSPoints (after spending a week to get back to me about it), even though the GFW customer support is the number for Xbox support, even though the goddamned game consistently took me to xbox.com, even though my username and pass for GFW logged me into xbox.com. Now I’m glad I don’t own an xbox, considering (after tax and $1.00 credit check) they want me to now buy more points at $12.50 and spend approx. $30 on the $10 expansion.
i atleast thought the DLC would be free because its on a fuckin PC (i bought this game for my PS3 no DLC means fuck you!) i pirated the game yesterday it works perfectly then im wonder oh wait isnt a DLC out for it i go and click on downloads oh shit windows live so im like okay ill download the shit downloaded it went onto add on’s what do you know its not there im like okay so i check on google and oh shit microsoft want me too pay for a 3 hour DLC the cost’s a retarded amount and i also cant pay for it up front oh no i have to buy some shitty micro fuckin soft points im going to and search on google for the DLC thank you microsoft for making me waste more of my shitty youth!
Seriously you’ve never played Viva Pinata?
Reallys?
Had it downloaded and running — relatively painlessly — in about 6 minutes.
…Now what the heck is this “Games for Windows Live” thing everyone is talking about? :P
I did the same thing “Idiot” did. I followed Bethesda’s instructions to a “T” and ended up buying the X-Box file, but after GfW:L patched itself, it wouldn’t run at all. It ran long enough to take my money and patch Fallout 3 to attenuate itself to GfW:L and patch itself to not run on my computer. After talking to some LIVE fanboys on the LIVE forum, I figured that I either have to update to Vista, update with SP3, rendering some expensive legacy programs unusable (Windows Explorer/XP SP3 plug some ports for no good reason that my legacy programs need to use), or update Java Console to 3.5. Every time I try to install Java 3.5, it fails to downloading, giving me errors from MS’s servers. I guess I need to torrent Java 3.5, since I torrented FA3 O:A the day after they suckered me into buying more points than I needed. One of my buddies is going to buy my LIVE account so he can download O:A for his X-Box, so I’ll get my money back.
When the Pitt comes out, just wait a few hours and it will be on pir8bay, I promise. I had enough asshattery today when I discovered that my saved games don’t load unless I’m logged into LIVE, even though it’s a stand alone game..
Get F**ked We’re Laughing :D
screw viva pinata, by that name i seriously doubt it has a:
ESRB: M (Mature) BLOOD AND GORE,INTENSE VIOLENCE,SEXUAL THEMES,STRONG LANGUAGE,USE OF DRUGS.
I just started playing Fallout 3 with tons of mods installed, and read on the tweakguides FO3 pages that GFWL actually causes lag and some crash issues on some peoples machines:
http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_3.html
I dont even use it, i mean THIS IS AN OFFLINE GAME!!!!
wtf is the point. achievements? what are they? DLC? you DL it off PB!!
I mean Bethesda should take a leaf out of CDProjekt Reds book in regards to downloading game content (see what i did there :) they made a complete overhaul of the Witcher – which kicked ass to begin with – and put it out for free. Free mods in Oblivion like FCOM actually add more content than any of its DLC!!!
I paid something like 40 quid for the games collector edition box – just the box mind, the wee model broke and i cant find the manual – and now they want more money from me for DLC and putting up with Microshaft!!
I have just deleted the whole GFWL heap of steaming slag, from my puter bot. Now I have to find work arounds for games like dow 2 and gears….
@woobles: “screw viva pinata, by that name i seriously doubt it has a:
ESRB: M (Mature) BLOOD AND GORE,INTENSE VIOLENCE,SEXUAL THEMES,STRONG LANGUAGE,USE OF DRUGS.”
You are deadly wrong:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/03/17/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/3/17/
AHHAHAH
ok hmm, the from the gamespot review:
“If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to attract pairs of the same breed, who’ll take a shine to each other, as denoted by the universal sign of floating hearts above their heads, and head off into a habitat and…dance. Once their jig, which plays out in an in-game cinematic, is over, a stork will pop by and drop an egg that will contain the fruit of their boogying, a baby piñata.”
Thats the sexual themes i take it.
and:
“You can hire some help to ward them off or handle the job yourself. While you may be thinking your shovel would be the ideal way to deal with the malcontents–piñatas being made for a good bashing and all–you’ll have to be careful, as breaking a sour open in your garden leaves behind bits of corrupting material that could seriously mess up your population. These bad-seed piñatas are led by the antisocial Dastardos, who, with a name like that, is obviously looking to stir up trouble.”
So thats the Gore and intense violence. Great and I guess Rare where off their dial on drugs while making it too… I’ll have to buy it ;D