Knowing that this would be a rather large game, data-wise, my family felt it would be wise to purchase a physical copy for me so I would not struggle with our incredibly slow Internet. They wanted me to be able to play Fallout 4 while it was still my Birthday. I was surprised to open the case and find only one disc. "Guess the game isn't so overbearingly massive after all," I thought as I began installing the game. What surprised me as I returned from my Birthday festivities was that only 5.5 Gigabytes out of roughly 24 were installed. My brother drove for hours to obtain a physical copy for me as a gift because all the local stores were sold out. Now my birthday is over and I am still awake and staring at a download screen that reads "5.5 GB / 24.0 GB."

I might not get to play the game until Christmas according to some very accurate math I finished about an hour ago. I have to throttle it back that far so the family can access Netflix and play the occasional online game. If I purchased my own line on the 1st of December, I'd be fortunate to play it by the 4th of December at best because the only available Internet service is unstable and very weak DSL. A T1 line would cost roughly $200+ a month. A satellite dish would be a one or two year commitment with horrible data usage caps. Moving to a less rural location for better Internet service would ruin my productivity as a budding novelist who favors peace and quiet.

I never thought I would say this... Getting Fallout 4 for my birthday was bad.

It was more disappointing than having to help move furniture, build a working doorway, and help prepare Thanksgiving dinner on my Birthday. This is an issue that has been preventable since the days of MSDOS. It is resolved by placing multiple discs in a box for a complete installation of a large game. With a price tag of $60, a few extra DVD discs aren't a major loss.

1. I can go to Walmart and purchase 16 reliable DVD-writable discs for $17.40 before tax.

2. This game really only needs 5 discs. So that's $5.43 before tax.

3. They are quite cheaper in bulk.

4. Since 1995, I have been aware that expanded jewel cases containing multiple discs that did not occupy too much space made manufacturing and shipping reasonably affordable for games that span multiple discs.

The bottom line is that everyone except the customer has saved money in this endeavor known as "Fallout 4," at the convenience of everyone except the customer. Manufacturing standards established two decades ago have not been met, and I feel that I have only received 20% of what my family kindly paid for to give to me for my Birthday.

Americans pay more for slow Internet, especially in rural communities that make the backbone of this nation. As a whole, Americans are not ready to download 20 GB of data on time to play Fallout 4 on the same day they received it. Without the ability to return the game because the code is already redeemed, my family will be upset if they discover this is the result of a well-meant Birthday gift and stray from ever buying me a new PC game again. I myself, intending to remain a resident of rural America, will stray from this idea as well. I can understand the occasional 2 GB patch, but this poorly coordinated PC release has officially cancelled my Birthday. Bethesda owes me and many other rural American nerds a sweet roll.

Americans pay more for slow internet. Ha!! Live in australia and you will actually understand what that means.

I'm very sorry for you. Sincerely.

I actually know how you feel and can express genuine empathy. Here's hoping the Australia release wasn't the same horrible manufacturing mistake.

Wouldnt know, i bought the ps4 physical pipboy edition

I have a half-finished handmade pipboy sitting in the shed. I built this PC myself. We DIY folks get a bit peeved when someone other than ourselves throws a wrench into the works.

While I agree with most of what the OP said - It is tragic that the game isn't sold complete. It could be put on one blue ray DVD, but not everyone has a blue ray player on their PC. I don't think consoles can handle that anyway. Hence the need to download portions of the game or include multiple DVDs. I am sorry that where you live you can't get adequate internet service for a reasonable price.

BUT, I too live in America and can download 10 MB per second from my inexpensive, flat rate internet connection. So when you say Americans as a whole are not ready to download 20GB, you seem to be ignoring the fact that a significant majority of us don't live in the middle of nowhere - not that there is anything wrong with that. But there is nothing wrong with living in the middle of somewhere either. If you ever come by the big city, you can stop by my place. I'll hook you up to my internet and you can download your 20GB while we share some beers.

Unstable 800 kbps max for $50 a month shared with 2-3 rather active devices other than my own. This is a normal issue in most of Arkansas. Also, I live in a dry county. I'd take the beer in a heartbeat at this point.

Well my friend, the bars in NYC stay open until 4 am. and my unlimited 100 Mbps internet cost 40 bucks a month. It's a shared network, so I am sharing with hundreds of people I don't even know, which is why I never reach that 100 Mbps max (10 MB per second is pretty good though) - and get this, my wife works from home and her company pays the bill. I bet you hate me right about now.

Meh I get 1Gb for $70

Yes, but you live in NYC. A place where I would have panic attacks at least twice a day. Probably wouldn't visit for long because of that.

Well then he should stop by your place then. Arkansas is much closer to Texas anyway.

Don't sell yourself short. I was born on the outskirts of a town that had 1200 people. I spent most of my young life around farms. Now I've lived in LA and NYC. If I can do it, anyone can. Besides, your off to Texas anyway

What is this, someone's blog?

It's a chick having a rant about a bad birthday. Aren't you too busy actually playing Fallout 4 to care?

Happy belated birthday!

Happy birthday...

And I agree... I absolutely do not see a point in the physical version, if it doesn't contain a majority of the game. I think it's... for a lack of better words... petty...

Personally I have decentish internet at 20/2 mbits (limited by a 1966 apartment building copper), so it weren't a problem for me, but I can look beyond my own nose and do remember the old dial up modems.

I bought the physical copy only for the Perk chart. Would have been nice with a set of DVD's.

That's effed up I pay the equivalent of ~55 dollars for a 100/100 Fiberoptic, non-throttled. It helps that I live in a small country tho.

OP I'm sorry to hear your situation. There are a lot of places in that situation, where rural connections is not up to par with the average of a given country. Perhaps, Steam should look into, allowing people who have verified their game, be allowed to download a zipped version installer for the rest of the game. Would still be something to download, but much smaller in size. Piracy wouldn't be a problem, if the, say, 1st GB have to be downloaded from steam, and the offline installer takes it from there. Just a thought. As it stands, big game companies simply doesn't do full games on disc's anymore, because of piracy and various other reasons involving manufactoring / transport etc.

Yes, but requiring an online connection and a Steam account is why Bethesda has no excuse for this. They have a fairly reliable security measure in place. The game will be pirated whether they put it all in discs or not, anyway. In the end, this only thwarts the customer from an attempt at a valid installation at said customer's expense.

Aww mate that svcks! Happy bday anyways.

I drove over and baught a physical copy at midnight release and got annoyed at it taking 20 minutes to install, so I can't imagine how pissed you are.

800k tops? And here I thought it was nearly impossible to outdo the Philippines in terms of awful, awful price:speed ratios. Damn. That's 100KB/sec download absolute tops, assuming a clear connection you'll never realistically be getting, right? There was a time my internet was that slow - now, on Steam servers it goes up to maybe three times that, with the tradeoff of devouring every scrap of bandwidth in the house. So - yeah, I feel you on this.

Honestly, the anti-piracy does nothing. It was pirated on release day because Steam crackers are just as good as on-disc crackers from the olden days. While I prefer digital copies due to the sheer lack of space in my room for discs, I find it ridiculous that the physical disc option isn't actually that for an increasing number of games - it's just as bad as single-player games needing persistent internet connection.

Happy birthday, though. I hope you find a way around this problem and get to enter the Commonwealth Wasteland soon.

It's not "special snowflake day", I had to move my whole house by myself on my birthday this year with loads of stressful drama from others in my life...I didn't get a gift and get to relax to watch it slowly download

I understand your frustration about the disc not containing the full game though but what can you do?

It gets cracked regardless, so (IMO), security is a poor excuse for covering what they are really doing - which is saving another buck or two of cost per unit.

100% true! Honestly, hacking and cracking exists in part because companies continually treat their customers not as customers but as cash cattle.

ruh roh!