PC buyers beware - game breaking problems with Steam : Fallout: New Vegas

» Fri May 27, 2011 10:43 pm

Ironically, I had no problems whatsoever with GFWL and in fact quite liked that playing FO3 on my PC gave my XBL account more achievements/gamerpoints. I'm not a huge fan of the eternal e-peen race and don't generally go for achievements just to say I have x amount of achievements, but it's still a nice plus.

I preordered on Steam and have quite a number of other games through Steam...and have never had a problem with it, Steamworks, DRM, or anything else, until now. So I feel a little mixed.

» Fri May 27, 2011 11:11 pm

really why?

It's an anti-piracy measure, it's a store, it's a patch distribution center, it handles achievements, it handles downloads, it stores your license number for you, and it's far and away better than Games for Windows Live.

I have a ton of Steam games and they all work fine, including this one (which I actually bought retail).

However, I stay away from quick-saves and auto-saves. Those weren't even 100% reliable in Oblivion so I knew the wouldn't be reliable here.

DRM on PC is here to stay. It's been on PC for over 20 years. I get why people complain about it, and it definitely svcks when it doesn't work right, but at the same time it's not going away either.

» Sat May 28, 2011 7:25 am

All this bawing about Steam both amuses and confuses me. As a Steam user since October 2007 (Orange Box) I have grown to love and rely on the convenience it offers.

Steam makes purchasing games easy. Find the game in the store, confirm credit card information, download and play.
Steam makes playing games easy. Want to play your game on a different computer? Install Steam and all of your games will be right there in the library, waiting for you to play them.
Steam makes playing with friends easy. The friends list shows who is online, what they're playing, and makes it easy to join their games. I even like to integrate my non-Steam games into the library so that I can chat with my Steam friends across various games.
Steam support has successfully resolved every issue I have ever had with my games.
Steam even offers a feature to detect and update ATI drivers at the press of a button. How awesome is that?

Regarding New Vegas, I played for almost 6 hours straight last night, using both quick and manual saves, and I have yet to experience even one problem with the game. If you are having game breaking problems, I can assure you that it is not Steam's fault. Maybe your computer svcks? My Windows 7 Home Premium, i5-650 3.2ghz quad, radeon hd 5770, 8gb ddr3, 1tb hd are running the game flawlessly on ultra high settings :celebration:

» Sat May 28, 2011 6:14 am

Steam overwrites your auto and quicksave files, unless it is set to "Offline Mode," after you quit out of Fallout New Vegas and start it up again. And for people saying "HAR HAR I DONT USE AUTO OR QUICK SAVES CUZ I HAVE SUCH GOOD FORESIGHT..." I have played Bethesda games since Morrowind and never had a problem with any types of saves, so I foolishly assumed that a VERY important feature in the game would work correctly and not lose me hours of time.

And for people who say "I just played for 8 hours and quick saves and auto saves were working fine!"....Yeah they work fine until you turn off Fallout NV and turn it on again... have fun seeing your 8 hours gone upon restarting the program... assuming you were running Steam in "Online Mode," of course.

The fault lies with either the QA team, for not finding/reporting these bugs, or the people who pushed the game to market knowing these bugs were in it.

» Sat May 28, 2011 3:28 am

First, Steam is one of the best services out there.

Second, this is HORRIBLE quality control on Bethesda's/Obsidian's part.

Every Bethesda and/or Obsidian product I have ever purchased has been EXTREMELY buggy, I'm sure there are those of us who remember how awesome KOTOR was.

So thanks Bethesda/Obsidian, I will never pre-order nor day 1 purchase any of your products ever again. Ridiculous the state in which this game was released, so far I've fixed all the other bugs I've run into, but I so far can't get around this save game bug, which is outstanding because it's game breaking.

What utter crap.

» Fri May 27, 2011 10:35 pm

I don't have a problem with DRM. I do have a problem with using Steam to do it - why do I have a DVD? From when I put the disk in the drive until now, it's been over 2 hours. Admittedly, I didn't have a Steam account before, so that's a good part of time, but I've never been a fan of 3rd party programs that read your system and provide hardware and software readouts to that company. Most software I know of that does that is SPYWARE. Eh, call it a store/DRM system and you're good I guess...

I am thoroughly annoyed by the inclusion of steam. Had I known how much of a headache it would be to install the next chapter of this much loved series, I likely would have thought twice and perhaps found an alternative way of experiencing the game.

What if I bought a single player game to play on a computer not connected to the internet? I would never be able to play.

I haven't even played the game yet and it's gone from excitement to expectations of fail, just from the install process.

» Fri May 27, 2011 11:24 pm

All this bawing about Steam both amuses and confuses me. As a Steam user since October 2007 (Orange Box) I have grown to love and rely on the convenience it offers.

Steam makes purchasing games easy. Find the game in the store, confirm credit card information, download and play.
Steam makes playing games easy. Want to play your game on a different computer? Install Steam and all of your games will be right there in the library, waiting for you to play them.
Steam makes playing with friends easy. The friends list shows who is online, what they're playing, and makes it easy to join their games. I even like to integrate my non-Steam games into the library so that I can chat with my Steam friends across various games.
Steam support has successfully resolved every issue I have ever had with my games.
Steam even offers a feature to detect and update ATI drivers at the press of a button. How awesome is that?

Regarding New Vegas, I played for almost 6 hours straight last night, using both quick and manual saves, and I have yet to experience even one problem with the game. If you are having game breaking problems, I can assure you that it is not Steam's fault. Maybe your computer svcks? My Windows 7 Home Premium, i5-650 3.2ghz quad, radeon hd 5770, 8gb ddr3, 1tb hd are running the game flawlessly on ultra high settings :celebration:

Did you load from Retail Disk? If you did, did you let steam download the software or did you do a hard install. I want to be able to play offline, I thought everyone said you had to load directly from the disk to do this? Because of resources (low bandwidth) I need to be able to play the game offline without an active internet connection. I am all confused! I have read so many post with conflicting directions, I really no longer know how to actually install the game, get it authenticated, and then play offline without an active internet connection.

You seem to be one of the few players that has been able to play the game for a significant amount of time with no problems. Thought you might could help a non-techie with EASY to follow directions. (I do not know what even a lot of the acronyms stand for. I had to ask someone what DRM meant.)

» Sat May 28, 2011 5:23 am

You seem to be one of the few players that has been able to play the game for a significant amount of time with no problems. Thought you might could help a non-techie with EASY to follow directions. (I do not know what even a lot of the acronyms stand for. I had to ask someone what DRM meant.)

I run this game just fine. Other than the Saves issue, there have been no problems for me either.

» Sat May 28, 2011 7:41 am

I run this game just fine. Other than the Saves issue, there have been no problems for me either.

I'm glad, but how did you install it, activate it, and play it offline without an active internet connection?
I have already tried many of the directions I've found and I have not been successful in even to get it run.

Most people give directions and skip steps because they understand it so well and they do not think
to explain to the non-initiated even the easy, obvious steps. What is obvious to you is probably
vague to me.

» Sat May 28, 2011 5:48 am

Did you load from Retail Disk? If you did, did you let steam download the software or did you do a hard install. I want to be able to play offline, I thought everyone said you had to load directly from the disk to do this? Because of resources (low bandwidth) I need to be able to play the game offline without an active internet connection. I am all confused! I have read so many post with conflicting directions, I really no longer know how to actually install the game, get it authenticated, and then play offline without an active internet connection.

You seem to be one of the few players that has been able to play the game for a significant amount of time with no problems. Thought you might could help a non-techie with EASY to follow directions. (I do not know what even a lot of the acronyms stand for. I had to ask someone what DRM meant.)

You have to be online in order to install F:NV at all. After that, you can be offline completely and the game will run just fine. It doesn't matter how you installed the game - download from Steam, retail disc, whatever - it all works out the same in the end.

So: Get online. Install the game however you choose (if you have the retail disc, just open it up and click 'setup.exe'). Then you can unplug your internet connection or whatever and the game'll work fine.

» Sat May 28, 2011 7:31 am

Oh! I want to have a post in this trainwreck too! Feel free to blame someone on that.

» Fri May 27, 2011 7:40 pm

Steam is my only beef with Fallout New Vegas. I don't remeber anything in thr pre-release write ups mentioning steam being part of the game. My big complaint is it took me almost an hour to install the game because I HAD NO CHOICE but to create a new user on Steam to get the game installed. After an hour of not being able to connect to Steam everything finally went through and I could get on and play. Maybe I'm just old school, but I miss the days where you installed the game, entered the product code and got on an played. If you needed the latest patch you went to the web site and downloaded when you were ready to do it, not forced into it just becuase you happen to want to get on an play while you had some spare time and end up waiting for an automatic upadte to finish. The only real benefit I could see with having to use steam would be if Fallout New Vegas was a multiplayer game. Its not, so there no one I need to chat or talk to while I'm playing New Vegas, nobody else needs to know when I'm playing and it's nobody's business but my own how many hours I've spent playing the game.

maybe im just old school, but i miss the days of putting the disc in, making yourself a copy to keep the original safe, and then having to use a codewheel or find some specific word in the manual to prove i didn't steal it.

» Fri May 27, 2011 6:44 pm

I run this game just fine. Other than the Saves issue, there have been no problems for me either.

What's your PC's specs?

» Sat May 28, 2011 4:10 am

im having the same problems as well on my xp system.

» Fri May 27, 2011 10:28 pm

This game would of been good if it wasnt for the massive amount of game breaking bugs.

For starters they didnt even change a huge amount about fallout 3 to make new vegas. They added to the game what most mods added to fo3 (fook, FWE, MMM, ect.) . And now the game is so bashed from being buggy its not even playable.

Im really really bummed by this release. And Obsidian should be ashamed.

» Sat May 28, 2011 10:27 am

HAHAHA! look at this ridiculous reply from Steam Support regarding my missing saves...

"Hello,

A staff member has replied to your question:

Hello, If you are currently running Vista or Windows 7, please complete the instructions in the following link: Title: Windows 7 and Vista Troubleshooting Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5688-IFHZ-2170 You may also need to manually run secondary installers required by this game. Exit Steam entirely. Browse to your Fallout: New Vegas installation folder (Usually C:\Program files\Steam\Steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\) Run the following installers: ...\Steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\Redists\vcredist_x86.exe ...\Steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\Redists\directx\DXSETUP.exe Reboot your computer and test the issue. If the issues persist, please complete these guides: Title: This game is currently unavailable Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4595-WEXN-6831 Title: Games do not run after 'Preparing to Launch' Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6218-USFX-5568 If the issue continues, please contact the Support team for this title: Title: Fallout: New Vegas Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4727-YFJN-5518

WTF? These people are crazy... I am not about to try anything of the sort! I already completed my part of the deal, I paid for the game, and installed it...

» Fri May 27, 2011 9:55 pm

really why?

because it was either steam of games for windows live, count your blessings. As for steam making this problem, I have bought over 100 games on steam and the only games I've never had any steamside errors or problems regarding saves/settings. As for the files not being validated it's confirmed that that was bethesda's fault as stated in their blog.

» Sat May 28, 2011 10:20 am

[snip]

However, I stay away from quick-saves and auto-saves. Those weren't even 100% reliable in Oblivion so I knew the wouldn't be reliable here.

[snip]

Everything worked perfect for me in Oblivion.

But running Oblivion and Shimmering Isles, etc. had nothing to do with Steam. Steam was disconnected and turned off while Oblivion was running.

B)

» Sat May 28, 2011 5:33 am

What I don't get is the Steam hate in the first place.
Yeah, it's a form of copy protection to use steam.

Surprisingly Fallout 3's SecuROM was the type that did basically nothing but make sure the DVD was in the drive. Which has been how most DRMs work since the very beginning. It's only recently they've gotten insane.
So, was it bad because of it being SecuROM?

Same with Steam. I just don't understand how you can complain about Steam. What horrible problems did Steam cause to people?
Compared to Starforce, anyway.

The nature of the beast is this: No game is perfect, no DRM/copy Protection is perfect, and no operating systems are perfect. After all, Windows ME?

I want to state that it's entirely possible all these problems with New Vegas are caused by Windows 7 Professional edition, 64 bit version.

» Fri May 27, 2011 11:42 pm

Since the update, my game is like in hardcoe mode. I am also getting creatures spawning everytime I load a save and they ALWAYS kill me in 3 stings. Shooting them with the bonus shootgun does little to nothing to them! It is like a kids cap gun.
My saves are all screwed up. I don't have my last save, my Auto save is from 1 hour in. I am over 6 hours in!
I can not do anything now, since as soon as I spawn, I am killed instantly, over and over and over again. No matter what save I have tried, those giant bees spawn with me and kill me!
I tried restarting Steam, no joy, same issue.
This update didn't fix anything for me, it only broke what was already working well. Prior, I had no problem with my game changing difficulty, spawning and I had no problem with saves.

Other issues not fixed.
I can't use the computers, they don't display correctly.
I can hardly use the binoculars, they don't display correctly either.
See here:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=20661

» Sat May 28, 2011 12:34 am

It's an anti-piracy measure, it's a store, it's a patch distribution center, it handles achievements, it handles downloads, it stores your license number for you, and it's far and away better than Games for Windows Live.

I have a ton of Steam games and they all work fine, including this one (which I actually bought retail).

However, I stay away from quick-saves and auto-saves. Those weren't even 100% reliable in Oblivion so I knew the wouldn't be reliable here.

DRM on PC is here to stay. It's been on PC for over 20 years. I get why people complain about it, and it definitely svcks when it doesn't work right, but at the same time it's not going away either.

Really? 20 Years? 20 years ago I dont remember having to login to the internet to authenticate a game so that it can register and keep track of your playing time and keep track of achievements and your progress... all for a single player game...

» Sat May 28, 2011 7:40 am

Really? 20 Years? 20 years ago I dont remember having to login to the internet to authenticate a game so that it can register and keep track of your playing time and keep track of achievements and your progress... all for a single player game...

20 years ago the DRM was instead "what is the 5th word on the 17th line on page 15?", so one had to check the manual and write the correct answer. DRM for computer games have existed in some form in ~30 years now.

But yeah, you never had to login to the internet to authenticate a singleplayer game until Half-Life 2 was released back in 2004, it's something Valve started.

» Fri May 27, 2011 7:27 pm

You're a moron, at least with respect for no reason to use steam. There are bugs, and they svck and need to get fixed. No argument there. However, DRM of some kind is a must. Debates can be made as to whether the DRM is successful, but it would be fiscally irresponsible to not even bother to attempt to protect their property.

» Fri May 27, 2011 8:45 pm

Just a note to all you gamers that are scratchin your head about Steam. Steam has been around for numerous years and all gaming has gone to digital downloads and once you setup your account with Steam your games that are purchased through Steam will never get scratched, lose your keycode or if your hardrive crashes you won't have to fret a bit about your games becouse once you download the Steam software again (www.steamworks.com) and login you will see all your games in the Library section all you have to do is redownload the game you choose, now if you don't have a backup system and your not backing up your saved games to a remote WD Book (1 terabyte) or other external hardrive of some type thats your fault. And yes sometimes games come with Microsoft Games For Windows and yes the saved games are in a different area or folder than your other saved games. Trust me every time a new game is released and over 4 million clients that Steam has the software never causes any problems (now not all pc's are created equally). But please don't start flaming Steam as they have nothing to do with Fallout 3 or any other game in fact the real reason Bethesda choose to use Steam is that Steam does not have any hated security software that alot of titles have and Dev's can choose to use not only Steam's security but also the Steam Cloud (thats short for bandwidth) and their are achievements and all patches are auto updated to your game without you having to go hunt them down as Dev's will release a special digital release for patches so don't go looking for a patch if you here about one trust me when I say Steam will automatically update your game if you choose to allow Steam to be logged in and sitting down by your clock. I could go on and on if I haven't already but understand that Steam is a name that you willl hear more and more about as all Dev's are releasing there games digitally and choosing either Steam or (direct2drive.com a IGN company). So if you have any questions feel free to contact me and I will happly answer and questions that you can't find under the "Help" section inside the Steam software. Good Luck and enjoy New Vegas!!!!!!!!

ENTER key.

» Sat May 28, 2011 2:43 am

HAHAHA! look at this ridiculous reply from Steam Support regarding my missing saves...

"Hello,

A staff member has replied to your question:

Hello, If you are currently running Vista or Windows 7, please complete the instructions in the following link: Title: Windows 7 and Vista Troubleshooting Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5688-IFHZ-2170 You may also need to manually run secondary installers required by this game. Exit Steam entirely. Browse to your Fallout: New Vegas installation folder (Usually C:\Program files\Steam\Steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\) Run the following installers: ...\Steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\Redists\vcredist_x86.exe ...\Steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\Redists\directx\DXSETUP.exe Reboot your computer and test the issue. If the issues persist, please complete these guides: Title: This game is currently unavailable Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4595-WEXN-6831 Title: Games do not run after 'Preparing to Launch' Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6218-USFX-5568 If the issue continues, please contact the Support team for this title: Title: Fallout: New Vegas Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4727-YFJN-5518

WTF? These people are crazy... I am not about to try anything of the sort! I already completed my part of the deal, I paid for the game, and installed it...

Hence the name, Lazy Eddy! Heh, jk. I hear ya, I still can't play too. I'm pissed.