To Whom It May Concern @ Bethesda,

Since the title of your newest Fallout adventure is Fallout: New Vegas, I'll use some card terminology to kick off this open letter: It's time to fold em'. The gaming community, along with millions of adoring Fallout fans, have been scorned. We are nothing but your jaded ex-lover at this point. We have all been betrayed. Months of hype, the promises of past problems fixed and the lure of a new Fallout adventure lured us all back... only to have you stomp on our hearts, douse our souls in gasoline and throw a match. Right about now we are watching you fade into black, a sly and evil grin the last things we get to see before the flames silence us forever.

Maybe you tried your best, I don't know... all I know is that this has to be the worst game release I have ever witnessed. And it's true across all platforms. Every person with their name tied to this game should be ashamed. Quests don't complete, saves get deleted, DLC doesn't work, characters vanish, audio goes in and out... and the freezing. Oh my god... the freezing. I was 4 hours in when it started for me. I loved every second of this game until the freezing began. It started in Primm. Inside the casino where the town sheriff is being held. I hacked the computer and cleaned out the storage area... came out and began fighting some convicts and that was it. The game does not move past this point. Freezes over and over and over and over. Clearing the cache doesn't help. Whatever was in this first patch for 360 doesn't help. Basically, you created a game that I fell in love with and then you came into my house and shot my Xbox 360 with a shotgun at point blank range.

Where do we go from here??? My suggestions:

1. Recall the game and release a letter of apology to all of us that you have betrayed. We all make mistakes in life... and it's okay to stand up sometimes and say "I'm sorry guys... I F'd up".
2. Refund every one of us who gave money to this game... or at least work out a deal with distributors like Gamestop, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc... so that they can refund us our money.
3. Start over. Who cares if it takes 6 months or 6 weeks or 6 whatever... take a look at every second of the game, find out what the hell is causing these issues, address them and re-release the game. Look, right now your reputation in the gaming community is taking a serious beating. What will you do to save it????

In the end, I am just one voice. Do I expect anything to change in the gaming industry? No I do not. You guys have deadlines and I understand that. Unfortunately it is now okay to release a crappy product to the masses, because things like Xbox live allow the developer to fix the game at a later date. If you think this is the right thing to do, then I hope you and everyone else in the industry takes a long, hard look in the mirror.

I just can't believe this game was released like this. Sigh... if only there was a way to patch a companies lack of business ethics.

I'm out.

Got to agree with you bro'. These days games tend to be released as half-baked. I believe it's our fault since we keep on buying games and pre-ordering them or buying them straigh in the release date even tho
we don't know how the game will run. Then we wait weeks or even months for a patch that will fix biggest issues.....then we wait Again weeks or months untill they release a patch that fixes the minor issues.

If only everyone of us would buy the game once we get a confirmation from reliable source that a game is 95% bug free. That way WE could force gaming companys to spend more time in polishing games before they release them.

There is absolutely way too few people testing these games nowdays.

Have I had bugs? Numerous. Some game-breaking. However, it isn't smart for a company to spend more money recalling, refunding, then redoing, then re-releasing. Not to mention the fact if they re-released, nearly everyone that bought would buy it again. Money spent doing that would be less for the company to put into the game to fix it.

The fact is, there is a thing called "patching". They are working on those things called "patches". They will continue to make them until the major bugs are squashed, and all that is left are nitpicks.

Recall? Stupidest idea I have ever heard. I don't understand where people come up with these things. A recall is for something potentially harmful.

I have never heard of a game being recalled in recent years, even when patching is impossible.

You can cry about it all you want, but in actuality, we the gamers are to blame. Our supreme lack of patience and understanding if a game is delayed even a week shines through pretty much anywhere you look on the internet. So game companies are forced, by us, to rush the entire process, from design to programming to testing, just to meet a deadline that was set by some genius in marketing to satiate our demand for the game in the shortest amount of time possible. I dare you to name one game in the last decade that has not been rushed out as soon as possible after even the slightest bit of confirmable information about it got out on the web, and then show me that it was not even slightly crippled by bugs and glitches. Heck, even the venerable Final Fantasy VII (yes, [censored], I'm going after your Precious) was rife with glitches and bugs that could either be exploited (W-Item, anyone?) or kill the game (my copy once blanked an actual Sony memory card, erasing over 100 hours of work). So, unless you actually have a VIABLE solution, I suggest you get over it until the patches are finished.

Nothing can be done. Clearly enough testing was not done, but at this point the only option is to shelf it and wait for the patches.

Dude, deadlines are deadlines; just release the game when it's in working condition (at least less bugs than this...lol) . Old games I used to play really never had bugs in them (at least I don't remember so) , old PS1 games; yeah those companies probably took more time testing those than Obsidian did this. They just fall back on the whole "Live update thing" When blatant truth is, . PEOPLE SPEND MONEY TO PURCHASE WORKING GAME, NOT GAME-CASE PAPERWEIGHT :banghead:

And to follow up on everything... I tried playing again tonight. Gave me another crash and at the moment I am getting the dreaded red circle of death on my 360 power button. Did New Vegas just torch my Xbox? Amazing.

...Half-life 2. When you buy things they should work, and million dollar companies shouldn't have to fall back on the internet to fix their problems, in my case (on pc) it took someone other than the company to release a .ddl file to fix it, and whoever that dude is never saw a cent for this game. Just shameful.

First off, don't blame Bethesda for Obsidian's mistake.

Secondly, what the HELL is wrong with you peons? Is a few days / weeks waiting for a patch to what is otherwise, or will soon be, a GREAT game really worth bankrupting / sueing one of the greatest developers out there? Refund? Class-action lawsuit? [censored], get over yourselves.

Obsidian is wrong for being lazy/incompetent, Bethesda is wrong for releasing a game in the state Obsidian left NV in.

Both parties knew this game was a broken piece of junk when it came out, neither cared.

Well, I understand by your post that you are one of those type of people who lay down for anything. I am sorry, but when I buy something, I EXPECT it to work. Period, and I will take it back. If I buy enough things that fail from a certain company, I no longer buy anything with that companies name on it.
As for games failing.... screw patches. How do you propose platform and PC users of this and other games to Patch when we do not have internet connected to the PC or platform? I run a 360, and one purchased this because I had to play FO3, and the PC version I waited so long for was just so buggy it could not be played. I do not use LIVE, and will not pay MS any additional money to get onto LIVE just to get a patch that the game should never have needed in the first place. So now that I have bugged out on my 360 and it isnt playable any longer... I am out of luck.... and so are all the other owners of this game who cannot "update".

The first month of XBL is free. XBL silver is free, period.

With either of these you can download patches.

You are willing to buy a new car for 40K(which can only be driven with R), and then after 2-4 months go and get the new gearbox for it with a public transportation? Thought so, period.

Man you are a fool. You do not have to pay Microsoft anything for updates on games. Especially games with no online functionality. Do not post mindless rants, if you have no idea about the actual truth behind the issue. You can update your game anytime you want as long as you have internet access.
Any way, I am sure you spend more on cigarettes or soda in a month, than you would if you bought a years worth of live. It's really not that expensive of a product, but you would think it cost an arm and a leg, with a side of eyeball, the way some people talk about Live charging for their service.

Get a grip.

Bugs are the price we pay for increasing complexity in games. Give them a week or two, there will be a patch.

I think we're all a bit frustrated with these bugs, but deep down, I don't think any of us are too bothered about waiting for a patch if the patch is effective, and we don't lose our save games.

I seriously hope that it isn't a week or two until the patch. I'm patient and can wait, and have been for 48h but if I'd heard nothing during this week then sadly I'm returning it back to the store within it's 10 day guarantee without havn't touched nothing but the manual. I understand about complexity in games, but that shouldn't be put on our shoulders. If the game is complex, do extensive testing.

I hope a patch is out tomorrow.

I've had a few wierd clipping issues with corpses but never anything game breaking, and I certainly havn't had any crashes.

yes...we shouldnt have to wait for a patch..i should have been done or in at least a lot better shape than it was to start with..i dont understand this attitude that to sell something as broken as this is ok..its not ok..its not right to expect ppl to shell out in some cases over $80 for something in this condition..they know its not right but they did it any way..

How did my post informing people about how XBL works turn into me saying you should have to download patches?

That's right, it didn't.

My only big problem is that I cannot perform hacking attempts. If that isn't fixed, I'm effectively blocked from a 100% on this game, so it's a given that I expect it'll be fixed pretty soon.

I also have frame rate drops here and there, and sudden, obnoxious frame rate stalls.

Oh, and last night I was screwing around in the Lucky 38 and fighting the Securitrons there, and I would be jamming the button to shoot my Caravan Shotgun at them and it would seriously take upwards of 5 seconds before the gun would start shooting. No weirdness, I would just maneuver the whole time to be harder for them to hit, but my gun would just be unresponsive after I reloaded for a strangely long time. They were also resistant to VATS targeting, for some reason.


Outside of that, I'll probably bump into that silly Companions' Guns Bug at some point, but I expect they'll have it fixed. And it's not like I can't just pass one of MY guns to my companion for the time being.


My experience is really far from ruined, but I understand there are people having a lot more problems than I am. Demanding a recall and a letter of apology is hilarious, though. I mean, in what sort of naive, sheltered, childish world does one live where that sort of demand seems anything but pure embarrassment to type up and click "Post"?

Oblivion was fine, Fallout 3 was fine. The only thing that changed seems to be the inclusion of Obsidian in the development of the game. hint hint

And what of those poor folks that dont have Xbox live, internet access, ect? I guess they're just going to have to take it huh?

hey ya what is gonna happen to them?