Category Archives: Broken Steel

Around the web

brokensteelscreen_07B.jpg

Here’s some news that’s popped up since the weekend.

To begin, Develop 100 has ranked the Top 100 developers in the game industry and placed Bethesda Softworks #10 on their list. Check out the full list here. Elsewhere in the world of rankings, VG Chartz has begun their countdown of the Top 100 Best Games of All Time. The list isn’t complete, but they’ve ranked Morrowind #92. Here’s a snippet:

“The third entry in the Elder Scrolls saga has established itself firmly as the preeminent open world sandbox role-playing game, wherein you may go anywhere and do anything. It’s true that there is a primary quest to be undertaken, and the beginning and end for many adventurers will ring alike, but the entire point of this game is in how you can establish the path by which you traverse the world.”

Broken Steel reviews continue to make their way online. Check out the latest reviews at Kotaku, Gaming Nexus, Gamespy, VG-Reloaded, and Evolved Gaming. Haven’t played the DLC yet? Head to the AVault forums for a chance to win a DLC code.

Xbox All-Nighter tomorrow night

fallout3_x360_cover-hires111.jpg

With the release Broken Steel this week, Microsoft is having an Xbox All-Nighter tomorrow night for Fallout 3. I’m told in the lead up to the event, Xbox’s Major Nelson and Trixie will be giving out Broken Steel codes — you might want to keep an eye on their Twitter pages.

If you participate on Saturday, the Xbox guys and gals want you to share your All-Nighter experiences. Send them your your pictures and stories to to xlmail@microsoft.com with the subject, “Xbox All-Nighter.” Don’t forget to send them your Gamertag too. You might be rewarded!

Broken Steel Review Roundup

brokensteelscreen_08B.jpg

I’ve been combing the internet for reviews on Broken Steel and thought I’d share a few of them.

At GameFocus, Brian Edey had this to say in his review:

“Bottom Line is that there is much to explore, must to experience and much to disintegrate in the game and this is why the final score is so high for the expansion. It’s the best DLC we have seen in a long time for any content on any platform for any game.”

Additional reviews and impressions can be found at these sites:

As more reviews come in, we’ll update the blog and our review page on the Fallout 3 Official Site.

Around the Web: Interviews edition

toddlaunchparty.jpg

To celebrate GamePro’s 20th Anniversary (congrats guys!), they’re putting together a list of their top 20  most influential people in gaming from 1989 to 2009. Making the list at #18 was our very own Todd Howard. For the occasion, GamePro has a video chat with him where he talks about what made him get into the industry, his favorite games, and more.

Planet Fallout has a new interview with Broken Steel’s Lead Designer Alan Nanes. Here’s a snippet:

Was it difficult to make the decision to completely change the game’s original ending? And why did you choose that path?

Alan: This was the decision that we spent the longest time pondering when we all sat down to work out the details. We had to decide how much we were going to alter the ending and at the same time, make sure we didn’t invalidate the decisions that the player had made previously. It was a challenge to present everything to the player in a seamless manner, so the new content wouldn’t feel simply tacked on.

Over at NowGamer, there’s a five-page retrospective on Fallout 3 featuring Emil and Todd, and a comparison to Dark Side of the Moon.

Finally, there’s a new interview with yours truly up at Gamasutra. Thinking back now… I’m pretty sure Todd said I was one of the guys holding a shield in Counter Strike — not a “meat shield.” It’s been abbreviated to Meat Shield since — easier to say. :)

Broken Steel update

brokensteelscreen_099B.jpg

Many of you have already noticed that Microsoft has re-hosted Broken Steel on Games for Windows LIVE. For more details on downloading and using Games for Windows LIVE, head here.

To access the DLC (Games for Windows and Xbox 360), make sure you have the Fallout 3′s latest title update, version 1.5. When connecting to LIVE, you’ll be prompted for the update. Alternatively, PC players can download it from our site.

Unlike the previous DLCs, The Pitt and Operation: Anchorage, Broken Steel’s questline requires the player to have completed the main quest before venturing on. If you haven’t reached the game’s end, you’ll still notice the game’s new achievements, level cap, perks, enemies, weapons, etc.

In other news, on Xbox 360, Microsoft has resolved issues users were reporting with new achievements not being reflected in their Gamerscores. Any achievements that you receive at this point should show up in your Gamerscore as well. If you’re still experiencing issues, you may need to recover your Gamertag. If you have further questions, contact Xbox customer support.

We thank you guys for being patient, and we hope you enjoy Broken Steel. To discuss the latest DLC, head to our official game forums.

Around the web

RogueWarrior02B.jpg

Here’s a few interesting links from around the web.

Voting for the Golden Joystick Awards 2009 has begun. Fallout 3 is nominated in five categories: Ultimate Game of the Year, PC Game of the Year, PlayStation Game of the Year, Xbox Game of the Year, and Soundtrack of the Year. Additionally, Bethesda is nominated for Publisher of the Year, and Rogue Warrior is nominated in the The One to Watch category.

Speaking of Rogue Warrior, Inc Gamers has a video interview with Senior Producer Sean Griffiths. Elsewhere, Ron Burke at Gaming Trend has new previews up for both Rogue Warrior and WET.

In WET news, a new interview with Patrick Fortier is up at Team Xbox

At SPOnG, there’s a new interview with Pete. Here’s an excerpt of Pete discussing Fallout 3′s new level cap — hitting tomorrow with Broken Steel:

SPOnG: Will there be enough quest experience to be had in Broken Steel for players to level up to 30 without having to grind on pre-DLC quests/enemies?

Pete Hines: No, probably not, and that wasn’t the intention. The intention was to remove the level cap so that if you have Broken Steel, regardless of whether you want to play that quest or not, or you want to start a new game from scratch, you can continue playing beyond level 20. Again, fans wanted to be able to take their characters to higher levels, so we included it. But it is not specific to the length of Broken Steel, at all. It is a very long climb to get from 20 to 30 and you’ll need to do a LOT to get there.

Finally, Pittsburgh City Paper talked about The Pitt with Emil. Read it here.

Around the web: See WET in action (Updated)

games_wetfeature.jpg

Here’s the latest news from around the web. Up first, X-Play revealed new gameplay footage of WET on their show last night. Head here to watch the gameplay, and see Adam Sessler’s interview with Creative Director Patrick Fortier.

For more interviews on WET, head to Kotaku for another interview with Patrick. Elsewhere, SPOnG interviewed Lead Designer Ashraf Ismail.

In other WET news, Destructoid’s Nick Chester discusses how WET got its name and Edge has a new preview based on impressions from our London event.

Moving along, winners of the 2008 ELAN Awards were announced this week and Fallout 3 came away a winner in two videogame categories — Best Console Game and Best Art Direction. To see a full list of winners, head here.

Broken Steel is in still in the news. This week, Game Revolution’s Nick Tan has a new preview for the upcoming DLC. Here’s a snippet:

“Before asking Alan Nanes (lead designer for Broken Steel) and Pete Hines (VP of Public Relations & Marketing) about how much experience is needed to reach the (perhaps) final level, I thought I would be clever by calculating it beforehand. Following the formula of needing 150 more experience to reach each  subsequent level, you will need 66,700 experience to reach level 30 which is about 125% more experience than that needed at level 20 (29,450).”

Looking for more on Broken Steel? Talking About Games interviewed Jeff Gardiner.

Last but not least, Rogue Warrior Senior Producer Sean Griffiths appears in new interviews at SPOnG and Inc Gamers.

Update: See extended footage of Wet on G4TV here.

Broken Steel Diary

alanjeffdiary-002-forblog.jpg

At the Fallout 3 Official Site, we’ve got a new developer diary. This time around we enlisted Broken Steel’s Lead Designer Alan Nanes and Lead Level Designer Jeff Browne to discuss the new features and changes implemented in the game with the third DLC. Here’s a snippet:

“If we were to increase the level cap to 30, we first needed to figure out which factions we wanted to support the new cap.  Super Mutants were one creature we knew we had to support.  The decision was made to keep the Super Mutant Behemoth at the top, so we needed to fill the gap between the Behemoth and the Super Mutant Master.  Thus was born the Super Mutant Overlord – a creature much stronger than a Super Mutant Master and one that is beginning to take on the shape and form of a Behemoth.  Its posture is beginning to show signs of the Behemoth with its large, thick neck and slightly forward head.  Given enough time, the Overlord would eventually grow to become a Behemoth.”

In addition to the diary, you’ll be able to check out three new screenshots. Broken Steel arrives on Games for Windows LIVE and Xbox LIVE on May 5th.

Fallout 3 1.5 title update details

brokensteelapril29.jpg

Our next title update, 1.5, is now live on Xbox 360 and Games for Windows Live. On Xbox 360, you will be prompted to update when you start up the game, while using your Xbox Live gamertag. For Games for Windows Live, you will also be prompted if using a Games for Windows Live gamertag, or just download and install from us.

Here are the title update details — this was primarily to support Broken Steel, easily our largest, most ambitious downloadable content, to date. This was a big one folks – both in terms of the title update and the downloadable content.  In addition to all the new goodies for Broken Steel, we did fix some bugs as well. Don’t forget: Broken Steel goes live Tuesday, May 5th.

Update 1.5 Notes (PC and Xbox 360)

New Features
New achievements for Broken Steel

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issue with VATS calculations not appearing properly for perks (PC)
  • Fixed crash related to altered references between master files
  • LOD objects render properly when loaded from DLC worldspaces
  • Fixed issue with companion NPCs not loading into cells immediately after player