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Fallout: New Vegas patch being patched on Xbox 360, decline update for now
The recent patch for Fallout: New Vegas on Xbox 360 is gonna need a patch. Bethesda has confirmed that it has found a solution to an issue in the current patch, causing "problems with game saves." The company says it will replace the corrupting patch "as soon as humanly possible." It's not clear what will happen to save files for people who already downloaded the broken patch, but the company recommends users "decline the update until the new one is live." We've followed up with the publisher for more details. Update: Bethesda has posted that the update for English regions should go live later tonight. For other languages, the wait is going to be a bit longer. The company will update when it has a better idea.
Rumor: Fallout: New Vegas GOTY Edition spotted on Amazon UK
Apparently, a PC Game of the Year edition for Fallout: New Vegas briefly surfaced over on Amazon UK, though the listing has since been pulled. It was spotted by VG247, who unfortunately did not take a screen capture. The Amazon page reportedly listed a price of £20.62, 30 percent off the current MSRP of £29.99 for Fallout: New Vegas. The listing also failed to provide box art and package contents, though if Fallout 3's GOTY edition is any indication, it'll include all the released DLC, which probably means Dead Money and possibly the Honest Hearts pack.
Fallout: New Vegas patch coming to all platforms
The post-launch support team at Bethesda and Obsidian is preparing to launch a fix for one of the biggest issues still facing Fallout: New Vegas. No, not its apocalyptic levels of irradiation -- the game-crashing bugs and other performance-wrecking snafus that pepper the game's ruined landscape. According to a recent post on Bethesda's blog, a patch targeting "optimizations and stability improvements" is currently in the certification process for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Though the blog post doesn't go into specifics, it does mention, "we have fixed a great deal of the crashes and lockups that people were experiencing," and later adds, "we scoured the forums and this patch includes weapon balance tweaks and other requested fixes." The update also prepares for an upcoming add-on -- likely the "Honest Hearts" DLC. Bethesda suggests you keep an eye out for the patch "in the next couple of weeks." We will! We might just keep two eyes out.
'Honest Hearts' make for next Fallout: New Vegas DLC
Fallout fansite Duck and Cover has obtained alleged screenshots from an unpublished New Vegas DLC trailer, reportedly confirming that the next add-on will be titled "Honest Hearts." Bethesda previously announced that three DLC packs would follow "Dead Money," and each would be released simultaneously for the game's three platforms. The "Honest Hearts" phrase has been trademarked by Bethesda parent ZeniMax and is part of the filename of an in-game graffiti asset for New Vegas (pictured), which references the Fallout city of New Canaan and character Joshua Graham (a.k.a. the Burned Man). Both were elements of Black Isle's canceled Fallout 3 project, codenamed Van Buren, and it's been speculated that New Canaan and Graham will make their long-overdue appearances in an upcoming New Vegas add-on. Following DAC's posting of the supposed trailer images, New Vegas lead designer J.E. Sawyer teased fans when he tweeted, "every time someone asks me about future DLC announcements, the ghost of joshua graham sighs in the desert and scares a tribal to death." In the Fallout universe, Graham was a former Mormon missionary and later the first legate of New Vegas antagonist Caesar. Graham led Caesar's Legion in the First Battle of Hoover Dam and was defeated. Infuriated, Caesar ordered his execution, and Graham was set ablaze and tossed into the Grand Canyon. Bethesda has a media event scheduled for this week in Utah, where the (fictional) New Canaan is also located. Sawyer has hinted that "Honest Hearts" is a reference to a quote by the Mormon leader Brigham Young: "Honest hearts make for honest actions." [Image source: Fallout Wiki]
GameStop saves you a fortune with $20 Fallout: New Vegas
Miss Fortune is smiling on you, friend, and motioning towards your local GameStop with her gleaming silver revolver. That's where you'll find almost all versions -- PS3, 360, PC -- of Bethesda's mighty fine post-apocalyptic RPG, Fallout: New Vegas, on sale for $20. It's probably best to act quickly if you've been wanting a copy, as there's no mention of when this 66 percent markdown expires. Wait, did we say almost all versions? That's right: the downloadable PC version is still 60 bucks. Some would call that extra $40 for a version that doesn't even have packaging a silly mistake; GameStop would probably call it a "convenience fee." [Thanks, Eric K.]
Direct2Drive knocking 15% off March's best sellers
In celebration of, um, March, Direct2Drive is reducing the price of this month's top fifteen games by fifteen percent. The list of titles includes the likes of Dead Space 2, Rift, Shogun 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Crysis 2 and Bulletstorm. Fifteen percent amounts to a reasonably hefty $9 discount on $60 titles and around $7.50 on $50 titles, and it also has the effect of lowering Magicka's already ridiculously low $10 price to just $8.50. Head over to Direct2Drive to see the full list of titles, and enter the promo code "MARCHMAYHEM" at checkout to receive the discount.
Xbox Live April schedule: Bad Company 2 DLC, Comic Jumper discounts
Microsoft has revealed some of the content and deals coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace in early April, which include quite a few discounts. It kicks off this week with the launch of DLC for Mass Effect 2 and You Don't Know Jack, as well as some discounts on Comic Jumper, Deadliest Warrior and the "Dead Money" DLC for Fallout: New Vegas. Hit the jump for the full list.
ZeniMax Online Studios builds new MMO customer support facility
The folks at ZeniMax Online Studios have founded a new support facility in Galway, Ireland with the intent to provide customer service for "players of future massively multiplayer online games." While some of you are probably wondering just who in the heck ZeniMax is, others have no doubt seen the parent company name scrolling by on the startup screens for Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. ZeniMax Media owns not only ZeniMax Online but also Bethesda Softworks and id Software (the brains behind the Doom franchise). ZeniMax Online is headed by Mythic co-founder Matt Firor, and ex-World of Warcraft dev Rich Barham is serving as the director of customer support. Though the studio has yet to make an official game-related announcement, it's clearly laying the foundation for something big.
PSA: New Vegas 'Dead Money' DLC now on PC and PS3
If you're a PS3 or PC owner who's been out of the loop on all this "Dead Money" business, you might be under the impression that it's actually the name of some kind of new, SoCal-based hip-hop dance crew. This impression is wildly incorrect. It's actually the name of a DLC expansion to Fallout: New Vegas that's been available on 360 since December -- though your native console has access to it starting today. The DLC is available now on Steam, and will arrive in the PlayStation Store update later today. It's all yours, provided you've got $9.99 to spend -- which is kind of appropriate, since it would more or less make that money "dead." Well, dead to you, anyways. Bethesda will find said money quite alive.
NPD: 2010's bestselling game releases by platform
Gamasutra has obtained NPD data that puts a new filter on last year's US box-copy software sales, ranking the top ten bestselling 2010 releases for each console and handheld platform (PC excluded). Like the monthly NPD breakdowns, these rankings don't include actual sales numbers, but they do reveal some interesting trends. By omitting Nintendo's so-called "evergreen" titles (i.e., games released before 2010), Gamasutra found that -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- Just Dance 2 was last year's top-selling 2010 release for Wii, and among six additional third-party games that made the top ten in sales for the platform. On DS, however, Nintendo games filled out half of the top ten, and Pokemon SoulSilver and HeartGold were the only titles to surpass sales of one million units each. At first glance, PSP software sales look even bleaker, with Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep on top and, according to Gamastura, the only PSP title to break 300K units sold; with the other top ten games each falling below 200K. Of course, these rankings don't include digital sales or box-copy games bundled with hardware, so it's unlikely that Birth by Sleep (which isn't available on the PlayStation Store) was the true #1 bestseller among 2010's PSP releases -- let alone the most pirated. What is certain is that Call of Duty: Black Ops dominated torrents, as well as the games legitimately sold for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010. Still, both Sony and Microsoft saw two first-party releases make their console's respective top ten sales charts for the year; though each publisher's most critically-acclaimed release of 2010 -- at least, from Joystiq's perspective -- was not present. Perhaps telling of the two console's core player bases, Madden 11 beat out God of War 3 for the #2 spot on the PS3 chart, but fell to #3 beneath Halo: Reach in the Xbox 360 ranking. Finally, we have to wonder just what were they thinking? They, of course, being all those Xbox 360 owners that purchased Fable 3 and Fallout: New Vegas instead of Mass Effect 2. Three and a half stars plus four still doesn't add up to the Game of the Year, people. Check out Gamastutra for the complete breakdown of 2010's bestselling releases by platform.
Fallout: New Vegas 'Dead Money' coming to PC and PSN this month
Fallout: New Vegas' Dead Money DLC will have PlayStation 3 and PC users playing its vicious little scenario on Tuesday, February 22. PS3 owners can pick it up through the PSN, while PC owners have the choice of Steam and Direct2Drive. Bethesda also mentioned that the next three expansion packs for New Vegas will launch simultaneously on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Dead Money will likely be $10 on PS3 and PC (as it was on Xbox 360), but we're currently following up with Bethesda for confirmation. Update: Bethesda tells Joystiq that it hasn't announced price for the DLC, but will announce it in the "coming weeks."
Fallout's Vault Boy does your dry cleaning, apparently
Vault Boy isn't just a Vault-Tec mascot in the post-apocalyptic wasteland -- he's also been spotted recently representing a Providence, Rhode Island-area dry cleaners (as seen after the break). Here's hoping those clothes don't come back glowing with radiation!
Fallout New Vegas mod Project Nevada adds sprinting, new vision modes
For us, plodding through the Mojave in search of things to kill and people to steal (or is that the other way around?) can sometimes take forever. Look, we're busy marauders, so we're glad to hear that a mod for Fallout: New Vegas, dubbed "Project Nevada," aims to change things up -- specifically, it'll add sprinting to the game and some handy vision modes, including thermal and night vision. There's also the addition of bullet time and some new scopes to use. Currently, there's no time table for release, but in the meanwhile you can at least catch a trailer past the break.
All MMOs 20 percent off at Direct2Drive, Fallout: New Vegas $20 off this weekend
Direct2Drive's running a pretty sweet deal for anyone looking to reach out and touch other members of the gaming community (in a completely non-weird way, we mean) -- until Monday morning, the site's entire catalog of MMOs is discounted 20 percent. That includes massively multiplayer gems like World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Lego Universe, Guild Wars and more; just input the coupon code "JOKER" while checking out, and watch the prices fall like so, so many enemy NPCs. If you'd rather play a game which rivals the length of an MMO, but lacks all the other human contact, the retailer is also knocking $20 off the price of Fallout: New Vegas from this Saturday until Monday morning. You don't need a coupon code for that one, though if there were one, we imagine it'd be something like "NUKA COLA" or "CREEPY HOVERING NO-BONES MAN."
Bethesda 'demakes' Fallout 3 for Japanese New Vegas website
"Demakes" have become a trend in the last couple of years, thanks to things like TIGSource competitions and Eric Ruth's "Pixel Force" games. Now that trend has officially entered the mainstream, as Bethesda has released an 8-bit style demake of its own game, Fallout 3. Well, sort of. The Japanese Fallout: New Vegas website is designed as a Dragon Quest-style RPG, presenting the menu and links as areas on a pixelated map of Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland, with each link leading to an amusing faked gameplay segment, along with a Japanese-language explanation of that particular game element. It's designed to introduce Japanese gamers to the "Freestyle RPG" design of the Fallout games, but it also has the side effect of being awesome.
PSA: Fallout: New Vegas Dead Money DLC is live on Xbox Live
Dead Money – the first DLC pack for Fallout: New Vegas – is now available 'sclusively on Xbox Live (but for how long?). If you're getting caught up, here's the short version: You're wearing a collar bomb and you need to steal the treasure of the Sierra Madre ... casino. Consider us all in.
Fallout: New Vegas visual mods make PC version prettier, no less buggy
While Bethesda and developer Obsidian Entertainment are busy taking a plasma rifle to the countless bugs still present in Fallout: New Vegas, devoted -- and programming-savvy -- fans are putting out mods for the PC version of the game that improve its texture maps and lighting, sometimes dramatically. Couch Athletics took a look at three of the more promising additions in its most recent "Mod Madness" feature. First up is the Arenovalis Weapon Retexture Project which, as its name suggests, replaces the textures on the game's weapons -- 11 of them so far, all of which look far better than the "stock" guns, and the mod's developer is continuing to add more. Then there's the Detailed Normals Texture Pack, which features improved normal maps for some of the world textures (ground and rocks, most prominently) that make them more 3D-looking, though sometimes very shiny. The most impressive of the new mods, however, is FNV Enhanced Shaders, which makes the game's lighting more realistic and adds a depth-of-field effect, among others, which are all player-adjustable. The results of combining these mods can be seen in the video we've posted after the break. Now, if only someone could make a "Bug-Free Pack" -- and we don't mean one that kills off all the mutated ants and radscorpions.
Fan-made Fallout film 'Fallout: Nuka Break' revealed
There are lots of reasons that wastelanders set out across the post-apocalyptic United States -- to find rogue droids, locate a lost parent, or perhaps simply to escape the shallow grave they woke up in. The three folks in this debut trailer of fan-made Fallout short film "Fallout: Nuka Break," however, are simply in search of a refreshing, cold Nuka-Cola. The crew in charge of F: NB are known as Wayside Creations, a team of Fallout fans who wanted to make a non-profit film based in its world. No further information is given as to when we can expect to see the completed work, but we're hoping Bethesda doesn't shut down the production before that can happen. Check out the trailer in full after the break.
12 Days of Joyswag: A Fallout: New Vegas neon sign (yeah, f'real)
To celebrate the holidays, we're having twelve straight days of giveaways up through Christmas day. And while we say it's to celebrate, really ... we're simply getting rid of some of the larger packages around the ol' office. And for our third giveaway, we've got a massive Fallout: New Vegas neon sign that showed up on this writer's doorstep this very morn'. Bethesda – can we call you Beth? – the goal of this exercise (in addition to generating holiday cheer and all that muck) is to reduce the number of oversized packages containing things like neon signs from our collective living spaces. And readers: The only thing New Vegas-related at this Joystiq outpost is this sign, so you'll have to make do without the game. But hey, if you're thinking about putting this up in your home, it's probably safe to assume you've already got a copy, right?
Fallout: New Vegas 'Dead Money' trailer hosts a heist
The first Xbox 360 "exclusive" DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, dubbed Dead Money, lays out all its cards in a new trailer. The add-on sees you caught in a dangerous deal, where saying "no" puts you on the bad end of an exploding collar. Okay, so there's no bad end to a circular object, but ... oh, oh, got it: you're being collared in the middle of an explosive situation. Nailed it. Dead Money will be available next Tuesday, December 21, on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 MSP ($10). Best start planning how you're going to break into the Sierra Madre casino and make off with all its ill-gotten riches.
