Interesting, hadn't thought of that but I've seen the same thing. I had to ditch my oh-so-slippery mousepad for that very reason, the slighest vibration would cause the idle mouse to scootch ever so slightly and wake things back up again.

I was a little disappointed that I could create my character with an Intelligence of 1 and still carry on normal conversations with everyone. 

I work on a floor full of them. And people wonder why I find my escape in games, where I can walk up behind INT=1 types and beat them silly.

I think he's referring to the way the first two Fallout's would give you unique gibberish-like dialogue choices for low intel characters.  

Exactly. Roscoe on the other hand may have some issues in real life, it seems. 

Plenty of other things installed in the past but now two games in a row have done this to me: first BIA:HH and now FO3. Go through the install without (apparent) incident and when complete there's no desktop shortcut and nothing on the start menu. I have to manually create a shortcut to run the game. At least they are listed in the Uninstall Programs applet.

Anyone seen this behaviour?  Vista Home Premium, fwiw.

I was a little disappointed that I could create my character with an Intelligence of 1 and still carry on normal conversations with everyone. 

Seems like the moment you run the game for the first time, it's tied to your XBL account so perhaps they can check your specific version that way. [shrug] Regardless, if I get them I get them, if not no skin off my nose.

[Infinite Undiscovery]

The 360 game Infinite Undiscovery is in the Amazon Gold Box as the 'Deal of the Day' today, Thursday 10/30. 

So... just starting and I'm curious. On the way out of the vault, should I be picking up most/all of the miscellaneous crap that's lying around? You know, the stuff with that generic icon in the Pip Boy? I'm wondering if I'll be able to sell or trade it for more better stuffs once I'm out in the wasteland.

And now you understand the dilemma of the Wastlander.  What's useful what's not?  Only time will tell...

  

Are there at least some pillow cases or bags of holding anywhere? 

Well... it does say they will ship the codes once they "validate" your information, so we'll see. Obviously, I ordered mine as well. 

So... just starting and I'm curious. On the way out of the vault, should I be picking up most/all of the miscellaneous crap that's lying around? You know, the stuff with that generic icon in the Pip Boy? I'm wondering if I'll be able to sell or trade it for more better stuffs once I'm out in the wasteland.

Anyone else see this blurb from the Gamespot review?  How did we get from "slightly inferior" to "shockingly inferior"?  Curious if the people playing the PS3 version can confirm or deny this.

It’s a shame, in light of these impressive design elements, that the PlayStation 3 version is shockingly inferior to the others from a technical perspective. Although the Xbox 360 and PC versions display the occasional visual oddity and bland texture, these nitpicks are easy to overlook. Sadly, the jagged edges, washed-out lighting, and slightly diminished draw distance of the PS3 release aren’t so easy to dismiss. We also experienced a number of visual bugs on the PS3. Character faces disappeared several times, leaving only eyeballs and hair; limbs on robots went missing; some character models had an odd outline around them as if they were cel-shaded; and the day-to-night transition may cause odd streaks on the screen as you move the camera around. This version doesn’t even offer trophies, whereas the Xbox 360 and PC versions offer Xbox Live/Windows Live achievements.

Picked this up today but every time I start it there's "an error connecting to the PlayStation network" or some such. What's up with that? Friend of mine has had the game since Saturday and has yet to be able to connect online. 

Edited to add: I see from the official forum that there are problems.

Server Status

The LittleBigPlanet servers have been experiencing significant problems throughout the past 24 hours affecting the online game experience. We are working round the clock on the solution to the current issues and we expect the service to improve briefly for the next few hours, after which we will be disabling the servers to enact changes.

Offline Play and Create will still function properly during any disruption. Please accept our apologies for any frustration this may cause for the time being. As soon as we have further information on this matter we will update you accordingly.

And...

To confirm, the issue is with the servers and the game. More precisely the way the game interacts with the servers, however that's just splitting hairs. Solving the problems will take a little while to do, and the resolution of this issue may happen incrementally rather than going from the current state (when the servers aren't down) to everything operating smoothly, but we've identified the problems and solutions are being worked on.

From what I've read, it's always been meant to be a 50's "vision of the future" future.

Yup! Fallout has always been about what someone living in the 50s would imagine a post-apocalyptic future would look like. That's one of the reasons the spinoffs of the Fallout universe failed. They didn't understand this very vital concept to the setting. Fallout Tactics (despite being a good game) for example, started out its intro with 70s music, and featured modern sci-fi elements all the way through. That's not something you should expect to see in a Fallout game, ever. Bethesda seems to understand the core concept, which is good.

The key thing to remember is that the Fallout universe is an alternative time-line where something happened during or right after WW2 that was different.  So the technology of the world diverged and you end up with the pre-war world of 2077 being inspired by 1950s ideas of the future. If the original designers ever specified what the divergence was, they didn't leave a record because I've never seen an explanation.  Back when Interplay published the "Fallout Bible" online for fans, it simply clarified that it was an alternative time-line but did not provide details.  It's possible that no details were ever specified.

Found what I'd remembered reading the other day, this Washington Post article where executive producer Todd Howard was interviewed on the subject of Washington DC's role in the game. A snippet:

Q: For people who aren't familiar with the previous Fallout games, what's with that 50s retro look?

Howard: The world of Fallout, the world that got blown up, was this retro-futuristic world. It's like if you take the 1950s and what they thought the future was going to be, with laser guns, this "world of tomorrow" with nuclear-powered cars and robot butlers, but they still sit on these very 1950s style sofas watching Leave it to Beaver-style shows and things like that.

We got very interested, in designing the game, in what was the world that existed before it was destroyed.

Q: So you had to build a world first, then destroy it?

Howard: On paper, we definitely had to do it twice, yeah. We did a lot of studies on what it would've looked like. What would a neighborhood look like? How would they mow their lawns and clean their streets? You have this crazy car with a nuclear engine that's probably unsafe. There's dad smoking his pipe.

We looked at a lot of 1950s advertisements, there's some great books on that stuff and they're really unintentionally hilarious.

Anyone know how long after WW III this takes place? I've never played any Fallout games and the backstory is kind of interesting, so I would like some more info on it. I'm guessing WW III was in the 50's from the look of everything.

According to the Fallout Wiki...

October 23, 2077 the Great War begins with someone's nuke launch and ends 2 hours later when the earth falls into darkness

2141 Vault 15 opens and the Vault Dweller emerges (Fallout 1)

2197 Fallout Tactics happens (but I thought it was non-canon)

2241 Fallout 2 happens

2277 Fallout 3 begins

Thanks man, neat site.

WOW, I had no idea it took place in the future.   Everything looks like it is right out of 1955 America.

From what I've read, it's always been meant to be a 50's "vision of the future" future.

Quick question, for those that have the CE strat guide, is there enough additional content to justify the extra $10?  I'm sure that sounds cheap after shelling out $79 for the CE game, just curious, I guess.

As noted elsewhere, it's only $20.99 at Amazon unless you need that instant grabification a store purchase gives one. 

Don't really understand this. From what I've read, the DLC rigs are level 5 rigs. It won't let you 'downgrade' from this rig in the store any more than you can go back to level 1 once you have the level 2 rig. And the only better rig, the level 6 military rig, only unlocks when you finish the game so it's not for use in the end game but rather only available for replay. Or am I missing something here?

What's missing is that the DLC suits have much lower defense ratings than the Normal Level 5 suits.  IIRC, the Normal Level 5 suit has a defense rating of 50% while the console specific DLC suits have ratings of 10% and the Scorpion DLC suit has a defense rating of 25%. 

The Level 5 suit has a 20% defense rating; so the Scorpion is better, if only slightly.

Which probably explains why, when my buddy finished the game with the Scorpion, he didn't feel "gimped" at all. Wouldn't even have known about this if I hadn't have asked him. 

Even though I'm still playing Dead Space and Fable 2:

FO3 CE (PC) w/CE guide
MotorStorm Pacific Rift
LBP

 

So would I. However, it hasn't been officially released yet.

   Idle just means with nothing running as far as you know, other than something to monitor the box like the Task Manager or others of that ilk, say like Process Explorer. Then sit on the desktop with just that running and see what it says is going on under the covers.

Something is making it think it's not idle. Last time I had this problem I seem to recall it was the IntelliPoint software I'd installed. When your machine is idle, are there any processes out there still eating up CPU?

Perhaps something like Process Explorer would help?

Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura. 

Plus there's a wide-screen mod for it, IIRC, from the same folks who did the one for PT.

Holey Moley, but there's quite the little dust-up over in the Lionhead forums over the co-op implementation:

http://dailygamesnews.com/2008/10/lionhead-forum-of-fury.html

Not something that fazes me, being the single player type, but serves as a good reminder for me why I come to places like this and OO for reasoned opinions and discussions while tending to avoid "official" forums whenever possible. 

not sure i'll finish it, but it's been fun so far...

If you do not, let me compel you to do so. There's a hugely mind blowing moment in that game that you must not miss.

Hopefully the game is good enough to you for you to complete without encouragement....but try your darndest!

Yes, and two different endings (plus story differences) depending on how you treat the Little Sisters. 

BTW, do not use the DLC suit!  Apparently you can never ever take it off, and its defense rating is much lower than the suits you get towards the end of the game.

Yep.  It's probably the biggest flaw in the game.  If I had to bet, I'd say that the decision to offer add'l suits as DLC was made late, after the rest of the interface was locked.  Otherwise I can't fathom why they wouldn't give you the ability to swap out your suit so you aren't gimped for the end game.  Maybe they'll fix that via patch later. 

Man that sucks, I thought I would be able to take it off later by deleting the game file at least, but when you try and load it won't let you if the DLC is not installed.

  Don't really understand this. From what I've read, the DLC rigs are level 5 rigs. It won't let you 'downgrade' from this rig in the store any more than you can go back to level 1 once you have the level 2 rig. And the only better rig, the level 6 military rig, only unlocks when you finish the game so it's not for use in the end game but rather only available for replay. Or am I missing something here?

The SciFi show mentioned they have "fear emitters" attached to the bad guys and the devs have control over their intensity, range and direction. No clue what they actually do in the game but I did seem to notice playing the game with headphones last night, that when things happen like something skittering by just outside your field of vision, that I could hear "my" heartbeat in game get louder and speed up. 

I've been assuming it depends on the game and if they connect to the internet/PSN while it runs. Ones that do shut down any downloads for the duration. Others, like Dead Space with no online component, don't.

Don't recall seeing this earlier but just saw a TV commercial for Dead Space. They show the same "twinkle, twinkle" demo movie that plays if you sit on the start screen for a little while. And the subtitle is "Only the dead survive". 

[on the XMB]

Ok, I see where my confusion was. I've always shut mine down by pushing the PS button and even after this update, if you push it and tell it to shutdown, it shuts down no matter what is going on. Going to the Shutdown option on the XMB gives you the long awaited "shutdown after background downloading and auto install completes" option. 

[background]

Sounds like it does.  Or... Semi, did you do the download in the background? Games will auto install when downloaded in the "foreground" but I really don't think they've changed it so games downloaded in the background will auto anything. 

This might be the first time I choose the console version of a shooter over the PC version. The temptation of playing this on a 42" screen with surround sound is almost too much to resist. Especially with Halloween coming up!

Agreed.  I'm going to try to pick this up tonight if not tomorrow...

Same here. Picked up BIA:HH for the PC but really want to play this on my 65" HD with the surround cranked. Sorry honey, trying to sleep? I'll turn it down... (a little)... 

Just picked this up from my local BB who amazingly had it out and on the shelf at noon. Usually someone has to go scurrying around in "the back" to find something on release day.

Just may need to <cough> go home early today. 

Yup - you pick from 4 or 5 preset times which are a number of hours. There was also something about allowing it to shutdown under "special circumstances"... something like even if watching a movie or some such.

4. How do I DL a game for my PSP and get it from my PS3 to my PSP?

IIRC, if you go to the options tab (Triangle when the game is selected in the XMB) there should be an option to send it your PSP if it's connected via USB. 

Right. From what I recall you not only have to plug the PSP into the PS3 using the USB cable but you also have to put the PSP into 'USB Mode' or some such, which the PS3 will happily tell you if it can't find your PSP. Then you can copy the game as noted from the PS3 to the PSP. Once the copy completes, it will ask you if you want to delete the game file from the PS3.

Tonight's episode of "Sci vs. Fi" on the SciFi channel was all about Dead Space. Very cool!  Can't wait to get my hands on this tomorrow. 

Cool, thanks. Hadn't seen that. 

I'd downloaded it early after having stumbled across a mention of it elsewhere. It's quite nicely done, only wish they'd done English voices - right now it is German only but you can turn on English menus and subtitles.

[forced]

Download this last night from GamersGate but no time to play yet. Something new was that I was forced to sign up for 'Verified by Visa' in order to complete the purchase. I've purchased three other games from them in the past and this wasn't a requirement before. And to top it all off, all of the links back to the VbV site that explain the how and the why of it were broken. 

woah - be very sure it was legitimate, before you sign anything with your card then.. I've had a small trojan operate in my machine, whenever I used legitimate sites, it would make a pop-up window, that required re-typing all the codes on my code... I just clicked close on it, and the payment still worked...

I got that exact same option, but I just clicked "no thanks"    If you order from Newegg that offer the exact same credit protection from Visa.   It should be optional at least it was for me

It was legit, I'm now signed up - something I checked on the official site. I don't recall seeing anything that said 'No thanks' and the button I tried to use to skip that part told me that skipping this step would cancel my order. Wish I had taken some screenshots, maybe there was some simple way that I missed. [sigh]

After going round with GamersGate they contacted PayNova on the issue and this is what I got back:

Gamersgate has been in contact with us regarding your purchase. The service “Verified by Visa” is connected to your bank/card issuer and is not an optional service. It is an extra security code given to you by your bank for transactions made over internet. You should be able to get more information about the service and your code from your bank/card issuer.

So it seems to be tied to whomever issued the Visa card. And that probably explains why I can't find any information on their site how to get out of the program. Whatever.

Is this anything like You Don't Know Jack? 

[forced]

Download this last night from GamersGate but no time to play yet. Something new was that I was forced to sign up for 'Verified by Visa' in order to complete the purchase. I've purchased three other games from them in the past and this wasn't a requirement before. And to top it all off, all of the links back to the VbV site that explain the how and the why of it were broken. 

woah - be very sure it was legitimate, before you sign anything with your card then.. I've had a small trojan operate in my machine, whenever I used legitimate sites, it would make a pop-up window, that required re-typing all the codes on my code... I just clicked close on it, and the payment still worked...

I got that exact same option, but I just clicked "no thanks"    If you order from Newegg that offer the exact same credit protection from Visa.   It should be optional at least it was for me

It was legit, I'm now signed up - something I checked on the official site. I don't recall seeing anything that said 'No thanks' and the button I tried to use to skip that part told me that skipping this step would cancel my order. Wish I had taken some screenshots, maybe there was some simple way that I missed. [sigh]

[forced]

Download this last night from GamersGate but no time to play yet. Something new was that I was forced to sign up for 'Verified by Visa' in order to complete the purchase. I've purchased three other games from them in the past and this wasn't a requirement before. And to top it all off, all of the links back to the VbV site that explain the how and the why of it were broken.