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Fallout 3 from Bethesda Game Studios received a surprise update recently where the developer finally removed Games for Windows Live which is great news.

Released back in 2008, Fallout 3 is something of a classic and a game I thoroughly enjoyed before making the switch fully to Linux. Thanks to Steam Play Proton, you can play Fallout 3 easily on Linux and with this update no workarounds are needed - at all.

Testing out Fallout 3 myself today with Proton Experimental, it worked right out of the box. No launch options required, and where previously some needed to mess around with a dll file - it just works. Even the in-game radio stations appear to now work correctly too which were problematic before.

If you need me I shall once again be exploring the wasteland…

You can buy it on Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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31 comments
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ShabbyX Oct 13, 2021
Speaking of wasteland, I just started playing Wasteland 2 (DC) for the first time since a few weeks ago. Damn it's a good game!
MisterPaytwick Oct 13, 2021
How well does it works with FOMM and other mods and mod managers now? I'm guessing as well as Fallout New Vegas, which as far as I know doesn't have Games for Windows Live.

If it got better, this is really good, otherwise, I guess it's a fine update, but the real strength of the game lying in the moddability, it'd really help.
Cyril Oct 13, 2021
Was it the same with the GOG version?
AussieEevee Oct 13, 2021
Was it the same with the GOG version?
According to the comments on the GoG page, Games for Windows Live was removed from that version a long time ago (2017). I'm pretty sure GfWL goes against the spirit of GoG's DRM free policies.
BielFPs Oct 13, 2021
Always good to remind everyone who wants to play it to install the "unofficial fallout 3 patch" with fixes made from the community, since every Todd Howard's game is notoriously known for dropping support without fix the bugs.
BielFPs Oct 13, 2021
Also Liam, do you plan to cover something on "O3DECon" about the O3DE gaming engine?
Sabricon Oct 13, 2021
@misterpaytwick
If its the GoG version then its fine for modding but then its the recompiled version for Bethesda.net and Xbox pass you will have not much fun with modding first post on the comment site
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/62552?tab=posts

I would use vortex/MO2 Fomm is really old and most new mods does not work with the installer.
slaapliedje Oct 13, 2021
I thought this happened a long time ago (the removal of Games for Windows). Like back when that service was murdered. Think of all those old games that had integrated this garbage, and the other one that died, Gamespy... definitely made a large section of software unplayable. But I know when it happened years ago, that most things that had any sort of community had Games for Windows removed.
Arehandoro Oct 13, 2021
I thought this happened a long time ago (the removal of Games for Windows). Like back when that service was murdered. Think of all those old games that had integrated this garbage, and the other one that died, Gamespy... definitely made a large section of software unplayable. But I know when it happened years ago, that most things that had any sort of community had Games for Windows removed.

No different to the fact that if Steam were to go bust all our games would not work either, not downloadable.


Anyway, even though with all the bugs, the somewhat wrongly written story, and Fallout Vegas being much better just a couple of years later, I loved Fallout 3 to pieces.
Purple Library Guy Oct 13, 2021
I thought this happened a long time ago (the removal of Games for Windows). Like back when that service was murdered. Think of all those old games that had integrated this garbage, and the other one that died, Gamespy... definitely made a large section of software unplayable. But I know when it happened years ago, that most things that had any sort of community had Games for Windows removed.

No different to the fact that if Steam were to go bust all our games would not work either, not downloadable.
No, I'd say it's somewhat different. If you have a game that had GfWL integrated it wouldn't matter how much warning you had, there would be nothing you could do to make your game work once GfWL went away.
If you own a Steam game and Valve goes under, unless it's amazingly sudden you can, like, download the game before they finish dying. Sure, if you have massive numbers of games that would take ridiculous amounts of storage you might have to buy a big hard drive or something. But if you purchased that many games you are not poor, so whatever. And if you bought a bunch of games with no plans to have enough storage to so much as download them, it's really on you; I'm actually kind of in that boat, but I don't tell myself it's Valve's responsibility--the decision to not fully take ownership of those games by putting a copy on my own computer was mine, not Valve's.
Mumrik93 Oct 13, 2021
FINALLY!
BielFPs Oct 13, 2021
I thought this happened a long time ago (the removal of Games for Windows).
Ironically this only happened after Microsoft itself bought the company
Nasra Oct 13, 2021
Fallout 3 is broken now... :/
!https://imgur.com/a/Z9XcG8x
elmapul Oct 13, 2021
Bethesda was purchased by microsoft, right?
i mean, they purchased zenimax media who own bethesda...

so this patch was after they were acquired by microsoft, looks like microsoft is cooperating o.o"
Beamboom Oct 14, 2021
Ahhhh. I have such wonderful memories of this game - the weird characters, the locations, the many little details to ponder about - that I will not revisit in fear of it not standing the test of time.
Some memories are better left untouched.
Liam Dawe Oct 14, 2021
Fallout 3 is broken now... :/
!https://imgur.com/a/Z9XcG8x
You can ignore that it just carries on.
robvv Oct 14, 2021
No different to the fact that if Steam were to go bust all our games would not work either, not downloadable.

Assuming that you have many of your games already downloaded, they will still work just fine (except some Feral titles). Some may require the Goldberg emulator to run but that's about it.
Arehandoro Oct 14, 2021
I thought this happened a long time ago (the removal of Games for Windows). Like back when that service was murdered. Think of all those old games that had integrated this garbage, and the other one that died, Gamespy... definitely made a large section of software unplayable. But I know when it happened years ago, that most things that had any sort of community had Games for Windows removed.

No different to the fact that if Steam were to go bust all our games would not work either, not downloadable.
No, I'd say it's somewhat different. If you have a game that had GfWL integrated it wouldn't matter how much warning you had, there would be nothing you could do to make your game work once GfWL went away.
If you own a Steam game and Valve goes under, unless it's amazingly sudden you can, like, download the game before they finish dying. Sure, if you have massive numbers of games that would take ridiculous amounts of storage you might have to buy a big hard drive or something. But if you purchased that many games you are not poor, so whatever. And if you bought a bunch of games with no plans to have enough storage to so much as download them, it's really on you; I'm actually kind of in that boat, but I don't tell myself it's Valve's responsibility--the decision to not fully take ownership of those games by putting a copy on my own computer was mine, not Valve's.
+ Click to view long quote

When I had Fallout 3 on PC, on Windows back then, I didn't purchase the game. There was a crack that allowed me to play without GfWL. To play Steam games offline, even if we were to have ALL games on our HDDs, we would need Goldberg Emulator, which to me is nothing more than another crack to bypass the online features of Steam.

Therefore, saving the difference in features, and not counting all the things Valve have done for the gaming community, etc, requiring Steam to play a game is not different as requiring GfWL.
Arehandoro Oct 14, 2021
No different to the fact that if Steam were to go bust all our games would not work either, not downloadable.

Assuming that you have many of your games already downloaded, they will still work just fine (except some Feral titles). Some may require the Goldberg emulator to run but that's about it.

Without Goldberg Emulator after a giving time you wouldn't be able to log in to Steam, and not all games work directly with the executable without Steam. Not counting all the features integrated that games have that rely on Steam.
ShabbyX Oct 14, 2021
No different to the fact that if Steam were to go bust all our games would not work either, not downloadable.

Assuming that you have many of your games already downloaded, they will still work just fine (except some Feral titles). Some may require the Goldberg emulator to run but that's about it.

Without Goldberg Emulator after a giving time you wouldn't be able to log in to Steam, and not all games work directly with the executable without Steam. Not counting all the features integrated that games have that rely on Steam.

If Steam shuts down, I have no doubt some open source project will spring up and implement the API. People won't just let so many games go to waste.


Last edited by ShabbyX on 16 October 2021 at 8:30 pm UTC
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