May 7th 2009 10:28 pm PT

Fallout 3 Broken Steel – FIXED

As you know, we are committed to delivering quality game experiences on Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows – LIVE. After receiving reports of errors with the Fallout 3 Game Add-on Broken Steel on Games for Windows – LIVE, our technical team removed the file from Games for Windows – LIVE Marketplace and worked to quickly resolve the issue.

We’re pleased to say that Broken Steel is back up on Marketplace and ready for our Windows gamers. For those of you who previously downloaded the file, you need only re-download it on Games for Windows – LIVE Marketplace to receive the new version.

A number of Xbox 360 gamers have also reported that their Achievements from Broken Steel are not being added to their Xbox LIVE Gamerscores. If you encounter a similar issue, you need only recover your Gamertag to populate the Achievements you’ve earned, which have already been saved to your console. Detailed instructions on this process are located here.

The team would like to apologize for any inconvenience, and wish you well as you return the Capitol Wasteland with your newly increased level caps.

Marketplace By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

permalink: http://majornelson.com/2009/05/07/fallout-3-broken-steel-fixed/

Rimz891

nice!
Ganon255

I, for one, do not care about this game or its DLC anymore and I have purchased all of it. I have spent more hours troubleshooting this game than actually playing it. Multiple re-installs, corrupted saves,frustrating phone calls to support, ect. This is not fun for me, I play games to relax not to work.
threeleggedcow

“we are committed to delivering quality game experiences on Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows”

I guess this doesn’t apply to the guide…
Arsenic13

Agreed. I love my Xbox. But I HATE when i press the guide button and it freezes for 20 seconds. Invite some one. 30 seconds wait till in unfreezes. I even sometimes have to pull my controllers battery pack out so it forces the guide to go away. FIX THIS!
AnEternalEnigma

Pathetic. The problems that have faced The Pitt and Broken Steel are embarassing. Someone at Bethesda’s QA needs to be fired.
Kirill B

Major, what about the same achievement problem with PC version of Fallout 3? It isn’t fixed yet.
rogXue

Major, you need to explain the recovery options and possible repercussions due to doing this. will this hose saved games or screw up any dlc/downloads people have done in the past?
UberToast

@rogXue – Gamertag Recovery will have no affect on DLC or save games, it will however reset any achievements that were not accounted for on Live. So, recovery will correct the issue in Fallout 3 by allowing you to recomplete the achievements after recovery. This is only a big issue if you don’t save often. I ran through this procedure this morning and luckily had saves just prior to the 3 mission-based achievements for Broken Steel so I could complete thoes again quickly, then reload my current save and continue my game unhampered. If you do not have saves allowing you to quickly regain thoes missing achievements then there may be a bit of work for you to do. Hope this helps.
N3WB13 R0N

Hey Major, I am not sure how to do this sort of, but maybe its your wording lets just say you said to update your card by recovering it i am not sure how to do this sort of thing because i am not though the game yet.. Does this mean this trick wont work if you do it right away or do you have to do it earn the achivements and see if it works if it doesnt then just recover your gamertag then see if it works? or is it just something to deal with the game? so we wont hear if we earned it or not.. ether way i am confused.. lol
N3WB13 R0N

@UberToast Dude are you saying we should just recover our gamertag after each mission?? and reload them missions and see if we gain the achivements serouly this is bull if we have to do this.. Serouly think they need to get there acted togather if this is going to happen over and over again.. or fix it so it will populate the achivements time like the last ones..
Custom Casket

Yet another post filled with complaints about the Guide issues.

GONNA ACKNOWLEDGE IT YET MAJOR NELSON?

We’re ALL sick of the damn lag with the NXE. Stop ignoring us.
xRyUk68 dX

When I try recovering my gamertag, it says Xbox sign up is unavailable…. Do I like have to delete my gamertag from my hard drive or something?
NeoVampyre

Nope. All you need to do it press the guide button and press X to sign out. When selecting to sign in a gamertag simple scroll all the way to the left and select recover tag instead of an actual gamertag, boviously you will need to know your Hotmail addy and password. It will download your tag to you and it will also use upto date information on all achievements present on the servers at this time. (Just watch a TV program for an hour, tops). Granted if you have passed over the particular achievement it will dissappear and you will have the pleasure for furfilling it again and the rest of the game should play out as designed. In short, a one time fix.
Mr Barrel Roll

Is there any advantage for me to redownload this for my 360?
Atomicow

Fixed? I wouldn’t call being forced to delete my recent achievements and then having to go back and REDO them “fixed”.

That’s not an acceptable solution and you sure as hell better have a patch coming to actually fix this.
SteelCity Beast

Every Fallout thing has had some problems so far
Vasilii Zaytsev

Fix Fallout, but don’t fix how the Guide system you and your team have built freezes every time I try to access it. Nice.
ElHubcapo

Well this doesn’t work for me.
I recovered my gamertag and it hasn’t updated my cheebles.

Surely there’s a better fix for this problem?
Dark Knight 2K

How long does this recovery usually take? I’m going on half an hour here. That seems pretty weird for such a small file. I don’t want to be unruly or nasty about it, but I am having issues with the guide as well. And since the last dashboard update some of my games installed to the hard drive don’t run as well.
GhStRdR2k

wow, good thing my guide button works. as do all my fallout chevos since I recovered my GT. Keep up the good work.
GhStRdR2k

Recover gamertag, reload old save game, enjoy dlc. Seems pretty easy to me.
DeadOne Walking

Well, the problem was/is on the MS side of things.
As for having go replay the stuff just to unlock the achievements, that’s not a very good solution.
Finally, everyone complaining about the NXE’s lagging with the dashboard/quick guide, every announcement or piece of information Major posts is not the time to complain about it. I bet that you don’t even know WHY it happens. I do, and I think it’s guide horrible. They made it so only the minimal information is held on the system, forcing the XBox to re-download and verify the information you are looking at. Your friends gamer pics, avatars, status (the only one that makes since IMO), download history, ect is downloaded from the Live servers when needed. Pre NXE, only the download history needed to be downloaded, and the dashboard before the background downloading had all that info stored on the users storage device. The fix is rather nasty though, because then users need to give up storage space to store the information on the HDD, which over time can be quite large. Best option IMO, release an update with the option to store things on the system. Allow the user to set a limited amount of space for information, and the problem becomes managed.
And anyone who wants to go off saying “I have a fast connection, that’s not the reason why it’s slow!,” try recovering your gamertag. I only use about a 20MB for mine, and if I recover it on any connection it takes about 20 minutes. Constant verification and authorization slows the whole process down. It took about 18 minutes at my sisters place and she has a 20Mbit down connection. Some marketplace browsing was improved, but not even close to a big difference. At most about 4 seconds.
The NXE obviously uses the space previously used for that information, (especially when it needed at least an additional 128MB storage just to install) and I must say that I would happily allocate 1GB of additional space to keep things running “quick.” A similar process could be used for all the stuff on storage devices with opening the games library or videos library. A file listing the content on the drive, and where it is at the end of the drive with a pre set space would speed things up but use space. It’s a trade off, and I wouldn’t mind loosing up to a total of 2.5GB space fro everything to be speed up.
Aryzona Bay

recover gamertag, redo 6+ hours of gaming because even though i already earned the achievements, i now have to re-earn them (and if you read the bethesda forums, there are quite a few of us who have to re-arn the achievements).

also, the achievement problem is STILL present on the Games for Windows Live side – I can’t believe your people were tackling this on the 360 and didn’t think to – DUH – let’s check and see if the problem exists on the PC too?
no, that would be too much, wouldn’t it.
deltawing12

Wow, just recovered my gamertag, still didn’t get the achievements :/

You’re lucky Broken Steel is fantastic otherwise I’d be pissed to play it through again.
Custom Casket

Hah. This sounds like the crap Microsoft did when they released the 360. They KNEW there was going to be a high rate of console failures (3 RROD) but they released it anyway flawed. Now we have the jaspers floating around and so far they seem good. How about we get a fix rolling for the NXE? I can surely tell you its not my consoles. I have guide lag issues on a brand new 360 resident evil edition and on my other elite. I have 20mbps fios service as well, so the issues sure as hell aren’t on my end. I don’t give a damn about blah blah blah Microsoft has so many users pulling data at once. You get $50 a year from all the gold members, its way more then enough money to have the backend server support along with the pipes needed to push all the data. Once again though, with any large company they can practically get away with anything they’d like to until someone files a class action lawsuit. As I’ve suggested before, we all need to pull together and tell Microsoft that it’s not alright to take our money and give us some half assed product. 30+ seconds of my console locking up every time I pull up the guide in game is complete horse crap and anyone who says it’s just fine is a complete moron. The issue is out there, how many people complain a week about it and MN just ignores us? Come on people, lets do something.
xRyUk68 dX

Lol, Broken Steel was indeed “Broken”. Very disappointing.
Vasilii Zaytsev

^Agreed with Custom Casket^
ImmortalArbiter

I agree, fix the NXE guide issue! Fix it NOW!
Hi I am Phil

I agree, the guide is crap. Atleast acknowledge it, Im experiencing 30+ second lag times in and out of the guide.
Mr Barrel Roll

Hey guys, don’t you have a forum or something to go whine about the NXE?

My question remains unanswered, buried beneath your rabble:

Is there any reason for me to redownload this if I have the 360 version???
UNSCleric

“Agreed. I love my Xbox. But I HATE when i press the guide button and it freezes for 20 seconds. Invite some one. 30 seconds wait till in unfreezes. I even sometimes have to pull my controllers battery pack out so it forces the guide to go away. FIX THIS!”

Amen to that, I thought it was just me, but it looks like everyone is having issues.
IconicSoulJA

Games for Windows LIVE achievements still messed up. The DRM was fixed not the game or the achievements. Sad. Great way to advertise broken content.
Hawaiian c

major like i said there needs to be a compensation as you said “we are committed to delivering quality game experiences” so far the developers and publishers arnt appear to be thinking of something else.. major you as a voice for the consumers and voice of Microsoft you need to set a consequences for both “developers and publishers” if issues happens. its up to you major or to ever the adviser that need to deal the issues.

major im not saying its MS fault nore developers and publishers but if consumer has to deal the big issue like this its the eyes is on MS not the developers and the publishers, its going affect you to major. im just saying every one has to do its part and if someone screw up someone has to pay and not just a fix. im saying all this be-cause i never seen any compensation done, only once or twice for the amount of bugs that happen over the xbox live lifetime and i think there should be a new rule about it.. truste me its going to help you and use the fans alot better i mean do the gt recover and redownload??? thats a big issue.
XxLightkunxX

I’m sorry but Major i find it absolutely HILARIOUS you only pop on your own site to go “oops lol sorry guys I typo’ed something. FIXED” or, things like this.

Also how it always without fail starts as “As you know, we are committed to delivering quality game experiences on Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows – LIVE. After receiving reports of errors with (insert random error that barely the majority would care about) on Games for Windows – LIVE, our technical team removed the file from Games for Windows – LIVE Marketplace and worked to quickly resolve the issue.” and yet you guys don’t work “quickly” to resolve ALL of the issues that us, your paying customers, care about?

Guide Lag, Avatar issues, the fact there is a large ****ing blob on the screen in the background that has bastardized my previous themes I purchased and I feel I should still be able to use them OR get a long-overdue refund in Microsoft Points FOR the themes I purchased: THESE ARE THE THINGS WE CARE ABOUT MAJOR NELSON AND WE THE GAMERS WANT THESE THINGS FIXED. IT HAS BEEN AWHILE SINCE THE START OF THESE ISSUES WERE ADDRESSED, HOW ABOUT TELLING US YOU’LL FIX THEM OR AT LEAST ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU CARE?

Okay..caps-lock-only-rant done, I really hope your “team” can pull your heads out of your a$$es for one minute to give us gamers what we really want.
Custom Casket

I think I started a revolution rofl.

The guide issues are first and foremost. Seriously, you can’t charge people a monthly access fee to something that locks up on you constantly in-game. I would expect these “guide” lockups to occur on something such as a PS3 where it is not a paid network. I pay you bastards $150 a year for my 3 accounts, and this is the treatment I get?

You’re supposed to be our voice Major Nelson, why don’t you heed some of our words and try to help us out. You have the job you have because we pay for an online service that your company offers. Shouldn’t you be acknowledging our issues instead of ignoring them?
UNSCleric

Recovering my Gamertag takes over 2 hours, and I’ve had to do it multiple times due to Xbox Live becoming unavailable near the end of the process and having to start over from zero. I’m once again near the start of the process. No gaming for me on my night off work it looks like, this will be going until it’s time for bed, and that’s if it works this time.
L0rN

@dark knight

The Recovery takes me more than 1 hour, WHEN IT WORKS. Most of the time it aborts after 40 Minutes and then I have to redo everything.
But this is really no fix. I have to redo all the missions and you call this a fix. LOL

And do something about the laggy marketplace and guidebutton. It can`t be real that the more you buy or download on marketplace, the more it lags. I bought more than 75 Arcadegames and very often it freezes in the dashboard for more than 40 seconds. And it takes 1-3 minutes in the marketplace, that i can click download “xxx”.

All the guys who have the same issue, just test it by creating a new account and you will see, that there are no lags. Everything is related to the items you purchased.

Cheers
UNSCleric

I got my Gamertag to recover during the second attempt, which took just under three hours. I spent a total of just over 5 hours doing this tonight, and it was in the middle of the night. I have a feeling it wouldn’t have worked at all during the day when Live is being used even more. I’ve now spent the last hour trying to get all my Fallout 3 Broken Steel achievements back, achievements that many gamers probably will never get, either cause they don’t realize they didn’t get the score, or cause they don’t know the solution, or cause they begin the recovery process and can never get it to work, which has happened to many, and if they do get it to work, some people lose their saves cause they somehow become disassociated, and I’m very thankful that didn’t happen to me,

I hope a ton of people have problems, especially with the recovery process due to this absolute mess, and Microsoft actually has to change and fix stuff, cause the way this is setup now is NOT how a paid service (with tons of paid DLC being messed up) should be run.
L1VERPOOL

Major don’t you think it time to come out from under the rock you have been hiding under and actually address some of the justified criticicsm justifyably aimed at you? A lot of people are sick and tired of your none commital response on a range of issues. We are tired of hearing that things have been brought up with the “relevant parties” then when it happens again we get the same reply where as on other issues you blindy ignore. How many times have we had this. As a person high up in the chain of things, supposedly the champion to our course I’ve noticed a big decline in how things get done and when they are brought up they are edited etc…

Can you address the community here or in a podcast over the following and what Microsoft is actually doing about it

1. Parity in some form across the xbox live community
2. Guide lockups
L1VERPOOL

Major don’t you think it time to come out from under the rock you have been hiding under and actually address some of the justified criticicsm justifyably aimed at you? A lot of people are sick and tired of your none commital response on a range of issues. We are tired of hearing that things have been brought up with the “relevant parties” then when it happens again we get the same reply where as on other issues you blindy ignore. How many times have we had this. As a person high up in the chain of things, supposedly the champion to our cause I’ve noticed a big decline in how things get done and when they are brought up they are edited etc…

Can you address the community here or in a podcast over the following and what Microsoft is actually doing about it

1. Parity in some form across the xbox live community
2. Guide lockups
CAPTinsano VT

So what…Its not even going to be fixed? there just going to tell people, YA we know its broken but just go and recover your GT and play through it again so we dont have to fix it for real. Screw that,If thats how it will be handled you can be damned sure i will never buy DLC for any beth game again.

Lets not blame only bethesda maybe this wouldnt be a problem at all if microsoft allowed dev’s to actually patch there game as it needs instead of giving them ridiculously small file size for the fixes.
Mr Barrel Roll

Wow, thanks for all your help guys. Really, I mean it.
metallicorphan

major-just wondering,but Microsoft are usually quite strict with anything that gets released on the marketplace,and they go through testing…what happened with The Pitt and Broken Steel?,were they still tested and the problems were missed or did they both miss testing altogether?
-
i just started the first of the 3 DLC last night,so i should be cool for achievements now,right?
-
-
and sorry but yeah i agree with the majority of people on here,the guide/NXE all keep freezing,the friends list takes so long to appear…i had no problems whatsoever with the Blade system
-
the marketplace items takes awhile to appear also
metallicorphan

Mr Barrel Roll-no you dont have to redownload the DLC…if you havent started the DLC yet,you should be fine(i am hoping anyway because i am in that boat)
L0rN

I`m recovering my gamertag right now and I am at approx. 75 percent…

AFTER 1 and a half hour!!!!!!!!!!!!

@barrel Roll
Why are you asking if there is an advantage in redownloading? It`s explained in Majors post that you have to recover your GT and do everything again, if your achievements are broken.
Mr Barrel Roll

THANK YOU
Mr Barrel Roll

Note to self: Act polite and everyone ignores you, act like a prick and everyone lines up to help!

*And thus, another internet troll was born.*
HT UK

Oi fix the PC Achievements!

And also, sort the guide out, and bring back the old marketplace, it was so much smoother than the new marketplace. It takes forever for the content to load up
P00K

Major’s post is slightly incorrect. When you recover your gamertag, it will tell you specifically that any achievements you’ve earned while offline will be lost… and this is what happens to the Fallout 3 Broken Steel achievements. You have to recover your gamertag, then you have to redo the content from a previous save to unlock the achievement.

So they’re not “Already saved to your xbox 360″ because they’re saved in your gamer profile which you are erasing and redownloading.
James in STL

Do you guys need some cheese with that whine?

May 7th 2009 10:28 pm PT

Fallout 3 Broken Steel – FIXED

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