Editor’s note: By slanted, I’m sure you mean that I had an opinion and stuck to it.

First: you need to try it on a better computer or a console, the 7600 GS was woefully underpowered for its time… this would allow for a much better/cleaner experience. Since I can’t even remember, minimum specs means that it will start and possibly run at about 10 fps, they need a minimum to run well spec.

MY SYSTEM SPECS:

Intel Q6600 2.4 Quad Core
4 (2×2) Gig Kingston Ram
NVidia Zotac 8800 GT OC

Secondly: I am very much a Fallout 1 and 2 fan (was pretty much raised on these games) and I found more of the charm/dark humour/ and good portrayal of the gloom of post-apocolyptica in this game than I did in Fallout 2.

Thirdly: I do demand a large amount of return on my monetary investment, I am a college student with little money, I MUST get a goodly amount of time out of anything I buy. And I whole heartedly believe that this game delivers it in spades, but you NEED to have recommended specs to play it well on the computer.

Fourthly: They randomize the password for many reasons, but the most notable is because of the following… if you exit out of the console before it locks the computer (ie at 3 tries instead of 4) you can restart, and it would be process of elimination if the password was the same each time. Also there are some consoles that do not have the password lying around, so in effect they decided to go with a system and apply it to all “hacking” instead of just certain ones. It’s more of programming oversight than a bug.

Editor’s note: My point is that I’ve guessed a few passwords. For example, in the game I might learn that John Doe’s dog’s name is Fluffy. I go to “hack” the computer, and what I’d really like to do is type in Fluffy, but I can’t. I eventually click on the text “heavy” and I’m in. Only, later I find John’s password written down, and guess what it says? Fluffy. Why not make the password Fluffy?

Also, why refuse to let me try to pick locks that are “very hard” unless I have a high lockpick skill? Let me try, and let me break my bobby pins if I fail. It’s frustrating to have artificial limits.

Fifthly: Does anyone remember Fallout 1 & 2 before they were patched, oh my god, they were buggy as all hell, at least this game runs for 90% of the populous out of the box.

This is a good point about the game, and is exactly how us returning Fallout members need to look at the game… http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2008/10/fallout-3-360-early-impressions.html

Editor’s note: I agree that the game feels empty. It’s still fun, I’m just not sure it’s $50 fun. Thanks for the feedback!

Actually, this is why Plimus (who you kindly mention above) has made a couple of changes to our process. At this point, when a customer successfully completes their transaction, we give them immediate, *online* access to the emails we’re sending right from the Thank You page. This means that even if the email gets caught up, they have an immediate opportunity to download and install their software. It’s only been in place a few weeks, but we’re seeing some very definite positive results.

It doubtless goes without saying that online merchants should recommend to their customers that they whitelist the addresses from which email will be sent. That many customers don’t know how to do this pretty well illustrates the challenge we all face in the online world.

When one thing you might try in the future is uploading suspicious files to the CWSandbox’s free service. They’ll analyze the file and give you a detailed report of what happens upon execution. It can take a few hours at times, but sometimes it’s rather fast, especially if someone has already uploaded the same file.

I also recommend paying for their sandbox product if you need faster results or do this regularly, such as if you’re in the malware analysis business.