outload.net

So yes, I am now a proud owner of a legal copy of Fallout 3. I purchased it via Steam because I enjoy the 'bonus' of disc-less software; no worrying about scratches or loss of the disc (the down-side being that there is no such thing as an 'uninstall' with Steam, instead it's 'delete what you have a re-download the entire game again!' While, at 1+ Mb/s it doesn't take too long, it's still more of a pain-in-the-ass than if I had just purchased the disc(s)). What I DON'T expect is a complete lack of function... but this is what I've received. My attempts at starting F3 end after a few seconds of the intro video (I'm talking the circa-1950s Emergency Broadcast System screen) and then it crashes back to the desktop.

[Update] ::
I managed to get it working. My guess, at the moment, is that Vista/2008 does not like using Fallout's 3.0 version of the '.NET Framework'. This is apparent because when Fallout is installing you can see it start the install process for their version of .NET but there are no errors or anything. If you attempt to run the installer by yourself (in one of the folders on the DVD or in your Steam/steamapps/USER/common/fallout3 folder) you'll find that the installer DOES error saying, "Please use the 'Turn Windows Features On or Off' option from the Control Panel."
NOTE: On Vista you'll be able to view the 'Turn Windows Features On or Off' window just fine by clicking on the link from the left-pane of your Control Panel. However, using Windows 2008 you'll most likely receive an error. This error will say, "The file 'C:\Windows\System32\OptionalFeatures.exe' is missing." I found a place on the internet to download the missing executable but I was never able to change much of anything and Fallout never ran after un/checking any of the options under the '.NET Framework 3.0' section.
Instead, I found that the best (only?) way to get this working was to install the 3.5 version of the .NET Framework [Full-211MB (here), or SP1-2.1MB (here)]. At least using Vista I was able to get Fallout to run and I'm currently too enthralled with playing the game that the thought of going back to 2008 and attempting to get Fallout working again is a risk I'll not take for a couple of months at least.

With all that said I must add that this game is one of THE most pleasing PC games I've played in quite some time. The sad fact is that I can't run the thing on ULTRA settings... yet :D. Normally that would, or at least could, ruin the immersion-level of plaing the game, ala Oblivion where if you were unable to render all the grass and trees then the landscape became oh, so... pitiful. Not to mention that if your computer had a hard time rendering those features then actually fighting in those kinds of environments was entirely impossible. In Fallout, however, it's exactly opposite... I mean, you spend your time out in a nuclear wasteland, I don't expect there to be that much of a complex environment to render. Soon enough I'll do a proper review.