[Fallout 1] Censorship of GOG and Steam versions

[Sduibek]

I figured this would be useful to put out into the universe as a detailed breakdown, considering most people these days who play Fallout 1 are going to get it from GOG or Steam.

I find this censorship understandable (given the global distribution of these platforms) yet still very disappointing, as killing children is a controversial (in a good way) part of Fallout, and removing children from the game changes the feel of the game significantly in some areas.

Here are differences between the GOG/Steam version compared to the proper uncensored USA v1.2 release:


- GOG/Steam version do not have children at all in game. (Their graphics are removed)

- GOG/Steam version do not have any English words censored via BADWORDS.TXT, just other languages. So if you have it set to English and enable language filter, there will still be swearing. (irony, lol)

- GOG/Steam version have Addiction and Drug-Resistant images censored.

- "Chem"/"Chems" instead of "Drug"/"Drugs" in text and dialog.

 

[naossano]

Last time i've checked on steam, children were there in Fallout 2, but not in Fallout 1.
Didn't mind that much as none of the children in Fallout 1 were relevant.

It would be a pain in the ass to have children "sprites" removed lilke the european version of Fallout 2.
You could get pickpocketed by invisible children and still accidentally become a child killer without ever seeing a child.

 

[Sduibek]

Last time i've checked on steam, children were there in Fallout 2, but not in Fallout 1.
Didn't mind that much as none of the children in Fallout 1 were relevant.

It would be a pain in the ass to have children "sprites" removed lilke the european version of Fallout 2.
You could get pickpocketed by invisible children and still accidentally become a child killer without ever seeing a child.

They did the same in GOG/Steam of Fallout 1. All it did was remove graphics files for children, not their scripts.

 

[mannawyadden]

Better to get your hands on original copies of the game like I have. I don't trust any of the new releases that may have been tampered with. I know how to use patches to restore kids in the old EU versions, maybe those same patches can fix these too, but I don't know.

As far as children in Fallout 1 not being relevant, that may be true, but they still add atmosphere to the game, which may matter if someone wants to experience the "true" game. I recently reached the Hub and ran into a kid trying to give away flowers inside a church run by the Children of the Cathedral. He had quite a bit of dialogue and was amusing to interact with.

 

[Sduibek]

Better to get your hands on original copies of the game like I have. I don't trust any of the new releases that may have been tampered with. I know how to use patches to restore kids in the old EU versions, maybe those same patches can fix these too, but I don't know.

As far as children in Fallout 1 not being relevant, that may be true, but they still add atmosphere to the game, which may matter if someone wants to experience the "true" game. I recently reached the Hub and ran into a kid trying to give away flowers inside a church run by the Children of the Cathedral. He had quite a bit of dialogue and was amusing to interact with.

The good news is many of the unofficial mods and patches for the games restore children, but yeah their removal is really a bummer.

It's so silly what some countries censor. Like it's literally a video game, it shouldn't matter if you play "a bad person". Kill everyone whatever. People are nuts about censoring art and entertainment I don't get it.

 

[PsychoFox]

I'm actually gonna make an input here. I was looking for this info in 2019 so this is my contribution for posterity's sake.

I own the US CD-ROM (Windows), 1.0 version of the game. It has the original perk images AND killable children. However, the word "chem" is actually used instead of "drug". I don't actually think the word drug was used in any release (unless it was so in the DOS version).

I know FIXT changes the reference to "drug" but i'm not sure why they do it.

Correction - the word "drug" is used in game dialogue while "chem" is used in perk titles.