Fallout dev focusing on 360 save bug fix

Bethesda Softworks has told Xbox 360 owners to save often while playing stonking great open world RPG Fallout: New Vegas as it works to fix a bug that prevents gamers from loading save files.

"We are absolutely looking into this bug now, along with other reports of save game corruption," senior producer Jason Bergman wrote on the official Bethesda forum.

"It is our highest priority right now that we find out what is causing it. In the meantime, we recommend you save often, and revert to an older save if this occurs."

Bethesda's already released a patch containing over 200 fixes through Steam for the PC version. It's "in the final stages of testing" and will be available to download for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions "very soon".

Fallout: New Vegas – out in the US since Tuesday – has enjoyed impressive review scores, but fans have reported bugs that in some cases freeze the game and force a restart.

"We are also pleased to say that we have just released a second fix for PC users to address the autosave and quicksave issues that some people were encountering," Bergman said. "That particular issue was never seen prior to release and it was extremely difficult to reproduce reliably, even after the game had launched. In order to fix this problem we have had to disable Steam Cloud functionality. It has been turned off, and we won't turn it back on until we're absolutely sure it will not cause any more problems. Please restart your Steam client to make sure you get the update.

"We want everyone to know that we are monitoring the forums and cataloging every single issue we see reported. We're reading forum posts, we're checking Twitter, and we're reading Facebook comments. We aren't able to reply to most threads, but we're listening. If we see an issue, we have people here trying to reproduce it so we can fix it."

Bergman also took the time to bust some Fallout bug myths.

The infamous Doc Mitchell video, which sees the NPC's head turning in hilarious fashion, was not a bug, apparently, but an issue to do with Steam pushing out corrupt files.

Some have complained about not getting all of their perks – Bergman reminded players that in New Vegas you receive perks every other level, not every level, as they did in Fallout 3.

"And finally, a quick tip: Be aware of your faction status before assuming the game is broken. Factions will react very strongly to you based on your current armor. If you're wearing Powder Ganger or Caesar's Legion armor, you will be shot on sight by the NCR (and vice versa). Also note that there are groups of renegade Powder Gangers (known simply as "Escaped Convicts") who will shoot you regardless of your faction."

Phew. Glad that's cleared up.