Hello to all.

Fallout: New Vegas (from the stand-alone installer) will not run until it is able to receive a response to the DNS look-up request for galaxy-log.gog.com (I had noticed this while capturing packet data).

Within my hosts file (on the Arch distribution of Linux), I have added '127.0.0.1 galaxy-log.gog.com' (which bypasses DNS queries for this address, while routing them to the local loopback), therefore allowing the game to start while I am not connected to the internet.

I am certain that this was a simple oversight by GOG staff. Have any other users experienced this issue as well?

Thank you for your time.

Update #1: I have determined that 'Galaxy.dll' (within the folder that contains the game's executable files) can be easily modified with a hex editor to rectify this issue (without the need for the hosts file fix), as seen in the attached comparison image.

I understand that FalloutNV.exe relies upon 'GalaxyWrp.dll' (due to past integration with Valve's 'Steam' client, it was necessary for GOG to mimic the Steam API); So, the presence of these Galaxy-related files makes a bit more sense, now.
However, I hope (if they have not already) that GOG corrects this issue, as someone that installs the game onto a computer that either does not cache DNS requests (and subsequently runs Fallout: New Vegas while offline), or simply does not ever connect to the internet, may end up having the same issue that I had experienced.

Update #2 (7th of June clarification edit with specificities): Today (the 5th of the month of June), I tested a completely different computer, in a completely different home (this time, a friend's MacBook with Linux). I re-downloaded the game's installation files from GOG, in order to determine as to whether or not the files had been updated (they had not). With Static/Manual IP settings and without a DNS-cache (the same method used by the previously-tested desktop-oriented Linux-based computer), the game refused to start while the wireless network adapter was unlinked/disconnected from the router. Just as before, the game launched immediately once the link/connection was re-established with the internet-connected router. So, no news on that front...

Then, I attempted the same with DHCP/Automatic IP settings (still, without a DNS-caching mechanism), and the game launched without fail, regardless of connectivity-status (both, connected to the router, and disconnected). It would be safe to conclude that DHCP has some sort of fallback function (which leads to graceful failure) when galaxy-log.gog.com is requested by 'Galaxy.dll' (through the execution of 'FalloutNV.exe'). An extremely high percentage of setups use DHCP, by default (for convenience); So, it is not at all surprising that this would cause the affected amount of users to be minimal...

So, if anyone is experiencing this issue, it seems to be related to not using DHCP/Automatic settings for IP connectivity, along with either: not having a DNS-caching mechanism, or having a recently-flushed DNS-cache (where the IP address associated with galaxy-log.gog.com previously-resided), or simply having never had any contact with galaxy-log.gog.com (for whichever reason), when attempting to launch the game while being disconnected from the internet. I will still choose to use a static/manual IP configuration, as well as run without a DNS-caching mechanism, and play offline (since none of my other games/applications have ever been this finicky). If you feel the same, either of the previously-mentioned work-arounds should be enough to treat the symptoms.

You're saying the game won't launch if you're not connected to the internet?
So..NOT DRM free then?

Well, all that I will say is that I had my ethernet cable disconnected while attempting to execute FalloutNV.exe, only to find that it would not launch at all... I found this behavior to be odd, so I simply connected the ethernet cable (while Wireshark was capturing IP packets), and the game started.

After the game had launched, I quickly exited out of the game, only to find that the DNS request had been made, along with traffic related to galaxy-log.gog.com.

I repeated all of these steps, only to find the same results each time. Of course, once I had added the aforementioned entry to my hosts file, the connection to the internet was no longer necessary (the game was able to run without issue).

I believe that it may be an honest mistake. At the very least, the change to the hosts file temporarily corrects the issue (as long as the entry within said file is present).

I hope that this is helpful to others that for any reason have chosen not to use the Galaxy client (and play offline).

EDIT: I just installed and launched offline. Works fine here.

Still seems to work here even with the ethernet cable unplugged (this is in a fresh prefix via my Wine wrapper)

Perhaps my experience with being able to repeatedly test this is due to my setup not utilizing DNS-caching.

I had used this manual method (that I later automated with Dmenu) to confirm the issue:

export WINEPREFIX=/home/username/W/Fallout_New_Vegas
cd /home/username/W/Fallout_New_Vegas/drive_c/Fallout_New_Vegas
wine FalloutNV.exe

Did you download the game right after GoG put it up? They might have uploaded a fixed version by now.

Do you live in the US? because your version might be different.

Will Fallout and Elder Srolls be available through GOG Connect? I do not want buy them again, I aleready have them on steam.

I purchased this (and Fallout 3, which was unaffected by the issue at hand) and began downloading after approximately 3 hours had passed since the arrival of the Bethesda Game Studios games to GOG. My current residence is within the continental U.S.

The following is a list of the installation files that I have used (along with their respective MD5 and SHA-256 checksums.):

setup_fallout_new_vegas_1.4.0.525_(12010).exe
setup_fallout_new_vegas_1.4.0.525_(12010)-1.bin
setup_fallout_new_vegas_1.4.0.525_(12010)-2.bin

be32894fe423302d299fa532e5641079
245661b2e1435c530763ae281ccecd9f
705e7097b9c18836118c2e9eb42b19ed

1f56a210c70e5c6802393cf63acf9d49ee7a2a1cadd9fd75c32729baa547d4f7
266bd7b42aa7c03a31729b9ad172a965f571446ffd268ac116d40e4f2aff5eb6
ef90204cdf254d3a4f03378d49842faa6599825cc7c4d5c78892880149427fb9

Do you have or had other versions of NV installed?

No; In fact, the only other version that I have played is the (vastly inferior) PS3 version.

Also, I have never installed the GOG Galaxy client (Windows-only, currently) with the Windows compatibility layer (WINE) for Linux. So, this problem can only be attributed to a mechanism that GOG itself added (for integration with the GOG Galaxy client).

^^^except that other folks are reporting that it installs and launches just fine offline............