I actually haven't really experienced much in the way of freezing. I'm playing GOTY with a 'vanilla' version save game file around 5-6MB, currently doing Operation Anchorage. I've experienced a brief freeze before a specific point in OA, but other than that, nothing major. The 'freeze' wasn't really even a freeze at all, the game just stopped for around 3-4 seconds while I noticed the HDD light flashing, as if the system was loading something.

OTOH, I haven't been playing with a large save file yet (over 10MB) or tried any of the other DLCs.

Well and I can report, that a friend of mine (actually the one which I convinced to trade in the vanilla version and buy the GOTY-Edition...) finally got to higher levels and suffers the exactly same problems we all have here...

I, like others, have joined this forum specifically to express my dismay at the obvious inadequacies in the GOTY version of Fallout 3. I had the vanilla version of the game which seemed to work fine with only the occasional glitch or lag and I traded that in for a copy of the GOTY edition. From the moment I fired the GOTY up it was clunky to say the least. After about an hour of gameplay the lag and glitching became unbearable to the point where I just had to play something trouble free (like Uncharted 2) and haven't been game enough to go through the same headache again. And so one of the best games of all time just sits in my collection gathering dust while it waits for it's creators to do it some justice and PATCH IT - PLEASE - for the love of humanity!!

Ah guys, welcome to my stopping ground. :tops:

I'm glad you have come here to post, if you need help, here is where a fix is most likely to come from, and if like your doing and directing your comments to Beth than this is the best place, Beth does watch the forums.

I have the original Fallout 3. I played the game before any patches were released. I started a new game and create a new save everytime I save, I don't overwrite save files or use an autosave. I did experience issues after patching to 1.1 but they were minor and forgiveable and were often solved by deleting the game data, bypassing those areas and repatching. I have not tried the DLC or GOTY yet, honestly I'm afraid to. I plan to take the plunge this holiday season simply for the sake of seeing if my save technique will save me. If I encounter the type of problems others are experiencing I plan to start a brand new game, because I believe it is the patch data mixing with old saves that causes these issues along with bad overwrites, because my technique of creating new saves every time and turning off autosave kept me from problems until I installed the 1.1 patch, and those problems were minor.

I don't know how many times we should have to say this before Bethesda actually does something about the problems we'e having. I'll admit after a lot of time some of the problems eventully start to disappear a tiny bit, but still the majority remain, such as frequent freezing, low FPS, and so on. By ignoring the problems it won't go away, the only thing that will is the credibility and the reputation of this company, and i'm a huge elder scrolls and fallout fan, i'm willing to try the Elder scrolls V but if it has similar problems and bethesda don't resolve them, it'll most likely be the last game i buy from them

I am having the same problems as everyone else but thats not why Im posting. I simply want to say that I, just like the rest of you, have been waiting and waiting for this version of fallout 3. I actually bought my ps3 slim just to play fallout 3 goty. I was first in line at the midnight release and have played nonstop since I got it. At first it was fine but the more I played the worse it got. I guess Im lucky to have made it to lvl 30. Been maxed out for about 3 days now I think. I have done MZ, OA BS and most of PL, but I cant get past the bridge in TP. Now when I go to MZ to get loot from the little girl it freezes as soon as I turn to face the bridge. I was using it as my house for a good while until it started the freezing. I had to use the beacon, face left and down, walk backwards all the way to both storage bins under the stairs, grab all my loot, then face the windows, look at the floor and walk backwards to get to the telepad. From there me and jericho had to walk, very slowly, all the way to tenpenny tower, fighting all the way. The walk took me, in real time with no messing about, an hour and a half. Needless to say I wasnt happy. My stance on Bethesdas apparent lack of concern is this. Let them do whatever they want this time, but just this time. I keep hearing everyone say they have been having problems with bethesdas games since elder scrolls 3, and that nothing has been done to fix those titles as of yet. I am going to make fallout 3 goty their last chance to regain my trust. If they fix, in my opinion the best game ever, then I will continue to purchase bethesdas future titles. If they do not patch our game, then I will never even think of buying anything they make, have a hand in making or even think of making. As far as I am concerned they will have stolen any where from 50 to 70 dollars from all of us if they refuse to patch our game. If they dont fix the games issues it will be just another case of big business lying and cheating the middle class out of their hard earned money just to feed their greed. As If TWO stimulus hand outs and billions of dollars later havent clearly shown what greed will get you. I hope, for our future gamings sake they fix the damn game. I remember when this country did things right, not the fastest, or the flashiest, but right. It didnt leave the factory, or what have you, until it was "right". Guess its not cost effective to be honest any more.

Hey folks,
I like many out there joined this forum just to voice my desire to get the GOTY version patched. This game is hands down one of my top 5 favorite games of all time, and I can't play it. I can't play it because the constant crashing is making me so frustrated, and I don't want to be frustrated playing one of my favorite games.
PLEASE Bethesda, please patch the game and end our frustrations!

Most of us probably sold fallout 3 and bought fallout 3 GOTY with that cash plus some extra.
I've done that yes, so if Bethesda won't release a patch most of us will:
Lose our money we've infested in the game.
Lose a game that DID work.
I've bought this game 4 days ago, played it, i had soo much fun playing the DLC's, after the half of operation anchorage my game started freezing etc, and now every time when i see an enemy or when i go into vats 9 of the 10 times the game will freeze, just like everyone has.
Please Bethesda, you've made a great game, it's just not playable because of the freezing, fix it please!
If you won't alot of people will lose trust in you and will probably not but anymore games (including me)
So please bethesda, don't lose your game buyers and release that patch!

Just some news from me..., reached level 29, completed all DLCs now, savegame 14MB and while the game at least worked for an hour or so before when I now enter the Captial Wasteland and fast travel..., or encounter enemies its just minutes till the game freezes.., great.

I just wanted to comment about what some people say : "Vanilla Fallout3 was fine but the GOTY version keeps freezing". That's not true I think. As far as I am concerned, the old content in the GOTY version works fine (well, with some of the small freezes which made Fallout3 famous, but not a big deal, really). On the other hand, its freezing as hell when you go to the DLC areas (BS air base, the swamps in PL and especially the town and this damn truck near the cathedral).

I've been travelling by foot (no fast travel) the Wastelands for 2 days now, and the game works fine. The only problem is when you encounter enemies just after fast travelling (that is why I don't fast travel anymore ^^) : VATS usually freezes quite quickly, but hey it already did in Vanilla Fallout3.

Well, maybe some of you have experienced awfull bugs in the original wastelands but we already had it and that's far from the bugs we have in the DLCs .

Hi, I joined this forum because of the freezing-problems with the PS3 GOTY. Just a few days before I wanted to buy the GOTY, a friend told me about problems with it. I checked this forum and now I'm shocked. How can Bethesda be so ignorant about the freezing-problem? I read, that there is coming a patch for the canadian version, for the savegame-problem. But what the hell is about the mainproblem, the freezing, in all versions? The only thing I saw in this forum is, that the problem is being ignored. I can't tell, how dissapointed and angry I am. But we can just hope, that the patch is in progress. Bethesda, pls do something, I really want do spend 60 euros in the Fallout 3 GOTY!

Sry for bad language.

Same problem here. I sold my original version for this piece. Nothing but freezing now. I want my old disc back.

I played Fallout 3 a year ago and loved it. Got GOTY as soon as it came out. Just like everyone else constant freezing problems, mostly Point Lookout whenever I get anywhere near my quest objectives. I've heard of successes in dealing with the bugs by wiping clean and starting anew. Definitely something people shouldn't have to do and definitely not something I am even going to consider. The problem should be taken care of by the creator not the player taking drastic measures.

If Bethesda came out with another awesome game, I'd admittedly probably buy it despite what's happened with Fallout. I've still been able to enjoy it, maybe not to its full potential... But still... Does Bethesda want to make and release games that aren't to their full potential? And if they aren't, not even fix them? Gotten their money or not, what reason is there to not address this issue. The goal should be to make and maintain something quality.

I dunno... Personally I like to try and do things I care about the best they can be done. There's all the time in the world if you make it. If it's a matter of making us gamers wait longer for the game to come out so you can fix it up better as opposed to releasing it bug filled... Seems an obvious choice to me. Take your time!

There's my addition. Have fun!

P.S. Well said Igg74! Very well said, if I was Bethesda I may have been a little Jarred, heheh.

How come your savegame size is lower than mine? I'm Lvl 28, done all DLC except PL and my savegame is 16MB. I did MSZ and OA for the second time with another character - MSZ was flawless, no freezing or lagging but OA was just awful the second time - it froze on me 6 times in 30mins, it lagged to absolute crawl, VATS didn't work and for some odd reason, I lost 1 savegame file - poof - just disappeared. Odd - since when I played OA the first time it was just flawless with no problems at all.

I AM SUPER PISSED!!! THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE! PATCH IT!

i played the vanilla fallout 3 and oblivion GOTY ed and never had any real problems with anything. Loved them both. However, upon getting Fallout 3 GOTY ed, I now what it means to cry. If I go to VATS...freeze and crash. If I fast travel...freeze and crash. If I open the pip boy....freeze and crash. If I encounter an enemy....freeze and crash. It was bad right away, but as the game progressed it got to be so bad that now it freezes within 10 STEPS, like my character takes 10 steps and....freeze and crash.

seriously bethesda, have you no talent? I wonder how much svckage it must take to ruin such an amazing game with such stupid simple bullsit. I dont give a sit about the frame rate and the little stuff that some people are [censored]ing about. I JUST WANT TO BE ABLE TO PLAY THE FIZZUCKING GAME.

PATCH OR GIVE ME MY DAMN MONEY BACK!

I have the same problems, too. It seems particularly bad in Point Lookout--I mean terrible. The otheR new areas were painful to traverse with the freezing. Sometimes it would resume after about five minutes but I am rarely patient enough to see if it will recover. We shouldn't have to do this, especially after paying $50 for the DLC and/or $60 for the GOTY edition.
I sent support an email outlining the problems and what I had done to resolve them. They replied with content telling how to do what I just told them I had already done! Seriously?! Don't tell me to do something I already told you I just did.
It may not be the support guys' fault, though, as it seems the support has been outsourced to a third party who is probably just as much in the dark as we are. I'm trying not to take it out on the support guys but they're our only contact at this point.
I'll see who else I can email or call to see if I can get anyone's attention. I'm not certain my efforts will be successful but I'll try.
How on earth did this game get through the QA process? Maybe they just said 'the code compiled, RTM it'.
If they had humans test the GOTY version, surely someone would have said its performance was lackluster to say the least.
I guess they were more concerned about the release date than the quality of the product--which pisses me off.

Guys all have your receipts right?

I say if by the end of the month they still haven't said anything or done anything we all send our discs in demanding our money back or at least half of it. It's fair in my book. I got less then half a game I can play they should get less then half my money or none of it all.

I didn't explore the Wasteland much, since I already completed the vanilla game about 3 times

My freezing is so bad that I just stopped playing the game. I picked up Dragon Age and I have been playing it all day for the last 2 days and not a single freeze. Yet as soon as I put in Fallout 3 I freeze with in 15 minutes. I called support and they said they were away of the problem and escalated it. But that was last week and nothing official has been announced. Which leads me to believe that there blowing smoke and theres going to be no patch. And if thats the case I will never buy another Bethesda product. Look at all the RPG's coming out next year, passing on Fallout NV will be no problem at all. There's plenty of RPG makers out there with working products!

Really feeling buyers remorse on this one, at least you chaps with the GOTY Version can return it to the shops, I'm stuck with useless DLC for a game that doesn't work anymore.

Thanks Bethesda for taking the money and running, as usual.

Bethesda doesn't do refunds, this has been discussed and complained about on the forums before. Their mindset is that they sell the games to resellers at a bulk rate, and the amount of money we pay is a good bit higher per game than what the resellers are buying them for, that's how the resellers make a profit. So their statement is "We don't have your money *insert name of reseller here* does, so they would have to be the ones to give it back to you" So you can feel free to try that, but sadly it will not happen.

Ah!, that would explain it. Mine just hit 17MB now..

Slightly OT..

So, here I am watching the Travel Channel and watching 'Mysterious Journeys -The Witches of Salem' original airdate 10/28/2007 and I swear that the narrator on this program is the voice of Three Dog ( Erik Dellums) - it sounds just like him.

I'm still making my way through the DLC of the PS3 GOTY. Or at least trying to. I know a lot of people have had issues, but have they been quite this bad for everyone else?

Operation Anchorage, aside from being a waste of time, was a technical mess. The rest of the DLC (haven't started Broken Steel yet) is more fun, but freezes up so much that it actually put me off playing for a while. Sometimes it freezes for up to a minute (mostly in VATS, but can happen any time) and actually resumes! Other times it'll refuse to unfreeze altogether. Suffice to say it's not enjoyable to have to go through the same "is it going to unfreeze this time?" [censored] every time. Annoyingly, all these faults now apply to exploring the Capital Wasteland as well as the new locations, making it a lot more of a chore than the vanilla version.

Which brings me onto the worst bug: can someone who has tried Mothership Zeta on the PS3 GOTY enlighten me? I activate the first quest, go to the marker, get abducted and about 30 seconds into the opening cutscene it freezes. But not in the usual way. I can still pause/access the XMB etc, but the 2 characters in the foreground freeze (as does the equipment), and the one in the background seems to be stuck in some sort of infinite animation loop. I've tried reloading from several saves, and reinstalling the game data, but it happens every time.

I love Fallout 3 even if some of the DLC so far has been uninspired (and, in OA's case, outright terrible) but I've had enough. I'm going to try to get my money back.

I had the same problem with Mothership Zeta, until a post some guy made actually helped, I think. Maybe it was a combination of 2 posts. I went over to the ship just before the abduction, saved, and turned off the PS3. Then, when it was turning back on, at the loading trophies screen, I held L2, R2, and square until the slides start showing up. And you know it works when the slides won't continue until you let go of the buttons. it still didn't work the first time I tried it but I reloaded a few times after that and it finally worked... And sincew I've gotten in haven't had one issue.

Point Lookout on the other hand.... Giant mess, don't get me started.

P.S. A 7 year old could have done O:A better :banghead: