I bought and downloaded FO3 through Steam and it will not launch. I'll get the launch window but when I hit play, nothing happens.

I had this issue with Mass Effect 1 so I tried the same thing that got it to work which was set the launcher to Run as Admin and Compatibility mod.

Neither solved the issue and NOW when I hit play, I'm getting a pop up that says

" the ordinal 42 not located in the dynamic link library c:\windows\system32\xlive.dll."

I'm on windows 8 and when I look at the compatable mods all I see is Windows 95/98/XP packs2 &3 as well as Vista and 7. But no windows 8.

I'm at a loss guys and this seems to be a very common issue but I tried the other suggestions I could find to no success.

That error happens if you dont have game for windows live installed.

I know of a way to fix it, but am unsure if that would constitute BRM bypassing, which is illegal, even though GFWL is dead.

You would have to ask an admin about that.