For those with saved game issues...

When you exit NV do you use the QUIT option in the menu BEFORE Exiting back to the PS3 Menu with the 'P' button OR do you just exit from ingame using the 'P' button? The reason I ask is simple, I had a solution with FO3 and since NV uses the same engine ; you see when you use the QUIT option it releases the game Cache and Memory, if you constantly exit using the 'P' button ingame what it does over time is Corrupt Saved Game Data!

With FO3 I sank over 300 hours into it and had only 7 crashes and none game-breaking exiting correctly, in NV so far I am 45 hours in, have explored pretty much the whole map and have had 3 crashes which seem to happen only after playing for a long stint, the game seems to run out of Memory!

Yes.
Whenever I exit the game, aside from when it is frozen/crashed, I use the in-game option which returns me to the title screen. I then use the PS button to "Quit Game".
I do so for every game. Always have.

nevermind, please delete this post.

Probably a flow on effect then, the more the game crashes the worse it gets because it never has a chance to clear out the Memory and Cache when it Hard-Locks because its a matter of Turning it off! Just curious because I bet there are ALOT of people using P and exiting straight out of ingame and I know for a fact on the PC and PS3 it causes issues since both use Memory and Cache.

I use the ingame option for quiting any game. And turning off the machine (in normal circumstances) via xmb.

But when NV crashes on the ps3 it locks out the user from the menu completely. The only option you have after waiting on the game to "unfreeze"... is to push the power to power down the console. This has happened to me numerous times with new vegas, and I have decided until they address this issue and I'm not going to play the game. As doing this will inevitably damage my system.

I have noticed that sometimes when I get a long pause and I get up to reset the system it actually does catch up again and keep moving lol Like I said I am lucky it has only happened 3 times but now I just wait for it to resume, seems alot safer than resetting and powering the system back on all the time! The thing is I explore everywhere I don't just follow the MQ, not sure if it has any impact what order you do things but as of now it is stable, hopefully the next patch they release helps with the Memory Leaks which I am attributing to the lockups after a stint of gaming, for me normally after an hour or so in one session, I will get the Memory Leak or Out of Memory Lock-up!

I also found when it happens when visiting a new area ALOT more often than when you fast travel or visit an area that has already been loaded, if you check your saved game file you will notice as you explore the size of the saved game gets larger and larger, this is because NV like FO3 loads the areas data into your saved game as you go! To help with this whenever I go to a new area I do a 360 degree spin, and move slowly to allow the PS3 to load the new area into your saved game, I have found if you run into a new area and it has NOT been properly loaded onto disk, that this is when you are most at risk of a hard-lockup!

Just my observations from playing!

I always just quit using the PS button and haven't had any hard lock-ups. You would think that either way you do it would clear everything that needs to be cleared since either way you are exiting the game

Only lockup that let me use the ps button was the inf load screen. other than that i can wait the music will stop and i wait 1-2 mins more and its still frozen. but maybe your onto something with the cache because i normaly play 1-2 hours fine then it freezes 2-3 times then im fine agian for another 2-3 hours. altho i havent played much because ive waited for the patch.

Yeah that is what I have found, was the same for FO3, you will notice as you play your saved game gets larger and larger too as it loads more and more area into it, I have found if I am running around areas I have already been I get alot less lag and issues than if I am running into a new area that hasn't been loaded into my saved game! Not to mention alot less lock-pauses too, maybe a restart every hour or so would stop the system running out of available memory, cache and resources? This in-turn might stop peoples saved games becoming corrupted or buggy because I am almost Certain this is why this happens, a hard lock in the wrong area OR when the game is loading a new area or item into their saved game or when the disk is being accessed!

I know this can have terrible consequences on the PC and the PS3 is just a PC in a box with some modifications so I don't see what it would be any different? I once had to reformat after a Hard Lock on my PC it corrupted the Win Sys file so Windows failed to load!

I always dis that on Fallout 3 and never had a save glitch problem or any major bugs. Only the occasional freezing (only when i installed the DLC). This tip you mentioned is right and everyone should try it. I believe that it will improve the game experience of a lot of people here.