Hi everyone,

I finally managed to register here after having some issues with the sign in process, but anyway..

I think I have found a fix to all the freezing on the Game of the Year version of Fallout 3 and was told by another poster (JMarz) over on Gamefaqs that I should post it here also, as it seems to have helped out other players. The full thread can be found here:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/960609-fallout-3-game-of-the-year-edition/55637913

I hope I am allowed to post that.

Anyway... I will copy and paste my initial post I made and this has helped me have a smooth experience with the game, whereas before, it was freezing, slowing down majorly and more or less unplayable. Here is what I did:

Okay, so I deleted my game data and reloaded my last save earlier. I was right outside Big Town after doing the quest there, and every single time I tried making my way to Paradise Falls, the game would freeze along the way, annoying the hell out of me.

So... everytime this happened, I deleted the game data and started again from Big Town. Same deal... it would freeze on the way to Paradise Falls.

Now... I understand the game is installing in the background, so I did something different this time. Read on...

Once sitting outside Big Town, I noticed that the noise of installing (Where you hear the loading going on, on the PS3) eventually stopped. It would only start up again if I moved from my position and started exploring the wastes (Or opened the pip boy). So... the game is installing as and when you come to a different area etc it seemed.

If you press start and stay on the pause screen, you can hear the constant loading sound (The game installing). I assumed this meant the game would FULLY install on the pause screen, rather than install along the way when playing, so I waited on that screen. You could hear it installing constantly, whereas leaving the pause screen and going back to my idle position would seem to stop the installing until I moved on somewhere else.

I stayed on the pause screen until the noise of installing stopped completely (About 30 mins. Another poster left it about 45 mins).

After that, everything was fine. It seems like the game has now fully installed and I can get to where I want, and everything feels better.

I think the problem may lie in playing the game when it is installing in the background. I think it's best to stay on the pause screen and leave it fully install before doing anything at all. It seems to be working for me.

Anyway, hope all that made sense lol. So far so good for me at the moment

Since doing this, I have had a great experience with the Game of the year version, even The Pitt was running smoothly for me.

So... delete the game data, start up the game, load your last save, and then when it has loaded, press pause and STAY on the pause screen until the installing fully finishes (You won't hear the noise anymore). Game runs fine then

Hope this helps you good people over here also.

Cheers.

Oh, here is the post from Jmarz on the thread also, and his experiences:

"Add one to the list of guys that GLAMPIRE's method has completely saved his Fallout 3:GOTY experience!!

After desperately reading forum after forum for fixes to the chugging framerate and freezes/crashes, I finally decided to take one last shot and checkout trusty ol' Gamefaqs.

Bless you, GLAMPIRE, bless you!

I was playing through The Pitt, and couldn't even walk through The Mill with all the refining and machines and such, without the framerate slowing down so badly that it became unplayable. I battled my way to the point where I was on my way to meet Ashur (after winning the pit battles), and I had just gotten to the Abandoned Apartments with all the Trogs. I had stopped playing there for the weekend, and happened to read this post on Gamefaqs, and I figured I'd try it when I got back home to play the game.

Here's EXACTLY what I did:

1. Deleted both old "normal" Fallout 3 AND Fallout 3:GOTY Game Data from my PS3 (80Gig, "fat" one)

2. Deleted all but my most current save file (probably not necessary, but I did it just for the sake of "cleanliness) when reinstalling the game).

3. Started Fallout 3:GOTY, and went to "Load" instead of "Continue," and loaded my game up.

4. THE KEY STEP!! The second my game loaded and I had control of my character, I pressed NOTHING but the "Start" button, and then I let it sit for a full 45 minutes (just to be safe) on the pause screen (and no, NOT the Pip Boy!). I went and did some cleaning around my apartment and took a shower to kill time.

5. I then saved my game once the 45 minutes was up, and then turned off my PS3 because my girlfriend and I were going to my parents' house for dinner.

6. Later that night, back home, I turned on my PS3 with a sense of dread that it wouldn't work, but LO!! I beheld the sight of a smooth running and non-freezing Fallout 3:GOTY edition for the first time ever!!! I've played it for 3-4 hours since then, and haven't had ONE freeze during VATS, wandering around, or areas with tons of people/enemies/background animations. It slows down a little if there's tons of gunfire and such (like the last sequence of The Pitt Quest after turning the lights off), but nothing gamebreaking or even enough to make me "screw up."

I can't believe it's taken this long to figure out a "cure" for this, and I don't know if it will work for everyone, but it worked for me! And again, I'm very thankful to GLAMPIRE for stumbling upon this!

P.S. I bet this would continue to work if later starts freezing again. I would just repeat the steps above (might help to do it on a save in a "quiet" spot with no enemies or people around), and let the Game Data re-install without over-burdening it while it's installing with A.I. programs and enemies and such.

Thanks again! Try it, folks!!! THIS THREAD SHOULD BE STICKIED!!!"

Thanks man, now am not gona buy the none-GOTY, am gona buy the GOTY. ...Right now. (I am now going to Futur shop)

... I think am just gona wait to see a cheaper copy of the GOTY... At the Future Shop near me, the game was a freaking 65 can.$ !
That's the price of a to expensive new game! ... I think I will just have search more.

Sadly, my boyfriend tried all that, twice (doing it a third time now) to no avail. He's playing brotherhood right now, and it's freezing every few minutes. A few days ago, I had my first freeze ever playing ancorage. We never had these problems until we sold out normal copy to buy a GOTY, now I'm thinking we should have just bought the add-ons, because the only time we're having freezing problems is while playing one of the GOTY add-ons. Anyone else try something and have it work, because we're both getting very frustrated.

He followed those exact steps? Sorry to hear it didn't work out. I know it has been a positive experience for quite a few people that have tried this method.

I was able to do Anchorage, The Pitt as well as the main game flawlessly by doing what I did.

How big was your savegame file? I think once it's greater than 10mb or something like that, deleting the Game Data won't work anymore. For me, with a savegame file between 8-9mb, I'm still freezing even after deleting the Game Data.

This.

I've been experiencing slowdowns and crashes and everything else since my savegame file got to the 10 MB size threshold. Prior to that I had some slowdowns but nothing major. Now I'm playing through Point Lookout and I've had three major lockups since I got there, not to mention the slowdowns. My current savegame file is 12 MB.

Nice to know...it might make the game smoother till the 10 MB threshold of DOOM is reached..then there is no salvation

I will definitely try it the nest time I install the game.

Thanks for the info.

I'll try this and let you know.
Just to make things clear "I just delete the game and wait for it to re-install in the pause menu for 40 minutes?"

Im trying it also im halfway the procces and i think this may actually work.

I dont understand why we normal people must seek for such a complicated solution just too play this game in a what normal way ,

I have a huge issue in the addons. I assume its because when you have the GOTY version, the addons are on the disc and are not able to install. It might be best to follow the step by pausing the game when first entering the addon locations for a half hour to 45 minutes and see what happens. I am having this problem in Point Lookout right now. I make it as far as the merchant and if I go any further I freeze every time. I will eventually freeze in the merchant area as well. I had to shut down the PS3 manually (the wrong way) at least 20 times yesterday and today so I gave up and loaded the game I saved before going to lookout and im returning my game for a new one at Game Stop, I went today but they had none in so I have to wait. Im going to try and delete the game DATA tonight and delete all the save games I no longer need, then from there im going to let the game sit in pause for an hour when I first load it and see what happens, if this doesnt work and I freeze i'll definatly return it for a new one and hopes that its a disc error. I'll keep yas up to date

Thought I would add this as it seems to have been forgotten, I know of someone who posted a button combo you press at the main screen which deletes the cache on the GOTY edition. The post seems to have fell into deletion can anyone remeber it? I do remember lots of people saying it worked, it would go very well with this method.

The L2+R2+Square button combo?

http://www.gamesas.com/?showtopic=1054381&hl=clear+cache

You can try it. It didn't work for me.

Here are a couple of threads that are an interesting read. Each person is trying to get as much as possible out of the game.

Lee_Roy's Test:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1057106-bug-free-test/

Soulwatcher's Test:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1078631-my-theroy-why-some-people-experience-problems-and-others-do-not/

Hope those threads help.

Aha yes, alefin in the first link seems to have the right method.

This worked for me. My save file is 16MB with 140 hours on it. I played the other day for at least 4 hours without clearing the cache or deleting the saved file in the data utility. I eventually had to quit due to severe frame-rate loss.But before I could hardly even play 5 minutes without it freezing. Oh and I have a ps3 fat CECHK 80 gig model. And another thing i started a new game and I'm going through the pit right now and i haven't had a freeze yet... it got a little choppy when Ashur gave his speech but that's about it. If your having problems try this!!!! Good luck

Either way, I'm still disappointed that Bethesda is failing to even help its gamers in the slightest way... :\

When you're talking about deleting the "game data", do you mean uninstalling (and reinstalling) the game? Or what does it mean?

It means the game data file or files in the 'game data' utility section in your PS3s XMB menu. When you delete it, loading the game again will re-install this data.

We shouldn't have to uninstall and reinstall a game so we can play it, it should play on the first install and if it doesn't, then they should make a patch for it. A patch is what's going to make all this freezing go away. Bethesda has alot of info on the freezing, i'm doing my part by listing whats happening when it crashes on my thread so they can get more info and they could even google it, glitches and other crashes are noted on other sites. They could make a patch I think with that they have and now they just need to do it.

Yeah it's beyond me why they don't really care about this game...surely it wouldn't take that long to patch this game. It must be becouse somehow they believe that it is not their responsibility since the game for PS3 has not been ported by them, as far as I know, and the show stoppers are mainly present in the PS3 version.

It's also quite sad that the video games industry reached this all time low level of quality...it's not only Bethesda...the games that come out in a disgusting state are more and more, now a finished game is basically the exception.

Hate to say this but the serious issues with Fallout 3 can not be fixed a patch, its to do with the development of the game itself which makes it run so bad. Patches are good for fixing scripting errors etc. I also believe Hungry Donner said Fallout 3 was actually developed in house for the PS3 and was not ported by a 3rd party (unlike Oblivion which might I add runs much better than Fallout 3)


Yea I agree, I mostly blame this on the boom of gaming interest meaning developers have much less time to work on games, and the patching features added by online consoles as standard. They very much abuse this as they know its not a massive issue if the game is not 100% when it hits the shelfs as it can be patched.

Yep, Bethesda did the PS3 release themselves while Oblivion was ported to the PS3 by 4J Studios. As for a patch, I think you're right that at this point there's no much they can do. They spent a considerable amount of time working on the DLC before release and I imagine they're beyond the point of diminishing returns now.

This is exactly what I don't get...we are not talking about an abadonware here like "Monkey Island" or any other game developed by a team of developers that does not even exist anymore, like the games developed by Cinemaware for example.

We are talking about a game that is still available for purchase everywhere at no less that 20 euros if you are lucky and know where to buy...some shops still sell the GOTY edition at over 50 euros. So a nonthewiser who just bought a PS3 and like these sort of games would easily find Fallout 3 GOTY from any decent shop out there....and get screwed.

So...I am sorry to say but diminishing returns or not it is not acceptable that they do not fix the PS3 version...anyway...these words are gonna disappear like a fart in the Sahara so no point really.

Funny because Fallout 3 and Oblivion, all considered, are still the two best games I've ever played...funnily enough.

I am very much looking forward to New Vegas BUT since I am going to buy it for PS3 I am definitely going to wait till the community gives us TWO thumbs up...and I wonder how many collectors editions they are not going to sell because of this...well...their loss really.

Thanks Glampire it works like a charm. I reloaded the game and loaded a save file 16mb and I haven't had a glitch (level 30) with the Pitt or Mother Ship Zeta. My only issue was occasional frame rate slowdowns.