I just bought for $19.99, downloaded and installed Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition on Steam for my Windows 7 PC. Seems to install fine, splash screen shows up, I click Play, Bethesda software copyright screens scroll through like normal, you click on "New" then "Start New Game," the game crashes and you get a window that says Fallout 3 Has Stopped Working with a Cancel button that you can hit to close out the Window and return to your desktop. This game hasn't worked for me yet.

I bought, downloaded and installed Fallout New Vegas on Steam almost a year ago and since then have downloaded and installed and played all of the DLCs that have come out for New Vegas and it's worked fine without a single issue, but Fallout 3 doesn't want to work. What's the deal? I really want to get theis fixed or get my $19.99 back.

Thanks,
Jason

We would like a little more information so that we can give you an intelligent answer. What kind of equipment are you using? And get your $19.99 back from Steam and go to Walmart and buy the GOTY on DVDs for the same price.

i recently did the samething as the other guy did. Except when it told me that the game stopped working that there was a solution. the solution was to go to the fallout 3 website and download and install the latest upgrade and that it should fix any problems that i was having. So I went to the website downloaded the patch (twice now) and installed it (several times thinking that somehow it didn't install right the first couple of times) I'm still having the same problem as before any advice or fixes would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I have verfied that I meet all mininum requirements for running the game and exceed most of the requirements.

If you have loaded the game into the program files on your hard disc, it will be under the control of the Windows User Account Control. You need to uninstall the game and reinstall in a location other than Program Files.
Some people install the game in the Games Directory. I have my game installed directly onto the hard drive at the location C:\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3. This was done during install where the page opens and asks if you want a default or custom install. Choose custom install and than type in the location to install the game.

Try to run the game in XP compatiblity mode, i encounterd same error on Skyrim and now Fallout 3 wich i bought yesterday. For some reason none of they're games runs well on 64 bits Vista/7 computers. Anyways, i run Fallout on my Vista Computer as my Windows 7 computer is a laptop. The compatiblity mode fixed both games and on both computers for me.

Edit: Both of my games are bought through steam tho.
Edit: When i come to think of it, even Oblivion i used to have the same problem when i bought it from Steam. Diffrence is that the DVD Retail version didnt have this problem.

Are you sure you don't think that you have a console version? Your question is posed as if every single game platform is exactly alike, which would be true for a console only. There never are any two PCs exactly alike, not even while still in the store. No one has anywhere to start from if you are serious about getting an answer.

If you do not want an answer, don't give anyone any useful information.

I don't know what more I can add that I haven't said already. I was browsing the Steam Store, bought and downloaded Fallout 4 GOTY Edition and when you hit new game, it crashes. Now, I went to Gamestop, bought Fallout New Vegas, installed it on Steam and it plays fine on the same exact laptop. I have uninstalled Fallout 3 twice now and nothing.

Of course it's not a console version. I said I bought and downloaded it from STEAM. And I am a an IT tech and computer programmer. I do have some common sense.

What are your system specs?

I tried this method but i do not know how to change the compatability, i found a guide online, but when i go to the properties for my game, there is no compatability tab.

@mcase19:
What are you system specifications? What is the path to your game?

my system specs are as follows: (bear in mind, i am pretty much completely computer illiterate)

• processor: Intel Core i5-2430m (2.4 GHz)
  
• memory: 6144MB RAM
  
• DirectX 11
  
• video card: Intel HD graphics family
  
• Windows 7

again, i am computer illiterate so the video card may be innacurate. these are, as far as i know, all of the relevant specifications

I am not entirely sure what you mean by the path to my game, but i bought it over steam and i guess it accesses it through the internet and is not in fact downloaded onto my computer.

Sorry, but if you do not have a real video card from a real 3D graphics company, you are out of luck. Intel has never produced game-capable video. If that is a normal desktop, you need a Mainline Geforce or Radeon graphics card for it.

ok, but that does not seem to be the issue with my game at the moment. the game crashes as soon as i try to start a new game. i get a loading screen for 3-10 seconds and then it crashes, plus, many other people seem to be having the same issues as i am having, so once this problem is solved, then i will move on to the graphics card one.

It is very doubtful you will ever get anywhere at all without the correct graphics.

as i said, i will burn that bridge when i get to it. i am looking into a better graphics card but right now i want to fix the crashing problem because i am fairly sure that problem is not rooted in the lack of a decent graphics card.

There is nothing wrong with your CPU. If you did the .ini tweak and have the game installed properly, the only thing keeping you from running the game is your Graphics Processor. If your GPU is not up to running the game, the game will crash to keep your GPU from overheating and burning up. You need to have the proper equipment before you can do any trouble shooting on any other problem.

I'm having the same problem, I'm running a boot camped macbook pro with a intel HD 3000 graphics chip
you say that the graphics card can't run the game, but yet my laptop can run skyrim just fine, maybe it's an engine problem?

"Just fine" is a massive exaggeration, but Skyrim was dumbed way down in graphics quality, which allows crap such as what you have to pretend to work (until the strain kills it).

yeah, I know intel graphics "cards" svck, try telling my parents that...
believe me, I would build myself a kick ass gaming rig if I had the money and if my parents would let me

Anyone who has fallen for Intel's brainwashing should wake up to smell the coffee. AMD puts better onboard graphics into inexpensive systems than Intel and always has done so, at a better price.

yeah too bad apple's in bed with intel, and so are most other manufactures, so for now we just have to build our own

Think you could help me out? Same issue as the original poster here except my game freezes in game after a few seconds and i have to ctrl-alt-delete and end program i am using an alienware m15x i-3 8gb memory and the nvidia GeForce GTX 260M. Have never had any problems with fallout NV on the computer and i understand fallout 3 wasnt meant for windows i have tried the disable windows 7 themes and compatability fixes and running as an administrator just want to see if you guys have a fix i havent tried. anything new would help.

If you havent tried installing outside of program files and or (X86) programfiles (if you have win7 64 bit) , do that.
You select custom instead of default at the installer.
Unless you have a steam install , then youll want to move your steam app outside of its default location. Here's a link on how to do that. https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

The next thing youll want to try after this install is to limit your CPU to 1-4 cores , this is done by editing the ini file found with your saves.
This is the location>>> Mydocuments\Mygames\Fallout 3\Fallout.ini

Open this document up and find the line that says "bUseThreadedAI=0" and change it to "bUseThreadedAI=1"

Hit enter, and under it add this line "iNumHWThreads=2" Close and Save the document. You can select 1-4 ... 2 is just the most common.

If you get no love from those 2 fixes , come on back and post a dxdiag. Incase you dont know how , at your command prompt type "dxdiag" Youll then see an option to export the text document to a save location you pick. Open that file up and copy paste it here.

Good luck

Ok so im trying to complete all this but its giving me an error when i try to move steam apps by saying its open or in use in another location
i have closed out everything and have not been able to move it
also looked for the bUseThreadedAl=0 in fallout 3 and there is no file named Fallout.ini in that folder i searched it and got files named FALLOUT and FalloutPrefs inside those files the closest name is bUseThreadedblood and gore im not that computer savy one would say but i know how to navigate through files just not having any luck at all

nvm found the bUseThreadedAl gonna try that now