Hey, I just recently bought Fallout 3 GOTY from Steam and I can't get past the menu. I've seen a bunch of different troubleshooting guides but I can't use any of them because the game files aren't on my PC. I have to play through Steam so I was wondering if anyone could give me a hand and help me fix it. I have an AlienWare running 64x Windows 7 Ultimate.

First off , if the game files arent on your computer , then your right , you wont be able to play it.
But double check ... if you installed steam to their default location. Then Fallout 3 will be located here.

C:\Program files (x86)\Steam\Steam apps\ fallout 3 .... verify you have a fallout 3 folder around 6 gigs ...

If so come on back and post a dxdiag of your system hardware , so we can give more specific advice on fixes.

You do this by bringing up your command prompt ... Start/All programs/Assecories/command prompt .... works

Then type "dxdiag" wait a sec ... then youll see a window with button that says "Save all Information" click that and select the destination to save (Desk top is easy) Open that file up and copy paste in these forums.

The files are most likely all there, you just dont know where they are, as mktavish said there in the steam common folder.

If you have a multi core pc you may need to apply this fix:

Go into your fallout 3 ini in your my games folder and change the below lines:

Change the line:

bUseThreadedAI=0
to:
bUseThreadedAI=1

Add this line after it:

iNumHWThreads=2