So I'm a total noob when it comes to the fallout series. I know right? I had a PS3 copy of FO3 for a while but I just couldn't get into it when it kept glitching at the G.O.A.T. exam. I Eventually tried again and figured out all this time I had been sitting in the wrong desk.

Anyway I got into it about a week ago and was having a lot of fun with it on the PS3 but I'm more of a PC player and so I downloaded it from Steam. Took some work to get it to launch on Windows 8 but from there it was pretty much smooth sailing aside from an occasional freeze while playing.

But on to the subject matter. I have played Skyrim extensively and like how it just never ends. So either I had a false perception of how I expected Fallout 3 to end but it wasn't what I thought. Unless I did something wrong anyway. I did the MQ in pieces along with any of the quests I happened to come across. I collected Nuka-Cola Quantum, rescued the Littletown kids and killed the slavers. I helped the slave movement and captured the Lincoln Memorial for them. Rescued the Bigtown folks from the super mutants. Came across Oasis, and of course the Wilderness Survival guide. Anyway I didn't seem to have any quests left and had stopped the MQ shortly after joining up with the Brotherhood of Steel. Since I had nothing else to do I continued the MQ.

And now I'm dead and the game is over? Is that how it was suppose to end? I was wearing a +40 radiation resistant suit, was packing the rad-X and maybe had a radiation lv of 50 out of 1000 when I activated the code on the Purifier. I should have lived.

I guess I was expecting to save the wastelands and continue my wanderings in the wasteland helping those in need.

I suppose there isn't a way to do that is there, other then sacrifice Sentinel Lyons to go into the chamber?

So for now I guess its time for a new character to explore the wastelands with since I maybe discovered 40 areas and 3 bobble heads.

I had also bought the GoTY edition on Steam and I don't recall doing any of the DLC. How does the DLC work?

Err... did you activate any of the DLC modules? Broken Steel should have kicked in.

Did you see a video after the Purifier of the nighstand pic back in the Vault with the nursery jingle playing? Non-vanilla races can interfere with that, especially if Broken Steel is involved.

The Broken Steel DLC allows you to survive Project Purity and continue playing past the ending. Otherwise, the radiation inside is just too much, and the game ends with your death/sacrifice.

What they said. The Fallout games traditionally aren't open-ended, so whatever you want to do, you should do it before finishing the main quest. Fallout 3 is the exception with its add-on Broken Steel.

As for the DLC, you should have picked up radio signals after loading the game. So I'm just going to repeat MadCat's question: are you sure the DLC are even active in your game?

well like I mentioned before, total noob to fallout.

Again, spoiled from Skyrim, the DLC auto activated the .esm

I checked from the launcher and NONE of them were checked lol. So I checked them, loaded my save from right before entering the chamber and I was alive and well "2 weeks" later.

Now I'm in some swamp lands that look like Louisiana lol

Heheh, have fun. Point Lookout was the hardest FO3 DLC for me.

Resident_Within: With you only discovering 40 locations, you have a lot of the Capital Wasteland still to explore! There are a lot of small areas that add to the atmosphere, yet aren't marked on the map when you find them, and there are also many, many more locations TO discover that show up on the map!. Lots of goodies still for you to find!

Also, when you have finished with this playthrough, you should check out the Mods that are available. Some add a lot to the game itself (DC Interiors, Street Lights, etc.), and some create new Quests (although they won't show up on the Quest menu on your Pip-Boy, they are still "quests") for you to explore and complete (such as A Note Easily Missed)!

At least it wasn't like the original Fallout! You had a set amount of time to find the Waterchip and bring it back to the Vault...if you didn't it was game over! Also, the game's internal clock would only go for so long before the game automatically ended. I'm not sure if the patch remedied this or not.

That sounds horrible to me. I have a feeling I'll never be playing the first two games.

Don't ignore Wasteland 2, though! It's a very similar playstyle and setting, that was the original inspration for the NCR Rangers, if I remember correctly.

Yes, I plan to buy that after I get Dragon Age: Inquisition. This is a great time for roleplaying games. Starting with Divinity: Original Sin last June and continuing on to whenever Pillars of Eternity comes out next year. Great stuff.

I'm trying to get the most out of Fallout 3, and New Vegas before November because once Inquisition is out, I'll be lost in that for months I fear.

I feel pretty foolish for not activating the DLC sooner lol. I will say I kinda sat there going "well that was fun but, now what? make another character to find all the stuff I missed?" heh good thing I checked around before I did so.

Pseron Wyrd: It's not as horrible as it sounds. You have a fair amount of time, particularly with the patch. And you're able to play for at least a couple of years (game time) before it will end, so once you place the Waterchip in the Vault, you have a lot of time to just explore. Plus, it's the very first Fallout! You would be doing yourself a disservice by not playing it.

with the issues I had getting Fallout 3 to work with windows 8 I can only imagine the fun it would be to get FO1 and 2 to work. heh

It's actually not that bad getting FO1 and FO2 to run under Win 8. Probably the biggest thing you'll have to do is patch the graphics to work properly on modern hardware, but the patches are easy to apply.

Back when you could get the games from GOG, they patched the graphics for you; all you had to do was install and play.

I like install and play. took me a bit like I said just to get fallout 3 working. but the effort was well worth it. Once I have all the DLC done and the wasteland secrets discovered then its off to New Vegas.

Again to show my noobness in FO 3. I just discovered how to read the damn compass which shows that little tiny triangle to indicate locations nearby that are discovered or undiscovered. And I just got the perk that shows all the area but you still have to discover them.

Sounds like even though you′re done with the MQ, your journey has just begun...

Steam does that now as well. I recently got an update for them, and I couldn't figure out what could possibly be updated on games that old. It turns out they included the Hi Res patches for all those games.

oh yeah. just one of the dlc and all the quests I could find on that island. blowing up the Chinese sub was pretty cool. I wasn't sure who to side with, the ghoul or the professor brain... but considering the tribal guys had fingers to collect on their bodies. and then my brain being hacked, I wasn't siding with the professor after that. So I shot out the brain tube thing. Was given a key to a vault but my computer hacking was high enough I got all the doors open. couldn't find what the fault key was for.

Also since I am on the righteous path, I took that book back to the capital wastelands and destroyed it. Now that was a creepy mission.

I am tired of the Enclave popping up everything I turn around so I'm going to help my fellow brethren of steel eliminate them next. hopefully that puts a stop to these guys getting heli dropped right in the middle of my gunfights with raiders.

Since this is spoilers, here's one. When you destroy random eyebots, an Enclave patrol will be brought in by Verti-bird. Just lay in wait a few minutes for the patrol to start, then take out the Verti-bird and then the patrol.

how do you take out the verti-bird? and do those verti-birds respawn? How many could those guys have in this post apocalyptic world? I've tried targeting them when I see them but VATS wouldn't target them. Do I just need big guns and manual targeting?

I never tried with VATS, I have always used manual targeting. You would use what would be appropriate for a target that size. Think gatling gun. It is more of a random thing that happens when the eyebot is destroyed. It doesn't happen with every eyebot.

In Broken Steel, there should be some heavy weapons lying around for taking them out. I remember that's where I got the Tesla Cannon.

I've had them land near me and drop off those large albino scorpion things. My best weapon on hand was a Plasma rifle and it did nothing against the craft. VATS didn't target it. I do have a fully repaired missile launcher I should bring with me and see if I can shoot them down with it. The Enclave does not show up when I take out those eyebots. Those eyebots play static since Rockwell is destroyed.

Oh, I'll have to keep an eye out for the Tesla cannon then. I find the best weapon against them is their own heh.