Hello and thanks for reading. I am here because quite frankly I am at a loss.

I purchased fallout 3 game of the year edition last week (for PC, "games for windows LIVE") and I installed it according to what the user manual said to. I installed the first CD and was not prompted for a CD key or to insert second CD. I inserted second CD manually and installed the 5 DLCs (I think)

So I figured the game would be fine at this point and I can just play the game normally through and have access to the DLCs. Today I finished the campaign and killed myself to save the purifier. I did not get an option to "keep playing" and I never once had access to any of the 5 DLCs. Not to mention when I want to play the game, I have to manually open "my computer" and select the CD and start auto run -> play. The game never even installed a shortcut for me.



Any and all help greatly appreciate it. I'm a long time fan of the franchize and played fallout 1 & 2 for ages. I also played fallout 3 and have a copy of that, but when GOTY went on sale I picked it up for the 5 DLCs








Also, my computer isn't anything special. It is windows 7 operating system mid-end gaming rig from dell.

Yes it did, just not on your desktop. Go to Start and rummage through your Program Files. Eventually you'll find the shortcut in there. Just copy/paste it to your desktop once you do. As for your DLC problems, maybe you should try downloading the newer Live utility found at Microsoft. I couldn't play the GOTY edition until I had done that.

Thank you for the prompt response.

I have gone through my entire start - program files twice over now and I cannot find a single item let alone shortcut relating to fallout. I checked each specific folder and their subfolders one by one and I cannot find anything.

I was going to uninstall then reinstall the game after this post if I cannot get any help. I just wanted to see if anyone had some solutions for me before I resorted to that.



Also, their is a LIVE link on the main menu. I have never clicked on that so I'm assuming that's what you are referring to?

Are the .esms for the DLC checked in the Data Files section of the game launcher?

yessir

everything is checked.



I finally located the fallout 3 directory. It was never in my program files and it never put any shortcuts anywhere. It is deep within my C drive in a X86 folder...

I would have formatted already, but I can't even find my save files. I really don't want to lose my progress because I just completed the game. I just want to keep playing and move forward to the DLCs but I don't know how. I don't even know how to keep playing past completion of the single player. 90% of my map is still unexplored.

Hmmm, strange. Dunno what to do, besides a complete reinstall. If you are planning on reinstalling, backup your saves, and delete both the My Games\Fallout3 folder and the install directory.

Also, the save files should be in your Documents\My Games\Fallout3\Saves folder.

Thank you very much for helping me find my saves. I have now backed those up.

I will do a complete reinstall like you said shortly.



In the meanwhile, maybe you can help me with live. While waiting on a response to this thread, I went to gamesforwindows.com/live and signed up for an account. Do I need to have live to take advantage of fallout 3 GOTY? What does playing on live do in comparison to playing single player?

Also, is their a way to keep playing the game after the purifier is destroyed? At what point do you stop and just enjoy the game?

Then create your own, it's not hard to do. Go to the folder where you installed the game, right click on the Fallout Launcher and select Create Shortcut. That's covered in Computer Basics 101 BTW.



No, go the the Microsoft web site and do a search for Live. Download the updated package you find there.

Here, you'll find the download in the Contents menu on the right hand side:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/en-US/Support/Pages/default.aspx

No, you don't need it to play the game. On the PC side, all it did was provide a way to download the DLCs, like an online store. Since you already have them, Live becomes totally redundant. I'm not sure what role it plays with the console versions, probably the same thing.



If your Broken Steel is functioning then yes. Not if it isn't working though.



As soon as I boot it up hopefully.

I also have the GOTY edition, and the game never gave me a shortcut either. I had to create one manually (it is not hard, just find your FalloutLauncher.exe file, right click on it, then in the menu that pops up select Send To -> Desktop create shortcut.)

You do not need a games for windows account to play FO3, as it is a single player game. In fact, I used a http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1086 to get rid of games for windows live entirely. You probably cannot find your dlc files, as GFWL hides them from you.

I suggest that when you reinstall the game, do not let it install to the default program files folder. Instead install it somewhere else on your drive. In fact, never install anything to Program Files. The reason is Microsoft thinks that humans are not smart enough to touch anything installed there, and so windows secretly creates a Virtual Store. When you try to change something, it puts the files you edited in the store, not in Program Files (which is the one windows really uses).

Once you do get the game installed, when you start the launcher, click on the Data Files link rather than play, and make sure that the dlcs are each selected. If you have Broken Steel turned on you will not die at the end of the Main Quest. Instead you wake up two weeks later in the Citadel hospital. Also keep in mind that you do not have to do the main quest at all. You can completely ignore it and just walk the earth like Kwai Chang Cain instead.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

And to the guy lecturing me about computer basics 101. I attempted to create a shortcut about 30 seconds after I realized the game didn't. The shortcut on my desktop does not launch the game because it prompts for a missing DLL. I have to put the shortcut back into the installed folder to get it to work, so I might as well use the launcher it came with.



I installed live and tried to load my saves again. Lost all of my progress and if I want to experience the DLCs I have to start all over again because I have no access to the DLCs on previous campain because I never put in my CD key (it never prompted me too)

After doing a search on google, I found out I'm not the only one who had to restart the entire single player just to experience the DLCs. Apparently their are many people with the same issues as I'm having.




Once again, thanks everyone for taking the time to respond to this thread.

That would seem to indicate that there's a problem with your install then. There's no reason why a shortcut you create doesn't work.