How hard is it to get Fallout 3 to work?

[CrazyCrab]

Hello everyone,
having played New Vegas I have to admit that I absolutely love the setting and without a doubt if I ever had to choose one that would be my favorite. Ive been lurking on Steam forums for a while looking at the community hub, wondering how easy it is to get Fallout 3 to work on a modern pc and I have to admit that Im confused. Some people say its working well, others say that after days theyre still stuck.
So, fellow escapists, did you manage to run it on your pc? How hard was it? Im just scared of wasting 20 euros, thats all.

My pc:
Windows 7 Home Premium; 64-bit;
8 GB RAM;
Intel Core i7;
Nvidia Geforce 610M 2GB;

Thanks in advance.

 

[teqrevisited]

For me it was as simple as changing the config line bUseThreadedAI=0 value to =1. Without that fix it crashed a couple of seconds into the intro video. I'm using Win 7 64 pro for reference.

 

[Muspelheim]

It behaved itself rather nicely. I remember that there was one dodgy patch that smelled of Microshite that made it very unstable with mods in the picture, but I think the latest patch is all in working order. Beyond that, it's been alright.

It is a large game with many moving parts of different quality, though. If you are afraid of crashes, hard save from the menu often, just in case.


It should work fine when patched and ready. It's only been about five years, ought to work fine still.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I'm running Windows 7 and I never had any issues with Fallout 3. I found it to be quite stable compared to most games.

 

[CrazyCrab]

Good to hear.
I guess I`ll end up buying it then.
Thanks.

 

[loc978]

Not sure if they still sell the thing unpatched the way it was on release... but I had it on launch day under Windows XP and it crashed every 10 minutes or so. They fixed that incrementally over the course of the next year or so, and the end result is about the same as New Vegas' end result.

Now it runs stable(-ish) under XP, 7-32, 7-64 or Linux (x64, kernel 3.11.0-13, KDE 4.11.2, Wine 1.4.1) with... around 40 mods. 3 of which are major overhauls.

Just make sure it's patched, is all I'm saying.

**edit**
systems used:
-AMD Athlon X2 6000+ (3.11ghz x2), GeForce 7950GTX, 3.5GB(of 4... 32bit OS) 800mhz RAM, maxed settings, 60fps stable under XP SP2

-Intel Core 2 quad (Yorkfield, 2.33ghz x4), Geforce GT240, 4GB 1333mhz RAM, maxed, 60fps stable-ish (periodic microstutters), win7-64

-AMD A4 Richland APU (3.2ghz x2, GPU equivalent to ~Radeon HD6400), 3.5GB(of 4) 1866mhz RAM, maxed, 60fps stable, win 7-32

-AMD Phenom II X4 (3.4 ghz x4), GeForce 9800GTX, 8GB 1600mhz RAM, maxed, 40-60fps (no microstutters, at least), emulated under Linux

...pretty sure it just doesn't mesh well with WoW64 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW64], since it runs generally smoother through an emulation layer for 32-bit windows under 64-bit linux than it does under 64-bit windows 7... unless that core2 quad is a lot slower than the benchmarks would suggest.

 

[Olas]

It worked fine for me on my dinky little i3 64 bit Windows 7 computer. I was able to install tons of mods too without many issues.

 

[OneCatch]

For me it was as simple as changing the config line bUseThreadedAI=0 value to =1. Without that fix it crashed a couple of seconds into the intro video. I'm using Win 7 64 pro for reference.

Running WinXP 32 on a quad core I had to do this as well, plus another change [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1328904.html].
On my Win 7 64 quad core it's never had a problem though, and I've also modded the hell out of it without problems, so I think it's reasonably stable now.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Well, that really depends on if you want to play it properly or not.

If not, plug and play. You shouldn't have any major issues.

If you DO want to, start looking at tutorials for modding, drop all other games and dedicate the rest of the year to making it one of the greatest games ever.

 

[Liv's Runaway Snail]

I remember having a lot of problems with it. I think I did nearly everything to make it work, to a point that it would only crash every 4 hours or so but then when that happened it wouldn't show how many hours (Steam) I had spent playing it.

Hopefully everything works out well for you though.

 

[not_you]

when that happened it wouldn't show how many hours (Steam) I had spent playing it.

I WISH my computer had that problem with some games....

Too many games with too many hours.... -.-

OT: I never had an issue with Fallout 3... Then again, I only played it on my laptop since my desktop didn't exist back then...

My laptop specs:

i7-720QM (1.6Ghz x4)
4Gb RAM 1333Mhz
AMD HD5730M

It played on max settings (Minus Anisotropic filtering) solidly with no crashes at all... And since your specs are (close to) head+shoulders better than mine, it shouldn't have a problem...

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Looking at your specs, you're going to have no problems running Fallout 3. It's still recent enough that you don't need to scale back to Windows XP or use a 32bit OS. Any problems you have at this point is just Fallout 3 being a buggy mess.

 

[Saregon]

I have the GotY edition on disc. Haven't played it for about.. wow, almost two years now. Anyway, my laptop ran it fine back then, except that it would crash at random, because it really didn't like running on a quad-core CPU. Was a fairly easy fix though, just need to change a single line in the .ini, and there are a bunch of guides on this on the Steam forums and such. After doing that I never had any trouble.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I used it completely stock. Apart from whatever patch may be part of the GotY edition, I didn't patch mine manually, so that may have been patched out.

 

[Vorlayn]

Runs without issues for me, win7 64-bit. I do have to say, the Bethesda vibe is strong with this one...so if you like New Vegas but not, say, Oblivion/Skyrim, give this one a miss and get Fallout 2 from GoG instead.

 

[munx13]

I have 64 bit Windows 7 and I never had any issues with fallout 3.

 

[IronMit]

I have an i3 laptop, 4gb ram, windows 7 home premuim 64, 5470 radeon graphics. And I got it to work in seconds;

Basically the first reply is correct, that's what I did. More detail here
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/20199-fallout-3-windows-7-w-quad-core.html


Then after you know you can start it - this guy on youtube does a step by step guide to Mod the game to optimise it a bit more;

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL77ECC4B6194E1685

His mods also shows how to improve graphics, lighting, text resolution etc etc to make it truly epic.

I have the GOTY windows live version though - I would watch his videos first as he may mention 'steam' specific stuff


The 'modern' aspect that is definitely a problem is for those who use intel graphics 3000/4000HD. Even though the latter is actually more powerful them my crappy dedicated GPU, fallout 3 probably won't run on the new integrated chips. You should be fine.

 

[CrazyCrab]

Downloading the GOTY edition right now
Anything I should know to not be horribly disappointed? I loved everything in new Vegas other than the annoying exploding collar part in a DLC (God how many new swearings I came up with) and the inventory.

Captcha: Kitten Mittens. Thats the most adorable thing I heard all day.

 

[Sectan]

I bought the GFWL version on disc...I installed it and played it. : /

If you're not sure about the purchase you could wait a few months (I never have the patience, especially with a fairly cheap game) for the steam sales to start.

 

[loc978]

Downloading the GOTY edition right now
Anything I should know to not be horribly disappointed? I loved everything in new Vegas other than the annoying exploding collar part in a DLC (God how many new swearings I came up with) and the inventory.

Captcha: Kitten Mittens. Thats the most adorable thing I heard all day.

Not sure how comfortable you are with .ini tweaks, mod managers and such, but... DarNified UI [http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1085562-wipzbeta-darnified-ui-f3/] helps a lot with inventory frustrations (in New Vegas, too! [http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1131897-wipzbeta-darnified-ui-nv/]).

Also, don't fire your .32 caliber ammo out of .32 pistols, it's a horrible waste. Save it until you've got a hunting rifle that's in decent shape (ammo types in F3 are considerably less varied and realistic than in NV... unless you get CALIBR [http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/965300-relz-community-ammunition-library-calibr/] and some weapon mods that utilize it).

 

[Roofstone]

I uh.. I just installed the game. And it worked.. I don't remember any bugs at all!

So, not very hard at all. ^^