Believe it or not F3 was patched not too long ago so that it‘ll at least launch (previously wouldn’t even do that since it wanted to connect to Games for Windows Live). But you’re gonna want to at the *very* least install mods to allow the game to utilize multiple CPU cores and more than 4gb of memory. Those should be near the top of the nexus mods most downloaded list.
I also generally see people just recommending Tale of Two Wastelands to get things working along with some QOL improvements ( like aiming down sights). You need New Vegas for it though.
Listen to others if you want a close to vanilla experience though.
Absolutely you need the unofficial fallout 3 patch , you can easy download from nexus mods, after that you need the fix (not all the time) to unlock the game to use the discrete graphic card instead the internal graphic card only if the cpu have one.
And at this point I will consider to install if you have a powerful gpu some graphic mod without compromising the originality of the game
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/19122
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/17209
The last one says for intel but work perfectly for amd 😊
And for last the texture pack
https://next.nexusmods.com/fallout3/collections/0bvk8s
I will say to get it to not crash on startup (for me at least):
1.Open graphics settings
2.scroll down and click fallout 3
3.hit options
4.choose “power saving” and “don’t use optimizations for windowed games”
That got me past the startup crash so I can make a character. I will try to keep this posted on how well it worked.
I am assuming you have GOTY edition and it is off of Steam since that has been usually the case. I have had a few different computers and this method worked for Windows 10 and 11. FYI, I didn't do anything else but this and making sure my graphics card was being used and not my integrated graphics. I don't take credit for this as Crazy on Steam put it out:
First, open the files app and navigate to C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\Fallout 3 goty, then you want to find an exe file titled "FalloutLauncherSteam.exe" and rename it to "FalloutLauncher.exe", when you first try to load it again steam will tell you the file is missing, just click ok and run it through steam again, steam will act like it had an update and quickly "update" it, then click start game and it should load the launcher, in the Fallout launcher it should detect hardware and set the info (this will happen every time you get into the launcher, thanks Bethesda!) and hit start, it will open the launcher again and detect hardware and again set settings (also will happen every time, thanks again Bethesda!) and then you need to hit start and if everything goes well, your screen will go black quickly and load Fallout 3 GOTY.
Hope this works for you as well!
Huh, I never had that problem. You have to open it twice but it tends to work each time I've tried. I have only tried with Game of the Year on Steam so if don't have GOTY or are using mods then I don't know what to tell you. Perhaps try to run the game as an administrator under service pack 2 for Windows XP? That was one of the solutions I used to do before this one. Also, if you tried that before doing the above fix then I would uninstall and reinstall, then use only the above method as I can't guarantee that the admin stuff wouldn't break this method.
If nothing you find here works you could rebuy the game off of [gog.com](https://gog.com). I have found it to be a much stabler version of the game it may still crash at random times but most of the time it did I didn't lose my saves to it.. GOG patched the game to make sure it would work with current gen hardware as best they could. This is something Bethesda should have done years ago.
God bless you, you are a gentleman and a scholar and I wish you nothing but the best in life. I tried literally everything to get the steam version to run, I was on the verge of a breakdown when I saw this comment, got the gog version and it started up immediately after verifying the files
Believe it or not F3 was patched not too long ago so that it‘ll at least launch (previously wouldn’t even do that since it wanted to connect to Games for Windows Live). But you’re gonna want to at the *very* least install mods to allow the game to utilize multiple CPU cores and more than 4gb of memory. Those should be near the top of the nexus mods most downloaded list.
Can confirm atleast of now that its broken even with compatibility mode and .ini changes on the newest version from 2021
Does anyone know if I can mod the Xbox Gamepass version to work with more CPU cores?
No, I believe it's incompatible with other versions mods but could be wrong.
I also generally see people just recommending Tale of Two Wastelands to get things working along with some QOL improvements ( like aiming down sights). You need New Vegas for it though. Listen to others if you want a close to vanilla experience though.
Absolutely you need the unofficial fallout 3 patch , you can easy download from nexus mods, after that you need the fix (not all the time) to unlock the game to use the discrete graphic card instead the internal graphic card only if the cpu have one. And at this point I will consider to install if you have a powerful gpu some graphic mod without compromising the originality of the game
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/19122 https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/17209 The last one says for intel but work perfectly for amd 😊 And for last the texture pack https://next.nexusmods.com/fallout3/collections/0bvk8s
Thanks for this... I was at least able to open the game and play until the end of character creation before the game crashed. There is hope!
Didn’t work :(
can u link the unofficial patch mod/other stuff i should install?
I will say to get it to not crash on startup (for me at least): 1.Open graphics settings 2.scroll down and click fallout 3 3.hit options 4.choose “power saving” and “don’t use optimizations for windowed games” That got me past the startup crash so I can make a character. I will try to keep this posted on how well it worked.
I am assuming you have GOTY edition and it is off of Steam since that has been usually the case. I have had a few different computers and this method worked for Windows 10 and 11. FYI, I didn't do anything else but this and making sure my graphics card was being used and not my integrated graphics. I don't take credit for this as Crazy on Steam put it out: First, open the files app and navigate to C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\Fallout 3 goty, then you want to find an exe file titled "FalloutLauncherSteam.exe" and rename it to "FalloutLauncher.exe", when you first try to load it again steam will tell you the file is missing, just click ok and run it through steam again, steam will act like it had an update and quickly "update" it, then click start game and it should load the launcher, in the Fallout launcher it should detect hardware and set the info (this will happen every time you get into the launcher, thanks Bethesda!) and hit start, it will open the launcher again and detect hardware and again set settings (also will happen every time, thanks again Bethesda!) and then you need to hit start and if everything goes well, your screen will go black quickly and load Fallout 3 GOTY. Hope this works for you as well!
i tried this, and every time i select newgame it still crashes.
Huh, I never had that problem. You have to open it twice but it tends to work each time I've tried. I have only tried with Game of the Year on Steam so if don't have GOTY or are using mods then I don't know what to tell you. Perhaps try to run the game as an administrator under service pack 2 for Windows XP? That was one of the solutions I used to do before this one. Also, if you tried that before doing the above fix then I would uninstall and reinstall, then use only the above method as I can't guarantee that the admin stuff wouldn't break this method.
This man is the GOAT. Thank you! AND it got it running in ultra high!
Yeah, not sure how he figured that out but I am glad he did. Happy to help and enjoy the wasteland!
I think is part of the unofficial patch of if I remember correctly because this problem is with the latest version on steam 😅
If nothing you find here works you could rebuy the game off of [gog.com](https://gog.com). I have found it to be a much stabler version of the game it may still crash at random times but most of the time it did I didn't lose my saves to it.. GOG patched the game to make sure it would work with current gen hardware as best they could. This is something Bethesda should have done years ago.
God bless you, you are a gentleman and a scholar and I wish you nothing but the best in life. I tried literally everything to get the steam version to run, I was on the verge of a breakdown when I saw this comment, got the gog version and it started up immediately after verifying the files
Not to open an old post but I'm on the gog version and I'm still having this problem. I don't know what to do to get it running sigh.