I can't start Fallout 3 - Game Of The Year Edition

[Omen UK]

I can't start Fallout 3 - Game Of The Year Edition, I re-downloaded it from Steam earlier and installe it and it works fine till I get to the main menu and click 'Play' then the menu screen disappears and that is it, nothing loads.

[GDHO]

Okay if you have Windows its the same problem as me. it just doesn't work on windows and any time you ask for help on the steam forums everyone gets angry at you for not knowing how to mod the game...so sorry if thats gonna be your experience

[chevydad61]

I have the same issue. I uninstalled it and re down loaded it and still nothing.

[Omen UK]

I know how to mod the game, but Nexus is telling me it can't find the .ini file and I need to start the game but then I can't start the game as it needs the mod, lol, pretty much screwed.

[D00hickey]

I'm sorry I can't give you exact info but I had the same problem long ago on GFWL. I recall needing to run in compatibility mode for windows XP, and I also needed to change something in the ini file so it could play on a quad core.

If all of you have quad cores or more that is probably the problem. Google Fallout 3 quad core.

It is also very possible this has been patched long ago and I'm talking out of my ass. All I can see is stick with it to get it working, it's my all time favorite game.

[MeDaDaddy]

read the sticky?

[Omen UK]

Just checking New Vegas make sure that works, paranoid that it won't hahaha

Will have a look not sure think my pc may be quad, sent a tweet to Bethesda see if they have any idea going to do the same with Obsidian.

[OsamaBinJizzin]

I just had the same problem, just had to manually install GFWL. Look for the GFWlive folder within the main Fallout 3 folder and run the installer

[CaptainRedBeard]

Are you clicking [Play] on the launcher screen, then nothing happens? I had this same problem. Browse to the \Documents\My Games\Fallout3 directory, and look for a FALLOUT.ini file. If your problem is anything like mine it won't be present. This is how I fixed it:

Manually create "FALLOUT.ini"
Browse to \SteamApps\common\Fallout 3 goty
Open Fallout_default.ini
Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C to copy all of the contents
Go back to the SteamApps folder and open the FALLOUT.ini file you created
Ctrl+V to paste the contents of Fallout_default.ini file into the FALLOUT.ini file
Launch Fallout 3, and click [Play]

[Sammie]

Originally posted by omenuk:

I know how to mod the game, but Nexus is telling me it can't find the .ini file and I need to start the game but then I can't start the game as it needs the mod, lol, pretty much screwed.

Uninstall all mods. Reinstall the game. Then start up the game. When the game crashes, it should have at least generated a ini file. Install the mod, then start the game.

[Mr.Domino]

Im having the same problem. Pressing play just causes the launcher to shut down without any message or error report. I tried the XP compatibility fix but no joy.

[The_Q]

lol no windows 7 ........... i cried a lil

[Omen UK]

Originally posted by Siekobilly:

Are you clicking [Play] on the launcher screen, then nothing happens? I had this same problem. Browse to the \Documents\My Games\Fallout3 directory, and look for a FALLOUT.ini file. If your problem is anything like mine it won't be present. This is how I fixed it:

Manually create "FALLOUT.ini"
Browse to \SteamApps\common\Fallout 3 goty
Open Fallout_default.ini
Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C to copy all of the contents
Go back to the SteamApps folder and open the FALLOUT.ini file you created
Ctrl+V to paste the contents of Fallout_default.ini file into the FALLOUT.ini file
Launch Fallout 3, and click [Play]

This worked but... when I alt+tab to get back to Chrome I got a Fallout3 has stopped working message. I know there is another fix editing the .ini file and adding two (possobly 3) lines in, off hand I cant remember the exact text but maybe that is the next step I need to take.

Thank you to everyone that has replied to try helping out.

[CaptainRedBeard]

Originally posted by omenuk:

This worked but... when I alt+tab to get back to Chrome I got a Fallout3 has stopped working message. I know there is another fix editing the .ini file and adding two (possobly 3) lines in, off hand I cant remember the exact text but maybe that is the next step I need to take.

Thank you to everyone that has replied to try helping out.

What to add is in the sticky post.
Change bUseThreadedAI=0 to bUseThreadedAI=1
Add iNumHWThreads=2 directly under that line

[SilentPrism]

Tried creating the Fallout.ini manually,
tried the quad-core fix,
tried manually navigating to the GFWLive folder and installing that stuff,
tried using Compatability Mode with Fallout3Launcher.exe... no joy but at least I got an error that it couldn't find xlive.dll.

Game still won't launch.

[SilentPrism]

Originally posted by booker1:

Tried creating the Fallout.ini manually,
tried the quad-core fix,
tried manually navigating to the GFWLive folder and installing that stuff,
tried using Compatability Mode with Fallout3Launcher.exe... no joy but at least I got an error that it couldn't find xlive.dll.

Game still won't launch.

Woops... here's the one step I missed: update XLive.

The link's in this thread near the top: http://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/discussions/0/828937546147175081/

Worked like a charm!