Sorry if this is already posted somewhere but, a few weeks ago i bought fallout 3 from steam to play through again ( my first time was on PS3) and after getting the game, to my horror, i couldn't play it. from reading and trying various things off google i can now get as far as the first screen , but once i hit new game i get a windows message that fallout ha stopped working. I have a windows 8 64 bit desktop, ive heard that there's a lot of problems with running fallout 3 on windows 8, any one hear have any fixes i could try?

The problem is not with Windows 8 but rather with Games for Windows Live. It doesn't seem to cooperate with Windows 8 which causes a number of issues with games that use it.

Go to Fallout 3 Nexus and download the Games for Windows Live disabler. Should fix the issue.

I don't have any problems running all Bethesda games on Win8, from the various TES to FO3 and FNV. Even the old FO1, FO2 and FO:Tactics bought for free from gog.com works like a charm.

I'm not using Steam as I don't like it, but I've read of a lot of people using it without problems..

Same. I don't have any issues with all the Fallout games and Elder Scrolls games on my Win8.1 machine. Also, whenever I install my Fallout 3 (retail copy), I never have any issues with Windows Live. Does the retail version not bother with Live? As far as I know Live is only necessary for the achievements, isn't it? Also, I recommend not installing your Steam games in Program Files (x86) or any other Program Files folder. It may cause serious problems down the road; especially if you decide to start using mods. I can't post links, but maybe someone else might be kind enough to post a link to the tutorial on how to move your Steam directory out of Program Files. You could also use FOSE and 4GB Fallout. As far as I know, FOSE also bypasses the silliness that is GFWL. I may be wrong though. Let us know if any of this stuff works, so if someone else visits the thread they have an idea of what they should try.

so far no dice, as soon as i hit new game i crash, i also tried to run it in compatibility mode with windows xp and nothing with that either, ill keep this thread updated with what i try, i might just play though new Vegas, it loads fine, as does every elder scrolls game.

Have you enabled ThreadedAI? Fallout 3 has issues with multi-core systems. If you haven't, here is what you do:

1.) Open up you fallout.ini (Usually located in Documents\My Games\Fallout3)

2.) Find this line - bUseThreadedAI=0

3.) Change the 0 to 1

4.) Directly underneath that line you'll need another line which is - iNumHWThreads=2

5.) Save and close.

So it should look like this when you're done tweaking:
bUseThreadedAI=1
iNumHWThreads=2

Renmus__ wrote:

so far no dice, as soon as i hit new game i crash, i also tried to run it in compatibility mode with windows xp and nothing with that either, ill keep this thread updated with what i try, i might just play though new Vegas, it loads fine, as does every elder scrolls game.  

Did you try the app to Disable G4WL that I mentioned?

Ah. Well if you have New Vegas you could try using Tale of Two Wastelands. That should let you play Fallout, thought it will be rebalanced to work with New Vegas. You could use it as a last resort if nothing else works.

Also just to be sure, you are running a clean install of Fallout 3, right? No mods or other stuff installed?

Another thing, when looking up your problem there are two suggested solutions: change your .ini like P7 suggested, and the other is to download a .dll. I would be cautious of the latter. Downloading .dlls can be dangerous. Hope you get this sorted out soon. I
, pretty sure the core fix will end your problems though.

Tesvixen wrote:

Renmus__ wrote:

so far no dice, as soon as i hit new game i crash, i also tried to run it in compatibility mode with windows xp and nothing with that either, ill keep this thread updated with what i try, i might just play though new Vegas, it loads fine, as does every elder scrolls game.  

Did you try the app to Disable G4WL that I mentioned?

Yeah man this is what I used and it works perfect.

P7 wrote:

Have you enabled ThreadedAI? Fallout 3 has issues with multi-core systems.

I had this issue too back in the day.

Also, does running in compability mode not work?
Because I've got W7 so I don't have issues with that.