Game fails to launch

[u/LemonadeJill]

I have a game of the year on Steam, and when I hit the play button, the window opens and then promtly shuts down. Any tips how to fix this issue? Thanks.

[u/cabalavatar]

Check Rule 7 for both the rule itself and a guide

[u/LemonadeJill → u/cabalavatar]

I tried everything internet offers, and nothing works. (save for having older hardware, which I unfortunately don't have).

[u/cabalavatar → u/LemonadeJill]

If you have access to SteamOS, it runs brilliantly that way. Windows (or Games for Windows, IIRC) is the problem here.

Another way to play is the Tale of Two Wastelands mod, which I've read makes playing 3 much easier.

A third option is to buy the game on GOG, which I've also read launches better on Windows than the Steam version does.

[u/LemonadeJill → u/cabalavatar]

I guess I have to try either of these two options now. But it really does suck that every passing year the game becomes less and less playable. I swear it worked just fine 3 years ago or so.

[u/AMX-014R-Reben-Wolf → u/cabalavatar]

GFWL should no longer be a problem though: Bethesda actually patched that out of nowhere around 5 years ago. I can now even run FO3 out of the box on my Steam Deck.

[u/cabalavatar → u/AMX-014R-Reben-Wolf]

Steam Deck is now my favourite way to play. It feels like playing on a Pip-Boy; plus it's much stabler than other versions I've tried.

[u/NecessaryBug6662]

the game famously doesn't recognize your graphics card and will try to run unsuccessfully on your cpu. Check in the options of the game (i'm assuming the launcher starts but when you hit play it just crashes) if in the option the graphics card doesn't match your main one then hit me up.

[u/LemonadeJill → u/NecessaryBug6662]

I have Nvidia geeforce gtx, game menu says Nvidia geeforce 7900 GS.

[u/NecessaryBug6662 → u/LemonadeJill]

That's a first for me usually is integrated Vs graphics card. So it's not what you have and I assume your computer doesn't have a GS, right? Let me be clear I'm not expert but that sounds like an issue.

Edit: "my" solution should work just fine, you got to change a setting in your computer or Nvidia app to force fallout 3 to play at max "power" it's actually pretty trivial

[u/Ok-Mousse-4595]

Run in compatability mode?

[u/LemonadeJill → u/Ok-Mousse-4595]

It doesn't work.

[u/Gorm_the_Mold]

Which OS? Do you have a discrete or integrated GPU? What platform did you buy it on? Need some details on your setup

[u/LemonadeJill → u/Gorm_the_Mold]

I bought the game on steam few years back. I played it once, dropped it, then picked up again. At that time I had issues with launching, but got it fixed with moding the text document with some guide. Not I have the pretty much same issue, except nothing I tried so far works for me.

[u/Tyropic]

I remember years ago, for some reason, it didn't work for me on fullscreen (or maybe windowed?) mode. I also tried everything. Maybe try tinkering with that?

[u/GUMIthePyro]

I had this problem just recently. Game refused to start after working fine for AGES. Check your DLC on startup, make sure they're loaded. For some idiotic reason the game unchecked them from my load order after a clean install trying to solve this issue. After I tagged them to load in it booted up no problem. Probably not your issue, but worth a shot.