Please ensure that you have a CLEAN version of Fallout 3 installed onto your steam library!

Launch Fallout 3.



Once launched, this window will pop up on your screen. I recommend looking at your game's settings in the 'Options' menu if you want to change anything.

It will look a little something like this. Remember, your settings will be different from mine! Click 'OK' once satisfied.



If you have bought the Game of the Year Edition, listen up!

In order to enable your DLC you must click 'Data Files' and check each un-checked box. This is also the place where any mods will be.



Click 'OK' and continue to 'Play'



Oh no! This error message should pop-up. The "xlive.dll" it's talking about means that you need GFW (Games for Windows Live) installed. You can install it here[community.pcgamingwiki.com]

Compatibility
Now for the hard part. Here's what you're going to need to do:

• Type into your search bar on the bottom left of your screen 'File Explorer'
  
• Locate 'OS C:'
  
• Click into the file 'Program Files (x86)'
  
• Navigate 'Steam'
  
• Scroll down to 'steamapps'
  
• Go into 'common'
  
• Scroll until you find 'Fallout 3 goty'
  
• Now right click Fallout3.exe (one with the vault-boy) and click 'Properties'
  
• Click the 'Compatibility' tab and check the 'Run this program as an administrator' box.
  
• Select 'Apply'

Now, from here, you're also going to check the drop down box and troubleshoot with different Windows versions.
Note: For best results, it is recommended to choose Windows XP Service Pack 3!



Launch the game once again. If you managed to make it past the title screen and on the main menu, that's the progress we're headed for. But! We're not just done yet!



Exit the game.

Time for the more difficult, but necessary part. There's a lot here, so buckle up!
Note: Do NOT access C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 3 goty for anything listed below! It will not work!

**TIP!**
If you mess something up in the .ini file, you may delete it and upon launching the game, it will re-create a default for you.

This is the part where we're going to head to the directory of C:\Users\"Your User Account"\Documents\My Games\Fallout3 or you can just access it from 'Quick Access' if enabled.

From there, double-click 'FALLOUT.ini' and a notepad will appear on your screen.
Within 'FALLOUT.ini':

• Hold down CTRL+F; a box should open up; type "bUseThreadedAI" with no quotations. It's also recommend to check 'Wrap Around' (so you don't need to switch between up and down).
  
• Click 'Find Next'
  
• You should see blue highlighted text. Change the line bUseThreadedAI=0 to bUseThreadedAI=1.
  
• Underneath that line, add "iNumHWThreads=2" with no quotations.
  [Side note: these lines help reduce crashes]

*KEEP THIS OPEN!*



Next, you may or may not have noticed the mouse acceleration upon launching the game and accessing the menus. Not to worry, there's a fix for that as well!

Pull up your quick-finder I taught you, aka CTRL+F.
This time, you're going to type "bAlwaysRunByDefault" This should take you to the controls.
Now, underneath "bBackgroundKeyboard=1" you're going to paste these lines below:

fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0



If done correctly, this is how it should look!

Save and close the .ini file.
This can be done by clicking 'File' and hitting 'Save' or you can simply enter CTRL+S.

We're almost done!

A common problem when running the game, players tend to report a "microstutter"[forums.guru3d.com] usually when strafing or moving around in the Wasteland.

However, with that being said, there is no 100% definite way of removing the stutter, but we can at least try to remove most of it.
At this point you'd rather play the game without crashing every 15 minutes than worrying about stutter and I wouldn't blame you, but for those of you who want to try at fixing it, here's what you'll need:
DISCLAIMER: These steps may or may not work for everyone.

Multiple sources talk about how enabling V-Sync works to help combat the stutter, and some even say that switching the value of "iFPSClamp=0"[www.gog.com] (limits fps) to 60 works; but can have adverse side-effects such as slower or faster gameplay including voice to lip-sync issues and general game speed problems.
The rule behind this is that the game can't run beyond 60fps or it becomes unstable and likely to stutter. Although, I've heard that changing the value to match your monitor's refresh rate (Hz) fixed the issue (hasn't worked for me). This may also help. Otherwise, I've tried for days to fix the stutter and I just gave up and dealt with it.

**TIP!**
It's also recommended that you disable all autosave functions to further decrease the chances of crashing. This can easily be done by looking through the main menu's settings. It's located under 'Gameplay'.

Now you're on your way to create your character and enter the world of the Capital Wasteland!

Keep in mind this game was released in 2008 and intended to run on much, much, older hardware than today's standards. Even so, you can take a look at the reviews on Steam and notice the large amount of negative reviews against it due to being released in such a broken, buggy mess on the PC port. Without a doubt, this guide is designed to deal with the broken and buggy aspect of this game as much as possible - of course, without mods.

I made this guide that way so I could provide you with a vanilla experience that will hopefully suffice to many of your standards. By all means, if you wish to mod this game you are more than welcome to! Seeing this is my first guide, I thought I'd make it as simple as I could.

Despite this game's shortcomings, with E3 coming to a close this year, and noticing that most of the Fallout series is now on Xbox Gamepass, brings me hope that Bethesda will set their minds straight and bring an official patch to the game; at least, most likely from their modding community. I hope you got some use out of this guide for one of my favorite games of all time!

Credits to various internet sources; this guide would not have been possible. Many thanks. I offered all I could!