What is the most stable way to play this game?

[MarkGrouch]

I've heard horror stories about New Vegas on PS3 and I was wondering if Fallout 3 is anywhere near as bad? What's the best way to approach 100%'ing this game? Do I play the base game then purchase the DLC's separately or just buy the GOTY edition? Is the base game disc more stable than the GOTY disc? Any clarity on this would be great.

[MRR---OFFICIAL]

I think I've heard the GOTY Discs for Bethesda games generally start slowing down faster? (Goes by the Save File Size usually, once it goes into actual MBs instead of KBs it's gonna chug) that being said I've never really had issues with them myself ?‍♂️ But I've also not played them since I got them all on my X1X/XsX running in 4k/60fps now, definitely the preferred Console Method of playing those games.

 

TES IV Oblivion is by far the best Bethesda game on PS3 but unfortunately it doesn't have Trophys ?

[HoorayForTyler]

Fallout 3 is quite unstable like New Vegas, probably a bit worse even (just my opinion). I’ve played both the base game disc and GOTY edition on all console versions, and I’ve concluded that playing the original base game version with downloaded DLCs on the PlayStation 3 Slim is the best way to play the game. The Super Slim seems to not read the game as fast, resulting in longer load times and more frequent frame drops.
 

The GOTY disc does not run very well at all, and you’ll have way more crashes by the end of your journey to 100% completion, trust me. Expect some potentially heavy frame drops and freezes in the Point Lookout and Broken Steel DLCs, regardless of the way you decide to play the game. Can’t recall anything too bad outside of those. All in all, base game with purchased DLCs on the Slim model is the way to go, but if you’re not looking to spend the cash, GOTY edition as it’s the cheaper option. 

[melodicmizery]

f3 is worse then vegas. using VATS will freeze on you. i remember one time my screen was frozen and i didnt save or something and was frozen in vats. i went to sleep and left the game on. sometime the next day while i was on my pc i heard the tv unfreeze. im talking like over 13 hours later when i was busy doing other stuff lol. but most times i had to just shut the game off. so not using vats is one thing. generally i think what happens is the most things you collect the more your game save increases in size or something and the game has a harder time reading more numbers. in the beginning of the game its not as bad but if you go 100 hours in thats when it gets clunky. fortunately its a fun game. if you carry around tons of things you dont really need thatll cause it to lag more.

[Lordguwa]

there's a guide on ps trophy that shows which dlc to do last which causes the most issue.  worse case scenario is freezes and frame drops

other than that it's playable and enjoyable.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Lordguwa

[Dycotrex]

This is for anyone playing the PS3/PS Now Streaming the game. I'm super late to this thread but you can minimize the frame drops and freezing by keeping your file size small. Turn off all autosaves and only manual save every 3-4 hours. Every time you create a save, it makes the file size larger. I'm about 40% done with the platinum at this point and my file size is less than 3900kb. To my understanding performance issues come in around the 10-12mb area. That's according to some reddit threads I've seen so take it with a grain of salt. They mentioned keeping a minimal amount of quests going at once and never pick up objects and set them back down. The game has to keep those changed properties and certain quest scripts running in the background so it can really begin to pile itself on, especially if you have a bloated save file. Good luck to anyone reading this.

 

Edit: Just platinumed (no dlcs because they aren't available with streaming) and I finished with zero crashes and minimal frame drops. The method I described earlier worked great. My final file size was only 7900kb. Highly recommend this strat to anyone going for the plat! 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Dycotrex

[MonaSaxPayne]

By playing on series x through BC

[CouponCrusader]

I have a ps3 slim with a 500gb SSD installed and the game runs and loads a lot faster for me imo

[FallenDestroyer]

I cant really speak for the best way to play the game in terms of performance as its been a very long time since i played.

 

To make the game as quick and easy as possible when starting IMMEDIATELY do the guns of anchorage dlc as it rewards the chinese stealth armour, which makes you invisible when crouched. It then makes the rest of the game almost trivial. NEVER take the armor off even when its broken or you wont be able to put it back on.

[PanteraRosa513]

short story about my longplay of fallout 3 goty: i have a ps3 super slim with at least 250 gb hdd and i have no issues with the goty fo3 apart of the freezing issues with the dlcs as finished before ending of 2022 and platinumed it in february 22, 2023 which maked my life very happy too and grabbed ssfiv finally by swapping my mirror's edge ps3 copy with that game as i will pass very good times with that game so take care and always save on separate slots also pass operation anchorage to get the winterized t-51 power armor which will never destroy for good!!!!

[Manilu-08]

Has anyone tried it on RPCS3?

[KirbyLlama]

On 4/12/2024 at 11:27 PM, Manilu-08 said:

Has anyone tried it on RPCS3?

I'm honestly not sure why you could possibly want to emulate this game, just play either the PC version, or with slightly better performance, Tale of 2 Wastelands (FO3 turned into a mod for FONV).