Dear Bethesda, Thank you for completely destroying my productivity this week! I blame you entirely for my utter lack of contribution to society. Also, your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries. Love, Scarlett … PS: Fallout 4 – can you get on that already? Kthxbai.
Oh, most evil RPGs! Why must you suck me in with your engaging plots and intriguing quests and delicious combat? *Sigh* Alas, between requisite working and some bellyaching (literally) over not feeling well, these last few days have proven once again that I am but a weak-willed flower against the mighty seduction of my favorite video games. The feeling of immense satisfaction as I stride confidently through a screen strewn with the corpses of foes fought mightily … Hell, even the Bible is down with RPG. “Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.”
Except that I’m usually the harbinger of death n’ evil n’ stuff. But it’s a minor detail, really.
Ahhh, but my recent re-installation of Fallout 3 did prove to be beneficial in more ways than just the time-suckage variety. Remembering my trials and travails last year with low frame rates, micro stuttering, and hourly crashes, I decided to ready my PC in a most triumphant fashion. Which was an enjoyable project in and of itself, as being the lovably dorky computer geek I am, I’m endlessly trying to eek more power out of my rather modest system: 2 GHz AMD Dual Core Opteron processor, 2.0 GB of RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card, 250 GB hard drive, Windows XP.
What’s that, you say? I could save myself the time and trouble by simply upgrading? Bah! Upgrades are for pussies (and, y’know, people who can afford them). Besides, I’m rather fond of my older system. I have a brand new copy of Windows 7 gathering dust, and nary a desire to install it. Yeah, I’m a hardcore XP’er and for all intents and purposes, my system runs really well. But I’m a born tweaker and tinkerer, and any tricks or routines that I can use to give my baby a little extra juice is well worth the time and effort.
And thus, I present you with Scarlett’s Guide to Making Your PC Gaming-Ready. Or, “Shit I Did to Get Fallout 3 Running Smoothly.” Take your pick ;-)
Step One: Get thee to TweakGuides.com. NAO!
Alright – to be fair, I’ve downloaded the Windows XP TweakGuide and I’ve gone through parts of it, but I still haven’t had the will or wherewithal to sit down and attack the project thoroughly. HOWEVER! I fully intend to … Someday. But the TweakGuides site is chock full of great information, including guides for special tweaks and settings to get particularly graphics-intensive games to run to their best ability. If you’re new to PC tinkering and/or you’d like a very clear, step-by-step set of guidelines written in understandable language, I highly recommend giving TG a look!
Step Two: Upgrade your video drivers.
This is advice that I give out constantly on TSE to folks who have trouble getting the videos to work properly – but it’s something that I rarely remember to do myself. So when I noticed that ATI had released new drivers only 3 weeks ago, I used TG’s instructions for clean-uninstalling my previous drivers and getting all set up with the new ones. Now if you’re not too familiar your system specs, Belarc Advisor is a fantastic free program that runs a quick diagnostic and gives you detailed information about your PC that you can use for a myriad of purposes. In my case, I used it to double-check my ATI graphics card model so I could be sure to download the correct driver package. I also used Driver Sweeper to clean up traces of my old, outdated drivers before installing the new ones. It’s a perfect little program for folks like myself who are hesitant to mess with your PC’s registry, which can become brutally fucked up if you delete the wrong key. Better safe than sorry, I say!
At this point, I went ahead and installed the game (and applied the most recent patch), and then I proceeded to …
Step Three: Deleting and downsizing.
I am all about cleaning my cookies, cache and temp files – and there are some great apps that take care of the whole shebang. My favorites are ATF Cleaner (light-weight but effective) and CCleaner (thorough and robust). You might wonder why I use both, and that’s because in testing, both programs left bits and pieces behind that the other took care of – and they’re both so quick and simple to use, it’s worth using them in conjunction. What I also love about CCleaner is that it includes a registry cleaner, a monitor for your start-up programs, and a built-in uninstaller that always seems to perform much faster than the ol’ Add/Remove Programs routine.
After all my temp files were thoroughly obliterated, I ran another one of my favorite little apps called SpaceSniffer. I tweeted about this program a few weeks ago and it caused a minor flurry of replies and DMs singing its praise. So what does it do? Not much, really … Except that it shows you, in a simple but effective graphic format, where all the space on your hard drive is being used up. Folders filled with old save game files, raw images downloaded from your digital camera, gigs of mp3s … It’s amazing how much space gets devoted to things we don’t give much thought to, but when you take the time to clear out old data and files that you no longer need, you’ll free up valuable space AND make it much faster to run full system diagnostics. The first time I ran SpaceSniffer, I was able to root out almost 20 gigs of extraneous files I no longer needed. 20 gigs! At the time, I only had a 150 GB hard drive, so freeing up that much space was massive. Even if you’re one of the lucky ones with a terabyte drive and legions of extra space, it’s still a great little app for being able to visualize where the space on your drive is being allocated, and finding any surprising space-hogs that might be left over after you uninstall games and programs. I dig it!
Step Four: Defrag and optimize.
Ahhh, the dreaded defragment. PC World said in it’s latest issue that it was a largely unnecessary process for folks with decent computers running a modern OS, but I’ve always noticed a substantial speed increase after a defrag/optimize session, and that alone is worth the time it takes. The good news is that the programs mentioned in Step Three will help to streamline your system so the defragger has less muck to muddle through on your PC. And there’s more good news! I’ve found a fabulous little program that will defragment and optimize your hard drive(s) quicker than the built-in Windows routine, and it it has lots of little features that can streamline the process for the future.
MyDefrag may be look unimpressive at first with its very basic interface, but it gets the job done efficiently and completely, and I can honestly say that its process has produced the most noticeable improvement to the speed of my computer over any other defragger. There are three basic routines to choose from that are meant to be run Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. (You can set up schedules if you like – personally, I prefer to run it on demand.) Since I hadn’t defragmented in a while and I had just installed new drivers and a new game, I decided to go for the Weekly (“middle ground”) routine, which defrags and optimizes without the lengthy file sorting. It still took about 3 hours to complete, but once it had finished and I rebooted my system, the speed improvement was immediate and definite.
Step Five: PLAY!
Survey says? Whether it was one tweak or the combination of everything I’d done, Fallout 3 is running FAR more smoothly than it was last year. I still experience a crash after 5 or 6 hours of cumulative gameplay, but the graphics are smooth as butter using the settings that the game launcher recommended based on my system (medium). It looks great, plays like a dream, and is even more addictive than I recall, especially with all the new DLC packs. (New quest lines! New weapons! New NPCs to murder ruthlessly! Om nom nom.)
So if you don’t get another post for a little while, blame Bethesda! In the meantime, I’ll be wandering about with my Xuanlong Assault Rifle and my radio tuned to the sweet vintage sounds of GNR, ready to to wreak some havoc the likes of which the Wasteland ain’t never seen. Don’t wait up. ;-)
{ 48 comments }
Thanks so much for your advice! It’s good to see that there are still PC players around, in a world dominated by consoles.
I can’t wait to play Fallout 3 for the third time these Holidays!
PC gaming forever, baby! (Although I will always have a fierce soft spot for the original NES.)
CCleaner and MyDefrag ftw!
Good post / blog entry Scarlett.
Well, since Holy Grail is full of win and Scarlett is full of win, this post already started with dangerous amounts of win. Also, some truly helpful advice. It’s amazing what a simple driver update can do for performance. As for Fallout 3 (also full of win) all you need to remember is to save before all terminals for massive damage.
Oh I have an itchy Quick Save finger for sure – but saving is SO speedy in Fallout 3, it’s definitely worth it!
Yeah, I should be better about constantly monitoring my drivers. There’s a pretty good program called Driver Scanner that will scan your entire system and report back about any out-of-date drivers, and then will download and install them with just a few clicks. It’s not freeware (and I do love my freeware!) but it saves a lot of time and trouble.
Thanks for the hint, I’d all but forgotten about TweakGuides, and even my less-than-modest Win7 rig could probably use a clean sweep.
Incidentally, this is just curious statistics, but what kind of character are you rolling with in Fallout 3? I gave that game a spin pretty much a year ago, and my character was basically what you’d get if you took Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star and Guybrush Threepwood and mashed them together. Speech checks and Power Fists ftw.
I have to say, I admire those who play Fallout with bad-ass Unarmed or even Melee masters. Myself, I just happen to really love guns in this game! Which is a bit odd, since FPS has never been my style and you really get that flavor when you’re rolling a gunslinger, but what can I say? Peppering Super Mutants with bullets is mighty satisfying! =)
I ended up going with very low Charisma and high Intelligence, which was great because it gave me more points to distribute with every level-up. I honestly don’t see the benefit in having high Charisma, especially if you max out your Speech skill as I did. But yeah, maxed Small & Big Guns pretty quickly, and now the Wasteland is like target practice, baby. KNEEL before the powah of my firearms!
Believe me, no matter how difficult it sounds to specialize in melee combat in this game, it’s totally worth it for being able to punch a Super Mutant so hard he explodes into a pile of chunky salsa dip. If there is any one thing on this Earth that is more badass than that, I have yet to find it.
I do love me some Fallout 3. Scarlett, I’d be passionately curious to hear your opinion on Mothership Zeta…
I haven’t gotten to that one yet – so far I’ve finished Operation: Anchorage (brilliant for those who enjoy lots of combat, as I do!) and I’m about halfway through Point Lookout. I’m actually glad I did OA fairly early on, as it earned me the Winterized Armor which never degrades and has a very nice DR level. Bonus!
hmm that was actually quite helpful, thanks scarlett.
Windows 7 is an awesome OS, with major improvements from Vista. However, getting Fallout 3 to run on Windows 7 was an absolute nightmare, and getting Broken Steel to run with it as well was also rather painful. It still doesn’t run brilliantly after it’s been “fixed”. I would say stick to XP if you want Fallout 3 with no problems!
Thanks for the advice and program links – I’ll give them a try when possible.
Yep, Spoony had some major issues with Fallout 3 and Windows 7 – and if there were conflicts with a fairly recent game, I can only imagine how it would handle my older favorites from the early 2000′s. I know there’s XP Mode and all, but I bought the less expensive Home version, and I believe you need Professional or better to take advantage of it? Anyway, I’m sure I’ll upgrade down the road but I’m such a dyed-in-the-wool XPer. Old habits die hard! =)
Fallout 4 is a long ways off, but Fallout: New Vegas is coming in April . . . same engine as Fallout 3, same play requirements, but all new storyline and all new world based in post-apocalyptic Nevada.
Nash, you rock! I hadn’t heard anything about this – the latest hullabaloo seems to be that Interplay is suing Bethesda for the Fallout franchise rights. They can cock-fight about it all they want, I just want more kick-ass games to play. Is that so much to ask? ;-)
Actually, it’s the other way around . . . try to follow this nonsense, it’s complicated:
Interplay first published the Fallout games. (Yay!)
Interplay screwed up their company. (Boo.)
Interplay sold the rights to produce the next Fallout game as a $1,000,000 advance against royalties. (Yay!)
Interplay crashed further, and ended up selling all the rights to the franchise to Bethesda. (Huh.)
Bethesda made Fallout 3. (Yay!)
Interplay got some overseas investors under them, and licensed the rights they sold *back* from Bethesda so they could make a Fallout MMO, codename: Project 13. (Yay!)
As part of their condition to licensing the rights, Interplay had to make a certain level of progress by a certain date, or they would forfeit the rights to make the MMO. (Boo!)
Bethesda claimed Interplay hadn’t made that amount of progress, and sued Interplay for the rights to the MMO back. Interplay turned around and demonstrated that no, they *had* been working on the thing and had made the requisite progress. (Uh oh.)
And that’s where the lawsuit stands. Interplay is continuing work on the MMO, and Bethesda is working on Fallout: New Vegas for next year, and Fallout 4 for some point in the future.
And I know way too much about this stuff. Curse you, Fallout Wiki!
I loooove loooooove Fallout 3!
I’ve gone through that too, but the culprit was Daggerfall. Not making my computer run it faster, but the addiction!
Actually, I’m still completely into it. It really seems RPG + huge world + freedom = awesomesauce.
I never played Daggerfall – I got into Elder Scrolls with Morrowind, and Oblivion was *my* fierce addiction. In fact, I’m not entirely sure that I ever completely finished Oblivion, as my M.O. was always to explore, amass gold, complete side quests, rinse/repeat. By the time I finally got around to tackling the main storyline, I was usually quite burned out. I’m sure I’ll return to it again next year though. Any word on the next Elder Scrolls game?
All I know is that it will be probably set in Skyrim (that would be awesome, ice, snow, ale, and blizzards!) and that there’s a trillion fake trailers on Youtube.
There should be some info on the UESP Wiki. But it’s really early to say something for sure, except that the devs said that “Both Todd and I have said repeatedly that, of course, we’re going to do another Elder Scrolls game.”.
thanks alot for the advice :), i hope this will help my pc to give better performance.
one bad thing for me is stupid load orders, when the Goty disc 2 is first installed onto ones computer. Anchorage is loaded before the main fallout file. (big no no.) if THAT is not bad enough, it’s actually better to run point lookout before any other plugin. (in oblivion by comparison, you could have some major screwups based on loading newer plugins before older ones.) not a big deal, but it requires you to download Fomm to arrange everything. an external program.
Someone better pick up where the unofficial patch left off, it hasn’t had updates in a long time and the game in all it’s dlc glory doesn’t work with it’s last update. hopefully then i can clear out the massive “fix” pile ive downloaded to fix up most of the quest and gameplay bugs.
also, codec problems. most of you radio lovers know what i mean. (wouldn’t be such a problem if they just used wav files.)
Bethesda needs a new game engine:P
And tyvm scarlett for creating one of the few coherent guides to getting the game working.
You’re very welcome! Although I’m afraid I can’t comment much on what you’re experiencing, as I installed the DLCs on top of the regular Fallout 3 disc that Spoony so kindly lent me. It’s cool they’ve released a GotY edition but if it has so many problems, that’s definitely bad news bears! =(
Hi Scarlet,
I was wondering if you’ve played the original incarnations of the game (Fallout 1, 2, Tactics)? I’m kind of on a budget and have a few bucks to spend through newegg.
And I hope Spoony is feeling better about the situation on his site. Please pass on my best wishes. Hope you all have a great holiday.
I haven’t, actually! I’m actually wondering if it’s worth going back in time to check out the older releases. I really appreciated that you could delve right into Fallout 3 without knowing anything about the backstory or game play of the earlier games. Same with Oblivion, although I did play Morrowind first. Those are the best sequels, IMHO … They enhance the franchise without making you feel lost if you haven’t been with it from the beginning!
I keep looking into the game… I bumped into the Jericho series on netflix and kinda got on a post apocalyptic kick. However, I’m quite honestly a little shocked that there’s no mention of the Kalashnikov series of weapons in the game. I looked over the wiki site’s list of weapons and couldn’t find anything. Maybe it’s a licensing issue but, how can you have this sort of game with no Kalashnikov’s?
Regardless, I think I know what my Christmas gift card is going to. So much for that laptop hard drive upgrade. Incidentally, do you recall Noah going off the deep end regarding some BSG reference? With all the recent upheaval I wanna make sure I wasn’t one of the catalysts by trying to crack wise.
Nevermind the short rant about the AK’s it just dawned on me, they’re probably what’s termed as the “Chinese Assault Riffle” and yes, we have the glorious Kalashnikov’s! Now I’ll be eagerly awaiting my copy of FO3. If only it was already at my local UPS… =P
Ah, Fallout 3. Quite possibly the only game I bought in the past two years that I *KEEP* coming back to.
I’m so delighted, like someone mentioned earlier, to hear of other PC Gamers. We’re a dying breed. :(
MyDeFrag and ATF Cleaner were new to me. Thanks for the tip there! :D Knew already about CCleaner, though.
These days, i’m playing Fallout 3 with the FOOK 2 Mod and Mart’s Mutant Mod. Really, really expands upon what’s out there for Fallout 3, although it does get a bit…Crash-y. Ah well!
The game’s maddingly fun with the console, too. There’s nothing quite like summoning four Super Mutant Behemoths in Tranquility Lane, having Chinese soldiers shoot them and I’m blasting away with a 25mm Soviet Flak Cannon on top of that (weapon added from Fook 2).
If you can, it wouldn’t hurt to check out the mods that are out there. Just as much goodies as a DLC, at least!
I don’t know why I never thought to look for Fallout 3 mods! I enjoyed several of the Oblivion mods – in fact, there are a few that I wouldn’t play the game without anymore.
I’ll definitely check out those mods you mentioned. I’ve finished about 1/2 of the main quest line and only 2 of the DLCs, so there’s definitely a lot left to enjoy!
Few things to keep an eye out for if you’re going to check out mods!
Fallout Mod Manager is a MUST.
Fallout Script Extender helps too.
Fallout3nexus.com have a ton of goodies, although Fook2′s located on its own website for size reasons. They’ll require an account for files larger than like 3 MB or something like that, but I don’t think that’ll be an issue.
http://www.fookunity.com/fook2/
Fallout Interoperability Program helps keep mods compatible with one another. This is how I have FOOK2 and Mart’s Mutant Mod working for each other. Check that out.
Hope you’ll enjoy! IMO, it’s always nice to get extra goodies in a game. :D
(Being the cheating hack that I am, too, more weapons = better. And Fook2 adds so many…<3)
There's also another huge mod known as Fallout – Wanderer's edition, but it's not to my tastes. Might be worth checking out on your end, though?
That's about all I have to mention. :)
Enjoy the Fallout 3 madness! It's truly a great game.
Heres a list of some of my favorite mods, thankfully installing Fallout 3 mods is identical to installing Oblivion mods.
PersonalTerminal:
adds a item called the personal terminal that is pretty much the ultimate cheat mod ever.
it does alot, it lets you get any item in the game (now you can have any of that gear in anchorage you ever wanted!), adjust your stats as you please. and even allow you to hire any of the followers in the game at anytime (if you ever wanted fawkes early in the game, now you can!.)
if you wanted to play the game free of cheating though, i would give this one a pass. (the temptation to use it can be to much for me, personally.)
http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2396
Enclave Commander:
turns the game into a rts (well. not really.)
allows you to phone in troops that you can command as you wish. (you can even call in as many chimera tanks as you want to aid you.)
you can also call in airstrikes. (raining muties lol.)
this one can be ALOT of fun (but it will make the game abit too easy:P.)
http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1410
this one also requires Fose (fallout script extender.) to run
http://fose.silverlock.org/
Drivable Chimera Tank:
now there is nothing standing in your way, this adds your very own (6 be to exact) drivable chimera tank.
very fun to cause such a silly amount of chaos (although i am pretty sure you are still not that safe if a behemoth comes barreling down the hill.)
http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3981
also requires fose.
Classic Fallout Weapons:
This adds weapons from the older fallout games, if you feel the currently selection is lacking then this will no doubt up the arsenal, everything is already added to spawn list. just install and all the enemies will have the new selection of weapons.
http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2307
J3Xified Driveable Motorcycle:
adds motorcycles to the game, need i say more?
(well, yes i do.) you can also get gatling guns, flamers, lasers and missile launcher addons (sweet.)
http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6005
this one also requires fose.
Fellout:
removes the greenish tint from the game, you would have to look at the screenshots to really see the effect it has.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2672
Owned: lets say an NPC meets a horrible demise (or maybe someone went on a massacre in tenpenny tower.)
if a npc dies (or is already dead before mod is installed.) whatever they own will transfer to you (like their house for example.) http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1516
I am sure hope that helps, none of the stuff is that useful (but very fun!)
also, don’t forget these cool programs:
Fomm: Fallout mod manager, always you to organize your mods and plugins.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=640
ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated: this is needed if you want to use custom textures.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=944
Games For Windows Live Disabler:this turns off GFWL if you don’t want it running in the background (or any other reason for that matter.) http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1086 (Fose turns off GFWL if your running it anyway.)
that was quite a long post if i do say so myself.
More useless knowledge (but i know alot about the game bugs.)
First off, your not suppose to get the version of the anchorage power armor that never breaks, the one you get is the item used in the simulation. all of the items from anchorage have two versions of themselves, one that has millions of DR and the other that only has about 1000 or so (which is odd they made a version of this for EVERY item in anchorage, despite the fact you only receive a very small amount of gear from there.) ironically, Bethesda screwed up and the version of power armor received at the end is the one intended for the simulation.
Second, if your doing the “You Gotta Shoot’em In The Head” quest, for some reason the anchorage power armor seems to work just like the power armor in the quest (in which case if your carrying, the quest giver won’t talk to you.) a workaround is to keep your power armor in storage while doing the quest. (or you can just pickpocket or kill the people with the keys required for the quest. and then retrieve the armor.)
Oh God.
I hope I can play Mass Effect 2 by following these steps.
somehow I doubt it :(
So when you’re playing Fallout 3, do you play naughty or nice?
I find it weird that, as nice as I am, I seem to have amassed a large collection of fingers. Which I can trade for money. In the form of bottlecaps. ¬_¬ I’m the Wasteland Weirdo.
I looked into FOOK2 but couldn't for the life of me figure out exactly *what* it added to the game. Call me cautious (it would be accurate!) but I'm wary to mod anything unless I know just what to expect. And anyway, I'm still enjoying the hell outta Fallout 3 + the DLCs. Still not even 1/2 through the game and I've been playing it … Well … Far too much to admit and still have my pride! =)
Whew, thanks for that awesome list, Sturryz! I poked around a bit on Fallout 3 Nexus the other day, and I've decided to keep playing vanilla (well, with the DLCs) rather than modding. With Oblivion, there were a few mods I felt that I *had* to have – namely the Better Environments, and the one where you got an easily-accessible merchant who would buy all your stolen goodies. I really think Bethesda did a bang-up job with Fallout 3 though. I haven't noticed anything glaring that seemed to really require a mod or a fix, which has been awesome. And now you've got me itching to play again, when I have so much else that needs doin' … You are evil, mister! =)
Hey Heather!
There's actually a TweakGuide for Mass Effect here: http://www.tweakguides.com/ME_1.html – I'm not sure if the tips would apply to ME 2, but it's worth a try!
I'd say it's always worthwhile to check for video/audio driver updates before installing a new game, as that's often one of the biggest conflicts that come up. As for defragging, it's really up to you – however I did seem to notice a benefit in the overall performance of my PC, which is always a great thing!
Ohhh, those finger/ears perks! I thought about taking one of them, but I have a different trick. Any time you need to raise karma, keep giving Purified Water to the bums you find outside of Rivet City, Megaton and Tenpenny Tower – gives you a karma boost every time!
Now why would I need such a trick, you may ask? Well, I like to play pretty dirty, and I'm not above going on a massive killing spree just for the hell of it. (Suck on deez bullets, Children of Atom!) But at the same time, I feel a bit dirty walking around with Very Evil karma, so I use the water trick to make people like me again. Sadistic and twisted? Hells yeah! But that's how I roll, baby! =)
Cautious is certainly a good thing to be, these days!
Fook2 adds like 200 new weapons, a whole horde of items, some tweaks on the game in general, adds more quick run locations on the map, and a bit more. I still haven't discovered everything it does yet, although everything I have run into, i've enjoyed tons! (I love my 25mm flak cannon. :3)
Mart's Mutant Mod, another biggie, brings out a whole ton of monster variants. Combine the two and the already pretty random and expansive Fallout 3 world gets even more varied by a big margin.
Hate to double-comment, but noticed you stated you're not going to deal with modding. Fair enough! Figured i'd mention it as a possibility, at least! :)
Anything which improves upon Fallout 3's already great experience is always a plus, after all.
Ahhh, okay! Yeah for some reason I couldn't find a good log of all the changes/upgrades it made to the game. Should I decide to play the game again (probably in another year or so – Fallout 3 seems to be perfect for taking year long breaks in-between), I will definitely look into modding for an enhanced experience. I appreciate the tips!
Awww… Reminds me of my new computer back in 2007, when the first thing I did was a two days run of installing, (fan) patching and modding Oblivion.
Aaaanyway, F3 has two problems: Bethesda, who don't fix 80% of the reported bugs (hence, I'd really recommend the unofficial patches from the Nexus) and have maybe one witty writer, and two, much too fast levelling and thus uber-owning players – ten hours and nearly all sidequests done, and I was at level 18 already. I fixed that with Mart's Mutant Mod and a slower levelling one…
On the other hand, F3 does not need much more modification. The empty wasteland is… empty and wasteland-ish as it should be. Hope you can spend some time there during the holiday season. After all, the current style of Christmas is what's left unchanged since the 50s, which only fits Fallout. ^^
Playing the game the way it's meant to be played is nice, but on PC having a console is just so tempting. Getting the Mysterious Stranger's .44 and hitting a Super Mutant Master so hard that the game crashed trying to render the effects is very satisfying.
Also, cooling is key for getting the game to run smoothly. With those tweaks and an improvised GPU cooling mod I managed to get the game running with decent graphics on my laptop.
That's a good point, Dex. One of my fans died several months ago, and although diagnostics say that the core temperature is in a good range, I think I should get it replaced, see if it improves things. One of these days. ;-)
Too bad you did not play the first two parts (if I may so rudely cut into this conversation). As fallout 3 is a good game in its own merits, unfortunately it falls flat on its face story wise, choice wise to that matter. But as far as I go last RPG that truly gave you story tons of quests, incredible dialogs was Arcanum after that it is just downhill. With that said F3 with some mods is quite nice adventure (and a quite time vampire).
Too bad you did not play the first two parts (if I may so rudely cut into this conversation). As fallout 3 is a good game in its own merits, unfortunately it falls flat on its face story wise, choice wise to that matter. But as far as I go last RPG that truly gave you story tons of quests, incredible dialogs was Arcanum after that it is just downhill. With that said F3 with some mods is quite nice adventure (and a quite time vampire).
Oh this is exactly what my computer needed, I have the lames PC ever and like no space at all! That 1GB RAM is killing me. And I only have about 55GB memory, but with your help it went from about 4GB left to 15! And I haven't even defragged it yet! Thank you soo much :)
Pure insanity!!! My computer would be spotless if it werent for my “worse than abysmal” OEM graphics card. The NVIDIA 310 is the devil itself >.>
Im thinking about getting an ATI Radeon HD 4850. With a benchmark of 1334, it certainly beats out the painful 269 produced by my graphics card. What are your recommendations?