Fallout 3 Glitches [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

Nebagram

11-01-2008, 10:38 AM

I think I've got a bugged copy of the game- just after leaving the Vault the game becomes remarkably erratic- every step I take it's like my character's about to fall through the floor, he can't jump, enemies appear and disappear at random and some background items seem to be levitating like Indian fakirs. Anyone else experiencing this or is it just me? (Yes, I have reloaded the save, and tried an older one, same problem).

Drexel923

11-01-2008, 10:46 AM

No problems with my copy at all. Sorry to hear you are having issues as it is a great game. :(

walrusmonger

11-01-2008, 11:09 AM

What version of the game are you playing?

Dangerboy

11-01-2008, 12:52 PM

I've heard the PS3 version is buggy as hell, including crashing at the GOAT test. I've only seen 2 glitches in my 360 version, and both were just bodies floating in air.

MrSparkle

11-01-2008, 01:59 PM

not surprising really. I'm sure they'll drop a patch within a weeks time given how highly hyped this game has been.

Darren870

11-01-2008, 02:03 PM

I think your copy is a dud. Even the PS3 version isn't that glitchy where it is actually unplayable...

Kitsune Sniper

11-01-2008, 02:18 PM

A friend of mine has the 360 version and he's always telling me how buggy it is...

Darren870

11-01-2008, 02:46 PM

A friend of mine has the 360 version and he's always telling me how buggy it is...

I played for 6 hrs and only have seen one. One of the moles fell through the floor and wound up stuck in the ceiling above.

Everything else has been fine though.

alxbly

11-01-2008, 02:47 PM

I've been playing the 360 version for a while now and haven't encountered any bugs.

Sudo

11-01-2008, 02:47 PM

I have the 360 version and love it, but it is indeed buggy as hell. This is my post copy/pasted from the IGN Boards:

"Since I got the game Tuesday, I've had it hard freeze on me three times, requiring a manual power off on the 360. I've gotten stuck on objects 2-3 times and had to reload a save. Once, the particle effects on my Shishkebab glitched and obscured my view of the whole screen, forcing a reload. Just now, when I respawned after dying I was stuck in attack mode, which pretty much gave me infinite AP while in VATS. Despite all this, it's still a great game IMO. I'm on the last story mission and am going back and finishing up the rest of the side-quests and collecting all the bobbleheads.

I really think Bethesda should've given the game another month or so of QA testing, but whatever."

Nesmaster

11-01-2008, 03:09 PM

I've had two glitches (PS3) myself, one amusing and irritating, and the other just bizarre:

1) I was in the robotech factory looking for parts to build the railway gun, and a bunch of the protectrons were stuck in the walls, glitching around and shooting at me behind the walls. It was funny as hell, but also very annoying. Thankfully I was able to kill them when parts of their body would "pop" out of the walls, allowing me to shoot at/target them in VATS and dispose of them. :)

2) This one frustrated me, and was extremely bizarre. I fast travelled to a location, got killed, and the auto save loaded me the second before I made the travel in the old location. No big deal right...? The only problem is that when it loaded, for whatever reason my fists were equipped, and I constantly did strong punches as if the R1 button was being held in... switching to a gun seemed to fire bullets randomly, but never when I actually pressed the button. Fast travelling didn't fix it, reloading didn't fix it, even loading another save gave me the same problem. Figuring the controller had something to do with it, syncing and re-syncing it up didn't fix it either. Thankfully a hard reset of the system itself fixed the problem, but why did I have to resort to doing that?! Stupid bugs...

Beyond that, I've seen floating guns and bodies a few times, but that hardly bothers me. I'm having too much fun with the game to let any little issues get me down. So long as the game doesn't render my save useless and/or lock up to the point where I can't proceed in the game, I'm fine. :)

EDIT: Sudo, I forgot about getting stuck on things! That happened to me once, when I jumped on a table. Thankfully I was able to get "unstuck" by sitting on the chair close by a few times. LOL

carlcarlson

11-01-2008, 03:20 PM

Bethesda is kind of known for releasing buggy games. I don't really hold it against them because their worlds are just so damn big. Hopefully there will be a patch in the next few weeks that will fix a lot of these things.

Nebagram

11-01-2008, 04:18 PM

Fortunately my panic is over, I reverted to an even earlier save and played back through a bit and all is (hopefully) well now. The killer was probably levelling up from level 1 to 2, but there's no way to be sure. At least the molerats have stopped doing their best Homsar impersonations.

spoon

11-02-2008, 05:05 AM

I've played over 35 hours and have encountered a few bugs.

I have been stuck between a rock and a fence a few times.

I came up on a group of raiders that were stuck together. I killed them and then they stretched out in a line equal distances apart and looked like they were crucified on an invisible cross. funny stuff. Then when I walked by them, the texture of the water glitched out for a minute or so. I also could not search them for any items unless I cut off a limb and searched it. So, I have a row of headless, armless and legless Jesus Raiders out there somewhere. I am loading up my save in a few minutes and will see if they are still there.

Also, I Was wondering about the achievements on the 360 version, I was trying to get the three different achievements for reaching level 8 either with good, neutral or bad karma. I had a save right before I leveled up. After I did, I tried to load up the save and switch my karma. I could switch the karma, but, no matter how much xp I got, I could never level up and the achievement would not pop.

I wonder if they programmed it that way so people would not take the easy rout to get the achievement?

heybtbm

11-02-2008, 09:27 AM

I was taking a few shots at a sniper who was hiding in the rafters of a crumbling church. All of a sudden he disappeared. I shot him 3 or 4 times and the guy just disappeared right in front of me. I wasn't even close to killing him. Oh well. That's as close to a "good" glitch as you can get I suppose.

dao2

11-02-2008, 11:53 AM

and thats why you should all learn to play fallout on pc :P

Sudo

11-02-2008, 03:11 PM

and thats why you should all learn to play fallout on pc :P

All versions of the game are buggy, it's not just the consoles.

Berserker

11-02-2008, 04:44 PM

and thats why you should all learn to play fallout on pc :P

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v348/natev/fallorly.png

Yeah I know, it's purely anecdotal and probably doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it's still a funny juxtaposition.

I'm planning on getting the PC version myself. I'm basically just waiting for them to at least work some of this crap out.

dao2

11-02-2008, 05:51 PM

All versions of the game are buggy, it's not just the consoles.

Probably, but I finished the entire game without any bugs ;p

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v348/natev/fallorly.png

Yeah I know, it's purely anecdotal and probably doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it's still a funny juxtaposition.

I'm planning on getting the PC version myself. I'm basically just waiting for them to at least work some of this crap out.

Damn ps3 and 360 users don't know how to use the interwebs ;p I wonder how many of those problems are from vista? ;p

If they are I again feel absolutely no sympathy :P

Vault 106: Purple hahaha ;p I didn't go to vault 106 ;p gonna play again and do a lot more though, only fought one behemoth too. gonna be a good guy this time ><

Trebuken

11-02-2008, 08:26 PM

Yeah I have been playing the PC version as well without any problems, which is actually remarkable. I can run it at fairly high settings as well which usually introduces more issues...

It's worth trudging through the issues though deleted saves are killer...

heybtbm

11-02-2008, 08:27 PM

Also, I Was wondering about the achievements on the 360 version, I was trying to get the three different achievements for reaching level 8 either with good, neutral or bad karma. I had a save right before I leveled up. After I did, I tried to load up the save and switch my karma. I could switch the karma, but, no matter how much xp I got, I could never level up and the achievement would not pop.

I wonder if they programmed it that way so people would not take the easy rout to get the achievement?

Not a glitch. I just did the same thing and got all three achievements. I got the good karma achievement regularly and got the other two by killing people in Megaton.

The Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion had a similar achievement that you could get then reload your save and get the other (Duke of Dementia/Duke of Mania). I figured you could do the same in this game and confirmed it this afternoon.

alxbly

11-02-2008, 08:45 PM

Seven and a half hours into the 360 version and I've only encountered one, very minor glitch; I shot a raider and his dead body floated just above the ground. Where are all these glitches?

*tempts fate*

:D

emceelokey

11-02-2008, 09:21 PM

I'm about two hours into the 360 version and all I've encountered so far is was after I got killed once, my body pretty much fell into the gorund. Nothing that really affected gameplay though.

dao2

11-02-2008, 11:55 PM

had my first glitch ;p rotars on the helecopters go bat shit crazy when they explode ;p was awesome

FlufflePuff

11-03-2008, 12:58 AM

I haven't run into a single glitch yet. I'm about 10 hours into the game so far. Loving every minute of it at this point.

Emuaust

11-03-2008, 01:35 AM

/me Points and laughs at stu's luck!

mailman187666

11-03-2008, 10:18 AM

for the PS3 version, I've seen black looking 2D blocks flickering in some rare occasions on the screen, I've had it freeze on me a couple of times, and I've actually had the game quit out on me and go directly back to the XMB while I was in the middle of playing it. These haven't happened too much, but they are definately in there.

PapaStu

11-03-2008, 11:06 AM

/me Points and laughs at stu's luck!

Shut up Emu!

Well i'm playing the 360 version and I had it glitch on the GOAT test 5 times in a row on me. I was taking a few items from the medical tray in dads office, and then going out and talking to Wally first, diffusing the situation and getting him to try and pull rank and walk away. I'd then talk to Tunnel Rats Rule! dude and then Biff after that. Going into class and then sitting down (first seat, or second) it would start the sequence, but when the guy coughed, the teacher didn't respond and I would just sit there.

I finally got to take the GOAT by talking to Wally, diffusing the situation and then punching Tunnel Rats Rule! in the back of the head and fighting them until they backed off. Once I sat down, THEN I could take the GOAT.

Then after I left 101 I stepped outside, only to have my system give me a read error and crash. I'm pretty sure this drive is dying so i'm not going to blame that on the game.

jedimind7

11-03-2008, 12:09 PM

Ive had one where theres these weird blocky like graphics obstructing a good portion of my view that follow me no matter where I turn. I had it in the first couple of hours and then I had it way later in the game after purchasing a work bench from moira...her place and my place got glitched. I then reloaded a previous save and found out she has a workbench in her place so I decided not to buy it.

Other than that the only thing I can think of is a bloatfly(those the names?) get stuck in a wall.

JunkTheMagicDragon

11-03-2008, 02:17 PM

as much as i want to play this, i think i'll just wait till the eventual goty edition with an expansion, bugfixes, etc. gotta love bethesda, but they do have pretty buggy games. but i usually don't complain what with the freedom and customization you get along with the bugs.

Daria

11-03-2008, 02:34 PM

I just want to say that thus far I've encountered no glitches. Once or twice I've had a raider catch on a door frame or chunk of masonry. But not a huge deal, makes killing them easy enough. Nothing like Oblivion, or worse Morrowind.

jedimind7

11-03-2008, 07:21 PM

I just had this game freeze on me twice...im making my way to rivet city and the first time I hit Tepid Sewers it froze. Had to turn off the system and when I turned it back on my save file was corrupted. Thankfully ima very compulsive saver and had a back up save from like 2 minutes before the glitch took place. This time I got past Tepid Sewers for like 30 seconds before it froze again. Again I had to turn off the system. I dont know if this save file got corrupted or not because I havent turned it back on yet.

dao2

11-03-2008, 07:40 PM

wow dunno y u guys are getting so many glitches i ran through the entire thing practically 100% (except for that awesome vtol thing :P)

DonMarco

11-04-2008, 12:27 AM

I don't think it's a glitch, but every once in a while (while I'm walking around or turning) there will be a quick pause, like the game misses a beat to juggle data around in RAM or it hits some kind of bottleneck. Half a second later, it's running perfectly fine. This happens once or twice an hour and if you blink you miss it. Has anyone else seen noticed this?

I've also seen skeletons and corpses clipping through walls. Like 5 feet off the floor and shaking and jittering around. Landmines that rest a good 6-9 inches off the ground. Guards that shoot through doors. Ugh. Not nearly as bad as Oblivion (PC) was in the first few weeks, but still.

Oh yeah, and the kids are all invincible. What's up with that?? This throws a huge wrench in my homicidal killing sprees in this camp or that city. Goddammit, ESRB. Shooting a dog with a rocket launcher and hacking away at preacher with a flaming machete is A-OK. But slipping a live grenade in a 10-year old's pocket is out of bounds? Bah!

I've got the 360 version now and will pick up the PC version a few years down the road. After all the expansion packs and patches are released and the mods are completed. In 2011, I may have a cheapo computer powerful enough to match the 360. Who knows?

Daria

11-04-2008, 10:09 AM

But slipping a live grenade in a 10-year old's pocket is out of bounds? Bah!

Glad to see I'm not the only one to try that stunt. >.>

dao2

11-04-2008, 11:58 AM

nik

11-04-2008, 02:24 PM

I haven't run into a single glitch yet. I'm about 10 hours into the game so far. Loving every minute of it at this point.

Same here, PC version running flawless.

Dual Core 3.0ghz + 8800GT OC

Only crash I can make happen is if I try to tab out.. then it gives an error and closes.

jedimind7

11-04-2008, 03:07 PM

Well last night I tried it again one more time and got a bit further before I had some crazy graphic glitches. There were these black textures and it obscured my view for the most part. I dont really know how to explain it. Then after a bit it froze again. I havent played yet today but will be trying again soon. Apparently theres been some people able to fix some of these problems by clearing there cache on there xbox 360 which I guess i'll do to see what happens.

jedimind7

11-04-2008, 04:48 PM

Well I dont know if clearing the cache helped for sure but I have the game working again. I made it to Rivet City and other than having one person just outright disappear into thin air the game has been fine.

emceelokey

11-04-2008, 07:34 PM

I enounter the "auto shoot" glitch. I was fighting then got killed while I was shooting then after I respawned I wouldn't stop shooting or attacking. I saved the game then had to go back to the dashboard and reboot the game to get beck to normal.

spoon

11-05-2008, 01:43 AM

@Heybtbm- Ahh, then my game did glitch out somehow, as it would not let me level up and get all three of the achievements. It would just keep adding xp. It was something like 5,347/4,700 and never leveled up. I thought maybe they put it in place to keep people like me from cheaply getting achievements. I'll see what happens at level 14.

@Donmarco-I've also noticed what seems like a quick load hick up. The first couple times it happened, I thought the game was about to freeze.

Either way i am very happy with the game and think it kicks much ass.

Slate

11-07-2008, 06:27 PM

I've experienced some glitches. The most interesting one is probably when the sheriff's son in Megaton was going in and out of a door constantly. I also shot a Super Mutant and he turned into ash on a stool, Which made it look like his ashes were floating halfway off the stool.

alxbly

11-08-2008, 10:14 AM

Okay, 30 hours in and I've gotta report the first real glitch I encountered. It's a glitch that stops you from getting the achievement for completing "Scientific Pursuits". After a bit of confusion and a trawl of the internet, I managed to find the cause and solution.

The glitch is caused if you explore the Jefferson Memorial and find the tapes before speaking with Dr Li. For some reason this excludes you from certain lines of dialogue and the game then doesn't recognise that you've completed that mission. The solution is to replay from an earlier save... thankfully, that's not too much of a hassle if you've been saving regulary. But it does make me a bit wary about exploring the landscape before completing the main quests.

Slate

11-08-2008, 10:40 AM

The glitch is caused if you explore the Jefferson Memorial and find the tapes before speaking with Dr Li. For some reason this excludes you from certain lines of dialogue and the game then doesn't recognise that you've completed that mission. The solution is to replay from an earlier save... thankfully, that's not too much of a hassle if you've been saving regulary. But it does make me a bit wary about exploring the landscape before completing the main quests.

Crud, I did that! Guess I'll have to get that achievement in another playthrough.

alxbly

11-08-2008, 01:59 PM

Crud, I did that! Guess I'll have to get that achievement in another playthrough.

It's an easy glitch to come across; Jefferson Memorial is on-route to Rivet City so I expect a lot of people will decide to explore it first.

I noticed the glitch when the game moved straight from Scientific Pusuits to Tranquility Lane and I didn't get an achievement. Luckily, the Scientific Pursuits mission is quite short and I knew I'd discovered the Jefferson Memorial on my way to meeting Dr Li so I had didn't have to look far back on my saves. Replaying Scientific Persuits is quite quick when you know what to do. And then I just continued from my most recent save in Tranquility Lane.

Sosage

11-08-2008, 03:01 PM

I've only run into minor cosmetic/environment behavior so far. Had a roach clip through the floor and all I could see was one antenna poking up. We both couldn't hit each other so I had to leave it. Another was around the *SPOILER* Tenpenny Ghoul's hide out *SPOILER* where I bumped the ribcage of a corpse and it was stuck in some sort of bounce loop in a hole (it just kept bouncing off the walls of the hole and making a thumping sound).

I haven't experienced any freezing/crashing on my 360 version. I also haven't noticed any game progression issues yet either, but that's because I don't really have a set goal while I am playing.

It's a great game so far. I recommend picking it up even with some of these bugs. So far, it's everything I liked about the other two Fallouts (more to explore than you realize...so many different ways of effecting how things turn out), but...well...not stuck in a top down view. =)

Sothy

11-08-2008, 03:42 PM

I was in the middle of dialogue with the chick that collects nuka cola and the super mutant guy thats following me around suddenly freaks out, pulls his gatling laser and chases her down and kills her. I cant go to an earlier save so guess that mission is done. Also had "the mysterious stranger" appear in a stair way and then fall through the floor...he didnt shoot.

gum_drops

11-08-2008, 05:08 PM

I have run into a glitch in DC where I cant travel anywhere pertinent above ground. There seems to be some kind of invisible forcefield that keeps me from jumping over the piles of rubble between buildings.

Instead I am forced to travel through a series of badly lit tunnels and transit stations to actually reach any quest destination points.

Daria

11-08-2008, 05:40 PM

Trumpman

11-08-2008, 10:08 PM

My Dogmeat got stuck in a concrete wall. I didn't notice until the game started stuttering so I had to go back and push him out of the wall. But I haven't really experienced many glitches aside from that one.

Howie6925

11-09-2008, 04:30 PM

The only glitch I had so far was at the g.o.a.t test. (PS3)

FlufflePuff

11-09-2008, 11:21 PM

I'm now running into a weird glitch when I walk from Megaton to Rivet City. I'll be moving along and the picture will start randomly breaking up. It looks like I'm playing through a screen with broken glass. If I turn around and walk backwards it works fine, but the second I walk forward it goes funny again. Causes me to crash if I get into a fight. It also is persistent through saves. *sigh*

Sosage

11-10-2008, 02:39 AM

...actually. I got frustrated with the tenpenny mission and just shot up the place. One of the security guard models just stretched the hell out. Like the verts just suddenly shot out into outer space. He then suddenly started spinning and bouncing wildly throughout the main room. His collision detection was still working, so all the furniture/people/knickknacks were getting tossed around. He was also making the sound bodies make when they hits the ground (probably related to the hit detection and the floor).

So imagine a scene where everyone is running around the room, screaming, while this glob of a man spins around wildly creating a hurricane of crap while making a "whoosh! whoosh! whoosh!" sound. I wish I had recorded it.

heybtbm

11-10-2008, 10:00 AM

I failed to take my own advice and didn't save for about 45 minutes last night...which were completely lost when I got stuck in a wall at Evergreen Mills. It was right after I killed one of those huge mutant creatures (with light weapons btw) and found the barter bobblehead too. It could've been worse though. A friend of mine lost 3 hours in the infamous "Jefferson Memorial" glitch. Save, save, save with this game.

Slate

11-10-2008, 11:19 AM

I was in the *Spoiler* Nuka Cola Factory *Spoiler End* And killed a Mirelurk. It literally fell through the solid floor when it died and disappeared.

Nebagram

11-26-2008, 06:53 PM

Dunno if this is a glitch or a bug or what, but it's annoying.

Spoilers ahoy, so look away now.

I was doing the 'Trouble on the Homefront' mission, had just convinced Amata to stay in the Vault, and was on my way to see the overseer (still the original one) to inform him of the truce when I ran into the hostile officer. He was quickly dispatched, but Mr. Overseer himself was also hostile and had to be killed. Needless to say, this was not good. I reloaded the save, same thing again.

In the end, rather than any peaceful resolution, I simply went through the Vault letting any hostiles have it between the eyes (including, ironically, Amata herself) but I'll likely want that achievement at some point so any advice here would be useful.

spoon

11-26-2008, 08:11 PM

@Nebgarm. What I did was once I walked in I just waited for the Overseer to come where I was at. I was above the older Officer that almost shoots a tunnel snake when you walk in. I just waited outside the open door on the platform and waited for the overseer to come to me. I convinced him through speech to step down as the overseer and....someone else takes his place. I only had to kill one hostile officer. But, I called all the others on my way out of the vault.

I wanted to address two glitches.

1. I finished the game doing all the missions except one. It is possible to skip "Scientific Pursuits" by exploring too much of the wasteland. Find Tranquility lane before you set off this quest and you will miss the achievement. Now I wished I would have used a guide during my play through. oh well, give me a chance to get the other two level 8 achievements.

2. Make sure and grab the Bobblehead inside of Raven Rock. As of now, may change with the newly announced Dl content, The only time you are in Raven Rock is once during a story mission. No way in that anyone has found.

DonMarco

11-26-2008, 11:04 PM

It's not really a glitch, but, ahoy! Thinly veiled spoilers ahead!

I'd have to say the best glitch in the game for me was in the vault where you find Fawkes. I don't remember the number offhand. Anywho, if you return "later" "after things happen", and go through the door "they" enter- you'll see a vault entrance.

And that entrance, wow, beyond all reason. If ever I began to think this game was rushed or half-completed it was due to this entrance. There's literally nothing past it. If you walk out, you fall down, and are magically spawned near the place you first find Fawkes. I'm absolutely positive this will be fixed (better) with a patch. Either the vault's entrance will actually lead somewhere, or they'll change the map so that if you return, that room is blocked off or closed.

The first time I fell I was all like "no way wtf?!?!?" thinking I was dead. About the fourth time I decided to return to my quest to beat the main story.

Trumpman

11-26-2008, 11:27 PM

I had almost zero glitches (at least none that really affected my game) until a few days ago. I was doing the mission in Project Purity where you have to clear it out, and then at the end, (spoilers)when your dad dies in the pseudo-cutscene, I was trapped in the room. Dr. Li would tell me to escape and I couldn't get out either door - opening either would freeze my game. I tried emptying my cache, but it didn't help. I loaded an earlier save (about 3 hours prior) and have continued from there. I have yet to try that mission again, though, as I don't want to ruin another file. Does anyone know if there is a way to avoid this truly game-killing bug?

TheDomesticInstitution

11-27-2008, 09:25 AM

I got Fallout 3 a week and a half ago, and I'm out of town- so I won't be able to play it for a over a week. But in the 4 days I've played it, I've found the following.

1. The game reset itself after walking out the door from the school, in the small town right outside vault 101.

2. I've seen 3 or 4 raiders appear from the thin air, right before my eyes.

3. Once, when I talked to an NPC, the entire screen turned blue until the conversation was finished.

4. Randomly I will be able to see through nearby walls.

EDIT: After re-reading all the posts I was reminded of one more glitch I encountered...

5. When taking the GOAT test, I had to reload the game 4 or 5 times, because the test wouldn't start when I sat down. I found a way around it by avoiding the Tunnel Snake confrontation and taking one of the the Tunnel Snakes' seat before they entered the room. Every time I tried sitting down in the seat at the front of the room, the test wouldn't start.

Anyway, after playing Morrowind for 100+ hours I'm used to the glitches. They're just a small price to play for such an awesome game. By the way I have the PS3 version.

Da1NonlyG

01-12-2009, 05:01 PM

Guess what?! I have the same issue, figures!. Here's what u should do.. Call Bethesda at 410-568-3685 U. S. and mention Ref # 40097619. Politely (or not) bother the crap out of them. They are aware of this issue (on the 360 and PS3) and are working to get a patch out to us. Still, I don't think they are working fast enough. Please call and report ur issue. Remember that there is Power in Unity. In the mean time work on ur Misc. Quests and get some exp. points. I personally will be calling every single day until there is a fix to this issue (and all minor glitches)