Right, to business. I’m not happy. Very unhappy actually and it’s because of the Fallout 3 DLC released for the PS3.

When I found out the Fallout 3 DLC was being released for the PS3 I was ecstatic. The Xbox 360 and PC versions have had the DLC for a while and I watched on with sullen, wanting eyes. I could have gotten it for the PC or even the Xbox but I had played Fallout 3 on the PS3 and was not about to play the game again on another console. 80 hours+…sod that for a bag of beans.

In my 80 hours of play with Fallout 3 I have had a few freezing issue and once in awhile a drop in frame rate. That’s not ideal but it’s forgivable in such a complex and epic game.

So, got my hands on Broken Steel, the first DLC to be release and had a whale of a time. Oh yeah, extended Campaign, awesome. I only had issues with it until it went off the main map. As soon as I was in Adams Air force base, it begun to twitch and freeze. In total it froze and needed to be hard reset 7 times.

Next up was The Pitt. The entire DLC is located off the Capital Wasteland in its own map set in the City of Pittsburgh. As soon as I entered the City the game froze. Ok, I waited a few minutes see if it would start again. Nothing. Ok, so I hard reset the console by holding the ON/OFF button down for a few seconds. It blanks the screen, the PS3 gives out several angry beeps and resets to the XMB.

I restart, load my last save and get to the same point on entering the City and… bam! Happens again. Hard reset. I get to a place called Midea’s house and the game crashes at the loading screen. I wait for a few minutes knowing how resetting the console in a load screen can be dangerous but nothing, so hard reset. Restart, load and crash on exiting Midea’s house after a minute of watching the frame rate at about 2 frames a second.

I managed to get through The Pitt with 2 more crashes and several drops in frame rate in entering new areas. I was thankful that The Pitt lasted about 4 hours but I can’t help but think that it would have been more if I was brave enough to explorer without the threat of crashing hanging over my head.

Next was Operation: Anchorage. Set away from the Capital Wasteland (sort of) in Anchorage, Alaska. You can see my video on this site and in it you can see several crashes and frames rate drops. In total it crashed 11 times and had dozens of drops in frame rate. Not happy. It took me an entire day to complete because of the crashes.

Point Lookout started better. I got a full hour of play before it crashed. Hard reset. Travel anywhere for over a few minutes and frame rate drops, sometimes it lead to a crash and more hard resets. With Point Lookout I had 21, yes 21, Hard Resets and uncounted frame rate drops.

Mid way through I deleted the game install data on the PS3 (not my save data, not a chance!) and reinstalled it. No luck and it crash again and again. I did not finish Point Lookout I only did the main quests and one side quest. I had no time for it as my patience had worn very thin.

Last but not least, Mothership Zeta. I get abducted and the game crashes in the frigging beginning cut scene! Hard reset and it happens again!!! Arrrghh! I did manage to play it, reinstalled the game data once again and I managed to play it. I got almost the entire way through before it crashes in the Death Ray room. Twice.

Some have questioned why I continued to play after all the problems. Because, Fallout 3 is my favourite game of this generation so far, hands down that’s why. But these technical issues are completely unacceptable. This from a developer as skilled as Bethesda? I find it hard to believe that they would even release a DLC so completely flawed. Was there no beta testing? There had to be. I almost think all the issues came up, Bethesda ignored it and released them anyway with time to release a patch later.

I have a feeling these DLC were rushed out before the Game of the Year Edition so to maximise profit. I don’t want to believe that but with so many issues, I can find no other answer. So far Bethesda has said nothing on the issue and their silence damns them. What was Bethesda doing in the 8 months between the launch of the Xbox DLC and PS3 DLC? Judge for yourself but these are just words of warning. Don’t miss these DLC’s but I would wait for a patch first.

*Sigh*Roll on Fallout: New Vegas.