Broken Steel bugs

Bugs and glitches/exploits in the Fallout 3 DLC pack Broken Steel.

Installation

 * May 5th, 2009 - PC release downloads via Microsoft Games for Windows Live. Upon completion of download in the G4WL client a message may read: "Install of item Broken Steel failed. Not a cryptographic message or the cryptographic message is not formatted correctly. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8009200D)" This will happen after repeated downloads and the 'retry' button on the G4WL client will not work. Upon investigation of the DLC files themselves (located in C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\GFWLive\Downloads the winrar archive containing the DLC is corrupt and will not extract with Winrar or 7z. Note that this renders the whole DLC unusable. The DLC is currently not available to download from G4WL possibly due to this fault. Hopefully there will be more infromation after a day or two as to whether it's fixed or not.


 * Some users at the official forums have reported success downloading the DLC while Fallout 3's game client was running in the background. With Fallout 3 minimized, return to the GFWLive client, open 'My Media' tab, select 'Entire History' and download Broken Steel again.

There also seems to be a temporary mod fix for a specific part of the DLC, but as no one can actually get a hold of it at this time, it isn't much use yet.


 * if you have it installed, you may need to take off the unofficial patch that stops you from completing the game before installing Broken steel (Windows only)

Achievements

 * May 5th, 2009 - Fallout 3 Broken Steel gives you the achievement but the score doesn't get added to your gamer score

Gameplay

 * May 5th 2009 - Broken Steel has a big bug on the Xbox360. When you beat the final chapter, the "2 weeks later" never appears, and the "Settings" menu, and downloads area, become "stick" and glitchy.


 * May 5th 2009 - Broken Steel has a bug on the Xbox 360 version, stopping players from activating Project Purity. Sarah Lyons becomes stuck on dialogue and does not initiate the dialogue choice of who should activate the purifier. However, it is still possible to level up to level 30 and the improved enemies can still be found throughout the Wasteland.  UPDATE: It seems many people who experiencing this bug have not yet updated to version 1.5  Check your update version: From the title screen, select Settings, then Display. In the lower left hand corner, you'll then see the update #.


 * May 5th, 2009 - Broken Steel has a bug on the Xbox 360 version, greatly impeding progress for the players to reaching Project Purity. The Enclave soldiers apparently become invincible and do not take any damage unless inflicted by Liberty Prime, Sarah Lyons, or car explosions. Liberty Prime may also disappear.


 * May 5th, 2009 - Broken Steel has a bug on the Xbox 360 version, some of the new achievements do not register after they have been unlocked, leaving Gamerscore unchanged and appearing locked. However the 'Achievement Unlocked' message still appears. Confirmed by this author. This is possibly caused by some players not recieving the update that adds the Broken Steel Achievements into the list. Removing game updates and updating again fixed this for me, but I had to obtain the Broken Steel Achievements all over again.


 * May 5th, 2009 - Broken Steel has a bug on the Xbox 360 version, stopping players from activating Project Purity. Sarah Lyons continues to say that you have to defeat enemies by the purifer even though they are either gone or have been killed. Which casues her not to initiate the dialogue choices of who should activate the purifer. However, it is still possilbe to level up to level 30 and improved enemies and to grab some of the new weapons that the Enclave soldiers carry on them.


 * May 5th, 2009 - 360 bug is preventing Liberty Prime from crossing the bridge to project purity. He repeatedly circles near the end of the bridge.  I think this is an old bug that is yet unfixed.  Reloading the auto save from the citadel exit can and most likely will solve the problem.  Reloading saves made once outside the citadel does not solve the problem.
 * Liberty Prime was freed to continue by this player walking along the riverside (past the bridge LP is circling on) to activate and kill the remaining Enclave soldiers there.


 * May 5th, 2009 - A bug after the download of Fallout 3: Broken Steel is if you have not completed The American Dream, you may freeze within 5 feet of Elder Lyons and be unable to talk or move. The quest does not continue, and Elder Lyons does not speak.  Weapons cannot be draw upon entrance to laboratory.


 * May 5th, 2009 - My follower completely disappeared after I volunteered to go into the chamber and awoke from the coma. (Note: Your follower returns after the final DLC quest is completed and you return to the Citadel.)


 * May 5th, 2009 - Attempting to gain the laser pistol next to the mini nuke at the end of the presidential subway tunnels results in the player becoming stuck and unable to get out without loading to the most recent save.


 * May 5th, 2009 - After installation of Broken Steel, and completion of original story line, some characters do not reward XP. (Ex: Behemoth at Capitol Building, and his companions.)


 * May 5th, 2009 - After installing Broken Steel, Scribe Rothchild becomes glitched while trying to complete the quest Picking Up the Trail. He tells you to follow him to gain information about vault 87, but he does not move and you cannot speak to him again.


 * May 5th, 2009 - After installing Broken Steel, during the Water's of Life Main quest, (XBox 360 Version) all the NPC's, at any point of the quest, whether it be the Father entering Jefferson Memorial after you've told him it was all clear, or when you are required to follow Doctor Madison Li when fleeing the premises. What seems to happen, is right after they cross into separate zones [ie - Entering a door that leads to another area that requires loading.], the NPC's will become stuck, and you cannot progress any farther. This appears to happen after the game notifies you that Broken Steel was successfully installed and loaded into the game.


 * May 6th, 2009 - Entering the Shalebridge tunnels causes game to crash during loading screen.


 * May 6th, 2009 - All companions disappear after completing the Waters of Life quest.


 * May 6th, 2009 - Attempting to restart a new game will cause some sort of client error. No messages are displayed but after completing the events of when the main character is 10 years old, the game stops responding, yet the player can still look around. Rather than after Jonas takes the picture, the flashbulb causing a flash sequence to lead to the next part of the game, the flash occurs and after that you are permanently stuck standing there with your father. You can look around but that's all. Only possible guess to fix this bug is to wait for a release of a patch to fix this. As this is considered a game breaker.


 * May 6th, 2009 - during the "Shock Value" quest after entering old olney and shooting a deathclaw with a plasma rifle. all deathclaws in the local vicinity proceeded to fly directly up in the air (about 6 in all) (XBox360)

Minor Glitches

 * May 5th, 2009 - GNR may begin playing information about the completed Project Purity, discussing the Lone Wanderer's mother Catherine, as soon as Broken Steel is installed. (confirmed XBox 360).


 * May 5th, 2009 - Unable to save games in Fallout 3 after Broken Steel has been downloaded (Xbox 360 version). Doing so creates "Disc is Unreadable" error.  Autosave still works.  After getting the "Unreadable" error, cannot get to the loading screen to load another saved point.
 * May 5th, 2009 - Liberty Prime may not hit the wall to the relay station, and it may just fall apart without any motion from Prime a few seconds later.
 * May 5th, 2009 - Follower could not leave the room that the player appears in after Take It Back! Pushing the follower through the open doorway fixes the problem.
 * May 5th, 2009 - After downloading Broken Steel, the game may freeze whenever you try to load a save file of any character. There is no known fix so far, other than deleting Broken Steel.
 * May 6th, 2009 - Some followers do not appear beside your bed when you wake up after completing take it back. This happened to me with Charon and Butch. To repair this you can exit the area, re-enter and they will be waiting beside your hospital bed in the citadel.
 * May 6th, 2009 - Star Paladin refuses to follow you when she appears beside your hospital bed in the citadel after you've completed take it back. After telling her to follow you she stays put, yet her dialogue options change as if she was following you. The only way to repair this is to fire and re-hire her.
 * May 6th, 2009 - Once you have beaten the game and move on to the "2 weeks later" section the "pip boy" display stays blank. Saving and re loading the game fixes this minor glitch (XBox 360 version)