This past weekend was the Extra Life event, so I was looking for a backlog game I had never touched but always meant to, and decided on Fallout 3. So far I'm really enjoying it but I'm having some early game issues. My main problem is I'm speccing for small arms/energy weapons but I'm always out of ammo. I buy from vendors when I can but enemies just seem to soak up shots, especially the one mission I did with big brutes and those fishlike guys. I found myself resorting to circle strafing and hitting things with a baseball bat more, but it just takes longer because I don't have points in melee. My other issue is mines. I can usually see them, but I can't get past them reliably without setting them off and having to waste health items. There's the one mission where you have to go through a minefield and I had to give up on it for the time being. Can you disable mines or set them off somehow? I couldn't seem to shoot them reliably, and again, ammo issues. Lastly I crashed twice in about 5 hours running windows 7. I did the ini tweaks and installed the unofficial patch, but is there anything else I can try or is that pretty normal. I really want to get into this game, like I did Skyrim, but I feel like it's not clicking quite yet mechanically.

Yeah, you can disarm the mines. If you crouch and move very slowly, aim your reticle at the mine, once you are in range the reticle will turn red and the mine will start to beep, click it. Just save and practice. That area with all the mines is a great place to practice disarming mines. Don't be afraid to save scrub it to learn.

Also, I know you've already made a dude, but you don't seem super far in yet so I'm going to throw this tip at you. Create a guy with an INT stat of 8. Then as soon as you leave the vault run east toward Rivet City. It is a big beached aircraft carrier converted into a town. You'll run into some nasty dudes that you aren't ready to fight, just run. Once you get there don't bother talking to anyone in town (specifically the scientists as it might cause a glitch with a later quest), but run down to the laboratory and grab the science bobble head off of a desk. Run back to Megaton and start questing like normal. Now your INT will be at 9, the max level. That gives you the most skill points possible when leveling. It makes your dude a juggernaut in the late game.

There is also a hollowed out rock behind Megaton with some handy goodies in it. Some sniper (I forget his name) stashed a rifle, stealth boy, and some other goodies in there.

Don't worry about energy weapons early on. Small arms are going to be much more prevalent in the beginning. Get a shotgun as soon as you can. I found that to be very helpful in clearing buildings and caves in the early game.

Stealth. Use it. Early game your stealth will kinda suck, but put points in there when you can. Starting a fight with a massive crit (and a bloody mess perk for fun) is a great way to start encounters.

If it's not against the way you approach games, maybe check out the Fallout 3 wiki. It's been a while, but I seem to remember bolt action rifles doing a significant amount of damage to enemies, especially the mirelurks. As for the minefield in that small village/playground area, you can disable mines quite easily if you spot them early enough. You have to crouch, line up the crosshairs with the orange center of the mine and sneak forward. As soon as you see text pop up, tap the action button (X?) twice, and you disable the mine and pick it up for future use. I have bad memories of that area, there's a sniper trying to fuck you up there too, right?

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do for the stability of the game, it was buggy as hell on the consoles and I had my share of crashes too. If all else fails, you are on a PC, perhaps you can find some way to give yourself a little extra ammo?

You are fighting some big-ass enemies for how early you are. Super Mutants and Mirelurks are two of the tankiest enemies in the game. You can blow up landmines by shooting them, or disable them by aiming at them and interacting with them like you would a door or an NPC, but you'll have to get within its detection radius to do it.

I'm not sure if you are doing this, but early on I found the shotgun to be the best way to go. VATS head shots with that gun. But it sounds like you are trying to fight some of the tougher enemies early on, which I would avoid for now.

Just play the game. It isn't had to figure out. It's not like the game is Fallout 1 or 2.

You'll want to avoid the Super Mutants pretty early on. As for ammo, grab every little thing that you find in the wasteland and sell it. Even if you're only getting a couple caps for an item, all of that junk will add up and you'll find yourself with plenty of money soon. I've played through the game several times as different characters and eventually I find myself with over 2500 caps forever because I'm always selling junk that I find. A good way to make money is to make sure that you grab all of the ammo that you find. It doesn't weigh anything, and you can make a lot of caps selling the ammo for weapons you aren't using. Missiles, for example, go for something like 32 caps each.

Also, the Chinese Assault Rifle and the Combat Shotgun are the two most useful weapons in the game (not including unique weapons, which in many cases are better but you'll have to find them. Use the Fallout wiki.)

Go to fallout Nexus and download all the nude mods. The Shemale mods can be a fun surprise when you take off the armour.

It may seem silly, but downloading all of the various armour mods and graphic upgrades made the game more enjoyable for me. It adds a lot of variety to the games enemies when they all don't look the same and I find it helps get me more engrossed in the games. Though that was with New Vegas. Nothing could make me enjoy Fallout 3. I just found the pacing, characters, world, and story boring.

Yeah I figured about the big guys, but those seemed to be linked to a couple of quests I had early on so I wasn't sure if I was missing something. Glad to know you can disarm mines. I just need to spend some more time with the game and some more quest direction, though I realize a lot of the charm and appeal is how open and exploratory the game is.

Finish up the Wasteland Survivor Guide questline, but after that just go out and explore.

If you find a guy outside of Megaton asking for water, just shoot him.

Also yeah, do all of the Wasteland Survival Guide (including the bonus objectives.)

@sixpin: I've never heard "save scrub" before - always heard "save scum", but now that I think about "scrub" sounds more logical, like the way you might scrub a video back and form. Scumming is more damning though. Er... yeah... just thought I'd share that...

For the OP: my advice is run away. Early no, there's no shame in just booking it out of an encounter that would otherwise cost all your bullets/healing items.

@ghost_cat: Also that guy who asks for water outside rivet city.