Plain and simple: I can't go to Riften without the game crashing. I get within roughly 200 feet and it just freezes. If I fast travel there, it works sometimes, but basically the entire area around it is unexplorable because it just freezes if I get too close. For what it's worth, I made it there once since I've been having this problem, and then, the stable and other buildings around the area didn't load... there were just floating doors connected to nothing. Is anyone else having this problem? Can anyone suggest anything that might fix this? I've already tried clearing the system cache, restarting the console, and other basics. I've tried fast-traveling elsewhere and waiting 24-hours and trying again... nothing works... it just keeps crashing every time I get close to Riften.

I had this issue once or twice, too. Is there a certain quest related follower behind you related to an orc stronghold, I wonder?

I've also had the game freeze solid a little more often after the 1.5 patch.

:/ nope.... I have a few followers; Kharjo (the Khajiit), Meeko (the dog), and the female Dark Brotherhood Initiate. I can't imagine they have anything to do with it. However, a good while back I did do a quest that involved an orc stonghold and fighting alongside an orc nearby, but he died... and I don't really see how that would relate. If you've had this problem a few times, did it ever persist for a long time, or did it eventually just quit? How did you go about solving it each time?

its most likely caused bynirnroot glow stacking as discussed by quite a few of us on here, i havent played since january because everytime im around riften it crashes and i have to turn off my xbox at the plug. Riften has the most nirnroots and the glow gets worse and worse. Its a simple fix but i dont think Bethesda cares to fix it, they would rather announce useless kinect support than actually fix the game.

This happened to my first character, Its absolutely ridiclous that somebody cared to fix the PC version through a mod Yet Bethesda refuses to fix it for us console owners.

I actually don't think this is it, because worst spot with nirnroots is that farm not too far from Riften that grows them, and yes, they've stacked over and over a million times, but that area still works fine. The glow of it looks ridiculous, but it doesn't actually mess up the game. It's only when I get closer to Riften. Nirnroots throughout my game have stacked, and in some cases it looks kinda funky, but I'd imagine it would have to stack literally hundreds and hundreds of times to literally crash the game, whereas in my case they've only stacked maybe 5 or 6 times.