This is maddening!

NPC animations don't work. They sort of moonwalk in all directions and their heads keep rotating. I just came out of Vault 34 (which thanks to all the bugs was my worst gaming experience EVER!) and now nothing is working anymore.

Please help! I'm starting to have a mental breakdown right about now :/

EDIT#1: Talking to them fixes the issue for those talked to for a while. But then it starts all over again.

EDIT#2: Reinstalling the game and running older savegames (from when everything was working fine) didn't help either. No matter what I do - the animations aren't working.

Still a problem after the latest patch. Am I the only one having this problem?!

Hmm u might be the only one getting this. I've never had a problem like this even without any patches. And i admit this gamei s still hella buggy, but i just have never heard of this one.. Well actually one time.. i think... i cant remember xD probably i experienced that bug one time.

The correct term for the 53 mentions that the Search found was "Spinning Heads" and it's specifically a Vista & Windows 7 caused problem that rises, it seems, from the Aero desktop settings. Uninstalling completely and reinstalling after removing Aero apparently is supposed to be the fix. (I cannot confirm any such. It never happened to me.)

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1089402-spinning-heads-float-walking/page__p__15897555__hl__spinning+heads__fromsearch__1#entry15897555

Thanks. I'll look into it when I have the time

It's been quite some time (I was on vacation)...

I've tried reinstalling the game with the W7-Basic-Theme activated. It didn't work and I'm not willing to give up 50 hours of gameplay just because of this.

Anybody know another possible solution to this problem? I'm really pissed.

Umm. Complain to Microsoft?

It doesn't happen with any other game I know of. So this is clearly something Obsidian messed up, not Microsoft (if it's even Aero...)

Still not fixed.

Does anyone know of a mod which restores animations?

For the love of God, please!

Hello? I'd really like to give this game another go. But I fear that the bug will return and it already destroyed 45 hours of gameplay.

I'm so [censored] pissed right now.

The only time I've heard of this was when New Vegas was first released and some players got a corrupt bsa file downloaded if I recall correctly, there's actually a youtube of it somewhere. It was of Doc Mitchell doing what you described.

also that problem was on at least two systems as i had that particular glitch on my ps3 copy

45 hours of gameplay? The game was working without spinning heads or weird animation? When did this start? What changed on your system?
Did you try a clean reinstall? Make sure the entire fallout 3 directory is deleted as well as the save game directory (backup your save game files first).
Im not sure about your internet connection, but you might also try installing directly from steam rather than the game CD if thats what you've been doing.
Some people have fiddled with their graphic settings with success. Are you using any mods?