I have bought the game and will receive it shortly. What should I do? Wait for the patches or go for it anyway. I read so many reactions (some positive, some negative), that I am not sure if the bugs prevent you from enjoying the game.
Thanks for taking the time.

I think with hind sight I would have waited for the patches, I`m now at a stage where I've played nearly 40 hours and cant load my saves and will start losing heart in the game if it isn't fixed soon.

First, don't connect to live while playing game, because the patch they released makes the game unplayable. Also, install game to HDD before play.Another very important precaution is to soft reset your cache while game is booting up.

For example: when game starts to boot after choosing 'play game' on dashboard, hold in simultaneously the LEFT and RIGHT bumper and the X button. hold them for a good 20 seconds.this will make the game a lot more playable and clear the fragmentation in cache

the only person i know in my day to day life who bought the game completed it with no problems. i also have the game, but after reading the horror stories on these forums, i'm waiting for a patch before i play the game.

anyone on here will tell you not to play the game until it is patched...some would probably tell you to return it. while i certainly wouldn't go that far, i would strongly recommend waiting until it is in more stable condition and there is no chance of losing your saves or anything like that.

Not totally true. I've had no issues with the patch, and I can confirm that five other people I know of with the game haven't as well.

I'm about 50 hours in and the only problem I've had is that I accidentally modded my DLC weathered 10 mm. Thankfully I had an autosave from just before I modded it so it wasn't a big deal. I understand the frustration of the players on this forum but to the OP, you have to realize that the people experiencing game breaking issues are in the minority. Coming to this forum and asking about the reliability of the game is probably not the best basis to form an opinion. Don't get me wrong, I'd be really pissed if I had sunk hours into the game and couldn't play it anymore but several thousands of people bought this game and how many unique names do you see posting here?

You may as well give it a shot. Some people (such as myself) haven't (yet?) run into any of the serious bugs, and there are people who have finished the game without having a problem. There are various theories here and elsewhere about what "causes" the bugs but no-one really knows. You may as well take your chances, in my opinion, because the game really is a lot of fun.

"bump" and thanks for your answers so far. Good to read that some of you didn't have any problems.

I can say that I've had no really major problems, I mean, I've had some crashes, but that's about it. I've had no issues with the patch. The patched game is the only version of the game I've played (the patch was released before the game was released in EU). But other than that, the game runs fine.

There's a couple of tips you should know:

• Save regularly
  
• Cycle multiple (3+) save files for each playthrough, when saving, save over the oldest.
  
• NEVER rely on autosave (turn it off if you wish)
  
• After 2-4 hours of playing, restart the game and/or console

70 hours in and have had no game breaking bugs.

I have had a couple of quests unfinishable, however, due to scritpting bugs. They were all near the end.

I would say just give it a try, you may be one of the lucky ones

I am also considering purchase, I hope to buy a used FONV lol. That some angry customer turned in. I had the PC version, but eventually gave up on it and returned it while raising hell to get my refund, eventually it was given to me after climbing a long ladder. I refused to spend hours upon hours trying to research someones problems. If thats the cause with these guys, they should be selling there games for half the cost.

I have to admit, when I first bought the game I had no problems and was really excited. My girlfriend started playing that night and also played for several hours with no problem.
When the first update posted her game became unplayable due to freezing and crashing when fast traveling and using VATS. Mine did not. We had not read the forums and so sought to fix the problem by erasing the save files and starting over.
We had our two profiles on the same console and mine was fine and hers wasn't. She got so frustrated she stopped playing altogether and is waiting for the patch. I started over after clearing the cache and until today have not even had a freeze. I do not like the idea of hard rebooting my console so I think that I will wait until the patch is released I would like to see if the freezing problem has been fixed on her profile but I know she is too frustrated to start over and I don't want to start over for her on her profile only to erase it after determining if the vats freeze problem has been fixed.
This game is going to give me a stroke.

I would like to add to that list I haven't experienced very many glitches when playing. Just enjoy the game and tread carefully

Since you've already ordered, I say go ahead and play but do not let LIVE update the game. If the game locks up and forces you to hard shutdown your xbox more than a couple times, I would lay off the game until a real fix is available. Hard reboots are very unhealthy for your xbox.

Edit: stupid fingers causing stupid typos... :facepalm:

So, I finally received it today. Super hyped about starting my character but...small amount of fear. Some threads speak of a lot of freeze and hardreboots. Playing GOTY of Fallout 3, it happened to me just twice in 50 hours of gameplay. I will start a new game and see where this takes me. I thank you all for your advices.