Hello, ever since Fallout: New Vegas came out I have been unable to play the game. I recieve a steam error message stating that "Fallout: New Vegas is currently unavailable, please try again at another time." EVERY TIME I try to run the game this happens, EVER SINCE I bought the game on release day. I am contacted Steam support 6 times, but they have not provided a solution that works. I have tried every fix in the book. If anyone out there has a solution that can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. Needless to say, I am extremely frustrated because I can't afford to just "waste" 50 bucks on a video game. ( I am a poor college kid...)

I was also wondering if I transfering the game to another steam account and re-installing it there would fix this problem. I don't think I have ever been more frustrated about a videogame in my life...

EDIT - Sorry for posting this in the wrong section. I have no clue why I did lol xD

I've got that few times with other games (Steam version of Oblivion, atleast), but it's always worked on the second try :shrug: Have you tried starting it in offline mode?

I had that at first, but it let me in OK after I'd logged off of my Steam account and logged back on again - I expect that's about as much use as a chocolate teapot because that's probably the first thing you tried

Yes I have tried both of what you say... It's just so frustrating I was wondering if my steam is corrupt or the game is corrupt or something... I just don't know anymore lol. Thanks anyways you guys.

I received a rather large "Steam patch" last night and wondered if it helped you at all. I though of you as it installed.

I couldn't run it at first either until I disabled steam in steam settings,
then "run steam in offline mode" and launched the game from the
FalloutNV.exe inside the steam directory... that got it to work for me..

M

Yeah steam causes a ton of extra un-needed issues it also says 1 of my files is messed up on the file check that is also part of the bugs we are getting.... about to open up my collectors edition.... just hate i will have to run it off the disk... each time I want to play. Should had gotten it from direct2drive... for my digital download vershion.

Randomly crashing at rare times when exploring but its rare.
Problematic area would be the Ultra Lux bathhouse... i have to look at the wall and not the bath after i meet the guy who gets waxed to get out and not get a crash everytime....
Then with the tops if you have ED-E with you when you talk to swank and get all your weapons back inside it bugs ED-E for the rest of the game he has issues following you aka he just sits there and he is perma disarmed.
Those are about my two biggest gripes... so far.

That won't make any difference as FONV uses Steamworks so you're forced to use Steam regardless of where you get it.

You sure normally a hard copy and direct to drive dont use steam works they use games for windows live and last I checked. I hope it is not stuck to steam I might open up my collectors edition just to find out.

damn your right lame.... has steam on the disk i was hoping to have a none steam vershion in case of issues like this.... grrrrrr

I'm on a very different system than I was on when I first had the game and it was pretty much unplayable. Even on this system, I've had some of the some problems, but I have a ritual that so far seems to work reasonably well re: Steam and its pesky interference.

1. I *always* play offline. That's been a big help. I still crash, but I can get hours of play before it happens.

2, After any crash, I go back online for Steam, go into properties and revalidate the game (getting the inevitable error and quick reload of what I'm guessing are the DRM authnetication files).

3. I go back offline and either reboot my system or just start the game in offline mode.

4. If I come back up, I immediately re-save my game in a new slot to avoid potential save corruptions from the Steam fail.

5. If it's stable in the first couple of minutes, I'm in the clear for several hours.

Maybe this will help people who suspect that they're having problems with Steam and the .exe file. I'ts made a huge difference for me. I know isolating your problems is pretty much a crap shoot with this thing, but maybe this'll help someone.

"Fallout: New Vegas is currently unavailable, please try again at another time." please help me~

Thanks you guys, I will try what you have recommended and see if anything works...

I get the exact same error ALL the time. "Game is unavailable. Please try again later."

I have tried all troubleshooting ideas on Steam, I have contacted Steam, I have contacted Bethesda. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IS WRONG.

The weird part is that the game installs/loads on my laptop, but not my desktop. But that's pointless considering my laptop will run at 10 fps. The only thing I can figure is that it's hardware/driver related. I have updated my drivers to the most stable versions, but still nothing.

I really hope they fix this. This is ridiculous for $50. I haven't been able to even launch the game. The only thing mildly comforting is the fact that I am not the only one with this issue.

Do you have other Steam games?

Just wondering. The only time this error normally appears is if Steam cannot contact their server to verify you're running the current build, or the build you're running is not patched to the latest build.

Many times validating your games files will fix this, since when validation runs, it may realize you're not up to date on your release patch and will then patch the game.

Yes I have a LOT of other Steam games. And many of them use Steamworks, too. They all seem to run fine (I just installed Black Ops today, worked fine).

I have validated my game files many times as well as forced Steam to update. Still doesn't work. I always get one file that fails validation. The InstallScript.vdf file. However, Steam sites say this often fails validation and it's no big deal. Steam even tries to update it, but then if I run the verification again, it fails.

This whole thing is really confusing and very frustrating.

Out of interest if you copy the Steam folder from the working machine to the non-working does it still fail?
This could be to another folder/location just to test, Steam is pretty good about that. One of the few good points.
Also O/S, etc. never hurts

Yea I thought about that. I will try it, but I don't expect it to work heh.

Copying the directory over didn't help. It appears to be an issue either with hardware/drivers (but all my drivers are up to date) or Steam validation.

Are we close to a solution for this? It's very annoying to have this $50 game that I can't play.

RIght-click on the game, and make sure that Automatically Keep This Game Updated is selected.

It is set to automatically update.

LoL, heheh... me too.
So (to be clear) there's nothing wrong with Steam for you guys - it hooks up, and you can play other games okay, right?
But just the New Vegas title, it says 'game not available at this time' - wtf is that?
It seems like it could be some kind of weird verification system that's glitching you...?
I mean, the files are all right there on your harddisk (just like FO3) but if you try running it without Steam it doesn't work. So it must be going to Steam to authorize you when you first fire it up.
Sometimes authorization problems can occur if you have a wireless internet connection (or even a wired one) that is many hops removed from the internet, behind multiple NAT firewalls or proxy server(s).
Also, some CDs and DVDs install software that will remain on your system, and disable certain programs used to rip CDs and DVDs, and wreak havok on your general DVD funcionality and also many kinds of authorizations/verifications.
For example, you might be attempting to play the game on a Teenager-PC that is running filesharing and torrents, ripping DVDs and Blurays, burning stuff of dubious heritage, etc...
Codecs flyin' left and right, Windows in rough shape, infected with this & that. Messengers, updaters and all kinds of bloatware running while you're trying to start this game.
Not saying this is you!
But all these types of things can be factors when struggling with updating/authorization/verification issues over the www.
Also: you might go into Optional updates in Windows Update, and update your Root Certificates and any other updates referring to security and authorization/verification compliance.
But I'd be upset if I were you.
Good luck (hope something/anything helps!)
Regards

I have the same problem. I only have Fallout. So I guess I have less of an idea WTF is wrong than the rest of you. I'll keep looking here to see if there is a solution. I'm bummed that you even need to hook up to the internet to play, much less go through another server. Just makes it that more things CAN go wrong , and they have

Mark

I've had this problem with a couple steam games over the years.

The directions at the following link has always solved those problems for me, hope it helps.

http://supportwiki.steampowered.com/wiki/ClientRegistry.blob

If you've been in contact with Steam support they've probably had you do this already, if not give it a try.

I have done that multiple times. I have followed the other guide they have in their FAQ's/Wiki. I have been in contact with Steam and they told me to ask Bethesda. I called Bethesda and they created a trouble ticket but I haven't heard anything since then.

The machine runs no torrent software and no spyware. The machine is only used by me.

This is really annoying. I should have just taken a $50 bill and lit it on fire. I would have gotten more enjoyment out of that at least.