[FONV] Old Cowboy Hat

Finally experienced a significant game breaking glitch.

The game would lock-up when trying to enter strip. The only solution was for me to use the Old Cowboy Hat trick. Funny thing is that it did not happen in my other previous playthroughs.

Anyway, it seems that it is widely known. I had no idea until now.

At least, it worked.

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/the-old-cowboy-hat-that-breaks-fallout-new-vegas-20101110/

Ahh yes, I recall hearing about this.

Thank goodness I abhor cowboy hats and never wore one.

If it happens to you, you might want to wear it just for entering Strip, then dropping it somewhere.

They say that NPCs do not pick it up, but I put it in a corner of the first part of the Strip, just in case (since I do not see anyone going to that particular corner).

I never had the problem.

*knocks on desk

I have not had this problem until this third character.

I was flippin pissed since this character is arguably my most successful character (maybe just straight up killing is better done by my second character with super VATS automated combat ability. LoL). Thought I had to abandon it completely.

Now, at least can save the latest save file for this and move onto melee character, since I got to level 30 with this one and can come back to it any time.

That's the strangest thing I've ever heard of. Couldn't you kill the character with the cowboy hat, and just take it/wear it to fix the glitch though?

What I am thinking is that the game requires that either McCaffrey(?) is alive, his body fragment found somewhere in the Strip, or his hat (or regular Old Cowboy Hat) needs to be present in the Strip in order for the screen to load successfully. Or maybe killed off by an NPC, since it seems like he goes off trying to destroy Wrangler himself, and gets him destroyed instead (from what I read).

I never killed him before, but this time around, I just wanted Bounty Hunter Duster off of him.

Wow.....im actually wearing mccafferys hat atm. And it still glitched this for me...

Guess it has nothing to do with his hat then. LoL

But anyway, go and buy one from Mick and Ralph store in Freeside, if you do not have one with you.

Did your screen just go black when it glitched for you?

Yup.

You enter the strip, loading screen, then blank.

Annoyed / angered the heck out of me. Thought I wasted the entire character just because of this, but at least there was a go around to it.

With my new Ninja character, I made sure I put a hat in the corner, even though I did not have a problem entering it (just as a safety for the future).

so I have to have a cowboy hat on every time going in the strip?

No.

You can buy it, then enter the strip.

Once you are in, and are through the glitch, go to any corner of that section of strip (the first section of strip where Lucky 38 is located) and drop the hat. It should stay there indefinitely.

I just dropped in a corner where I have never seen any NPCs goto, just in case, but it seems that if you drop something that is not a weapon nobody picks it up.