Fallout 3 Crashing to Desktop Every 5 Minutes with Quad Core Processor

Problem:

You own a modern computer that has a quad-core or a virtualized quad-core.  Fallout 3 will launch, but crash to desktop every 5 minutes, rendering the game unplayable.

Solution:

You can force the game to only use 2 cores, which is all it can handle.  Some sites say it can only handle one, unfortunately I can't remember exactly what I did for a fix.  Here is a guide from the internet, which is probably close to what I followed:

1. Open "fallout.ini" in the installation directory.
2. Find "bUseThreadedAI=0" in the General settings.
3. Change to "bUseThreadedAI=1".
4. [Optional] Add an additional line underneath with "iNumHWThreads=2".

Musings:

Besides the Elder Scrolls series, the Fallout series has to be my favorite video game.  It just sucks that their game engine has to be so buggy.  For games with poor gameplay, I don't mind if they die quickly in the annals of game history and are forgotten.  But for classics, it's really sad that there's no way these games get continually patched and stay up to date so people can enjoy them.

For me, the game I miss is Morrowind and even the Overhaul is buggy enough that it's not worth it for me.  Though I hear that fans are working on recreating it in Skyrim, which should be amazing if completed.  I just don't understand why businesses can justify millions of dollars in capital investment in new games that often turn out to be mediocre, but can't justify an engine and graphics update for old games with great story and gameplay.  I know it's a lot of work, but it would certainly be cheaper and faster to market than a new game.  And while you couldn't charge $60 for it, you could probably get people to pay $40 for an updated version.  I mean, how many people want to suffer with old visuals?  People can get nostalgic about old 8-bit graphics, but I don't see anyone getting truly nostalgic for the low-poly models used in early 3D games.