Normally when you play Fallout Fixt or Fallout Et Tu they run separately from Steam and don't track your playtime. If you paid attention during the Et Tu installation you might have seen them mention a Steam Detour. This magic little program actually works for any game and is super simple to set up.

Most people who play Fallout Fixt might not even know about it. Others who do might have thought it only worked with Et Tu. Well I'm here to show you how to set it up for either patch.

First go grab the program here:
https://nma-fallout.com/threads/steamdetour-run-fallout-mods-from-steam.220425/

Just click on Latest Release, or go to the Source which is Github if you're curious.

Once you have that, extract the zip folder anywhere you want.

As you probably noticed they explain how to use this program, but I found their explanation rather confusing. So I'll go into more depth.

I'm going to assume you already know what Fallout Fixt is, but if you don't you can find it here:
https://www.nma-fallout.com/resources/fallout-fixt-full-all-fixes-and-mods.8/

Once you have that bad boy installed, find Fallout in your Steam launcher. Right click it and hit Properties

You will then be presented with this window. All you need to worry about is the Launch Options section. This is where the magic happens.

In the space where you can enter text put this:

"C:\Users\moonv\Downloads\SteamDetour\SteamDetour.exe" "C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout\Fallout Fixt\FALLOUTW.exe" %command%

The first path is where you saved Steam Detour. The second path is where Fallout Fixt is which by default should look something like my path.

That's it! You can now launch the game through Steam (don't pick Classic) and your playtime will now be logged.

Setting up Et Tu is basically the same principle as Fallout Fixt. If you don't know what Et Tu is you can get it here:
https://github.com/rotators/Fo1in2

Install that (you'll need both Fallout 1 and 2 installed for it to work) then right click on Fallout in your Steam launcher and click Properties.

You'll see this window. All you need is the Launch Options.

Now drop this into the text box:

"C:\Users\moonv\Downloads\SteamDetour\SteamDetour.exe" "C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 2\Fallout1in2\Fallout2.exe" %command%

The first path is where you saved Steam Detour. The second path is where Fallout Et Tu is installed, which by default will be in you Fallout 2 directory like mine.

That's it! Now you can launch the game through Steam (don't choose Classic) and your playtime will now be tracked!

Switching is super easy. I'd recommend just keeping a notepad with the launch options ready, but even if you don't do that all you need to do is change the second path. You can do this for any game, not just Fallout.

For example, you could set it up so that Fallout 2 launches FOnline instead!

I hope this was helpful. Since you've stayed until the end I'll give my thoughts on both versions.

Fallout Fixt is a really great patch to the game that seems to stay true to the original vision. I highly recommend it if you want a more vanilla playthrough. It also lets you play after the ending which is always nice. I did however experience frequent crashing on random encounters for some reason but the rest of the game ran perfectly.

Fallout Et Tu brings all the quality of life improvements from Fallout 2 back into 1. If you don't care about having a vanilla experience I highly recommend trying this out, as a lot of these features are a god send. For example, doors open automatically instead of you having to manually open them (which sucks) and you get the Combat Control feature in the companion menu. Also trading works properly instead of having to pay your companions to get your stuff back.

Anyways, have fun in the wasteland!