Copypasting from the Steam forums because I'm looking for solutions wherever I can get them:

"Been playing the game for years and started again on this Windows 10 machine and now it crashes regularly, even with the UP.

In Santa Monica, the game will regularly crash if you get close enough to load the 'doomsayer' guy with the sign. If I manage to kill him before he can say anything, the game doesn't crash there. The crash is an 'access violation' so I assume it's trying to load his audio files and failing. Again, I am using the UP and I've even been using the GOG version.

Another crash occurs when going to Downtown for the first time and the 'Nines intro' plays. The game shows the sewer grate and then crashes.

Yet another crash occurs in the hospital when approaching Pasha. You'll be making your way through the building and it will crash just before seeing her, every time.

And I gave up when the game crashed again on the Elizabeth Dane when getting near the sarcophagus.

All of these crashes are 'access violations' and I'm stumped as to the cause. No one else seems to be having these issues, least of all with the UP. I'm playing as a Nos, if that matters. These crashes seem to be occurring with or without the UP, and with or without turning on SafeDisc DRM. I've reinstalled maybe four or five times and the crashes keep happening on both the Steam and GOG version. I'm at wit's end, frankly."

I really don't know what else to do. The game is running in Windows XP compatibility mode and as an administrator, I've installed it to a separate "games" folder in the C: drive and not in Program Files, the only thing I can think of that's left is to wipe this machine and reinstall Windows 10 and the game. Any help would be appreciated.

Cannot recreate your issue unfortunately.
So I'll just go with general troubleshooting questions, maybe one will be useful.

Have you checked the integrity of your HD lately?
Any possibility of your Antivirus deleting things it shouldn't or interfering?
Any overlays enabled, Shadowplay, etc.
Are you using resizable bar?
Windows Game mode in use?
Any extra USB Audio devices plugged in (e.g. Headphones), or changes in Windows default audio settings (bitrate etc)?
Are there any startup programs that could be interfering with the game (i.e try to do as clean a boot as possible)
What are the specs of the machine in question?
How does the game run NOT using any compatibility/administrator modes, just using the vanilla "Launch Vampire - The Masquerade - Bloodlines" in the GOG version of vtmb? (Should enable the basic patch, and seems to work flawlessly with my Win 10 install)

Finally figured it out. I added an exception to Windows Security for my c:\games folder (which contains VTM:B) and then reinstalled the game. No more crashes. I can't say for sure but I think it was aggressively restricting read/write access. Thought I'd mention it here for anyone with the same problem.

Nevermind, it went right back to crashing again in the exact same spots. I didn't change a single thing, it was working fine and one day later, it isn't working again.

I refuse to reinstall, I've done that a hundred times now. This is maddening. I refuse to believe that my PC is just so unique and different that this issue that no one else seems to be having could keep occuring again and again. It literally makes no sense.

Nope, I've known about the Windows Media Player crash for a while so I don't touch that. Just now tested without compatibility and admin modes again, no dice. I'm getting ready to install the game on a separate system entirely and see if it does anything there.

Really don't understand why it work for a little while and then stop again, makes no sense. In typical fashion the crash logs are useless.

Installed on a completely different computer and it's crashing at the exact same spots as before. Unreal.

Sorry to keep spamming this thread, but I decided to turn on console logging to see if that could reveal anything that the crash logs weren't.

During each of the crashes, the console outputs this in the log at the very bottom (where I assume the game crashes):

"Loading game from SAVE\sp_tutorial_1.HL1...
Loading game from SAVE\sp_theatre.HL1...
Loading game from SAVE\sm_pawnshop_1.HL1...

Host_Error: Level transition ERROR
Can't find connection to la_hospital_1 from sp_tutorial_1"

(This was during a test to approach Pasha again, hence la_hospital_1)

I suspected it had something to do with the tutorial, given the game was somehow trying to connect the tutorial to my current level. The log for when I was on the Elizabeth Dane had a similar message, but "la_hospital_1" was replaced with the Dane's HL1 filename.

So, I tried the following:

1. I started a new game, then when the new game had loaded into the alleyway with Jack, I loaded my save file just before Pasha (where a crash consistently occurred). Sure enough, I could approach Pasha without issue.

2. I then tried starting a new game, saving in the alleyway, then quit the game. I opened the game again, loaded that alleyway save, then loaded the save just before Pasha. This time, the game crashed.

3. Then, I opened the game, started a new game, then loaded the Pasha save. No crash. I then loaded my save on the Elizabeth Dane. Again, no crash.

The short of it appears that these crashes related to loading specific data (at least I assume that's where they're occurring, since I have no other leads on this) do not occur if you start a new game (loading a save in the tutorial area will not work, a new game needs to be started even if you don't save or continue it) and then load the save that's experiencing problems. It further appears that this needs to be done every time you launch the game.

I'm genuinely baffled by this. Starting a temporary new game and then loading your actual save game seems to be a workaround, but this doesn't explain the crashes in the first place. Something about those HL1/2/3 files seems to be the culprit, but I can't begin to know what it is about them that crashes the game.

In any case, I can continue the game but hopefully someone smarter than me can figure out what's actually going on.

One last post on this, I tried the solution above on the installation on a different PC and it also worked there. So, if nothing else, the workaround seems to consistently work.

Holy Bals this was a strange thing to read. Real strange that YOU were the only one who got this error. No-one else ever posted about this anywhere?

I scoured forum posts going back to the game's release and couldn't find anything related. The fact that it happened on two separate PCs is really what gets me.

Is this really that unusual? Over the years I've had lots of problems that weren't documented anywhere.

Can you get me a fulll copy of the console log, using a savegame where your character starts from an adjacent map and goes to one of the crash places? The easiest to acces is probably starting in one of the SM buildings and going strait to the doomsayer. Maybe I can find something there that will give me a hint.

And you should post your problem on PlanetVampire. The community over there is still quite active and by now there are experts on almost every aspect of the game and modding it.

fixed via unofficial patch

https://www.moddb.com/mods/vtmb-unofficial-patch/downloads Im dealing with the same error codes but cant even start a new game. was running yesterday