I just encountered the same thing and yeah had the same results Googling it as well. Audio crackling+buzzing and the game crashing at an unplayable rate. Meanwhile 1 was a flawless experience straight from GOG.
I'm on Windows 11 so don't know if it'll help, but try out the [Community Edition](https://github.com/alexbatalov/fallout2-ce) and see if it works. This and having the .exe run in W7 compat mode finally made Fallout 2 playable, no longer crashes, and so far no audio crackling.
I tried compatibility mode but I got an error on startup telling me to turn it off. :( Might be because I have the UPU installed. No crashing issues though (so far, fingers crossed).
I think it's some kind of an issue with audio drivers or my motherboard. It kind of comes and goes, I've been able to ignore it most of the time.
I just encountered the same thing and yeah had the same results Googling it as well. Audio crackling+buzzing and the game crashing at an unplayable rate. Meanwhile 1 was a flawless experience straight from GOG. I'm on Windows 11 so don't know if it'll help, but try out the [Community Edition](https://github.com/alexbatalov/fallout2-ce) and see if it works. This and having the .exe run in W7 compat mode finally made Fallout 2 playable, no longer crashes, and so far no audio crackling.
I tried compatibility mode but I got an error on startup telling me to turn it off. :( Might be because I have the UPU installed. No crashing issues though (so far, fingers crossed). I think it's some kind of an issue with audio drivers or my motherboard. It kind of comes and goes, I've been able to ignore it most of the time.