Deadly Premonition

Your game is crashing in the hospital because it's looking for a file in your game's /updata/movie folder that isn't there. It doesn't actually use the video files in there as far as I can tell, except to check to see if they're there. If one is missing, the game crashes. The subfolder /updata/movie/prm can be used as a sort of manifest to see which files are missing. Because the game doesn't actually play those video files, you can resolve the issue by creating a blank text file and saving it with the appropriate name (the first missing file is ScnD03.wmv, names are not case sensitive) and making sure to add the .wmv file extension. If you want, you can even replace the existing .wmv files in the /updata/movie folder (DO NOT REPLACE THE FILES IN /updata/movie/prm) with blank text files saved with the .wmv file extension and cut the game's filesize by over a third.
You're welcome.
P.S. If you find the game crashing for you at the same spot repeatedly, try taking a different route. I find that trying to take Adam's St toward the hospital in Chapter 6 does this.

This is the greatest game of all time. Bad controls? Nope, that's intentional. Cliche dialogue? Wrong again, all part of the genius that is the story. Doesn't work on PC without mods? Well yeah but again, all part of the mystique. So bad it's good? HA, try so good it can never be reproduced. There's no world where a Twin Peaks video game could ever be good, so thank god we have this masterpiece. I saw this entire review in my cup of coffee

As the age old addage goes; keep your expectations low, and even then you may be dissapointed.
But you won't be too dissapointed if you keep trying to make this work.
Set DP.exe to run as administrator and run in compatibility for Windows 8.
Set DPLaucher.exe to also run as administrator.
Out of all the fixes, for some reason this works... I'm on Windows 11 if that helps anyone else, seems like it's just trial and error for most people.
Before I couldn't even launch the game, now Zach and I are catching up having a good old time just like my coffee said we would
Update 1
Hit my first frozen blackscreen. As others in the community suggested, I changed DP.exe to run in compatibility for Windows XP Service Pack 3. I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.
Update 2
Needed to change the compatibility back and forth from Windows XP to 8 to get through the
Community Centre Gathering chapter from the game freezing at certain points. It's schizophrenia, isn't it Zach?
Update 3
The game crashes in Episode 2 right before you go to meet Olivia behind the diner and will work in XP Service Pack 3, but now this feels like it's running at 10fps. Playing in windowed mode helps a tiny bit before I could turn back to Windows 8 compatibility.
So what makes me keep playing this game? It feels special enough to want to try to finish it. It's a game with the setting and vibes of Twin Peaks, some influence in encounters and experiences from Silent Hill, the voice acting is masterful in bringing the characters to life. And ofcourse it's absolutely goofy in parts. I'm enjoying the story, small town murder turns into finding whats festering underneath the community.
I'd ONLY recommend this on sale from how horrific the port for this game is, like others have said, I kind of wish I had brought this on Switch. Oh well, it gives me more time to think about which movie I'll watch after this.

Good luck playing this version of the game.
If you can get this version working or you want that legal gray spot of "well I payed for the game so I can pirate it". You are in for a bat shit insane Alice steps thru the looking glass mystery horror. Tho dated for even when it was released, it has that spark that makes it worth it.
HOWEVER don't expect this game to work on Steam. The pirates at least have the courtesy of making sure the game runs. Unlike Steam. Ya, anyone that quotes Gabe about piracy being a service problem, you are a fool. Steam was never about service or beating the pirates. It was about convenience to the already paying players. This game proving that.

I like the Twin Peaks inspired story this game have, I also don't think the gameplay is that bad and honestly don't really care about the bad graphics. The real problem of this game is the horrible optimization, the game frequently crashes or freezes when entering or exiting cutscenes.
you can "avoid" that by installing DPFix, placing the folder on the games directory, then going to pack - DPFix.ini - then go to the window options section and change "forceWindowed 0" to "forceWindowed 1" OR "borderlessFullscreen 0" to "borderlessFullscreen 1" (Borderless Fullscreen 1 will overwrite ForceWindowed 1, so choose one of the two). Now if you chose force Windowed, make sure to launch the game, go to "settings" and uncheck "fullscreen". If you chose borderless Fullscreen than you don't need to do that. even though, you can't truly avoid all freezes and crashes but now you can play the game.
Honestly, talking about the game it self, I just love it, it's like if you mix Twin peaks with Shenmue, I just can't describe the game's story but I love not only the plot itself, but also the feeling of solving a criminal case.

Great game minus the occasional crashes. (Its not a bug its a feature!)
Play on windows 98 compatibility if you get stuck somewhere.

Without a doubt, one of the best games I've ever played!! Has issues with buggy Steam port, but still 100% worth experiencing.

I'll start by acknowledging a really apparent flaw with Deadly Premonition, to get it out of the way. The Steam port of this game is notoriously difficult to play. It crashes constantly. You have to implement a bunch of different fixes to make the game even playable - Files from the community to 'fix' the game, RivaTuner to cap the framerate, etc etc. While Deadly Premonition is absolutely worth suffering through crashes for, it's important to note that it *is* incredibly irritating to get working on Steam. There are ways around the crashing, though, and there are ways to play DP on other platforms or get other versions of the game to work on PC. I would highly *highly* recommend trying an alternative version, because the game is absolutely worth it.

Let's move on to the positives. This'll be spoiler-free! Deadly Premonition is a game that has extremely memorable environments, stories, and characters. The cast is eccentric in the best way. It's very similar to Twin Peaks in the sense that it's not afraid to be weird in its story direction and sense of humor. The main character of the story, Francis York Morgan, is hilariously odd in his own way. But every character in this game is extremely well-written, with well fleshed out backstories and interesting personalities.

The story itself is also intriguing. It definitely delves into the weird symbolic side of storytelling, but I'm personally a fan, and I think the method of storytelling in DP adds a lot to the meaning behind the game. In addition, almost every side mission in this game has an engaging story as well. There are twists and turns in the story that I never personally expected, but that were set up well in my opinion. While some story elements may seem far-fetched when they're first revealed, if you look back at past scenes, every plot point is set up or alluded to before it actually happens. It's very satisfying in this way, because paying attention and thinking critically in this game actually pays off! As a game that centers around a murder mystery, it helps with immersing yourself in the world - It makes you feel like an FBI agent alongside York, almost.

The mechanics of the game can be clunky, but I personally think that they add to the game's charm. As someone who has 103 hours in DP at the time of writing this review, the combat mechanics aren't hard to get used to. Fights against certain enemies can feel repetitive at times, but this can be counteracted by doing missions to get better/more effective tools and weapons throughout the game. There are a *lot* of interesting and handy weapons(and even vehicles!) sprinkled throughout the game that rewards the player for doing side missions and getting immersed in the world of Greenvale. And, by the way, the side missions are actually worth playing. They're not just simple fetch quests, they almost always have interesting stories/tidbits of lore themselves.

The sound design is genuinely hilarious (most, if not all(?) Not sure on this point) are stock sound effects. The voice acting leaves a bit to be desired sometimes, but it weirdly works well with the wacky tone of the game. The character animations are also pretty charming too. Overall, this is definitely a rare case of a game being so bad it's good. Deadly Premonition is absolutely worth a playthrough (or two or three!) While it may be frustrating to get to work, the charming atmosphere and hilarious characters make for a really memorable and positive experience. It's definitely one of my favorites, and I'll never forget the experience of playing it!

TL;DR: DP's Steam port can be very frustrating to deal with, but there are ways around that. It's worth working around, because the game has a memorable, intriguing story with amazing characters and charming missions. The mechanics feel clunky at first but feel smoother after playing for a few hours, and the combat can be given more variety by earning weapons and vehicles through side missions(Which are actually fun and interesting and not just fetch quests.) I'd recommend this game to anyone, any day of the week!