There’s no debating that Bethesda has drastically altered the Fallout franchise. It was once a series dedicated to player choice, narrative, and a condemnation of nuclear weapons. Now Bethesda’s latest take on the franchise, Fallout 76, is an online co-op shooter with little in the way of story or choice, and actively encourages players to use nuclear weapons for giggles. If a point has ever flown higher over anybody’s head, you’d better get out of the way.
But while the official Fallout franchise is lying face down in the Massachusetts Bay, the unofficial world of Fallout is thriving, thanks to mods.
Not Your Half-Step Sister-in-Law’s Twice Removed Mods
Modding has always been a big part of Fallout. Even today, you can find people toiling away with fantastic additions and changes to the original game. But ever since Fallout 4’s release, widely seen in the Fallout community as the turning point for the franchise, fans have stepped up their game.
It’s no longer about nude mods and cool no-scope l33t guns (not entirely, anyway). Now, modders are taking it upon themselves to create DLC-sized expansions for both Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4. Some of these expansions are even full-length games, made entirely from scratch by the hard work of programmers, artists, 3D modelers, voice actors, and of course writers. I even had the pleasure to work on some of these massive mods back in the day, though I was rightly jettisoned from these projects before I could do any lasting damage.
Fallout: New California
We cover the mods in greater detail in the video above, but some of the incredible projects in the works right now include Fallout: Miami, Fallout: Cascadia, Fallout 4: New Vegas, and Fallout: The Frontier, the latter of which I worked on many years ago. You may have also heard about the release of Fallout: New California, a brand new game made using Fallout: New Vegas’ engine, set before the events of that game. Like the game it’s based on, it promises hundreds of hours of content, complete with side quests, full voice acting, and the player choice and consequences Fallout is known for.
Bethesda may not have any interest in quality video games preserving the legacy of Fallout, but longtime fans of the series and what it represents do. Thanks to the tireless (and often unpaid) efforts of these modders, the real Fallout will live on forever.
