Originally published on Trevor Trove on May 9, 2016
Bethesda announced that getting Fallout 4 mods to a closed beta on Xbox One will be one of the team’s top focuses following the launch of the Far Harbor DLC in a couple weeks (with PlayStation 4 mods to follow shortly thereafter). As someone who, in the era of PC mods, has been primarily a console gamer, I’ve unfortunately missed out on enjoying most mods first-hand. Instead, I’ve typically only been able to enjoy them vicariously through amusing videos or screenshots.
The exception to the rule was Skyrim, which I actually did play on PC after hearing the PlayStation 3 version was abysmal (and remembering my own horrible late-game Fallout 3 issues on the console). I put a couple hundred hours into the game. But even there, I mostly avoided mods. Part of the reason for this probably stemmed from running the game on an under-powered system that was already chugging a lot to keep even the base game going. But for the way I enjoy video games, I also didn’t really feel the need to have lightsabers or Final Fantasy weapons breaking the immersion of my time in Tamriel. That said, I did download and enjoy the Portal mod that featured the Space Core from Portal 2. But other than that, the only mods I really downloaded were sound packs to add more ambient noise to the game, a mod that added quest markers for the otherwise hard-to-find Stones of Barenziah quest, and a mod that allowed Dragon Souls to be used to upgrade perks, which I don’t even remember actually using…
Fallout 4 might pull me into the mod game though. Especially if it hits PS4 sooner than later. I’m already planning on spending a better part of the next couple months revisiting the game and enjoying side quests I missed, other endings, DLC, etc. There isn’t too much else coming out that I’m overly dying to play. And as a fan of the Wild Wasteland-esque Easter Eggs from all the way back to the first game, the idea of wandering the Commonwealth with Danse in a Buzz Lightyear-inspired suit of power armor doesn’t feel so much like it’s breaking the immersion of the world because those bits of humor have always been a part of the franchise for me.