One of the more popular Fallout 4 mods this side of The Commonwealth has got a meaty new update. Sim Settlements 2 is the follow up to an equally warmly embraced mod that reimagined the building system so NPC settlers could construct their own darn homes under your supervision. Sim Settlements 2 has a similar sense of community, though it's very much a story-driven affair, and that's ever-present in Chapter 2.
Sim Settlements 2's Gunner Outbreak expansion continues the mod's story, adding three new additional side-quests for you to check out alongside some other neat new features. In short, you're still on your quest to rebuild The Commonwealth, though Chapter 2 expands further on the backstory of the Gunners.
There are new groups to meet, too. The CPD has come together under the banner of pre-war police departments to oppose the growing Gunner threat. It's up to you, though, to lead the group towards peace and justice or brutality and vengeance. The Nightingales, meanwhile, is a more peaceful sort, bringing with it a knowledge of old medicine and healing arts. The group is neutral and believes in helping everyone, though you can try to sway the Nightingales to take a side.
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What if: Fallout 5 is set before the bombs dropped?
The best Fallout 4 mods in 2021
This mod brings Fallout New Vegas to Fallout 4
Todd Howard has a "one-pager" for Fallout 5. Perhaps Bethesda Game Studios is working on bringing that initial design doc to life, or maybe it handed development over to another studio as it did to Obsidian for Fallout: New Vegas. Either way, the developers probably have some clue as to what it's going to be about. And we don't.
That gives us a golden opportunity to put forth an idea that will horrify you: the idea of a Fallout 5 set in the world before the bombs drop. The snatches of Fallout's pre-war world were always its most gripping narrative element. The very first thing the original CRPG shows you is a world clinging onto the visual language and cheery public service broadcasts of our real-world post-war America, despite having been bombed to a fine paste. How and why did that culture form?
In that first RPG, and indeed all its sequels, an alt-history timeline plots depleting resources and superpowers squabbling over the scraps, leading of course to a giant nuclear war that leaves the world irreparably brown. So what was life like during those years, from the 2050s to the 2070s?
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The best Fallout 4 mods in 2021
This mod brings Fallout New Vegas to Fallout 4
Fallout 4 mod Sim Settlements 2 gets a "DLC-sized expansion" this fall
Fallout 4's world is full of survivors and scavengers desperately clinging on for dear life. Using the remains of technologies from the past, they bolt things together to create machines that are just about improvements on what came before, and that's considered progress. In many ways, that's also Fallout 4.
While there's a brand new engine rumbling beneath its newly painted bodywork, the pieces that fit together to make this behemoth of a game are distinctly familiar. There are a few new features that stand out like shiny chromed components, but from moment to moment Fallout 4 feels like its two modern predecessors: vast, packed, quirky, and held together with nails and duct tape. Fallout. Fallout never changes.
Fallout 4 transports us to Boston, 200 years after nuclear war devastates the United States. In a new move for Fallout, the prologue shows us pre-war America in its 1950s-style retro-future glory. It's here that you'll be introduced to your character: a husband or wife who has recently started a family, and has hopes and dreams still to live. The diverse character creator lets you craft your face in the bathroom mirror, before quickly whisking you to the underground Vault 111 because pesky nuclear war breaks out.
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This mod brings Fallout New Vegas to Fallout 4
Fallout 4 mod Sim Settlements 2 gets a "DLC-sized expansion" this fall
What if: Fallout 4 had a city builder spinoff?