The debate around which Fallout game is best typically comes down to either Fallout 3 or New Vegas. Whichever side you land on, there’s no denying that New Vegas made the most out of what it had to work with. This game was originally made by Obsidian, not Bethesda, and it had a very short development time that resulted in a game in which the technical performance couldn’t quite match its narrative and mechanical ambitions. While the core was still great, it has also been over a decade since the game came out, which makes those blemishes even more evident. Because fans took so well to what this entry was trying to do, mods have kept New Vegas alive and well to this day. From basic visual enhancements to new quests and locations, here are the best mods you can get for New Vegas.
NMCS Texture Pack
Honestly, New Vegas was never a looker. Even upon release, it was a bit behind the times in terms of graphical fidelity, and two generations later, it isn’t aging all that well. The NMCS Texture Pack doesn’t bring every aspect of the world up to a modern standard, but what it does upgrade is incredibly impressive. This mod completely retextures roads, environments, plants, vehicles, buildings, and more. What it won’t change is how the sky, water, clothing, NPCs, weapons, and a handful of other things appear. It also does not work with any DLC. Still, the majority of things you will be seeing get a great visual buff here to help breathe new life into the wasteland.
EVE – Essential Visual Enhancements
Visuals aren’t just about how good something looks, but how realistic and unique it is. The EVE mod doesn’t actually enhance any textures or things related to graphics directly, but instead focuses on effects and animation. This mod will bring in all-new death animations for when you kill an enemy and new particle effects for energy weapons. Part of why the original felt a bit lifeless in terms of gameplay was because of how dull shooting felt, but this mod makes a few powerful tweaks to make everything feel more satisfying.
Project Nevada
For the hardcore fans who have loved New Vegas for years, things have no doubt become a bit stale and easy. A simple fix to bring some new life into your game is the Project Nevada mod that lets you change almost all the mechanical systems running in the background. This mod is broken down into three modules, with the first changing up how gunplay works via things like a dynamic crosshair, bullet time, and variable zoom levels for scoped weapons. The second adds a huge list of implants to tinker with your character’s stats, and the third lets you adjust how hard the game is through reduced leveling speed, level caps, weight limits based on stats, and more. That final one adds a massive roster of new weapons, and you can decide which aspects from any or all you use on a new run.
A World of Pain
That sense of discovery you get in a game can only happen once. Well, unless you have mods, of course. A World of Pain packs around 170 new locations into the map with enemies to fight and loot to collect, as well asnew NPCs and quests. You may just find a random gas station, or get lost in a winding network of sewer tunnels. This mod is designed for those who are already veterans of the game and need some fresh, but difficult content to test themselves with.
More Perks
Perks, and which ones you invest and level up, are the most interesting part of building your character. As with everything, though, you will eventually see and experience all the default ones. More Perks adds, well, more perks! Things like High Value Target have you get ambushed by assassins at random moments and Conduit of Radiation makes you irradiated when not in an irradiated zone, but removes radiation when in an irradiated area. These are fun and clever ways to play the game with some new constraints. There are over 120 new Perks in this mod as of now, so you should have no shortage of ones to try.
New Vegas Bounties 1
This recommendation is for part one of this mod expansion series, but if you like this, you need to continue on with not only the rest of the Bounties series, but also the other story expansions this team has made. New Vegas Bounties 1 gives you a new quest to hunt down a series of deadly and evil men across the wasteland. Each one becomes progressively harder, with a focus on pure action over any puzzles or deep story. There are plenty of new characters with fully voiced lines and a narrative thread to follow, but this mod really is meant to give you a straight shot of action that may not always feel fair.
Beyond Boulder Dome
After this many years, some incredibly dedicated modding teams have made what basically amounts to a new game. Beyond Boulder Dome takes you out of Vegas and up to Boulder, Colorado, for a completely new environment, quests, armor, monsters, and everything else. The plot revolves around the Boulder Dome, which was made to be a “city of the future” prototype capable of withstanding nuclear attacks. You will interact with the scientists and elite members of society who were able to survive in the dome, plus the NCR and Brotherhood of Steel, who have different goals for those in the dome. How you interact with these groups and what you choose will determine the fate of the region.
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