Mods are by no means new to the video game industry, and there are even some great games born out of classic mods like Gary’s Mods or Dota 2. However, now more than ever, some big expansion mods are needed to help us survive the ever-increasing wait.
Luckily for us, it seems like modders are getting more talented every year, and we have some big projects to look forward to in 2023 and the years to come. From DLC-sized expansion packs to those nice quality-of-life touch-ups that make the gaming experience feel more complete, here are some of the best and biggest mods coming.
Let’s start with Fallout: London, a huge project that’s been years in the making. Using Fallout 4’s engine, the team working on Fallout: London created nearly an entire scene, complete with unique lore, characters, and enemies. People have wondered for years what the Fallout universe looks like in other countries, and with Fallout: London, they may finally have the answer.
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Fallout: London will release sometime this year, and it looks like it’s doing so. We’ve seen a lot of gameplay and updates from the modding team, and their recent video shows an underground rail system in action. If that doesn’t move you, I don’t know what will.
With Fallout 5 probably still a decade away, we’ll be relying on the mod community to deliver post-apocalyptic content for a while. Still, if they keep creating projects like Fallout: London, waiting for the next Fallout game might not be so bad.
Next, we take a look at Bethesda’s other very popular IP in The Elder Scrolls, we cheated here because we packed several big projects into one entry, but they all contained the same idea, the upcoming An older Elder Scrolls game ported to a new entry in the series.
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Tianfeng transplanted Morrowind tosky In fact, Moroblivion also gave some upgrades to the third game, but put it into The Elder Scrolls 4. The most popular of these projects is Skyblivion, which, as you guessed it, ported the entirety of Oblivion into Skyrim’s engine, giving older games a much-needed updated look.
Sadly, Skyblivion won’t be with us until 2025, as the mod team told us recently. However, this release date may be brought forward if there is enough support and some volunteers join the team. Either way, there’s still a chance Skyblivion could make it to the Nexus Mods page before The Elder Scrolls 6. At this point, we’re not sure if this is an exciting or sad thing to do.
Now away from Bethesda, while fans of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout often make fantastic and extensive mods, FromSoftware’s fan base is also offering a mod for those who like the difficulty of the Soul Origin series but are tired of the current game. The basic gameplay folks have created some excellent mods.
Dark Souls: Grand Throne is a DLC-sized mod for Dark Souls 3, and the development team impresses fans with every update. It overhauls the base game, giving players new areas to explore, new enemies to fight based on Bloodborne and enemies in Sekiro, and tons of lore to sneak into.
Dark Souls: Grand Thrones doesn’t have a release date yet, but considering we had 15 minutes of gameplay early this year, and the project has been in development for 2 years, we can’t help but hope we’ll hear something soon.
From mods with unknown release dates to just two recently released mods, the Mass Effect: Legendary Castle Epilogue and Happy Ending mods revolutionize your space adventures. Instead of adding a ton of content to the game, these mods actually remove quite a bit to change Mass Effect 3’s controversial ending.
After the release of Mass Effect 3, BioWare dropped the Citadel DLC, which is essentially a bunch of fan service to give your crew one last cheer before you face the game’s final mission. The Citadel epilogue mod instead puts this DLC after the game, removing all references to the Reapers and the war, giving you a happier ending.
The Happy Ending mod works with this, removing Shepard’s almost certain death from Mass Effect 3’s ending, and tweaking the final cutscene to play after finishing the game. This mod has one last surprise when you return to Normandy, but you’ll have to download it to find out.
Our final overhaul mod brings us to Cyberpunk 2077, the time dilation overhaul that significantly changes the gameplay of the CD Projekt Red dystopian game by adding all new abilities.
Katana reflexes allow you to send enemy bullets back at them, teleportation does exactly what it says on the tin, and you can even affect vehicles as they time dilate like Franklin in GTA 5.
All of these abilities are related to the time dilation mechanic, which not only changes the way players use Quickhack, but also changes the behavior of NPCs.
These are just some of the best and brightest overhaul mods that are either already available or coming soon. With mods allowing us to now get DLC-sized expansions, it seems like the wait for a new game might not be as painful as we once thought.