I love Fallout! (I know... shocker! ) I've spent thousands of hours playing the games. And one of the ways I help keep the games fresh and interesting even after many playthroughs is the wonder of mods. I know many of you do the same. In fact. I'm often asked what my favorite mods are, which mods I play with, and which ones I recommend. Today, I thought it might be nice to share some of those recommendations, and include links for those interested.

Moreso, I would love to hear which mods you play with and recommend (and, of course, what makes you recommend those mods).

I'm afraid that I don't have any recommendations for the original Fallout. So let's jump directly to...

Fallout 2

Aside from patches, I play this game almost unmodded. However, while I'm not currently using it myself, I do recommend taking a look into Killap's Fallout 2 Restoration Project.

That said, of course I absolutely must promote the wonderful mod I'm using in my current playthrough of Fallout 2... you guessed it!

The Fallout 2: Littlepip Mod by Donitz. In fact, I don't think I need to explain why I recommend this one. So instead, I'll just let Rainbow Dash express how I feel about it...

...and move on to...

Fallout 3

This is a big one. The number of mods I use in this game is in the double digits. I'm not going to list them all, nor could I recommend a lot of them to most players. A great many of the mods that don't make this blog post just add a single weapon or outfit or piece of gear, enable me to make fancier screenshots, or add some other personal aesthetic choice to the game. Other ones that don't make the list are mods that are no longer available, or mods that (while I personally wouldn't want to play without them) are just too glitchy or troublesome to recommend.

Still, I'm going to recommend enough mods here to justify dividing them into catagories:

MUST HAVE basic gameplay mods:

Fallout Mod Manager

This mod helps you manage our mods. It is vital to making the game work with any more than the smallest number of mods installed.

CASM

This is an automatic saving mod that replaces the Fallout 3 saving system. It is more stable than the autosave system in Fallout 3. Plus: you're never too far from a save.

Fallout Script Extender (FOSE)

This is a "modder's resource that expands the scripting capabilities of Fallout 3" and is required for a lot of good mods.

Environment/Atmosphere Enhancing Mods:

Greenworld

Greenworld adds vegetation to the Wasteland. (See the screenshot at the top of this blog post for an example.) Personally, I know that it makes no sense for everything to be brown and gray after two hundred years. In addition, there were trees in Fallout 1 & 2. Greenworld makes the Wasteland more beautiful... and yet at the same time more desolate. (In my opinion, at least. Seeing trees growing up through the ruined shells of buildings has a chilling effect.) Yes, this makes the Oasis quest and Three Dog's radio bit about it make no sense in-game, but it's truly worth it.

Enhanced Weather

This mod brings weather variation to the Wastelands -- storms, rain (and, in the winter, snow). I find this adds a LOT to the immersion of Fallout 3!

Fellout

This mod clears away the green haze that permeates Fallout 3. I'm amazed at how beautiful they made the game and then painted over it with that fog of green. I never knew how awe inspiring and beautiful the wastes could be until I watched a Fellout sunset.

GNR Enhanced

Simply put, this mod mixes GNR radio... and more! Tired of hearing the same few songs over and over? Tired of hearing that Greyditch has gone silent after you solved the problem? Or that it's been "two weeks" long before you've reached that point in the main quest? This mod fixes it all. For extra listening pleasure, the mod incorporates More Where That Came From, giving additional lore-friendly music to add to GNR.

(I use an older version of this mod that was an absolute pain to install. I'm very pleased to see the creators made a much friendlier version.)

Fallout Street Lights

This mod adds working lighting to some places in the DC ruins (and, with it's companion, in a few places in the Wastelands too). Not to everyone's tastes, but I quite like the effect. (I should note that the version I use is the one incorporated into FOOK2... more on that later... but these mods should work great for anyone not using that.)

There is another mod that I would normally add to this list called Owned! which allows you to take ownership of properties. However, the mod is gone from the site where I acquired it. The alternate site I would link you to is down for maintenance, so I cannot confirm that it is still available.

World Improvement Mods:

Mart's Mutant Mod

This mod is a complete overhaul of the monsters for Fallout 3. The mod includes a return of classic F1 & F2 monsters, new spawn points and the addition of terrifying monster swarms. This mod adds a greater number and variety of monsters to the Wastelands. Most elements are optional so you can customize the mod's effects to your tastes.

DC Interiors

An absolute must-have, this mod adds a lot of high-quality, varied interior spaces to buildings that used to be boarded up and inaccessible. Want to ignore Three Dog's warning and try scavenging the DC Ruins? Well now you actually can!

Busworld

Another absolute must-have! This mod adds interior spaces to buses, subway cars, and more. Like DC Interiors, anything that adds exploration choices to the game is extremely valuable in my estimation. I like being able to explore places that I *should* be able to go into, but the game didn't originally allow.

Yeah, I'm showing off a few screenshots while I'm at this.

I will make a special mention here of the massive world overhaul mod FOOK2, the mod that epitomizes my earlier statements of "won't play without but cannot recommend". FOOK2 is a huge mod that adds so much to the world -- from vastly improved repair trees, to variations of armor, to a huge amount of new weapons and armors (which have been added to enemy lists so you will be fighting enemies with a much wider range of appearance and firepower), to little things like giving you multiple ways to gain power armor training. In short, it's Rainbow Dash levels of awesome. Unfortunately, FOOK2 also takes an already notoriously unstable game and makes it considerably moreso. In addition, last time I checked, the mod was unnecessarily tricky to properly install, with aggressively bad documentation and development group who I'd rather face a Hospital Horror than go to for assistance. Thus... FOOK2 does not make this list.

Adventure Mods:

A Note Easily Missed

The first in the series of adventures by Puce Moose. This guy is the god of Fallout adventure mods. They're all incredible -- wicked humor, challenging puzzles, enjoyable rewards. (I have especially had untold hours of fun with what you get out of "An Evening With Mister Manchester"!) I have to make the small caveat that I have experienced crash issues in and around some of the locations he has created for his adventures... but what he delivers is more than worth those occasional frustrations. Collect all his mods! But I suggest doing so one-at-a-time, starting with the first.

TecVault

TecVault adds a new Vault to the Wastelands, ready to be your new base of operations and welcome you as Overseer. All that stands in your way is the Talon Company, and they've got a big head start! This is easily the best player "home" mod available. Gorgeous, and with an fierce little adventure that makes you feel like you've earned this place!

Advanced Gameplay Mods:

Real Time Settler

This mod allows you to build and manage your own village in the Wastelands. This is a bit of a departure from the normal gameplay of Fallout 3, but I feel it is a welcome addition to the game. The previous version of this mod was incredible (and is available on the site for download). The new version is, in almost all aspects, even better. However, there are some unfinished elements to it, and the mod is no longer being worked on. Still, even despite that, this mod is on my recommended list for what it does deliver.

A few screenshots of the village that Eve, my current Fallout 3 character, has founded.

Feng Shui

This mod simply allows you to place items more easily. Great for the home decorator, or someone who wants to create a trophy display!

Personal Favorites:

BlackWolf's Backpacks

This mod adds lore-friendly backpacks to the game which increase how much you can carry. For everyone who hates struggling constantly with encumbrance but doesn't want to just cheat, this is the mod for you!

Amy Wong Companion

This new companion is a traveling trader who will help sell your stuff while you are busy adventuring. She is great companion who learns and advances. Encumbered? Give stuff to Amy and have her go sell it! (I really recommend you turn off the "Jacko's Mercenaries" option though.)

Lucy West Companion

This mod allows you to make Lucy West a companion after your Arefu adventure. It is definitely one of the better companion mods, and includes mini-quests for her.

Mini-Hideout

This mod adds a small, comfortable fallout shelter to Springvale as an alternate player home. Excellent for those who want a place to sleep and stash their stuff, but want to set off adventuring without starting right away with Megaton or Tenpenny Tower. The bigger, more elaborate version (with mini-quest) is the Underground Hideout.

Minor Additions:

The Quantum Pipeline

One of several minor "realism" mods I'm going to recommend, The Quantum Pipeline allows you to bottle Quantum from a vat in the basement of the Nuka-Cola Factory. When I first saw the flooded basement, I tried and tried to fill a bottle with it. I felt cheated that I couldn't. Well, here is a mod that allows you to make up for that Bethesda oversight.

Add Empty Nuka Bottle

A simple realism mod that adds an empty Nuka-Cola bottle to your inventory when you drink a Nuka-Cola or Quantum. Realism is good.

Bottle That Water

In the same vein as the two above, this adds an empty water bottle every time you drink a dirty or purified water, and allows you to bottle dirty water from various water sources.

Mazas Portable Campfires

This simple mod gives you an object you can drop to create a campfire.

Placeable Lights

This mod gives you lanterns, Nuka-Cola lamps and other light sources that you can pick up and place where you want to.

Have you ever wanted to drop a lantern in a dark place, or add better lighting to your home? Now you can!

And finally, on to...

Fallout: New Vegas

My mod load for this game is drastically smaller, and I know there are a lot of great ones that I missed (largely because they came out after I stopped adding mods to this game). Still, here are my recommendations, again sorted by categories.

MUST HAVE basic gameplay mods: (hey... these look familiar. )

Fallout Mod Manager

Now for New Vegas.

CASM NV

An automatic saving mod that replaces the Fallout: New Vegas saving system.

More stable than the autosave system. Plus: you're never too far from a save.

New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE)

A "modder's resource that expands the scripting capabilities of Fallout: New Vegas"

Required for a lot of good mods.

Utility Mods:

Higher Companion Level Cap

Now your companions level with you beyond 20th level.

Invisible Wall Remover

Removes the majority of invisible walls preventing you from crossing areas you should be able to cross.

Perk Every Level

Allows just what it says. I dislike the perk-every-other-level mechanic of Fallout: New Vegas. OTOH, if you have all the DLC’s, you will end up with a LOT of perks by the end.

Unlimited Companions

This mod allows you to keep multiple companions at the same time. Nice for those of us who wouldn’t just dismiss one friend because you found another. (Still, it’s worth noting that my companions spent most of their time in my various homes rather than with me.) The link here is to an bugfixed version. I use the original.

Environment/Atmosphere Enhancing Mods:

Nevada Skies

Vastly enhances the skybox, adding in weather effects and just making the Mojave Wasteland beautiful. An absolute must-have!

Interior Lighting Overhaul

I didn’t use this mod, but I wish I did! I’ve heard nothing but praise, and it looks like it fixes issues I had with the interior lighting.

Major World Enhancing Mods:

A World of Pain

This mod adds a huge number of new areas to explore, particularly underground. For the most part, they are excellent, although I found a few lacking. Be aware that you would do a lot of leveling just going through these areas.

New Vegas Interiors

This mod makes several of those boarded up buildings into places you can explore. I picked up all three in this series by RideTheCatfish, and I can highly recommend them. However, please note below...

NV Interiors / Urban Edition

I haven’t used these mods, but I would have if they had come out earlier! Anything that adds more interiors is good, and I’ve had great experiences with the past works of one of the modders involved on this project. I don’t know if it will conflict with the series above. If you can’t use both go ahead and try this one first.

Warzones

Does the Mojave Wasteland seem kinda... dull? Does it seem like the various factions in conflict with each other rarely actually duke it out? Well, then this mod is for you. Warzones adds a lot of new areas of heavy conflict between different factions in New Vegas.

Minor World Improvement Mods:

Better Binoculars

Makes binoculars actually useful in the early parts of the game (before your scopes will out-perform them).

Canteen

Adds refillable canteens to the wasteland.

Leather Backpack

Because you really need a backpack to carry your stuff.

New Merchant

Simply adds a new merchant into the game after finishing a particular quest. Merchants are good. You’ll need a lot of them. How else will you sell your loot?

Working Chemistry Sets

This mod makes those useless chemistry sets all over the wasteland into ones you can use once every three days.

Adventures and Player Homes:

Goodsprings Home Revisited

Gives you (or allows you to earn) a humble home very early in the game (which is a must-have).

Lucky 38 Suite Expansion

Makes the suite you get in the Lucky 38 more useful (and more befitting your importance). The link here is to an updated version. I use the original.

Tales from the Burning Sands

Puce Moose is best Adventure Modder!