Some mods are utterly transformative: Tweaks to the baseline experience that feel like they were always there, or standalone campaigns worthy of their own retail release. I’m not talking about either of those today. I’m talking about Fallout: New Vegas for the PS3.
Last October, Nexus user Pope74220—presumably not the actual Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Christ—uploaded the original Fallout 3 mod: A perfect Gamebryo engine facsimile of New Vegas’ “Greatest Hits” Ultimate Edition box for Sony’s PlayStation 3. That’s the one that came a year or so after launch with all the DLC, plus a nifty red plastic Blu-ray band. It appears to be an unarmed weapon you can punch people with, and I love how detailed the model is—it’s even got the blurb on the back and all the info boxes below.
In January, modder Zhang Yue Zhi brought things full circle, porting Fallout: New Vegas for the PS3 into Fallout: New Vegas for the PC—it even has an added chance of insta-killing any character you hit with it, but only if you’re rocking the beloved Wild Wasteland perk. Ivan Perdona on YouTube has a nice video of the New Vegas version in action.
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Before reading up, I’d assumed this was a project to bring the overall experience closer to that of New Vegas’ PS3 port: 20-30fps, 720p, probably even more crashes than the other versions somehow. Like many cross-platform games of the seventh console generation, New Vegas’ PS3 port was worse in every way than its Xbox 360 version. I think that’s part of the appeal here, at the risk of over-explaining the joke: The PS3 deluxe re-release has a certain pathetic je ne sais quoi to it
It’s also how my fiancee first experienced New Vegas, and she still loved it, which speaks to the brilliance of Obsidian’s design—not even the Cell Processor could diminish that greatness. If you would like Fallout: New Vegas for the PS3, it appears to go for $15 to $60 on eBay, depending on the version and its condition. You can also download the mod for the game of your choice from the New Vegas or Fallout 3 Nexus.
