Fallout 4's high resolution texture pack has been released, and it's free for the taking—though it requires a hefty chunk of hard drive space and the recommended specs are steep, calling for a GTX 1080 with 8 GB. I don't quite meet those requirements (I have a 980), but I still wanted to take a look at the new textures, see how they compared to the standard ones, and find out how much of a performance hit I'd take.

I actually had to download the 58 GB texture pack twice—the first time, it didn't seem to activate, and when I checked the Fallout 4 DLC tab in Steam, it said it wasn't installed even though I'd just spent an hour waiting for it to download. I checked the box, and it began downloading all over again. So, I waited another hour.

The second time I tried, I couldn't immediately tell if the high resolution textures were in place, but as I walked around in the game carefully peering at things, I gradually began to notice a difference. Sort of. Check out the images below, and slide the vertical bar back and forth to compare the images. The original textures are on the left, the high resolution textures are on the right. There are links to full-size images below each slider.

Full-size version here. I started in Diamond City. You can see the main difference in this shot is the texture on the canopy, which is a bit more detailed. Not much else is different, at least that I can see. Huh.

I headed to my settlement at the drive-in, because I wanted to see if the textures on my various suits of power armor had been upgraded.

Full-size version here.  While I didn't see much of a change on the armor, or even on the armor crafting frames, I did notice the rusting steel beams along the ceiling in the background looked a bit different. 

So, I walked over and stared at the ceiling.

Full-size version here. Not only is there greater detail in the rusting beams, you can clearly see the wood grain in the ceiling fan. If you're a fan of looking up at ceilings while you play Fallout 4, this should make you happy.

This next one had me scratching my head. There were clearly some changes, though I can't really say that one is better than the other.

Full-size version here. Hmm. The puddle is a little different? The dead grass looks like it has moved a bit? I don't know. Nothing I ever would have noticed unless I took two pictures from the same spot. For wet broken pavement and a pile of garbage, I think both versions look perfectly lovely.

I head off to Prydwn, the Brotherhood of Steel's airship, to squint at some steel.

Full-size version here. Again, I wind up focusing on the wrong thing. I assumed the wheelchair would look a bit different with the high-res textures, but the changes actually wind up being the wall behind it, and the floor, both of which show much greater detail.

How about Nick Valentine's office? Nick isn't there—I can't recall where I left him, probably on a farm or something—but I nose around his desk for a while.

Full-size version here. Nick's desk shows a bit more detail in the chipped paint, though nothing else looks like it's changed.

I could go on, but walking around staring at things, taking a picture, saving the game, quitting the game, then starting the game again to take another picture with slightly different textures is about as boring as it sounds. I think you get the idea—some things look a little more detailed, some things don't appear to have changed at all. 

Also, the only way I can figure out how to disable the high res texture pack once I've installed it is by using Nexus Mod Manager. Bethesda, in its announcement post, said you can disable the texture pack using the game's launcher menu, but I don't see any way to do that.

Update: Bethesda responded to the above paragraph, suggesting that the DLC can be enabled and disabled via Steam. The easiest way (I found) to do that is by right-clicking Fallout 4 in your Steam library, choosing properties, navigating to the DLC tab, and checking/unchecking the 'install' box for the texture pack. I'd only point out that I did that after initially downloading the pack (as I said earlier) and when I rechecked the box it made me re-download the whole thing a second time. Honestly, I think it's easier to do with Nexus Mod Manager, especially if you're already using mods, since you can just check/uncheck the file there, but take your pick.

As for performance, I ran around for a while, specifically around the Medford Memorial Hospital area, because there are tons of ghouls on the streets nearby, and tons of mutants outside of the hospital, and at least three tons of mutants inside the hospital. With the texture pack enabled, I didn't notice much of a performance hit. Fallout 4 is capped at 60 FPS anyway, and with the original textures I rarely dip below that. With the high-res textures enabled, I played for a good fifteen minutes and rarely saw my FPS drop below 55.

My verdict? Well, I do like the increased detail, though it certainly doesn't look like all of the textures have higher resolution versions. I'm not sure it's something I'd really notice unless I was creeping around specifically to take pictures. And, losing a few frames every now and then isn't a huge deal. But!

My main issue is the 58 GB of space this texture pack takes up. The drive I keep my games on is 465 GB, and while that feels pretty roomy I still do have to delete games fairly often to make room for new ones. Throw in video captures and screenshots, and even with a drive double that size one could run out of space pretty quickly. It's worth it if you really like detailed metal surfaces, or you're trying to take fancy screenshots, but I'd rather use the space to keep another game installed. 

The Fallout 4 high-resolution texture pack that was announced last week, which will bring "ultra-deluxe detail" to the post-nuclear wasteland for those who can handle it, is now live (and free) on Steam.   

"Experience the wasteland like you’ve never seen it before with the Fallout 4 High-Resolution Texture Pack!" the Steam description exclaims. "From the blasted buildings of Lexington to the shores of Boston Harbor and beyond, every location is enhanced with ultra-deluxe detail." 

It's only been out for a short while, but so far the response appears mixed. Early reaction on the Fallout 4 subreddit seems iffy, but the user reviews on Steam are "mostly positive." Performance is the predictable sticking point: Don't forget that the minimum (minimum!) on Steam are an Intel Core i7-5820K, a GTX-1080, 8GB RAM, and 58GB of drive space on top of what Fallout 4 is already eating up. That's way over and above what you need to run the game itself. 

Redditor Treyman1115 posted some screens of the high-resolution pack in action on Imgur. They look nice—but do they look 58GB worth of nice? That may be a matter of some debate.

The Fallout 4 1.9 update is now available as a beta on Steam. The update adds support for the High Resolution Texture Pack revealed yesterday, makes a few fixes, and adds a number of new features that will make life easier for wasteland warriors who like to play with mods. 

The full list: 

NEW FEATURES  

• Support for High Resolution Texture Pack
• Added Featured category for mods
• Added ability to sort Highest Rated and Most Favorited filters by today, week, month and all time
• Added number of ratings count to Mods Browsing Menu
• Added number of favorites count to Mod Details page
• Added required dependencies to Mod Details page
• Added latest version number and notes to Mod Details page

FIXES

• General performance and stability improvements
• Improvements to Reporting mods categories
• Fixed occasional crashes while scrolling through Load Order menu
• Improved Bethesda.net error messaging

Bethesda confirmed that the 1.9 update doesn't actually include the High Resolution Texture Pack, which will be released separately next week, but merely prepares the game to support it. Don't forget that you'll need some serious hardware to take advantage of the pack once it does go live, The recommended spec is a Core i7 CPU, an 8GB GTX 1080 video card, and a whopping 58GB of hard drive space.

To access the beta update, if you're not already taking part, you'll need to right-click on Fallout 4 in your Steam library, select Settings, then the Betas tab, and then "Beta" from the dropdown menu. After an update, the game will be listed as "Fallout 4 [Beta]" in your library. Feedback on any issues you may encounter should be reported in Bethesda's Fallout forums.

A high resolution texture pack will arrive as a free update for Fallout 4 next week, Bethesda announced. The announcement included a single screenshot, which you can see and enlarge above, plus a note that you'll need a smidgen of extra room for the texture pack: an additional 58 GB.

Your PC will also need to meet or exceed the recommended specs:

• Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
• Intel Core i7-5820K or better
• GTX 1080 8GB/AMD Radeon RX 490 8GB
• 8GB+ Ram

If you try it and find your PC isn't up to the task, Bethesda says you'll be able to disable the texture pack through the game's launcher.

Fallout 4's retro-futuristic murder grounds have been tinkered with so many times that it's become increasingly difficult to keep up with the flood of intuitive user-made mods bursting from its community. Chris updated our expansive 'best of' list last week—which now houses a whopping six pages worth of adjustments, categorised to your needs. One mod I think he'll be adding to his next revisit, though, is Matt3D's The Iron Giant. 

Swapping out the base game's towering Liberty Prime robot, The Iron Giant mod introduces the star of the 1999 film of the same name to the Wasteland. The Jennifer Aniston and Vin Diesel-starring movie was of course inspired by Ted Hughes' wonderful sci-fi novel The Iron Man, which means I can now live out my childhood fantasies of stomping around as an oversized tin man feeding on farming equipment. 

Okay, so I'm not entirely sure if you can feast on tractors and such à la Hughes' book, however you can shoot lasers from your eyes, hurl explosive projectiles at will, and wade through the Commonwealth's deepest lakes. Observe: 

"The Iron Giant will either begin to appear when returning to Boston Airport from The Bomb storage facility during Liberty Reprimed with the Brotherhood questline (up until that point, Liberty prime is in separate pieces and will still be Liberty prime’s meshes)," notes creator Matt3D. "Or he will appear during Airship Down with the Institute questline."

Visit Matt3D's The Iron Giant mod on its Nexus page, which includes installation instructions. 

Cheers, Kotaku. 

If you've grown a little bored with Fallout 4's holotape minigames, here's something a bit more entertaining. It's a mod called Revolted, and it gives you a custom retro 1990s-style corridor shooter that you can play inside Fallout 4. The mod, created by Cohagen, has a pulse-pounding chiptune soundtrack, wonderfully stilted and over-serious voice acting, and some 2D digitized sprites sprinkled into the 3D levels for some added nostalgia.

With the mod installed, head to Concord, where inside the Speakeasy you'll find a computer terminal on the second floor. Activate it, and you can play Revolted. In the mingame, you inhabit an ass-kicking, cigar-chomping Overseer with a gravelly voice and no patience for mutants, perhaps inspired by Duke Nukem.  The door to your vault has been opened, allowing monsters inside, and your job is to close it again, while blasting your way through zombies and other enemies. 

You're not just shooting, mind you: There are a few interactions with NPCs (also deliberately poorly voiced), some of that shitty '90s platforming that was always shoehorned into shooters of that era, and of course, you'll have to hunt for colored keycards to open various progress-blocking doors.

It's an impressive mod, both fun and funny, as well as a bit profane (there are a number of references to male genitalia). The awkward dialogue and voice acting, plus the music and sound effects, perfectly reflect shooters of the '90s.

It's also got a few surprises I won't spoil, other than to say that there's an amusing boss battle near the end. And when you decide you're finished with the minigame, take care: it might not be finished with you. 

You'll find Revolted over at Nexus Mods.

Picture the world of Fallout 4, only instead of centuries after the apocalypse it's the time period just after the bombs fell. The overworld is still heavily radioactive and will quickly kill any unprotected human, so the few survivors remaining cluster underground in subway tunnels along with freshly-created ghouls and mutated dogs. The NPCs and story you know from Fallout 4 aren't present, and there's only a single quest: don't die.

It's a mod called Frost Survival Simulator, and as you'll see below I repeatedly failed that one quest. The mod is pre-alpha, though very playable and extremely difficult. It's also pretty darn fun playing Fallout 4 with the story stripped away, some survival elements added, combat overhauled, and the challenge ramped through the roof.

Naturally, my first inclination was to see just how deadly Frost was above ground. Since the mod starts you in front of a few doors, one of which leads to the surface, I take a quick stroll outside. It is a bit Metro 2033 out there, and I immediately begin taking a large dose of rads. I don't die from the radiation, though, thanks to a bug that scuttles over and quickly (and explosively) chews one of my arms off.

Okay! I'll be sticking to the subway tunnels then, at least until I've got some rad-proof gear and maybe a small tank to deal with the wildlife. After some scrounging, I come away with a mildly protective outfit, a smiley-face mask, and some odds-and-ends for crafting. The mod makes resources scarce, so don't expect to quickly load your pockets with useful gear. I'm a fan of this: there's just so much junk in vanilla Fallout that few things feel really precious. In Frost, every empty bottle feels like a treasure.

I skulk over to a door, open it, and find myself staring at a pack of ghouls who are dining on the remains of some poor former survivor. I'm spotted and decide to crabwalk away as fast as I can, since I haven't found so much as a letter opener to defend myself with yet. I manage to elude the ghouls and finally find a weapon: a frag mine. Unfortunately, I find it by stepping on it. There goes my arm again.

I'm skulking far too quickly, I decide. I need to slow down even more if I'm going to have any chance of making it. Eventually, I locate a pipe wrench, and even enough cloth and antiseptic to craft some bandages at a chemistry bench. Then I continue skulking.

Apparently there are factions you can interact with in Frost, but my only interactions thus far have involved a free exchange of head wounds. Every NPC I've met has immediately brandished a weapon: while scurrying around, I come across a small collection of survivors who have made a home out of a subway station. One of them immediately detects me and charges, though I'm able to drop a frag mine I've scavenged and blow him up as I'm backpedaling away.

In a somewhat comical fashion, I'm introduced to the rest of the gang as they emerge one by one over the battlements, like prairie dogs. 

Enemy AI has been tweaked in Frost. NPCs don't have unlimited ammo: they have a fixed amount and can only shoot as long as they have shells. Plus, low-level enemies will fire a bit more inaccurately than high-level ones. I'm grateful for this: one of the gang members takes a few shots at me, but misses.

I do what any sensible person would do with the odds stacked against them: I take a nap. Since the only way to save my progress is by sleeping in a bed, and the only bed I've found is in the mod's starting chamber, I run all the way back through the tunnels and sleep for an hour before returning to fight the crowd.

When I return, I figure I'll just chuck a Molotov into the room and set everyone on fire, but I wind up hitting the raised floor right in front of my face, which drops me instantly.

Reloading from nap-time, I manage to kill another two survivors with a better throw, but there are still a few left, including the one with the gun.

I'm a fan of mods that make combat damage more realistic. While it's not exactly fun to be dropped with one shot, it feels fair, especially when your enemies are subject to the same damage models. Bash someone's torso with a pipe wrench in Frost and they'll probably keep coming at you (especially if they're a ghoul). Bash their unprotected head, though, and they drop like a stone. With a little accuracy, you can mow through a crowd of goons in a matter of seconds. But then again, your own head is much softer too. You can barely see it below, but after clonking two goons into the sweet beyond, the remaining one gets off a lucky swipe with his stick. Again, my arm falls off. Why is my arm always falling off?

I give up on trying to take down the survivor colony, and head in a different direction. I manage to beat some mutated dogs to death, and even wipe out that first collection of ghouls I encountered with a well-thrown frag grenade. Unfortunately, another ghoul, who drops through a hole in the ceiling, pummels me to death (this time it's my head that gets detached). I'll spare you the gif: I'm pretty sure you get the point by now. This mod is tough.

Frost is the successor to Dust, a mod that gave Fallout: New Vegas a similar survival overhaul. It's got revised perks, rebalanced combat, and changes to the crafting and settlement systems, which I would write about at length if I could only survive long enough to check them out. While it's still in its early stages of development, I think the mod is both fun and challenging. If Fallout 4's vanilla survival mode doesn't feel tough enough for you, I'd recommend checking out Frost. You can find it right here at Nexus Mods.

It'd be pretty hard for the Russians to hack America using the computers in Fallout 4. For one, the computers in Fallout 4 are not connected to the internet: in Bethesda's alternative history, America never makes it that far into the future. Another obstacle stopping Russia from hacking America via the computers in Fallout 4 is that, no matter how you approach it, it'd simply be impossible.

That hasn't stopped CNN using footage of a Fallout 4 computer in a story about Russian hacking, though. It's not a huge faux pas on the news outlet's part: it's simply used as B-Roll footage, after all. But it's still pretty amusing, especially in light of how often TV news co-opts video game footage. A recent example includes ITV passing Arma 2 footage off as real.

Spotted by vigilant redditor Poofylicious, the CNN footage aired on December 28, and can be seen at about the one minute mark in the first video over here. 

Bethesda Game Studios executive producer and game director Todd Howard, the driving force behind the mega-popular Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, has been announced as the 22nd inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Howard "has created some of the industry's most success games by pioneering open-world gameplay," the AIAS said, adding that the games he's headed up "have been recipients of numerous DICE Awards throughout the years." 

Howard has been with Bethesda since the early '90s, beginning as a producer and designer on The Terminator: Future Shock. From there, he did design work on Daggerfall and Skynet in 1996, and then ascended to project leader on The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard in 1998, and Morrowind in 2002. Every major Bethesda RPG since then (which is to say, all of them) bears his name as either executive producer or game director.   

"Todd's impact on his studio, our company, and the gaming industry as a whole has been truly remarkable," Bethesda VP Pete Hines said. "When you look at the very best game developers of all time—the 21 members of the AIAS Hall of Fame—I think Todd deserves to have his name right alongside of them as the best of the best." 

Howard will be joining the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, John Carmack, Will Wright, Richard Garriott, Gabe Newell, Hideo Kojima, and numerous other industry luminaries as a member of the HOF. It's an impressive list of names by any measure, and a fitting end to a remarkable year: Howard also earned a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 16th annual GDC, while Fallout 4 claimed the Game of the Year award at the 19th DICE Awards, along with the nod for Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction—another accolade for Howard, who served as game director.   

"Todd is revered by legions of fans not just for his creative leadership over the years but for his humility and humor,” AIAS vice chairman Ted Price said. “Despite the fact that he’s helmed several of the most successful franchises in the history of our industry, he consistently defers praise to others and is the quintessential team player. Yet it’s Todd’s vision and strong direction that has brought Tamriel and the Commonwealth to life for millions around the world."

Howard will be presented with the Hall of Fame Award during a ceremony at the 20th DICE Awards on February 23, 2017, at the Mandalay Convention Center in Las Vegas—ironically, the setting for the one major Bethesda-era Fallout RPG that he didn't work on. 

This week on the Mod Roundup, we've got the best mod for Fallout 4 ever, because it lets you shove Preston Garvey, Mama Murphy, and any other followers or NPCs you don't like. In fact, it's so much fun that the Roundup, which usually consists of a few different mods, is only focusing on the shoving one. Because shoving is great.

It's called Get Out Of My Face, created by modder cdante, and you can find it here at Nexus Mods.

Followers standing to close? Shove 'em. Mutated cow in your way? Shove it. Enemies, too? Yes, shove them! Maybe someone is blocking a doorway, maybe they're just being annoying, or maybe, like me, you're just a cruel and sadistic person. Whatever the reason, give 'em a shove and watch 'em fly. It's as if Skyrim's Fus-Ro-Dah has been imported into Fallout 4. It's fun. A lot of fun.

The mod adds a ranked shoving perk. At Rank 1, you can shove your current follower. Rank 2 adds the ability to shove anyone at any of your settlements, including brahmin. Rank 3 lets you push any friendly NPC, no matter where they are in the game. At Rank 4 it becomes a combat move so you can shove enemies.

To shove someone, simply walk up to them. In addition to the on-screen prompt to speak with them, you'll see a 'Push!' prompt, which is bound to your reload key (typically R). Press it, and watch the target of your ire go flying. In addition to the shoving animation, there's a selection of voiced lines like "Get out of my face!" and "Move!"

The mod is customizable via a holotape you can stick in your Pip-Boy (with the mod installed, you'll find the tape under your 'misc' inventory, at the very bottom of the list). You can turn the push-related dialogue on and off, select the distance at which someone is within shoving range, and you can even choose the force at which you shove someone. The default is set at five, though in the two preceding gifs above you can see it set to 20. Whee!

You can also select the Rank you'd like from your Pip-Boy. I'd suggest turning them all on immediately, because you never know when you'll be in the mood to shove someone. Do you have the Pacify perk? Point your gun at someone, wait until they surrender and raise their arms, and then shove 'em. Frankly, it's hard to think of a situation where shoving someone isn't the perfect move.

Note: shoving currently doesn't work if your character is wearing power armor, but the modder is working on a fix for that.

Just for kicks, I turned the pushing force up to 40 and gave Preston Garvey one more shove (which you can see below). You'd think he'd get the hint, but when he regained consciousness and got to his feet, he came running back over. Guy doesn't know when to quit.

Looking for more Fallout 4 mods? Here's our list of the best ones we could find.