In 2015, Kyle Hinckley sat down to play through Fallout 4 without killing anyone or anything. He remained seated for a very long time, eventually chronicling his non-lethal playthrough in a 37-part YouTube series, in which a lot of Hinckley's time is spent manipulating NPCs into doing his killing for him.

I don't have that kind of patience, but do I have something Hinckley didn't: the Knockout Framework mod for Fallout 4, which lets you render NPCs unconscious by punching them. When using it, your foes will lose consciousness instead of dying when their health runs out, and after a brief period of time, will wake up again. A companion mod by the same author makes a number of melee weapons non-lethal as well, and adds craftable non-lethal ammo for a few guns. Plus, the mod lets you pick up knocked-out enemies and carry them elsewhere in an enormous sack on your back. I don't know how practical that is, but it's kind of hilarious.

My plan: to play Fallout 4 non-lethally with the Knockout Framework mod, and avoid killing anything. But I want to go full-on non-lethal: not only do I not want to kill anything, I don't want anyone—companions, other NPCs, creatures—to kill anything either. If anything dies during a fight, even if I don't personally kill it, I'll reload a save and try again.

I should mention that the mod is configurable through MCM to allow even the player to be knocked unconscious, but after a test I've decided to leave that option disabled, because once knocked out, the player appears to remain in an unconscious state indefinitely. It's funny to watch, though.

With the mod installed, I begin a new game, and after awakening in the Vault I make my way to the surface. My first test is a single radroach. Boom. Knockout. The mod works perfectly: the roach isn't dead, and I pick it up and put it in my sack. Unfortunately, I can't remove it from the sack because I don't have my Pip-Boy yet, which means I can't open my inventory and pull out the roach. It's no big deal, but thinking about a giant twitching sleeping roach in my backpack is kinda grossing me out.

The rest of Vault 111 is, of course, just more roaches. I knock them all out but one, which I accidentally stomp to death by attacking while it's too close to me. Stomping is still lethal, so I reload my save and knock them all out again, being careful not to get close enough to trigger a stomp. Gun-bashing, too, becomes non-lethal with the mod. It looks brutal, but all those roaches are still alive, and as you can see, the mod allows XP gains even though I'm not killing anything.

I dump the unconscious roach near the Vault exit and ride the elevator to the surface, then make my way to Sanctuary Hills, where I discover two little hovering problems: Bloatflies, and Codsworth. 

The flies are an issue because, as far as I can tell, flying creatures can't be knocked out using the mod. Punching or bashing them kills them (I try it with the bloodbugs down by the river as well and get the same result). Codsworth, meanwhile, is a problem because he will kill the bloatflies (or anything hostile) in the vicinity, and while those deaths might not technically be on my hands, I want to have a truly non-lethal experience. Nothing will die on my watch, if I can help it.

As I stare at Codsworth I begin to realize he's kind of a big problem, actually. I was planning on setting up shop here in Sanctuary to do some gathering and crafting, but Codsworth will be hanging around, and I can't make him my companion (and thus send him somewhere else) until after I complete the Concord mission, which seems a bit daunting at the moment since it involves a deathclaw that I would have to defeat with my fists. Punching bugs in the face is one thing, deathclaws are something else. (Though I'm dying to know if I can put a giant deathclaw in my sack).

While I'm mulling over my options in Sanctuary, I realize I haven't yet tested the mod on a human yet. I know from my last visit here (when I attempted to play Fallout 4 without ever leaving Sanctuary, another terrible idea) that there's a raider living in a shack just across the river. I pay him a quick visit.

The mod works perfectly: both are knocked out with my baton, and I'm able to stick the raider in my sack. I don't take him anywhere, but the point is, I can if I want to. I'm also able to loot his body of weapons and armor (though not clothing). I take the dog's collar, too, just because, then leave them both slumbering in the woods. 

As far as my Sanctuary and Codsworth problem, I decide instead to set up shop at the Red Rocket truck stop just across the bridge. I meet Dogmeat, then immediately dismiss him to Sanctuary. It's sad to watch him go, but I can't have a deadly dog ripping people's throats out when I'm trying to be a knockout artist.

As anyone who's been to Red Rocket knows, mole rats have moved in. As they burst through the asphalt, I begin bashing them with a tire iron I found. One by one, I bonk them unconscious, then immediately realize I have a new problem. Knocked-out NPCs don't remain unconscious forever, and I can't be tinkering around in my shop with a bunch of mole rats waking up and attacking me every few minutes.

Okay, I can put the mole rats in my knockout sack and... lock them... in jail? Using the crafting bench, I hastily build a floor and walls and a door, then one-by-one, put each sleeping mole rat in my sack and dump them inside.

Perfect! Except not perfect. As soon as I'm done, I remember the thing about mole rats—the very thing I witnessed a minute ago and shouldn't have had to remember—is that they can tunnel through the ground. My jail isn't going to hold them once they wake up: they'll just burrow out. Dammit! Now what the hell can I do? The other settlement option nearby is the Abernathy farm, but it's unfortunately occupied by several Abernathys. Nice folks, but they'll create the same problem Codsworth does: they'll kill any interlopers.

I kind of thought this non-lethal knockout thing would involve more punching people in the face and less logistical work on how to deal with all the unconscious bodies. Oh, well. If Sanctuary has Codsworth and Red Rocket has mole rats, maybe I can work something out with the Abernathy family, like punching them unconscious and relocating them somewhere else. Of course, I can't take them to Red Rocket because they'll fight the mole rats, and if I bring them to Sanctuary, what if they act hostile when they wake up and Codsworth and Dogmeat try to kill them?

Ugh! I'm just gonna wing it. There's already been too much thinking and not enough punching.

Next week: I visit Abernathy farm and they all punch the shit out of me.

Welcome back to the PCG Q&A. Every week, we ask our panel of PC Gamer writers a question about PC gaming. This week: what's your favourite game world or setting? We also welcome your answers in the comments. 

Shaun Prescott: Sevastapol Station in Alien: Isolation

At the risk of sounding masochistic, Sevastopol Station in Alien: Isolation is the space that springs immediately to mind. The most appealing part of that game (in stark contrast with the least appealing part: the alien) was the coldness of its environment, and how eerily it channeled the moods of both the films and others, like 2001: A Space Odyssey. It also appealed to my love of hard science fiction: the clinical, whitewashed futurism of imagined space outposts, the inherent weirdness of a life spent in the stars. Several games have attempted this in the past and at least one since, but none have prompted me to stand in a control room for minutes at a time, silently marveling at the colour palette and wondering what it's meant to mean. Equally, few have made me feel as lonely and isolated like this game has. I think this game may have scarred me.

I felt a similar sensation among the stars in Elite Dangerous. And I’d hoped to feel something similar in Prey, but that game felt too contemporary, with its imagined former citizens arranging Dungeon and Dragons sessions and chatting lightheartedly in emails. Sevastopol Station feels like it belongs to a wrong, parallel future, one that we imagined in the ‘80s, and you can see Creative Assembly channeling that in the VHS grain of their menu screens. I’ll occasionally boot this game up just to relish that mood, only to shut it down in a hurry once something wants to kill me. 

Jody Macgregor: the City in the Thief trilogy

I like that the setting of the original Thief games was only ever called "the City". I like that there's no exposition at the start so you discover things like the fact it has electricity by stumbling across humming streetlamps and power generators. I like that you almost always see it at night ('Break From Cragscleft Prison' takes place during the day, but you're outside the bounds of the City during that level). I like the Tudor houses and the washing lines strung between them and the sounds of people having fun that seep out tavern windows like the flickering light. I like that the City changes, that it moves into the Metal Age and becomes more high-tech without ending up with lame steampunk affectations like goggles on top hats. I like that there's an entire district walled off to keep the living dead in and a haunted madhouse that doubled as an orphanage and yet people still live near those places because what are you going to do, move to the country? Of course not. The City is great. I'd live there.

Philippa Warr: Proteus

The island changes every time, but the feel of the world is constantly wonderful. I boot that game up sometimes to take a kind of desk-holiday from whatever is stressing me out. I can chase after rabbits or watch for owls. There are rain showers which pass overhead and blossom floating from trees. There are the grave stones and the little cabin and the ruins. Small crab-creatures pepper the shore line. There are mushrooms in the welcoming fug of autumn and a crystalline chill in the winter. I know the elements of the world by heart, but I'll always be taken by surprise by some new configuration or by something I've forgotten popping into view. Proteus, for me, is a mixture of comfort and delight—a little digital sanctuary sprinkled with blue chickens. 

Jarred Walton: Wasteland

Every since I was old enough to read, I've had this strange fascination with nuclear weapons. So when Wasteland came out on my Commodore-64 in 1988, you can imagine how pleased I was. And the game didn't disappoint. Guns, robots, radioactive mutants, religious crazies, and more made it one of the formative experiences of my youth. The later Fallout games were a great spiritual successor, followed by an official sequel with Wasteland 2 several years ago. Not surprisingly, I backed that, as well as the more recent Fig campaign for Wasteland 3.

What is it that draws me to the wastes? I blame my love of the outdoors—there's nothing better than a campout in the mountains, roasting food over a fire and hanging out with friends. The wilderness survival instinct in me enjoys exploring the radioactive ruins of our modern world, and without any of the nasty bug bites, blisters, or death that I might have to deal with in the real world. If there's ever a real apocalypse—and I somehow manage to survive—you can expect to find me roaming the countryside, wearing a badge and trying to bring back some semblance of law and order. I've had a few decades of virtual practice now, so I'm ready.

Andy Chalk: Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl

I remember the first time I decided to stay out late in Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. I'd gained some familiarity with the Zone, and what I thought was a halfway-decent gun, so as the sky started to darken I didn't make my usual beeline back to camp. To my horror, I discovered that unlike most games, where nighttime simply means a different color palette in the sky, Stalker's evenings were dark. Really dark. Long story short, I made for a fire I saw in the distance, got jumped by a two-headed Carthaginian war elephant that breathed fire (although in hindsight, I'm pretty sure it was just a pseudodog), screamed like it was my first time on a roller coaster, and through it all, somehow, did not die. It was nothing but stupid luck and three half-drunk bozos around a campfire that kept me alive that night.

But it was also the moment that I first came to appreciate something else that was different about Stalker. The Zone doesn't care. It's not there to fuel and funnel your superhero fantasies about saving the world; it just is. If you forget that, it'll happily kick your ass and not even tell you why. There's something about that uncaring, unscaling indifference to the very fact of your existence that I adore. Sure, you'll eventually end up a tough guy, with big guns and great armor. But there are lots of other tough guys roaming around out there too, and they'll stick it to you without blinking if you give them half a chance. How do you not love that?

Austin Wood: Fallout 4

I get why everyone is kind of down on Fallout 4. The main story is a wash and it's a far weaker role-playing platform than Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3, but it also nails Fallout's uniquely flavored apocalypse. It's overflowing with what are, to me, the two definitive Fallout characteristics: found shelters and '80s sci-fi. 

From Diamond City's settlers to the Brotherhood of Steel's zeppelin to that pirate ship full of robots, the people of the Wasteland are more like hermit crabs than refugees. They hole up in whatever they happen upon and gradually build it up, so you wind up with these unorthodox, flavorful settlements and structures that feel handcrafted and genuinely lived-in. They might be surrounded by sprawling, generic shacks, but there's always something unique at their core that dictates how they sprawl. Which dovetails with my second point: Fallout 4 isn't just any future, it's the future envisioned by '80s scientists and filmmakers, all lasers and robot assistants and nukes beyond the dreams of avarice. It's this absurd, distinctive mix of the Jetsons, the Matrix and Mad Max, but it works because of the flexibility of the nuclear MacGuffin and because humanity is the through-line. 

Samuel Roberts: Liberty City in GTA 4

Clearly, GTA 5's Los Santos is the king of open world environments. I'm just saying this so you don't think I'm being a contrarian, because technically it's a way more impressive open world than the ageing Liberty City. And yet, the heart says GTA 4's open world is more evocative. Its golden skies and densely packed streets feel eerily close to real life, but it feels a little bit magical, too—like someone's half-remembered living in New York a decade ago, and captured the life of the place, if not exactly what it was like. It's still my favourite Rockstar environment. Well, while Red Dead Redemption isn't on PC, anyway.

But what about your choices? Let us know below.

Saints Row 4 is easily my favourite of Volition's batshit sandbox crime sim series. Its story was as forgettable as they come (something about aliens and presidents, I think?), but its weapons were great—from its laugh-out-loud Dubstep Gun, to its very NSFW Dildo Bat. Another of my favourites was Johnny Gat's The Knifethrower, which has now been modded into Fallout 4 to great effect. 

Straight from the workbench of GenghisKhanX—who also brought us the likes of The Beautifier and Commonwealth Trash Collection—Minigun Knife Thrower brings Johnny Gat's weapon of choice to the wasteland.

Blade-firing barrels can be attached to any minigun, so says the mod's creator, while ammo can be crafted at Chem Stations under the 'utility' heading. Doing so will set you back 500x 5mm rounds and 500x steel—which combine to make 500x Knife Rounds.   

Moreover, the Knifethrower minigun does 4x regular Minigun damage. And here it is in practice:

"Yes, this is mostly a joke mod," says GenghisKhanX on the mod's corner of the Nexus. More information, as well as installation instructions, can be found via the link above.

It's November, which means it's time for the annual tradition of slowly rubbing your forehead while muttering "How is it November already?" When you're done with that, why not grow a moustache? 'Movember', as it is called, is a month-long event where moustaches are grown (on faces, not on farms or in gardens or something) to raise awareness of men's health issues like prostate cancer. The idea, according to the Movember Foundation, is to "change the face of men's health."

In addition to pitching in by darkening your lower lip with what is most likely a really shitty looking moustache, you can also participate virtually in Fallout 4 with the Movember Mod. Made by modder Elianora (who also created a 'Save the Boobies Mod' for breast cancer awareness, and lots of other mods), the Movember Mod adds wearable moustaches, moustache-related clothing, and some accessories:

"Two fancy outfits and one Vault Jumpsuit with t-shirt on top of it, a plastic fake moustache, a realistic fake moustache, a monocle, and a top hat."

• Craft them under MOVEMBER at the CHEMISTRY BENCH
• The "Movember Mo" can be worn by humans, Dogmeat, and Strong
• They bring luck and charisma
• The outfits can be modded to have lining, ballistic weave and they can have armour pieces on top of them
• The Vault Jumpsuit + T-Shirt works like a normal Vault Suit, people will comment on you wearing it 

"GO BE FANCY AF!" Elianora adds. I second that: being fancy af is about the best advice I've heard in a long time. You'll find the Movember Mod over at Nexus Mods.

Apart from stealth games that allow for non-lethal attacks, unconsciousness is a bit of a rarity in games. And in Fallout 4, NPCs basically have two states: alive or dead. But sometimes you just want to knock someone out, especially while using fists or a non-lethal weapon. Thankfully, the Knockout Framework mod is here to sing Fallout 4's NPCs a violent yet soothing lullaby.

With the mod installed, you'll be able to knock out just about any NPC or creature in the game using your fists or gun-bashing. It's not an instant KO: the mod just determines when an NPC is about to be killed by a non-lethal weapon, and instead it renders them unconscious.

An unconscious NPC will remain in that state for a while (you can customize how long in the mod menu's options), and when you interact with their body you'll have some new options. You can choose to wake the unconscious person up, useful since your companions can now be knocked out during combat. Best of all, not only can you completely loot a knocked-out NPC as if they were dead, but you can also kidnap them and take them somewhere else.

Enjoyably, kidnapping an unconscious NPC places an enormous duffel bag on your character's back:

"Nothing to see here. Just carrying a giant sack around like a normal person who doesn't pummel people unconscious and then kidnap them. There's not a body in there or anything. It's just... my extra socks."

You can, naturally, remove the kidnap victim from the bag using your Pip-Boy at whatever location you've taken them to. Wake them up, dump them off a bridge, leave them looted and confused somewhere... just use your imagination.

The mod's author, Seb263, also has a companion mod, Non-Lethal Armory, that changes the behavior of a number of weapons. It's not required to make Knockout Framework function, but it'll give you more options for beating NPCs unconscious. The mod makes weapons like the tire iron, rolling pin, pool cue, baseball bat, baton, and several others non-lethal, allowing you to knock NPCs out with them. (And by the way, you can now be knocked out too, though NPCs can't kidnap you.)

You'll find Knockout Framework on Nexus Mods.

HTC earlier this summer dropped the price of its Vive VR headset to $600 to make it more competitive with the Oculus Rift's also recently-reduced pricing. Now HTC is upping the ante by bundling Fallout 4 VR, a $60 value, with new Vive purchases.

That's a pretty sweet value-add, and one that could entice more gamers to take the plunge into VR territory. While still a bit pricey, the Vive comes with motion controllers, a pair of base stations, and now a triple-A game to go along with a few other VR experiences, including Everest VR, Richie's Plank Experience, and Google's Tilt Brush.

"Fallout 4 VR is the most anticipated title for VR this holiday, and the game development team at Bethesda Game Studios is delivering on the promise with a full-length AAA open-world game that takes advantage of Vive’s incredible room-scale immersion for a mind-blowing experience in the Wasteland," said Joel Breton, GM of Vive Studios. "The promise of a game with near endless content, including hundreds of locations, characters, and quests, fully playable in VR, is something that we have been focused on providing for the VR gaming community."

Fallout 4 VR will come in the form of a redemption code. The game launches on December 12, so there is a bit of a wait before you can cash in on the freebie. Buyers also have to be at least 18 years old to redeem the code.

If you already own a Vive headset, HTC has a lesser bargain available—it will gift a 3-month subscription to Viveport, its online app store for VR content, when you also purchase Fallout 4 VR.