Since Bethesda released the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.), Fallout 3 mods have been flooding the internet like a rabid pack of molerats. Now, you can add user-made quests, buildings, locations, NPCs, weapons, and items to enhance your copy of the game. But, maybe you’re not quite ready to have the leveling system overhauled or massive weapons balance issues resolved or a host of new perks added. Maybe you want to start small?
This guide will highlight nine Fallout 3 mods (and related companion mods for each) that aren’t ground-shaking or experience-altering, but that will give the uncertain player a little taste of the change that’s sweeping the Wasteland.
Note: Before you install any mod, make sure you read the description, the read-me file, and all the comments, which often point out installation problems and conflicts with other mods. A few mods require you to replace existing Fallout 3 files or textures, which makes uninstalling them difficult. You might also consider downloading the Fallout 3 Mod Manager, which makes managing, installing, and deactivating your mods a breeze.
Voracious Reader
What was the most memorable thing about your tenth birthday? Was it receiving your very own Pip-Boy 3000? Seeing a robot cut your cake with a whirling circular saw? Spitting on a sweetroll just to spite that bully Butch?
For me, it was when my friend Amata gave me a copy of the comic book Grognak the Barbarian, which I promptly ate. At least, I assume that’s what I did, since activating the comic, or any skill book in the game, causes it to a) raise one of your attributes, and b) disappear forever.
Luckily, the handy Persistent Skill Books mod means that you can have your book and read it, too. You’ll get your stat boost when you active the book the first time, and it’ll remain in your inventory so you can start a nice little collection. Who wants to eat books anyway, when there’s delicious Iguana-On-A-Stick?
Companion Mod: Since you’re going to hang on to those skill books, why not reskin them, too? Redone Skill Books presents new, appropriate covers for your reading list, such as putting Richard Nixon on the cover of Lying, Congressional Style.
Spin the Bottle
Post-apocalyptic worlds always have one item that is more valuable than anything else. In The Road Warrior, it was gasoline. In Twelve Monkeys, it was information about the past. In Kevin Costner’s The Postman, it was the eject button on your DVD player. In Fallout 3, it’s bottle caps. So, it’s nice that when you knock back a refreshing bottle of Nuka-Cola, you get to add the precious bottle cap to your change purse. But what happens to the empty bottle?
Until now, it just vanished, but Addbottle10 fixes that by dropping an empty bottle into your inventory. And don’t forget to recycle: it’s the only wasteland we’ve got.
Companion Mod: The Quantum Pipeline gives you something to do with all those extra empties: it adds a pipe in the lake of Nuka-Cola Quantum in the Nuka-Cola factory. Just take an empty bottle (and cap) and fill-er up. It’ll certainly make one of the quests in the game a lot easier.
The Future’s So Bright
I gotta wear shades. Everyone’s gotta wear shades. Shades are cool. But you won’t notice any difference when you’re wearing them in-game unless you install the Sunglasses FX mod. It visibly dims the screen when you’re wearing sunglasses for just that extra touch of immersion you’ve been looking for.
Companion Mod: Like I said, shades are cool, and all the NPCs in the game will agree when you install the Improved Glasses mod: wearing sunglasses will increase your charisma by 1. They’ll also improve your perception when worn outside in the daylight, and, unless you’re Corey Hart, lower it when you wear them at night.
Take a Load Off
The toilets in Fallout 3 look like they’ve seen plenty of use, but you’ll never catch anyone actually sitting on one, unless you install the Bathroom mod. It tags the toilets as furniture, meaning NPCs looking for a seat have another option. The downside is, you’ll no longer be able to drink of out the toilets. Wait. That’s not a downside.
Companion Mod: Followers Relax is a mod that’ll allow your followers, like Charon or Jericho, to chill out a bit when they’ve got some downtime. Instead of standing motionless behind you, they’ll lean against a wall, take a seat at the bar, or, with the Bathroom mod installed, sit on a toilet.
Vaulpaper
Sure, you’re running around the wasteland with a badass assortment of guns and explosives, but when it comes right down to it, you’re just a nerd who sits at a personal computer all day. Pip-Boy Desktop Themes gently reminds you of that by letting you choose from a number of desktop wallpapers for your Pip-Boy 3000, like Windows Vista, Dell, Apple — even Hannah Montana. Now, don’t you feel more at home?
Companion Mod: Even though we frequent that hooker in Megaton, it doesn’t mean we don’t love you, Amata. Amata Smiles is a mod that adds a wallet-sized photo of dear, sweet Amata clipped to the side of your Pip-Boy. So, every time you check your inventory to see if you’ve got enough caps for another go-round with Nova, Amata will be watching. Don’t look, honey. Don’t look.
The Shadow Knows
You wake up. You murder a sheriff because you want his hat. You sell a trusting child into a life of slavery. You detonate an a-bomb. Before you know it, half the day is gone. With such a busy schedule, who has time to worry about shaving?
The Five O’Clock Shadow Texture mod realizes that your average Vault Boogeyman on-the-go wouldn’t have a spare moment to shave his whiskers, and adds an appropriate bit of scruff to your chin and cheeks.
Companion Mod: Even if you’ve toughened up your looks with a little stubble, you still might not be happy with your appearance. Redesign your face with ease with the Plastic Surgery mod, which allows your robot butler (from either house) to give your looks a complete overhaul. It’s much more convenient than tracking down the only plastic surgeon in the game.
No Trouble Brewing
Not a fan of whiskey or beer? Maybe you just don’t enjoy the bar scene? Not to worry, now you can mix up your own booze at home with a workbench and a few ingredients. Custom Alcohol provides you with a recipe for a home-brew of Tarmaa’s Vintage Pear Schnapps. Mmmm…. you can really taste the turpentine.
Companion Mod: Even if you’re a teetotaler, you can still put all the booze you find to good use. The Alcohol Flame Thrower mod lets you run your Flamer on booze instead of fuel so you can whip up your enemies a nice hot Flaming Moe.
Waiting to Inhale
Smoking is deadly… deadly cool, that is. Useable Cigarettes lets you smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. While smoking, you’ll get a nicotine buzz that will heighten your perception and add a few action points, but it’ll also damage your lungs, and you’ll suffer more negative effects if you get addicted.
Companion Mod: Then again, maybe you’re a non-smoker, and Cigarette Wrapper might be more useful to you. Find 20 loosies and it’ll store them in a pack; collect ten packs and it’ll create a carton. Perfect for the easy storing and selling of your unwanted cancer sticks.
Save vs. Spells
So, the world is a devastated radioactive wasteland filled with mutated monsters and feral ghouls — that doesn’t mean things like correct spelling aren’t still important. Spelling Errors Fixed scours the wastes with a red pen, fixing Bethesda’s typos, like “Mutatnts”, “Virtural”, “Racoon” and “Conquorer.” It even changes the item description “Shot glass” to “Shot Glass” in the interest of uniform capitalization.
Companion Mod: Like I said at the beginning, you might not be ready for massive changes to Fallout 3. If all those spelling corrections are making you nervous, start slow. Shot glass to Shot Glass is a mod that fixes just that single typo. Baby steps, Lone Wanderer. Baby steps.
85 Comments
February 1, 2009
FIRST
love new site
February 1, 2009
where’s rss?
February 1, 2009
So far the new site looks good.
February 1, 2009
RSS Feed is here: http://www.firstpersonshouter.com/?feed=rss2
I’ll add a button somewhere on the site shortly.
February 1, 2009
Yeah, Chris, where’s the RSS feed, for us lazy readers? Looking forward to any new content, and keep up the good work [here, do what you want at your paying job].
February 1, 2009
See, now I feel bad about complaining. Sorry!
February 1, 2009
R.I.P. 1Fort.
February 1, 2009
Haha I like the stubble one, nice post.
February 1, 2009
Great first post for the new site. Looking forward to it
February 1, 2009
And here’s me, with Fallout on the PS3. D:
DAMN YOU PC MODDING COMMUNITY!
Also, loving the new site Chris. And the new post. ’sall good.
:)
February 1, 2009
I must be a n00b or something, because I just can’t manage to get any of these mods to work, even with that mod manager doohickey.
February 1, 2009
You have to run as administrator… wait, that was oblivion, and only for some mods (only one that I used, as far as I know)…
Put them in your data folder, using common sense about the file names (don’t put a folder named data in data, etc) then just use the fallout mod manager to enable the .esm for a given mod. That’s all there is to it, even simpler than with oblivion. If that doesn’t work… then something is either very wrong, or you’re still doing it wrong.
February 1, 2009
Fantastic new post, very useful.
Slightly unsure on the new format, but I’m sure I’ll be pulled around…
February 1, 2009
Maybe you’ll consider full feeds for this site?
February 1, 2009
I dislike the color scheme but not enough for it to bother me. Hope to read more soon!
February 1, 2009
Longer posts, excellent. But I was deeply disappointed when I found out that firstpersonshouter didn’t have all the posts written in ALL CAPS.
For shame Froh. For shame.
February 1, 2009
Interesting new site. More in-depth than usual post, which I like. Also the quantum pipe mod seems like a great idea that should have been in Fallout 3 to begin with.
February 1, 2009
GET A NEW FONT~! :D
February 1, 2009
Actually I’m not sure about the “new font” idea. I’m surprised to notice that it looks similar/is the same as the other site…
February 1, 2009
Darn progress.
 
February 1, 2009
but, but, but.
where are the tags?! :(
February 1, 2009
It’s the same font as 1Fort. It’s just a little bigger.
February 1, 2009
IT SMELLS LIKE PAINT OVER HERE
I LIKE IT
February 1, 2009
Cheers, for the New Blog and, This List. I just finished Fallout 3 and was looking foward to some mods, but when I realized how severe most of them were I became scared and reclusive towards Fallout 3 Nexus. This has Changed that.
Tagss: Time to Mod the Hell out of Hell. <–Whaddya think?
February 2, 2009
That last mod, Shot Glass, is the best. Turned that frown upside-down.
February 2, 2009
Hey, will fpshouter twitter replace 1fort twitter?
February 2, 2009
And on the subject of mod lists:
ttp://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Caveat-Emptor/50-Mods-You-Should-Be-Playing-For-Fallout-3
Some pretty damn nice things there.
February 2, 2009
Cures I could always find 1fort by typing in “1f” into the adress bar. I’m going to have to favourite this.
February 2, 2009
Like the new blog. however, this new entry made me green with envy fo two resons. one, I’m on the xbox and can’t get these mods, and two the stupid machine shredded my fallout 3 disc when I knocked it over. Two weeks before I can play the game on account of needing to buy a new disc. DAMN!
February 2, 2009
Hey Chris new site looks good. Looking forward to another great year of gaming news.
February 2, 2009
Damint, now all I want to do is go play FO3, but I can’t, partly because I haven’t bought it (Steam will help there), but mainly because I’m recuperating from appendicitis at my parents house with no gaming PC :(
DAMN YOU APPENDIX!
February 2, 2009
Well, 1fort had a good run. However Chris, could you install an RSS feed on this site? It was very useful with 1Fort.
February 2, 2009
http://www.firstpersonshouter.com/?p=2
You had an About page! Fill ‘er up! :D
February 2, 2009
Oh, and sorry but the TF2 header image with the soldier and engy looks fugly for whatever reason i can’t put down. The rest seem fine:P
February 2, 2009
Phew, at least this one allows us to make comments. Addicted shall live forever!
February 2, 2009
I really don’t like the layout and graphics design, and the comments look likda amateur. Otherwise, nice post and good luck (and a lot of willpower) to post more.
February 2, 2009
this site even feels new, like some freshly build house, still rough but everything is already painted and stuff. It still needs something tough, to make it stand out.
Nice fallout 3 mods, they don’t really do much but it’s nice they exist!
Also, Noobix, it’s probably the horrible jpeg compression (yuck) combined with the oversized intel sign.
February 2, 2009
need an rss please
February 2, 2009
The site might need some work, but I guess it will end up alright.
Back to topic: Some cool mods, gotta try them at some point.
February 2, 2009
Although 1fort looked nicer, I like this one too, and will be following in as close as ever.
February 2, 2009
Sweet long post for a sweet new site. Can’t wait for more.
February 2, 2009
Tbh i think it might be the big obtrusive Blue intel doohickey.
February 2, 2009
Two things:
1) Sure, I’ll be a little sad that there won’t be a 1Fort comic, and the actual site will be shut down. But I think the switch to a more general blog about PC gaming is good.
2) Too bad I’m not much of a PC gamer. My computer can’t handle most of the new stuff(let’s just say I’ve had it since Windows XP was brand new.) Still, even though the XBox is my main machine, I still enjoyed reading 1Fort, and I hope to enjoy this site too.
Oh shit, there’s a third one!) And all of these new mods for Fallout 3 make me pretty jealous.
February 2, 2009
Ugh. so. generic. and. bland
February 2, 2009
Site should be more minimalistic
February 2, 2009
@Am i first?: I concur.
February 2, 2009
Ugh, I hate the new site’s look! It’s so generic and dumb and I hate it I want 1fort!!111
>>GET COMMENT NUMBERING VISABLE<>GET COMMENT NUMBERING VISABLE<:(
Sorry for not at all reading your post, I just don’t want to spoil things about fallout3 for myself (even mods).
And what HTML tags can I use? It just links me back to this page!
February 2, 2009
What do you know? HTML DOES work in here! And it screwed my comment! Here is all what you have missed!
More seriously, the header pictures need borderlines, you should switch all the grey things with something with at least some color (seriously it’s so gloomy. Even just a little red or something will so. Please), the text is too huge (I lowered it but you know default is best), do something with these eye picking blue links-to-comment in the comments (seriously), the way your “blog owner comments” breaks the comment’s filled/not filled order is annoying, commenters’ nicknames should be bold or something, I don’t like these squeres listing the links on the sidebars, can you remove them or put something more stylish? Can you get tags back?
Last but not least, these broken lines are… horrible. kthx.
Or can you simply make a 1fort alternative look? >:(
February 2, 2009
Argh change! Me no likey change. Yet this place has a familiar warmth and smell, I shall take refuge from the snow here. I’ll just snuggle up in a corner of the site here.
February 2, 2009
Best Mod i have for fallout 3 is “Lincoln’s 32.” which changes the ammo of lincoln’s repeater to 32. rounds like normal hunting rifles instead of the rare 44. magnum ammo. Ever since then i’ve had some epic unscoped sniper fun with the rifle.
February 2, 2009
Woot! New site! New post! Awesome!
February 2, 2009
May this be a dawn of a new age.
February 2, 2009
I will post on this first post since I ended on the 1fort blog, I look forward to this new site, and hope to see regular updates. Good day fine sir’s.
February 2, 2009
How come us LIO fans don’t get a new fancy site? Yes, we do like to complain about things.
February 2, 2009
Hmmm. Comment system apparently goes to the most recent comment instead of the first comment.
Anyway, cool blog, looking forward to updates, feel free to use some of my headers from You Know Where if you want. Not sure if they’d fit, though.
February 2, 2009
Hey Chris the site looks borked on Webkit. The sidebars randomly disappear and reappear when you resize.
February 2, 2009
Hmm….compared to the 1Fort site, this one looks like it’s slightly less attractive sibling. Still, with a little make-up and some nice clothes, maybe it too can go to the ball one day.
Good to see it up and about all the same :)
February 2, 2009
I like it.
Any way to get rid of those dark bars on the left side of links in your menus and stuff? They look ugly and are just generally irritating. Maybe a nice circle or triangle or something instead.
Demoman! Need more Demoman. And don’t change the name! It’s perfect.
February 2, 2009
Well, I am very sad about 1fort, but I am looking forward to a long and productive stay at FPS! Yay!
February 2, 2009
Well, here I am. I’m excited to see where you’re going with this.
But to be honest.
This blog is ugly as fuck. Moar pretty plz
February 2, 2009
Love the idea, new site is cluttered tho
February 2, 2009
Chris… the twitter link.. IT’S LEAKING FROM THE SIDEBAR! AAAHHH!!!
February 2, 2009
I prefered 1Fort, but if this is as good, I’ll take it.
February 2, 2009
Ahhh, the first post on the First Person Shouter. A post destined to be remembered as the post that started a New Age of Chris.
February 2, 2009
I do have issues with the GIGANTIC fonts though. It’s like my screen is being eaten by Sans Serif.
February 2, 2009
Very nice article. I like how you prefaced with some mod installation info, as that always seems to be my barrier when installing mods for games. Some of these look like things that make you go, “Why the hell isn’t that in the game?” Very nice finds.
Can’t wait to see more from this site!
February 2, 2009
@Snooglebum (68, but the number is only visable in the link to the comment, so mentioning it is useless! noooo!)
Ctrol+mousewheel down
Wroks like magic.
February 2, 2009
Good luck Chris! I’ve been with you from notmydesk and I have faith in firstpersonshouter too.
February 2, 2009
Wait NM about the bars Chris, it’s a dumb bug in the latest Google Chrome dev build. It’s happening to a whole lot of sites.
February 2, 2009
*Sniff* *Sniff* Wow! FPS even has that new website smell!
February 2, 2009
I was looking at the wallpaper one, and I think I might have to get it for the VALVe one. +1 Awesome.
February 2, 2009
Hmm, this new site scares and confuses me.
I really want Fallout3, but I also really don’t want to put more money into my keyboard, and I also ALSO don’t want to put effort into learning the ways of joystick aiming.
February 2, 2009
I liked this post quite a bit, but… yeah. The site is pretty damn ugly.
February 2, 2009
YAY! Moar Chris! I’m glad your still doing blogs. I check 1fort every week or so and enjoy reading it. Be looking forward to your new posts on firstpersonshouter. Lol. I think I like 1fort’s format better.
February 2, 2009
All I have to say is, where’s the RSS? I needs my RSS.
February 2, 2009
What happened to the ugly news ticker?
February 2, 2009
Just found this on the X-Play website. Click my name for their version of the best Fallout 3 PC mods. Definitely like the light saber mod.
February 2, 2009
Chris,do one great favor to all of us - get back Cutline theme.1Fort was fine in terms of design,but FPS looks ugly.
February 2, 2009
This needs tags.
You know you want them.
February 2, 2009
nice new site.
February 2, 2009
Yeah, thats right, i CAN go one comment without complaining. Take THAT!
February 5, 2009
that is kcik ass! i like the ”drinking” and ”companion” mode.. also the plastic surgery and ”home doing” is fun.. graet find
February 9, 2009
I like the look of these mods, but i hate fallout 3 nexus. my Comp seems to want to preload files off that one and, well they’re stupid doo doo heads
March 4, 2009
Have you tried the Settler mod? It basically allows you to build your own ‘town’ ANYWHERE. And everything is ingame so no need to mess around with the GECK.‘town’ because it’s more a campfire with some crap around it but still cool!
Just search for Settler on fallout3nexus, it’s offline atm so I can’t link to it, check my name for a picture of what you can do
March 7, 2009
“For me, it was when my friend Amata gave me a copy of the comic book Grognak the Barbarian, which I promptly ate.”
That cracks me up every time.
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