What game would you by no means play with out mods?

Obvious reply: Skyrim. How are you able to get pleasure from replaying Skyrim with out with the ability to bypass the intro, type your stock by weight or worth, or fly the paraglider from Breath of the Wild? OK, the final one is elective, however Skyrim is the primary game I might solely counsel enjoying unmodded your first time by way of. (The quantity two game is each different Bethesda open-world RPG.) I suppose in the event you rely unofficial patches as mods the identical goes for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, however I’m considering extra of full-blown modifications relatively than fixes.

What game would you by no means play with out mods?

Here are our solutions, plus some from our discussion board.

Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Somewhere within the pages of PC Gamer I’m fairly certain I’ve known as KotOR 2 the buggiest game I’ve ever overwhelmed. I made it to the tip, surviving a wholesome scoop of bugs, outright crashes, and even a corrupted save file. And that was all with the important TSLRCM, aka The Sith Lords Restored Content Modification, put in. TSLRCM is an important add-on that restores chunks of KotOR2 that developer Obsidian did not have time to complete, and likewise fixes bugs that made some stuff that truly was within the game inaccessible. Considering how buggy The Sith Lords nonetheless was once I performed it in 2013, I can not think about how unhealthy it was earlier than followers swooped in to repair it up.

TSLRCM debuted in 2009 and was most not too long ago up to date in December 2020, so perhaps all the issues I bumped into in 2013 have since been ironed out. I certain hope so, as a result of that is my choose for the greatest Star Wars game. Just… use a whole lot of save slots.

Chris Livingston, Features Producer: Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl is one in every of my favourite video games of all time, however gosh. It has bugs. To be honest, a few of them are fairly darn amusing and solely deepen my affection for the game, however I do not think about I’d ever play it unmodded once more. It’s been ages since I’ve revisited it so I’m unsure what one of the best mods are for it nowadays, however I recall the Zone Reclamation Project did a superb job of squashing bugs, bettering stability, and including some new elective options with out feeling like an altogether totally different expertise.

Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor: I’ve virtually sworn off mods that are not reconstructive or standalone due to my expertise with Oblivion and Fallout 3 within the eighth grade. I used to be blown away by the chances, and loaded up a ridiculous quantity of mods on our household PC: Midas Magic for Oblivion, tacticool Call of Duty stuff in Fallout. I picked up NPCs from different gaming franchises, a customized race of bizarre anime elves, mods to broaden cities and settlements and convey them into the identical loading zone because the overworld, and I introduced that pc to its knees. 

After a sure level, one thing broke and the bottom texture on the overworld in Oblivion was only a repeating sample of a map of the Imperial City for some motive, and I could not pinpoint what did it. The downside someway even continued on a contemporary set up (I’m certain there was one thing I might have found out, however I used to be 13). I’d loaded that PC up with so many bizarre, tasteless mods that it was completely haunted, and I did not play Oblivion once more for over 10 years. These days, I attempt to “respect the developers’ vision.”

Andy Chalk, NA News Lead: I do not normally play with mods, and I usually do not replay video games as soon as I’ve completed with them. But if I ever succumb to the temptation to return to Morrowind, I’ll completely not accomplish that with out the Passive Cliff Racers mod, or one thing prefer it. It may seem to be a minor factor however man, these birds are only a continuous ache within the ass. The Nerevarine do not want that.

WAIT

I’m altering my reply, as a result of I fully forgot about this. One game I’ve replayed (and will replay once more) is System Shock 2. It’s good, however graphically very dated. (Frankly, it was graphically dated when it was new.) There are two mods important to addressing that shortcoming: System Shock 2 Rebirth and SHTUP, the Shock Texture Upgrade Project. They’re a little bit of a trouble to make use of, however collectively they offer the game a severe and much-needed visible improve. It’s been a very long time since I performed SS2 so there could also be different choices on the market now, however Rebirth and SHTUP have at all times been the “big ones,” they usually’re the 2 I might not go with out.

(You should not, both.)

From our discussion board

Brian Boru: Far Cry 5. Another of Ubisoft’s drawn-out boring FC intros, which I solely wish to see as soon as. Then there are the hated-by-many seize sequences which made me cease enjoying for practically a yr till the wonderful Resistance mod took care of each of these issues.

Civilization. I performed Civ4 for ~a yr vanilla—fantastic game, however the UI tedium ultimately received to me. BUG/BAT mod made it playable once more, to the extent I play it yearly. Started Civ6 not too long ago and went straight for mods, have ~30 put in—no level struggling UI deficiencies when I haven’t got to.

With video games ok to warrant replaying, I’ll normally search for an ‘unlock’ mod, so I can have entry to a lot of the great things from the get-go.

ZedClampet: Welp, I’ve 285 mods at present moving into Farming Simulator 22 (by the point I completed enjoying Farming Simulator 19 I had over 800 mods), however this could solely be an in depth second to Satisfactory, where I solely have 48 mods, however they’re extremely vital to how I wish to play the game; as an illustration, the mod that makes the game peaceable, eradicating all enemies, each vegetation and animals, and the mods that permit entry to automobiles earlier within the game. 

I’ve performed this game again and again. Unlocking trains, drones and jetpacks later was cool the primary couple of occasions. Now I simply need them as quickly as potential. Same goes for enemies. They had been enjoyable at first, however now they’re only a nuisance. Also, the mods that exchange the extremely annoying bio-energy within the early game are a should have. So, yeah, it is Satisfactory for me.

mainer: Outside of the plain reply that you simply already listed, my subsequent most modded game can be Fallout 4. I’d by no means play that game with out mods (outdoors of the primary playthrough when it launched). Make your settlements greater and fancier, make your settlers smarter, enhance the factions, extra quests, extra crafting choices, and there is even a FallUI mod now that is primarily based on the SkyUI, and a Photo Mode mod that is one of the best Photo Mode I’ve ever used. Your decisions in mods are practically as infinite as they’re for Skyrim.

DXCHASE: None, I play video games principally vanilla and if there’s some characteristic I need, I’ll go download it.

Frindis: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. Don’t get me unsuitable, the game is totally wonderful with a number of the coolest facet quests, classes, and abilities. It is a implausible game from the get-go, nevertheless it additionally has one of the heartbreaking moments in online game historical past: The god rattling Elizabeth Dane quest where you need to use a ship which is for almost all of the time: bugged! Bugged you say, YES! It means you possibly can’t move on with the primary story as a result of you possibly can’t get the immediate that claims you possibly can enter the god rattling boat! It was insanely irritating in the event you didn’t again your saves, managed to get a save from a pal, OR received the unofficial patch that fastened this.

Zloth: Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries. The game is definitely playable with no mods in any respect, however, assuming you’ve got received the PC to energy to spare, why would you? Some graphics mods to make the explosions look fierier, go away smoke trails behind the missiles, and perhaps give your self some cockpit glass makes the game look higher. TTRulez’s AI mod makes allies and enemies act smarter. The Pilot Overhaul makes your mechwarriors extra attention-grabbing and allows you to edit their portraits and voices (very helpful for avoiding duplicates in your lance), and vonBiomes add some attention-grabbing new locations to do battle.

Slasken: I might by no means play Cities Skylines with out mods. Thankfully, the game has had nice mod help for the reason that starting. I do not use solely a property, because it actually halts the efficiency, however I do use a whole lot of different mods for visitors and different QOL mods. I went loopy with property earlier than, and it halts the efficiency right down to single digit fps once you get a giant metropolis.

Sarafan: It will likely be a little bit controversial, however I can not think about myself returning to Deus Ex with out the Revision mod. It fixes some bugs that had been left within the authentic game and this alone is superb, however its principal benefit is the brand new content material. Numerous the areas underwent a serious overhaul and the brand new areas are hardly distinguishable in high quality from the unique content material. They match ideally.

What extra the mod improves graphics in a significant approach, proposes a remixed model of the soundtrack and a brand new strategy to ability factors and augmentations (there are few choices of this characteristic to select from). The massive benefit is that every one of those adjustments are elective and you’ll disable sure components of the mod within the menu. You don’t love the brand new soundtrack? No downside, you should use the unique one. Don’t just like the skill-tree adjustments? Pick the usual one. Same goes for brand spanking new character fashions and another features of the mod.

Revision is extremely configurable. I can solely suggest to attempt it. Not everybody likes it, however there are probabilities that you will by no means return to the unique game with out this mod.