Apparent reply: Skyrim. How are you going to take pleasure in 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 (opens in new tab)? OK, the final one is non-obligatory, however Skyrim is the primary recreation I’d solely counsel taking part in unmodded your first time by. (The quantity two recreation is each different Bethesda open-world RPG.) I suppose in the event you depend unofficial patches as mods the identical goes for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, however I am considering extra of full-blown modifications quite than fixes.
What recreation would you by no means play with out mods?
Listed below are our solutions, plus some from our discussion board.
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: Star Wars: Knights of the Outdated Republic 2. Someplace within the pages of PC Gamer I am fairly positive I’ve referred to as KotOR 2 the buggiest recreation I’ve ever crushed. I made it to the top, surviving a wholesome scoop of bugs, outright crashes, and even a corrupted save file. And that was all with the very important TSLRCM, aka The Sith Lords Restored Content material Modification (opens in new tab), put in. TSLRCM is an important add-on that restores chunks of KotOR2 that developer Obsidian did not have time to complete, and in addition fixes bugs that made some stuff that really was within the recreation inaccessible. Contemplating how buggy The Sith Lords nonetheless was once I performed it in 2013, I am unable to think about how unhealthy it was earlier than followers swooped in to repair it up.
TSLRCM debuted in 2009 and was most just lately up to date in December 2020, so perhaps all the issues I bumped into in 2013 have since been ironed out. I positive hope so, as a result of that is my choose for the greatest Star Wars recreation (opens in new tab). Simply… use a variety of save slots.
Chris Livingston, Options Producer: Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl is considered one of my favourite video games of all time, however gosh. It has bugs. To be truthful, a few of them are fairly darn amusing and solely deepen my affection for the sport, however I do not think about I might ever play it unmodded once more. It has been ages since I’ve revisited it so I am unsure what the perfect mods are for it as of late, however I recall the Zone Reclamation Mission (opens in new tab) did a great job of squashing bugs, enhancing stability, and including some new non-obligatory options with out feeling like an altogether completely different expertise.
Ted Litchfield, Affiliate 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 probabilities, and loaded up a ridiculous quantity of mods on our household PC: Midas Magic for Oblivion (opens in new tab), tacticool Name of Responsibility stuff in Fallout. I picked up NPCs from different gaming franchises, a customized race of bizarre anime elves, mods to develop cities and settlements and produce 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 Metropolis for some motive, and I could not pinpoint what did it. The issue by some means even persevered on a recent set up (I am positive there was one thing I might have found out, however I used to be 13). I might 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. Lately, I attempt to “respect the builders’ imaginative and prescient.”
Andy Chalk, NA Information Lead: I do not often play with mods, and I typically do not replay video games as soon as I’ve completed with them. But when I ever succumb to the temptation to return to Morrowind, I’ll completely not achieve this with out the Passive Cliff Racers mod, or one thing prefer it. It’d appear to be a minor factor however man, these birds are only a continuous ache within the ass. The Nerevarine do not want that.
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I’m altering my reply, as a result of I utterly forgot about this. One recreation I’ve replayed (and should replay once more) is System Shock 2. It is 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 (opens in new tab) and SHTUP (opens in new tab), the Shock Texture Improve Mission. They are a little bit of a problem to make use of, however collectively they offer the sport a critical and much-needed visible improve. It has 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 “massive ones,” and so they’re the 2 I’d not go with out.
(You should not, both.)
Brian Boru: Far Cry 5. One other of Ubisoft’s drawn-out boring FC intros, which I solely need to see as soon as. Then there are the hated-by-many seize sequences which made me cease taking part in for almost a yr till the superb Resistance mod took care of each of these issues.
Civilization. I performed Civ4 for ~a yr vanilla—great recreation, however the UI tedium finally received to me. BUG/BAT mod made it playable once more, to the extent I play it yearly. Began Civ6 just lately and went straight for mods, have ~30 put in—no level struggling UI deficiencies when I haven’t got to.
With video games adequate to warrant replaying, I will often search for an ‘unlock’ mod, so I can have entry to many of the great things from the get-go.
ZedClampet: Welp, I’ve 285 mods at the moment getting into Farming Simulator 22 (by the point I completed taking part in Farming Simulator 19 I had over 800 mods), however this could solely be a detailed second to Passable, the place I solely have 48 mods, however they’re extremely vital to how I need to play the sport; as an illustration, the mod that makes the sport peaceable, eradicating all enemies, each vegetation and animals, and the mods that permit entry to autos earlier within the recreation.
I’ve performed this recreation again and again. Unlocking trains, drones and jetpacks later was cool the primary couple of occasions. Now I simply need them as quickly as doable. Similar goes for enemies. They have been enjoyable at first, however now they’re only a nuisance. Additionally, the mods that exchange the extremely annoying bio-energy within the early recreation are a will need to have. So, yeah, it is Passable for me.
mainer: Exterior of the plain reply that you simply already listed, my subsequent most modded recreation can be Fallout 4. I might by no means play that recreation with out mods (outdoors of the primary playthrough when it launched). Make your settlements greater and fancier, make your settlers smarter, enhance the factions, further quests, further crafting choices, and there is even a FallUI (opens in new tab) mod now that is primarily based on the SkyUI, and a Photograph Mode (opens in new tab) mod that is the perfect Photograph Mode I’ve ever used. Your selections in mods are almost as countless as they’re for Skyrim.
DXCHASE: None, I play video games largely vanilla and if there’s some function I need, I will go obtain it.
Frindis: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. Do not get me flawed, the sport is completely superb with a few of the coolest facet quests, courses, and abilities. It’s a unbelievable recreation from the get-go, nevertheless it additionally has one of the heartbreaking moments in online game historical past: The god rattling Elizabeth Dane quest the place it’s a must to use a ship which is for almost all of the time: bugged! Bugged you say, YES! It means you may’t transfer on with the principle story as a result of you may’t get the immediate that claims you may 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 buddy, OR received the unofficial patch that mounted this.
Zloth: Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries. The sport 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 sport look higher. TTRulez’s AI mod (opens in new tab) makes allies and enemies act smarter. The Pilot Overhaul (opens in new tab) 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 (opens in new tab) add some attention-grabbing new locations to do battle.
Slasken: I’d by no means play Cities Skylines with out mods. Fortunately, the sport 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 variety of different mods for visitors and different QOL mods. I went loopy with property earlier than, and it halts the efficiency all the way down to single digit fps if you get an enormous metropolis.
Sarafan: It is going to be somewhat controversial, however I am unable to think about myself returning to Deus Ex with out the Revision (opens in new tab) mod. It fixes some bugs that have been left within the authentic recreation and this alone is superb, however its important benefit is the brand new content material. A number of the places 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 talent factors and augmentations (there are few choices of this function to select from). The large benefit is that every one of those modifications are non-obligatory and you’ll disable sure components of the mod within the menu. You do not like the brand new soundtrack? No downside, you should utilize the unique one. Do not just like the skill-tree modifications? Choose the usual one. Similar goes for brand spanking new character fashions and another features of the mod.
Revision is very configurable. I can solely advocate to strive it. Not everybody likes it, however there are probabilities that you’re going to by no means return to the unique recreation with out this mod.
