On the new game, the one after that, and ladders. Plus Fallout 3: Broken Steel and more. Fallout 3 GOTY dated for mid-October. PS3 DLC before then, timing inside. More games are set to leave Xbox Game Pass. The two backwards compatible titles, Oblivion and Fallout 3 will be dropping out of the service soon. Grab any achievements you might need ASAP.
Fallout 3 was the 2008 reboot of the beloved late-90’s PC role-playing series, Fallout. Now a classic RPG beloved by millions of fans worldwide. The Fallout series went on to spawn two more games, Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas and the massively-popular sequel, Fallout 4.
It’s still a great game even 10 years later. With all the DLC content available at such a cheap price, you can enjoy the DC wasteland in all its glory. The huge array of mods available only make it better and more appealing than ever. There’s never been a better time to experience Fallout 3, whether for the first or 101st time.
Also Check out: 15 Best Fallout 4 Mods for PS4, PC, Xbox One and 16 Best Fallout: New Vegas Mods For PC
Here are the Best Fallout 3 Mods
Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch
The base Fallout 3 game is known for having a lot of bugs and glitches that have never officially been addressed by its developer, Bethesda. Luckily, the modding community has done a lot of work in creating the Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.This definitive package includes a wide range of fixes, updates, and changes including disappearing NPCs, armor textures and dialogue bugs. It all comes in one simple and handy plugin, too. Highly recommended for an improved Fallout 3 experience all-round.
Download Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.
Fellout
Although Fallout 3 is considered to be a Bethesda classic, it is safe to say its graphics have not aged well. Fellout is a graphical overhaul mod that removes the awful green tinge you’ll find everywhere in vanilla Fallout 3. This mod does this adjustment for both indoors and outdoor environments. Fellout also gives a more harsh feel to the world of Fallout by neutralizing indoor lighting, removing the green fog and changing the look of water. Overall, Fellout is a lighting and weather overhaul that’s highly recommended if you’re looking for a more realistic-looking wasteland.
Download Fellout.
NMC’s Texture Pack
The only texture overhaul pack you’ll need to make your DC wasteland look as sharp as possible. The base game is pretty ugly at this point, let’s be honest. This essential fallout 3 mod, although it won’t make it look as good as Fallout 4, helps to alleviate this problem a considerable amount by replacing terrain, trees, interiors/exteriors, and most vehicles and furniture with high resolution real-life based photographic equivalents. It also changes roads, litter and paper scraps, and other medium-large sized objects such as toolboxes and chairs. This covers most of the in-game visuals and makes it all look much better.
Download NMC’s Texture Pack.
Games For Windows Live Disabler
Anyone who has played Fallout 3 on PC will know how annoying and obnoxious the Games For Windows Live feature can be. A weird and antiquated remnant of PC gaming’s past-life, GFWL probably doesn’t even work. This simple and easy mod removes it completely. What exactly does this mod do? It allows you to stop the Games for Windows Live from running in Fallout 3 and prevent its .dll files from loading. This will drastically help reduce the time that it takes for Fallout 3 to startup. It also removes the “Live” button from the main menu, and unbinds the “Home” key, allowing you to rebind the key to another useful action instead. A very nice QoL mod.
Download Games For Windows Live Disabler.
Fallout 3 Redesigned – Formerly Project Beauty HD
The faces of Fallout 3 are pretty bad, especially in 2019. They all look muddy and bland. This comprehensive graphical mod makes the faces look better, sharper, and less bad. Specifically, this mod re-designs the facial structure of NPCs in Fallout 3 to make them more realistic and to better reflect their personality. In vanilla Fallout 3 there are a lot of awkward skin tones and facial structures included, and this mod completely removes those in favor of the updated ones.
Download Fallout 3 Redesigned – Formerly Project Beauty HD.
Iron Sights Mod
Fallout 3’s minute-to-minute action was never a reason to play it, and it’s only gotten worse with age. Fallout: New Vegas added the ability to aim down sights on all guns, which helps to make the action feel a bit tighter and more responsive. Even if you’re not a fan of FPS games, you can’t deny the convenience of this iron sights mod. What this mod does is it adds centered iron sight animations to most of the vanilla guns in the game for Fallout 3. This mod was supported for a long time by its creator, and many updates were made to improve it over the years. While it is no longer a work in progress, it has certainly improved the user experience for many Fallout players.
Download Iron Sights Mod.
Fallout 3 Wanderer Edition
This massive gameplay overhaul changes Fallout 3 in some major ways. It brings in over 50 different mods to completely change the Fallout 3 experience. This mod, which we only recommend to people looking to completely overhaul the game, includes a variety of changes, ranging from FPS enhancements, alternative character start options, options to slow the leveling curve, and more. This is one of the most comprehensive mods that Fallout 3 has to offer, and installing this will vastly improve the challenge, immersion, and depth of gameplay while emphasizing balance, choices, role-playing and fun. It is a lot to handle, but if you are ready to take the plunge into a totally reworked version of the game, download this mod today!
Download Fallout 3 Wanderer Edition.
Stutter Remover
Fallout 3’s engine was never the most optimized. Bethesda’s open world RPGs are known for their abundance of technical issues. There are a number of mods to fix some of these issues, but one that you might want if you’re getting performance hitches and FPS stutters is this mod. This plugin makes Fallout 3 not stutter as much, and will make gameplay feel smoother and perform better. It will prevent or reduce the impact of issues relating to stuttering and frame rate and will reduce the amount of crashes you may receive as a result of those stutters. Recommended for a smoother Fallout 3 experience.
Download Stutter Remover.
EVE – Energy Visuals Enhanced
This mod aims to overhaul the effects of energy and plasma weapons, making them much more deadly-looking and much more flashy. It makes energy weapons more appealing and much more deadly. One of the coolest features of this mod is that it has thirty-two new critical kill deaths! It also has new weapons included, new muzzle flashes, projectiles and more. This is a fantastic mod for energy gun lovers, and if you did not use those types of weapons before, you will now thanks to this mod.
Download EVE – Energy Visuals Enhanced.
Ultimate Perk Pack
There are a nice variety of perks available to you as you progress in vanilla Fallout 3, but if you’ve played it a few times before, you’ll probably find you’ve explored them all and already have your go-to favorites. This mod adds a number of cool new mods to expand your options when you level up. There are over 70 mods included in this high quality pack, and they are all innovative, humorous and fun to use! They also come with their own special icons. With this pack there will be endless combinations for you to go through and experiment with, and it will prove hours of content just by installing this mod. Give it a try today!
Download Ultimate Perk Pack.
Enhanced Camera
If you like to play Fallout in first-person (I know I do), you’ll be well aware how limited the first-person interactions can be. This mod aims to improve the first-person camera, letting you see your feet when you look down (!!), and allowing various scenes that would normally put you into third-person to be viewed in first-person.
Download Enhanced Camera.
Mart’s Mutant Mod
If you play Fallout 3 for a while, or if you’ve already played it before, you’ll start to run into the same wasteland monsters over and over again. It can start to get a little tedious. This mod adds a wide variety of new monsters and creatures to the world of Fallout 3.
Download Mart’s Mutant Mod.
Weapon Mod Kits
One of the coolest things Fallout: New Vegas introduced was weapon mods. The ability to tweak and improve your weapons with various attachments and improvements helped make the combat more engaging and more varied. This mod adds a similar system into Fallout 3, letting you customize your weapons with silencers, scopes, and more.
Download Weapon Mod Kits.
FOOK (Fallout 3 Overhaul Kit)
This massive overhaul mod adds a large number of new items, high-quality re-textures, and many other gameplay changes. Great if you’re looking for a huge overhaul to completely change the Fallout 3 experience.
Download FOOK (Fallout 3 Overhaul Kit).
Enhanced Blood Textures
A simple mod that improves the blood texture to make it sharper, clearer, and less muddy. You’ll be spilling a lot of blood in this game, why not make it look good?
Download Enhanced Blood Textures.
These are 15 must have fallout 3 mods available for Fallout 3 on PC. There are plenty more out there, but these are just some of the best to get you started.
Let us know if you think we missed anything!
With the release of Fallout 3, the post-apocalyptic role-playing game series was no longer the same as before.
Gone were the days of isometric views and complex RPG rules, and welcome were the days of first-person combat and exploration.
With an expanded experience, also came expanded modding options.
Being such a sprawling game, there was plenty of room for modders to have some fun. Plus the Fallout 3 modding scene is so active, that the game is still receiving mods today that try to keep the game fresh.
Picking a handful for this list was a very difficult task. But I love the Wasteland so much, that I’ve ventured out of the Vault of the vanilla game to bring you the very best must-have Fallout 3 mods.
25. Fallout 3 Mod Manager
If you’re a huge fan of mods, you really can’t skip the incredibly useful Fallout 3 Mod Manager.
This mod doesn’t just provide a way to keep track of all the mods currently installed for the game… it also prevents failed installations from messing up your game.
Plus it can upgrade mods automatically and even turn them on and off at will.
And if you’re a modder, the Mod Manager also provides some useful tools that will make your quest to change the Capital Wasteland much easier.
24. Followers Relax
Fallout 3 followers see an increase in their happiness of over 150% after their leader installs the Followers Relax mod, a study from the Roosevelt Academy reveals.
The Followers Relax mod changes the basic “Wait” AI package from “Guard” to “Sandbox”.
This means your followers will not just stand there once they’re told to wait… Instead they’ll move around the immediate location and even interact with the environment.
They really look like normal people now, don’t they?
23. Fallout 3 Redesigned
Even in 2008, Fallout 3 was far from being the best looking game out there.
While locations were alright, human characters definitely were not.
Fallout 3 Redesigned fixes the appearance of most NPCs in the game by redesigning their facial structures, and removing the weird skin tone that made humans look like another monstrous byproduct of the nuclear holocaust.
Note this mod is not compatible with others that change NPCs, so make sure to deactivate this to avoid messing up your game if you install some others.
22. Mart’s Mutant Mod
For a post-apocalyptic world, the Capital Wasteland lacks those horrifying beings you’d expect to see in such a world.
If you don’t install Mart’s Mutant Mod, that is.
Mart’s Mutant Mod brings the diversity that Fallout 3 mysteriously lacks, introducing a lot of different creatures to the game.
These range from all sorts of robots to twisted, grotesque…things that are truly the stuff of nightmares.
As such, always keep your weapon locked and loaded: you’ll need it.
21. Megaton House and Theme Overhaul
Time for some painless renovation work, Vault Dwellers!
The Megaton House and Theme Overhaul mod brings a complete internal and external redesign of the Megaton House.
This includes new furniture that better matches the new design, and a brand new basement featuring weapon displays, Armory Storage, and all those facilities you expect to find in a post-apocalyptic house.
But you’ll have to work to get into the basement: complete the mini-quests and enjoy the benefits of renovation.
20. Sydney Follower
Sydney is an extremely faithful companion, and one that has a lot to teach players.
Sadly, she stays with us for a very short time. But modders are here once again to save the day!
And to save a beautiful friendship.
The Sydney Follower mod allows you to make Syndey a follower, introducing new dialogues, side quests, and more stuff that’ll let you get to know this character better, and receive her aid whenever needed.
She doesn’t even feel tacked on, as all new dialogues are fully voiced and complete with lypsynch. Modders give what Bethesdoesn’t.
19. Fallout 3 Reanimated
A nuclear holocaust brings about a great many things. Some of them bad, some of them good.
Among the good things it brings, is reanimation.
I’m not talking about bringing the dead back to life. I’m talking about new animations!
Fallout 3 Reanimated adds 80 new animations for human characters that are so much better than the clunky animations of the vanilla game.
So much better that you’ll wonder why you thought they looked acceptable in the first place. Must have been the fumes.
18. Better High Detail Map and Icons
Maps are very important in sprawling role-playing games. But sometimes, it seems like developers forget that a well-detailed map only makes the game better.
While the Fallout 3 map is more than decent, it pales in comparison to the new, highly-detail map introduced by the Better High Detail Map and Icons.
The tweaks are pretty lengthy so it would take a while to list them all… just do yourself a favor and check out the mod page, you’ll be impressed.
17. NMC’s Texture Pack
It’s never truly enough for modders.
You get perfectly balanced gameplay, and someone changes it up. You get decent graphics, but someone thinks they can do better. And we thank them for it!
NMC’s Texture Pack is an amazing pack that brings new, high-quality textures for terrain, trees, interiors, exteriors, and most vehicles.
This effectively improves the game’s visuals considerably, no matter if you’re playing on an old laptop with a 720p resolution, or on your brand new 4K monitor.
16. FWE Weapons Pack
More weapons, more fun!
The FWE Weapons Pack brings 30 new weapons to Fallout 3, assuming you have the Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition mod installed.
The new weapons have some unique capabilities such as different fire modes, the ability to use multiple ammo types, and a few more features.
Not a massive overhaul, to be honest. But a welcome one nonetheless.
15. Energy Weapons Advanced
I don’t know about you, but I think energy weapons in Fallout 3 are pretty bad.
In the vanilla game, that is.
Energy Weapons Advanced completely overhauls the behavior of energy weapons by tweaking damage, critical hit rate, status effects, fire rate, and more.
It also brings new weapons lifted from the first two entries of the series, plus Fallout Tactics, into Fallout 3. I think in the attempt to heal you from the most dangerous sickness of the Capital Wasteland: nostalgia.
14. Energy Visuals Enhanced
Now that energy weapons have been made awesome, Fallout 3 has become even more awesome. But there’s still something missing.
The Energy Visuals Enhanced brings that oomph factor that the Fallout 3 energy weapons lack.
It introduces 32 new animated critical kills, plus new enhanced projectiles, new animated impacts, new textures for all laser and plasma weapons, new sounds, and pretty much anything you can think of that can improve the feel of these weapons.
Lovely!
13. Tenpenny Tower Reborn
Tenpenny Tower is an already majestic location in the Capital Wasteland. But anything can be made better.
This Tenpenny Tower Reborn mod tries to improve pretty much everything regarding the iconic location, from visuals to quests and events that happen inside of it.
Without spoiling anything, we’ll just say that a quest with a very sad outcome has been tweaked so you’ll have the chance to end things in a much better way!
12. Weapon Mod Kits
If you want to make the many weapons in Fallout 3 feel unique, this Weapon Mod Kits is worth snagging.
It’s a modification that works in conjunction with the Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition mod, to introduce the ability for you to… well, mod mod weapons.
You can do this with stuff like silencers, extended magazines, auto-fire mechanisms, and more.
And each weapon mod also improves weapon durability, so you really have no reason to skip this mod as soon as you start the game: you’ll be thankful for it later.
11. DarNified UI F3
Do you know what I really like in role-playing games?
Having multiple interface options. The same ones Fallout 3 is missing.
With the game’s vanilla user interface not being particularly customizable, the DarNified UI is a true godsend. Because it adds smaller fonts, better clarity for items in lists, scaling of several elements, plus other visual changes that makes everything cleaner and much more functional.
I didn’t buy a 4K monitor to see letters take up half the screen, after all!
10. FOOK 2
Time to FOOK Fallout 3 up!
Don’t worry, I haven’t just gone mad. I’m talking about FOOK 2, the Fallout Overhaul Kit, which adds hundreds of new items, high-quality retextures, and many new gameplay features to boot.
Great care went into the creation of the new gameplay mechanics here, as they’re perfectly balanced and fully integrated into the game.
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
9. A Note Easily Missed
Take a deep dive into the Fallout universe lore with one of the best quest mods ever released for Fallout 3.
A Note Easily Missed allows you to learn more about the lives of several different individuals before the nuclear holocaust happened, and the world changed forever.
This mod features a lot of reading and a lot of puzzle-solving.
So it may not be for everyone.
But it is worth a shot for those who enjoy the series lore.
8. 20th Century Weapons
Given the state of the Capital Wasteland, you may think that regular weapons wouldn’t be enough to take down all these pesky mutants.
Oh, how wrong you are.
20th Century Weapons proves how a good old fashioned AK-74, a Desert Eagle, or a Remington M-24 are more than enough to show anything in Fallout 3 that you really mean business.
And it couldn’t be any other way, with over 900 new weapons at your disposal: surviving the post-atomic apocalypse has never been more fun!
7. Enhanced Weather
I really don’t need to explain what a mod called “Enhanced Weather” does, do I?
Well since I am a nice Vault Dweller, I’ll summarize.
The Enhanced Weather mod combines a couple of different weather mods that introduce rain and snow to the game.
This is complete with new sound effects and some tweaks that prevent the game from running poorly when this mod is active.
Never before has the rain looked so good.
Or so mysterious: it can get inside buildings with the roof intact, and it doesn’t make anything wet? Scary.
6. Fellout
I love Fallout 3 as much as anyone.
But I have to admit that the green tint looks horrible, no matter how you look at it.
Thankfully, you don’tt have to put up with it thanks to modding.
Fellout is a weather and lighting mod that gets rid of the awful green tint, and makes a few tweaks to give the Capital Wasteland a slightly different feel that’s closer to our own world, but still rather ominous.
It’s a feeling that most Fallout 3 players will appreciate, as it’s way more pleasing to the eye.
Fallout 3 New Vegas
5. Enhanced Camera
The first-person view should enhance immersion, right?
Then why the fridge can’t I look at my own boots?
The limitations of the Fallout 3 first-person view are a thing of the past with the Enhanced Camera mod.
Just install this mod (free, of course) and you’ll be able to check out your shiny boots and your equipped weapons all day long.
And you’ll not be forced into third-person view when sitting or dying, either. Now that’s what I call true immersion: staring death right in the face!
4. Vault 101 Revisited
It took a long time, but Vault 101 finally opened its door and established contact with the outside world.
But did this influence the life of its dwellers? Time to find out.
Vault 101 Revisited is among the best Fallout 3 quest mods ever made.
It features a story that doesn’t stray too far from canon, but still gives players ample possibilities on how to deal with the new quests and steer the destiny of the Vault.
Fallout 3 Games With Gold
Highly recommended, especially if your character is strong enough to deal with the dangers ahead.
3. Combat Overhaul
Is Fallout 3 too easy for you?
Well you’ve come to the right place.
ThisCombat Overhaul mod, which is an add-on for the Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition mod, introduces tons of combat changes which aim to make the game way more hardcore.
There’s nothing more hardcore in a first-person game than a dynamic crosshair which grows and shrinks to show your current weapon’s accuracy.
2. Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition
Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition isn’t just a simple mod that’ll spice up your experience for a few minutes, then return you to the vanilla game.
No, it’s a massive overhaul. And one you’ll not want to play without once you try it.
Listing all of the changes here would take quite a while. Definitely check out the mod page for more details, but as a quick overview: the Wanderers Edition changes the game’s fundamental mechanics, while keeping a very tight balance to present an experience that’s radically different from the vanilla game.
As the saying goes, seeing is believing! Absolutely give this one a try.
1. Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch
The Capital Wasteland is very dangerous.
Not just for the mutants that prowl all over, but also for the inordinate amount of bugs you have to deal with.
And no, I’m not talking about insects.
The Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch brings a lot of fixes to both the base game and the DLC packs. And it restores cut content, or at least the stuff that can be integrated properly into the game.
There’s actually plenty of it, so if you know the Wasteland like the back of your hand, this mod will improve your next playthrough on a lot of different levels.
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