Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition And Why PC Players Are Upset
Fallout 4 just hit its ten year milestone and Bethesda is celebrating with yet another re release. The Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition launched on November 10 and bundles the base game with all DLC and Creation Club content. Alongside it Bethesda pushed a big update to the Creations Menu for every PC player who owns the game.
That menu update did more than refresh a few UI elements. It introduced new bugs crashes and performance problems and more importantly for PC players it broke a lot of existing mods. Fallout 4 has a huge modding scene and many people have been running the same carefully tuned load orders for years. When a core game update lands out of nowhere and changes files and scripting those setups can fall apart overnight.
Very quickly the games Steam rating started to slide as angry players left negative reviews. Some are over the top but many simply ask for a way to stay on an older version of the game similar to how Cyberpunk 2077 lets PC users select previous builds. For mod heavy setups that kind of control can be the difference between a working game and a broken one.
Bethesda acknowledged the problems and said it was investigating the new crashes and performance issues. A hotfix for the Creations Menu arrived on November 17 aiming at the worst stability problems and the studio laid out plans for another patch on November 24 with more fixes promised for December. So far though this has not fully calmed the community and new negative reviews are still rolling in.
How The Update Broke Mods And What You Can Do
When a major update lands it often changes executable files scripts and internal data structures. Mods that hook into those systems can fail dramatically. For Fallout 4 that includes foundational tools like the Fallout 4 Script Extender which many advanced mods depend on.
The good news is that the team behind Fallout 4 Script Extender on Nexus Mods has been working hard to keep up with Bethesda’s changes. Once the extender is updated many actively maintained mods can be patched to support the new game version. The bad news is that mods which have been abandoned for years might never receive an update. If your favorite mod came out in 2018 and has not been touched since it may simply be stuck on an older Fallout 4 build.
Experienced modders point out one important precaution. If you run a large mod list it is smart to disable Steam auto updates for heavily modded games and wait before installing any new patch. Give tool authors and mod creators time to react then update once you know your essentials are compatible.
That strategy helps prevent surprise breakage but it does not solve every problem. If you ever need to reinstall Fallout 4 from scratch Steam will download the newest build by default which might not work with your long standing mods. Steam also does not give you a simple built in way to roll back to older versions whenever you want.
On PC the current workaround is to manually downgrade the game. One popular solution is the Fallout 4 Downgrader by zerratar on Nexus Mods. This tool can revert your installation back to an earlier executable and related files that match the versions many mods expect. It is not as clean as a built in version selector but it can rescue a broken mod setup.
Console players are in a tougher spot. They rely entirely on Bethesda’s official mod library and cannot use third party tools or downgrade utilities. When a game update breaks a console mod your only hope is that the creator decides to update it or Bethesda pushes another patch that restores compatibility.
Why Version Control Matters For Mod Friendly Games
The Fallout 4 situation highlights a bigger issue in PC gaming. Many modern games promote mods as a core feature yet offer almost no official support for staying on older versions. That creates constant tension between developers who want to patch and improve their games and mod users who need stability.
Other studios have shown that there is a middle ground. Larian for example keeps a couple of previous Baldur’s Gate 3 patches available as optional branches on Steam. It is not an infinite archive but it gives players a safety net. If a new update breaks your favorite mod you can roll back a patch or two and keep playing.
For games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim which owe much of their long life to modding this kind of version control feels especially important. Many players would never have stuck with these RPGs for years without the ability to turn them into custom sandboxes full of new quests features and visual upgrades. Even if it is unrealistic to expect every single patch to remain downloadable forever offering a few stable legacy branches would go a long way.
No one is seriously arguing that studios should stop updating their games altogether. Performance fixes quality of life improvements and new content are all valuable. What PC players are asking for is a bit of control. If a huge update is likely to break toolchains and mods it would be helpful to have an easy and official way to stay on the last stable version until everything catches up.
For now Fallout 4 players who rely on mods will need to juggle Steam settings community tools like the Downgrader and frequent checks on Nexus Mods to keep their setups running smoothly. It is an inconvenience for PC gamers and an even bigger headache for those on console. As more blockbuster titles embrace modding hopefully more studios will follow the example of offering simple version rollbacks so that big anniversary patches feel like a celebration rather than a threat to years of saved games and finely tuned load orders.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/another-fallout-4-update-fixes-performance-issues-while-leaving-modders-angry-but-it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way/
