Update 1.5 for Bethesda's Fallout 4 is now live on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, offering gamers the chance to try out Survival Mode for the first time.
Although the amount of buzz surrounding Fallout 4 has dwindled in recent months, Bethesda's post-apocalyptic RPG has managed to remain relevant far after its initial release due to a variety of updates and DLC packages. While fans of the series have been looking forward to the Fallout 4 Far Harbor DLC, which represents the biggest update the game has seen in its short lifespawn, Bethesda has also teased gamers with a Survival Mode that is meant to appeal more to Vault Dwellers looking for a bigger challenge.
That teasing ended today, however, when Fallout 4's Patch 1.5 went live on PS4 and Xbox One. Among a slew of other changes, which can be found at the bottom of this article, Patch 1.5 finally introduces Fallout 4's Survival Mode, which will place a heavy emphasis upon resource management and advanced planning rather than gun-slinging and giant shoot-outs. Survival Mode will also task players with a more realistic simulation of the post-apocalyptic landscape, as resources will be significantly harder to find, damage to players will be more severe, and fast travel will be disabled.
Fallout 4's Survival Mode release comes at an interesting time for players, who are just two weeks away from getting their hands on the Far Harbor DLC. While Patch 1.5 also adds support for the upcoming Far Harbor expansion, the timing is likely also a product of Bethesda wanting players to get used to Survival Mode ahead of a sudden surge of renewed interest after the expansion finally releases. After all, if the Fallout 4 community is adamant it will fix all the game's bugs itself, it only makes sense for Bethesda to prioritize more content.
The support for console players in Fallout 4, as evidenced by the quick release of Patch 1.5, has been increasing rapidly over the past few months. Prior to this update, Bethesda also indicated that the developer would be bringing Fallout 4 console mods to gamers in the near future. For a modding community that is already extraordinarily dedicated and popular, the addition of console mods will only help Fallout 4 solidify itself as a haven for game modders.
Of course, Bethesda is no slouch itself when it comes to making changes to an already widely praised product. Here's the full list of changes coming with the newly available Patch 1.5:
New Features
- New Survival Mode difficulty
- Survival adds additional challenges including no fast travel, saving only when you sleep, increased lethality, diseases, fatigue, danger, and more. See the in-game help menu for more details.
- Characters set to Survival difficulty appear under their own Character Selection filter
- Third-person camera movement improvements when player is close up against walls and other objects
Fixes
- General stability and performance improvements
- Fixed rare crash related to reloading a save that relies on Automatron
- Fixed issue with the robot workbench camera not moving properly immediately after canceling out of the menu
- Fixed issue with perks being repeatedly added when reloading a saved game while in robot workbench
- Fixed issue with Ada not properly traveling to an assigned settlement
- Robots can now be assigned as settlement vendors
- Fixed issue with "Appropriation" where blueprints would not appear properly if the container had already been looted prior to getting the quest
- In "The Nuclear Option", entering the Institute using the targeting helmet on Power Armor no longer inadvertently causes the player to go into combat, and become stuck in the Institute
- Fixed distance check with Robotics Expert perk
- While in Workshop mode, if the Jump button is remapped, the Y or Triangle button can still be used to jump
- Fixed issue with "Defend the Castle" where speaking to Ronnie Shaw would not properly complete the quest
- During "The Nuclear Option", fast traveling away from the Institute immediately after inserting the relay targeting sequence holotape will no longer block progression
- Fixed issue where Workshop placed light bulbs would occasionally not light properly
- Fixed occasional flashing issue with entering and exiting Power Armor
- Fixed issue where terminals would not work properly after downloading and initializing an Add-On from the Add-Ons menu
Fallout 4 is available now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.