After repeatedly rejected expense requests for nuclear bombs to test this hypothesis (apparently they're "out of budget"), I'm pretty excited to see how Fallout: London shakes the series up, even if it's in an unofficial capacity—despite its ambitions, though, Fallout: London has yet to see the light of day after a "next gen" Fallout 4 update (which didn't look very next-gen at all) went ahead and nuked its development timeline.

The mod's development team has put years of work into the dang thing, so to miss a release date for reasons beyond their control is frustrating—and project lead Dean Carter was sure to let the BBC know when it happened, lamenting a lack of communication I'm not sure Bethesda was obligated to give.

Still, Fallout: London's almost here, according to the game's official Twitter account and Discord server: "There has been a lot of speculation regarding our upcoming release, and we wanted to open up and clear the air for our core supporters."

Fallout: London is, the announcement reads, simply "waiting for the final green light" while working with GOG to distribute the mod. "Once they've completed the process of double-checking that Fallout: London and its installer work on all supported machines, we should be good to go."

That installer is key, since it'll also be accompanied by a "downgrader", which should future-proof Fallout: London against any more of Bethesda's meddling. "It is in all of our interests that this final QA process is carried out in full, and we are very thankful that GOG is assisting … The end is in sight."

Honestly, I'm quite excited to see Fallout: London in action. While Todd Howard maintains that the faded sheen of Americana is a huge part of the series' identity, I can't help but wonder if that's been holding it back.

After all, while the Cold War is seared into American history, it's not like they invented glitzy capitalism, bombs, war, and secret government facilities. Us Brits can get just paranoid, and we basically invented the whole empire thing, which is—not something to be proud of, actually, nevermind. Forget I said anything. Go put a hat on Daniel, instead.

The artist in question is Zack Finfrock, the creator behind Fallout: Nuka Break, a fan film about a former Vault dweller who's searching the eastern California wasteland for an "ice-cold Nuka Cola". But he's also pretty well known for placing Vault Boy in various memes. You can see those images on FinFrock's Twitter, including my personal favourite—Vault Boy as Charlie Kelly obsessing over Pepe Silvia. 

The memes are pretty good, and they're so loved by the community that you've probably seen them floating around before, even if you don't follow Finfrock. "Look, I love Fallout 76, and it seems someone on the art team loves my Fallout memes," Finfrock says. "So Jon Rush [director of Fallout 76], who do I talk to about this? I get that I don't own the Vault Boy and whatnot, but you could have reached out so I could draw a newer, better version for your Atom Shop image." 

Luckily, the misunderstanding didn't go unnoticed, as Rush got back to Finfrock pretty quickly. Apparently, the mistake was down to a "mix-up with an external vendor," according to DMs between Finfrock and Rush which were posted to the former's Twitter. After this, the art was quickly taken off the Atomic Shop, and Rush apologised further for the issue. 

But that wasn't the end of it. In a subsequent DM, Rush offered Finfrock a contract "for some artwork for our message of the day and bundles assets for a future patch." No specifics yet, but it's a good way for Bethesda to round off this mix-up. 

"The door is now open," Finfrock says. "Thank you to everyone who shared the initial tweet. Can't wait to share more when I can." After the dust settled, Finfrock reposted that tweet and added, "So, does this mean I'm officially a shill?" 

Finfrock's art and other Fallout projects, while not canon, are an essential part of Fallout. One of the most endearing parts of Fallout 76 is its community, so it's always nice to see creators treated with the respect they deserve. While Bethesda should have done its due diligence before the issue arose, I'm glad Finfrock came out the other side better off.  

"There's a lot of different questions being asked there," Cain said. "Would I want to remake Fallout as a 3D game? Are you asking if I would like to make a Fallout offshoot like Fallout: New Vegas is… Do I want to make Fallout 5?" Whatever he thinks of those respective possibilities, Cain was clear that he's not worried about authority, creative freedom, or even pay⁠—within reason, of course. Cain explained that his primary motivator, especially now that he's semi-retired, is his own interest in a project.

"The 'TLDW' is: Every RPG I've ever made offered me something new and different that got me interested in making it," Cain said. "It was the game itself that offered me something interesting that made me go 'Ooh, I want to do that, I've never done that.'"

While there are throughlines between his projects, it's certainly an eclectic spread: Fallout, The Temple of Elemental Evil, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and The Outer Worlds, to name a few. Notably, the only direct sequel that Cain has worked on that left pre-production, Fallout 2, was not a project he'd wanted to pursue, and he left development before it was completed.

"If someone came to me and said, 'You want to make a Fallout game?' My answer is: 'Well, what's new?'" Cain said of the hypothetical. "I didn't even want to make Fallout 2, why would I want to make a new Fallout?"

While money is certainly an object for Cain, he explained that the novelty or excitement of a project is the thing that gets him through the door, Fallout or otherwise: "The very first question out of my mouth is 'What's new about it?'" 

But while it might be hard to impress one of the guys who invented Fallout with a new idea for Fallout, it does sound like Cain's contracting on a few new game projects that excite him⁠—in the past he's mentioned overcoming that aversion to sequels to continue working on The Outer Worlds 2.

I am referring, of course, to the just-concluded war for Daniel's hat. Daniel is a Mormon missionary from New Vegas' Honest Hearts DLC, the pacifist counterpart to Joshua Graham's righteous fury, and generally not a character given much attention by the fanbase. He is, after all, a bit dull compared to the iconic figure of Graham.

That is until a modder named Redquinox created Daniel's Hat Refitted, an attempt to adjust dear Dan's sombrero "so it actually fits a human head." Our hero was a bit miffed by the hat as it was: "I was sick and tired of staring at that stupid, comically oversized clown hat floating over Daniel's head, knowing it had the potential to be the best-looking hat in the game were it not for the aneurysm the designer must have had while making the model."

Redquinox's strong emotions triggered a hat inferno. The next day, a creator named clanky4 uploaded Daniel's Hat Unfitted, a "Mesh adjustment for Daniel's hat, so it actually fits an entire human." Redquinox themself followed that up with Daniel's Hat Unfitting, which made the hat tiny, and then we got Daniel's Hat Remasked, which adjusted the hat so it covers Daniel's face. 

Literally all of this happened in the course of around 24 hours or so.

Then it all just got very silly. June 1 saw Daniel's Hat ReHatted, which put Daniel's hat inside several other hats. We also got Daniel's Hat STYLISH, which just tilted it to around a 30-degree angle on his head. Over the next three weeks or so (that is to say, until literally yesterday) we got mods to turn it into a beer hat, a mod that turns it into the infamous Fallout 3 train hat, a mod which turns Daniel into his own hat, a mod that… well, I don't know what it does, but the description just reads "Daniel has weaponized his hats. God save us all."

And many more. I strongly recommend taking a gander at the Nexus Mods search results for Daniel's hat to get a taste of just how buckwild the community got with this one. My personal favourite? Daniel's hat 8K 120fps. Finally, the headpiece you know and love in "STUNNING NEXT GEN 8K HDR RTX." Gaming is saved.

The moral of the story is, ah, well, hmm. Nevermind. Anyway, the last mod to be uploaded in the saga was Everybody Wears Daniel's Hat, from SquidHat. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and bills itself as "The long-awaited finale to the Daniel's Hat saga." But somehow, I don't think that's true.

Set in the new location of Shenandoah National Park, you'll join the Blue Ridge Caravan Company, which has been running routes up and down Blue Ridge Drive, and help them escort a brahmin carrying important supplies.

I'm actually strangely excited about another Fallout 76 escort mission, as it's a good chance for Bethesda to iron out the issues present in previous missions. I found the escort job in The Most Sensational Game to be slightly overwhelming as it's set inside the cramped and confusing Showman's Pier, and there were also a couple of problems with buggy NPCs blocking doorways or simply freezing in one spot. 

But instead of being shut away in a building guiding someone who almost always gets in your way, you'll be outside in the wild with a slow-moving brahmin. However, in typical Fallout fashion, it won't be completely smooth sailing as the mutated cow will have a mind of its own. "There's a lot of typical Fallout humour in all of this," lead producer Bill LaCoste says. "It's something we have to keep in mind a lot of the time. So, I think that we're also going to have distractions for the brahmin. We'll see how that goes, but that would be very Fallout if you're escorting something and all of a sudden you turn around, and the brahmin is off grazing." 

No escort mission is pain-free—that's part of the twisted fun—but one aspect that'll help ease the frustration of guiding a slow and stubborn brahmin is the chance to customise your own outpost: "Successfully running missions for the Blue Ridge Caravan Company will unlock a Caravan outpost of your own," creative director Jon Rush says. 

Once you have a new spot away from your main camp, you can keep on expanding it and adding to it after each successful escort mission. Eventually, you'll also be able to host specialised vendors from the far corners of Fallout 76: "You can unlock a whole host of vendors that sell you things that you can only get through here to decorate your camp, decorate your person, and you get brahmin," Rush says. "I'm not sure if you'll be able to milk them, but I'm going to say you can milk them." 

"There's a lot of opportunity here for people to build up something within their outpost," LaCoste says. "It's kind of like building your house in Skyrim, there's that level of detail that you're going to have there to make it your own place. It's gonna be really neat." 

From what I saw, the outpost looks less like an actual house and more like a cave full of trinkets and doohickies, which honestly is exactly what I'd go for in the apocalypse. Who needs a comfy home when you can pretend to be Gollum hiding away in the Misty Mountains, scaring off all the locals with heaps of raw fish and a Wendigo colossus vocal sac?  

But seriously, building a camp is one of my favourite parts of Fallout 76 as there's just so much you can do to make it unique to yourself, and I think each one ends up saying quite a lot about what kind of player you are. So, getting the chance to have another home in the new section of the map without having to buy an extra camp spot is a pretty sweet deal and one that'll make exploring Shenandoah that much more enjoyable. 

Skyline Valley expands into the Appalachian Shenandoah Valley, which will make up the new bottom of the map. After dropping into the new location, it didn't take long for me to figure out that something wasn't quite right, even by Fallout's standards. Just look up at the sky—clouds aren't meant to look like that. 

Amidst the 20 new places of interest to explore and 12 new quests to complete, there's a story for you to journey through. The epicenter of the strange storm that has engulfed the Shenandoah Valley leads to Vault 63, and here lies Hugo Stoltz, his family, and his army of ghoulish employees called lost engineers, all of whom aren't very happy to see you and wield electric batons and guns. But to get to the bottom of this strange ecological disaster, you'll either have to befriend or betray Hugo and solve the mystery for yourself. 

"The expansion of the map is amazing," lead producer Bill LaCoste says. "The story behind the lost [engineers], Hugo, Cassidy, and how the weather is changed in that area by the weather machine that causes all these issues within the vault. We've all been playing in Appalachia for so long, and now we have something really, really new here." 

It certainly seems like a cool story to latch onto for this update, but that's far from the only exciting aspect of Skyline Valley. I opted to spend a lot of time in my hands-on session doing what I always do: exploring the map and digging deep into any small tidbits of information I could find, whether that be from following strange trails or hacking terminals. My travels took me to the spooky Dark Hollow Manor, the historical Rapidan Camp, and a communist brainwashing site at Camp Liberty, as well as pretty much every other point of interest on the map. 

Rocking up to Camp Liberty, I expected to find a couple of old derelict huts and maybe some good loot, but instead, I stumbled upon a classified experiment. Full of mostly female members, everyone was acting as if they were in the heart of communist Russia, with old Soviet uniforms and ushanka hats. I was only planning on passing through but then one of the recruits called me a capitalist pig and began shooting at me, so I decided to take a quick detour. 

After fighting every single communist soldier in the camp including a communist commander—even unleashing a legendary yao guai on them—all my work was done and I began rooting around for any clues as to why this camp existed. After finding some loose documents and hacking into their terminal, I found out that these people weren't actually Russian communists who got stranded in the US after the bombs dropped and managed to keep the collective flame alight. It turns out that this camp was part of an experiment set up by the US government to see how easily citizens could be brainwashed, to then try and figure out how it could be undone. While this mission may just sound like therapy with extra steps, it's these kinds of strange stories and quirky residents that make me love Fallout so much. Skyline Valley is full of them. 

After carrying on a bit further down the map and stopping by the Slumber Mill Motel to fight some angry lost engineers and read through the business' complaints log, I ventured into the wilderness and eventually came across the Old Crimora Mines, where I fell down a rabbit hole, literally. The cave system was full of intertwining pathways and small gaps to shimmy through, and just to make things more interesting it was also brimming with Mothman cultists. 

Fighting these worshipers wasn't too difficult as I'll admit I did have some incredibly overpowered weapons but it was still surprisingly creepy. Wandering down the dimly lit cave system alongside eerie music was enough to make me a little cautious despite my high level. It wasn't big enough to get lost in but the various levels did get a bit confusing. I'd follow the path down into the cave killing cultists as I went, and suddenly I'd be standing above the area I'd just come from. But my clueless exploring was rewarded at the end with a comfortable bone chair and a couple of cool shotguns. 

I had a great time exploring Shenandoah Valley, and slowly discovering a bit more about this new map expansion. It feels like a deliberate move in the right direction with all the new quirky locations plus an interesting story which expands on what we already know about Vault Tech as well as Vault 63. Skyline Valley is also the start of some more exciting developments for Fallout 76, not only will we be able to play as a ghoul, but Bethesda is also adding escort missions so you can join members of the Blue Ridge Caravan party while they run routes through Shenandoah. There's actually a great deal to look forward to, and I'm excited to see what else the team has to offer. 

Fallout 76's next big update just got announced at the Xbox Games Showcase, and instead of heading off the map to a new expedition, you'll be able to stroll right into the Skyline Valley update. 

We only saw a very short launch trailer at the showcase. It starts with a host on an old-fashioned 10-hour telethon trying to sell vault spaces, pointing out just how popular Vault 76 is, with over 17 million dwellers and counting. However, if 76 isn't your style, then you have another option—Vault 63. 

There, you'll find "the greatest scientific minds" who are "thinking up shocking new ways to protect and preserve this Appalachian land," according to the salesman. We've known about Vault 63 and some of its inhabitants, like Hugo and Cassidy Stoltz, for some time now, as a few quests revolve around the scientific lab and its meteorology sector.  

Hugo Stoltz is a former Vault-Tech board member and also something of an evil genius (or just a morally corrupt one).  Even before the bombs dropped, Hugo was hiring hitmen to kill off employees and displacing people who lived in Shenandoah National Park, but during the Great War, he decided to go one step further and ghoulify himself along with his family and employees. 

The spokesperson also alludes to Skyline Valley being right in the center of Shenandoah National Park, a beautiful and spacious area that probably looked better before the bombs dropped, but I'm not going to turn my nose up at fresh real estate. After this, we get to see a couple of locations, including an abandoned weather station and a faulty generator station, and there are new enemies to go along with them.

We briefly see a disgusting turkey-ostrich hybrid that seems way too big for its own good. With a razor-sharp beak and tons of bulbous eyes, it's something that I really don't want to run into. After that, we're shown "a couple of residents," who basically just look like zombie cybermen armed with batons and guns, and who also don't look very friendly. 

We'll be able to play Skyline Valley next week on June 12. But unfortunately it won't include the equally exciting feature that'll let us play as a ghoul, which won't be available until early 2025. 

They've made for great antagonists and companions, but playing as one has always only been possible with mods. Until now, because the online series spinoff Fallout 76 is finally letting players become ghouls. 

Bethesda announced the intended changes during the Xbox showcase, but we got to see a sneak peek a bit earlier and discuss the change with Bethesda producer Bill LaCoste. The need-to-know basics are that you'll be able to change to a ghoul at level 50 which'll give you unique benefits like resistance to radiation and other ghoul-based perk cards. 

But there will also be some downsides to picking ghoul. Factions that don't take kindly to ghouls, like the Brotherhood of Steel, won't want to work with you. This will even impact the end of the main quest, which sees you fight the scorchbeasts alongside knights of the Brotherhood. You can also probably say goodbye to all the vendors affiliated with the Brotherhood in Watoga Shopping Plaza and The Whitespring Resort. 

"[Ghouls] also won't be able to play bloodied builds, which are pretty key loadouts for Fallout 76," LaCoste says. "So we're going to be able to see what players get into and what kind of builds they make. So it'll be a different play style, which we're really excited to see." 

The popular "bloodied" build style revolves around intentionally taking radiation damage to keep your health low to maximise the effects of certain armour and perk cards that let you do more damage the lower your health is. But ghouls won't be able to pull this trick since they don't take radiation damage. 

Now, fans of the TV show and everyone thirsting over The Ghoul can cosplay as their favourite character, but it turns out that the developers had this idea brewing way before we got to see Fallout on TV.

"Funnily enough, the idea to play as a ghoul was in development before Cooper became very popular," LaCoste says. "It was already something we were kind of looking towards. We knew the show was going to have [a ghoul], but once it kind of exploded amongst the fans, we just thought that was awesome."

It's a well-timed coincidence, but LaCoste clarifies that Fallout 76 doesn't have any big plans to work with future seasons of the TV show. "The games exist in their own little areas of the country," LaCoste says. "Fallout 76 will continue to be in the northeast/Appalachian region and the TV show is expanding into Vegas now. So I think those will be separate adventures, I don't think we have many intentions to have a lot of crossover with it."

Fallout 76 and the Fallout TV show are also separated by hundreds of years, so collabs would have presented some sticky lore issues anyhow. Honestly, the ability to finally play as a ghoul outweighs any other hopes for new crossover events, I can't wait to see what my character will look like after their nose is chopped off and the genetic mutations kick in, they'll get a real glow up (or down depending on how you look at it).

Recently, Daponte discussed Project Arroyo's progress in an interview with The Gamer and how the team will look to release it once it's ready. "I'm leaning towards doing what Enderal: Forgotten Stories (a Skyrim mod with a similar aim) did and putting it on Steam," Daponte says, "It's just a platform that everyone has. It's easier to access, easier to update, easier to install. It's just more efficient."

However, it's not just as easy as putting it on Steam. The team working on Project Arroyo needs to ensure that everything's in order so there are no legal issues. This is because Project Arroyo uses Fallout 4's creation engine to reimagine Fallout 2 in Bethesda's first-person style. 

"We would have to figure out all the specificity with [Steam], making it so you require Fallout 2 and Fallout 4 and all of its DLC to get it and make sure there are no legal issues. But we'll see—we're still looking into it. I'm personally leaning towards Steam." 

Daponte also discussed whether this could mean we see Project Arroyo on Steam Deck: "Maybe, we'll see. I don't even know if mods work well on Steam Deck, to be honest. I'd have to ask my friends." 

If you look at Project Arroyo's Twitter account, there's also tons of new concept art to browse, including one landscape of a new custom location, the Oakland Crater. Full of some nefarious-looking green liquid, this crater houses what looks like a bustle little town despite the waterfalls of radioactive goo raining down on it. There are also some cool mockups of a weapon called the Power Fist, which looks like it would definitely leave a mark if you were hit by it. The team is vocal on Twitter about any updates and news concerning the remake, so it's always the best place to check if you're curious about how things are going. 

But if concept art isn't enough right now, then you can also take a look at a side-by-side comparison of the original Fallout 2 and the upcoming mod. This short YouTube video shows off tons of locations, like the Temple of Trials, the hunting grounds and village, and the fluorescent green Toxic Caves. It's impressive to see just how well the team has recreated the original gritty atmosphere into a 3D first-person experience. Project Arroyo doesn't yet have a release date, though you can keep up with progress on the official Reddit.

Fallout's Pip-Boys are sensible items to make into collectibles: they're iconic, wearable if you want, but would also look cool on a shelf. The Pip-Boy that came with the $120 Fallout 4 collector's edition, however, was a rather bulky (even by Vault-Tec standards) and cheap-feeling plastic toy that left us wanting.

Perhaps you just can't do Fallout's wrist-puters justice at that price, because The Wand Company's new $200 TV show Pip-Boy replica looks a lot cooler.

Wand Company CEO Chris Barnardo recently met with Tested's Adam Savage and Norman Chan (see the video embedded above) to show off the replica and compare it to the actual Pip-Boy prop used by Lucy in the TV show, as well as to his company's Fallout 76 Pip-Boy kit and the Fallout 4 collectible. 

The $200 die-cast metal and ABS plastic TV show Pip-Boy replica that can be preordered from Bethesda's store is bigger than the TV prop, but that's because the prop was designed specifically to fit the arm of actor Ella Purnell. The replica is designed to accept larger arms, and also includes padding—Purnell wore the prop over her sleeve—but compared to the Fallout 4 collectible, which was designed so that a phone could be stuck in it, the replica is downright slim.

It's got a decent set of features, too: The built-in screen can be manually or automatically cycled through Pip-Boy animations, and can also be used as a digital clock with an alarm function. "When the alarm rings it'll be the bombs dropping," says Barnardo. 

It also includes a radio tuner, audio clips from the show's radio station, and the finish looks decent—there's some nice texture and detail to it. The cleverest bit of design is that they've used a cable that sticks out of the side of the prop as a charging cable that can be plugged into the back of the stand.

One slightly disappointing note if this is your kind of collectible: Orders placed now aren't expected to ship until February of next year.

Funnily, it turns out that the TV prop is actually more like the Fallout 4 model in one way: It's designed to hold an iPhone to use as its screen. The phone is so snugly fitted that Barnardo isn't sure how they got it out to charge it during the making of the show. (Did they use the Fallout 4 Pip-Boy app, I wonder?)

I should've asked when I talked to the Fallout show's production designer a few weeks ago, but we wound up on the equally interesting topic of how they built the wearable power armor.