While Fallout 4 is constantly receiving new mods that bring fresh weapons, outfits and even quests to The Commonwealth, sometimes you can’t beat delving back into Fallout New Vegas.
After all, with revised faction missions to head out on, vampiric bloodlusts to sate and possibly an alien invasion fight off, provided you win the fight against your load order, the game still has plenty to keep you entertained while you wait for Starfield or Fallout London to finally arrive.
If you’re someone who loves the Mojave largely because of its laundry list of breath-taking locations, especially the brightly-lit desert oasis of the New Vegas strip, a recently released mod might be worth taking a look at.
Feel like Fallout New Vegas’ most iconic landmark is in need of a rework that helps it dominate the Nevada skyline?
The mod in question is called ‘Lucky 38 Exterior Remastered’ and is the work of modder BronSolo2323. Some of their previous projects have made Mr House’s securitrons look a bit more like they do in the game’s concept art and given you some killer views of The Strip from inside the Lucky 38.
This time, they’ve returned to Mr House’s casino and completely renovated its exterior, in order to make it live up to the promise of the game’s pre-release art and trailers, saying: “I wanted something that looked more realistic and dramatic, but (was) also consistent between worldspaces.”
In order to achieve this, they’ve created a brand new mesh for the building in Blender, with different proportions, a fresh arrangement of neon lighting designed to mirror the one depicted in game’s cover art, and even custom cubemaps that give the appearance of it being made of reflective space-age metal, rather than dull concrete.
The mod actually contains two different versions of the tower, specially tweaked to look perfect in the daytime and during the night, with a script automatically swapping in the right one based on the in-game time.
Also, as an extra treat for the eagle-eyed, they’ve even gone to the trouble of modelling the Cocktail Lounge and Mr. House's penthouse at the tower’s summit for this exterior model, giving you a chance of being able to spot them through binoculars or a highly-powered scope, assuming you can find the right kind of vantage point out in the wasteland.
The one drawback of the mod, which BronSolo2323 argues makes it more ideally used as a resource for other modders right now, is the fact that its expansive changes will likely conflict with a lot of your existing load order.
That said, if you still fancy firing up a version of the game that’s close to vanilla in order to check out how cool the casino looks, you can do so, provided you run FNVLODGen beforehand.
Regardless of whether you’re now gazing up at the jewel in New Vegas’ crown while humming along to Frank Sinatra’s Blue Moon, make sure to follow us for more updates on interesting mods like this one for Skyrim and Cyberpunk 2077. You can also check out our mods of the month for April 2023.