From Skyrim and Fallout to Baldur's Gate 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, as well as upcoming releases like Starfield, we here at Gfinity cover an awful lot of news about mods.
As usual, this month has delivered a strong selection of works that can make any playthrough a bit more interesting. Everything from mutant creatures, to Dwemer gadgets, and even the chance to fill your underwear with useful items might have arrived in your load order. There may have also been some sandwiches and posters to help you get ready for September 6.
With all of those in mind as honourable mentions, here are our top five best mods that we’ve featured over the course of August…
5. Baldur’s Gate 3 players literally become the GOAT
First up this month is one of the first few mods that popped up for the freshly released Baldur's Gate 3. Including NellsRelo’s ‘Was A Goat for 10 Years’ is kind of cheating, given it’s a port of a work originally put out by the same author for the early access version of the game, but quite frankly, it’s too funny for that to matter to me.
So, what does it do, you ask? Well, exactly what it says on the tin. With it installed, you’ll be able to give your character a new custom background, which is based around the idea that they’ve spent the last decade of their life as a goat, before being miraculously transformed back into their birth race. I don’t know about you, but I know that’s definitely not how I ended up where I am today (pretends not to be chewing on thistle).
4. Fallout 3’s Brotherhood of Steel schism comes to The Commonwealth
Ah, who doesn’t love a good Fallout 4 quest mod? Especially one which incorporates factions and lore from previous entries in the series. ‘CSEP Presents Brothers in Arms Chapters 1 and 2 Return Of The Outcasts - Mini DLC Sized Quest Mod’ both serves as the title of the Commonwealth Story Expansion Project team’s latest work, and tells you more than you could ever need to know about it.
Oh ok, I’ll give you an overview anyway. First of all, it adds a huge second chapter to the original ‘Brothers in Arms’ quest mod released by the team in 2022. Secondly, it sees the Brotherhood of Steel faction from that mod, who follow the teachings of Fallout 3’s Elder Lyons, deal with some members of that game’s Brotherhood Outcasts who’ve now joined them in The Commonwealth. Make sure to pack your Power Armour, you’re gonna need it.
3. The Sole Survivor’s hands become Fallout 4’s most deadly weapons
If you thought playing Baldur’s Gate as an ex-goat would end up being this month’s best joke mod, I regret to inform you that, in my estimation at least, you’re mistaken. Modder Neeher is arguably best known for their contributions to massive modding projects like Fallout London, but recently, they decided to turn their weapon and animation expertise to something a bit more lighthearted.
The result is ‘Finger Guns’, which, as you might have gleaned from the name, allows you to transform your character’s hands into powerful pistols via some light crafting and the shoot up The Commonwealth. Being completely silent and boasting an infinite supply of ammo, these fleshy firearms are nothing to scoff at. You can even dual wield them!
2. Skyrim’s Dragonborn adds one of Skyblivion’s iconic weapons to their arsenal
In addition to giving us a look at some fresh gameplay via a walkthrough of an iconic Oblivion quest during this year’s Creation Mod Con, the Skyblivion team has also put out another standalone work to help sate the appetites of those who can’t wait for the full mod to arrive. Archonshadow’s ‘SKYBLIVION - Umbra’ gives you a chance to wield the modding project’s version of the iconic Daedric sword from TES IV in Skyrim.
Featuring a unique and stylish model, in addition to some flashy purple enchantment animations, the blade is the perfect weapon for morally ambiguous characters. Just make sure it doesn’t accidentally come into the possession of any farmhands.
With that, we’re down to just our victor. So, without further ado, here’s August’s top mod of the month:
1. The finale of Sim Settlements 2’s story brings all-out war to The Commonwealth
Nothing too quirky in the top spot this month, just the latest addition to one of Fallout 4’s most impressive and ambitious modding projects. ‘Sim Settlements 2 - Chapter 3’, dubbed “Last Stand of the Commonwealth,” tasks you with modifying and expanding the settlement empire you’ve developed while playing its previous instalments in order to fight off a gunner invasion of the wasteland.
From setting up outposts, to overseeing the day-to-day needs of the army you’re recruiting are being met and even forging alliances with the game’s existing factions, as well as one brand new one, it boasts enough to dig into to keep you busy until the apocalypse arrives in the real world.
The team, led by Project Manager Kinggath, are also working on delivering even more remarkable creations in the future, having revealed plans for a “Prebuild System” that’ll allow players to “seed the game world with randomised pre-built settlements.”
So, that’s your winner for the final month before Starfield arrives and no doubt begins to provide us with a deluge of amazing mods to feature in future iterations of this!
Regardless of whether you agree with our selections, make sure to follow us for in-depth coverage of loads more great mods over the course of September. You can also check out our mods of the month for May, June, and July.