Realism mod for Fallout 4 fixes its most unbelievable part: your ability to survive the intro

As a stubborn and insufferable Fallout: New Vegas fan, I actually liked Fallout 4 more than I thought I would, but I still think it has its problems. Chief among them has got to be that intro, which sees the nukes drop at the exact moment the Sole Survivor and their family begin descending into the vault, narrowly avoiding doom. It's totally unbelievable, but there's a mod to fix it. More Realistic Intro for Fallout 4 gives the game a much more plausible start, incinerating the protagonist and their family well in advance of their entry to Vault 111, and ending the game about five minutes in. Sorted.

The mod comes from a creator called UnrealSeptim, who describes the mod's "two major gameplay effects" like so: "one, it makes the intro sequence much more believable. Two, it effectively prevents your character from progressing beyond the intro sequence, making the game essentially unplayable". That second effect, says the creator, "makes the mod ideal for New Vegas fans".

It is, of course, a gag, and the maker recommends sending the mod to your friends about to fire up a new game of FO4 "without telling them what it does". If you do that, then "Voice Chat and/or livestream of their gameplay are recommended for the best experience".

Naturally, the mod requires a new game to work properly, so you can't retroactively obliterate your level 50 character, but it's otherwise pretty easy to install. It consists of a single .esp file for you to drag into Fallout 4's Data folder (or for your mod manager to handle for you), at which point all you need to do is activate it.

Oh, and don't worry, if you're a New Vegas fan looking to inject some realism into your next playthrough, UnrealSeptim has a mod for you: Realistic Brain Damage for Fallout: New Vegas, which makes it so the double headshot you take at the beginning of that game permanently and irreversibly cripples your head for the duration of it. Finally, a little respect for realism around here.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.