It only seems like yesterday that developers were attempting to shove battle royale modes into their games any which way they’d fit. In many ways, it resembled the period when MOBAs were all the rage and you couldn’t step in any direction without hitting the likes of Lord of the Rings trying their hand at the mode de jour. This is all to say that you shouldn’t feel bad if you somehow forgot that Fallout 76 introduced a battle royale mode one year ago called Nuclear Winter. At the time the move felt like putting a band-aid on a bullet hole, with Bethesda attempting to do anything possible to draw players back to its busted, maligned game. Things have changed, and now Fallout 76 is good, actually, thanks to its Wastelanders update and looks to celebrate a year of Nuclear Winter with a new update… and cattle prods.
Sure, why not?
Announced today on the Fallout website via a creative writing exercise of a blog post, an update is coming to Nuclear Winter meant as a celebration of being in beta for a full year. The update in question appears to mostly be about loot and weapons, bringing some of the toys that made their way to the main Appalachia game to Nuclear Winter, including the bow, gauss shotgun, and the simple, yet effective cattle prod. While the date and methods for obtaining said prods aren’t given, the blog post does mention that players will earn them the hard way, along with new CAMP additions, clothes, and more. The in-character post also says, “These gifts will be distributed in a similar manner to the gifts I offered during Human Festivities Season.” Take that however you wish.
Does this make you interested in Nuclear Winter? I feel like we’re rapidly approaching a post-battle royale game world, where, much like for MOBAs there are only a handful of games that withstood the trend’s oversaturation. However, given what Wastelanders has done to turn Fallout 76 around for the better, perhaps this is the start of something similar for Nuclear Winter. Feel free to go give the (still in beta) mode a try and get ready to go prod your friends and enemies alike.
