While the launch date of Fallout: London had finally been set for April 23 (because Saint George’s Day and 1st day in the “game”), the decision by Bethesda to publish – after 2 years of delay – the update “next-gen” day for Fallout 4 forces Team FOLON to postpone the deadline at the last minute. For what ? Quite simply, because like every Fallout update, the version number of the game changes and therefore, an update of the Fallout 4 Script Extender (F4SE) is required. However, F4SE is an essential component for many mods, especially those modifying the game in depth, like this one.
In other words, publish Fallout: London two days before the Fallout 4 “next-gen” update (which in reality has nothing next-gen, since it is above all a slight adaptation of Fallout 4 to existing hardware and again, without the shadow of DLSS or FSR or raytracing) would make no sense, because the mod would be unusable 48 hours later. A potential frustration for players that the independent developers of Fallout: London obviously want to spare them and that is to their credit. And like F4SE is maintained by a third party, well, they have no choice but to wait until the necessary thing is done. Generally, it’s still quite fast.
So when are we going to be able to walk around a postapocalyptic London? No new date has been given. According to Team FOLONit could be a matter of such a lucky day, as of a month:
So we are not going to announce a release date this time, because it may be April 25. We may be lucky enough to have a day one fix; It’s unlikely, but it could happen. It may also be in a month, but know that in good faith [le jeu] is ready to use and just waiting for fixes. As soon as we fix it, he will come.
Small reminder that Fallout: London is not an official title in the Fallout series, it is purely the result of independent work over several years, but not by amateurs! It’s a truly unique DLC, more than a “just” mod, with hours of completely new and recorded soundtracks, 15 areas and environments, hundreds of interiors, thousands of new textures and objects, etc. Fallout 4 is ultimately only the technical base and which you will absolutely have to have with all its DLC to be able to play Fallout: London.
What about distribution, anyway? The expansion will represent a download of between 30 and 40 GB. It turns out that it is too big for the main intermediary of modding for Fallout, namely Nexus Mods and will not be able to be ported to console (Xbox) either because of its size. Fortunately, Team FOLON will be able to count on the good graces of GoG for distribution, for those who own the game on GoG, but also Steam and perhaps Epic Games. Installation will also be possible via your usual mod manager (like Vortex). Unfortunately, Fallout: London is not standalone despite the developers’ best efforts, as no work could be done in collaboration with Bethesda for better integration, the studio having never approached the independent team during all their years of work. Too bad, this is a missed opportunity to score a few points.