A mod has finally given New Vegas the more cinematic VATS visuals of Fallout 3

FNV: F3 VATS Restored - Released! - YouTube FNV: F3 VATS Restored - Released! - YouTube
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Among the many little tweaks Obsidian made in Fallout: New Vegas was an overhaul of VATS. The crit bonus and damage reduction were revised downward, meaning that rather than being a bulletproof god who took 90% less damage like you did in Fallout 3, the New Vegas VATS enjoyer gained a mere 25% damage reduction while cinematics played out. What's more, those cinematics were less cinematic, with decreased use of those dramatic camera angles that let you linger on the gore.

Modder Hitman47101 has decided to change that, fully restoring the Fallout 3 visual style with the VATS Restored mod. As well as bringing back the old camera angles, it removes "a load of new, overly simple and static cameras with the word 'boring' literally in their editorIDs."

The video at the top of the page is a fine demonstration of what New Vegas looks like with VATS Restored, though other mods are clearly in play. The hilarious display of dexterity seen at 1.57 is evidence of that, as are the Fallout 1-style 10mm pistol, animations for classic weapons, animations for door-opening, ragdoll reactivity, and probably a bunch more that hardcore New Vegas modders will notice.

Of course, should you want to take things in the other direction and reduce the amount of lingering of VATS, the Fast VATS and Kill Camera mod is for you. Since 2021 this mod has been giving players the opportunity to bounce in and out of VATS like lightning, which sure does change the way New Vegas plays.

If it's VATS Restored you're looking to install, it can be downloaded from Nexus Mods and is entirely standalone. If you're a Tale of Two Wastelands sicko then don't worry, there's a version compatible with that available on the Files page

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.