Fallout 4's Impending Launch Hurries This Huge New Vegas Mod to the Finish Line

Fallout: New Vegas is getting a mod called Project Brazil, and it's shaping up to be a huge addition to the game.

It's been in development since 2011, and the first installment launched in late 2013. But the mod team has been working on the second half of the game since then, which will add several new characters and a big, new, branching story. The final installment is now planned for a November release.

Project Brazil is a massive undertaking, and the recent reveal of Fallout 4 made its development a bit more challenging. Project leader Brandan Lee told GameSpot that the announcement dramatically compressed the mod team's development time frame, although the mod itself will go forward unchanged.

"The only thing [the reveal] affected on the project was [that] we decided to expedite our already really tight schedule from a release in March [2016], to a more contracted release in October-early November," he explained. "I had fallback options already planned in case we lost a team member or something tragic happened, and we enacted that plan when we heard F4 was releasing."

He further said that the decision to push up the launch date for Project Brazil came from a desire to give the mod's fans a complete story and experience before Fallout 4 overshadows it. "I want to get [Project Brazil's] final installment out before F4 launches so that everyone who has been cheering for us for so long can get back into our story and give it a fitting end that feels final," he wrote. "Our fans have been very supportive of us and very patient, and they deserve that solid ending as much as we deserve a clean end point on this five-year journey."

Finally, Lee mentioned that the team isn't going to stick with Fallout: New Vegas forever--Lee specifically is designing the mod with the future in mind, and he's hoping to move over to Fallout 4 in the coming years. "All of the new 3D art assets I've been developing are... current-gen assets, designed with a future engine in mind," he wrote. "I've been making them this way since last March, keeping one copy for GECK [the New Vegas mod tools], [and] one for Marmoset 2 and Unreal Development Kit (which will mean these are all ready for Fallout 4!)."

Project Brazil's story takes place in 2260, before the events of Fallout: New Vegas. Players explore the ruins of Los Angeles. In the post, Lee described the big set-piece moment in the mod. Players will enter into a battle between the Raiders and New California Republic factions, who are battling over territory on southern California's I-15 highway. At this point, players have the ability to either side with the NCR or the Raiders. This decision is irreversible and will begin two completely different storylines.

Characters are fully voiced in this mod, as well. There will be several new companions, which players will be able to take back into the main game after they complete Project Brazil's story.

The next entry in the Fallout series, Fallout 4, is due out on November 10 and will have mod support for PC, Xbox One, and eventually PlayStation 4. It'll probably take several years, though, before Fallout 4 mods get to the level of Project Brazil.

You can see some images from the Project Brazil mod below.