We’ve reached the event horizon of ridiculous Fallout New Vegas mods. People are giving an NPC absurdly comical hats after one earnest attempt to improve their mesh model, and the chaos is glorious. I love genuine attempts at improving old RPGs through modding, but you simply cannot beat an entire community of people doing something so innocuous yet dumbfounding. This is the New Vegas Hat War.
The saga started with the ‘Daniel’s Hat Refitted’ mod for Fallout New Vegas. It’s simple. Unassuming. Innocent. Modder ‘SoullessToast’ gave Honest Hearts DLC character Daniel a hat that actually fit his head via a mesh replacement. The changes are unnoticeable at a glance, almost microscopic. Little did they know though, that this would be the start of a conflict. This is very real, and I don’t think Fallout New Vegas mods will ever be the same again.
“I can’t believe that in thirteen years, nobody else beat me to it: this mod is a mesh replacement for Daniel’s hat, adjusted so it actually fits on a head,” SoullessToast writes in the RPG mod description, blissfully unaware of the chaos they’re about to unleash. “Nothing more, nothing less. I was sick and tired of staring at that stupid, comically oversized clown hat floating over Daniel’s head, knowing it had the potential to be the best-looking hat in the game were it not for the aneurysm the designer must have had while making the model. So I did something about it.”
That was ground zero. Wednesday May 29 2024. Since then Daniel’s had a big hat, small hat, tall hat, purple hat, train hat, slightly tilted hat, and even hats on top of other hats. Does it make any sense? No. Is it funny? I’m not sure. Do I love it? Without a doubt. Mr House has even been given a virtual hat. It’s unending, infinite, and there’s no going back now.
If you’re wondering what SoullessToast is doing now, I’d like to imagine they’re sipping a Sunset Sasparilla on their porch, slowly rocking back and forth, watching Nexus Mods get inundated with hats for Daniel. “I’ve created a monster,” they mutter in the comments of their original mod. The genie’s out of the bottle now; SoullessToast has cemented themselves as the Oppenheimer of Fallout New Vegas modding, whether they like it or not. Just search “Daniel’s hat” on Nexus Mods, and you’ll find them.
New Vegas is no stranger to bizarre mods either, as we recently saw a long-lost Fred Durst companion mod found after 13 years, and Mr House has even been replaced by Elon Musk. I’m all for mods that improve the overall game experience, give us DLC-sized expansions, or even add in new mechanics, but you just can’t beat the inane I’m afraid. Fallout New Vegas modders, I salute you.
If you’re next trip to the Mojave has you wondering about what’s next for the post-apocalyptic series we’ve got you covered with all we know about the Fallout 5 release date, alongside the best games like Fallout to play while you wait.
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