November 2015 saw the release of Fallout 4, Bethesda Game Studio's latest entry in the popular role-playing game series. Seven years after the developer's previous entry, players were eager to return to the post-apocalyptic wasteland, fighting for caps and trying to survive the inhospitable environment. That anticipation translated to record sales for Bethesda, with the collectible Pip-Boy Edition selling out within hours of becoming available for preorder.

Fallout 4 delivered a massive open world with innumerable side quests and miscellaneous objectives, drawing in players for potentially hundreds of hours. Still, despite its vast size, many players are already looking for more content. Mods on PC have helped to keep the game interesting for those willing to hunt them down, delivering exciting and sometimes strange new features to the game. However, they are not yet available on the Steam Workshop, and console players will be waiting even longer for access to mods. To appease their fans, Bethesda recently released the first details about the game's season pass and upcoming DLC packs.

Speaking with Game Informer, Bethesda Game Studios' director Todd Howard revealed new details about the future of Fallout 4. Howard confirmed that the core development team is also working on the three previously announced pieces of DLC: Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, and Far Harbor. Automatron will include a "little quest line" along with new gameplay mechanics that allow players to build and upgrade robot companions used for battle. Wasteland Workshop enhances the already existing Workshop mechanics, allowing for bigger structures and the building of arenas filled with deadly animals. Far Harbor is the biggest offering, taking players to a new location altogether.

Howard also confirmed a new game mode called Survival Mode, which will increase the game's difficulty. The mode will launch first on Steam as a beta, before moving over to consoles after it's been refined. Though the mode is still in development, Howard teased some changes to the core game:

"We're doing things like you can't save, it only saves your game when you sleep. You can't fast travel. There're all of these diseases. We're trying it all. It's a different experience. We're not trying to make it a ton harder. It's harder because you're doing more things."

While the idea of limited saving is pretty standard for that type of game mode, it's hard to imagine having to traverse the massive Wasteland over and over without any sort of fast travel system. The director also indicated that combat will be made harder through changes in tactics rather than just increasing the HP of enemy characters.

Finally, it's been confirmed that mod support is coming to the game, likely sometime in April on PC. The mods should launch between the first and second DLC pack and are currently in beta testing. Howard confirmed that PC will be getting access first and console support will lag behind PC, with Xbox One expected to have access to mods a month later and PlayStation 4 after two months.

Though it had its share of flaws, Fallout 4 was easily one of the best games to be released last year, recently taking home a Game of the Year award at the 19th Annual DICE Awards. The game broke records for having the most concurrent players on Steam after launch, with the caveat that Valve's own DOTA 2 was excluded from the charts. Fallout still has momentum and the continued support from Bethesda will see that Fallout 4 remains one of the most-played games of this console generation.

Fallout 4 is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Source: Game Informer [via Destructoid]