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Fallout 4’s PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrade launches for free in 2023

By Joseph Yaden October 24, 2022

In celebration of Fallout’s 25th anniversary, Bethesda has announced that Fallout 4 will get an upgrade for the current generation of consoles in 2023. This free update will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC and comes with a variety of new features that take advantage of more powerful hardware.

The upgraded version will include a performance mode that prioritizes high frame rates, in addition to new quality features that boost the game to 4K resolution. This new version of Fallout 4 also offers bug fixes and Creation Club content. Players who already own the game on PS4, Xbox One, and PC will gain access to the current-gen upgrade at no additional cost. It’s unclear how much the game will cost for players buying it for the first time on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S.

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People standing outside Nuka World.

Fallout 4 originally launched for PS4, Xbox One, and PC in 2015, and garnered mostly positive reviews. At the time, the game was criticized for its bugs and visuals, so hopefully, the new version for current-gen machines will alleviate some of these issues. Bethesda did not announce a specific release date for this update, but we’ll likely find out more in the coming months. Bethesda also revealed a number of new features coming to Fallout 76. These include the Spooky Scorched Halloween event, new free items added to the Atomic Shop, and additional content for Prime Gaming and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.

The Fallout series began in 1997 and has evolved tremendously since then, venturing into the first-person shooter genre with newer entries and even a management simulation game in Fallout Shelter. Bethesda is currently working on Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI, so it’ll likely be a while before the next mainline Fallout game releases.

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Xbox Series X vs. Series S

Xbox Series X Stylized Graphic

The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S represent Microsoft's fourth-generation home video game consoles designed around AMD's 8-Core Zen 2 CPU and Radeon RDNA 2 graphics architecture. The two consoles succeed the Xbox One X and Xbox One S, offering better performance and more power across the board. New features include display resolutions up to 8K, built-in solid-state drives for faster access times, and support for real-time ray tracing.

With two powerful consoles available, it's important to be aware of how they stack up against one another so you can make the most informed buying decision. Here's our Xbox Series X and Series S comparison.
Specifications

Gaming

One of the PS5’s best exclusives will finally launch on PC next month

returnal pc release date gameplay

uThe PC version of Returnal will finally launch on February 15, with confirmation coming from Housemarque and PlayStation Studios on the PlayStation Blog. Alongside this announcement, we got a brand new trailer and more details on the impressive graphical features and demanding specs that caught Digital Trends' eye in December.
Returnal - Features Trailer | PC Games
Returnal will support Nvidia DLSS and NIS, as well as AMD's FSR technology for those who what to maximize Returnal's performance on PC, which is worthwhile for such a fast-paced action game. On the visual side of things, the PC version of Returnal will support ray-traced shadows as well as 21:9 and 32:9 Ultrawide monitors. Sony says the game features "ray-traced audio," which isn't a common term in gaming and seems to just be another way of describing the detailed 3D audio that comes standard with most first-party PlayStation Studios titles.
Of course, Returnal will also support keyboard and mouse controls on PC, though players can still use a wired connection to experience the game with the DualSense controller's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Housemarque also reaffirmed the demanding PC specs needed to play Returnal on PC. While 32 GB of RAM is no longer the requirement for the Recommended Specs (both the minimum and recommended specs ask for 16 GB of RAM), if you want to play Returnal at a 4K resolution with ray tracing at 60 frames per second (fps), you'll need an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti GPU, Intel i9-11900K CPU, and 32 GB of RAM. This falls in line with the recent trend of extremely demanding PC games.

Returnal's PC port was confirmed at The Game Awards 2022 alongside one for The Last of Us Part I, but Returnal did not have a PC release date until today. The game originally launched as a PS5 exclusive on April 30, 2021.
Returnal launches for PC on February 15 and is available now for PS5.

Gaming

PS5 and Xbox Series X need to show us what they’re capable of in 2023

Miles Morales and Peter Parker stand together in Spider-Man 2.

True current-gen console exclusives have been few and far between this generation. Over two years in, even great games like Halo Infinite and God of War: Ragnarök are still shackled to the consoles that came before the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. While they still look fantastic and benefit from better load times and DualSense gimmicks, there haven’t been enough exclusives to give this new console generation a true identity just yet.
That's going to be one of the most important tasks for Microsoft and Sony in 2023. This year, we'll see a much larger number of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S exclusives, especially from first-party studios. Games like Forspoken, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Forza Motorsport, and Starfield will be just some of the games this year that will demonstrate what exactly a ninth-generation console game feels and looks like. That means that the stakes are high for this year's biggest releases, as they need to prove that the games industry hasn't plateaued.
A slow but steady start
It’s hard to believe we’re already over two years into this new console generation, considering that we're still seeing high-profile games launching on old platforms. That looks like it will change this year, though, as more games will release exclusively for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to give those consoles more of an identity. Still, that’s taken more time than it did for the eighth generation of game consoles: the PS4 and Xbox One.
Even the Xbox One, for all its faults at release, had games like Dead Rising 3, Forza Motorsport 5, and Ryse: Son of Rome early on to show what Microsoft wanted that new generation of games to look like. They did so through both impressive visuals for their time and via Xbox One gimmicks like SmartGlass and Kinect. We haven’t seen that as much with the Xbox Series X/S because early-generation games like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 were intentionally cross-gen, and its more ambitious exclusives have suffered delays.
On the PlayStation front, the PS4 admittedly took a few years to get going on the exclusives front. Games like Infamous Second Son, Driveclub, and Bloodborne eventually impressed, though, and fantastic exclusives were consistently launching throughout each year by 2017. The PS5 is following a similar cadence, as Astro’s Playroom remains an outstanding PS5 and DualSense showcase, while Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, and The Last of Us Part 1 show what the system is capable of.

Still, last year’s two biggest PlayStation Studios releases, Horizon Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarök, came out on PS4 and still felt "last-gen" as a result. One can’t help but think what both games could have done had they launched solely on PS5. That's a question I hope to see answered more firmly over the next 12 months.
The importance of 2023 console exclusives
As we enter the PS5’s third year, its upcoming exclusives will be some of the most pivotal on the system. Forspoken could demonstrate some impressive visual effects early on, but Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is in an even more crucial position. It will be the first sequel to a PS4-era hit that isn’t tied to the PS4. The PS5’s high frame rate and adaptive triggers already enhance Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Spider-Man: Remastered when played on PS5.
I’m intrigued to see how Insomniac Games can push the visuals further, make more parts of New York City explorable, and take swinging around as the Spider-Men even further on PS5. Hopefully, any other PS5 exclusives launching this year will do similar things.