Fallout 4 survival mode expected to hit consoles on Friday

Fallout 4's console versions should get the extra-punishing survival mode as part of Update 1.5 on Friday, Bethesda Game Studios announced. If you're not familiar with the idea behind the free DLC, the new mode goes beyond tougher enemies to impose additional needs like hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, all while limiting how you can recover health and save your game.

That may sound like a nightmare, but I had a ton of fun playing Fallout: New Vegas on "Hardcore Mode", so I'm happy to see Bethesda take the idea even further. Foraging for supplies is a lot more exciting when clean water - not just a bundle of stimpaks - could be the difference between life and death.

If Survival Mode arrives on Friday, that should give you plenty of time to grit your teeth through the extra-hostile Wasteland before the Far Harbor DLC is released on May 19.

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