Yesterday morning I woke to a bit of a surprise: my cable router's lights frantically blinking on my Xbox One. It was clear that something was being downloaded, and something downright massive. As it turned out, it was a new update for Fallout 4, and what was contained in said update was positively massive. An entire host of updates waited, from the cosmetic to the game-changing.

Naturally, some things were mostly aesthetic in nature. Ambient occulsion settings, weapon debris, and changes to object fading distance were all on hand. A new status menu for settlers in settlements also joins in, and for PC users, a new ESDF function set kicks in for Workshop Mode. The oh-so-standard "memory and stability improvements" are on hand, and looking through a scope offers better performance as well. I'm personally hoping that means scopes are actually usable without that stupid breath-holding mechanic. I got tired of that about three shots in. Companions are no longer permanently affected with radiation poisoning, and the Big Leagues perk totals its damage correctly.

Better, MacReady's Killshot perk now calculates correctly too, and the errors in the third person mode also modify. Those odd times when NPCs get stuck in power armor are also a thing of the past, as your NPCs can now exit their armor. The second rank of the Aquaboy perk now works as it should--which hopefully allows users to stay underwater indefinitely as it should, and the Robotics Expert perk is likewise active in combat now. Curie can now use stimpaks after her transformation from Handy robot, and a host of quest fixes are also in play.

Taking Independence is active, the Synths won't attack the Castle while the player is on good terms with the Institute, The End of the Line and The Big Dig are all in play, and a wide variety of others are all active and should add up to a better play experience.

While tempers are starting to wear a bit thin for Fallout fans these days--not a word about DLC or mods has emerged and the game's been out for three months now--this new update should help make some players a lot happier. Improve the overall gameplay of the vanilla game, and that should go a long way toward making players a lot happier about sticking with an old favorite. It was a long five months from announcement to release for Fallout 4, and every day we wait for the updates and the DLC is another blow to a fandom that's already taken its share of knocks. Still, Bethesda clearly does have the player's interest in mind, as it's working to make an already great game even better.