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A “total conversion” is one of the most coveted and difficult modding projects one could undertake: Making a new, bespoke campaign using the mod tools of a pre-existing game, with the end result unable to be monetized due to copyright (unless you’re working with the beautifully open source Doom engine). At a certain point, you’d probably be better off just making your own indie game, and that only makes these Moby Dickian efforts all the more enticing.
Bethesda games’ huge audiences and intuitive mod tools make them lightning rods for ambitious, well-meaning total conversion authors—when a new Bethesda game launches, it feels like a timer starts counting down to someone going, “I want to make an old Bethesda game in this new Bethesda game, who here knows how to code, script, do concept art, write, and make 3D models?”—and mod sites like the Nexus are littered with unfinished total conversion attempts like the twice-abandoned Project Mojave.
But when someone actually manages to do the thing, the results can be pretty spectacular. See the legendary Nehirim mod for Oblivion or Fallout: London‘s blowout success last year. With Bethesda’s next full game after Starfield likely years away—unconfirmed rumors of Oblivion and Fallout 3 remasters not withstanding—I’ve collected some of the most promising upcoming total conversion projects for Bethesda games.
Skyrim mods
Skyblivion
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Skyblivion is a remake of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion using TES 5: Skyrim, and this one is the big kahuna, the project on this list I’m most excited for. Crucially, it has a release window set for this year. While not yet a concrete date, it’s much less amorphous than the other projects which remain a long way out. I’m inclined to trust that 2025 release window because the Skyblivion team’s frequent updates and impressive level of organized manpower further set them apart.
And the game just looks great: It’s Cyrodil as I remember it, while the Skyblivion team’s many changes and updates all serve to enhance the feeling of dreamy, nostalgic high fantasy haze that I associate with Oblivion. If Bethesda really does have its own, official remaster waiting to be announced, I’m eager to see how it might compare, and a duelling games scenario between a developer and its own mod scene has the potential to be a year-defining story.
Skywind
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Skywind is a project in the same vein as Skyblivion: Remake 2002’s The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind in Skyrim’s significantly upgraded Creation engine. Skywind hasn’t quite gotten the same level of buzz as Skyblivion, but aside from it not yet having a release window, there’s no reason to be any less excited. The Skywind team seems similarly well-organized, with a steady pace of video updates coming out on the mod’s YouTube channel, while they also seem to have a strong grasp of the unique atmosphere that makes Morrowind so special.
Vampire: the Masquerade – Reawakened
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Vampire: The Masquerade – Reawakened is a bit of an odd duck, and a real heart pick for me. The project started as an attempt to remake the 2000 RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, a romantic tale spanning the Crusades to modern times that is often overshadowed by its still-niche successor (and one of my very favorite games), Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Anticipating a legal challenge from Activision, which owns the rights to Redemption’s specific characters and story—VtM setting owner Paradox has approved the project—the Reawakened team has shifted course and is now making its own, new game in the same setting, a spiritual successor to Redemption instead of a direct remake.
Still with me? The upshot is that this team has demonstrated a similar level of organization and open communication to Skywind and Skyblivion, with project leader Gallejro frequently sharing update videos on YouTube. I’m particularly excited to see how this team maintains and reinterprets Redemption’s near-1000-year timespan—the modern-day gameplay they’ve already shared looks great, especially considering it’s being built in Skyrim.
Beyond Skyrim
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Beyond Skyrim is a multi-team, multi-project effort to show the other provinces of Tamriel during the 4th era of Skyrim—rather than a full total conversion, it’s meant to build onto and extend Skyrim, but its level of ambition is comparable to total conversion projects.
It’s also the least sure bet among our Skyrim entries: Beyond Skyrim’s official website does not seem to have been updated since 2020, and that was also the last time we saw a playable release from the team: A self-contained version of Cyrodil’s town of Bruma is thus far the only playable portion of the mod.
But all is not lost: Developers from various Beyond Skyrim teams seem to be regularly sharing updates about the project to a dedicated subreddit, with the Cyrodil team in particular looking pretty far along. Even if just one Beyond Skyrim team makes it across the finish line, it could wind up being pretty special.
Fallout 4 mods
Project Arroyo
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I’m the kind of sicko who would rather die than give up Fallout 1 and 2’s delicious 2D isometric art, but I can’t deny that I’m impressed by the Project Arroyo team’s first teasers for its remake of Fallout 2 in Fallout 4’s version of the Creation engine. They particularly managed to nail Fallout 2’s sense of color and whimsy, as well as the passage of time and ways the world has healed since the bombs fell in 2077. It seems like early days yet for Project Arroyo, but what we’ve seen so far is exciting.
Fallout 4: New Vegas
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There were once two duelling efforts to recreate the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout 4. Project Mojave would have been set during the time of Fallout 4 and shown how the politics and society of the southwest had evolved since the events of New Vegas. Project Mojave was canceled, revived, and then canceled once again at the end of 2024, leaving only Fallout 4: New Vegas, a straight remake of Obsidian’s 2010 fan favorite in the more capable Fallout 4 Creation engine.
Fallout 4: New Vegas has not exactly been cranking out updates since its first reveal back in 2020, but its developers are still posting fairly regularly on Twitter, and they also have the requisite community Discord if you’d like to get more involved. I’d rank this one similarly to Beyond Skyrim as a slow burn that may yet bear fruit.
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Kurt Indovina
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