PSA: Beware, this infamous, hilarious Fallout 4 bug can kill you instantly for no reason at all
Playing Fallout 4 for the first time? Watch out for the “car death glitch.”
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
-Best Fallout games, ranked-Fallout player count resurgence-Fallout games now streaming-Fallout TV show interview-Fallout 4 visual improvements
Bethesda’s open world RPGs have a reputation for being pretty buggy, and while I’d say vanillaFallout 4is considerably more stable than the likes ofSkyrim, Fallout 3, orFallout: New Vegas, it still has its fair share of glitches that range from “silly nonsense” to “annoying af.” The one I’m about to warn you about in this article, though, is a bit of both.
The specific bug I’m referring to is the “Fallout 4 car death glitch,” which has a small chance of happening whenever you touch one of the many pre-War vehicles scattered across the roads of the Commonwealth. By justbumpinginto one of these by walking or sprinting, a bizarre physics interaction that instantly kills your character can occur, causing you to keel over in a death ragdoll on the spot.
Bethesda has never fixed this glitch, so it’s been a recurring — albeit fairly rare — problem for players since Fallout 4’s original 2015 release. As a result, it’s been cemented in history as one of the game’s most infamous bugs, and it’s one you should be aware of if you’re one of the many people playing Fallout 4 for the first time after watching Amazon’s critically acclaimedFallout TV show. Here are some hilarious examples of it happening:
As funny as the car death glitch is, it’sdefinitelysomething that Bethesda should have fixed by now. It may be little more than a chuckle-worthy inconvenience in regular playthroughs, but I’d probably have to resist the urge to smash my PC with a Super Sledge if it happened to me during a Survival Mode run that only lets you save your game when you sleep in a bed. Depending on where you are and what quests you’re doing, you may not be able to get back to a friendly settlement forhours.
Therefore, to minimize the chances of this bug happening, mostFalloutplayers have adopted a simple philosophy: don’t touch the cars.
“Don’t touch the cars, people. We’ve been over this,“wroteu/elchsaaft in reply to aclipof the glitch posted yesterday. “Avoid cars like a plague!“addedu/iCake1989. u/jkaoz, though, hadthe best comment: “Not a single car in this game has worked for 200 years, and yet car accidents are still the leading cause of death.”
Steering clear of the abandoned vehicles is pretty much the only thing you can do to save yourself from these spontaneous “car accidents,” though if you’re playing on Steam or GOG and willing to do a little modding, you can install theCar Physics Death Bug Fixby opt33 on Nexus Mods. It doesn’t patch the glitch out, though it does reduce the damage it causes to easily survivable levels. It doesn’t affect how much the cars hurt when they explodefrom gunfire, though, so keep that in mind.
Get the Windows Central Newsletter
All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.
Fallout 4 is benefitting greatly fromthe ongoing Fallout player count resurgence, asit’s one of the best-selling games right now. It’s arguably one of thebest Xbox gamesandbest PC gamesto play if you’re checking out the legendary RPG series for the first time, and one of the best titles available onXbox Game Pass.
Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
