Fallout New Vegas mod adds a Pip-Boy based on Van Buren designs

Fallout: New Vegas has a new Pip-Boy to play with, and this one is based on design documents from the cancelled Van Buren project. The Lil Pip 3000 has arrived in the Fallout: The New West team’s latest mod release, alongside a five-gun Wattz Weapon Pack for the Mojave wasteland.¹

A Pip-Boy with a proper lid

According to the mod’s creators, the Lil Pip 3000 draws on the original Van Buren design documents and is presented in-game as a wrist computer associated with inmates at Tibbets Prison. It has the familiar Pip-Boy functions, but its most conspicuous trick is a custom animation: the lid flips up when the player brings it out.¹²

That detail is more than a cosmetic swap. The standard Pip-Boy silhouette has become one of Fallout’s most recognisable bits of visual language, so changing the opening mechanism gives this version an immediate identity without abandoning the device’s role as the player’s all-purpose interface. The release trailer shows the Lil Pip 3000 in close-up, including its retro-futurist casing and the large “Lil Pip 3000” title treatment.³

The mod places the device near Nipton, where an unnamed ranger has left it in the Mojave. That makes it a small piece of environmental storytelling as well as a new piece of equipment: players discover the design in the same battered world that New Vegas has been inviting them to explore since 2010.¹

Five new energy weapons

The same release also includes the Wattz Weapon Pack. It adds five laser weapons designed to fit the classic Fallout style, including a burst pistol assembled from Van Buren ideas. Custom animations and compatibility work are intended to help the weapons sit alongside the rest of New Vegas’ arsenal rather than feel like disconnected additions.¹

The pack can also distribute its weapons through the Capital Wasteland when it is used with Tale of Two Wastelands, the conversion project that combines the worldspaces of Fallout 3 and New Vegas. That gives the release a wider use case than a single-game weapon drop, although the required mod stack is fairly substantial.¹

Both releases require the New Vegas Script Extender, JIP LN NVSE Plugin, JohnnyGuitar NVSE, and kNVSE Animation Plugin. The Wattz pack adds further requirements, including the Gun Runners’ Arsenal DLC, ShowOff xNVSE Plugin, ISControl Enabler, and Sound Extender.¹

Our opinion

This is exactly the kind of mod release that makes a familiar game feel newly curious. The Lil Pip 3000 is not trying to replace Fallout: New Vegas’ identity; it is rummaging through the franchise’s lost history and turning an old design direction into something players can actually handle. The flipping lid is a wonderfully tactile hook, while the Wattz pack gives the release enough substance to be more than a single novelty prop. The dependency list will put off anyone looking for a one-click download, but for players already building a heavily modded Mojave, this looks like a thoughtful bit of Van Buren archaeology with a practical payoff.