In many ways, mods are a lot like magic. With a few magic words, players can change Hogwarts Legacy into something completely new, or simply adjust different aspects to better fit their needs or desires. However, just like magic, not everyone knows how to do this themselves, but thankfully modders are more than willing to share their work with the masses. Whether you’re looking to improve performance, make the game more accessible, or simply have a laugh, here are 10 of the best mods for Hogwarts Legacy and how to install them.
Modding for Hogwarts Legacy is only really available for the PC version, and is most easily done through the popular Nexus Mod Manager. This safe, reliable tool allows you to browse, download, and apply mods with ease. After you download the manager, you simply need to save the mod of your choice, run the installer, go through the installation, and run the game with the mod. For a more detailed tutorial on how to do this, see the Nexus Mods tutorial or watch the video below.
While not the most exciting place to start, we have to begin with the performance mods for Hogwarts Legacy considering how rough the game can run for some PC players. Ascendio is billed as an unofficial fps enhancement that improves performance by applying Unreal Engine parameters to the game. In short, the mod tweaks things like CPU and GPU communication, forces frame finalization, enables texture streaming to be as optimal as possible, and minimizes frame drops and stutters.
Hogwarts Legacy is by no means a bad-looking game on PC, but certainly not pushing the limits of what most decent to high-end rigs can pump out. The Hogwarts Legacy Realism Overhaul Reshade Better Textures 2023 mod simply reshades the game to enhance the world’s color and bloom, as well as make lighting and shadows more distinct, to make the environments far more vibrant and visually appealing.
Fans of the books and films know that stating the name of a spell is only part of how magic works. The other is all in the wand movements, and this Mouse gesture to spell mod helps recreate that experience by mapping your spells to movements rather than buttons. This mod certainly won’t make the game easier but will make it far more immersive and satisfying to master.
Flying your broom should be one of the most exciting and enjoyable parts of being a witch or wizard. Yet, on PC at least, the default controls for your broom leave much to be desired. Thankfully the Mouse controls for broom mod lets you control your flight with the mouse instead of awkward keyboard controls. This gives you a far greater degree of control in your movements, which is essential for some of the game’s tougher time trials.
Alohomora is the unlocking spell, and boy does this mod live up to its namesake. With the Alohomora mod, just about everything you could want in Hogwarts Legacy is unlocked from the start. This includes all spells, gear, broom upgrades, items, fast travel locations, and more. This mod only works when starting a new game, so you can’t add it to an existing file which is a bummer, but considering how powerful you’ll be with it, you should be able to catch back up in no time.
So many games feature spiders as enemies despite them being one of the most common fears in the world. Giant spiders are even worse and can trigger anxiety even when confronted in a game. If your fear of spiders makes this game a challenge to play, the Arachnophobia mod replaces all those creepy crawlies with completely tame (if a bit bland) boxes.
When we saw that you would be able to customize your wand in Hogwarts Legacy, many assumed you would be able to get some of the most iconic wand designs from the franchise. That was why it was such a letdown when perhaps the most famous and important wand in the franchise was nowhere to be found. The Elder Wand mod fixes this by giving you the most powerful wand the wizarding world has ever seen (at least in appearance. It still functions like your normal wand).
At this point, we should assume that there’s a Thomas the Tank Engine mod coming for every game released on PC in some form. In this case, the Thomasbroom mod turns your Moon Trimmer broom into the classic blue train himself to fly around the world. It is still a little rough, as Thomas’ model will clip quite a bit, but nothing that breaks the game. Honestly, though, that probably isn’t a concern if you’re installing this mod.
Sure, you’re technically just a teenage witch or wizard when you arrive at Hogwarts, but that severely limits your ability to roleplay as yourself if you’re a bit older. This is another rough mod, but if you want your character to have any kind of Facial Hair, this mod is the best you will get. In order to work at all, your beard will replace your other facewear options, and it won’t move dynamically, but it at least looks good when your character isn’t speaking.
What do we even need to say here? As the Shrek Broom mod’s description reads, “Shrek is broom, shrek is life.” Now you can replace your Aeromancer broom with a T-posing model of Shrek, and you know what? That’s exactly what people want. Get your Shrek on and fly around in style.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.