Wasteland 3's first expansion is a Fallout factory revolt

Wasteland 3's first narrative expansion, The Battle Of Steeltown, is raising hell on the factory floor later this summer.

Announced earlier today, Wasteland 3's first expansion sees your band of Rangers sent off to sort out a worker uprising for The Patriarch (the ostensible ruler of California). Deliveries have gone cold, bandit raids are rife, and the factory boss seems increasingly incompetent, so you've been sent in to sort things out.

Now, I don't know about you, but crushing a worker's strike in the name of some sinister leader seems like real cop shit. But the trailer suggests that maybe you don't have to play the job entirely straight—there are many ways this situation could play out, and maybe it's better to let the whole place burn down.

Steeltown introduces new quests, and baddies sporting new combat mechanics like non-lethal weapons and devastating telegraphed attacks. This is probably also the most "Fallout" Wasteland has ever looked, with big vault doors and hulking power armour suits strolling around corrugated iron factories. Fitting, considering the original Wasteland's role as Fallout's predecessor. I'm half expecting a super mutant to round the corner any second now.

The expansion's new mechanics will also transfer back into the base game, along with all its new weapons, armour, and some brand new encounters. The Battle Of Steeltown arrives on Steam and GOG this June 3rd. 

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.

Read more
Robocop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business screenshot
Robocop: Rogue City is getting a 'standalone expansion' that sounds an awful lot like The Raid
An enemy druid dodges a stab from the player.
As a Stalker sicko, the 2 hours I just spent with Atomfall have made it one of my most-anticipated games this year
A player character with an ominous mask
The Forever Winter, my favourite extraction shooter, just overhauled its most contentious feature for the second time: 'It was a hell of a rollercoaster to make the adjustment'
Atomfall Gamescom screenshots
Atomfall dev says Rebellion's open world shooter has 'some experimental stuff' that can have a 'huge influence' on the game world: 'It might work out. It might not'
Mechs fight on the outside of a spaceship
MechWarrior 5: Clans is getting DLC with playable Elementals and a fight on the outside of a spaceship
In-development screenshot of game Psycho Patrol R. It is a low-poly, low-fidelity graphical style with deliberately clashing colors and interface elements.
The next game from Cruelty Squad's creator, a 'policing and punishment simulator', has dropped a new trailer showing off its gruesome mech combat
Latest in RPG
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's latest stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that caused a total party-wipe on Ironman Mode at the game's final boss, forcing dejected testers to restart the entire game
Lady smiling with the sun in her face
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's director was 'starving for new turn-based RPGs,' and figured if he wanted them, there would be others out there who'd want to play his game
Astarion, a silver-haired vampire from Baldur's Gate 3, places a hand on his chest and pouts.
Wizards of the Coast gaming head says Baldur's Gate 3 'certainly raised the bar' and changed how they think about big budget D&D, but they still want 'different entry points' including smaller games
Natarkveld, a horrific amalgamation of Nata and Arkveld, screeches like a creature in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds player spits in the face of creation, fuses Nata with Arkveld like they're doing a Full Metal Alchemist villain speedrun
Fallout 76 ghoul screenshots
How to become a ghoul in Fallout 76
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 barbers change hairstyle - Henry sitting on a horse wearing armour.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sold 5 times more than the original in its first month
Latest in News
The "mind blown" meme from Tim & Eric.
Friendship ended with human race: Boffins declare the 'meme Turing test' has been passed, and AI is now making funnier captions on average than you useless lumps
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's latest stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that caused a total party-wipe on Ironman Mode at the game's final boss, forcing dejected testers to restart the entire game
Two adventurers face off against a pair of undead scallywags in Frosthaven
X-Com creator Julian Gollop unexpectedly takes over sequel to sprawling board game adaptation, and you can try out the closed beta next week
Naoe and Yasuke pose against the backdrop of a burning building.
After Ubi came crawlin' back to Steam, Assassin's Creed Shadows blasts past a million players in under 24 hours and has already smashed Valhalla's player record
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Valve CMO threatened the company would walk away from games if it didn't own the rights to Half-Life—'It wasn't an idle threat—we weren't going to take on all of the risk to make other people rich'
Nvidia Blackwell GPU with specs annotated.
CEO Jensen Huang reveals that Nvidia is now making chips in the USA but will that help with gaming GPU supplies?