If you were excited when we first revealed a “hardcore” survivalist mode for Bethesda’s Fallout 4, you’ll be pleased to know that a recent update to the title on Steam has finally made it available to all players.

Coming out as a beta players will have to opt-in to (Instructions for the uninitiated are in the Steam update post linked above), the new survival mode is similar to what fans enjoyed in Fallout: New Vegas and adds in its own brand of post-apocalyptic realism, such as death from disease and taking damage from carrying too many items.

At a high level, we wanted to force you to make interesting choices. We did that by bringing more contrasting motivations to Fallout 4 using the type of circular systems you might find in a game like Dark Souls. (By which we mean, two or more systems that push against each other.) This resulted in four major pillars for Survival Mode.

• Strategy: Intensify decisions involving when to get into combat versus when to avoid it, and also make you think more about what gear to take into combat. Then back up those decisions with faster, more brutal fights.

• Exploration: Slow down the pace of the game and encourage players to explore the nooks and crannies of the world.

• Resource Management: Balance out items in the world that may be too easy to acquire or horde, giving players more to consider when planning their current loadout.

• Role Playing: Increase the realism of the world and the issues one might face there.

If you want to join in on the discussion about the new mode, or you find bugs within it and want to report them, a forum devoted to it has been added to Bethesda’s community.