The mod is one of PC gaming's greatest achievements. You buy a game, play it to death, and then chances are passion-driven fanatics will release non-commercial content for us to devour. It can extend the life a title for years.
Naturally not all projects born out of a love of the subject matter impress, but over the years we have seen numerous gems emerge from the mod community. We've been poring over our murky mod-playing past - and slightly less murky present - and selected 12 we'd buy a beer if we bumped into them down the pub...
Desert Combat
Mod for: Battlefield 1942
Official website: www.desertcombat.com/
It's testament to its quality and the regard in which Battlefield 1942 mod Desert Combat was held that members of the mod team are now in the full time employ of THQ and working on Frontlines: Fuel of War.
Although it didn't add anything fundamentally new to the core Battlefield 1942 gameplay, what it did do is take us out of World War II and onto 21st century battlefields and present us with an extremely professional product. Eventually we were of course to see the Battlefield series embrace the same modern-day setting.
Alien Swarm
Mod for: Unreal Tournament 2004
Official website: www.blackcatgames.com/swarm/
Black Cat Games chose to take Epic's Unreal engine and created a top-down, sci-fi shooter that was at times bastard hard but excellent nevertheless. Playable single-player or in co-op, Alien Swarm in a nutshell pitted a group of marines against alien hordes, with battles occurring on spaceships.
Four unique classes added plenty of flavour to the action, and the real cream on the cake was Alien Swarm's ability to conjure up images of the movie Aliens while you were blasting away like a loon. Fantastic. Black Cat Games is currently working on the follow-up Alien Swarm: Infested, which uses Valve's Source engine and will be released as a commercial product.
Minerva: Metastasis
Mod for: Half-Life 2
Official website: www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/
Arguably the best Half-Life 2 single-player mods out there - and one of the best single-player mods full stop - Minerva: Metastasis combines action with enigma to fantastic effect. It's been split into four chapters and the third and fourth aren't far short of being of a level of quality you'd normally expect to have to cough up for.
Anyone who's played it will know it can be intriguingly weird, but essentially you strap on boots as a mystery protagonist who is being directed by an entity named Minerva in the fight against the Combine. The decision to have Minerva communicate in text form was a stroke of genius, even if she/they/it does mix baffling riddles and indirect hints into the communications.
Ultima V: Lazarus
Mod for: Dungeon Siege
Official website: lazarus.planetdungeonsiege.gamespy.com/
Truly the amount of work and love that has gone into Ultima V: Lazarus is mind boggling, and it's hardly surprising that the folks behind it - Team Lazarus - describe it as an "exceedingly ambitious project".
Ultima V: Lazarus is Ultima V reborn - hence "Lazarus" - and built from the ground up on Gas Powered Games' Dungeon Siege engine. Not only does if feature brand new graphics and re-mastered versions of the original Ultima V music, but also "improved and expanded dialogue, and a much more 'alive' design for the Underworld" - to steal a quote from the official website.
They Hunger
Mod for: Half-Life
Official website: manke.planethalflife.gamespy.com/
We have one Neil Manke to thank for this utterly awesome first-person shooter/horror single-player mod for the original Half-Life, that was eventually split into three separate episodes. Was it scary? Yes. Was it brilliant? Hell yes. Thanks Neil!
The story dropped you into the shoes of a struggling author heading into the country for a spot of R&R, when a news story burbles out the car radio talking about "Unknown atmospheric phenomena" being "reported throughout the area". Needless to say, the planned rest turned into a holiday of horror and blood.
They Hunger is returning at some point in Source-d up They Hunger: Lost Souls.
Operation Flashpoint: Capture the Island
Mod for: Operation Flashpoint
Official website: n/a
Operation Flashpoint. What a great game that was; and the best mod to release for Bohemia's title was... Capture the Island. No prizes for guessing the ultimate objective in this one.
What Capture the Island did is introduce RTS-style gameplay to Operation Flashpoint, plonking two teams on an island that were tasked with overcoming the opposition. The commanders on each team - no doubt sporting big shiny medals - were able to construct factories which could then be used to generate ground and air vehicles and foot soldiers.
Counter-Strike
Mod for: Half-Life
Official website: www.counter-strike.net
Yes, okay, Counter-Strike is retail product but let us not forget that the multiplayer FPS phenomenon began life as a Half-Life mod. It debuted in 1999 and its creators Gooseman and Cliffe sensibly chose to base their project on the engine driving Valve's stupidly popular debut FPS.
It was as though the pair had looked at the Rainbow Six series and ripped out all the tactical fiddly bits to leave us with a pure terrorist/counter-terrorist action experience. From pretty humble beginnings, Counter-Strike of course went on to be HUGE and had one of the finest multiplayer maps ever in de_dust.
Beyond the Red Line
Mod for: Freespace 2 (but it's standalone)
Official website: www.game-warden.com/bsg
You only have to install and boot the Beyond the Red Line demo up to see how much love and care is going into this project. Technically it's a total conversion - as opposed to a mod - of space shooter Freespace 2 and, if you've never stumbled across it before, is based on the NEW Battlestar Galactica TV series. "The game is made by fans for the fans", says the official FAQ.
Currently Beyond the Red Line is only available in demo form, but if you're either one of those Battlestar Galactica fans or simply love space sims/shooters, definitely check this out. Unfortunately the only date we have for the full release is 'when it's done', so it remains work in progress.
Garry's Mod
Mod for: Half-Life 2/Source
Official website: www.garrysmod.com/
The fantastic Garry's Mod is more a sandbox universe than an actual game in which you can muck around with objects in a Source environment. "The player is in a world where objects can be created and destroyed on demand. Where people can be created and destroyed with the click of a mouse. A world made for him. A world he made", explains the official website.
Vehicle construction, game mode creation and silly character poses for the purposes of laughs are just some of the things you can do in Garry's Mod. It's now gone commercial and is available via Steam, although an older unsupported version 0.9 can still be downloaded for free.
Defense of the Ancients
Mod for: Warcraft III
Official website: www.dota-allstars.com
Defense of the Ancients is a 'destroy the base' style mod for Warcraft III. The game pits two teams of humans against each other and mixes it up with AI-controlled monsters, and each team's ultimate goal is the destruction of the 'Ancient' building sitting at the heart of team bases. Games are usually played five versus five, with each player on the team able to select a unique character from a roster of heroes that level up during play.
It's highly recommended if you want to stick with a Warcraft experience but one that isn't WoW.
Front Line Force
Mod for: Half-Life
Official website: www.frontlineforce2.com
Front Line Force was a Half-Life mod that really never got the attention it deserved, probably because it had to live in the shadow of Counter-Strike. Featuring modern-day weaponry, the class- and team-based multiplayer mod found two teams battling for control points in maps - it was a bit like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress had been chucked in a pot and mixed up a bit.
Memorable levels were accompanied by such nice touches as an on-screen display for inherent weapon accuracy, along with a team morale system that improved weapon aim when comrades were in close proximity. It's still available for Half-Life, although the FLF team is working on a Source version. We can't wait to see that.
Team Fortress
Mod for: Quake, Half-Life (as TFC)
Official website:www.teamfortress.com
Team Fortress is one of - if not the - best examples of class- and team-based multiplayer first-person shooter action done right. It's been with us for years, originally launching for Quake but it arguably really took off when Valve Software nestled it under its wing and relaunched it for free as Half-Life mod Team Fortress Classic.
Featuring classic maps - 2Fort, anyone? - and on the whole solid game modes, its clever combination of classes suited a variety of play styles and it really sorted the men out from the boys. God-like level of skills could be acquired through mastery of the mod's subtle game mechanics.
We've recently seen the release of the latest iteration of Team Fortress, Team Fortress 2 (a sequel which we had to wait years for).
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