By Lewis Denby on July 21st, 2010 at 10:28 am.
What do you mean, ‘Where was last week’s?’ It’s right there! Look, I’m pointing at it! Of course you can see it. Don’t be ridiculous. And what do you mean, ‘How come this week’s column covers 17 days of mod news?’ You’re going mad. You should get that checked out. You should read past the jump for interesting and/or entertaining mod happernings.
NEWS
So! Announced recently is an upcoming Red Alert 3 mod named Synergy. Details are either really, really thin or badly explained – I’m not sure which. It’s an experience we won’t forget, and it’s set outside the realms of storylines, and we can expect more details soon. But here‘s what there is so far.
And then there’s… oh wow! I hadn’t noticed this. I wonder where this legally stands. It’s BioShock, only it’s in Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne. Rise of Rapture is its name, and it’s looking lovely. Here’s some news about a playable Big Daddy, and here‘s how delightful a recreation it is. I really hope this one doesn’t get killed.
It really would seem my observation glands have failed me, since here’s another thing I didn’t notice: Arrangement. It’s a Half-Life 1 mod that looks far prettier than the old tinkered Quake engine has any right to look. Here’s a little bit of pre-release news, but you should really be looking at this bump-mapping instead.
RELEASES
Human Error Co-Op is out! Apparently this happened while I was at Develop last week, and – true to form – I’ve only just noticed right now, so I haven’t had chance to play this yet. But despite its problems, I had a real soft spot for what Human Error was trying to do. Looking forward to getting stuck into this with a friend.
And… I’m struggling to find anything else particularly interesting, even though we’ve two weeks to play with. There’s almost certainly something really brutally obvious that I’ve missed. Sorry. But I know I’m guilty of often neglecting the smaller tweaks and suchlike that don’t get the ModDB limelight. So here’s where you can find a few Dragon Age mods that have been released in the last short while, and which, quite frankly, I’ve not tested, because I own Dragon Age on the 360, OH NOOOOO. [Tsk, it's shit on 360 - RPS]
UPDATES
Half-Life 2 mod Slums 2 has an Extended version. Seems to be going down well so far, even though the response to the original version – released a couple of years back, I believe – was more mixed.
There’s also an update to Mod Ajout Clans & Histoires for the French version of Bloodlines, which might be nice if you’re French and own a French copy of the original game. The mod applies P&P rules to Bloodlines, as well as adding new clans and suchlike, so says its ModDB page.
Meanwhile, Half-Life 2 multiplayer mod Coven has hit version 3.0, and there are more updates for GraviNULL, also in HL2 but somewhat crazier in approach. As expected, there’s nothing majorly changed for the latter in the three seconds since it last updated.
AND THE REST
This is nice. Soon-to-be-released Portal mod Gamma Energy gets a big old developer lecture. I always enjoy reading these, discovering what’s been going on in the mind of a creative type. Here’s his development story.
And on his blog, Robert Yang offered this link without comment. So do I.
UserCreated may very well have more things.
Do you think if you reported the release of Black Mesa, we could actually will it to be true?
report
It has been released. Didn’t you know? It was so awesome it turned invisible and vanished into the void forever.
report
But it’ll just be Half-Life only looking like it was released 3 years ago? Super nice, but I don’t get the obsession.
Like: won’t everyone, including me, will absolutely cream themselves playing the first half hour, then probs drift away once it gets into the main meat of the shooty-shooty game we’ve all played at least once or twice and is anyway showing a bit of age not just in it’s graphics?
Well that’s what i think anyway.
report
Not me.
First, I want to see how they’ve re-imagined some of the scenes and set pieces of HL.
Second, I want to play through HL with HL2 i.e. relatively modern, gameplay. For instance, not having to empty best part of a clip into the face of a marine in order to kill him.
report
Hold up – they’re changing the gameplay balance too? Now that’s *interesting*…
report
Well, I assume so. I may even read something to that effect ages ago.
If anything, balancing the gameplay to the old HL style would seem odd in a Source game.
report
I would doubt if Black Mesa was a simple port of HL1.
Isn’t that what Half Life: Source was?
report
It’s certainly not a simple port. All media on their site shows that pretty clearly.
report
“Second, I want to play through HL with HL2 i.e. relatively modern, gameplay. For instance, not having to empty best part of a clip into the face of a marine in order to kill him.”
Combine aren’t the same? The solution is to minimise use of the SMG on the Soldiers, which you can do for most of the game; almost every other weapon can kill in a few shots at most, making the “bullet sponge” complaint pretty bs outside the Alien Grunts, which perhaps are overly tough.
report
Black Mesa made an unsuccessful transition to an aquatic theme. Or to put it another way, it’s dead in the water. It was proclaimed complete, what, seven months ago now?
report
Not according to the devs
:P
report
It was proclaimed complete, what, seven months ago now?
Let’s see. A mod team does really impressive work on a Valve-related property. They say they’re close to finished. Then they disappear completely.
Gee, I wonder what could possibly have happened?
report
Ha, I hope you’re right Urthman. I love the way Valve swallows mod teams whole.
report
@ Urthman
That would be good news. However, I know we’re talking Valve Time here, but no word on this for 7 months? How long does it take to draw up contracts these days? Still, who knows? It’s happened often enough before and this was looking really good.
report
My guess would be that Valve took them in and gave them some money and a few more team members and asked them to take the time to polish it from good to really great.
So it could be another year or more.
report
Also, Lewis, could you ask the guy what did your banner image really nicely to sneak some unicorns, or badgers in there somewhere?
It’s a great image, but it’s all a bit grim and intimidating at the moment – like MODS are about grinding out industrial product for no reward from the owners but lost time and ill-health, instead of being all super cool and individual and about free expression and the sharing of ideas, man. Dude.
Just, like, a pixie, or a sasquatch or something.
report
How about putting Judgement Horse in the window?
http://pictureisunrelated.com/2009/12/31/horse-of-judgement-is-watching-you/
report
if this covers 17 days than you guys missed that the other classy looking upcoming FPSRPG mod for hl2 released some pretty classy looking screenshots and gameplay http://www.moddb.com/mods/tales-from-the-galactopticon/news/new-galactopticon-media-brought-to-you-by-galactopticon-media
report
That Balto mod looks badass.
report
The comments thread in there is also badass. Those guys are at a level of nerdness that simply is almost unbearable… They are furries, gamers AND modders, all at the same time.
report
Though I doubt I’ll ever play it, I want this mod to succeed.
report
Talking about getting killed. Is moddb down?
report
Nevermind, works now.
report
The coolest thing about that link without comment is the fact i cant get the page to load.
No comment, indeed.
report
Don’t know if you do requests Lewis, but would you mind keeping an eye out for mods for the newly released Alien Swarm? That thing is ripe for modding.
Cheers.
report
Of course!
report
uhh…. an advert just popped up in another tab. I only have RPS open and it was flagged by AVG as a “rootkit web exploit” or something…?
anyway.. these mods sound great
report
From the ‘without comment’ link:
‘Polar bears are undecided ( if included one will propably carry a minigun)’
The single greatest statement of our age.
report
Human Error Coop (aka Traitor Mode) is great fun, best played over voip to get the best out of the (anti)social gameplay elements of treachery & paranoia. It’s a beta release so bear in mind there’s only 2 maps so far, but it’s well-made & the gameplay is complex & frantic.
report
@Navagon
You dreaming it was proclamed complete doesn’t make it so.
It’s “When it’s done”. And they are still active, read the forums.
report
Re: Dragon Age
If you’re looking for story modules they’re a little hard to pick out from the cosmetic mods, but they are there! In particular, check out:
Classic Week – my latest module, which brings the fun of an MMO to the singleplayer experience over 6 hours of adventure.
Alley of Murders – One of the most popular add-ins to the main game, by AmstradHero.
Emissary – a short stand-alone which let you play Darkspawn before Bioware’s DLC did ;)
report
Anyone got an opinion of Portal Memories? Looks pretty. I’m confused why they call one of the map packs a Portal 2 mod.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/portal-memories
report
Firearms: Source has been released just now. Please cover it because it’s fucking awesome and so much better than the original game. … Here’s hoping, anyway. Downloading now.
report