Mod News: Snow Business
Hello, fine sirs and madams, and welcome to an extra special delayed Mod News. You can blame the snow for that, since it meant I spent the majority of Tuesday trying to get from one end of the country to the other, instead of working as planned. Bloody snow. John may hit me for badmouthing the snow, so quick! Let's get on with some mod news before he notices.
NEWS
The big news on the mod front this week has been the launch of Desura. This is ModDB's bedroom-dev answer to the likes of Steam: a digital distribution platform that allows easy installation and management of mods and indie games. It was quite impressive when I had a play around with it earlier in the year, and I'm interested to see how it develops as more developers sign up their work.
In exciting Half-Life 2 mod news, Off Limits is about to be released. Supposed to be today, but will now be tomorrow. Hopefully. The team is still manically trying to fix a crash bug, but other than that it's done. Whenever it appears, it'll be an absolutely gorgeous team-based shooter.
Also for Half-Life 2, the Eternal Silence lot are planning a massive update. Dubbed a "cinematic multiplayer space mod", it's garnered a dedicated fanbase over the four years since its release, and rightly so. No word on when the update will be released, as far as I can tell, but I will be keeping a beady eye on it.
It's not all Half-Life 2, though. Here, for example, is a mod for Half-Life 2: Episode Two. It's called CALL IN, and while the rebel-soldier-escape story sounds fairly generic, the screenshots are looking nice and moody. It's out in February.
Meanwhile, there are some stunning new screenshots of Crysis Wars mod Wreckage. The follow-up to Rainy Days, it's shaping up to be very interesting indeed, and absolutely beautiful. No word on a release date, yet. Sniff.
Finally, fancy helping out Mr. Morrowind Rebirth? He wants some splash screens making. Here, have a snazzy slideshow of the mod's improvements.
RELEASES
A demo of Doom 3 mod Weatherman has been released. I've not played it yet, primarily because I'm not entirely sure where my copy of Doom 3 is, but I'm eager to do so. It's a puzzle-platformer in which you've the power to alter the elements, and doing so allows you to solve a variety of conundrums. I mainly want to play it so I can cover someone else's life in snow, and see how they like it when they can't get to their desired destination. Yeah.
UPDATES
Titan Quest mod Underlord has been updated to version 1.5. It's a reworked version of the original game, with added quest content and a re-addressed balance. The update features a new side quest, a new default skill, and a bunch of other stuff. Grab it from ModDB.
There's also an update for FUEL: REFUELED, which is a name that seems to be cropping up a lot at the moment. Beta 4, as I think I noted last week, allows players to create their own content. Which is a neat touch. Grab the update from ModDB, why don'tcha?
AND THE REST
This is some impressive work. RPSite Wulf has been compiling a big list of Fallout: New Vegas mods of all different types. Bug fixes, mechanical tweaks and new content reside within.
Of course, it's also been ModDB's awards week, with the Editors' Choice categories having thrown up some interesting results. Best Original Art went to The Call of the Fireflies (Crysis 2), Best Upcoming Mod was Dear Esther (Half-Life 2), Best Multiplayer Mod was Eastern Front (Company of Heroes), and Best Singleplayer went to Nehrim: At Fate's Edge (Oblivion).
Esther was the only one I voted for, but all the choices seem pretty sensible as far as I can tell. Congrats to them all, and a happy festive season to everyone.
'Til after Chrimbo...