Mod News: Thin On The Ground
You'll have to excuse me if this week's round-up is a little thin. We've been arguing over a list feature over at UserCreated this week, meaning my mod playing and musing has mainly been over classic modifications. We've got the list down now, though, and over the next four weeks you can read a daily piece on a classic mod for our Unmissable Mods Month feature. Yeah, I'm totally okay with putting an enormous site plug in the lead paragraph. If you're reading this, either the Hivemind is too, or they just don't bother reading my work before they lob it online, and are awful human beings destined for an eternity of playing Cryo games. [WE SEE ALL, DENBY - RPS]
Ahem. Right. Stuff that's been happening in the world of mods, then...
- Last week ended on a bit of a sour note for Stalker-based Half-Life 2 mod STALKER: City 17. Specifically, in a ma-hoo-sive argument between the team's animator and modeller having the most childish and ridiculous squabble on the mod's very public ModDB page. The animator's been kicked off the team as a result, and the rest involved are "basically hanging on a thread," says the mod's leader. He's cleaned up the comments now, I believe, but you can read about what happened here.
- This happened more than a week ago, but someone on last week's comments thread felt this one was particularly important to talk about, so: TSL Restored for Knights of the Old Republic 2 has been released. It's a sizeable mod that reinstates a whole bunch of game elements that didn't make the final cut of the original game. Have a look at what those things are here, then grab the mod here.
- I mentioned The Great Class Dash for TF2 last week. Amazingly, out of the blue, it's been released already. I've had a busy week, so not got round to trying this out yet, but it looks fun and is getting some properly exceptional feedback. In a phrase: single-player side-scrolling for TF2. What wouldn't be to like?
- Eidan Mod for Battle for Middle Earth 2 has received a significant update which, according to the developers, leaves "no stone unturned" and overhauls "almost every aspect of the core game to craft for you a completely new, far more immersive Lord of the Rings experience."
- Outbreak: Condemned, a Resident Evil themed mod for HL2, has a few new screenshots knocking about. Resident Evil seems a popular choice for modders. Something about it seems to capture people's imagination. Me? I always bloody hated those games. Even Resi 4.
- I asked Robert Yang (Radiator), Jonas Wæver (The Nameless Mod) and Dan Pinchbeck (Dear Esther) what single piece of advice they'd give to a budding modder or mod team. Here's what they said.
I suspect there'll be stuff I've missed there - apologies for that. Keep your eyes peeled on UserCreated for more mod-related ramblings, though. In fact, you might notice something oddly familiar about today's Unmissable Mods pick...