God. There is nothing going on. Well, no Source engine single-player mods I’m interested in seem to have done any significant updating lately, there aren’t any multiplayer mods that look new and different enough I want to talk about them, and I haven’t found the time for any giant Mount & Blade total conversions. Bah!
So what to discuss? How about… Arx: End of Sun? I was reluctant to talk about it because, well, I can’t quite tell if it’s dead or not. If you haven’t found out for yourself while I was twiddling my thumbs, it’s an ambitious attempt to create a prequel (using the Doom III engine) for Arx Fatalis, Arkane Studios’ beloved attempt at making what was essentially Ultima Underworld 3 in all but name.
Mod team neurolab have contributed some very impressive work in progress updates to ModDB and their own blog, showing their mapping along with their successes in recreating Arx Fatalis’ inventory and gesture-based spell casting system. It’s slick and professional stuff – easy to wheel that phrase out yet again, I know, but take a look for yourself. iD’s Tech 4 seems an apt choice of engine for subterranean corridors, and neurolab seem to have done a fine job of beating it into the shape of a first-person RPG.
So, yes. Any news? neurolab have supposedly been posting on Arkane’s forums, but I can’t for the life of me get in there. Hotmail account, GMail, nothing. And I’d really like to know. This is streets ahead of most of what’s cluttering up ModDB right now, and it’d be a shame if it went missing.
You can find the page for Arx: End of Sun on ModDB here.
Or you can visit neurolab’s blog here.
“there aren’t any multiplayer mods that look new and different enough I want to talk about them”
What’s wrong with: http://www.moddb.com/mods/half-life-2-short-stories/news/human-error-coop-beta-released
It’s new… and interesting!
Sorry, that was poorly phrased, wasn’t it? I don’t play that much multiplayer, and even less stuff that focuses on objective-based co-operative play. I tend to try and write about the multiplayer releases with a specific hook that catches my eye (like Snipers & Rifles) – I did see Human Error, but while it looked… okay, interesting (damn you) it didn’t look like something I’d be really eager to play.
Of course given the rest of the team seem to be either missing in action or very busy with their fancy ‘real jobs’, I may have to stretch my comfort zone a little.
Yeah it was poorly phrased, but if that’s all there is to it, I forgive you son :P
Hi Matthew
Thank you for taking an interest in our mod :)
We have just released our first game play demo video, why not have a look: http://www.moddb.com/mods/arx-end-of-sun/videos
I can assure you all that the mod could not be further away from dead and that we are currently working very hard on it.
Thanks
Solarsplace