One of the biggest complaints regarding Morrowind would be the now-archaic graphics. Fortunately, there still remains the ever-talented and surprisingly active modding community to fix basically every problem that ever plagued Morrowind ever.

I followed this tutorial, lovingly put together by etherwind over at the Something Awful forums, and while my game didn’t end up looking near as awesome has his did. His game looks like the second set of screenshots; I don’t know what kind of technological wizardry you’d have to resort to in order to get graphics similar to the first set of screenshots. I’d like to find out, because it looks really cool.

After downloading the maybe twenty-nine different small graphics enhancing mods, I still didn’t achieve quite the same quality of beauty that was present in etherwind’s screenshots, or the other samples, like this sort of craziness. Modding a game to this large of an extent is pretty much a trial-and-error deal, like with FCOM for Oblivion, if you pull it off right your game could be entirely different in both look and feel, but there’s a lot that can go wrong with it.

Morrowind Graphics Extender is really the heart and soul of this entire endeavor, because it has the power to actually improve much more than the textures. That being said, the shader editor—which has most of the ability to do such incredible things—is notoriously finicky, and documentation on it is incredibly sparse. You can get the basics if you’re a complete beginner like me, but you need legendary patience and some technological knowledge about how this stuff works. If you do end up getting it all to play nicely with each other, then you’ll instantly have the envy of all of your peers.

Also, there’s some warnings regarding saving and Morrowind Graphics Extender. Apparently, if you save while outdoors or quicksave, it could royally screw up your save files. So, it’s recommended to save indoors if you don’t want to risk your hard-earned progress.

You can download MGE by itself riiiiight around here if you just want the immediate improvements, or if you’ve got the guts to do some serious modifications to your game, you can follow the ginormo-tutorial over at Something Awful.

This isn’t strictly on-topic, since the game that’s got me thinking isn’t actually a mod, but it is the spin-off of one, so sod it. Over at delightful sister site Resolution Magazine, Jennifer Allen’s been a-reviewin’ Heroes of Newerth, the standalone successor to Warcraft 3 mod Defence of the Ancients, which we included in our Unmissable Mods feature a while back. While being vaguely impressed by the game itself, her major turn-off was the community, which she describes as “frankly downright nasty”.

I can’t say that I’ve played a lot of Defence of the Ancients, but I do know that it has a passionate and dedicated player base who take their gaming very seriously. Newerth’s only just been released, but I’ve already heard plenty of stories that corroborate Jen’s own impressions. And, browsing through the comments on Andrea’s DotA write-up linked above, the ever-present force of DrGonzo makes a similar comment himself about the game in its original mod form.

So I’m wondering when this developed. Presumably everyone was a new player at one point. And I’m also wondering if its being considered part of the modding scene is anything to do with it. Is a certain level of expertise assumed in mods? I mean, in order to play them in the first place, there’s a few more steps to take than simply bunging a game disc in the drive. Are mods seen as being for the hardcore, their players painfully intolerant of anyone invading their very serious gamespace?

No answers from me, I’m afraid, but I’m very curious to hear from DotA players who might be able to chip in with some thoughts.

The delightfully named ‘Dr. Moho “Schadenfreude” Von Katze, PhDD (the extra “D” means MORE DOCTOR!)’ sends us word of his Fallout 3 mods guide, which he believes is the most thorough and definitive out there. It certainly seems to be worth a look. Have a gander beneath the jump for a quote from the man himself, and a good old link to the guide.

As you might know, applying mods to Fallout 3 can be a tricky bussiness, since the game is not very stable by nature, and mods have a tendency to clash with one another.

Well, after about a year of hard work I came up with must probably be the definitive Fallout 3 mod guide. Basically, you’ll be playing a Fallout 3 that already implements all the new features that have just been announced for the upcoming New Vegas, and then some more. And on top of that, one that’s about three times more stable than the vanilla game.

Here it is!

Well, would you believe it? After months upon months of waiting, the Black Mesa team have finally unveiled a bunch of new screenshots to CVG.

Equally exciting, CVG reveal the developers have said to expect “a complete, polished game to hit your hard drives in the near future.” Just how near-future they’re talking remains to be seen, but after six long years, it seems as if this mammoth project might be heading towards the finish line.

Ooh, I’m all giddy, I am! And feeling in a smug mood, which is why I’ll tell you all that my strange little Half-Life 2 mini-mod, Nestlings, has been listed in GamesRadar’s ‘Games Without Frontiers: Ten Games That Break The Rules‘ feature. It sits alongside a variety of other indie games and mods, including Radiator and Dear Esther and even proper games like The Path. It’s ranked below all those, but still!

If you’ve not “played” it yet, it’d be lovely if you did. G’wan. It’ll only take you ten minutes.

Do you read UserCreated? Well, yes, presumably. Unless someone’s left themselves logged into a public computer, in which case, you should be sabotaging their Facebook account immediately. But assuming you read UserCreated, would you be a doll and fill in a survey? It’ll only take you a few minutes, and it’ll help us understand you lot a bit better, and make the site simply wonderful. Click click click!

Well, would you look at this? There’s an article about Dan Pinchbeck’s mods, Dear Esther and Korsakovia, in the new issue of The Escapist. Someone very handsome must have written that. There’s also a fair few quotes from Pinchbeck himself, mainly focusing on how he and thechineseroom team have managed to craft unusual horror-based experiences in their work.

Here is a quote:

“Unlike Korsakovia, which is self-consciously a horror game – an aggressive madness, a trawl through a disintegrating mind – Esther is about a slide into despair that we’ve all stood at the edge of one way or another,” Pinchbeck explains of the mod, whose abstract, dual-stranded story details a fatal motorway accident parallel to the bleak history of the island. “Esther for me is very sad – maybe even properly tragic. And that in itself is quite scary, because it’s about a situation that is horrible, rather than horror. It’s desperate and lonely and random and I think it maybe taps into a deeper fear of loss and being unable to rationalize a bad thing that has happened.”

Read read read!

EnterStarcraft.co.uk have a new piece up, detailing some of the features of Starcraft 2′s modding capabilities. They’ve been taking a sneaky peek at a preview version of the editor, and disclose a few interesting FACTS! about it beyond this link. In case it’s too much of a struggle to head on over there, there’s a few choice quotes beneath the jump.

“Without the need of coding or additional programming, entire units can be changed and modified.”

“Mappers and modders will be able to create linked multiplayer maps. This means that entire campaigns can be put together for the online content. So, if you, like many other gamers were hoping for a Starcraft 2 coop, it will now be possible through custom content.”

“Fancy turning your Starcraft 2 experience into a third-person action shooter? Consider it done. Although scripting will be required, you will be able to utilise the Starcraft 2 engine to develop your own RPG, both in top-down perspective and over-the-shoulder style third-person.”

“Blizzard’s Rob Pardo announced that the new Battle.net will come with a market place, which will allow, and in fact encourage, modders to design and, more importantly sell premium content maps and mods. While free maps and mods will of course be available also, this surely creates an entirely new platform for modders and mappers.”

Those last two sound like the more interesting features Blizzard has planned for its upcoming title. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for any more news.

Just a quickie before the weekend, and – man! – I’m even using off-site material, too! I suck. Anyway, ultra-beautiful upcoming HL2 mod Raindrop has been getting the old interview treatment over at Gamer’s Guide To Life, and it’s quite an interesting one, too. The Stalker comparisons have been flying around pretty heavily, so it’s nice to see the devs quizzed about their influences, even if the answer (basically: yes, Stalker’s an inspiration, but no, that game isn’t really anything like it) is pretty short.

I’m tracking this one pretty heavily, and hope to have some better coverage soon. It’s exciting stuff. For now, this post functions mainly as an excuse to show you that absolutely stunning screenshot. Again. The lighting! It’s gorgeous.

Oh, look! My feature on Desura has just gone up at Rock, Paper, Shotgun. You should probably go read that. In case you wanted more delightful quotes from the man behind the plan, Scott Reismanis, there were a few bits and bats from my interview that didn’t end up making the edit for the RPS piece. They’re posted below, with a bit of annotation where bits have been chopped about. Read on to find out about how the team are anxious, what the entry criteria for publishing a mod or game are, Scott’s thoughts on Steam and DRM, and how you pronounce the bally thing.

UserCreated: So. More than a year of stealth-working on the project. Excited to have finally unveiled it? Looking forward to launch?

Scott Reismanis: A mixture of excitement and anxiety is what the team of four people felt. On one hand, it was great to finally be able to talk about what we have been working on, and the overwhelmingly positive response from beta users has been fantastic. On the other hand I felt the entrepreneur mantra of “release early, release often” didn’t apply to us, since despite what we say and do, Desura will be compared to Steam, Direct2Drive and GamersGate. Launching an unpolished product wasn’t an option against such established competition, so we wanted to make our first impression last, which lead to the anxiety!

[Talk swings towards the comparisons with Steam. Scott likes Steam, and thinks it's done a great job, but has some reservations. He wants Desura to be more accessible to developers, he says. But will this mean a lack of quality control, I wonder?]

UC: What sort of criteria do you have in place for mods and games wishing to distribute via the service? Do you have the same sort of vetting process as your competitors?

SR: First and foremost, bugs, crashes and unfinished content will not be published. Beyond that our only real criteria is fun. If the game is enjoyable and we feel our community will respond to it, we shall list it. If not we endeavour to be as transparent as possible and help the developers understand what they need to do to get their game or mod on Desura.

[The conversation moves in the direction of Desura's ease of use - it's one-click install and installation wizard features, and so forth. Scott reckons they're both awesome. I reckon it might be even easier to get stuff working than it is through Steam. But I'm still curious as to what Scott's views are on where Desura sits in the market, and whether he thinks people will be accepting of a new digital distribution client.]

UC: Do you see Valve’s client as a direct competitor, or are you aiming at a different audience?  Similarly, do you think people will be happy to make the move from one to the other, or do you expect people will use both?

SR: All of the above, really. Valve is a competitor, and yet I believe there is room in the market for two services. Competition is good for consumers and we aim to provide a legitimate substitute for Steam. In the short term we are shooting for a totally different audience since we have a strong focus on mods and indies, but in the long run I believe we can provide a one-stop-shop for gamers. Desura can work hand-in-hand with Steam, so some users may use Steam to buy games and Desura to get mods and add-ons. That’s fine, we expect that but we also expect a lot to buy games on Desura once they know how easy and enjoyable it is to use. We’ve seen a lot of people complain about another “app” to run in their taskbar, but we have also seen a lot welcome our announcement with open arms. Growing will be slow but our differences definitely justify gamers’ attention.

[I then ask something that has nothing at all to do with mods, but which you might be interested in anyway.]

UC: What’s the deal with copy protection methods? Obviously that’s the big controversial topic at the moment. I assume it’s something on your minds…

SR: That really is up to the game publishers. We have various means available to developers, which they can build into their games to authenticate their Desura customers. The main difference between us and Steam is that Desura can run “silently” in the background and doesn’t need to be open. If they want more – a la DRM – which many of the larger publishers will enforce if we are to release their game, that is up to them to implement into their game and to discuss with us. Like gamers, though, we believe there have to be better solutions out there. After all, it’s the pirates that should be punished, and not the customers.

[We natter about Desura's community focus for a while, and the ways in which the service aims to bring together developers and fan-bases. It sounds rather exciting. We talk about the ways in which it's an evolution of ModDB, and how it synchronises with that website. But something's been bugging me all along...]

UC: Okay, confession time: I’ve no idea how it’s pronounced. De-SUR-a? DE-sura? DE-zura? Seriously, I have no idea.

SR: Three syllables each with a consonant and a vowel is how I pronounce it. So De-Su-Ra. Then again if I say it in a sentence I pronounce it Des-Ura. I’ll have to send you a voice recording.

[Scott has not, as yet, sent me a voice recording. Anyway, it's going to launch in April, but it might not be absolutely finished by that time, and they'll respond to user feedback to tweak and improve it as the months tick on. It's time to round up.]

UC: Anything else you’d like to talk about with regards to Desura?

SR: We welcome ideas and suggestions from gamers and press as well as developers and publishers, so if you want to participate in the beta we are available via support@desura.com any time.

I’ve been penning wordthunks about the original Dear Esther over at glorious sister-site Resolution Magazine. It’s a mod I am always happy to discuss, and always find new things to say each time I write about it. Read on for the introduction, and a link to where you can read the whole thing.

So yeah, I begin like this:

“The gulls do not land here any more,” the voice says. And, no, why would they? The fog’s thick, the waters surrounding the island churning. No one lives here any more. There are no scraps to feed on.

“Maybe it’s the depletion of fishing stock driving them away. Perhaps it’s me.”

There’s a small hut ahead. The beach stretches out to the left, curving around the cliff face, stacks of rock obstructing the view. What little there is of it, anyway. The fog, remember. In the far distance, you can just about make out… something. A small flash. Red. If you squint hard enough, you can tell it’s attached to a structure beneath it.

And go on to shamelessly rip a load of stuff out the script and repurpose it as some sort of artful concept write-up, or something. Do have a read, and comment, and tell J.D. Richardson to stop being mean about art games. Seriously.

Go go go!

Doom III mod Zombie Slayer has been post-mortemified over at ModDB.  It’s a relatively in-depth walkthrough of the creation of the mod, as well as a collection of tips and tricks for running a successful mod team.  Well worth reading, whether you’ve played ZS or not.  I’ve not.  I hear it’s reasonably good.

Anyway, link here.

Not really. I like Radiator developer Robert Yang. He’s a fantastic designer, a great writer and a gentleman to boot.  But we do have slightly conflicting opinions about a couple of interesting Half-Life 2 mods and similar standalone games.

Robert wrote on his blog about why he didn’t like my mods – and even other, much better ones like Dear Esther (pictured) – and what he thought constituted good game design.  Of course, my natural response was to write a piece for a large, widely read publication, just to ensure my voice is heard the loudest.

I begin like this:

When is a game not a game?

I’ve spent the last few minutes trying to think up a witty response to that question, but actually, it serves more of a purpose to leave it unanswered for the time being. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: is there a magical line somewhere that separates games from other forms of “interactive” media and, if so, where exactly does it lie?

And then continue.

I think this is a really interestic topic, though: to what extent should game design be rigidly structured?  Should we keep moving in one direction, or should we feel compelled to deviate?  And if the latter, is the mod scene not the absolute best place to do it?