More Hexen! More Hexen! Yes, the Doom 3 mod Hexen: Edge of Chaos has been released today, at least a small part of it. Consider it a teaser to what will come once the full mod comes out later.

But anyway, here’s Hexen: Edge of Chaos. It’s not a recreation of the first Hexen like I initially thought, but a full third game that ties into both Hexen and Hexen II, as well as Heretic. From the trailer, it’s very Hexen-like, full of the deliciously old-school item-collecting as well as the signature mace-whacking. Some things seem a little off to me, like the fact that the enemies don’t have death animations, instead disintegrating into clouds of gore upon being smacked.

For the most part, however, its a lot like Hexen but with full 3D graphicssssssssssssz. You can take that with a grain of salt, as I haven’t played a whole lot of Hexen. But, since it’s out you can try it for yourself as long as you have a copy of Doom 3.

Obligatory ModDB link

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.

Well, I sourced a copy of Doom 3 from a generous friend whose PC is so ancient it couldn’t possibly run it, and I’ve been scouring ModDB for anyone still using iD’s Tech 4 who seems to be making something interesting. And here’s someone! Still Decay is a one-man effort from modder SpiritusSanctus, adapted from an old entry he submitted to a Doom 3 competition a few years back. It’s an ambitious-looking project with the player climbing a giant, crumbling tower, one of the last remaining landmarks in a fallen gothic-industrial fantasy landscape.

Too ambitious? It does seem a lot for one man – he talks about a dual skill system, upgrades and levelling weapons, and a theme of the machine versus the spiritual, but he’s missed one release date by his own admission and so far the updates are mostly just screenshots. At the same time, Spiritus seems to have a relatively decent grasp on how to keep things simple yet detailed – iconic, rather than basic, shall we say? Textures aren’t anything wildly out of the ordinary but there’s still something of a unique look and two distinctive styles at work here. Not to mention he thinks his original story was ‘lacklustre’ and wants to rework it primarily through concentrating on the bare essentials, so the evidence does support his claims the minimal look is an intentional design choice.

Some new screens just went up, so work does still seem to be progressing. I don’t have a clear impression of how impressive this might or might not be yet, but I’m definitely curious. Stripped-down steampunk in ‘an ancient ruin, falling apart’ sounds like it could be worth waiting for.

You can find Still Decay’s page on ModDB here.

Okay, so I know we talked about this all of a week ago and all, but Thievious’ pretty lights are still so very pretty, and the new co-op video they’ve released is so very sexy, that I frankly couldn’t resist shoving it all in your face with ridiculous amounts of bloom.

This is the first actual gameplay footage we’ve seen, and considering it’s alpha work-in-progress, I’m quite excited by the medieval maces’n'sorcery cooperative castle storming possibilities.  Hot trailer below!

ModDB News Release

Thievious ModDB Page

Bloomy Bloomy McBloomfest Doom 3 mod Thievious, which still glows more brightly than the sun, has a new in-game video to show off. In it, there’s a taste of the first-person/third-person mechanics, a scary monster or two, and some magical powers. Don’t look directly into it! Bring sunglasses! Video after the jump.

Doom III did a lot of things rather badly, but lights are something it did stratospherically well.  Thus, you too should be excited about Thievous, because if it’s half as good to play as it’s pretty to look at, we may have one hell of a little project on our hands.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get our grubby hands on this anytime soon, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

ModDB Page

Latest News Update

PS: Sorry I’ve been so quiet :(  Blame British Telecom.