For those of you who live for ultra-realistic, no crosshair WW2 shooters – eg, not me, you crazy fools – you’ll be interested in knowing that Resistance & Liberation, the uber-realistic HL2 modification that follows “the events and actions taken by the 82nd Airborne during their stay in Normandy” has just seen a first open beta release.

Now, apparently this isn’t the actual beta release, but more of a pre-beta bug test, but I suspect it’ll do if this sort of thing makes  you fizzle in inappropriate places.  So if you feel like jumping in with no hud and no crosshair, go grab it!

Video, and links, below.

Resistance & Liberation ModDB Page

Installer Download (EXE)

Installer Download (ZIP)

Empires is awe inspiring in the ridiculous ambition it proudly shows off.  It takes Natural Selection’s RTS/FPS hybrid awesomesauce, mixes it in with some large scale warfare a la Battlefield, and serves it all to you, through the wonders of the modding world, with a side-dish of kickass.

With more fixes than you can shake a particularly shaky stick at, as well as maps, vehicles, skins, and other assorted amazingness, the newly released Empires 2.25 looks like it’ll pack the servers for awhile to come.

It’s also a surprisingly small mod, so definitely worth getting hold of you’ve got any Source game – and if not, you deserve to burn for your sins.

UPDATE: Also, it looks like a small patch, 2.25a, was also released.  Go forth and download!

ModDB Page

Download – Main Client

Download – Patch 2.25a (Install after Main Client)

Resident Evil’s always been popular with the mod community – not the games themselves, clearly, but their fiction and world. Outbreak: Condemned is one in a long line of Resident Evil-based mods for a variety of games, but it’s looking like one of the more interesting. There’s some new Raccoon City screenshots flying around – why not take a look? The dev team also announced today that the mod will be released in two episodes, meaning part one may be released sooner than we expect. Intriguing!

So, we’ve been playing the Kingdoms Collide beta over the past couple of days. It’s the first release of an ambitious HL2 multiplayer mod, which is very rough around the edges but seems to hint at some decent hidden potential. Read on below the jump to see what Andrea Varotsis and Lewis Denby had to say about it in a late-night Steam chat. And if you fancy, you can grab the beta from here.

Lewis: Okay. So the main reason I suggested just having a general chat about Kingdoms Collide is that it feels like it’s in no way ready for a review yet, as such.

Andrea: Yeah, I think we can both agree on that – It’s hardly what I’d call polished. But that doesn’t mean I’m not having a ridiculous amont of fun playing it. When it works. If it works.

Lewis: It is glitchy. And it took me – and the people I was playing it with – about two games to actually work out how to control the thing.

Andrea: Ah, yes, but now there’s a manual of sorts! Or at least a relatively comprehensive forum thread, which is a start.  But yes, glitchy is a generous understatement.

Lewis: Okay, let’s do basics. It’s a team-based swords-and-sorcery mod set in a world that’s visually not unlike Oblivion’s, but which looks markedly less pretty in-game than it did in screenshots. Each team fights to conquer a series of objective points on the map, mainly by spamming each other with spells or selecting the MASTER SWORD on the equipment select screen, which obliterates everyone else in the world within seconds.

Andrea: For starters. Afterwards, though, it’ll assign you a character model relevant to your role depending on your equipment choices, which can actually be surprisingly diverse. The Master Sword is great, but I’ve found it’s largely useless in the face of my one-shot instakill assassin dagger backstab of death and destruction.

Lewis: I hadn’t discovered the one-shot instakill assassin dagger backstab of death and destruction. I’ve only played for an hour or so, it’s worth mentioning. And it seems to have potential, mainly when people stop just spamming each other with spells and Master Swords and actually have a good, old-fashioned fight.

Andrea: Yeah, that’s the impression I had. It can turn into a gigantic clusterfuck, but in a sensibly populated server, it starts to play to its strengths rather well. Although it could most definitely use its fair share of tweaks. And then some more, and then maybe everybody else’s share as well. But it does have a layer of complexity I feel I’ve just started to get to.

Lewis: Explain this mysterious layer of complexity.

Andrea: Well, for one, I haven’t, as of yet, started exploring how magic works. I’ve thrown a few fireballs, and made a few shadow-powered spiderman leaps, but beyond that, zilch – although I have seen a few players use magic with deadly efficiency and zeal. I’ve also barely started blocking properly, and I’m clinging to the hope I can actually improve. And, as of yet, nobody knows about the dagger stealth instakill. There seems to be a load of content and finesse to the mod people seem to be ignoring – although I can’t entirely blame them, seeing a lot of it is mired in bugs and freakish animation.

Lewis: A curious note: it was only after I finished playing that I even registered it was third-person. The animation’s a bit wonky, but somehow it barely registered. As for blocking: I feel I got the hang of that quite nicely, eventually. My favourite moment so far was a dual with one guy. We ended up really cautiously circling around each other,  with our shields up, then every now and then switching to our sword and taking a swing round the side of the other player. It worked really nicely as a duel. Then about five guys from the other team turned up behind me and killed me to death. I actually think it would work a hell of a lot better as a duel-based game.

Andrea: Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from entirely with that, but then again, the whole mess really gives some of the other classes a chance to shine. My sneak-sneak-stab-stab assassin doesn’t really function as a duelist! But, granted, some sort of organised duel game mode would make for an interesting addition. But the potential for epic fights is still there, which is why I’m optimistic.

Lewis: See, the problem I have with the epic fights is that I seem to be terrible at them. Then again, I’ve a suspicion it’s not my fault. My sword-wielding fireball guy is just too fucking slow. When other classes are specialised at being deadly fast, and my damage ratio doesn’t seem to be good enough to compensate, there’s a real balancing issue.

Andrea: Yeah, I’m not going to argue with you on that point – some pretty hefty tweaks, if not outright cuts, are definitely in order. But hey, it’s their first release after all. I can’t help but be cautiously dreamy about the possibilities if they managed to mold into a well-paced, decently balanced yet endlessly customisable sword’n'sorcery TF2 counterpart.

Lewis: Well, for starters, the classes aren’t heavily played up enough. I didn’t even know it was class based until I read that forum thread you mentioned. I thought character models were randomised, and you just picked skillsets in a sort of Mount and Blade way (incidentally, M&B: Warband – the preview build I played, at least – was the game I was mostly reminded of).

Andrea: Yeah, it was definitely remniscent of M&B – a game I loved, incidentally – but it’s not really worthy of comparison to that just yet. It’s worth remembering that M&B has been in development for absolutely ages at this point. Although, it still isn’t exactly class based: your character model is assigned depending on skillset, but I’m not sure it has any other impact.

Lewis: I think this is key to it all, really. It’s very much a beta. And an early one at that. I’m actually surprised they’ve done a public release at this stage.

Andrea: Very true, and it won’t compare particularly favourably to the M&B: Warband beta, granted. But hey, I’m firmly of the opinion that it’s got potential – even if it is hidden beneath a sedimentary degree of bugs, jerkyness, and general lack of polish. I’m hoping it’s a diamond in the rough, even if it’s a lot of rough to get through.

Lewis: Yep. I think it definitely has. I’ve enjoyed playing it, certainly. Oh, one thing they really need to fix: no crosshair for spellcasting. Which makes it an absolute nightmare to target. Then again, other people seem to have no problem, considering the frequency with which I was fireballed to death in the face.

Andrea: Yeah, I’m guessing it’s something of an aquired skill. I had the same issue with bows. I may fail at aiming them utterly, but I may just be a miserable failure of a virtual archer.

Lewis: I always worry that I just suck at games.

Andrea: I’m godlike. Thus it must be the game’s fault. Obviously.

Lewis: There we go then. Verdict: Andrea’s no good at it, therefore Kingdoms Collide is rubbish. But you should totally try it, because really, it’s not.

Andrea: I like it. Decisive and to-the-point reviewing-that-isn’t-really-reviewing, courtesy of UserCreated.

Website
ModDB Page

Well, this is weird.

Source.  2d.  It’s utterly mad, but I kind of like it.  How it’ll work in the actual game, who knows!

It promises to include mini games, an entire adventure mode, and multiplayer, so when this does see a release, I for one am definitely downloading it, even if it is just to be slightly nostalgic at the whole affair.

This news update doesn’t seem to disclose much, but with a competent team and some promising screenshots, it’s a looking good!

ModDB Page

]]> http://usercreated.org/2010/03/15/source2d-too-demented/feed/ 1 http://usercreated.org/2010/03/13/head-on-collision-kingdoms-collide-out-now/ http://usercreated.org/2010/03/13/head-on-collision-kingdoms-collide-out-now/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:50:25 +0000 Lewis Denby http://usercreated.org/?p=877 Continue reading →]]>

Blogging? On a weekend? Who’da thunk it? It’s just another quick one, though, to tell you that the much-anticipated HL2 mod Kingdoms Collide has been released. It’s a swords-and-magic-and-looks-a-bit-like-Oblivion-graphics multiplayer mod which I know Andrea has been looking forward to. So, naturally, I’m downloading it now so I can pip him to the review. More as soon as I’ve had the chance to play it for a while, but for now, you can grab the installer from here, and if you want to run a dedicated server you can do so with these files.

Earlier this week, I got a chance to sit down from two senior members from team GraviNULL, and chat to them about how it feels to be behind the best zero-gravity-slingshot-rollerball-deathmatch mod ever.  Also, giant balls of steel.  Oh, and the future of the mod, coincidentally.

Full interview after the jump!

UC: Quick introductions!  Who are you, where are you from, and what’s your background modding and gaming wise?

DuckSauce: My name is Yorg Kuijs, known as DuckSauce on the interwebs, I’m from the Netherlands and my first decent experience (that is with an internet connection capable of downloading something larger than 10 mb) with online games was Unreal Tournament 2004. Since then I’ve continued to like arcade style games like that and when I started modding my goals were set for unique and fun mods, keeping realism and common sense out in favor of being unique and fun! My first modding attempt was an overambitious project, also for Source, somewhere after followed by a would be small scale project called FragOut. About a year and a half year later, GraviNULL was born.

Bekey: I am Blaž “Bekey” Kosi, currently living in Slovenia. Even though I am a few years younger than DuckSauce, I am getting almost the same education as he did. So I might someday be as awesome as he is, follow his footsteps and bring GraviNULL to real-life using NASA technology in 2025. Ever since I got my first computer with an OS older than me, I was fascinated by the level-design of the 2D games I’ve played. I have spent the most time drawing 2D levels into books my father brought me from his job. Already at this age I couldn’t just play games, I had to use my creativity and make concepts for my own games. Years passed and I was still unable to learn how to mod, due to no internet. A year after I finally got sufficient internet connection, DuckSauce helped me start my way in the modding community. Started with beta-testing FragOut and it still continues now with GraviNULL.

UC: Okay, onto more serious topics: GraviNULL – whose idea was it, and how did you come up with such a mad idea?

DuckSauce: GraviNULL was an idea I came up with very shortly after the 0.6 release of one of my favorite SourceMods, JailBreak:Source. I was simply watching a video created by a player and an idea hit me.

I hit up fellow developer, friend and hellspawn Bekey on Steam, with whom I was previously developing a mini-mod called WarBall, which had the idea to use the rollermine from HL2 as a crazy weapon and objective at the same time. I layed out my idea to him and discussed a name and whether I could recycle his idea of using the rollermine into my own idea. He agreed and I started development that same day.

Bekey: The first idea which involved roller-mines used as weapons was WarBall, it would be a normal FPS with one big roller-mine used as a ball to attack enemies and pass it to allies. As always, DuckSauce had to use his saucy game-mastermind brains to get this extra-ordinary idea about hitting each other with balls, in zero-gravity.

UC: What do you do in the development process, and how’s the overall development been going?  You went from start to release of GraviNULL in five or so weeks… a bit hectic?

DuckSauce: Those five weeks have been quite a ride, but the whole process has been kept in check by me the whole time, being the end decider what should be in the first open alpha. Alot of ideas for other gamemodes have been flying forth and back and while good gamemodes are necessary to keep the player interested, keeping just deathmatch is by far the most preferable approach in releasing a mod.

This means you can get your gameplay worked out, instead of making your gamemode and then having to rebuild that because it doesn’t work with your gameplay.

Development for me went very smooth. By simply working my best on the mod and showcasing and pimping it I managed to get the attention of a variety of level designers. Team GraviNULL counts six level designers – it’s alot of people to manage, but it’s been smoothed out by using a program called DropBox, which worked great in sharing things accross the team. My previous experiences with Source have helped alot to get to this point and I also had some very valuable help from another programmer named Biohazard, who gradually also got involved in testing GraviNULL. Although he’s not a developer for GraviNULL since he has his own projects, his advice has certainly helped GraviNULL progress forward succesfully during those five weeks. You also better run when you see him join the server, because he’s probably one of the best GraviNULL players around right now. Also thanks should go to the Jailbreak Team, for sharing their work with the world and Wills for going as far as joining the team and supporting with alot of things, including making the kickass launch trailer, even though he’s bogged down with lots of other stuff to do.

Bekey: I am one of the many mappers GraviNULL has. The overall development goes very smoothly, this team just feels like home, every one of us has known each other for a very long time. For my part, I enjoyed mapping as never before, it was never hectic. Everything got finished up in time without setting deadlines. 

UC: You’re currently working on the “Hazardous” update with Hazard and Puzzle mode – How’s that going? What do we have to look forward to?

DuckSauce: Hazard was going quite well and is 99.999% likely to appear as a new gamemode. Puzzle mode is an experimental singleplayer mode, whether it will make it remains to be seen, it’s not gonna be likely to release with more than 1 map at first. Should the gamemode make it in and be liked, there are plans for co-op as well, potentially with the chance to betray your partner(s), but that’s on a whole new complicated level. The singleplayer mode would have you flying around with your favorite companion ball, to be used as your means of transportation and to solve puzzles with. Maybe you’ll pick up some more ball shaped friends along the way as well.

Hazard mode would be singleplayer and multiplayer, alone you could play in time trial, trying to beat your best times(with Desura support maybe even online stats to compare to your friends) while in the online mode, just getting to the finish first to score the most points is going to be more important, regardless of the time you take getting there.

Bekey: That’s correct, already before the open-alpha release, I have made a proof of concept map. Basically, a straight course with a lot of lethal barriers. All over the map are scattered anchors, which you can grapple and use to maneuver yourself to the finish as fast as possible, while dodging the deadly barriers. The other Hazard map I am currently working on, is much more crooked and changes direction and simultaneously height, too. We’ll see how it works out.

UC: How are you finding the feedback you’ve gotten for GraviNULL so far?  Is there anything that’s really stood out in terms of what people have liked or disliked?

DuckSauce: The feedback has been great. What stood out the most is how easily people seem to be giving up, it’s a whole new gameplay style and getting shot in the face repeatedly by developers probably isn’t helping either. However when we’re playing, we’re more than happy to provide people with some useful tips. The other reason for quitting is boredom, I guess. Deathmatch just doesn’t interest people for too long nowadays and the people that do find no one in the servers and stop trying to find someone to play with. That’s why the new gamemodes will be supporting singleplayer as well, so you can have fun even if the servers are completely dried up.

Bekey: We definitely got a lot of feedback from day one of release. A lot of people have added me on Steam and discussed their suggestions, and as well in-game too, even though it’s too hectic to type. Unfortunately, some were suggesting things which the Source Engine is not capable of, coding wise.

UC: What do you have in mind for the future of GraviNULL?  How far would you like to go with the mod?

DuckSauce: I said “was going quite well” before because I’ve currently put the team on a one week “break”, during that time I’m experimenting with the UDK and trying to see how far I can get gameplay of GraviNULL working with that, it’s been somewhat frustrating digging into this new engine, but I do have some high hopes that I can make it work, by coming Sunday(14 March 2010) I will likely have made a decision.

Whatever is to come in the feature, it’s more going to be focused on the real unique aspect of the mod, the zero gravity and grapple only movement, rather than moving towards objective based modes that can easily turn into a second deathmatch. The movement is for me what’s the most fun and that’s what updates will be focusing on. The puzzle mode is also promising great things, but it’s no small thing so that’ll hopefully develop succesfully slowly over the coming months, taking feedback to improve it and weeding out everything bad before also creating as ambitious as the co-op mode for it.

There are alot more gamemode idea’s and I think eventually some of these may be processed into a “mini-games” type gamemode where you’re in a server with people where you randomly get presented with mini-games you have to clear, since alot of the gamemodes suggested would in my opinion work better in smaller versions thrown at you randomly.

Bekey: Both me and DuckSauce learned how modding works the hard way. Now we are following the basic rules, “Release small, release often!” We may implement every crazy gamemode we can dream off. You never know what a Duck can come up with some day, trust me.You are asking how far I would go with the mod? Real-Life NASA alternate sports game in 2025. That’s all I have to say.

UC: If you had to pick one reason why people should try out GraviNULL, what would it be?

DuckSauce: Because shooting balls at people while grappling around in zero gravity is just something every human should have done once in his/her life! Also not to forget… it has balls of steel!

Bekey: It’s something completely new, and it’s changing gaming, according to Wills. The more people will try it out and play it, the more the game will evolve. And the more it evolves, the more it changes gaming.

UC: Okay, so, out of sheer curiousity, what are your favourite mods out there currently?  Other than GraviNULL :P

DuckSauce: I don’t really have any now, since I’m too busy working on GraviNULL and with school, from my past I’d say Pirates, Vikings and Knights II where ages ago I had crazy fun with alot of e-friends there, also Jailbreak: Source before 0.6, racing around bunny hopping killing everything was awesome, nowadays I spend more time in jail than fighting. Hoping for their new patch to improve the situation, or at least keep me entertained in jail with some mini-deathball. Also from ages ago: Ballmen. It’s dead now but it’s an awesome Source mod!

Bekey: Jailbreak of course, Pirates, Vikings and Knights 2, I tried it the first time at the previous release, it’s golden. And Outpost 16 has the best mapping I’ve seen. My all-time favorite however would be Research and Development.

UC: Any last words/crazy random statements?

DuckSauce: I’d like to thank the Jailbreak team for providing the mapping pack to the world, Biohazard for his awesome coding help and ModDB for their awesome service to mods, Desura is sure to rock even more with more developer control! Lastly, thanks Andrea for inviting me for the interview, it’s good to be able to blabber about the mod without starting the blabbering on my own out of nowwhere !

Bekey: I wish the whole UserCreated team best of luck. I always visit this site – very well written articles which are always easy to read! Thanks for the amusing interview. I’d like to thank everyone who tried or will soon try GraviNULL, you can’t imagine the feeling I had one hour before releasing. Also wish me best of luck for 2025, where I will hopefully defy gravity!

That’s it for now folks!  If you want to try out GraviNULL, you check check out the mod’s ModDB page or just download it.  We’ll see you online!

I’ve been paying attention to GraviNULL.  It’s a mod that’s taken the fundamentals of gaming, blended them with a couple of litres of nonsensical madness, and worked the whole depraved cocktail into a playable alpha within 5 weeks.  Also, it’s great fun, which is, you know, good.  And it’s about to get a hell of a lot better.

How could that be possible, I hear you ask?  Well, bear witness to the awesomess of GraviNULL’s upcoming HAZARDOUS update.  It brings two welcome additions to the otherwise somewhat repetitive game:

• Puzzle mode, a pack portal-meets-tarzan mind-boggling rooms, that’ll challenge you to complete some fiendish brain-benders
• Hazard mode, a high octane, adrenaline packed death race where you’ll face off against other players in attempting to cross the map as ridiculously fast as possible

Look below for a bit of Hazard mode footage, and keep following UC – we’re hoping to bring you an interview with the GraviNULL team in the near future.

ModDB Page

ModDB Hazardous News Report

I don’t know if you can tell, but here at UC, we get quite excited when someone mentions Dear Esther.  Well, more specifically, Lewis starts ranting and foaming slightly at the mouth when you mention Dear Esther, and seeing he’s the boss and all, we’ve all been dragged into his incurable obsession.

Thankfully, these new screenshots of the remake we mentioned last month nearly justify the whole mad ordeal.  The entire project is now halfway done, and we should expect to see some shots of the underground caves next month or so.

I guess I’d better go get Lewis his medication.  You don’t want to know what happened last time new screenshots were released…

Dev Blog

ModDB Page

Horror mods have a lot to live up to these days, what with Flesh being crowned the ultimate pant wetting experience by the community and all, but in the modding world, you can’t stop the signal.  Thankfully, the team behind prospective nightmare inducing HL2 mod Visage have just released an update.

This seems to be relatively early in development, with a release planned for Q4 2010, but there are signs of greatness here, with some great team members – one of which worked on Flesh –  and voice actors.  From the few screenshots they’ve released, it also looks amazing, and by that, I mean terrifying.  Really.  If the final mod is half as atmospheric as these, then I’ll be stunned, and incredibly happy.  Also, scared.

ModDB Page

Counter-Strike.  I won’t be talking about it today, but it’s completely impossible to discuss the masterpiece that is Neotokyo without abording the subject of its ancestor, the venerable guru of gaming wisdom that is CS – a game that bore hundreds of gaming industry bastard lovechildren, stole their girlfriends, and ran off to Zanzibar.  More than ten years on, it remains the undisputed champion of team based first person gaming.  It’s spawned clone after clone, copy after copy, and mod after mod, and still emerged triumphant.

It isn’t surprising then, that most challengers to CS’ blood-soaked throne have done their utmost best to differentiate themselves from the reigning champion, the Sauron of the FPS world.  Not so with Neotokyo.  It takes on the master head on, guns blazing, and emerges, if not quite unscathed, with its head held high, a Rocky of the modding world against Valve’s Creed.

The comparisons to the modding world’s undeniable king CS is hard to avoid.  Two teams of special forces operatives with upgrading weapon choices, a slow, tactical pace that encourages teamwork and cooperation, and all but fatal headshots – the NT team knew exactly who they were facing up against when they wandered into this ring.

It would be completely misunderstanding Neotokyo however, to reduce it to a mere clone, as the entire mod is  heavily tinged with, if not completely covered in, its own unique flavour.  It’s the flavour of Neuromancer, Ghost in the Shell, and Akira, and it’s masterfully melded with the otherwise relatively unoriginal core – but it all fits together so incredibly well, which is why Neotokyo is such damnably good fun.  More importantly, NT knows its audience – it caters to gamers, and it knows there are two things we gamers love above all: awesome gadgets, and ridiculous gadgets.

NeoTokyo’s toying with our technology fetish doesn’t end there though.  It knows what anybody who’s ever played Splinter Cell will know: awesome goggles are awesome.  Night vision goggles are awesome, thermal goggles are awesome, motion detection is awesome, and NeoTokyo will bend you over and use and abuse you and your love of goggles.  Hard.  And you’ll like it.  Not only does it give you all three of the awesomesauce goggles of awesome to pick from, but rarely have they looked so high-tec – while their Splinter Cell variants were at best functional, the thermal goggles making foes appear as blogs of angry red in a sea of freakish distortion, the NT goggles have style. Motion-vision will light enemies up as they run through clouds of smoke, highlighting them like neon bullseyes in some freakish dystopian shooting gallery, and thermal will highlight their bodily heat with a stunning red while colouring the decaying world around them in stunning, psychadelic hues of purple and yellow.

While you’re showered with a variety of technological wonders to toy and/or shoot people with, none will compare to the true trophy and crux of any Neotokyo game: the ghost.  It’s not hard to figure out why the NT team decided to make the ghost so important.  We all love robots, we all love topless ladies, and we all love seeing through walls.  Oh, and we all love winning.  The ghost combines all four in one disembodied cyborg package.  I’ll explain: unlike CS, in Neotokyo, the objective is not set.  Instead of being forced to assault or defend any particular area, you’ll need to retrieve the ghost – a robotic female torso you’ll find lying on the floor and return it to your capture area, and it isn’t as easy as it sounds.  For starters, you’ll have to hunt the ghost down – as she’ll spawn at a randomly decided spot somewhere between the two teams – and then, you’ll have to carry the poor lady back, which is an issue, seeing as she’ll severely restrict your firepower, by disallowing the use of your primary weapon.  It’s hard to shoot people while carrying some woman’s torso.

Thankfully, picking up the ghost isn’t all bad, as it also gives you one nigh on unbeatable advantage: you’ll detect all your foes.  Through walls.  The element of surprise, initially so crucial in a game like NT where death is all but instantaneous, is suddenly made all but irrelevant – but without your weapon, you’ll be forced to rely on your teammates to protect your precious burden.  In other words, unless you’re willing to get on voice and report enemy positions to your friends, then don’t pick up the damn ghost.  It’s a shockingly simple mechanic, but that’s also beautifully thought out, and can radically transform the balance of the game – a perfect example of why it’s garnered such a devout fan base, and why it’s still worth downloading the client today.

It’s hardly surprising.   Despite all I’ve said about Neotokyo being similar to its forefather, CounterStrike, it’s undeniably an entirely different animal.  From small but crucial tweaks, such as the inclusion of leaning and fireteams, to entirely new mechanics, from the ghost to cloaking, NeoTokyo has built on the foundations established years beforehand, and come back so much stronger.  It has all the appeal of its ancestry, combined with its own fascinating flavour.  It’s a testament to that appeal that we’ll still be playing NT for awhile to come.  You should be too.

NeoTokyo is a mod for HL2.  It is easy to download, and servers are still populated.  You can download the installer here, and the patch here.
For more info, visit the homepage or the ModDB page.

From a team of modders who’s minds don’t work quite like ours, that includes members of the JailBreak: Source and Fragout teams, comes this utterly bonkers take on slingshot powered zero-g deathmatch.

While it’s only an alpha, it’s perfectly playable, and if my first impressions are anything to go on, great fun to boot – if utterly hectic in a maniacal sort of way.  It’s also entirely playable with one hand, which might be a plus, I suppose.  Or a foot, if  you’re feeling particularly brave.   Whether you’re the least bit interested or not, it’s only 30 or so megs, so you should have downloaded it by now.

How does it work? The only weapon, tool, or leverage you have are the deadly roller mines of HL2 – they’ll act as transportation, ammunition, and general havoc dealing tools in this mess.

You use the RMB to “grapple” onto the mines that float haphazardly throughout the levels, thus launching yourself at stratospheric speeds past your opponent’s stupefied faces.  LMB allows you to “absorb” a mine, then allowing you to fire it at your opponents, either in blue, low damage, homing mode, or red high damage death ball of doom.  Remember kids, red is bad, m’kay?

Frankly, I had no idea what was going on in my first game, but hey, I was travelling through space being assaulted by deadly flying death-mines.  If we can get some good servers up and running, this looks like it has the potential to be endlessly entertaining.

ModDB Page

Installer Download

Kingdoms Collide, the upcoming Swords’n'Sorcery mod for HL2, is apparently going to release on the 12th of March…And yes, you should be excited.  What is there to look forward to here?  How about supposedly realistic melee combat, a variety of weapons and spells, and general awe inspiring medieval warfare melded with magical fire and death?

It also looks absolutely stunning.  I shit you not, this looks absolutely incredible, and if it delivers on its promise of hundreds of custom animations, over ten custom weapons and five models, it will be one hell of a total conversion to boot.

We’ll give you a full review as soon as it’s out!

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Unlike Mr. Bond’s employers, the team are surprisingly open with priceless nuggets of information regarding their recreation of our much beloved GoldenEye 64, and have announced we’ll be seeing the release of Beta 4 in a couple of days, at 5PM EST on the 19th of February.

This is the first release we’ve seen from the team in nearly a year, so I think we can all be rather excited at the prospect of another build in which we’ll hopefully get the chance to get back at that Oddjob model for causing us so much hassle back when we were in the prime of our youth.  Or 12.

The full changelog is available at the GE: S Wiki here, and it’s looking like a ridiculously huge update.  If you’re a fan of the old N64 classic, or vaguely interested in the history of first-person-shooters, this is a mod to watch.  Read the update, and follow the countdown here.

WW1 was an incredibly unpleasant time for the human race, even by the standards of most wars.  Not only did it involve blood, guts, and needless violence, it involved hiding in small muddy holes while waiting to be shredded by an assorted buffet of machinegun fire and artillery shells. All in all, a horrendously unpleasant malarky that nobody really wants to go back to.