Some games just aren’t the same without mods; some games wouldn’t exist if they weren’t a mod first. So as voted by fans, here’s some of the best homegrown creations from 2018.
The mod depository ModDB runs a public poll at the end of every year, as well as an internal editors’ poll to honour the best mods of the year. The end result is a fine selection of the best fan creations from 2018.
Spyro The Dragon meets Half-Life
Not all mods are gargantuan projects that take years to produce. Sometimes they’re smaller ventures that just add a fun new twist to an old game, like this Half-Life mod that replaces Gordon Freeman with everyone’s favourite purple dragon.
Adding Spyro into Half-Life required a new moveset, physics, and items. But it also changes the tone of Half-Life completely. Head crabs don’t seem so scary when you’re breathing fire by default.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2018/07/yes-i-would-replay-half-life-as-spyro/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/07/spyro-the-half-life-dragon-410×231.gif” title=”Yes, I Would Replay Half-Life As Spyro” excerpt=”There isn’t a lot of motivation to replay Half-Life these days, but swapping Gordon Freeman out for the world’s cutest purple dragon might do the trick.”]
Battles of the Third Age
Modders do an admirable job keeping classic RTS’s alive, and Battles of the Third Age does a fine job doing that for The Battle for Middle Earth: The Rise of the Witch King. BoTA concentrates on a defensive style of gameplay, mixing up the units and characters to focus on the third age of Middle Earth.
System Shock: Rewired
A full singleplayer campaign for the original System Shock, one that’s compatible with any version of the game including Nightdive Studio’s enhanced re-release. Rewired adds three new levels with branching paths, new cyberspace sections, new voiceovers, and new puzzles.
Fallout: New California
Originally called Fallout: Project Brazil, New California is the total conversion for Fallout: New Vegas that focuses on a journey through the Cajon Pass. We’ve been reporting on the mod for years, and earlier in 2018 there was a scare that the mod may be shut down altogether after Fantasy Flight Games announced that California would be the name of their expansion for Fallout: The Board Game.
But wiser heads prevailed, and New California was given a wider beta release towards the end of 2018.
Warsword Conquest
There’s more good Warhammer games than bad, but there’s plenty of games that can get better with a Warhammer mod. One such game is Mount & Blade: Warband, which Warsword Conquest transforms into the world of Warhammer complete with all the factions, magic, models, and even slave trading.
Total Chaos
A mod that completely and utterly transforms DOOM 2 into a survival horror game. A director’s cut for the mod was announced just prior to Christmas as well, which will add new content, weapons and enemies upon its release in April. You can download the released version now, though.
Battlefront Ultimate Commander
A mod for Battlefront 2 – the old Battlefront 2 – that adds new game modes, improves the AI and difficulty, adds a new UI, more than 200 playable units, and content from The Old Republic, Clone Wars, and Imperial: Civil War.
The Elder Scrolls: Total War
When Medieval 2: Total War meets The Elder Scrolls. 18 separate factions plus three non-playable races, The Elder Scrolls gives the Bethesda universe a new tactical lease of life. I’d love for Creative Assembly to do an official conversion one day, but since that will never happen, mods like this will do just fine.
You can check out the rest of ModDB’s favoured top 100 mods, as well as the public and ModDB’s internal recommendations.
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