Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Mod Squad

Posted by michael on from the headshot dept.

Devil's BSD writes "Popular Science has a new article in this month's issue about gaming mods. It contains a nice history of mods, touches on mods for the Big Three gaming systems today (as well as those for computer games), and a beginner's guide to mods. Interesting, but not much new for the l33t h4x0rs out there though."

7 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Ahhh the days by Kymermosst · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I remember doing my own (simple) DOOM mods. Then came Quake and I loved the mods, expecially CTF, even played semi-professionally for a little bit.

    However, after hardware advanced too fast for me to be able to afford upgrades, I have pretty much left the gaming scene entirely.

    It was damn fun, though.

    --
    "Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
    1. Re:Ahhh the days by Yorrike · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Agreed, I used to make maps and level for Doom/2 and Quake/2 with every moment I wasn't deathmatching. But in regards to hardware; that's the main reason I've moved away from PC gaming and concentrated on consoles.

      I loved the old skool mods that Doom and Quake brought about, but in order to enjoy the newer games these days I'd have to buy a new box every year, which is more than participation in the scene is worth to me.

      There are exceptions though, and the releases of NWN and Warcraft 3 have resparked my interest in PC ghaming and given me reason to upgrade my aging desktop.

      --

      Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?

  2. Old game engines with mods impress me... by antdude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For example with Day of Defeat mod for Half-Life, HL is like a few years old and yet the mod is very popular. v3.0 beta just came out a few days ago and I am in awe with this mod.

    Sure, the game engine uses outdated engine, but the fun is there. Now, if I could just play this awesome WWII mod in Linux (no Wine and stuff). :)

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  3. Day of Defeat mod is popular... by antdude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    DoD Web site. I think it is gaining more players and to me, this mod is much funner.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  4. Re:Counterstrike by Corby911 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I had to give up on CS. I used to be a decent player and a quite good admin (according to those who frequented my server anyway). I gave up the beast when the cheating got REALLY out of hand around 8 months ago. This was also when I was moving to linux as my only OS (I just booted windows for games), not to mention the fact that I had finals to worry about, and was moving off campus (say goodbye to the dual oc-3's).

    At any rate, I'd become disinterested. The newer maps failed to add anything exciting to the game, and I'd played them all to death. I started adding older maps (think beta-4 era) to the rotation (de_desert, etc) but it pissed too many people off. In the end, I'm glad that I gave up the game. I know of no less than 4 people that failed out of my school because of counter-strike alone.

    That being said, I can't wait for our ACM's fall LAN party... nothing like a bunch of geeks, some pizza, as much caffiene as you can stomach, and video games that can give you heart attacks when it's not 4 AM...

    --
    Monday is a horrible way to spend 1/7 of your life.
  5. GTA3 by British · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's already a booming mod commnuity for GTA3(pc version). SOmeone's making a whole new city with various tweaks here and there.

    Man would I like to have GTA Twin Cities. There's also simple mods you can do, like make a car 15K pounds heavy, and any collision sends a car flying in the opposite direction.

  6. Commerical developer support to the mod community by H3XA · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The article is already /.ed so I need to ask.... was there any discussion about the support that devopers give to the mod community? I am not specifically talking about mapping and level designs but rather new game concepts adapted from the original.

    Id Software seemed to start the mainstream trend with the Doom engine being easily adapted with the good folk that developed the right tools. Then Valve software came along and gave the fledging mod community a BIG helping hand to the point where they enter "partnerships" with the better and more popular mods (ie. CS of course). Even games like Morrowind and NWN ship with tools that say "Use Me !!!" to custom design or alter adventures. It almost seems expected of a developer to offer the extra incentive for what is probably the minority of users to keep the game "alive" until the next game by a developer is released... what with the 2-3 year development times now.

    - HeXa