With the end of my (rather turbulent) Freshman year at college, I grew bored, and started going on a serious mod hunt.
Over the last week, I've downloaded and played:
Korsokovia - Nice and rather long, given the type of experience, well-written dialogue, a little confusing, and the static can do damage to high end speakers if you have the volume up to listen to the voices. I should know. All in all, much better than Dear Esther, which didn't capture me nearly as much. VERY capable of instilling fear the first time through, at least. Oh, and it has a guest-star from Lost...
Strider Mountain - Interesting plotline, VERY long (for a mod), and it had some nice visuals. Occasionally it would make you do awkward things with a vehicle (namely drive through a VERY narrow tunnel and turn), but once you get that damned wheel off the corner, it becomes a very good game. The music they used (I could really only actively identify one track, if you played it, you probably know which one, too) really kept the mod going, a nice change from those mostly silent mods.
Provenance - Short, but sweet. Really nice rendition of an area of the Black Mesa Research Facility, and overall good gameplay. And, hey, it had a tram ride. How could they go wrong? There's even a bit of story jammed in there that just serves to confuse and interest...
I know none of them are NEW mods, but I just downloaded them, and felt like doing a mini-review. On top of those, I played through all my old mods... Research & Development (always fun), Ravenholm (long, but good if you want a Ravenholm-y fix), Radiator (not available for questions at this time), Riot Act(nice, good if you want a Nova-Prospekt-y fix), Get A Life (I'm not sure what to say about that, but I think it was good), Eye Of The Storm (sequel to Ravenholm, if completely different, nice gameplay, if a little short. Good voice acting, at least for the administrator), Curse (a nice little Egyptian-y puzzle fix), Dangerous World (an EPIC retelling of the events of Episode I from another point of view. Just... Don't go towards the light! If you get frustrated at the end, you'll probably realize what I mean), Mission Improbable (only a single map, but STILL, some of the nicest mapping around. Really fun quick playthrough), and... MINERVA (My favorite mod. Mapping, story, everything).
If you haven't played Minerva, Dangerous World, and/or Research & Development, GET THEM NOW!
Anywho, oh yeah, I also downloaded a ton of Portal Mappacks, as well as redownloading Prelude, and some other Portal-y stuff. It was playing through the early versions of Blue Portals' maps that piqued my interest in Portal modding again.
And so, with hammer in hand, I stepped off to a rocky start, having lost my original first chamber. I hope that, if you read through all this, you'll take the time to take a quick visit to Portal: Reverb, my mod. If not, then at least [promise me that you will/swear that you have] played those three mods I mentioned.
Happy modding,
Mikel S.
PS: This post started as an excuse to get the ModDB X-mass carol off the first page.
