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Hello everyone! To wrap up our count-downs for 2021, we’ve the Top 5 New Mods for Classic Games. To explain why this is our last count-down of the year - As we gear up to Mod and Indie of the Year, we will also be producing videos this year to commemorate the occasion. The countdowns as a result are going on pause until the awards are concluded. Don’t worry, though! There will be plenty to keep you busy until the New Year.
Having touched upon Mortal Night in the last video, I became aware of other quality Resident Evil 2 mods released more recently and revisited one of these for you today - Marvin’s Mod, also known as Desperate Times. The mod wears its name on its sleeve and hopes to fill in some more of the wider details surrounding Resident Evil 2’s story, putting you in the shoes of police officer Marvin Branagh before his demise. As you work through a way to help your fellow PD survivors, you’ll navigate the familiar hallways and streets of Raccoon City alongside a companion. Boss fights are included, as well as additional items, revised balance, and changes to both layout and puzzles that give old locales a fresh sheen. Lastly, graphical tweaks change up some of the visuals overall, and running standalone, there’s not a lot stopping anyone from picking up the mod and giving it a go. Marvin’s Mod doesn’t reinvent the wheel and instead aims to provide players with something familiar but new in its own ways. Seasoned Resident Evil 2 fans will still find a lot to chew on with the mod and new versions still in development will continue to add to the chaos erupting in Raccoon City.
Number 4:
Freelancer: HD Edition
Freelancer
Freelancer was the product of Chris Roberts, famous for his Wing Commander franchise. Bringing the player into a large universe where events take place without the player’s interaction, the game was ambitious and very hyped prior to release. Although it didn’t quite hit the mark, it remained a cult classic with solid dog-fighting and enough content to keep most players entertained throughout the run of the campaign. Never making the jump to a digital storefront, the original game didn’t receive the kind of modernisation generally hoped for from older games these days, and thus modders decided to take matters into their own hands. Marrying quality of life improvements with HD textures and models, Freelancer HD Edition provides ample reason to revisit the game in 2021. Graphical improvements range from aesthetic to technical, with enhanced draw distances in particular being a great addition to this large-scale open space-simulator, and many improvements accounting for newer resolutions and aspect ratios have been made. A range of bug fixes to singleplayer content and quality of life changes that make engaging with the game a lot easier help cement this mod as a “definitive edition” patch. Compatibility with the base game has been considered carefully, meaning using this mod doesn't even prevent you from accessing the vanilla multiplayer experience! If you’ve still got a copy of Freelancer on hand, this mod is a must-play, and a great way to revisit the story with all its cliched galactic struggles.
Half-Life 2 mods are synonymous with modding itself, that particular franchise of games being well-regarded for their support of user generated content. There’s no shortage of active engagement from the Half-Life modding scene, but one of the finer sleeper-hits to emerge over the last year is What Remains - a mod that, on the surface, appears to stick closely to the formula provided by Episode 2, and whilst the locales and scenery are generally reminiscent of Valve’s own work (a compliment in of itself, given all the levels look excellent), there’s a lot more going on under the hood. Having Alyx alongside you for almost the entire mod, What Remains leverages the community made Mapbase overhaul for the Source Engine, bringing many new technical features that allow Alyx to navigate and keep up with the player like never before. More tools are provided by this overhaul that the mod creator utilises admirably, including enhanced lighting and map logic which both enhance the technical scope of individual levels and puzzles. This mod doesn’t simply rehash Episode 2’s design - it intelligently mirrors the best parts, and then brings even more to the table. Vanilla-like Half-Life 2 mods are beginning to lose prevalence these days, but What Remains is a great example of how much can be done with the foundation laid all those years ago.
It almost feels like sacrilege to not mention a DOOM mod on each of these lists, and this time I couldn’t resist either. DOOM 64 was its own little phenomenon of a game, a very unique outing for the franchise on the N64 that, for a long time, was not easily accessible on PC. When DOOM Eternal shipped last year, Bethesda outsourced porting DOOM 64 over to Nightdive Studios, whose efforts in making old games like new again are well-known. It was a great little bonus, but its compatibility with much of the same systems and tools used by the community for years was even better, and it wasn’t long before mods with a focus on DOOM 64’s content began to appear. DOOM CE not only tackles DOOM 64 but also the PSX editions of DOOM with the intention of bringing up all of them. New graphical features, like PBR materials and AI-upscaled textures, are joined by many other extras like more levels and more difficulties to put yourself through for an added challenge. Customizability is the word of the day for DOOM CE, which makes many of its additions, extras, and features optional and changeable with a few presets to help you quickly get started. Crack open a drink and get ready for some ass-kicking - DOOM CE’ll keep you plenty busy.
For these lists you’ll generally just be taking my word for how good a mod is, but this time I’m going to keep it short and sweet and really suggest you check out the YouTube video and mod page to let the mod do the talking. Deus Ex was originally planned to have female options for the protagonist, but this option later had to be cut. With its emphasis on player choice, this mod team decided to add one substantial extra choice to the mix and make a female JC Denton a reality again. Featuring thousands of lines of re-recorded dialogue as well as lots of competent sentence mixing and a few extra scenarios to smooth the transition, this mod is a great way to revisit Deus Ex like new again. It’s so comprehensive and impressive in scope we’ve got to give it a special mention - so go check out the video above and on the mod page, and hear some classic JC Denton like you’ve never heard it before.
Conclusion
That’s all the mods we have for you today! As we stated before, this is our last formal countdown video/article combo of 2021, but don’t worry - lots of videos will still be coming out around Mod and Indie of the year! We’ll see you for the annual award events! Stay tuned!
DOOM Eternal’s long-awaited 6.66 patch brings many improvements and extra content to the game, including the much-hyped horde mode. Whilst you gear up for some demon and/or monster slaughter, here’s five mods to whet your appetite!
DOOM CE
By molecicco
DOOM CE follows in the footsteps of many other great DOOM mods over the years with a wide range of additions, featuring a healthy mix of graphical improvement and gameplay additions hoping to bridge the gap between the decades. Of particular note is DOOM CE’s focus on DOOM 64 content, which doesn’t see as much attention as the base games. The mod comes with a number of presets to enable players to customise their experience, meaning whether you like it old school or want the fullest DOOM CE playthrough, your needs will be catered to!
Rivensin
By Revility
DOOM 3, not quite as moddable as its predecessors, is nonetheless home to a lot of mods that completely change up the gameplay. Rivensin takes the tense first-person horror of DOOM 3 and turns it into a third person slasher built within a dark fantasy world. It’s got that iconic quality that identifies its lineage right away, but mixed with the immaculate creativity of a mod team determined to push the boundaries of what’s possible. You’ll still be slaying denizens of the underworld - just not like how you’re used to!
ALIENS: Eradication TC
By Payload4367
Few things are more commonly associated with DOOM games than the classic total conversion mod experience - and ALIENS: Eradication ticks this box nicely. DOOM’s chest-thumping demon-slaying action fits handily into ALIENS’ universe when you have some ammunition to spare, though the mod’s not afraid to up the tension and leave you in difficult situations, too!
Dragon Sector: The Remake
By BarefootMapMaker
Produced by a long-time modder of DOOM, Dragon Sector: The Remake demonstrates the creator’s knowledge of DOOM inside and out, with great enemy and environment design and a special emphasis on ambience and visual fidelity. The goal of Dragon Sector is to bring players into about as immersive an environment as possible within GZDoom, and being built upon Project Brutality brings just that extra bit of flair to the mod.
DOOM 3: Hard Corps
By Revility
You could be forgiven for not knowing this mod was on DOOM 3 at all just by looking at it, for it turns the usual first-person perspective on its head and produces solid side-scrolling gameplay that wears its Contra inspirations on its sleeve. DOOM 3 mods are a little harder to come by, but this mod team was determined to build their own framework for more 2.5D mods and even built their own documentation from the ground up. I’ll always throw massive kudos the way of any mod team that produces their own modding guides!
DOOMed
DOOM Eternal is the second in Id Software’s reboot franchise, and released last year to substantial critical acclaim. Notorious for its exceptional difficulty and also its supremely engaging gameplay loop, it has enjoyed a lot of post-launch support in the form of two substantial DLC packs and a lot of cosmetics earnable by players through in-game achievements. This post launch support mostly has followed a roadmap set out since the start of Eternal’s launch cycle.
DOOM Eternal takes the foundation set in DOOM 2016 and turns everything up to eleven
Lockdown Disengaged
The newest addition and the most hotly anticipated in the upcoming 6.66 patch will be a horde mode, something modders have gotten working a while ago, but an official release will carry new bonuses and challenges with it. The update will also benefit from some new master levels, and a rework to the game’s asymmetrical PvP offering, Battle Mode.
Check out more DOOM mods here!
(You can also check out more DOOM II mods here and DOOM 3 mods here)
Whilst Eternal’s main storyline has wrapped up with The Ancient Gods Part 2, it seems Id is intent on giving fans more reason to hold on just a little while longer. TAG 2 supposedly delivered an end to the story started in DOOM 2016, but Eternal’s sheer commercial and critical success is likely to still lead to some kind of follow-up from Id, whatever form it might take.
Video montage
First of all, I'd like to feature this video montage made by Wedgeridoo. It is very well made and I feel that it is also a great showcase of this mod:
Important: the mod is no longer standalone
Previous versions of the mod used to run out of the box, just by opening gzdoom. This has changed on the latest versions and there are now prerequisites in place:
- PSX DOOM CE and PSX FINAL DOOM CE now require DOOM2.WAD to run, much like other DOOM mods.
- DOOM 64 CE now requires DOOM 64 (Steam/2020 rerelease) to run.
While this might look discouraging at first, it is not as complicated as it seems.
PSX DOOM Instructions
Just place DOOM2.WAD in the same directory as gzdoom or in its [IWADSearch.Directories].
If you have DOOM 2 installed in Steam, open its installation folder and copy the DOOM2.WAD from the base folder (not rerelease) into gzdoom's directory.
If everything went well, you should see this when opening gzdoom.exe:
DOOM 64 Instructions
The Steam DOOM64.WAD will not be recognized by gzdoom by default, so it has to be patched. Included with the mod is an automatic patcher (doom64-install.bat). Just run it and after it completes the mod will be ready to play. Special thanks to phredreeke for the idea and initial implementation.
The auto-patcher will try to find your Steam installation of DOOM 64 and automatically patch and create all necessary files to play. If for any reason the Steam installation is not found, you can copy DOOM64.WAD to the same folder as the .bat file and it will use that instead.
If everything went well, you should see this when opening gzdoom.exe:
Do not run the entry that says (Steam/Unsupported), because it is not compatible with gzdoom.
If for any reason the auto-patcher fails and you'd rather do it manually check out this video tutorial prepared by Crob4r, who streams DOOM 64 on Fridays and has been streaming this mod for several weeks now:
Sneak peek
Finally, here's a sneak peek of Beta 64, a DOOM 64 megawad I am porting to work with this mod, coming soon. Crob4r has also been playing an alpha version of it his Twitch for the past couple of weeks, so you can check out his channel as well:
Mod structure
To keep the download size small, I am now providing a "Lite" version of the mod. It contains no addons except from brightmaps, so it should be ideal for players who don't care about extras such as the PBR materials, upscales or soundtrack. If at any time you want to upgrade it to the full version, you only need to download the respective mod's full version and replace any existing files you already have.
Final Doom
From this version onward, PSX FINAL DOOM is now an addon of PSX DOOM to reduce duplicated resources and help save space. It is still an IWAD, and works in a similar way to how Deathkings of the Dark Citadel is an IWAD and also an addon to Hexen. To run it, you now need to place all files into an existing directory with PSX DOOM CE. The pk3 files should be placed in the same location as the PSX DOOM CE ones, and the soundfonts should be placed inside GZDoom's soundfonts folder.
Optional addons
Bundled with the mod are two pk3 files that are not autoloaded, AspectRatio.pk3 to use the horizontally-stretched aspect ratio of the PlayStation versions, and 3PointFilter.pk3 to apply the Nintendo 64's 3-Point filtering to textures. They are compatible with any CE mod, which means you can play PSX DOOM with Nintendo 64's filtering, or DOOM 64 with the stretched aspect ratio. To load them, drag and drop the pk3 to gzdoom.exe, use the command line or your favorite mod loader.
Accuracy changes
A big change in this version that may not be immediately evident is that I have rewritten all the actor code to make it more faithful to the original versions. There are subtle changes in how monsters behave and how fast they are. Some parts are still not 100% accurate to the originals due to limitations with GZDoom, but the experience is much closer to the originals now.
Configurable speed
Since the console versions run at a slower frame rate than PC DOOM (30 instead of 35), I am now offering the option to change player, monster and weapon speeds inside Features > Gameplay Options. I recommend to keep the defaults as they are more balanced, but you can play around with them if you want to make the game easier, more challenging or more controller-friendly. Keep in mind that in order for them to take effect you need to complete the current level or start a new game.
Finally, it is possible that bugs may have slipped with so many changes. If you find any, please report them so I can fix them.
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