Three years ago when the 3rd generation of consoles launched many said "PC gaming is dead" along with mods and indies. Two years ago at the 2008 GDC conference, I attended a presentation by Introversion Software (makers of the great Darwinia game among others) who claimed they were "the last of the bedroom programmers". Last year Modern Warfare 2 shunned PC gamers and modders, but not before taking all of their best ideas. And yet here we are, stronger and more relevant than ever, thanks to the rise of digital distribution and the efforts of independent developers like you, who continue to push the bar and create great games and mods which cannot be ignored.
We have a feeling 2010 is going to be a brilliant year (we hope to change the game by publicly releasing Desura), but before that happens let's look back at the year that was 2009. This article is merely a warm-up piece before the big show (i.e. presenting the years best mods and games as selected by the editors and you, the players), so check back in a weeks time for the good stuff. In the mean time, here are a few fun facts for you to discuss, before we roll out the red carpet.
Hordes of zombies... braaaaaains!
What do Left-4-Dead, The Ball, Zombie Driver, Killing Floor, Zombie Panic, Zombie Slayer, Flesh and Situation Outbreak all have in common? Zombies it seems and plenty of them (sorry you don't get a cookie for answering correctly).
Ye of little faith
When the English version of Cube Experimental came out, I thought it would amount to little more than a few Fallout 3 colored kill boxes... boy was I wrong. You can read about my discovery in this WSIP article I wrote after it had just come out.
Success is only a stones throw away
Nothing warms our heart more than seeing a mod rise up and take the games world by storm. This year thanks to Tripwire Interactive, the UT2004 mod Killing Floor did just that, dominating Steams selling charts (outpacing L4D for a while) and is mostly loved by all that play it.
The year of music
Last year had many solid releases, and many released OST's (official soundtrack) along with them. First we saw the release of the NeoTokyo OST which had a lot of care both in sound and packaging, then we had The Nameless Mod OST. There where many others but these two stood tall, thanks to the incredible amount of care and effort put in.
Get out of here S.T.A.L.K.E.R
Back in May of 2009 artistpavel released a S.T.A.L.K.E.R overhaul pack called Stalker Complete 2009. What followed is hard to believe... 6 brand new profiles all doing the exact same thing, all trying to take one step more than the last, and mold S.T.A.L.K.E.R into their own rendition.
A Rock Star without Rock'n'Roll
Lets talk about Decadence, the 2v2 Half-Life 2 mod that burst onto the scene this year, with innovative ideas and the potential to pack a punch. Fast forward a few months, and the school team that made the mod have moved on and the multiplayer-only mod cannot be played even if you want to. The post mortem is the only remaining evidence that it even existed in the first place.
So what was your highlight / lowlight of 2009?
Please enlighten us... comments, discussion and debate welcome! Oh and sit tight, because in a weeks time we will begin announcing the 2009 Players and Editors Choice Mod and Indie Game of the Year.
Artistpavel FTW.
Agreed.
Decadence was very intesting, too bad it wasn't so popular, the 2v2 worked quite well, but that also seemed to reason people didn't like it. Get stuck with someone that doesn't work well with you and it just turns into a slaughterhouse for you and that person, without such issues gameplay could be great with you and your teammate trying to outsmart the enemy team.
i thought it was the griefers that killed it, i know thats why i stopped playing.
L.U.R.K. has an amazing amount of potential, can't wait for their next release.
The second half of this year saw the (tragic) destruction of the old Athlon xp 2400 and Ti4800 and so therefore the ability to play Half Life 2 or similar games.
Reverting back to a PIII 600mhz did come with one major benefit - the rediscovering of Freespace 2 SDK and the active community and the incredible mods that have been released (some here on Mod DB, but most are absent unfortunatly).
I will look forward to looking into the 2009 mods that I missed (so many) when I get a new rig together and the 2010 releases. That and getting some updated graphics from the Freespace 2 SDK engine!
Nice retro...
I had no idea about MW2 jacking mod ideas. That's low.
And yes, PC gaming is no where near dying.
oh oh oh neotokyo
For me 2009 was Research and Development.
i dont know what i could name for me as a highlight there are many awesome mods
L.U.R.K. 1.1 is going to be AWESOME!
For me, every single one of you in this community, the developers that work their ***** off, the mods they all released as a whole, and the staff here at ModDB is what made my 2009. This community and it's members are amazing and if it were to disappear from the internet something this great may never be able to be re-created again.
Agreed. Don't replace this site, even for something as awesome-looking as Desura.
Appreciate the kind words. Don't worry, Desura is just an "extension" of ModDB. ModDB is the development hub and will always remain, while Desura is more the distribution point. In actual fact we hope that Desura earns enough money through game sales to be able to fund an ad free ModDB + all the stuff we want to do but cannot (HD videos, fast download servers etc)
Very, very well said.
Lots of good stuff last year.
PC Gaming Forever!
My favorite mod this year was Neotokyo.
A Brilliant year for modding, yet none of this would have been possible without the many talented and creative members here!
A Salute to all the great modders out there!
My highlight would have to be "Out of Hell" for UT2004. Aside from the sometimes laggy moments the game is a real treat.
Yeah, I found it strange that Out of Hell isn't up there...it certainly deserves a mention...for a mod that was in production for several years by one man who started his mod knowing little to nothing about modding or games development, it seems like a bit of a let down that he wasn't really recognized much at all.
Ohwell, I'm sure Long Nguyen will become a very highly recognized games developer one day, especially with a mod like Out of Hell being his first ever game/mod release.
Sadly Black Mesa source isn't out yet :(
so very nice modding is becoming, how the tools are improved and the will to make something unique with these tools.
Wonder what the future will give us, brand new ideas, environment we never think of or maybe a real time simulation of who knows what.
Modding- One of the best thing there is, in the Cyber World!
One of the things i love so much about the ModDB community, it's rare to find someone who is childish and insulting. Most people are mature and helpful, and it's this distinction between the common console gamer and us, the pc gamers and modders.
Pc elitist spotted :D
I agree for the most part despite the fact every now and then you'll come across someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. For the most part though, this is definitely a great place to be both as a developer and gaming enthusiast. =)
Agreed.
woot
Silly Henely, Killing floor doesn't have Zombies!
Thought everyone knew this by now.
they count as zombies dont be over technical about it.
Looking back at all of my PerfectDark MISSION'S, now knowing that the one's I wanted to Show, I can't and are the Future, and are still CLASSIFIED.