Mod matters, with Ashton 'I ain't 'fraid no mod' Mills.
Need I say more. No, indeed, I need not. Even not needing to, I'll say what there is to say anyway! For it is that most sacred of franchises - Mechwarrior (which we gave even more loving yesterday!).
It's been so long since a decent Mechwarrior game, and to have one that's not only free but based around the gorgiliciousness [new word!] engine of Crysis is like the Niagara Falls of wet dreams. Well, for Mechwarrior fans anyway.
Naturally, the mod is built around multiplayer and players can climb into a range of mechs for both Inner Sphere and Clan, although infantry combat also features (in fact, you start off sans mech). Games consist of 32 players with 16 a side and - although it's still the beta - some 35 vehicles and mechs will be at your command, each and every one with its own true-to-the-concept model and cockpit. These cover the gamut of light to assault and include classics such as the Commando, Vulture, Madcat and of course Atlas. Vehicles, too, come in a variety including hover, tracked, and VTOL.
The developers behind the mod claim to have mixed the squad system of Battlefield 2, the physics in Crysis, and objective game modes of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and, despite the obvious focus on giant hulking war machines, infantry will be central to campaigns and essential to winning a map.
Naturally with the Crysis engine the gameplay looks gorgeous, and much like the original tabletop game tactics like aiming for the legs pay off, and there's nothing quite as satisfying as launching an LRM batch and seeing them streak towards your foe. I haven't tried out autocannons yet, but can't wait to see what an AC/20 can do.
Living legends is in public beta, so don't expect miracles yet, but it's certainly playable. It won ModDB's Player's Choice Mod Of the Year 2009, as well as Editor's Choice Best Multiplayer Mod. If you're a Mechwarrior fan, this is simply required installing. Get to it.
One of the more unique, and scary, levels of Half Life 2 was the doomed town of Ravenholm. If it didn't give you the jeebies, it at least had you on edge, And while some were all too glad to leave it behind others felt they could do with a little more of that Ravenholm loving.
Like the authors behind Ravenholm, the mod.
If you can look past the accents (the native dialog is in Czech, with English subtitles) it does a good job of keeping that Ravenholm theme - namely scaring your pants off. Right from the start you walk out into Ravenholm with no weapons, and quickly run into headcrabs. Your tactic is to simply run, and find something quickly. From there you are gradually introduced to weapons, but all the time you have think about how much ammo you have left and if a weapon is a best tool for the job. If the mod does one thing right, it's getting that survivalist feel to the game.
There's actually a good plot underneath too, and many levels require you to do some complex puzzle solving to get past a section. The entire mod uses resources only from Half Life 2, there are no new textures although there it comes with its own musical score, and so clocks in at a tiny 70MB download - and yet provides at least ten hours of gameplay. And because it's Half Life 2, itruns smooth as butter on any half-decent machine.
Ravenholm was actually released in 2006 and was so popular that the authors started on a sequel - Eye of the Storm, the first episode of which was recently released. After you've played Ravenholm you can jump into Eye of the Storm.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012