Games

So, Skyrim is now a Super Mario Brothers title. Any further comment at this time seems redundant.

Following quickly after the news of Black Mesa getting a release date (14 September), another long-in-development fan game has also been unleashed into the wild. Battlestar Galactica: Diaspora is based on the reimagined version of the SF TV series. The game has been in development for four years, spinning off the never-released Beyond the Red Line title. Whilst using the classic Freespace 2 engine, Diaspora is not a 'mod' requiring the player to already own a game. Instead, it is available for free download and is a self-contained game in its own right. The game is a space combat simulator pitting the player as a Colonial pilot against the Cylon forces. The storyline has been kept under wraps, but it appears to feature a small Colonial military taskforce that escaped the Cylon ambush in the pilot mini-series, with a story that proceeds in parallel to the TV series (this seems to be the major difference from Beyond the Red Line , which was more of an attempt to directly r...

The long, long-awaited game Black Mesa has finally gotten a release date : 14 September, or just twelve days from now. Relive the classic dialogue: "Forget about Freeman!" "They're waiting for you, in the test chamber." "ARGH!" Black Mesa is a fan-made mod for Half-Life . It recreates the entire game of Half-Life in the latest version of the Source Engine, with vastly superior graphics. Made with the approval of Valve, Black Mesa has been in development since shortly after Half-Life 2 was released in 2004. It's actually been in the making for longer than Half-Life 3 and both of the episode expansions for HL2. The Black Mesa team have added a caveat however: the game will only go up as far as the Lambda Core level (at the end of which you teleport to the planet Xen). The team is still working on the controversial Xen levels (most fans' least favourite part of the original game) and looking for a way of making them more compelling. Still, ...

A modding team have released their Song of Ice and Fire -based mod for Crusader Kings II , Paradox Interactive's acclaimed medieval dynasty simulator. Crusader Kings II: A Game of Thrones is available right now for free, but you need a copy of Crusader Kings II to play it. The mod not only alters the existing game setting and factions, it also introduces new features not present in the base game and allows for some amusing changes to the way things fell out in the books, as this report on a campaign indicates: "An interesting development in my campaign if anyone's interested. Managed to squash Robert's Rebellion after ol' King Aerys met an "unfortunate" end and Rhaegar ascended to the throne. Spared Robert's life which eventually led to him choosing trial by combat. He killed Rhaegar so now I'm playing as Aegon with Varys as my regent. Gotta say, this mod is leaps and bounds ahead of vanilla CK2 and the official ASOIAF games as well....

A band of talented mod-makers have finally released Wing Commander Saga , a continuation of the venerable space combat series. Made with the (unofficial) nod of approval of the original game designers, Wing Commander Saga is an open-source game using the Freespace 2 engine. It requires nothing else to play (a joystick or gamepad is recommended, however) and can be played on most PCs, including those using Linux. The mod has been in development for over ten years. As well as robust space combat (featuring 50 single-player missions), the game features cut-scenes, animated mission briefings and full voice-overs throughout. The mod is available, free of charge, from the WC Saga website here . Rock Paper Shotgun have their take on the game here (one reviewer in the comments suggesting it has the best space combat of any Wing Commander game, official or otherwise, released to date). Sadly, the game does not feature Mark Hamill. Fortunately, it also doesn't feature Freddie Prinze, Jr.

A bunch of gamers are on a mission to recreate all of Westeros in the Lego-like computer game Minecraft . They've already completed work on King's Landing and the Wall and hope to do the rest of the continent over the next few months (which seems very ambitious). Follow the link for a whole load more screenshots.

Whilst playing Skyrim , it has often occurred to me that what the game really lacked was that space core from the end of Portal 2 floating around like ten feet behind you occasionally bellowing, "SPAAAACE!" in its unique style. "I'm in space. And by 'space' I mean 'Tamriel'." Of course, Valve and Bethesda have recognised this glaring deficiency in the game, and created a mod that allows the space core from the end of Portal 2 to float around behind you and etc. The same update also adds high-resolution texture packs to make the PC version of the game look totally awesome(r) and activates the Creation Kit, which allows you to adjust and tweak all aspects of the game, but frankly this is just small fry compared to the space core thing. So, does this mean that it is now canon that the Half-Life/Portal and Elder Scrolls franchises take place in the same universe? Will we see headcrabs and Combine invade Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls VI ? Will Drag...

The long-awaited third version of Third Age: Total War has been released. This fan-made (but professional-quality) mod allows owners of Medieval II: Total War and its Kingdoms expansion to conquer Middle-earth with one of several factions. The new third version of the game features a host of changes, most notably the long-awaited introduction of custom battle maps and settlements, putting iconic locations such as Minas Tirith and Edoras on the battlefield to be fought over. These replace the generic Medieval II towns that had stood in for the settlements in previous versions of the game. More information on the game, including download links and installation information can be found on TWCenter .