The mod is one of PC gaming’s greatest feature. You buy a game and over the years the community will expand upon it and make it a totally new game. The community can also mod the vanilla game to make it better, bigger, and more interesting. There is a reason why people still play 10-15 year old games on the PC and the answer is usually that it has been modded. I’ve been thinking about the best mods I’ve ever played and narrowed it down to the best five mods of all time.
5. Europa Barbarorum
http://www.europabarbarorum.com/
Europa Barbarorum is total conversion mod for the 2004 game, Rome: Total War. It fixes all the historic inaccuracies within Rome: Total War and portrays all the factions as historically correct. On top of the great historic accuracy it also adds in an expanded map, a new trait system, new buildings, new music, and new game play. Be warned though, Numerous hours of historic research is required to understand the new factions and units.
4. Mount & Blade: Warband – Napoleonic Wars
A hybrid, multiplayer only, first/third person shooter set in the final years of the French conquest of Western Europe by Napoleon. It takes ten seconds to reload and you cant hit anything past 50 yards, Welcome to the world of Napoleonic Wars. Players take the role of a trooper, artilleryman, infantryman, flag bearer, or a musician. The game is fun when you play with random people on a random server, but it is not until you join an organized regiment comprised of about 200 people that the game really shines. Players are split in to regiments consisting of about 20 players each. With about five regiments on each side and an officer leading each regiment, the two brigades must fight one another using tactics of the time. These 200 man battles are called line battles and lead to some hilariously interesting moments.
3. Third Age
http://www.moddb.com/mods/third-age-total-war
Lord of the Rings total conversion mod for Medieval II: Total War. I do not think there is much to say on how cool this mod is. Players play on a map of Middle Earth as it was during the Third age. All the unique locations in Middle Earth is present in this mod. Players can take the role of the Gondor, Rohan, High and Silvan Elves, Dwarves, Eriador, Dale, Isengard, Mordor, Rhun, Harad and the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. On top of the aesthetics, Third Age includes fully redesigned AI, game play, and sounds. Third Age is a must play for any Lord of the Rings fan or strategy player.
2. Garry’s Mod
http://store.steampowered.com/app/4000/
Garry’s Mod is a mod for Valve’s source engine, which turns the engine into a sandbox for the player to do virtually whatever he wishes. From building rocket ships to playing on a RPG server the number of things to do in Garry’s Mod is almost endless. Players can construct anything they wish to build by using the spawn menu, tool gun, and physics gun. Players can build by themselves in single player or take the fun online. The online portion of Garry’s Mod is almost as endless as building in single player. Many servers exist with many different game modes. My personal favorites are sled building, jailbreak, Trouble in Terrorist Town, YouTube theater, zombies, and RPG servers. With as many options as Garry’s Mod has, players will never run out of options.
1. Counter Strike 1.6
http://store.steampowered.com/app/10/
What is there to say? This mod for Half Life is considered one of the first successful online shooters. The classic formula of Counter Terrorist vs. Terrorists is still relevant to this day. Beside the fact to what it has done to the modern shooter, It also is one of the most popular games played by professionals. Without Counter Strike what would the modern video game market have looked like? What about the modern day e-sport scene? It would have probably looked a lot different, and that is why I consider Counter Strike the greatest mod of all time.
