Mod of the Year Announced

Every year since 2002, the world's biggest central space for game mods, Moddb.com, announces the best mods of the year.

For 2009, Moddb got 133,000 votes which helped decide the outcome. Some of the mods have taken over 30 years to perfect, with two in particular, Neotokyo and The Nameless Mod, having been years in development and perfecting.

So here are the top ten best mods of the year, according to Moddb.com:

10) Resistance and Liberation
Resistance and Liberation attempts to realistically portray the events and actions taken by the 82nd Airborne during their stay in Normandy. The initial release will follow the regiments through a campaign that mimics that followed by the men themselves. The campaign will begin with players dropping into Normandy in the early hours of 6 June, with the ultimate objective of capturing the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise.

9) C&C: Shockwave
C&C: Shockwave is an enhancement mod for C&C Generals: Zero Hour. The main goal of this mod is to make Zero Hour a more interesting game with more diversity between the generals, making players think twice before they select a certain general, and overall provide more choices, diversity, and strategic freedom than in Zero Hour - while keeping the spirit and design direction of the original Generals game and storyline.

8) The Nameless Mod
In Forum City, the Internet is serious business. As its name implies, the city is the physical embodiment of Internet forums and bulletin boards. It's more like The Matrix or Tron than Second Life, however, as the troubles of the city are no laughing matter. Embracing the style of Deus Ex, Forum City has as much crime and conspiracy as the world of JC Denton — but most citizens would have it no other way.

7) Third Age - Total War
Third Age - Total War is a total conversion modification for 'Medieval II: Total War - Kingdoms Expansion' that brings players into the world of Middle-Earth. The Production has been going since March 2008 and the mod is currently well under development and boasts a variety of new features.

6) Median XL
The main attraction of Median XL is the brand new skill trees, 30 skills per class, providing a whole new experience. The mod also offers a new base item setup with seven quality tiers, 480 uniques, 310 runewords, a new affix pool and gem/jewel stats, honorific items and many new and powerful crafting recipes.

5) Renegade X
Renegade X is a mod dedicated to recreating Command and Conquer (C&C) Renegade in the new generation engine, the Unreal Engine 3. The developers believe the C&C series is a very special one, and its fans have been following its games for over a decade now. C&C has been one of the most successful videogame series' in the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. Renegade X's modding team believes that C&C Renegade is truly a hidden gem in the first-person shooter (FPS) genre.

4) Star Wars Mod: Galactic Warfare
The goal of the developers is to unite their favourite game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD4), with the universe of Star Wars, which they call the best trilogy ever. With this total conversion they have combined a lot of the known battlegrounds, characters and weapons of Star Wars with the gameplay of CoD4-Multiplayer. Either as a trooper of the Imperial Forces or as a soldier from the Rebel Alliance, players will fight on different locations.

3) Neotokyo
Neotokyo takes place in and around a fictionalised Tokyo, approximately 30 years in the future. Mankind has begun to fuse with technology. Government and corporate corruption have transformed Tokyo into a deadly dystopian nightmare.

Check out Do Gaming's coverage of this mod here.

2) Research and Development
Research and Development is a puzzle-centric mod for Half-Life 2: Episode Two featuring an unarmed player but plenty of violent mayhem.

1) MechWarrior: Living Legends
MechWarrior: Living Legends (MWLL) is a total conversion modification for Crysis. MWLL is at its very core a mix between First Person Shooter (FPS) and simulation games. This the developers hope to achieve through the use of a mixed arms massively multiplayer gaming experience where the player takes part in a battle using a variety of vehicles and weapons. MWLL is using the concepts pioneered by the “Battlefield” franchise and more recently Crysis.

Download the MWLL beta here from Do Gaming using local bandwidth. The first hotfix is available here and the first patch here.

Check out the MWLL game page here.

Check out the full coverage and other mod awards at the Moddb.com website here.

What is a mod?

A mod is basically a modification of an original game. For example, Neotokyo is basically 'built-off' of the same game engine as Half-Life 2. For this reason, it requires the original game to play. So gamers downloading NeoTokyo will not be able to play it unless they have a valid copy of Half-Life 2 installed on their machine.