Game Links
News and FAQs
Gamespy - News, reviews, interviews, previews, and most importantly, a sense of humor. This is greatly the responsibility (or so they would have us think) of one Dave "Fargo" Kosak. His Friday articles, Daily victims and game grudge matches (along with Shaithis) really make the site. If only they'd use vb code in the forums, maybe it would be the gaming site instead of a gaming site.
Game Downloads
Abandonia - Another great site for abandonware.
Abandonia Reloaded - The sister site of Abandonia, this one showcasing remakes of classic games and many modern freeware games.
Home of the Underdogs - Ever get nostalgic for an old classic that you may have lost the disc to? Or maybe you just want to catch up on some of the oldies that you might have missed the first time around? Well, this is the place to check out.
Free Game Engines
AGS - This one is good for 2d adventures, Sierra Co. style.
Crystal Space - A 3d inclined engine.
Orge - A 3d engine that might be a little harder than others, but it designed for more than just games.
Verge - Particularly for 2d RPG's.
WinterMuteEngine - Like AGS, this engine is designed for 2d adventure games in mid. Unlike AGS, it aspires to more modern needs with bigger resolutions and color depth. It also takes advantage of GPU acceleration and is even looking to implement 3d character models a la FF7+ or Resident Evil.
Misc.
Pixel art tutorial - For when you're feeling a little nostalgic.
High Quality Scans - Looking for old videogame manuals? You might find them here.
Exult - All fans of the classic Ultima series, particularly the 7 series, should click here.
Unreal Tournament Mod Sites
Skin City-One of the best, well, the best resource for getting models and skins for all games Unreal.
2d Tournament-It's great when people use an engine that can push so many polygons for something so simple. Really. It's basically the game, from the side. Platformer Tournament if you will.
Action UT-So you like pretending to be in a Verhoven movie with UT? Well now you can pretend to be in a Woo movie.
Air Power-Monarch's maps and mods is host to this flight/combat simulator.
Air Bucaneers-A truly original mod where small groups of larger teams each pilot air balloons into the sky, each with it's own little cannon, for some slow paced and methodical fun.
Alien Swarm-Top down game where you can think of yourself as a marine from "Aliens". Though not necessarily the live ones.
Allied CTF-More to come.
Anomaly-Not necessarily a F-Zero mod, but that was justifiably the main point of comparison when the first screen shots emerged.
ARRRGH!-Every day is pirates day and you know you love it.
Asylum-Looks to be a kind of survival horror FPS.
Atlantis-Aliens VS marines in objective based warfare. Simple and fun.
Beyond Unreal-One of the best news sources for all things unreal engine.
Blue Moon Rising-All I know is that their website features screenshots of hordes of burning space zombies attacking a laser gun wielding hero. I'm sold.
Call to Arms-A medieval setting with 3rd person dungeon romping. As overused as a comparison it may be: think Diablo.
CarBall-Soccer in four wheels.
Chaos UT-Chaotic Dreams brings you new weapons, new maps, new game types, pretty much the whole yelpamaticatron.
Clockwork Cannons-Strange how sometimes a mod with such promise can just up and stop it's development.
Clone Bandits-You have to sign up to mess around with their funky vehicles, have fun.
Conquest Marines-This was a pretty great mod for UT2003, it had some of the best vehicles anyone ever put into the game (very Battle Field 1942 like in gameplay). But when UT2004 came out with it's similar Onslaught mode, their efforts we're forced to the sidelines. I don't believe a 2004 version was ever even released.
Dark Harvest-A total conversion which seeks to incorporate resource gathering (a la RTS games) into the FPS genre.
Dark Territory-A game of medieval sieges.
Defense Alliance-Very similar to the default Invasion game type, DA put the player on one side with his human cohorts while they face down swarms of enemy bots. The original UT version had something of a cult following and the 2004 version looks to be one of the more polished mods out the door.
The Devil's Own-A Napoleonic war mod? Why not.
Domain 2049-Futuristic war.
DBZ: Heroes of Destiny-Fly around, cast energy bolts at each other. Appreciate your new 80's hair. You've seen the show.
DragonBallU-Another dragonball mod, not sure what's up with them.
Duffers Golf-We need more mods that aren't just shooters. I'm not a golf person, but I'm glad it's here.
Eden Eclipse-Single player science fiction survival in deep space.
Eiko Battle-Kind of a post apocalyptic game of soul collector.
Eon-To give you an idea of the professionalism that this mod imbues, I'll say that when it was first announced as a contender in Epic game's Make Something Unreal Contest (where cash was awarded and a full engine liscence awaited the grand winner) many thought it should be disqualified as it's "team" appeared to be too professional for their own good.
Mod Exemplar Project-Creators of a few small mods, notably the "Happy Fun Ball" game type. It's happy and fun and includes a ball.
Exion-A project that takes maps and tries to make them as destructible as possible.
Forward Edge Battle Arena-One of those mods for UT that you had to appreciate the complexity of. Unfortunately I think it may have been that same learning curve that kept a few people away. But still, you've got to love any program that adds spells, futuristic weapons and gimps to your gameplay.
Frag Ops-One of the Premiere Action/Realism mods for UT2004.
Fraghouse Mod Team-It's like an artists studio where the workers have created several little mods of amusement such as deployable fun (create hundreds of nades and mines). But to this day they're probably most famous for their alteration of the Invasion game type which uses custom maps and places the players on one side of the map and the monsters on another instead of letting it be a huge ffa.
Global Resistence-More futuristic weapons, more action/realism components. It's not a bad mod but it seems like a lot of them have come out.
Global Warzone-More futuristc weapons, more action/realism... ...aw fuck it.
Godz-A deathmatch game type that puts you in the shoes of gods who fly around and try to devastate each other through magic, ether and . Comes in both UT and UT200x flavors.
Golden Years-Click here, just, click here.
Hackerz-More near future action/realism. They really put in the work before releasing, check out the site for good map, weapon and character screens.
Herzog Zwei-Kind of an RTS conversion, all I know is that it's based off an old Genesis game.
Hollow Moon-Here's an interesting project. It seems to be a single player riff on doom but the whole thing aspires to a 1950's science fiction movie by rendering the game black and white.
Infiltration-In the hayday of UT there were 3 main mods you went to for your realism gameplay, Tactic Ops, Strike Force and Infiltration. While the former 2 were known to be action oriented Infiltration was the game for the hardcore realists. Squad based gameplay and physical loadouts gave the game a real edge. If you try to may want to go with an earlier version. The last versions didn't include the "Infiltration lite" mutator that allowed you to play in regular UT maps.
International Control-"After a long meeting today, the team has come to a decision. We've decided to revamp the mod. The idea behind IC is bland and resembles other mods too closely." -June 8, 2004. This is the message I saw the very first time I visited the mod site, and you have no idea how much it pleased me. :)
Infogrames Forums-The official forums for Unreal. Good place to learn the ropes and make engine queries.
Jailbreak-A popular game type where the player, upon death, is sent to jail and can only be freed by a teammate hitting a switch, which is of course, in the enemy base.
Jungle Warfare-The UT version left something to be desired, but JW200x was an action/realism total conversion that had real production value. I complain sometimes about mods following a formula, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a good rattling of an MG over the enemy when I hear one.
Killing For Ever-A few small mods, including the assassin game type.
LawDogs-It's a western for UT2004. Gotta love those six shooters.
Majestic 12-Near future action/realism. Doesn't seem to have anything to do with the faction from the Deus Ex Universe.
Mod Squad 1.0-A site that was dedicated to mapping the releases of mutators and mods for UT.
Mod Squad 2.0-Same site, just for UT 2004. Kind of slowed down after a while.
Maximum Velocity Paintball- <- see title.
MiniSpy-One of the stranger mods for UT2004, with a unique look and play.
Muralis-A team trying to put hand to hand combat into UT2004.
Mutai-3rd person fighting action.
Nali City-For the longest time, Nali City has been one of the main places for user made map reviews.
NeoTokyo-Near future action/realism. One of the more polished mods upon it's debut, NeoTokyo incorporates Team Deathmatch stylings on a "node control" domination like gametype. At first glance it seems to be simple cyber-punk combat taking place in a Shirow inspired universe, but additions such as thermoptic camouflage and detailed maps set it apart from the crowd.
Nightblade-From the same team that brought you Alien Swarm, Nightblade is basically an update of the thievery mod for UT (Which, while excellent, came to the game too late to garner the attention it deserved). They're basically remakes of the Ion Storm classic Thief series (which use the Unreal engine coincidentally enough).
Wicked Penguin-A site that gathers together many custom vehicles for UT2004. Notably the Node Runner speed floater.
Out of Hell-1st person survival horror for UT2004.
Path To Victory-Western Front WW2 realism.
Piddly's Chance-A curious little platformer with cute cartoon characters... ...no, no you may not use your flak cannon on the cute little cartoon characters.
Planet Unreal-You could put in "Planet (insert whatever)" and get an informative site. The Unreal keyword is no different.
Providence of Demons-This is one of those mods that's created by a college class under the theory of applied knowledge. Makes me wonder what the hell kind of college I've been wasting my money on. Side scrolling demon action here, kind of reminds me of the old coin-ops.
Red Orchestra-Eastern Front WW2 realism.
Roadkill Warriors-Mad Max for UT, also in production: A Half Life 2 version.
Rocketeer-For the diligent hardcore purist of utmost conviction and only for the diligent hardcore purist of utmost conviction.
SAS-The British Strike force is the basis for this action/realism ditty. Have fun.
Shattered Oasis-More post-apocalyptic fun. As a bonus not only does this mod have great production value but you get to ride giant bipedal cows while being chased by busty women in nurses uniforms.
Seige 200x-Siege200X is a modification for UT200X which combines the gameplay of FirstPersonShooters and RealTimeStrategy-games.
Silent Assasins-Unreal Tournament mod.
Soulkeeper-Medieval mod high in artistic vitiamins.
Stargate Special Unit-It's kind of strange that this mod exists since I was under the impression that Atlantis was to be a Stargate mod before the copyright holders said no to them.
Strangelove-Every get the urge to just jump on a 20 megaton warhead and ride around the map like a cowboy? Good, I like Kubrick movies too.
Strike Force-Moooooo. (Preferred UT version: 1.75. But that's just me.)
Tactical Ops-The most arcade like of the big 3 UT realism mods. TO was polished and strangely enthralling in it's simplicity of swat team VS terrorist. It's also one of the few mods I've seen people actually argue about the changes over. Some prefer the pre 1.6 versions when it was known as SWAT, some prefer the 3.0 versions which were the retail versions. I personally prefer the 2.20 version. It was the most polished and still retained the option of playing with TO weapons in UT maps. It was also rather surprising how long the forums continued to thrive even when the game was no longer supported.
Tango Down-A strange realism mod for UT2004 that purposefully used low poly characters and maps in order to recreate the feel of combat in the original Rainbow Six tactical game. Good for those looking for a nostalgia trip from back when the Red Storm company first hit the scene.
Team Delta-Near future action/realism.... ...
Team Unreal SP-A single player mod that tries to continue the story of the original unreal universe. Particularly that of the Nali Race.
The Voiceshrine-A place to download new voices for bots and to use online. Very freaky stuff.
The Third Reich-A World War 2 Modification. Realism/Realism with iron sights and all. Comes in both UT and UT2004 scents.
Troopers-Dawn of Destiny has had a shaky development history, and it kind of shows. The mod is very straight forward and will probably appeal mostly to those enamored of the Star Wars universe. It's one great innovation is the dynamic aiming reticule that actually shifts depending on the distance between the gun barrel and the target surface.
UDN-The official resource for licensed developers is also pretty handy for mod makers.
UETF Chronicles-A total conversion that is a kind of playable fan-fiction based on the loose Unreal Universe defined by the Unreal series.
Ultimate Survival Paintball-Paintball. You know who you are.
Unatural Gaming-Right now their only project is the Checkmate game type, but that's still pretty interesting in itself.
Uncommonplace-Home to several new game types including Flag Domination and Bombing Spree.
Unreal 4 Ever-One of my personal favorites. The UT version for it's baby nukem, the UT2004 version for the anti-gravity gu. Whichever version you get, I'm sure there'll be enough weapons in this mutator to make you interested.
Unreal Annihilation-There was once a RTS called Annihilation that was one of the first strategy games to feature 3d units on a battlefield with real elevated terrain. Very popular. Now comes this mod which seeks to remake it for the Unreal universe.
Unreal Fortress-Ah the fortress game type. Probably the most ported mod to any given game engine I can name. Make sure to seek out the UT version too. You probably won't find anyone to play with online anymore, but the bots don't entirely suck mandrake root.
Unreal Playground-Probably the best place to get new maps on a daily basis, all divided into their respective categories, for all versions of the engine.
Unreal Smash-Not sure if this is still being worked on, but it was to be a port of that old arcade/console game "Smash TV". Kind of like Asteroids only more violent.
Unreal Speed-Racing mod.
UnWheel-A total conversion that brings the world of sports car racing to UT2004. Incredibly well done models are accompanied by innovations such as the K-Ball game type, where cars push around a giant ball into goals.
USkaarj-A RTS total conversion for UT2004.
UTron-A Tron inspired total conversion. Wait for the UT2004 version, if it ever happens.
xcalon-Top down, forward scrolling, space flying, arcade shooting action. Retro goodness with a brand new paint job.
XRT-Post apocalyptic racing fun. All I know is that I don't use the words post apocalyptic nearly as much as I do "action/realism", so I'm happy.
Zombie Hunter-Because people love being cornered by dozens of zombies that go squish squish with shotguns.
Jesus Christ I need to get some decent page layouts in here...