The environment is rather linear, but there are enough side paths and backtracking allowed to give you the sense that you actually have control over which direction you want to take. The maps, the visuals, the level design, all of it is good enough to trick you into believing that this is an officially-made Valve product. The first thing you'll notice about MINERVA is the great sense of presentation that never falters below the professional level. A rogue, unexplained artificial intelligence (clearly stolen from the Marathon series) has captured you to do her bidding and drops you off on a distant island, where the Combine are conducting unnatural experiments. Players assume the role of a Gordon Freeman-esque individual and are thrust back into the heart of the Human-Combine war, expanding upon the Half-Life 2 universe while remaining firmly inside of its' boundaries. MINERVA, which now comprises two parts of a planned three, is both simple and elegant in its design. Garrys Mod, Natural Selection, Forgotten Hope and Dystopia And this is coming from the people who worked their butts off on it. I'd be the first person to roll my eyes at phrases like "the best turnout ever," but let's be realistic here. And, as I've already mentioned, we've registered 80,000 votes in all and seen our site traffic go through the roof as the impact and popularity of mods continues to rocket ever upwards. We've seen Half-Life, the game engine that saw the modding community explode, finally be dethroned in the listing, no longer dominating all of the categories and finally having to step aside to allow room for others. The list was changing so dramatically that we couldn't even get a jump start on the writing until it came down to the wire!įrom there, we've seen the Top 5 mods slowly shift between established classics, new faces in the community and hard-working projects just beginning to pick up steam. When the time came for the Top 100 Mods to be announced, we literally had to sit and watch the list eb and flow, backwards and forwards, top mods slipping off the list, only to come back mere minutes later. Well, I'd be lying to you if I said that the Mod of the Year Awards this year wasn't exciting. There is almost no difference between 2004, 2001, 1998, anything. Oh, yes, see, this year was way more exciting than the last year, because, you know, everything was so different. Every time you read one of these "Best of the Year Awards" features, you always hear the same stpry.
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