Hot Mods - Page 2

06 Feb 2009 at 10:51:09 by Spanner Spencer

City Assault

http://www.crymod.com/moddbmods.php?id=409

The jungle’s a superb environment for a war, but too many Crysis mods have stuck with that formula. To be fair, it’s a formula that works superbly well, which is why so many programmers have never managed to see beyond the tree line and shrubbery. City Assault certainly has, however, and brings Crysis into the heat of the city.

This mod casts you as more of an urban ninja than a crack military weapon, as the cityscape offers a lot less cover than the jungle arena, and a lot more height once you work your way up onto the skyscraper roof tops.

It’s also essentially two mods in one. At its core is an advanced AI system designed by one modder, while the urban environment was put together by another team to test out his new game intelligence. The concrete jungle was chosen to see how the tactical intelligence performed, and the whole thing gelled together so beautifully the mod took on a life of its own.

It’s not a huge mod, but the scope is immediately obvious when cars start exploding and the stark contrast between the way you need to approach the Crysis and City Assault environments comes into focus. And if that wasn’t enough, this level design was put together in just 10 days. Pretty damn impressive, eh?

X32i

http://www.x32i.org/

What grabs our attention about this Crysis mod is its heavy lean toward sci-fi. Not that Crysis doesn’t come pre-loaded with sci-fi elements, but it’s the kind of science fiction that attempts to blend in a heap of reality – a concept that dulls the futuristic edge a little too much.

X32i attempts to recapture that vital sci-fi core, with strong overtones of the classic movie Alien. While reality can sour a good sci-fi production, a decent thriller plot with some pant-wetting horror elements really give it flavour, and that’s the feeling we get when playing X32i.

The gameplay and progression are actually quite recognisable to anyone who’s spent a bit of time with Crysis. The major difference is that it’s you who’s visiting an alien planet, rather than aliens visiting our, and because of that the sensation of scope and desertion are much more tangible.

X32i also adopts the burgeoning trend for episodic gameplay (a trend we approve of, for the most part), with four planned stories of around 30 minutes each. Not a huge time investment, but in total we expect the X32i series to pan out to be a pretty significant addition to the Crysis mod community.

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