Hot Mods - Page 3

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

LE10 Manufacturing Concern

http://www.crymod.com/moddbmods.php?id=250

Put together by two Wesminster University students studying Contemporary Media Practice as part of their final project, LE10 Manufacturing Concern is a satirical look at contemporary society through the camera of a brutal FPS.

The game places you in the role of a corporate security officer obliged to enforce the law (or, more accurately, execute corporate policy) in a futuristic city populated by autonomous robots.

The game intends to challenge our ethical and moral boundaries, and also highlights society’s dependency on commercialism. You have to buy everything you need, and earning your wage is intended to be on a par with the decision to make a kill shot – something which sounds very dodgy, morally speaking, but if we’re all brutally honest (as the mod encourages) such thoughts do creep into our minds from time to time.

But it’s also an utterly stunning visual experience. The Ne-Tokyo look to the city, which is equipped with a fully operational public transport system to get you around, makes LE10 Manufacturing Concern worth playing regardless of any socio-genetic experiments.

It’s not complete yet, but being an exam project means it will get to a working stage, so you’re well advised to keep a close eye on LE10 Manufacturing Concern.

One To Watch: LightSpire: Fortunes Web

http://www.lightspiregame.com/

As much as we’ve seen some remarkable enhancements to the Crysis engine in this week’s Hot Mods, it’s also great to check out a mod that attempts to completely redefine the game style. LightSpire: Fortunes Web is just such a game, as it’s taken that powerful engine and built it into the kind of fantasy epic that could give The Elder Scrolls a run for its money.

Work is still progressing at Lukewarm Media (the developer of this game), but the early character designs are utterly awe inspiring. The fantasy RPG total conversion also holds an excellent storyline premise at its core, in which the game world is joined immediately after an unknown cataclysm. The entire populace is unaware as to what caused this planet-shattering catastrophe, and you set off to discover all you can about this amazing world, the inhabitants that live there and the catastrophe that’s befallen them.

“In the game, there are four different heroes, who each have their own background and involvement in the world of Lightspire,” the team explains. “The dominant force in the game world is the dragon elves. They are a dictatorship due to their immense army, and control of vast amounts of land and resources.”

But the excitement doesn’t stop there. LightSpire: Fortunes Web is quickly realising the ultimate modders dream – commerciality. The early work was impressive enough for the team to get hold of an evaluation version of the full CryEngine 2, which will allow them to develop the game from the ground up.

So, despite this being a Hot Mod, it’s actually becoming a fully developed game that, with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, the Lukewarm Media team will hopefully be able to take to the big name publishers and pitch as a full commercial development.

“We've come a long way from our first media update, and we've been waiting for this day for a long time. Lightspire is no longer a Crysis modification, and Lukewarm Media is now an official Crytek developer.

“Our plans are to create a small, workable version of our game and pitch it to potential investors, such as EA Games or SEGA.”

Remember where you heard that news when LightSpire: Fortunes Web is on the shelf next to Crysis.

Comment