Make Something Unreal Contest Phase 4 Winners

Written on January 14, 2010 at 7:10 pm, by James Fudge

Congratulations to all of this phase's winners.

Epic Games announced this week that winners of Phase 4 winners in its $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest. The game development competition rewards mods created for Unreal Tournament 3 with cash and hardware prizes in four preliminary phases and a grand final judging. The mod contest is designed to help game developers of all levels learn Unreal Engine 3 technology and gain recognition for authoring high-quality game experiences.  In this portion of the contest over $100,000 in cash prizes is distributed to winning mod authors. Grand final judging has begun and winners receiving $175,000 in cash along with a commercial Unreal Engine 3 license will soon be announced.

Epic Games and Intel will reveal the grand prize winners of the $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas next month. The grand prize winning mod team will receive an Unreal Engine 3 commercial license in addition to a check for $50,000. Runner-up winners will receive $40,000, $30,000, $20,000 and $10,000 in cash prizes. The Educational category winners will receive a total of $25,000 in cash. Visit www.makesomethingunreal.com for more details.

The Phase 4 Best FPS Game Mod winners and other winners after the break.

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Zombie Driver Darkness Mod Released

Written on December 12, 2009 at 3:51 pm, by James Fudge

While fans of EXOR Studios’ popular action driving game, Zombie Driver, wait for the next update to the game (which the developers say will be released very soon), they can try out the Darkness Mod. Basically this simple modification to the game turns out the lights on drivers, who are now more reliant on their vehicle’s headlights to hit the hordes of zombies plaguing the city streets.

To use the mod download this zip file (direct link) and place it in the “pack” folder where you installed the game (there should be two other packs already present in there from when you installed the game: OgreCore.zip and Pak0.zip). Next, define the new pack in the resources.cfg placed inside the Release folder by replacing the following information:

Multi=FileSystem:../,Zip:../Packs/Pak0.zip

Replace that with this information:

Multi=FileSystem:../,Zip:../Packs/Pak0.zip,Zip:../Packs/darkness.zip

And that’s it!

For more information, check out the Modding section of the Zombie Driver web site or download the Modding Guide (PDF file, direct link). Be sure to check out the video of this new mod after the jump.

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The Witcher Entrapped module released

Written on June 16, 2009 at 2:45 am, by James Fudge

A new adventure for CD Projekt’s The Witcher, created by the game’s modding community, is now available. The new adventure module is called Entrapped, and it is the debut module from the community group known as The Bards. According to the official description of this module, The Witcher arrives in an unnamed village after an exhausting journey through Temeria. He wants to simply spend the night at the local inn and move on, but soon realizes that he is trapped in this strange village and must find a way to escape.

Instructions on where to download the module and how to install it can be found at the official The Witcher site. Entrapped is a decent distraction until the company releases the 1.5 update. The free update promises bonus content from The Witcher: Enhanced Edition and five additional fan-made adventures. Most importantly, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition 1.5 will make the game DRM free.

Pretending: StarCraft to StarCraft 2 Mod

Written on May 2, 2009 at 3:20 am, by James Fudge

So you want to play StarCraft 2 now despite the fact that it’s so very far away from being released? Well if you can use your imagination a little bit and forgive the rather dated graphics of StarCraft, then you might want to check out the StarCraft to StarCraft 2 mod. What it does is adds some of the new units from Blizzard’s sequel into StarCraft.

It isn’t flashy baby but it gets the job done. Of course, it’s like making your 300 lbs room mate dres up to look like Chun Li and having sex with him / her: there might be a slight resemblance, but it’s far from the real thing – and gross.

You learn more about the mod from G4TV, where I lifted this story.

G.E.C.K. Released for Fallout 3

Written on December 12, 2008 at 1:14 pm, by David Chapman

Ah, the G.E.C.K. Long a staple of the Fallout series, the Garden of Eden Creation Kit is the nearly mythical Holy Grail of the post-apocalyptic world, with the capability to build a lush paradise out of the nuclear wasteland. For fans of the PC version of the latest Fallout game though, there’s a new G.E.C.K. available that puts them in control of changing the world to their every whim.

Bethesda Softworks announced this morning that it has released the Fallout 3 level editor, via a link on the game’s official website. With the G.E.C.K. editor, users can create, modify, and edit any data in the game, from building landscapes, towns, and locations to writing dialogue, creating characters, weapons, creatures, and more. To help players get the most out of their modding experience, Bethesda also opened up the G.E.C.K. Wiki, a community-run site where modders will find everything they need to use the The Garden of Eden Creation Kit to the fullest.

So, Fallout fans, the time has come for all of you to cry ‘have G.E.C.K.’, and let slip the mods of war! (Apologies to Shakespeare for the pun)

Meet The Portal Prelude Mod

Written on September 19, 2008 at 8:52 am, by James Fudge

If you’re growing tired of waiting for some official Portal, you may be interested in this mod, Portal Prelude, which gives players a story set prior to the events of the popular action adventure puzzle game from Valve. According to its developer, Portal Prelude is an unofficial prequel to the game Portal. that revolves around the pre-GlaDOS epoch before the entertaining AI was plugged in. During this timeframe, tests were monitored by real Aperture Science employees, who are apparently so lazy that they need to create A.I. so that don’t have to handle a number of mind-numbing work-related activities. What a bunch of slackers..

So can players expect to from Portal Prelude? Portal Prelude offers 8 new chapters, 19 test chambers, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps, a brand new storyline and more than 400 lines of speech with English and French subtitles.

We are not sure whether Valve Software is flattered by this project or upset because someone outside the company is trying to write the back-story in the Portal universe, but Portal Prelude sure does sound like something worth downloading. Look for it to be released at the end of the month or early October..

Source: Official Site

Call of Duty 4 Mod Tools

Written on January 22, 2008 at 12:00 am, by James Fudge

Infinity Ward has launched the mod tools for its popular modern day shooter, Call of Duty 4. The tools allow budding community programmers and mappers to create new single- and multiplayer modifications and maps for Infinity Ward’s game. Visit the FourToZero blog for a list of download mirrors.