Hot Mods: Mods at the Movies

It’s games that keep us entertained through the winter, but now the snows are finally subsiding, we can feel the movie season fast approaching.

There’s some hot stuff winging its way toward the big screen this year (personally, it’s Star Trek and (more tentatively) Wolverine that’s got me reaching for the popcorn), but that doesn’t mean it’s time to hang up the mouse and keyboard for six months.

To help us through those difficult daylight hours – when other people, who don’t know any better, start going outside and exercising and wasting time on holidays – we thought this week’s Hot Mods could get us back into movie mode through our gaming habits. Kind of blur the entertainment boundaries, if you like.

Of course, we could look at official movie tie-ins, but as everyone knows, they cost money and generally suck donkey balls. The modding community has been there to pick up the licensing pieces left by the micro-management hurricanes of film studio marketing for years now, and here’s five Hot Movie Mods we’d recommend to usher you back into the cinema.

GoldenEye: Source

https://www.goldeneyesource.net/

Golden Eye on the old Nintendo 64 wasn’t the first FPs by any means, but it was undeniably a defining moment in the genre’s evolution. It was here that we saw the potential this kind of game promised, and we saw that potential being put to use.

Where it really did blaze trail was in FPS multiplayer action, of course, and it’s that aspect the Team GoldenEye: Source modders have aimed to recreate here using the Half-Life 2 engine.

Even on a half decent modern rig, recreating an N64 game really isn’t much of a chore (speaking from the point of view of a slice of silicon, of course), so the team behind this mod have themselves a difficult, secondary task – adding to the Golden Eye gameplay without interfering with the feel of the original. Damn tricky.

But they’ve succeeded through simplicity and an underlying respect for the source material. GoldenEye: Source delivers the nostalgic experience by fully fleshing out the classic gameplay and expanding on the maps and events; adding in all the technological quirks that would have stymied Nintendo’s console, giving the whole thing a lick of digital paint and punching up the resolution a bit.

The result is the game you remember, on a far more accessible system and with bigger, better action sequences. Golden Eye rebooted.

The mod has been dedicated to the original team leader, Nickster, who sadly passed away at the far too young age of 27. His team have done his memory proud, however, so get online and give Nickster’s game a good go. {PAGE TITLE=Hot Mods at the movies Page 2}
Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels 2

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/173883

Okay, for all you Trek nerds out there (a big hello from one of your own) Sacrifice of Angles isn’t entirely based on the Deep Space Nine episode of the same name. That said, it is set during the Federation/Dominion war, though the events aren’t tied to Sisko, Wayoun and Gul Dukat – it’s a more general take on the conflict that allows you to expand your scope to command entire fleets (not just piffle around whining about some boring Bajoran space station).

You might also note that we’re lloking at Sacrifice of Angles 2, and be wondering what happened to the first game. Well, this is essentially a remake, as much as a sequel, which switched from the Homeworld engine originally used to run the mod, to that of Sins of a Solar Empire – essentially offering a lot more in terms of scale and fancy up the visuals quite a lot.

But it’s not just Federation and Dominion ships you can sit in the captain’s chair of. The mod also includes Klingon and Romulan factions, which coupled with the inherent empire building aspects of Sins, makes for a seriously galaxy wide battle.

With the all new take on the Star Trek coming to the cinema in May, this is a great way to boldly go back and revisit the Roddenberry mythology we know and love. {PAGE TITLE=Hot Mods at the movies Page 3}
Matrixed Reality

https://maxpayne.levels4you.com/cdc/trw_matrix/

Generally we only like to offer you completed (or at least working) games here at IncGamers Hot Mods, but when you’re talking about movie mods, it’s completely unreasonable not to mention The Matrix. And when you’re talking about Matrix mods, there’s one game that stands out head, shoulders and cool black shades above the rest – The Real World.

The reason this Max Payne mod works so well is the wealth of talent putting it together. You see, originally two different groups were working on Max Payne mods. One was putting together a kung fu fighting mod for Max, while the other was working on putting a katana – and the skills to use it – in his hands.

They teamed up to recreate the world of The Matrix, and the result – though still not quite playable – is really outstanding. Neo’s movements and abilities are more than worthy of the awesome sci-fi trilogy, and packs in all the wall running, bullet dodging and bullet time action you could ever hope to see.

They’re also working hard on bringing together all the best scenes from the movies, including the lobby, the dojo and the subway, so this promises to be the Matrix game that was never actually delivered – even in the commercial market.

Keep watching the monitors for the imminent glitch in the Max Payne code that is The Real World. {PAGE TITLE=Hot Mods at the movies Page 4}
Star Wars: Movie Duels II

https://www.moddb.com/mods/star-wars-movie-duels

There’s no reason a movie mod can’t be from a game that’s already based on the actual franchise in question, and considering all the excellent Star Wars games out there already, the Movie Duels mod would be crackers to work with anything else.

This superbly subtle mod is built using the Jedi Academy engine, and provides the game we’ve always wanted from the Lucasfilm world, but haven’t really been given. You see, for some reason the film studios seem keen to keep us from the all encompassing Star Wars game we’ve been looking for (LEGO probably came as close as any), but Movie Duels aims to provide those essential, recognisable scenes from the trilogies.

Here, you can battle it out in a host of single player missions from the first three films, as well as branching into the secondary franchise of stories set between Episodes III and IV. The missions are all set in superb renditions of famous Star Wars locations, and aim to provide stunning lightsaber sequences against multiple enemies.

There are constant new additions to Movie Duels underway, as the mod design lends itself to regular updates quite beautifully. The new demo of version 2 has just been released, so reach out with your feelings and see what life’s like under the Jedi’s robe. {PAGE TITLE=Hot Mods at the movies Page 5}
One To Watch: GTA: Ghostbusters

https://www.moddb.com/mods/gta-ghostbusters

What with Activision and Atari pulling and pushing so much over the new Ghostbusters game, it makes good sense for any paranormal and supernatural investigation and elimination experts out there to look elsewhere for their Ghostbusting pleasures. Naturally, the modding community is ready (to believe you), with this Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas mod.

“Based on the Ghostbusters movie franchise, this mod is an attempt to bring the whole Ghostbusters experience to GTA: San Andreas,” says lead modder, Omega1, who’s pretty much been handling this mod on his own.

While the modelling and characters are very achievable, the difficulty is in adding gameplay aspects that naturally don’t exist in the world of San Andreas – such as giant marshmallow men, proton packs and intangible enemies. But work on these aspects, it seems, is well underway.

“I have a pretty good proton pack model ready for rigging,” Omega1 continues. “Other features will be Ghostbusters 1 and 2 storyline missions, ghost traps, vigilante missions and a PKE meter. Also, you can already download the Ecto 1 car on its own.”

It’s very early stages as yet, but Ecto 1 is looking quite superb, and handles beautifully around San Andreas as you can see from the video at the top. We also get a good look at the Ghostbusters suits and an early attempt at the proton pack.

All in all, if the essence of the movies can be captured through a few small aspects – such as sliming, catching the ghosts in particle streams and using the traps – this could be a great contender for the new Ghostbusting experience.

Who ya gonna call?