A lot of people have published a “my favourite mods for game X” list. I’m being innovative by, uh, not really doing anything particularly interesting in addition. This is, simply put, just a bunch of really mods for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. For some of the initial footwork, I have to thank Pelit magazine, but I basically picked my favourite ones and looked at some latter mods. Besides, they specifically excluded mods that just improve the graphics — games that strive to be experiences, graphics are important. This post is primarily a “list of Cool Stuff I’ve downloaded, in case I need to remember all that again” - so it could be later supplemented…

Limbo of the Lost is one of those game releases that confuse the heck out of me. How should I react?

I've seen the review, and it looks like an interesting little game - the creators had a decent enough concept to start from, and it looks at least some things were pulled off properly. The trailer was a bit cheesy but it had its good moments - a bit funniness, very cute cerberi (or how the hell you pluralise those)... and both good and very very bad animation and voice acting. A typical indie production, it seems, based on a freeware engine and tons of additional tweaking... I'm more of a RPG guy and not really an adventure game person (for a good reason), though I've enjoyed a few adventure games a lot.

But then, it turns out most of that tons of art assets have been blatantly ripped off from many games; The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion rip-offs are probably the most blatant, and I was alerted through the TTLG forums where people obviously paid most attention to Thief: Deadly Shadows rip-offs... and all of this is just the tip of the iceberg, because there's a giant huge big pile of this stuff.

I have to say I'm a bit confused, because in theory, I'm on the side of small developers and the game as a concept seems interesting. But on the other hand, ripping off assets from other games is not good, especially if it's a massive gigantic wholesale ripoff like what's been happening here. I have to apologise for working a "modern game development trends suck" angle to this thing, but I have to say that if the game had been published with, er, less impressive graphics that had been 100% homespun, this crisis would have been averted. But now, someone absolutely felt we need Leet Modern Graffix... and because the developers couldn't control themselves, we have a mess in our hands. What I'm trying to say is this: Yes, it's really awful that expectations about modern games are so high that independent developers have difficult time creating stuff that impresses modern gamer crowd. But I'm also saying this: if you feel the same, just screw the demographics and make the best-looking, best-sounding game that you can make with the available resources - copyright infringement will only make you the laughingstock and get you in trouble.

A sad affair, this one...

Life of the Party is the tenth level of Looking Glass Studios' Thief II: The Metal Age.

The level is just about perfect in two respects. First of all, it's a great example of how Thief series gameplay works, and is an example of an outstandingly put-together level that has tons of goodness. The level has everything that makes Thief great: Humorous dialogues between guards and other NPCs, lots of nooks and crannies to explore, lots of stuff to steal, and interesting architecture...

Secondly, it's almost an iconic example of a genre. If you wanted to make a game about thieves in a mediaeval fantasy world, Life of the Party is just about the greatest example of how to do it. Thieves dancing through the rooftops!...