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Alright, show of hands. How many of you out there suddenly developed the urge to reinstall Diablo II right after Blizzard revealed the series successor to the world during last summer of oh-eight? Yeah, that’s what we thought. And as many of you already know, Blizzard can be quite the Mr. Fussy Pants when it comes to narrowing down release dates, so speculating on Diablo III’s possible holy coming doesn’t lend itself much to conversation. However shall we cope with this inexcusable wait!
Fortunately, there are various means to pass the time. If you’re looking to experiment with other promising alternatives, there are a handful of Diablo clones to ride off of. But if you’re not up to putting down the cash, why not download Median XL – a free Lord of Destruction mod. Developed by Belgium modder Brother Laz, Median XL takes what we’ve already come to know and love but casts a +3 Evil Twist. So evil a twist it is that Laz’s work already has him running in Mod DB’s Top 100 Best Released Mods of 2008, and is on its way to qualify for the absolute best five (13 days and counting). Plus, any Diablo mod that lets you play as Baal himself gets an assured download from us. Yes, it’s that easy.
The main attraction of Median XL is the brand new skill trees, 30 skills per class, providing a whole new experience. The mod also offers a new base item setup with 7 quality tiers, 471 uniques, 235 runewords, a new affix pool and gem/jewel stats, honorific items and many new and powerful crafting recipes.
All this would be for nothing without the monster AI modifications and new abilities, elite and heroic monsters with even more powerful skills, and for advanced players there are 27 new uberquests based on Diablo lore and the challenges, which reward you for killing bosses at a low level or two of them at once.
Video after the jump.
If there’s just three mods that have held my interest for years now, they’d have to be Natural Selection 2, Recall to Hell and what I consider the crown king of them all, Black Mesa. With Recall to Hell appearing to be dead in the water while NS2 and Black Mesa forge ahead, a lot of you may have seen the new official trailer for the mod, which was released at the end of last month, running on The Orange Box build and looking so damn good I want it yesterday.
But for all those people who saw the trailer, but didn’t dig deeper, the Black Mesa team had also released a slew of videos on their YouTube channel, including an audio blooper reel, reading outtakes and a whole bunch of other stuff. I’m going to let the audio speak for itself, but I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. Goes without saying, I just found my new ringtone! This one goes out to all Half-Life fans like me who’ve practically memorized the opening train ride lines.
With all the hue and cry over Crysis and all of us looking to October for Far Cry 2, it seems like the original has been all but forgotten except for a handful of people who still struggle to create content for it. In a spectacular show of proving how CryENGINE can hold its own against its newest competitors, the good folks at the Delta Sector mod have finally managed to release their little baby into the wild, complete with lush vegetation, falling snow and brilliant lightning.
Packing three singleplayer maps – The Arrival, Frozen Paths and Infiltration – and two team deathmatch maps into the 347 MB download, Delta Sector seems like a great reason for us to dust off that old Far Cry DVD and see if it still works. At least, for those of us that aren’t able to run the super high-def Crysis in all its DX10 glory.
Just in case you haven’t already heard, Adam Foster, the genius behind the award winning “Someplace Else” map for Half-Life, has wrapped up his latest masterpiece - MINERVA: Metastasis. Fans who’ve played through the earlier episodes of MINERVA can now go back and end the Combine menace on the island once and for all. Two and a half years in the making, MINERVA is one of the best single player mods released for Half-Life 2, telling the story of a Combine traitor guided by a mysterious “voice in the head” on a remote outpost. The 148 MB final “patched” version includes the previously released episodes, in addition to two new chapters that bring an explosive, nail-biting end to the story. If you’re looking for a great excuse to slip back into the Stalinist world of Half-Life 2, look no further.
Hit the jump for screenshots.