By: Frag-girlie

August 5, 2001

Half-Life seems to be a game that has a lot of  mods associated with it.  We were recently talking about this amongst ourselves and decided to run a poll to see how our readers felt.  So we posed the question: "With all the mods that have been made for Half-Life, which do you feel is the best?" Here are some short refresher descriptions of each game we included in our poll.
 

Counter-Strike

CS pits two teams against each other: the terrorists and counter-terrorists. The terrorists are the bad guys and the counter-terrorists are the good guys, much like the SWAT team for lack of a better comparison. It is the counter-terrorists job to complete whatever objective the map holds within the given time frame or to completely exterminate the terrorist threat. Players can buy weapons, ammo, and equipment that are realistically modeled after their real-world counterparts. In this modification teamwork is greatly encouraged in order to complete the map's objectives. After every round teams members are allocated money based on individual and team performance for that round.

Action Half-Life

AHL is designed to simulate the experience of being in an Action movie. Movies like Hard Boiled, Face Off, and Die Hard are the inspiration for AHL and it aims for 'Movie Realism.' This means that you can take a few bullets and keep fighting. You can fall from a two story roof and only hurt your leg. You can bandage a wound in seconds. This doesn't mean you're invincible however, as hits to the head from large caliber weapons are instantly fatal, but a headshot even from a small pistol will put you within an inch of your life. Of course, stunts play a large part in action movies, and likewise, play a large part in AHL. Dives, rolls, and long jumps can be executed for style and tactical advantage. There's nothing quite like diving through a window and capping the bad guy in the head before you hit the ground. This is a game of style and fun, not obsessive realism.
 

Day of Defeat

DoD is mod based on the times of WWII that puts you directly into the brutal battles fought between the Americans and the Germans (technically it was the Americans, French and British against the Germans, Italians and Japanese, but anyway...). Win the war battling along the shorelines of Normandy, amongst run down, bombed European towns, diving into foxhole bunkers, or sniping along a grass and tree filled terrain, most of the maps represent and recreate actual battle areas authentic to WWII. Creative design and textures fill all of the maps in DoD, and challenging objectives such as destroying a point, or classic capturing of flags. Day of Defeat features multi-player support and will eventually also have single player support.
 

Firearms

Firearms has been around for a while. It originally got started in 1998 as a mod for Quake2, but this soon changed as Half-Life arrived on the market. Firearms' goal is to be a realistic battlefield simulation, while at the same time, allow the user to completely customize their character. You can have, at most, 3 different "skins" for each team, and there are 30 or so weapons to choose from. And unlike many of the other realistic mods, you can have as many guns as you have credits.
 

Global Warfare

Global Warfare is a Team Based Multi-Player Modification.  There are several ways to "win" in the game. The most basic way to win is to destroy the enemies' transport (usually a Blackhawk helicopter or an APC) and then kill the remaining troops on the ground. The other ways to win depend on the particular map itself. Some mission objectives are to call in air strikes, destroy buildings, radio relays or bridges, and others involve capturing/rescuing civilians or officials.
 

Now that everyone is caught up on what the games are all about, here is a screenshot from the poll we ran for just over a week:

As the results of the poll showed, our readers were split between Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, as am I.  Seems like I do play DoD more than CS as of late, but it probably is because it's newer, and I like the WWII theme a lot.  With that said, all of the mods are fun to play and have enough differences between them that there should be one for everyone to enjoy.