moddb.com posts

Nearly a year ago the team behind the mod-themed web site Moddb.com announced plans for a new PC game and mod download service called Desura. It's taken a long time but now Desura is letting the cat (or rather download client) out of the bag. People who want to check out this first version of Desura can do so by leaving a comment on the news post announcing the event on Moddb.com

Like Steam and Impulse, Desura uses a separate download client to let gamers download both full games and mods for those games. Desura allows game developers. publishers and mod makers to upload their products into the service and to promote their games directly via Desura. At the moment there's not a lot of content available to beta testers; there are a few small indie games available as well as mods for larger game titles.

In December of 2009 the folks behind the popular mod gaming web site Moddb.com announced its plans to launch Desura, a new PC game download game service with some interesting new features. Unfortunately the site has yet to be officially launched. However it looks like the wait may be coming to an end soon.

In a new interview over at DIYGamer, Moddb.com founder Scott Reismanis states that the launch of Desura is "getting very close actually". One of the things that will make Desura different from other PC game download sites is the amount of control game developers and publishers will have in promoting their products on the site. Reismanis states that users will be "able to review games, 3rd party sites can plug into APIs, developers can post news, videos and images and can interact with their fans directly on the service should they so chose."

There's no doubt that the PC game industry is moving more and more towards a digital distribution model and today another such service officially announced its presense. The ModDB.com web site, perhaps the single biggest online resource for learning about and downloading third party mods for games, has just announced its plans to enter this growing market.

The service is going under the codenam Desura and ModDB.com claims their service differs from others like Steam and Direct2Drive in that they give mod and game developers more control over how they share things like news, screenshots, movies and other things to the public. Currently the service is in a private closed beta stage and there's no word on when Desura will go live to the public.

A few weeks ago, Epic Games announced the winners of the second phase of their Make Something Unreal mod contest, which game recognition and prizes to mod teams that used Unreal Tournament 3. Today the game mod web site Moddb.com announced the winners of their annual Mod of the Year contest which covers the entire PC game mod community.

While there were several mods that were made from the Half-Life 2-Source Engine in the top 10 this year, the final grand prize winner in the Best Released Mod category was Project Reality, a Battlefield 2 mod that aims to be a more realistic military simulation that its source game. The mod was voted as the best of the year from both readers and the editors of Moddb.com so its the undisputed winner. Head to the web site to check out all of the winners.

It's perhaps the single biggest web data base for game mods and now Moddb.com has begun the process to pick the best mods for 2008 in their seventh annual awards. From now until Jan. 16 people will be asked to nominate their favorite mods released in 2008 as well as their favorite upcoming mods. After that the voting will begin and last until Feb. 1. The winners will be announced at the end of February.

Winners won't just get bragging rights either. A number of sponsors have donated prizes to the winners in various categories. The winning Best Mod Team in both the Editor's Choice and Players categories will get the big prize; a full Torque Game Engine Advanced license from GarageGames (valued at $295 for an indie game or $14.95 for commercial use) along with a whole suite of other game development tools.