There’s a mod for Halflife out, named: Battlegrounds.
It’s a mod that caught my eye when it was first announced, not because I wanted to play it, but because of the balls of people to develop such a mod. Not to say I thought it would suck, just that the idea of it didn’t play in my mind as a mod that would be anything less than frustrating to play.
It’s a mod featuring the American Revolutionary War.
So, it was released, and I didn’t download it. I saw the screenshots, remarked on them with my friends that it “looked pretty good”, and left it at that.
Well, Gamespy lists them in their top ten new halflife mods. This is usually not a big thing for me, since most mods that come out are flashes in the pan, but looking at the new screenies and reading the article, it piqued my interest much much more.
So I downloaded it. Installed. Fired it up. And had a total blast.
Sure, they take some liberty with the mechanics of firing bore-loading rifles… sure it’s easier to kill someone with a pocketknife than may be true to life… but they did manage to make this mod fun. First off, the sounds. They got the sounds of the guns/cannons/running down perfectly. I love firing every gun in this mod and hearing the report. I love swinging the pocketknife, bayoneting, and even the occasional saber. The hand models aren’t too hot, but everything else is pretty good (for the halflife engine.) Aim is as effective as you would suspect… not very.
What most impressed me as how much the game caters to the battle tactics of the time period. My first thought when hearing of the mod was: “Hmmm sounds cool, but people are just gonna be lone snipers or camp and it wont be very immersive…” Well it turns out I was wrong. The aim of the guns, effectiveness of melee weapons, maps, and stamina features all make you want to bunch together in a line and fire in unison at the enemy.
And that, my friends, is totally cool.
Official site, and where to download: www.bgmod.com
and where to play: [66.68.48.18:27016] – Mocha Ordnance – [CoFR] daft| CGA
And yes, this is a server I’m running. Many may recognize the name “Mocha Ordnance” that I use with all my game servers. Especially the many people who partook of the Jedi Knight 2 server I ran for months.
Enjoy 
