The one thing about the original Doom and Doom 2 was they really liked to emphasize the dreary colors to match the guttural 90s violence. Combined with some of the murkier, bloodier hellscape levels, i?d Software's iconic series is not exactly known for its liberal use of bright colors.

Until now, that is. As you can see, ModDB user DoomMate is currently in the midst of creating a mod for Doom 2 that can only be described as "neon." While it's still a work-in-p??rogress, "Volt Laser" is promising a large selection of custom maps that have taken cues from a more synthw?ave/cyberpunk aesthetic.

This "megawad" will contain 35 levels, featuring a?? city, underground, some outskirts, and more. You can see the progress that's been made in the video above, and I, for one, am looking forward to running around maps that have purple floors and teal buttons.

Deus-Doom? System Doom?

As mentioned, "Volt Laser" is still being worked on. Its creator did say they wanted it out by November, but have had to delay releasing the mod due to other commitments. At this? time, there's no definite launch day, but it should hopefully be before the end of the year.

However, DoomMate did post recently with some updates from the project, including some more images. I don't know about you, but that skyline in the distance is giving me mad original Deus Ex vibes. Or some other throwback piec??e of dystopian science fiction.

In any case, I'm here for it. Honestly, I'll be surprised if I ever get bored of seeing Doom mods. We've all played the games to death and I know I go on about fan-made content a lot, but if I had even an iota of investment and talent as a l??ot ??of modders do, you wouldn't be reading this article right now.

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Let's face it, when playing Doom or Doom 2, the only reason to start punching enemies is that you've just picked up the Berserk power-up. Either that or you have a sadistic, unquenchable desire to know how long it takes to down a ?Cyberdemon with fisticuffs. Hint: it's probably a long time.

Anyway, if you're tired of being given the easy route with weapons, ModDB user Tortilladude has the solution. With "Gunless" installed, you can strip away the need for pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers, as this mod only allows you to use your punches to quash t??he demons of hell.

Making a case that guns in Doom 2 are (and I quote) "for wussies after all," this download replaces all weapon sp?rites with just the Doomguy's fists, which includes numerous variations on the punching animation.

Mano a Imp-o

Now, I haven't had a chance to check out the mod myself, but from the images on the download page, it looks like you still get projectiles. It's just they're now coming from your? knuckles instead of f??rom the business end of a plasma rifle or something.

In any case, Doomguy will no longer have to worry ab??out lugging around all manner of arsenal. Not when he can mow down the denizens of the underworld with naught but his mitts and a "duke it out" mentality.

Once again, we find ourselves drawn back to the allure of classic Doom. The modding community has kept us coming back for more with some pretty interesting ways of playing id Software's iconic FPS. We may be moving forward, what with Doom: The Dark Ages coming in 2025, but it??'ll be a cold day in hell before people?? stop playing and tinkering with the OG entries in the series.

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If there's one thing you can say about Doom, it's that it's never boring. Sure, you've clocked the classic games more times than you've eaten soup, but the vanilla experiences are just the beginning. Modding is where i?t's at, yo.

Look, you know how this works. I tell you about a Doom mod and you all go and check it out. This one is not quite like the others, though. It has colors, for starters. Spaceverse: Bunny Maze from?? ModDB user SmilingFaceMedia offers something a little different to just a graphics tweak or some modern innovations.

It's a rather bright (red: very teal) FPS that has you playing as a "virtual man" who's stuck in a virtual maze, full of habitants known as "Lunar Bunni??es." That sounds fun, until it becomes apparent that these humanoid bunnies are out to kill you.

Always with the killing

As the creator says, there's more to Spaceverse than just shooting and surviving. You also have to use your intellectual moxie to navigate the maze. Oh dear, ?thinks I.

The mod has been built for GZDoom, ????specifically, and does come with a warning. I'll let SmilingFaceMedia field this one:

Spaceverse: Bunny Maze contains imagery, flashing colours, and other content that may upset some players. If you happen to be epileptic or easily offended, then we discourage you from playing this game�for your own good. Spaceverse: Bunny Maze is also NOT compa??tible for? mobile as it is only intended to play on PC.

Probably best to make that message loud?? and clear.

As we move ever closer to the release of Doom: The Dark Ages �this time a medie?val-themed entry in the iconic series �we should never forget whe?re Doomguy came from. Yes, even if he's been turned into a virtual man who has to fight bunny girls.

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Doom is just one of those games that feels like i??t's always been there. Indeed, some of you reading this weren't even born when id Software dropped its now legendary FPS onto our collective faces. It's still hangi?ng around today, and one of those reasons is because people keep modding the OG releases.

Some of these people are figurative monsters, however. If you've played the older Doom games on Nightmare difficulty, you know what a challenge it can be. Well, ModDB user immistyer decided that wasn't enough, so has?? given us a new "Impossible" skill to select.

One of the key things that makes the origina??l Nightmare mode so h??ard is the fact that enemies keep respawning, so you can never truly get rid of them. Kind of like flies in the summer; they just always seem to be around!

A buzzin' nuisance

However, with this impossible skill level, the ante has been upped by making it so the monster respawn time has been halved. They come back twice as fast this time round. Here's everything immistyer's mod (which is currently available in Early Access) does for the original Doom:

• Increases monster "Aggressiveness" to 0.95 (ZDoom default is just 0).
• Makes it so you only get 75% ammo without a backpack, and also so that you only get 1.5x ammo with a backpack.
• Increases ALL damage by 2x.
• Increases monster health by 2.5x.
• Makes it so you only get 0.65% of the armor and health.
• Makes ALL knockback 2.5x stronger.
• Replaces all medkits with stimpacks.
• Enables fast monsters.
• Disables infighting!!!
• Makes monsters respawn twice as fast as in Nightmare!!!
• Sets the spawn preset difficulty to "Hard"

Note that even monster inf??ighting has been disabled. Now all the hellish creatures have nothing to focus on except the most efficient way to turn your meaty body into a fine paste.

I haven't tried the mod myself, but I bet it's a d??oozy. I've only ever really dabbled with the game's official Nightmare difficulty a few time?s over the years, so a setting that labels itself as "Impossible" does not sound like a particularly chill time for me.

Of course, as well as tinkering with the classics, Doom, as a series, keeps moving forward. We already had the 2016 reboot and the equally well-received Eternal. Now we're getting a new one: Doom: The Dark Ages, which takes us back to a medieval period. I don't particularly care where we go, so long as the killing is brutal and the monsters' insi??des go well with the décor.

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On July 31, 1989, Nintendo released the Game B??o??y to the US, a gray brick of a handheld console that would go on to dominate the market for years to come.

Sadly for us in the UK, we had to wait more than a year to get one ourselves. On the plus side, it did drop just two days before?? my 7th birthday. Oh, what a joyous occasion that was! Thanks, parental units!

Although Game Boy itself has long?? departed as both hardware and a line entirely, the mark it left on the gaming sphere is long and deep. ??In fact, it's less of a mark and more of a geological fault line that shatters everything in its wake, leaving millions to recoil from its impact.

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color have sold ??more than 118 million units worldwide combined, right up until they were discontinued in?? 2003. Even though that figure combines sales data for the original gray model and its 1998 color version (while the Color is technically the Game Boy's successor, Nintendo has always treated it more like what we would call a mid-gen refresh today), it still makes the Game Boy the fourth-best selling console of all time.

A young boy's obsession

It's tough to look back across the de??cades w??ithout some sense of nostalgia. The Nintendo Game Boy was a phenomenal success at a time when gaming as an industry was still finding its feet. But we'd had consoles in our home for some time now, such as the Atari 7800, SEGA Genesis, and Nintendo's NES. We were accustomed to playing games from our sofas and beds or sitting cross-legged on god-awful shag carpets. We were ready to move on.

And move on we did. While mobile gaming wasn't a completely new idea, the Game Boy revolutionized the concept of digital play on the go, despite its hardware limitations. In many ways, because of said limitations. It may have had a tiny screen capable of only displaying shades of green at resolutions no bigger than 160 x 144 pixels, but what it did have was Tetris.

Its roster of games was probably what set it apart from potential competitors. Remember, Nintendo was already flying high on the success of its home console, so the name carried weight. We knew of Super Mario, so when he got his own title on the Game Boy, that was a surefire hit. It's also worth remembering that the handheld was the springboard for Pokémon adaptations. We all know how that story goes.

Sadly, I never got into the whole Pokémon craze. But I did have some stonking games, like the aforementioned Super Mario Land, Tetris (which came bundled with the console itself), Batman: Return of the Joker, Mortal Kombat 2, and maybe some others.

Over its lifetime, the Game Boy amassed over a thousand titles, around 765 of which were on the original gray model. Obviously, my collection was barely a speck compar??ed to the sheer amount of games that were availa?ble at the time.

Some that I sadly missed out on �but are deemed classics on the console �include Kirby's Pinball Land, Dr. Mario, a series of Mega Man titles, Harvest Moon, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Wario Land, and even some Final Fantasy games. Well, the Final Fantasy Legend games, at least.

Many may look at the Game Boy as a kind of conduit simply for Tetris, but the small example I've listed above lists some of the best-known names in gaming, proving that the Nintendo handheld was capable of making a huge impact? on a grow?ing industry. I sadly never had the Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance �or any other variation on the OG �so I missed out on even more potential classics.

Nokia who?

The G??ame Boy was not exactly a portable powerhouse of hardware supremacy. It didn't even have its own backlight, so good luck playing in the dark. However, Nintendo was able to make the most of what it had. This al?so meant the machine was not as sizeable, weighty, or pricey as some of the alternatives. While the Game Boy cost around $90 when it was released, the SEGA Game Gear was a pretty hefty $150 when it was released a year later.

The reduced hardware also meant Nintendo's device flexed a boast-worthy battery life. According to the Nintendo website itself, the original could last up to 30 hours on four AA batteries. That's 30 hours of playtime, as well, not just it being idle. Sega's Game Gear devoured battery in comparison. Even the Steam Deck's rechargeable batte??ry can't touch the Game Boy.

It was also a sturdy mother. I can't tell you how many years I had my Game Boy, but I almost certainly dropped it on the floor, and it kept on ticking. While it's popular to meme the Nokia 3310's alleged indestructible nature, the Nintendo Game Boy was proving its worth as a machine built to last long before Nokia. One Game Boy, which was previously on display at Nintendo New York, literally survived an explos??ion during Operation Desert Storm. The fact that it's said to ??still work feels like an alien concept in an era of planned obsolescence.

Of course, that hardiness was never really a selling poin??t, mind. We were too young to truly appreciate the structural integr?ity of technology. But to have a portable gaming console that can last for a day and a bit �even through constant use �and survive global conflict sort of puts the Game Boy on a pedestal of gaming greatness that I'm proud to have experienced.

The memory remains

Yes, that is a rather obscure Metallica reference. However, what I wanted to talk about was the cultural significance of the Game Boy. You mean I haven't been doing that already? Well, yes, but I thin??k there is another a??spect that's worthy of mention.

Although we've moved on somewhat over the years, video games can still be seen as a masculine hobby. Many strides have been taken, and glass ceilings have been b??roken, but it often feels like there's still a discrepancy when it comes to attitudes. When gaming started becoming a global phenomenon, girls didn't get much of a look-in.

When the SEGA Genesis came out, it very much aimed to appeal to young boys, with promises of action, sports, and—inexplicably—the ability to emasculate school bullies. But the Game Boy had a broader appeal. In 1995, an article in the Gainesville Sun that looked at gender disparity in gaming quoted Nintendo of America as saying that girls accounted for 46% of those who were p??laying its handheld device. That's compared to 29% for its own NES console.

The fact that nearly half the Game Boy players were female was newsworthy even then. Nintendo was ??a company that was?? leading the charge in moving away from gaming being largely a boyish pursuit.

For me, the Game Boy was the per??fect console. I know that just sounds like rose-col??ored glasses, but I was genuinely obsessed with mine. Despite not having that many games for it, I racked up hours and hours on that thing. I shudder at the thought of how much my parents had to spend on batteries (sorry, Mum).

I remember the Game Boy-shaped carry case I had for it, as well as the monstrous attachment that added a magnifying glass and light (sort of like this one, only somehow bigger). I remember running down to the arcades with my console in hand, looking for my sister so I could excitedly tell her that I'd completed Super Mario Land for the first time.

I'm not going to berate the current generation by insisting that 'we had it better in those days.' All forms of nostalgia are just desires. Desires for youth. Desires for innocence. Desires for shell suits (maybe). Or perhaps just desire to hear the Game Boy's iconic DING one more time and know that the only thing you had to worry about was which TMNT figure to ask for for Christmas.

I'm glad that I was around to experience the Game Boy, even if knowledge of its age and the fact that it was discontinued more than 20 years ago makes me feel old. But then, everything makes me feel old. I got excited the other day when our new clothes air dryer arrived (it's black!), and I no longer recognize most artists and actors who appear on Sunday morning cooking shows. Oh yeah, I watch cooking shows now. That old.

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Since time immemorial (well, 1996), Quake has been a lot of people's go-to when it comes to speedrunning. Already a pretty nippy FPS, i??d Software's iconic shooter continues to draw in new players who are looking to break world records. And another one has?? just been beaten.

Over on the aptly titled YouTube channel, Qua?ke Speedruns Explained, we are treated to details about a record that's stood for nearly four years. As of May 2024, user Kisimov has achieved an eye-watering time of 22:582 seconds on the game's first (in a way) m??ap, E1M1.

Over the course of 1?7 minutes, we get a breakdown of what it took to achieve this target, which beats the previous world record by about half a s??econd. Kisimov completed the level on Nightmare difficulty, rendering the time they got ever more impressive.

What the Quake?!

Although E1M1 is one of the shortest maps in the game, particularly as it's an early one, many speedrunners have been spending decades trying to nail down the route with perfe?ct pr?ecision. As you'll see in the video, there's a lot that can get in the way.

For a start, playing on Nightmare difficulty means there are more enemies who can deal mo??re damage with greater accuracy. Add onto that the unpredictability of their movements and you have a recipe for a frustratingly difficult record-breaking attempt.

Indeed, we get to see just a small example of the tens of thousands of attempts it took?? Kisimov to get to the end slipgate in just 22 seconds. Grunts being in the wrong place, hitscans deali??ng enough damage to kill the player, or even the geometry of the map itself all contribute to restart after restart.

It's not just the sheer tenacity in moving from point A to point B in as quick a time as possible. Along with Doom, the original Quake is pretty much the poster child for how dedicated speedrunners can be. Many commit years of their lives to fine-tuning every frame, making attempts as near to perfect as they ca?n.

This latest record �which has been officially acknowledged by Speedruns.com �may not seem like much, but when the QSE host delves into the minutiae of ?these 22 seconds, it becomes apparent that speedrunning is seriou?s business.

Just seeing all the failed attempts alone �some of which take place in the firs??t room �is enough to put a lot of people off. I don't know if I ever could get into it myself, especially given that the video analysis seems confident that no one will ever beat Kisimov's E1M1 run. Though we've heard a line like that before.

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Nothing fills my blackened heart with gaming joy more than seeing relics of the past remain steadfast in this modern era. In this case, I've found a mod for Doom 2 that scratches that nostalgic itch with its implementation of a classic Mortal Kombat voice line.

In "Toasty! for Doom," ModDB user MilHouse.wad has brought the iconic announcement to id Software's legendary shooter. While playing the game, it's possible to have sound programmer Dan Forden a?nnounce his famous "Toasty!" line while battling hell demons. Certainly a fitting combinatio??n.

This is an obvious nod to the original Mortal Kombat game released in 1992, in which Forden's avatar?? would appear in th??e corner of the screen at certain points during a bout. It was glorious.

"Excellent!"

According to MilHouse.wad, in order to get him to utter his famous "Toasty!" line, you'll need to gib an enemy. So basically, just run around with a rocket launcher or the Berserk power up. Will the novelty wear off? Only time will tel??????????????????????????l.

We're unlikely to see the end of Doom and Doom 2 modding any time soon. And why would we want that? If people stopped tinkering with these FPS classics, we'd never get to see all the beautiful things people can do with the formula, such as make the game run on a toothbrush.

The original games remain an absolute triumph, paving the way for the first-person shooter genre. I realize some people are sick of hearing that, but n??ow yo?u know how your parents feel when they try to tell you how important the Beatles were.

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Benjamin Franklin once said that "nothing is certain except death and taxes." Had he been alive today, he almost certainly would have said, "oh, and the other certainty is people will keep modding Doom until the end of?? time." Quite the forward thinker. Anyway, he?re's id Software's iconic FPS running on a toothbrush.

Just a few days ago, Twitter user atc1441 (thanks, Rock Paper Shotgun) uploaded a brief clip showing Doom running o??n a smart toothbrush. On the tiny screen of the Planck Mini, you can just about make the game out. The modder even goes as far as showing it being controlled by a mouse.

In a second tweet, w??e see they eventually managed to get it to run full-screen rather than in a small windo??w. Now we can see the thing much clearer.

Fight demons...and tooth decay

According to atc1441 �??who says their biggest passion is to "custom firmware on as many devices as possible" (no way) �the toothbrush itself, "contains an ESP32-C??3 with 4MB Flash."

Using some additional downloads and a "miniwad" of Doom, they were able to compress the game down to the 4MB required for the flash. Hey presto: Doom on a toothbrush!

I don't think I'll ever get bored of the ways people can modify id's influential shooter, either tinkering with the original or getting it to run on all manner of devices. Just have a look: Doom on a robotic lawnmower, in an audio spectrogram, on a pair of earrings!

One day we're going to reach the singularity and someone will boast how they got Doom to run inside Doom. Oh, wait.

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I wasn't wrong when I said that the release of Nvidia's RTX Remix toolkit would see retro games be given a bit of a spin shine. In this latest example, a modder has taken the original Unreal and injected? it with some path tracing and other visual tweaks.

The below video was spotted by DSO Gaming, and shows the 1998 Epic Games release has be?en given a bit of boost using RTX technolog??y. We see the first level of the classic FPS, as the player shows off the much brighter and bolder colored lighting. Pew pew, indeed.

It should be noted that this is a work in progress, and it's still being tinkered with. As a result, you can see a couple of graphical glitches, particularly in the new "shiny" gun. The game was loaded into the Unreal Tournament engine.

This is what first-person shooters used to be like, kids

It would be forgivable for someone unfamiliar with the game to not be able to see what exactly has changed. Fortunately, in response to someone on Twitter, the person behind the mod, Jacob Freeman, uploaded two side-by-side screenshots, which show Unreal with RTX on and off.

It is possible ??to see a difference, even if it looks like they've just turned the brightness up a bit. As I said, this is still being worked on, so no doubt we'll see further progress and improvements.

For those who weren't around back then, Unreal was praised for its jump in FPS visuals, utilizing Epic's new engine that was named after the game. However, it would soon be left behind when Half-Life came out just a few months later. Valve's maiden release essentially stole the spotlight with its genre-shifting development techniques and storytelling methods. Unreal didn't stand much of a chance.

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If you thought the days of porting Doom o?nto every possible device known to humanity were over, think again. Now, get ready to slay demons while also maintaining a neat yard. You may be a lover of violent FPS games, but you're also a responsible adult now.

If you happen to have an Automower NERA from Husqvarna, know that an update for the firmware is coming soon which will allow you to play classic Doom. Just to clarify, it won't turn your garden into the realms of ??hell. Rather, you'll be able to control it on the robotic lawnmower's screen.

There's even a pretty badass trailer for it. According to the Husqvarna website, once the update is live, the game will be playable "using the robotic lawnm?ower’s onboard display and controls." You'll navigate with the control knob, while the START button will allow you to run forward.

Some caveats to consider

If you're into the horticultural lifestyle and fancy some Doom to go ??with that, this is obviously a pretty nifty update. Of course, you don't need me to tell you that you'll actually have to have one of these Automowers to begin with (which I hear ?aren't exactly cheap).

The update itself will begin rolling (ha!) out on April 9. However, it's for a limited time only, as it's only going to be available until September 9. If you do have one of these mowers, you can register for the software here.

One other th??ing to consider is that it's not being made available to all countries. According to the website, it'll be rolling out to the following markets:

United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latv??ia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Moldova, Republic of Serbia, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland

Sadly, no U.S. update, apparently.

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As influential as the original Doom games are, it'd be interesting to know how much they'd stand the ravages of time were it not for modding and unusual ports. It set the building blocks for the FPS genre back in the day, but the fact that people continue to tweak the original formula shows just how much ??of an impact the series has had these past 30 years.

Sometimes mods will even incorporate other horror franchises. Take this one that mixed Doom with Friday The 13th. Inspired. Now, here's one for us Alien lovers, in which the iconic Xenomorph creatures have made their way into id Software's ??classic shooters.

Brought to us by ModDB user SlegInfantryman, "Xenomorph Infestation" is an upcoming mod for both Doom and its sequel featuring a ?"fully functioning Xenomorph hive that will grow organically featuring the whole life cycl?e." We can see how the images bring the two ideas together.

Now we just need Ripley fighting imps

At ?the moment, the mod is in alpha stage, with no finalized release date yet. SlegInfantryman has said it's more for testing at this point, but it's available to download as a demo.

Here's what they have to say about it in response to ??a comme??nt on the mod page:

This is the alpha version which I was mainly using to test and make sure the Xenomorphs functioned correctly in infes?ting maps. If you run the X?enomorph infestation.pk3 alongside one of the other pk3 files included, you can watch them take over a map.

In any case, it's a bit of fun to see them running around like excitable kittens in the world of Doom. There seems to be quite a few of these mods already, w?hich suggests t??he two franchises are just natural bed fellows.

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Oh, Doom. Is there any method by which you can't be ported? Evidently not, it?? seems. The latest in a near-endless attempt to get id Software's iconic FPS up and running on just about everything on the planet is one that will be m??usic to your ears. Or not, as is the case.

Over on Reddit, user wojtek-graj has made Doom completely playable...in audio. T??hat is to say, they've managed to get it to run in a spectrogram, which is a visual representation of sound frequencies. Actually, I'll let them give you the lowdown:

The game is displayed by generating an audio signal that can be viewed as a spectrogram, ?while input is taken from the microphone, with specific frequencies being mapped to specific keys.

They've also made the source code available on GitHub, as well as instructions on how to play it. So if you find playing the classic way a bit too passé, th??is is at least one alternative.

It will never end

There simply isn't time in the known universe to go through all the different devices that can now run a 30-year-old shooter. Suffice it to say, it's brought out a lot of creativity in people over the years. Here, someone has been wanting to get Doom to run on E. coli cells.

With the reboot coming out in 2016 and Eternal ??launching in 2020, ??the legendary id series has truly made a comeback.

Not that it ever really went anywhere. Sure, things looked a little uncertain with Doom 3's approach to more survival horror, but seeing the OG running on a spectrogram means �if nothing else �fans sure aren't bored with Doom yet.

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If you've played Daggerfall Unity, you'll know it's the best way to experience The Elder Scrolls 2 in the modern gaming climate. Now, with the ?full thing having recently launched, the creator of the project is looking to make their own game.

In a recent interview with DualShockers, developer Gavin Clayton said he's now working on his own idea, which will be styled after Daggerfall. He has this to say about the project:

I do genuinely love that old style of game. The thing I’m building is in the same vein. You’re talking big world, complex systems, mod support, that’s all of the stuff I want to explore, and I want to take that experience of Daggerfall Unity and put it in the new game.

Essentially, Clayton wants to realize his dream of making a game from scratch, something he's dreamed of si???????????????????????????nce he was a kid.

With some D&D influence in there, perhaps

While there are no details about what this game will actually be, he's been open to answering a few questions on Twitter/X.

For example, when asked whether he was going to be using Unity, Clayton said he's building his own engine, or, more ??accurately, he's "revived an engine I spent some years on."

As for any kind of lore or narrative, the project is still in the early s??tages, but?? when asked, the response was that the "world and main story have their roots in a D&D 2ED campaign I created and ran for friends in the 90s."

Daggerfall Unity has been an enormous task for anyone to complete, especially as it was a full remake using a different engine. It's almost certainly reinvigorated interest in Bethesda's classic RPG, and I would personally recommend anyone interested in retro Elder Scrolls games to check it out.

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Along with a recent RTX Remix, the classic Tomb Raider games are about to come bac?k in a pretty big way. Aspyr has been hard at work remastering the original three entries in the iconic series, and we've been given a bit of ?a breakdown of what's to come.

A recent post on the PlayStation Blog gives us a few details on the upcoming Tomb Raider remasters, which are set to release on February 14 (ooh, la la). Going way back to 1998 when the studio helped launch the second game on Mac, Aspyr is?? more than familiar with Lara's adventures.

This modern take on the classic installments will be brimming with the usual. We'll get up-to-date controls that "take inspiration from the Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld era." However, the stud??io? will also be keeping the original tank controls for that dose of retro authenticity.

If looks could kill

Of course, it wouldn't be a remaster without some fres??h visuals that don't veer too much from the source material. The post goes on to say that Aspyr has swapped out the 2D sprites for 3D models, as well as implemented real-time lighting effects, polished environments and character models, and more.

And because this is a modern game (or at least a modern interpretation), Tomb Raider Remastered will also come bundled with a photo mode. And much like the tank controls, you can switch between the newer and classic visuals, if that's ??your bag.

It's impressive that the series is still going after almost 30 years. If you are interested in raiding some tombs from a bygone era??, the remasters will be coming to current and previous-gen consoles, as well as ??PCs.

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Those who were around when the original Deus Ex released will no doubt have an appreciation for this pretty innovative RPG. While we're still not 100% sure whether a new game is in development or not, there's something interesting happenin??g with the OG.

As spotted by PCGamer, a modder is taking the 2000 Deus Ex title and putting it through an Unreal Engine 5 filter. That is to say, the quarter of a century old game is being given a bit of a boost, ?and it's all possible thanks to a toolkit called DXU24.

The software is a fan-made project that aims to convert older releases (in this case, games that run on Unreal Engine 1) into ones that run through UE5. The above video shows how far things have come, with the modder expecting to implement VR into Deus Ex as well.

A sort of new lease on life

It should be pointed out that this is not an unofficial remake or remaster of the game. The DXU24 Patreon page describes the toolkit thus:

The gen??eral idea is the original game is booted as it normally would be, and through my software, communicates with another running instance of Unreal Engine 5. Through this communication link the games state, assets, everything, is communicated to Unreal Engine 5 and reinterpreted as a modern game asset, all at runtime.

So it'll still be the original Deus Ex, but with some modern features, such ??as advanced lighting and upscaled AI. The fact that it's being filtered (I know it's more complicated than that) through Unreal Engine 5 is what makes this special.

The developer says they expect the software to work on any game that was built on UE1. Here's a recent video of it rendering a fly-through of Unreal Gold. It may even run other classics, such as Unreal Tournament or possibly Thief.

As for when DXU24 will be out, the creator is anticipating a mid-2024 release. The project has been in devel??opment for some time now, so they're hoping to launch it as soon as they can.

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Resident Evil 4 being nominated for several categories at The Game Awards 2023 shows that remakes are still very much in vogue. It seems evident that we should never forget the classics. And that's exactly what this one modder is doing with the original RE2.

Perhaps in an attempt to blend modern Resident Evil with the retro installments, Itch.io user PerroAutonomo has been remaking the second game in the series. Only, they aren't updating the visuals or the cheesy dialogue. No. They're stickin??g with how the ??original 1998 release looked, but have made it into a first-person shooter.

The above video from the YouTube channel Residence of Evil does a half hour playthrough of the demo. As for when the full thing will be released, PerroAutonomo's page says they may not finish it, and the current build "has many errors" (translated by Google).

Complete with fully remade cut scenes

The footage shows how authentic this unofficial remake is. It endeavors to keep the visual style of Resident Evil 2 but choo?ses a different perspective. We get to see a lot of the game from new angles never seen before, and even though it's a fan project, it's s?till impressive to see.

As Capcom marches forward with its iconic survival horror series, we welcome whatever's on the horizon. With more Resident Evil remakes being confirmed, everyone's going to be ??wondering which one's going to get the remake treatment next.

We may well get to see a fresh take on one of the spin-offs, such as Code Veronica or Umbrella Chronicles. Or maybe RE5 will get anot?her crack at not being a disappointment. Time will tell on that front.

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The original Doom recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, making me feel quite old. As well as being an early blueprint for the FPS genre, id Software'??s iconic shooter is also a popular modding playground. Sometimes, these mods harken back to even older gaming days.

Modders Gokuma and Kontra Kommando have crafted a love letter to an absolute classic '80s slasher film. Specifically, they've turned Doom into Friday the 13th. More specifically? still, they've based it on the NES ad?aptation, turning the 1989 side-scrolling game into a first-person shooter.

Set in Camp Crystal Lake �as you would expect �the mod brings back Jason Voorhees to "slaughter all those that would dare to step foot" into the camp. It's up to Doomguy to stop him, presumably. Currently, there's no full release date, but you can download the current beta from ModDB to try it out.

Life before Doom

It's interesting to see this kind of mod. While it could have been just set in the Friday the 13th universe in any respect, the creators chose to breathe new life (resurrect, if you will) into a game that's even older than Doom.

A lot has certainly changed over the decades for the?? plucky FPS. Thirty years is a long time in any form of media, but to see id Software's legendary 1993 release keep coming back for more is a strong testament to just how important the game has been to the industry.

There are so many Doom mods out there, some of which change up the formula immensely, not to mention the countless ways of porting the game. There's not really anything else like it in the video game world, so hats off to the studio for brin??ging it to us.

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Well, it's been about a hundredth of a femtosecond, let's see what people are trying to port Doom onto now. Oh my, would you look at that! It? appears as though it's possible to get id Software's iconic FPS t??o "run" on cells.

In a meeting of technology and biology, PhD student Lauren "Ren" Ramlan at MIT (as shared by Reddit user AnNdPh) has figured out a way to use E. coli cells to sort of run Doom. Now, I'm not scientific??ally minded, so I don't fully understand how they do it.

In a nutshell: what they've been able to do is tweak or modify the cells to �for want of a better term �turn them into monitor pixels. ?This has then allowed them to display the game in a very rudimentary way.

I hope you have half a millennium to spare

While this means the E. coli cells are technically displaying the game rather than actually running it, it's still impressive to see Doom being ported in this way.

Ren also notes that the game is only able to run at one frame every 8.33 hours. Using this figure, they estimate it would take around 600 years to complete it in its entirety. Even the likes of Skyrim can't compete with that kind of longevity.

With the original Doom recently celebrating its 30th anniversary, the legacy of the iconic shooter continues unabated. One can't help wonder where the FPS genre would be without the 1993 release, but one's thing for sure, no one's running Call of Duty on E. coli cells.

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Upon its release, Doom established itself as a blueprint? for the then-new first-person shooter genre. Going on to become one of the most iconic PC games in all existence, id Software's FPS retains it?s legacy as it turns 30 years old.

To celebrate the occasion, John Carmack and John Romero �both of whom played a pivotal role in the game's development �reflect on their time spent working on Doom. As you can imag?ine, it holds a lot of fond memories for the pair, who some have desc??ribed as gaming's equivalent of Lennon and McCartney.

During one section of the Twitch video (which was moderated by writer David L Craddock), Carmack acknowledged that the original Doom was pretty influential in getting people in the '90s interested in PC networking. Encouraging f??ans to understand about upgrading hardware, some have even gone on to become professionals in network engineering, the pair say.

How times have changed

Having just released SIGIL II �a free WAD file for Doom �Romero is aware of how the game is changing all the time, thanks to a dedicated community. A few months back, he played through the MyHouse WAD, a custom story built by a fan that generated a lot of attention due to its House of Leaves-style narrative.

Of course, both Johns have seen how the industry has changed over the last three decades. While advances in AI are making it possible to have smarter enemies in games, Carmack doesn't believe it's always for the best. He said he much preferred to have the player be the focus, and intelligent enemies that have independence would not have worked in Doom.

He also laments the loss of game manuals. With how deep some releases are in terms of their lore and mechanics, it's surprising that manuals aren't still a thing. Romero even mentions Ultima 5, which has more than one.

A lot may have changed, but the legacy of Doom is unwavering. The series is still goi?ng pretty strong, but the OG releases from the '90s will always be praised due to their influence. Here's to another 30 years of demon slayin??g!

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The Thief series?? has sadly been blackjacked to death, but diehard fans will always remember the original releases. Hailed as classics in the e??arly days of the stealth genre, one person has decided that the first game needed some new content.

As spotted by Eurogamer, user skacky �also known as Feuillade Industries �has released The Black Parade, an unofficial expansion for Thief Gold. A t??railer swoops u??s through some of the add-on's moody setting and familiar gameplay.

Spending seven years in development, there's a lot of content to keep you busy if you're after some old-school Thief goodness. Here's a l?ist ?of what you'll find in the download:

• 10 huge, open-ended and meticulously crafted missions with varied themes packed with content.
• A brand new protagonist thrown into a dark, intricately woven story of crime and conspiracies.
• 4 new tools happily supplied by the undermarket, at a price.
• Many tweaks to the AI to make the game a bit more challenging but still fair.
• A brand new "banter" system where AIs greet each other during their rounds and nightly life.
• 28 voiced characters totaling roughly 1,800 new lines of dialogue.
• 30 minutes of gorgeous hand-drawn briefings and cutscenes.
• Brand new AI motions making the denizens of The City look more alive.
• Full English subtitles.

Not playing Garrett, though

With a new story comes a new character. The creator describes The Black Parade thus (and no mention of My C??hemical Romance, either):

In The Black Parade you play the character of Hume, a hardened criminal who was sent into exile as a punishment for his crimes. The year is 833, you are now back in The City, a sprawling metropolis of soot-caked brick, greasy fumes and noisy machinery, with many a sinister conspiracy whispered behind closed doors. Lost and without a penny to your name, yo?u are back to your life of thievery and must find your old associate Dahlqui?st. Shadows and silence are your allies. Light is your enemy. Stealth and cunning are your tools. And the riches of others are yours for the taking.

It should be noted that the add-on is for Thief Gold, which was the expanded version of the original game? released in the late 1990s. It is, of cours?e, completely free to play as well.

It's been many-a-year since we had a Thief title. The last one, the 2014 attempt at a reboot, was something of a let-down. At? least with Feuillade Industries' expansion, we get to revisit the iconic stealth game.

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There will almost certainly never be an end to the sheer number of things Doom can be ported to, but earrings are a new one. We've already reached the point where Doom was running inside Doom in some weird Inception-style melding (is that a dated reference??). Now, someone has managed to combine the iconic FPS with fashion.

?Streamer, "self-taught dev," and Twitter user Alina has posted a s??hort clip of herself wearing a pair of Game Boy-inspired earrings. Only these earrings can be seen playing a dinky version of id Software's classic shooter, Doom.

This came about not long after Alina posted a tweet about how said earrings can actually be programmed to play Tetris on them. Soon after, user @zKassaiAudio set things in motion by predicting that someone would run Doom on the earrings, which is exactly what happened.

Can I get a pair?

Looking at some additional Twitter/X posts, Alina says she's using the Thumby keychain. This is a tiny gaming d??evice from a ??company called TinyCircuits, which has been designed after the Nintendo Game Boy.

Given that the Thumby is programmable, it's feasible for anyone with coding skills to put a micro version of Doom on there. As for the earrings, ??they'll need to be bought separately. It might seem like a gimmick, but it'll give you something to play whe??n your phone's out of signal.

As for the game itself, well, Doom officially turns 30 years old next month. That's longer? than some people reading this have been alive. It begs the question of how id (and?? the fans) will be celebrating its legacy. Doom fashion accessories seem like a good start.

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