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. Combine??d with some of the murkier, bloodier hellscape levels, id Software's iconic series is not exactly k??nown 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-progress, "Volt Laser" is promising a large selection of custom maps that ??have ??taken cues from a more synthwave/cyberpunk aesthetic.

This "mega??wad" 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 me?ntioned, "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 piece of dystopian science fi??ction.

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 lot 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 yo?u 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" install?ed, you can strip away the need for pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers, as this mod only allows you to use your punches to quash the demons of hell.

Making a case that guns in Doom 2 are (and I quote) "for wussies after all," this download replaces all weapon sprites with just the Doomguy's fist??s, which includes numerous v??ariations 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 from the business end of a plasma rifle or something.

In any case, Doomguy will no longer have to worry about lugging around all manner of arsenal. Not when he can mow down the denizens of the underworld with naught b??ut 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 it'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 of??fers 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 "Lu??nar Bunnies."? 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 ju?st 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 fiel??d 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 compatible for mobile as it is only intended to play ?on PC.

Probably best to make that message loud and cl?ear.

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

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Doom is just one of those games that feels like it's always been there. Indeed, some of you reading this weren't even born whe??n id Software dropped its now legendary FPS onto our collective faces. It's still hanging 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 dec?ided that wasn't enough, so has given us a new "Impossible"?? skill to select.

One of the key things that makes the original Nightmare mode so hard is the fact that enemies keep respawning, so you can never tru?ly 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 infighting has been disabled. Now all the hellish creatures have no?thing to focus on exc?ept the most efficient way to turn your meaty body into a fine paste.

I haven't tried th?e mod myself, but I bet it's a doozy. I've only ever really dabbled with the game's official Nightmare difficulty a few times 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 mediev??al period. I ??don't particularly care where we go, so long as the killing is brutal and the monsters' insides go well with the décor.

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On July 31, 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy to the US, a gray brick of a handheld console that would go on to dominate t??he 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 an?d 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 tim??e.

A young boy's obsession

It's tough to look back across the decades without 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?? bar??ely a speck compared to the sheer amount of games that were available 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 growing 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 Game 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 also meant the machine was not as sizeable, weighty, or pric?ey 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 compa??rison. Even the Steam Deck's rechargeable battery 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 explosion 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 wa??s never really a selling point, mind. We were too young to truly appreciate the structural integrity 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 think there is another aspec?t 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 broken, 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 playing its handheld device.?? That's compared to 29% for its own NES console.

The fact that near?ly half the Game Boy players were female was newsworthy even then. Nintend?o 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 perfect console. I know that just sounds like rose-colored 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 pret?ty nippy FPS, id Software's iconic shooter continues to draw in new players who are looking to break world records. And another one has just been beate??n.

Over on the aptly titled YouTube channel, Quake Speedruns E?xplained, 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) map, E1M1.

Over the course of 17 minutes, we get a breakdown of what it took to achieve this target, which beats the previous world record by about half a second. 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 speedrunne?rs have been spending decades ??trying to nail down the route with perfect precision. 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 en?emies who can deal m?ore 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 o?f thousands of attempt??s it took Kisimov to get to the end slipgate in just 22 seconds. Grunts being in the wrong place, hitscans dealing 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 de?dicated speedrunners can be. Many commit years of their lives to fi??ne-tuning every frame, making attempts as near to perfect as they can.

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 tha?t speedrunning is serious business.

Just seeing all the failed attempts alone �some of which take place in the first 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 announce his famous "To?asty!" line while battling hell demons. Certainly a fitting comb??ination.

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

"Excellent!"

Ac?cording to MilHouse.wad, in or?der 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 tell.

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 rema??in an absolute triumph, paving the way for the first-person shooter genre. I realize some people are sick of hearing that, but now you 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, here's id Software's iconic FPS running on a toothbru?sh.

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

In a second tweet, we see they eventually managed to get it to run full-screen rather than in?? a small window. 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-C3 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 o?ther visual tweaks.

The below video was spotted by DSO Gaming, and shows the 1998 Epic Games release has been given a bit of boost using RTX technolog?y. We see the first level of the cl?assic 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 onto every possible device known to humanity were over, t??hink again. Now, get ready to slay demons while also maintaining a neat yar??d. 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 tur??n 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 lawnmower’s onboard display and controls." You'll navigate with the control knob, while the START button will allow you to run for?ward.

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 c?ourse, you don't need me to tell you t??hat 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 thing to consider i?s that it's not being made available to all countries. According to the web??site, 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, Latvia, L??ithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Mold??ova, 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 origin?al 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 cycle." We can see how the images bring the t?wo ideas together.

Now we just need Ripley fighting imps

At the moment, the mod is in alph??a 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 co?mment on the mod page:

This is the alpha version which I was mainly using to test and make sure the Xeno?morphs functioned correctly in infesting maps. If you run the Xenomorph 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 alre?ady, which suggests the 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 music to you??r ears. Or not, as is t?he case.

Over on Reddit, user wojtek-graj has made Doom completely playable...in audio. That 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 th??e lowdown:

The game is displayed by generating an audio signal that can be viewed as a spectrogram, while input is taken from the microph?one, with specific frequencies being m?apped 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 pass?é, this is at least one alt?ernative.

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 havin??g 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 since 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 pr??oject is still in the early stages, 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 abou?t to come back in a pretty big way. Aspyr has been hard at work remastering the original three entrie??s 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 adventu??res.

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 studio will also be keeping ?the original tank controls for that dose of retro authentic??ity.

If looks could kill

Of course, it wouldn't be a remaster without some fresh 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 3?D 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 control??s??, 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 byg??one era, the remasters will be co?ming 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, the??re's something interesting happening 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 DXU??24.

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 general 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 t??????????????????????????his 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 t?his 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 d??evelopment 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 sticking with how the original 1998 rele??ase 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 chooses 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 pr??oject, it's still 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 goin??g 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 wi??ll get another crack at not being a disappoin??tment. 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 bei?ng 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 ba??sed it on the NES adaptation, 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 t??he 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 bringing 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 tha??t!?? It appears as though it's possible to get id Software's iconic FPS to "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 scientifically minded, so I don't fully understand how they do it??.

In a nutshell: what they've be??en 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 its 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 imagine, it holds a lot of fond memories for the pair, who some have described 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 fans to understand about upgrading hardware, some have?? even gone on to become professi?onals 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 going pretty strong, but the OG releases from the '90s will always be praised due to their influence. Here's t??o ano?ther 30 years of demon slaying!

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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 early 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 trailer swoops us 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 list? 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 Chemical 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 sprawli??ng metropolis of soot-caked brick, greasy fumes and noisy machine??ry, with many a sinister conspiracy whispered behind closed doors. Lost and without a penny to your name, you are back to your life of thievery and must find your old associate Dahlquist. 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 ?co??urse, 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 w?ith 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 poste??d a short 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 t??iny gaming device 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. I??t might seem like a gimmick, but it'll give you something to play when your ph?one'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 a?live. 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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For the 25th anniversary of Half-Life, Valve not only released a documentary about the iconic FPS, but also sent out a pretty significant update to celebrate. While the Half-Life patch brought with it some ?bug fixes, there was one that it didn't manage to iron out. Until now, that is.

In a short clip uploaded to Twitter/X by user @VinciusMedeiro6, another update that rolled out recently has fixed an issue with the Blast Pit chapter of the game. Anyone who's familiar with Half-Life?? will be familiar with this section, and the bug in question concerns an unlucky scientist.

When Gordon Freeman steps into a control room, a giant, tentacled monster crashes through a window and grabs a panicked, lab coat-wearing NPC. Unfortunately, perhaps due to limitations at the time, the boffin is dragged off by the monster, but the off animatio??n makes it seem like he's floating in midair.

Argh! A flying scientist!

This little immersion-breaking hiccup has been part and parcel of Half-Life for the past 25 yea?rs. Even the big anniversary? update didn't fix it. But now, it seems Valve saw fit to finally give this small (but wholly iconic) cutscene some additional care.

You can see the result in the clip posted above. For a comparison, @VinciusMedeiro6 also uploaded the original. This way, you can really see the difference th??is little tweak has made to what must have been a terrifying ordeal for the bespectacled scientist.

Since turning a quarter of a century old, Half-Life has enjoyed something of a resurgence, reaching its highest-ever player peak, even without fixing this bug. It sort of cements just how significant the relea??se was (and still is), b??oth in the FPS genre and in gaming in general.

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Doom always takes the crown, but that doesn't detract from Wolfenstein 3D's influence as a key part of FPS history. The series is still going to this day (maybe not as strong in some cases), and people are continui?n?g to modify the OG 1992 release.

For example, "Blazkowicz's Text Adventure 3D" is a different take on Wolfenstine 3D. Created by user TryHardWolfers, it essentially turns the game into a text adventure. By that, I don't mean it converts the shooter into prose, dialogue, and reams of exposition. R?ather, what it does is replace every single texture with a word.

Walls are simply described as "BRICK WALLS," hanging lights are dubbed "LAMPS," and the machine gun you carry...well, you get the idea. There's even a screenshot showing that the picture of Adolf Hitler has been changed into words. You can download the mod from ModDB.

It's a wordy one

As TryHardWolfers says, this "text tale is filled to the brim with well-worded action and tense text map design." It's almost as if we've come full circle, taking the immediacy and imm??ersion of a 3D rendered environment and broken it down into a text adventure of ye olden days.

With Wolfenstein 3 said to be in development, there's seemingly no stopping B.J. Blazkowicz and his Nazi-killing antics. With the first game in the series releasing all the way back in 19?81 (developed by Muse Softwar??e, 11 years before id's 3D take on it), battling against the Third Reich is evidently something that just doesn't go out of style.

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November 19 was officially the 25th anniversary of Half-Life, one of the most influential FPS games ever made. Two and a half decades! It's hard to imagine, a??nd it's even harder to imagi??ne it's still going strong, as evidenced by recent statistics.

Spurred by this milestone birthday, Half-Life has received an influx of players, with SteamDB reporting the game's highest player count on record. Over the last 24 hours, 33,471 players have jumped back into the world of Black Mesa,? the most it's eve??r achieved, according to the history.

Going back as far as possible, the graph shows that, aside from a few spikes here and there, the game has retained a fairly steady flow of players. Until recently, of course. At the time of writing, nearly 19,000 people are playing right now. That's more than Starfield.

That's a lot of resonance cascades

It's no secret why Half-Life is experiencing a boon right now. To go with the 25th anniversary, Valve released a new update for the game, as well as a special documentary about the development of this absolute classic.

As such, it's on a lot of people's minds right now, and understandably so. Featuring one of the most iconic openings in an FPS, Half-Life raised the bar for? what was? possible in video game technology and storytelling.

If you've never played it before, now's your chance, as it's currently free on Steam. We might take a lot of its elements for granted these days but, take it from an aging gamer, this s??tuff was re??volutionary at the time.

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I'm becoming increasingly aware that a lot of my articles are about retro or classic games. Well, I am monstrously old, after all. And on that note, if you want a more modern version of the beloved 90s RTS game Dungeon Keeper, look no further.

KeeperFX is a fan project that aims to keep Bullfrog's legendary strategy game alive and well. The website ??says the aim is to "preserve and expand upon the original," while bringing with it i?mprovements to the visuals and new features.

It does require an official copy of Dungeon Keeper in order to play the FX version �either through a disc (remember those?) or a downloaded copy of the Gold Edition �but th??e fan project itself is free.

What's featured?

Here's a quick list of what you'll find in KeeperFX:

• Windows 7/10/11 support
• Higher screen resolutions
• Modernized controls
• Many bugfixes [sic]
• Additional campaigns and maps
• New level script commands
• New creatures, textures and sprites
• Multiplayer
• And much more!

In short, it retains the general loo?k and feel o??f the ol' D-to-the-K, but with some modern overhauls.

Some of you may already be aware of KeeperFX as it's technically been around since 2008. However, the latest download represents build 1.0.0, aka the "first full version." According to the site, "all original Dungeon Keeper code has been rewritten" and ??it's a fully open-source standalone gam??e.

For those with nostalgia on the brain, this sounds like a neat way to experience a gaming relic of the past. And let's be honest, we haven't had much luck from the series since that awful, awful, Dungeon Keeper mobile game.

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There was a time when Valve could do no wrong, releasing hit game after hit game. While better known these days as the developer behind Steam, Gabe Newell and his crew got their start with the iconic Half-Life. Now, an update has been?? sighted, and the timing is qu??ite suspicious.

According to SteamDB (as spotted by PCGamesN), the original Half-Life underwent a few changes days ago. Specifically, Valve added several depots, including one for Linux and macOS, as well as for some language?s, such as Spanish, German, and Korean.

There's also a "buildid" that's been added, which could be in reference to a new build of the game itself. Clicking on each depot reveals a list of files, but the majority of people probably won't be able to ascertain what a lot of it means (myself included). It's been years since the game's last update,?? but considering its age, there's probably not much to do.

No, it's probably not Half-Life 3

Given that Half-Life is approaching its 25th anniversary, there's a possibilit??y that Valve is getting? ready to release an update for its maiden game. What that entails, we can't say at this stage.

We know that an RTX version of Half-Life 2 is in the works, so maybe the OG is getting similar treatment. Given its legendary status, the 1998 (November 19, to be s?pecific) release has left quite the impact on the FPS genre, shaking? things up a bit with its world building and environmental storytelling.

Hard?? to imagine that it's been around for nearly a quarter of a century. But it's definitely nice to see that it's still getting a lot of love and attention.

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Hey, gamers! Wanna feel old? What if I told you that the classic LucasArts title Grim Fandango just turned 25? Time is indeed marching on unabated. However, to offer some small co?mfort, you can now get the game's soundtrack on LP.

As spotted by TechRadar, the good people at iam8bit have launched a vintage black vinyl that features the remastered orchestral soundtrack to Grim Fandango. Not?? only that,?? but it comes with a "diecut cover" that has the many faces of one Manny Calavera.

While the soundtrack was released a few years ago for the game's 20th anniversary, this represents a chance to own it on a neat-looking vinyl set. It's? currently priced at $42.99.

Perhaps one of Schafer's finest works (commence disagreements)

Released October 30, 1998, Grim Fandango is something of a relic of a bygone (and almost certainly missed) era of PC gaming. The story concerns the aforementioned Manny, a tr??avel agent working for the Department of Death, selling luxury packag??es to souls as they make their way to the afterlife.

In typical 90s LucasArts fashion, the point-and-click narrative of the game ??was notorious for its convoluted, sometimes illogical puzzles. It was a simper time though, and any frustrations were quickly offset by the story's sharp writing, courtesy of Tim Schafer.

It's not too late to play Grim Fandango for those who missed out. A remastered version was released in 2015, which maintains its original look but adds some modern tweaks. To sweeten the deal a bit, you can get the game for a massive 75% off through Steam or GOG until November 6.

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Rare's Perfect Dark is a spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007, one of the most influential shooters o??f the Nintendo 64 era. If you've never played the original capers of special agent Joanna Dark, you can now ??check it out on PC.

Although it's an unofficial port, GitHub user fgsfds has made Perfect Dark play??able on PC, which not only brings the classic 2000 game back from the dead, but adds extra features. For example, mouselook, widescreen support, FOV, and more have been implemented.

The download page notes the game is "in a mostly functional state." Indeed, a report from DSO Gaming says the port does have some bugs, "but not any game-breaking issues." The only thing y??ou may need to consider is tha??t it's only available on 32-bit operating systems.

When Rare games weren't so rare

Perfect Dark represents a grander time for developer Rare. Hot off the immense success of GoldenEye on the N64?, the relatively small British studio was the darlings of a b??ygone Nintendo era.

The team is responsible for some of the most memorable games of the 90s. Setting standards with the release of Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, Rare consistently knocked it out of the park for years to come. Just ask anyone who remembers Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, or Killer Instinct.

As for Perfect Dark itself, the series has struggled to make much impact in more modern times. While there is a reboot in development, conflic??ts mean we ??might not see it for a good few years.

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It could well be argued that without the original Doom, there wouldn't be much of an FPS golden age, and that includes games like Half-Life. So, ??imagine my surprise when it turns out that someone has managed to take the aforementioned titles and package them under one r??oof. Kind of.

If you've always wanted to know what Doom 2 would be like with Half-Life's sound effects, then ModDB user DASniperIC (thanks, PCGamesN) has just the thing for you.

If you want an idea of what it sounds like when the enemies of one game cry out like injured scientists in the other, the footage gives you a taste. Not only does the mod replace the enemy howls and roars with things like Black Mesa scientists, but all?? the weapons now sound like they come from Valve's IP, too.

Imps as headcrab zombies...what a world!

As DASniperIC says, it's entirely possible someone else has tackled the concept already. However, this version is simply their take on a Doom/Half-Life crossover.

It's one of a gazillion ways that these legendary shooters continue to get the modding treatment and thus remain in the gaming limelight. Classic Doom is certainly no stranger to mods, having spent the better part of three dec??ades receiving tweaks and custom opt??ions from its community.

As for Half-Life, well, that's still getting a lot of love these days, even more so the sequel. In any case, modding legendary FPS games shows no signs of slowing down. Maybe someone will combine Doom with another game from a bygone era, like Blood. Oh, wait. That's totally a thing.

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