Playback.dem Mod Special

Here’s that Mod Coverage we told you about!

August and September are covered with some highlights we found across the World-Wide-Web!

But before we do, we hope you’ve been enjoying some classic modifications at the Arcade. We’ve been making fixes and tweaks across the board. There’s some more mod-specific map packs to be found.

For example, Pain Keep has multiple community map packs attached, as well as a reaper bot configuration (exec pkbot.cfg in the console, then choose a map. now addbot type commands will be available).

AirQuake was also blessed with levels from the PlanetQuake.com/AirQuakeLevels archive.

In the cases of all mods, you can either launch the maps from the list in the Multiplayer server creation menu, or via the console (SHIFT + ESC).

As always, we try to keep the feeling authentic. If you find something that’s off, let us know in the Chat.

Let’s dig into some modding news, we thought was worth highlighting!

August

We missed modding news in August! So you get two months this month, cool huh?

It’s A Small World Afterall

The Whole Half-Life has announced their latest mapping competition! This time, it’s all about the little guy, RATS! Most of us know about World of Padman, SiN’s famous DM level, or Chris Spain’s legendary Rats map, it’s a concept in video games almost as old as time. The competition tasks anyone willing to enter to make a Rats map with any Valve title, or you can make a map for this new fangled Rats Hunt gamemode. No custom code is allowed, but other custom assets are. We are excited to see what the community puts out!

The compo was originally ending on October 7th (but it has been extended to October 21st, 2025, so if you have an idea for a map, nows your chance! We’ll report on the results in next months Playback.

Being A Pirate is Alright to Be!

Ahoy matey! Back in August, the legendary Pirates Vikings and Knights II hit the landmark 1.0 release! This mod has been in development for literally decades at this point, with it’s origin dating back the GoldSrc version. Log on to Steam and download it now, and get ready to hit Vikings and Knights in their booty!

Half-Life 2 Meets Deus Ex

The ever ambitious yet intriguing SourceWorld by SellFace had another update letting us know of their progress. While summer vacation might be over, you can see what was missed while you were on the beach (or wishing you were), which includes new weapons, mission logic, and other goodies.

RTX Remix Mod Competition Is Over

ModDB held a contest sponspored by NVIDIA where users had to “RTX Remix” a game. So if you happen to own a card compatible with that, or are just interested in NVIDIA’s provided set of tools for “updating” the visuals of a game, read on!

The competition goal was simple: Make a graphic overhaul using the RTX Remix tools. The most impressive project wins! Basically, games get their rendering hijacked and assets replaced at runtime using NVIDIAs driver and a compatible card.

Who are the winners? Well, read up on it on ModDB! But we can confirm that one of them is for our beloved Call of Duty 2.

It’s always fun to see games renderered using different methods, and these mods showcase how important lighting really is. I think while the underlying technology and content for these mods is very sound they also showcase how difficult it is to capture the original feel even if you control the lighting fully.

Of course, these types of visual modifications may not be everyones cup of tea, but it’s not often we see paid sponsorships in mod development these days, even if it’s only targeting a subset of modders.

Congrats to the winners, who’ve no doubt learned had a great experience and got some sweet prizes! They gave away $50,000 worth of cash alone. Glad to see that spent on mod developers.

Everyone who entered (not just winners!): Tell us what it was like in the Chat if you dare and we might write about you next month! We’d appreciate hearing from you all.

Survive The Castle In New Ways

You’ve probably heard of RealRTCW by WolfETPlayer. It’s got lots of extra stuff you probably want to check out if you’re at all a fan of the classic fascist-killing Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Yes, it includes a wave-based survival game mode. Hell yeah!

September

Feeling Blue

Our beloved gaming news icon, Blue of Blue’s News, has sadly come down with pneumonia! He has posted an update letting us know he has thankfully been recovering. Regardless, we want to wish Blue a fast and speedy recovery! Get well soon Blue!

A Lost Art

The Dead Sea Scrolls is a 9-level WAD for Doom by BigEyeGuy aka BEG that’s getting one big, final update to include improved support for deathmatch and cooperative play!

The WAD doesn’t just target the latest version of the game on Steam, but also the original DOS binaries from the 90s. It makes for some pretty authentic looking gameplay.

You can grab it over on ModDB. You can also check out the release thread on DoomWorld.

Any stable Doom clients oughta be able to play this. No need to get any specific engines for this one!

This is my Boomstick!

A new DOOM 3 singleplayer campaign is on the horizon, with a bold premise: All you have is a modified shotgun.

Welcome to the Shotgun Level Mod!

With level design easily on par with the work of id Software, you might might want to follow this mod by fellow developer Lightherz.

Duke Nukem: Blast Radius v5.0.7

We got a news-post that wants to introduce you to the current iteration of Blast Radius!

This was something that flew under the radar for us and I’m sure others too!

This is 17-levels in total for Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition that takes place all over the world and beyond.

Have you played and liked (if not loved) Duke Nukem 3D? You gotta play Blast Radius by ck3D.

The amount of content is huge, but there’s even more addon maps. See here what Mikko Sandt had to say about The Computer War: 94% rating. Just play it!

Levels even have their dedicated articles on ModDB. Check out the one for Zarathustra or Koj Stil Borac to get a glimpse at the scope, and attention was poured into this project.

Just browse the gallery and get dazzled by some seriously awesome BUILD Engine level design.

They’re also helping out on the visually insane looking Duke Nukem: Alien Armageddon by DukeBoss.

ROCKIN!

Beyond September: October

It’s not over yet, but at the end of the month we INVITE YOU to play on Halloween.

Join us on October 31st, where we’ll be playing some iconic mods together in a brand new way. Enter the Chat.

Mark your calendars. October 31st 2025, Games will start at around 1 PM Los Angeles time.