I don't need to tell you that gaming is a unique hobby: you know it. You're crafty. You know that when you plunk down $40-50 bucks for a game, you're going to get more than what's in the box. This column is for you! Every couple of weeks, we'll be surfing the 'net to call out some of the best mods you can add to the big games out there. Ours is not an easy job. Let's face it, there's a lot of stuff you can download that ain't worth the bits it's printed on. But GameSpy is here to steer you around the crap and point the way to some gems. If your shoes stay shiny, we've done our job. Let's kick it off with a pair of mods that exhibit some serious sparkle and polish...



Leon's Single-Player Map Pack
  • Half-Life 2

    If you've already gravity-gunned your way through each of Half-Life 2's fourteen single-player chapters, Leon Brinkmann has four more levels to challenge your run-'n-frag skills. These aren't a bunch of lame fanbois creations, either. Leon's new maps are intricately detailed, with savvy and voluminous enemy A.I. and an off-the-charts pucker factor.

    The add-on starts you in the sewers outside a large city armed only with a shotgun and the SMG. Once you make your way up to street level, you must dodge scores of Combine troops while navigating a labyrinth of buildings, rooftops, and railroad tracks en route to your final target - a large power plant. Autosave points are frequent and Leon has graciously included a number of text cues to guide you through each objective. Your ultimate goal is to penetrate the well-guarded generator building and locate a series of switches that - when activated in the correct sequence - will blow the plant to bits in an impressive pyrotechnic display.

    There's a lot of intense rooftop action in Leon's Map Pack.

    One of the first HL2 single-player mods, this 12.5 MB download is also one of the best the game has seen. The urban combat environment meshes nicely with Valve's original maps and the challenge level will test even the most battle-hardened HL2 vet.

    In fact, the scenery is so intense at times that you may have to de-tune some of your 3D settings if you don't want to slow the framerate down to a slideshow crawl. I can run the stock game cranked-to-the-max on my P4 2.8 MHz Radeon 9700 Pro rig, but I had to cut back quite a bit of eye candy to keep Leon's game from coughing up graphic hairballs (particularly vexing when you're trying to pirouette at half-a-frame-per-second to deal with a sneak headcrab attack). The graphics don't seem especially busy when compared to the original Valve stuff, so I can only assume it's some sort of optimization problem.

    These graphic hiccups aside, Leon's Map Pack is a must-have for any serious HL2 single-player fan.