New ways to play Skyrim, and DMCA takedown notices – yep, it’s been a pretty standard week in the modding community. It’s certainly had its ups and downs, as with one of the most popular Skyrim mods deleted from Nexus Mods, but also a new update on the upcoming (and breathtaking) Skyblivion project.
Here are all the biggest stories from the modding community this week.
Related: Skyrim Mods Are Hurting Because Of Nexus' New Policies
New Nexus Mods Policy Leads To Legendary Skyrim Mod Being Taken Down
To kick us off, some controversy. Nexus Mods has previously announced a change of policy which has some modders frustrated, and has now lead to one of the most downloaded mods being taken off the site by its creator.
I’m sure many of you are aware of the Alternate Start Skyrim mod. This allows you to skip the tutorial, and jump straight into the action. As you can imagine, this is a godsend on multiple playthoughts, and has been downloaded a whopping eight million times. However, it has now been taken off Nexus Mods in protest of the site's new policy, which removed the ability for creators to delete their work. This was in an effort to promote the site's collections feature, which bundles compatible mods together. If one were to be deleted, it could make the whole collection unusable.
Alternate Start is available over on AFK Mods, for anyone who wants to be free from the game’s opening.
Take-Two Is Going After GTA Modders
A tale as old as time – a developer going after a remaster mod. Despite requiring a bought copy of Grand Theft Auto 5 to work, Take-Two went after mods such as Vice Cry: Remastered 1.0, Liberty City & Vice City v4.0, and six others. All of the mods in question were recreations of older games in the series, reimagined using GTA 5’s engine.
While this is bad news for the creators and anyone who was hoping to try them out, it does add to the rumour that Take-Two is gearing up to launch official remasters of these old titles, and would therefore view these mods as competition. We already know that five of the games Take-Two has published over the years will be getting some kind of rerelease next year, and these are likely candidates.
Skyblivion Just Gets Better And Better
Skyblivion is an overwhelmingly ambitious fan undertaking. The project aims to recreate the entirety of Oblivion with Skyrim’s engine and assets, breathing more life into the adored 2006 RPG. The developers recently gave us another update on how it’s going, and it’s already looking gorgeous.
In the update, we’re taken through a recreated city of Leyawiin. The team hasn’t simply upped the graphics on the original map, rather they have actually rebuilt it from the ground up, using the concept art as inspiration. This means it will have features that didn’t make it into the vanilla Leyawiin 17 years ago.
Dragonborn Gets A Faithful Corgi Companion
Trying to justify yet another playthrough? This adorable mod has you covered. Play through the same story you’ve seen 100 times before, but this time with a corgi following you around! I mean, come on, it’s a very well rendered corgi.
Better yet, Gladys (yes, that’s her name), is fully voice acted by the creator’s own corgi! The mod is so delightful that Bethesda gave it a shout out as part of its featured mods for August.
Modders Restore The Dreamcast Version Of Crazy Taxi
As we covered with the GTA story, usually modders take old things, and make them run like new things. Well, this case is the exact opposite. Instead, Crazy Taxi Dreamcast Restoration 2.0 bring the Steam release of the game more in line with the 1999 original.
The mod restores the licenced music and trademarks which had expired by the time of the re-release on PC. This means you can once again blast some Offspring while you drop patrons off at Pizza Hut, KFC, Levi, and Tower Records – and all while using an analogue stick! Glorious, glorious nostalgia.
Next: This Week's Indie Game Releases (August 8 – 14)
