One of the main advantages to PC gaming is the vast array of community-created mods available that give your favorite games added features, longevity, or, short of those, absurdity. Here are 10 of the most moddable games out there now.
Fallout 3/Fallout: New Vegas
Both of the last-gen Fallout games have tons of mods available individually that cover just about everything imaginable, from brand new weapons to shinier graphics. But perhaps the most ambitious is A Tale of Two Wastelands, which actually stitches the two games into a single experience, letting you ride a train from the Capital Wasteland to the Vegas countryside.
Crusader Kings II
Paradox Interactive’s epic grand strategy Crusader Kings II has been constantly updated and tweaked by the developer since its release in 2012. But modders have made perhaps the most dramatic changes to the game, creating total overhauls that shift the action to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth and George R.R. Martin’s Westeros.
Starcraft 2
With the first Starcraft 2 expansion, Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard debuted the Starcraft 2 Arcade, which is a virtual clearinghouse for game mods. These range from small unit stat tweaks to completely different game modes, many of which aren’t RTS at all – one mod lets you play a Blizzardy-themed version of Rocket League. Best part? The Starcraft 2 Arcade is totally free to play, and now includes all assets from Warcraft III as well.
Doom
The original Doom came out more than 20 years ago, but modders continue to tinker with and improve the hoary old 2.5D shooter. In fact, Brutal Doom, which takes everything about Doom and dials it up to 11, just released a new version this year.
Grand Theft Auto IV
The fourth GTA title was a bit controversial out of the box, but that never stopped modders from having a good time with it. There are mods to add cars and super powers to Nico’s Liberty City, but the most stunning is probably Hayssam Keilany’s iCEnhancer, which makes GTA IV look at least as good as vanilla GTA V.
Mount & Blade: Warband
Mount & Blade: Warband has a ton of huge mods. There are mods that provide sorely-needed graphics upgrades (let’s be honest, it was never a pretty game), but others that add new factions, revamped UI, new world maps, and even entirely new campaigns with all-new assets.
Arma 2
This is a game whose mods wound up being more popular than the original title: Arma 2 was, of course, the beginning of Day Z, which really kickstarted the incredibly popular survival sandbox genre. But did you know that you can also fly around in a Eurofighter Typhoon with a My Little Pony paintjob?
Minecraft
It’s not enough that Minecraft lets players build just about anything they can imagine. Modders have decided to do more with it. Obviously there are the simple texture overhauls, but now there are huge multiplayer quests and even a mod that adds collectable Pokémon monsters.
Kerbal Space Program
What makes Kerbal Space Program so rewarding is how you get to bolt together tons of parts to make a rocket ship that may or may not make it to the Mun or other planets. So obviously, more parts is more fun, right? Well, KSP’s modding community has created thousands of additional components for the game. But that’s not all – Kerbal Space Program might be the first game to feature mods made in collaboration with a government agency. NASA announced a while back that they’d be working together with the game’s creators to add extra realism.
