MOD MASTERS
This blog will be a multipart series on my experience modding GTAV and other PC games.
In the early days of allgames.com I was all about PC games. The keyboard and mouse controls, the ability to push increased resolutions and patch games post release were real benefits at the time. Being a PC gamer also came with a lot of headaches. You often had to spend time finding the latest sound, video, and input drivers. Game developers had to account for dozens of sound and video card options to make sure the game was compatible with as many PC's as possible. The PC gaming community was incredible as they worked together to provide the latest drivers, patches, demos and mods (game modifications).
Game demos weren't really a thing for consoles back then. Many nights were spent downloading huge game demos on slow connections so we could experience the latest games. This, despite having a 28.8 Kbps connection to the internet. Eventually consoles were able to release demo discs and downloadable trials, but they were still missing one very cool feature. Community mods.
Modding has been around for a long time. When we were doing shows in 1999, Team Fortress was released as a MODification of Quake, a game released 3 years earlier. Valve Software saw the potential and hired the team that created the modification to work on a Team Fortress 2 using the Half-Life game engine.
This was the dawn of an era in which aspiring game makers could tinker with game assets, scripts and intellectual property. The idea that you could create something cool with an existing game and be hired by a major developer was becoming a reality. This would spark the imagination of thousands of programmers, artsts, and game designers all over the world.
Of course, since abandoning the PC platform around 2009, I've missed out on some really cool mods. The early mods have had lots of growing pains and so jumping into it in 2020 during a pandemic yields a ton of refined and polished experiencing. The mods have come a long way and there are some amazing teams doing great work around the world.
Some of the best mods have been around fist person games. Blockbuster franchises like Skyrim, Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, and Red Dead Redemption have sophisticated mods available for free. Some of these mods will just swap out the original assets for new ones. Replace the Franklin model with Marge Simpson, replace Michael with Homer and then create your own Simpsons Hit and Run game. Or just download the Simpsons Hit and Run mod which ports the entire first level over to GTAV.
The variety of add-ons and mods is in the hundreds and range from really bad to AAA good. There are mods that incorporate all the best gameplay elements from the exclusive PS4 game Spiderman, webslinging, spideysense, wall crawling and even spider drones. Or maybe you're an IRON MAN fan. Load up multiple version of IRON MAN suits from the movies and comics and then unleash a firestorm of destruction across the city. Yes, you can fly across the map at supersonic speeds as well. The Iron Man, Spiderman, Flash, and Hulk mods are all continuing to improve even 5 years after initial release.
The tools you'll need to mod your game have gotten very sophisticated. Despite the evolution of the tools, it's still the wild west out there with mods that are old, out of date, abandoned and broken. In order to install and test out these mods you'll need to familiarize yourself with the names of various mods, tools and in-game file system.
In 2015 I upgraded my aging MacBook Pro to a MacBook Pro 15" and it was a solid machine for editing videos and everything else I needed to do. When the battery starting losing a charge in 2018, I brought it to the apple store only to find out they had were out of parts since the battery was connected to the keyboard and the problem was affecting a lot of 2015 MBP’s.
To my shock, the manager offered me a refurbished version of the same model. When I picked it up, it was a 2016 mac pro with touch bar and double the amount of storage of my original. Wow. Fast forward to 2020 and EPIC deciding to offer a free copy of GTAV to anyone who had an account. So I took the opportunity to grab my copy knowing I had no way of playing it. I would simply wait till I built a computer late this year. Then I realized I could install boot camp and Windows 10. I figured the graphics would look like GTAIV and there would be no cool effects but I just wanted to see if I could install a mod. Wow, this looks great! I can't believe this is running on a 4 year old MacBook with an AMD Radeon Pro 455. I was excited to dig in and try some mods.
https://www.gta5-mods.com/ is going to be your best repository for the variety of content available to download. The real benefit to this site is the comment section for each download where gamers struggle to figure out why something isn't working. In addition to problems with the mod or the script, sometimes a mod will load so much content into the game world that it causes a crash. There are config files that will help limit the number of modified assets in the world. This helped me fix a constant crash after adding mods. The more powerful the machine the more you can throw at the game.
The trial and error process of installing a mod, loading the game to see if it works and then closing it to fix a crash can be time consuming. It can get so bad at times you may want to give up. For example, getting Marty McFly into the DeLorean from Back to the Future 2 was pretty easy. Getting the mod to allow you to set a date and then hit 88mph to go back to the future was broken. The original developer abandoned the project after a while and the evolution of the tools has made it almost impossible to get the mod to run as it did when first created.
Youtube is another great resource as there are a lot of streamers who play mods and show them off. While it's great to see the mods in action, the videos that help you install were required for me to get some of these things to work. The community is absolutely the glue holding the mod scene together. It's also a never ending source of creative out of the box content.
Officer Friendly?
While GTAV lets you assume the identity of a variety of criminals, at the end of the day you're "the bad guy". What if you want to role play as the police in San Andreas to restore "LAW AND ORDER" to this crime ridden city? Enter LSPDFR - The police modification for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V which completely transforms the game into a law enforcement sim. The amazing thing about LSPDFR is the ease of installation via the custom installer. It provides you with a GTA-like menu for customizing your character. It also gives you a menu screen that will let you teleport to various police stations (they added a bunch).
The team is so good and so dedicated, they’re still at it today. Here is the Official Mod Showcase that will give you a feel for the mod. It’s amazing.
In addition to the serious sim element of the mod, you can put 170 crazy customizable masks and props on your character. The gameplay allows you to run license plates and background checks on NPC's as well as pull people over, stop and frisk them, and then handcuff them. The details are amazing and the amount of extra content they have added has to be seen to be believed.
The only external tool you'll need for LSPDFR is Rage Plugin Hook. As the name suggests, RAGE plugin hooks into, and acts as an interface between custom code and RAGE engine based games like Red Dead Redemption 2. You can also add additional mods using Rage Plugin Hook, add search warrants, spotlights, mission creators, breathalyzers, and more.
You can also install mods that turn the game into a firefighter, EMT, or trash collecting simulator. The creative options are truly endless. In my next post I'll talk about the Superhero mods that add realistic Spiderman, Flash, Hulk, and Iron Man gameplay among others.
If you have little ones, install the FAMILY FRIENDLY FREE ROAMING MOD, it will remove all the bad things from the game and create a wonderful open world for your kids to explore.
Do you have a favorite mod? Share it with us below!
