BEST TOTAL CONVERSION

Forget the extra hats. Which mods have most radically transformed whole games?

Fall From Heaven

Now 10 years old, this mod for Civilization IV is a dark fantasy game based loosely on D&D. Players control a human race after an apocalypse. It introduces spell casting units, unique Heroes, Angelic, Elven, Dwarven, and Demonic civilizations to encounter, plus strange religions.

Nehrim: At Fate’s Edge

A total conversion for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by the semi-pro mod team SureAI, Nehrim took four years to make, providing an entire new world to explore, new races, and a voice-acted main plot. SureAI has also produced two Morrowind mods, one Fallout 3 mod, and it’s now working on Skyrim total conversion Enderal: The Shards of Order.

The Third Age: Total War 2013

A terrifyingly comprehensive and polished Lordofthe

Rings conversion for Medieval 2: Total War Kingdoms, which features a dozen factions and a hundred locations from the books, as well as orcs, trolls, wargs, and the rest.

Skywind

Morrowind was the game that had most gamers fall in love with the ElderScrolls series, but it looks ugly by today’s standards, and has some unforgiving mechanics. Enter Skywind. Currently still in alpha, it promises a total rebuild of Morrowind in the Skyrim engine.

Aliens

The first total conversion, this altered the textures and enemies of Doom to that of the Aliens movie, and built an all-new world. It was so successful that creator Justin Fisher was offered a job by several studios, but finished his degree instead. (One of those studios, Dreamworks, made a game called Trespasser, inspired by Fisher’s mod.)