Please use the menu on the left to select a game. Within each section you will find download links and complete instructions for installing and running mods and maps. To return to this page select "guide" below the games menu on the left.

The following terms and conventions are used throughout each section:

Installation refers to the location on your hard drive where the mod or map pack should be installed. Where I have given options for installation locations (divided by OR) this means that either method will work. Mods indicated by in the lists must be installed in their own folder.

Optional for maps means that in some games maps can be installed as mods, by creating a folder with the maps inside, then using the folder name as the mod name and the first map as the starting map.

Command Line refers to the information which should go in the "Target" field of a shortcut. An example is then given for each game. I have also made available a sample shortcut for each given in this guide which you may download and re-use if you do not want to make your own from scratch. Download it here.

Within the code examples, "..\" means your drive letter or the parent directories which lead to the folder specified. Note that spaces and quotes are important, and where I have stated something in brackets such as [map name.map] this means the name of the map without the brackets.

Examples If you follow the instructions on this site, you can organise all of your maps and mods into nested shortcut groups in your start menu, as shown in the image below:

Example start menu (click to enlarge).

Each shortcut contains the command line for that particular map or mod, including difficulty settings and other variables, as shown in the following screenshot:

Example shortcuts for a map (left) and a mod (right)(click to enlarge). The command line goes in the "target" field.

Using these methods you can forget about the console and Mod menu forever! Though these examples are from Doom 3, they will work for all games on this site (except Deus Ex - see page for details).

Within each list for each game, maps and mods are divided into the following categories:

Arenas are maps in which the object is to kill as many enemy ai as possible before inevitably being overwhelmed. Many maps of this sort have no ending, and those that do are often so difficult that you are unlikely to see it. I do not generally care for this style of mapping, but it is very popular.

Demonstrations are maps in which the goal is not gameplay but rather to showcase a particular feature of a game, such as the vehicle physics in Far Cry or the ultra realism possible in HL2, as shown in the astonishing Falling Water.

Full Missions are maps or mods which contain a full game, with a start, end and all the usual features of a first person shooter game.

In the Half Life section I have also added a category called Full Missions Non Half Life. This simply means that the mod is a full mission, as above, but does not take place within the Half Life universe.

Single Levels are very short games. This category is not relevant for newer game engines that allow for massive levels, but in older games such as Half Life and RTCW a single map was a very short experience.

Unfinished Works are demo maps or mods which are unfinished, but still fully functional and playable. Usually this will mean that the game ends prematurely, often with a message that "more is coming soon." In some cases these will be finished someday, but in most cases the author has abandoned the work and the work in progress is all that is available. In the Half Life section these distributed throughout the main categories and are indicated by (incomplete) after the title.