Garry’s Mod
Garry’s Mod, also known as GMod, is a sandbox physics game created by Garry Newman and developed by his company (Facepunch Studios) as a mod for Half Life 2 (Valve Corporation), later made into a standalone release in 2006 for Microsoft Windows. In 2010 GMod has been ported on OS X and also on Linux three years later.
GMod has no objectives nor a Single Player story, this is in fact a game where you can build your own world selecting different props from your inventory and placing them in any possible way. If you have a certain knowledge you can also create your own 3D content and insert completely new playable models, ragdolls and items in your game taking advantage of its powerful Source Engine, also publishing them in the Workshop as downloadable mods for other users. The game, however, has a few achievements to unlock.
Garry’s Mod also has countless maps you can visit with your friends during multiplayer matches (or on your own while exploring), most of them are also custom made.
Popular matches:
Prop Hunt: Basically what we call ‘Hide’n’Seek’ in real life, although this time you have to become an object to blend with your surroundings. You can be a table, a pillow, an apple, a trashcan, an energy drink, a creepy doll, a plant, even a vending machine! Your opponents are well armed soldiers who can shoot you with different weapons or make you explode with a grenade if they find you. Totally recommended if you want to have a good laugh with your friends!
Check this hilarious video to see how it works 😀
Dodgeball: Another game I used to play when I was a child at school during breaks. You simply need to dodge the balls coming from your opponents on the other side and try to hit them as well to increase your personal score (possibly without jumping off a high building or being thrown against a wall for crossing the dividing line :P)
Guess who: We get two teams again here. If you become a soldier you’ll have to find your friends and kill them, although it’s not going to be easy because the map will load a bunch of random NPCs and the other team will walk among them also changing appearance from time to time to confuse you. If you hit a walking ragdoll missing the real targets too many times, your health points will be reduced to 0.
Deathmatch: There are actually many versions of this game mode available. It technically works like Battlefield, Call of Duty or Counter Strike: Source where you have to fight to survive using guns, rifles or knives and real ammo (which needs to be collected during matches as well).
These are just some of the many gamemodes you can find in the Workshop, without paying a single cent since you’ve already purchased the base game. As you can see the original price for it is $9.99, but you may get it for $1 or so during sales.
The most incredible thing is the fantastic amount of products this game offers for such a low price, along with the epic custom made addons you can subscribe to. Some users managed to re-create existing places in their custom maps, or even scenes from movies and/or other games. For example you can find a nice Titanic ship which will actually sink in the Ocean, a human body from the inside, a Stardestroyer ship from Star Wars (and you can also find the iconic Lightsabers and general weapons), the Jurassic Park world, Alien Isolation map with the actual Alien in it and a whole gamemode for it, a DOOM level, a Fallout map (with player models), an entire Subway location in Tokyo, Catacombs inspired by Tomb Raider 2 and MUCH more.
Note: Althought everything in the Workshop is available for free, you may need the Counter Strike: Source game or Half-Life 2 itself in order to load certain maps properly (they usually load nonetheless when you select the desired location, but huge ERROR texts and/or pink walls and streets may appear all around for missing objects/textures). The creators usually put all the needed instructions in their descriptions, just avoid the ones requiring these products and you will be able to open everything else with no troubles.
But that’s not all, guys!
Garry’s Mod also offers the possibility of creating pictures and animations with default or custom characters. The whole operation requires a few additional tools and a lot of practice, but if you’re interested you can follow this guide here to have an idea about the procedure, which I find quite complicated yet innovative.
What are you waiting for? Get this precious thing and have fun!
Happy gaming and modding ♥