⚡ NEW: Id/Cassandra - Complete Album!

Brutal Half-Life v3 mod review
Because original Half-Life is obviously already a classic and I would rate it positive.
this new review is written from scratch on 6/7/2025

Brutal Half-Life (from this point BHL) is the best way to play Half-Life. Better than any mod for Half-Life 2 including RTX and better than Black Mesa remake of HL. First entry into the series is ultimately the superior game to any other HL out there. Although Alyx is pretty fun in VR.

BHL version 3 is very good. It has received an updated from v2 after 5 years of waiting in 2025.

Version 3 boasts much improved gore that was already over the top. They have improved the character and dismemberment models. Carnage is unbelievable. You can shot off any limb, tear pieces of body in the middle and leave puddles of blood dripping from the ceiling and walls. It is the most satisfying Brutal mod. More fun than DOOM or Wolfenstein counterparts. It comes with widescreen fix with modern resolutions.

However, gore is not everything. This mod adds a lot of gameplay that was not present in the original or in v2.

For instance, there is now climbing and pulling up. You can climb up by pressing "E" default use key while targeting a ledge or an edge of something like a box, a vending machine or just a precipice. In many cases going forward after climb is necessary or jumping up and going forward.

This changes pacing a lot. I was able to speed through the initial levels after the Unforseen Consequences very fast. Jumping, climbing and flying up everywhere. Which was a welcome change of pace. In the fridge leveling when you are forced to slowly climb vents you can just climb up and exit the level. It sort of cuts certain parts of the game short if you wish to but it is up to the player and if you've played enough it adds a lot of pace. It is basically parkour.

There is also kick that was present from the start. You execute it by "Q" as default key but you can change it in settings. All the keys are configurable. Kick also changes your approach to encounters by letting you disable monsters temporarily or you know you can for example kick someone to death like the annoying headcrabs or the grabby ceiling things. Kick gets monsters off you. It is nice and you don't need to switch to melee. It is essentially a quick melee attack.

There are healing syringes that by defaulted are used via "TAB" and "H". You can carry up to 5 and they serve as portable medkits.

And finally, there is also a "HARDCORE" way to play this game. You can play without crosshair, flashlight and most of the HUD. Only HUD that you retain is the weapon selection tabs and the amount of healing syringes. Health and everything else is not shown. Additionally, you get no energy armor and just have health. You will also be wearing white scientist robes instead of the HEV suit. In order to light up dark environments like vents you can use gunshots or hit them with a crowbar like a blind person. Personally, this is my favorite way to play as i enjoy aiming without crosshair and not seeing my health or ammo count. You can still use iron sights though.

This mod also adds new levels. It adds 3 initial levels from the following classics but in Half-Life style: Doom I, Doom II, Quake I, Quake II, Blood, Duke Nukem 3D, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Soldier of Fortune I which you select from a console screen after selecting difficulty by going through one of 3 tunnels Quake I style, Easy, Medium and Hard. You navigate console wtih arrow keys. There is also a secret 3 level Indiana Jones campaign which is accessible via breaking crates to the left of start, getting yellow keycard then breaking a grate in the floor in easy tunnel.

There are 4th and 5th levels after you beat initial 3 in any campaign but those are always the same. You take a portal to Xen and then you fight Doom I end game boss, the Wall.

As for original maps, you can also play them. Graciously the creator allows you to select any level of original game when you start. You can begin with 1st level, Tram or you can skip to any level even the final G-Man talk level. And that is nice. Especially for someone who has beaten HL many times over the years and doesn't want to use console (which is present and working or porting saves). Just play any level you like or begin campaign from any part you like.

Additionally, you can also try loading custom maps and many of them will play I tried that in v2 but sometimes not fully function but if you want more content you can do that. More Brutal HL. Though it already comes with lots and lots of content and new ways to experience old one.

Finally, each of these games bring new weapons into the mix. You get most iconic weapons from these games like Plasma Rifle from Doom, BFG, Quake Rocket Launcher, Nailgun , Dynamite from Blood, Spray and such. You also get a bunch of new weapons like Auto Shotgun. Many weapons can be dual wielded. Like sub-machine guns and pistols. 2 Deals for example. All weapons can zoom in, some have secondary firing modes. Zooming in is tactical and useful. But so is dual wielding. Or you can just use fists and kicks and you can tear any enemy apart using fists and just clobber any monster, even a big one. Stun them, kick them. be brutal. It is fun and you get to see their skulls broken in.

Enemy behavior and AI seems to have been improved. Not only they are capable fighters but they will also flee when hurt or if their squad has been broken. Often enough enemies do not die outright and they moan on the floor. Sometimes forever unless you finish the off. This I find annoying so I often deathblow them. Rarely they shoot off the floor Quake 2 style.

I had no stability issues with V2 and V3 but people say V3 fixes a lot of crashes and such. I run windows 10. I don't update it much. 2080 RTX Ryzen 3900X 16gb ram Samsung EVO970 M.2 2TB.

What i disliked is related to episode selection. The widescreen is there, 1440p resolution looks beautiful but even though many things are small like bullet count but it doesn't get in the way and you don't really need to see it and if you don't see it might need to check the eye sight, I wear glasses that give me 100% and I see it. But it is small, the HUD so during episode selection of OG levels that you click on via mouse once you enter a portal after choosing HL on the console device, those levels are small and it can be hard to see what they are and their pictures but it gave me no trouble because I can google what level comes after what or just guess which level I need as I played a lot. No other issues and this is a small one.

Another questionable decision was to bind grab and pull up on use button. Sometimes you end up climbing on things you didn't mean to climb because of it, like when you try to hold something or press a button or use something. It should have a separate bind. I would rebind use to F and climb to E myself. But it should be up to the player.

All in all, this is the best way to play Half-Life in 2025 and the best entry. Whether you are a new player or a grizzled veteran I suggest you try HL with Brutal V3

Consult Steam Guides on Installation.

"-game bhl_v3" in Steam library in HL launch options to integrate to launch via Half-Life so it records time and has all steam functionality.

Sometimes you need to kick or shoot corpses so they let go of their weapons.

Noticed playing on Hard but may not be limited to Hard.

Healing syringes can kill you if you use them too often as they are basically adrenaline. Also, after Aliens start being teleported they are teleported at random from time to time.

Enemies also suicide nade themselves. You can hurt yourself and lose health if you break glass or boxes with fists. You can bleed over time.

Review for Starwind Total Conversion mod as Morrowind is a timeless classic already!


Starwind is Morrowind turned Star Wars in a total conversion modification by Ignatious. It runs on OpenMW community engine for Morrowind.

It features all new graphics, effects, lore and game world. It is lore accurate to Star Wars and is taking place in The Old Republic era where iconic KOTOR games take place.

Game features around 10 planets and has plenty of DLCs by the community and the creator of the mod. My favorite planets are perhaps Tatooine which is the way you'd imagine yourself if you ever get stranded on it, Star Wars style and of course Nar Shaadda. Nar Shaadda is a planet city like Coruscant except it is a home to Gangs, Hutt Cartel faction and Bounty Hunters guild, planet of riff raff of all sorts with several cantinas and city levels. High in the sky level and bottom pits. Other planets include fish world Manaan where you can go deep-diving in the ocean, Sith cradle of Korriban, with ancient tombs, Kashyyk, Hoth. Endor (DLC mod added), Mustafar is planned, pirate planet Lok, Taris, Dantooine Jedi Temple Planet, Dathomir home to Rancors and Nightsister witches clans a planet of dark side of the force like Korriban, Gamorr home to the infamous hog like alien race that guards Jabba the Hutt. Several boardable ships and stations.

Exploration is perhaps the best element of all. It is fun to explore the planets. But quests can be fun too, my favorite is Grey Jedi questline which lets you uncover the mysteries of the force. Other ones include Empire or Republic, Tusken Tribe faction expanded via DLC mod, amazing Dead Space/System Shock 2 derelict spacestation DLC Deathtroopers. Boarding of a space cruise in Seranno planet DLC mod (the mod itself is subpar imo). Joining a Hutt Cartel and Bounty Hunter's guild can be fun just as well.

But the most fun is doing sidequests because they let you uncover a little bit of quirky and fun stuff about the world. Truly show how unique it is. They give you better understanding of it all. And it is all very very lore friendly, though there are a few easter eggs to find as well.

Combat is fun, I personally installed auto firing mod that enabled repeater rifles to be shot like assault rifles. Blaster fire is fun, many unique blasters to choose from with satisfying effects. Lightsabers are cool to use. Whoosh and buzz great and look amazing in first and third person view both. You can even roleplay Luke Skywalker like amateur fighter because you can use a lightsaber even if you have no skill for it, even as a pistoleer. Anyone can use a lightsaber but few people possess one. There are many variants in the game though.

There are many cool mini-games in the game too. Various Dejarik and Pazaak (space chess and poker), space flight is a nice mini-game but you can get around via a star map from inside your spaceship.

Game has high level content and dungeons with unique rewards. It has a few epic bosses and those dungeons respawn once in a week or two of game time so you can do them again and get other rewards. There are also collectibles and hidden items found through out the game that you can look for. Some offer unique powerful bonuses and others are just for keepsakes.

It has speeders i.e. vehicle that work like magic items. You can bind them to keyboard shortcuts and use them from there if you Draw Weapon to cast magic. They however count as either left or right glove (I forgot) so make sure to bind another key to re-equip that glove later. I suggest you add chameleon effect on yourself when driving a speeder so you can see through the cabin interior because it obstructs your vision but since it is worn on you by game logic it will make the vehicle see through and you will also be invisible to NPCs if you stack it high.

Character creation is vast with a lot of Star Wars races, abilities and planets (instead of birthsigns of Morrowind) to choose from. Attribute system of Morrowind really shines for Star Wars. It can be further expanded with mods.

And finally game has super helpful community and an online element to it as well. With a separate mod you can play DLC mods like Naboo that are for online only. People gather on Discord to play. Overall, with tes3mp you can play the whole game online with friends. Or run a roleplaying server.

I spent 122 hours playing Starwind on my main character without counting all the fooling around and reloads and other characters I did for testing etc. So it has a lot of content for you to enjoy. I have probably about 1000 hours playing Morrowind off Steam since childhood so when I say that this is the best Morrowind mod out there, I mean it.

I hope you enjoy Morrowind as it is a timeless classic that got so much love from fans that they made a new engine for their game that allows for amazing mods like Starwind and that you will enjoy Starwind too. It being a mod for Morrowind of course means that in order to play you need to own Morrowind. Thank you for reading!