Mods are an amazing avenue for fans to add or change things in their favorite games. Dislike a mechanic the developers added? Remove it. Do you want to replace all of the dragons in Skyrim with trains? Go for it.

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Very little is stopping players from modifying their favorite games, and some users have taken that idea to heart. Some mods created for games are of AAA quality, sometimes surpassing what the base game does. A few of the mods on this list even spawned entirely new video game genres from their innovation! Here are the 10 best game mods you can try today in 2019.

10 Black Mesa: Half-Life

Black Mesa Half Life mod screenshot

Valve used to be known for their amazing lineup of video games long before Steam was a thing. Games such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike provided significant innovation to the industry that many have replicated since.

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So it makes sense that Value games have an equally passionate community that mods their games. Black Mesa is a mod for Half-Life that effectively remasters the entire game, bringing the old classic to modern systems in brilliant detail. This passion project shows how much work fans are willing to put into their favorite games.

9 Long War: XCOM Enemy Unknown

Firaxis had a seemingly impossible task of recreating a cult classic turn-based strategy game and bringing it to modern hardware, all while taking out unneeded bloat and adding depth.

They did so with XCOM: Enemy Unknown, showing that there is still a massive demand for hard turn-based strategy titles. Fans have modded the game to be even harder, with Long War being the best example of this. Players get plenty of tools to help combat the tougher alien threat, but the game is massively harder than it's base counterpart. This mod acts less like a fan-made project and more like a professional expansion pack.

8 Unofficial Patches: Bethesda Games

Bethesda might have created some fantastic RPGs over their past few games, but it is undeniable that all of their games are buggy. Most are inconsequential and are fun to laugh at, but others can brick entire playthroughs.

You may lose some goofy glitches, but the unofficial patches that are available in nearly every Bethesda game are downright essential to enjoying the game stress-free. These patches fix tens of thousands of bugs that prevent critical errors from occurring, making save corruption or fun quests breaking to occur less often. These mods are so good they should be part of the base game.

7 Galactic Warfare Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Giant gunfights that games like Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront bring are no doubt enjoyable to play, but they can get monotonous sometimes with the amount of gunfire and running players need to do.

Galactic Warfare is a mod for CoD 4 that allows players to fight each other as Stormtroopers or Rebels in Star Wars maps recreated from the movies and books. This mod is made with such high quality that most would mistake it as leaked footage of a new Star Wars game when it released years ago. It still sees usage on custom servers, so if you are interested in small scale Star Wars gunfights check this mod out!

6 Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Restored Content Modification (TSLRCM)

Games typically have tons of cut content associated with them. Whether it's because of time constraints or design shifts, lots of content that were partially made for video games get cut before it even releases.

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Fans of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II will know that arguably half of the game was cut and never finished due to its rough deadline for Christmas. Fortunately, a team of passionate modders has expanded on the old assets Obsidian never finished to actually complete KOTOR II. You are playing an unfinished game without this mod. With it, it can be argued this game rivals and even beats the first KOTOR from Bioware.

5 DayZ: ARMA 2

DayZ is a game many players are familiar with, having players scavenge for supplies to fight both zombies and other players. This highly successful mod to ARMA 2 is still played to this day.

More interesting, however, is that it can be argued that DayZ started the Battle Royale genre of games. Think about it, players have little control over what items spawn near them and have to deal with the ever-looming threat of PvP, regardless of their readiness to fight. Games like H1Z1 and famously PUBG have just refined this system and removed the PvE threat involved.

4 ProMod: CoD4

MLG 360-noscopes are forever tied to the Call of Duty brand. MLG has been a staple to CoD since it could house multiplayer, but it didn't explode into the mainstream until Call of Duty 4 released.

CoD 4 had some balance issues, especially related to perks that pro players hated. This mod was created to address issues with perk loadouts, sniper sway, damage values, and certain gadgets like Stun grenades. This mod gave competitive players a platform to hone their skills and demonstrate to the world their mastery of mechanics, leading to further coverage of competitive, high skill gameplay in future CoD titles.

3 Counter-Strike: Half-Life Deathmatch

Similar to Black Mesa, Counter-Strike is a labor of love from fans of Valve's Half-Life title. This game expanded on multiplayer systems that few games have seen up to that point.

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Competitive games that focused on map control was mainly related to fast-paced arena shooters like Quake 3 or Halo. Teams working together wasn't really a thing until Battlefield became mainstream. Counter-Strike combines both genres brilliantly with tense matches that give immediate feedback on the player's skill. It may have lacked competitive ranking or cosmetic unlocks, but most were hooked from its unique gameplay and satisfying gunfights from playing their first game.

2 Garry's Mod: Source Engine

Garry's Mod is strange in that it is not a mod for a single game, but rather it's a modification of an entire engine Valve used to make their games.

This game, of course, is now known as a standalone title that is focused on minigames and causing chaos in a massive sandbox. This did start as a mod originally, however, so it does count to be on this list. A mod that was built to be modded sounds insane, but it remains of the most enjoyable games and mods players can experience today.

1 Defense of the Ancients (DotA): Warcraft 3

There's a lot of Valve games on this list. That is not an accident, as many of the games and developers at Valve were originally modders or have lots of experience modifying games.

Defense of the Ancients (DotA for short) is a brilliant redesign of Warcraft 3, taking the game's focus away from controlling many weaker units and instead of controlling one powerful unit called a Hero, similar to an aRPG. Yes, that is what a MOBA is, but many do not realize that DotA is the progenitor of the MOBA genre seen today. DotA 2 is a full game rather than a mod and easily competes with giants like League of Legends for its polished gameplay and large roster to play.

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