Mod making is becoming serious business. Browse through Amazon and you'll find Counter-Strike, Gunman Chronicles and Tactical-Ops all for retail, and all of them started out as free to download, community developed software. It’s becoming a serious avenue for amateur coders to get into the and become professional coders. Obviously by its very nature there are going to be more mods that miss the mark than those that go on to become well established and highly polished gaming experiences. However when one does get it right it deserves as much attention as any game produced by a professional company, and its this tortuous link that brings us to Day of Defeat (DoD).

It's worth bearing in mind that this is a total conversion of the engine. DoD has to work within the confines of a four year old (and the rest) engine, so with UT2003 possibly just round the corner those obsessed with graphics should probably look elsewhere. Those that do so are missing something a bit special though.

What DoD sets out to achieve is class structured, team-based first person fun. Set in WW2 with one team comprising of the Axis and the others being the Allies. Although these are currently represented by the Germans and Americans other nationalities (favourites being the British) are likely to be included in a future release. Being multi-player-only there is no plot other than what is set out to accomplish on the map. Capture the flags, capture the fuel truck, blow up specific map objects such as AA guns, shoot the other team, I'm sure you get the idea. Sturmbot is available to download and is a competent bot but the game is perfectly playable across a 56k connection.

One of the key aspects for this type of game is how player deaths are handled. You can either have the player respawn after they die or they have to sit out the round until the objectives have been completed or everyone else is dead. The new release of DoD covers both types. Most maps use the respawning of players to create waves of reinforcements creating a relentless and fast paced style of play. Para maps (as in parachute regiment for you non-military types) use the one life per round system and are new to this release. It's the same gameplay mechanic as Counter-Strike but comparisons between the two are unfair, they offer completely different experiences to the player. In DoD it also offers a refreshing change from the standard game, although three Para maps are included only two really seem to hit the mark. Hopefully it will be part of the game that gets expanded in future releases.