In June 2002 ModDB began, and every year since we've celebrated the best mods in an annual player voted event. To mark our 20th Anniversary, we've decided to take a walk down memory lane, and look back on all of the mods that finished in the top 5, across five separate categories:
This article is all about the Total Conversion! These mods change the game more than any other - transforming their parent titles across story and even genre boundaries into entirely new experiences. It's one thing to build on a foundation, but these mods built their own foundation from the ground up. They're one of the best demonstrations of the raw power of modding!
A world reimagined
Ashes of Apocalypse | Nehrim: At Fate's Edge
Mods for Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Featuring in MOTY 2005 and 2010 respectively, these two mods prove Bethesda-IP total conversions have been pushing the envelope for years. They're not a dying breed either, with plenty more mods released and in development since like Enderal, Star Wars: Galactic Legacy, and SKYBLIVION.
Turning the valve
GoldenEye: Source | Empires | Lambda Wars
NEOTOKYO° | The Stanley Parable | Underhell
Mods for Half-Life 2, Alien Swarm
Valve titles are an evergreen source of ambitious mod projects, with total conversions in particular having a special showing. Featuring in MOTY 2006, 2007 2008, 2009, and 2011 (for both The Stanley Parable and Underhell), Valve IP mods have long held a home on ModDB and continue to do so with ambitious creations like F-stop | Project Capture, Entropy : Zero 2, and Operation: Black Mesa. As is the case with some of the most successful mods out there, The Stanley Parable has since gone commercial with a recent re-release and Underhell transitioned to Unreal Engine 4 for a commercial follow-up.
To the stars
Stargate - EAW: Pegasus Chronicles
Star Wars: Galactic Warfare | Republic at War
Mods for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Star Wars, as a cornerstone of gaming culture for decades, is unsurprisingly a focus for many modders, transforming their favourite titles into new adventures in the galaxy far far away. However, Empire at War has also become something of a platform of its own for space-and-ground-based RTS gameplay, with Star Trek, Stargate, Babylon 5, and other franchises featuring. Other total conversions like FOC Alliance - Star Trek TOS and Covenant at War also made their mark on the EAW modding scene. These three mods took the stage in MOTY 2007, 2009, and 2011.
Medieval meets fantasy
The Last Days | A Clash of Kings | Prophesy of Pendor
Mods for Mount & Blade: Warband
Mount & Blade: Warband is a seminal third-person medieval strategy game, and its modding history reflects its monumental size. Taking positions in 2011, 2013, and 2018, these three mods are just a slice of the potential for this game - with total conversions that bring another take on fantasy and history like A World of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) or Brytenwalda, and original fantasy fiction like Perisno.
Grand scale warfare
Crusader Kings 2: A Game of Thrones | Hearts of Iron IV: The Great War
Medieval Kingdoms Total War | C&C : Generals Evolution
Mods for Crusader Kings II, Hearts of Iron IV, Total War: Attila, and C&C: Red Alert 3
Though spread across four different games, these mods - taking 2013, 2016 (for both Hearts of Iron IV: The Great War and Medieval Kingdoms Total War (Attila Version) and 2021 for MOTY - demonstrate the sheer spread of quality strategy mods available on-site and the variety of games modders continue to bend to their will. The disproportionate consistency of strategy games having modding support is a strong reason for this, and in the modern industry, these titles are still some of the most reliably modded available.
In a league of their own
Cry of Fear | The Nameless Mod
Mods for Half-Life and Deus Ex that won the MOTY
This and the next mod in the category are sub-sections unto themselves, with Cry of Fear happily (or moodily, more fittingly!) taking Mod of the Year 2012. An instant classic that could well have released as a standalone commercial product, Cry of Fear's legacy lives on with its own small but dedicated modding scene that builds upon Team Psyskallar's foundation.
This mod might be nameless, but all classic Deus Ex fans know it well as the internet culture-focused total conversion mod that brings equal parts satire and serious commentary to the table. Placing back in 2009, it's not the oldest trophy-taker on this list but neither is it the youngest, giving it a comfortable middle ground and remaining an example of a total conversion that truly has come into its own.
Congrats Moddbh Team, past and present wow 20 yrs. Thank you for everything that you have done and are still doing. Look forward to see what the next 20 yrs will look like.
20 years: Greetings and thanks MODDB team, for (your) excellent site (for me, the best) and work! Technically perfect. No useless contents and fast, rational, functional configuration(s) and consultation.
[Without you all, I never published some my modding work. And that's true]
Other 100 years :)
Massimo/Max
Thanks for the kind words!
Generals Evolution is easily one of my favorites, since it's one of the best RTS modifications, which I have played in the last few years, and I'm very glad, that the mod was released last year, after such a long time.
Thou, I find it a bit disappointing, not seeing the legendary Desert Combat, which is one of the first proper total conversions.
Desert Combat, unfortunately, has never placed in MOTY, but it did get a special mention by one of our editors back in 2017: Moddb.com
I understand, and that's a pity, since quite a lot of Mods, would deserve to be mentioned, even if they weren't in the MOTY.
Also, can I vote in the previous poll (https://www.moddb.com/polls/best-classic-moty-winner-2002-2011-of-all-time), or only for the current one?
All the polls will be open until the 8th of August!
Thanks for the info, and that's great to hear!
Damn it's 20 years already?! We're honoured to be around this awesome community since ... (quickly checking his own join date) ... about 15 years!
Happy birthday from Stargate Empire at War! :)
We're thrilled to have you here! Thanks for the awesome memories :)
So hard to choose...
where is the choose everything button?
Stanley FTW!
20 years and I still looking forward the future of the modding scene! For the future I look forwarding being more productive toward my project and wishing the best to any news mods from the future!
I'm happy that EZ2 and any other mods are on the list they're awesome and I look forward about EZ2!
-Rayan "Dabu"
Just a quick correction, Generals Evolution is a mod for Red Alert 3, not for Generals Zero Hour. It is however a semi-port of ZH to RA3, so I can see where the confusion came from!
Hey there, now fixed, thanks!
Also in Related Mods bar you have a link to old archieved Generals Evolution page
Nice to see our mod in this list, we're really appreciated :)
Is Fallout: New California classified as a total conversion on the site?
Technically it is a TC, though it shares the same EXE and eventually bridges to the main game at the end. But it has an all new start from the main menu, a new story, new world spaces, and never touches New Vegas until porting your save at the end.
Fallout: New California features in a different category of the awards yet to be revealed in full.
Republic at War
Cry of Fear is definitely the most impressive. So impressive that the devs decided to make it freeware on Steam, so you don't need Half-Life to run it anymore.
Sadly, the Underhell project seems to be dead. The commercial release just withered off years ago, the Unreal Engine transition is a fan project, not made by the original devs :(
I can only read every second line with highlighting text: dark font on dark background.
Hi, this is likely due to custom CSS on one of the mod pages - follow this link to see the default ModDB schema: Moddb.com
Congrats on 20 years of being a top modding place, moddb team !
As for total conversions, there are many many of them to count, from STALKER franchise, on HoI IV and Old World Blues, all the way to SOASE and its amazing ST mods like Armada and AOTF. But from the mentioned above ... it purely depends on which genre one prefers. Very relative to determine as "the best" total conversion.
I played a lot of Prophesy of Pendor back in 2015.-2016. and its truly amazing how many total conversion mods were made for Warband. Stanley Parable was absolutely unique idea firstly as HL2 mod, and later as its own game. Cry of Fear - outstanding horror experience.
20 yrs already!? time goes by very quickly also congratulation!
This is an amazing community. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series brought me to Moddb when I discovered people are making mods for this game. I am here for 11 years now, met many great people and saw & played many great projects. Cheers.
I have been here for 16 years and I can only say congrats and thanks for all.
Thanks for all the wonderful times all these years, both to modders and this site's staff. Like someone above said, an excellent site, functional and pretty, no useless content. One of the very few sites I check daily.
Best regards, and I wish you many more years of success