Last Update: 3/13/07
Garry's Mod
What is it?
Garry's Mod is a sandbox mod for the Source Engine. Unlike normal games there aren't any predefined aims or goals. Players are given tools and are left to entertain themselves.
The player is in a world where objects can be created and destroyed on demand. Where people can be created and destroyed with the click of a mouse. A world made for him. A world he made.
So what do you do?
There are a lot of things you can do with Garry's Mod, but here's a few of the more common uses.
Construction
Garry's Mod provides tools to constrain objects together in various ways. Using these tools the player can create working contraptions.
The simplest example is a car. The player spawns an object to be used for the car's body then adds wheels by firing the tool gunat the object. Wheels are then controllable using the numpad on your keyboard.
You don't have to make moving contraptions though - want to build a fort out of wooden crates then set it on fire? Go for it! Want to build a house using fridges for the walls and mattresses for the ceiling then drive a jeep into it all? Go for it!
Posing and Comics
One of the universal appeals of Garry's Mod has been the ability to place and pose ragdolls. This allows you to create your own comic books and share them online. One major comic spawned from this is HLComic - the story of Gordon Frohman's journey in City 17.
Garry's Mod gives you the ability to place ragdolls, manipulate their facial expressions and aim their eyes.
Gamemodes
Garry's Mod gives the ability to program your own gamemodes (Don't worry - you don't need to be a programmer to play them). This allows the community to make new, often wacky, gamemodes such as melon racing, build to the top and so on.
It's often worth taking a look in the server list to see if any of the games prick your attention - there's often something weird there to try out.
User Created Content
Garry's Mod benefits greatly from a thriving community which is constantly churning out new ideas, maps, models, gamemodes, weapons, Lua scripts and skins.
Taken from http://www.garrysmod.com/about/
Publisher: Commercial
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Bottom Line: Play it! This mod with its humble beginnings of simple rope constraints has bloomed in to a powerful sandbox mod that has held me riveted in front of my monitor for hours on end. Using simple yet powerful tools like "weld" to hold some props together, "wheel" to place wheels on your contraption, and "thrusters" to make that baby move, and you have made a simple vehicle! The possibilities only grow from there. It might take awhile to get used to all of the different things that you can do, but every thing is pretty simple, and there are help boxes to guide you through. Perhaps you want to add some neat accessories to your car make it look like a speed demon. You might even want to ditch those basic wheels in favor of some spiffy new wings so you can take to the skys! Not enough props, or just not the props you really want with Half Life 2? Adding user created content from the community is simple in Garry's Mod, just drag the appropriate folders into their matching sets.
Garry's Mod 9 is a free version of GMod that has almost the full functionality of GMod 10; but if GMod 9 isn't enough for you the $10 for Garry's Mod 10 will get you a refined look, new tools, optimized code, streamlined game play, post processing effects, and there is still more to come! Getting bored of making the same thing over and over again? Maybe you just don't want to put in the effort of making something complex? There are always the alternate game modes created by the community, like Wood Wars, where you create fortresses of wood, and then battle to the death. Alas, Garry's Mod is not all fun in the sun (or dark moldy basement), some frustrating things that are holding the mod back are surprisingly enough not always from the mod. The physics engine is not always powerful enough and can give you problems with minor glitches that can turn in to major headaches. Constructing contraptions of epic proportions require hardware in your computer with equivalent muscle. If you are playing online the server can very quickly be bogged down by too many props or physics interactions, not to mention what griefers can do with the tools. All in all Garry's Mod is a very well made mod for Half Life 2, with a robust tool set, and hundreds of stock and user created resources to use them on. Ultimately this game has three limitations, the source engine, the hardware in your computer, and your imagination. Learning Curve: Takes a while
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