Disciples II: Rise of the Elves Windows, Linux game

GOG has started off 2023 with a blast from the past as dozens of oldies are on sale. ModDB's legacy as the place to be for mods new and old alike makes this a healthy fit for our back catalogue, so here's five picks from those timeless classics and a mod for each!

Explore Gamma Grove, find the other survivors, and uncover its secrets. This mod for the original (yeah, we're going back in time a bit for this one) System Shock expands the explorable regions of the game and adds to the world's lore as more grisly details regarding the fate of much of the station's inhabitants are written out. A remake is coming soon, sure, but the modding scene of System Shock gets slept on quite a bit, and we hope that the remake allows users the option to broaden their horizons like the original did.

Vanilla+ improves the graphics, rebalances weapons, adds new features and quality of life improvements, fixes bugs, unlocks DLC and makes subtle changes to the gameplay to add more flavour and variety while preserving the original feel of the game. Steam, GOG, Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store versions are all supported. Every feature is available in all languages and while using either mouse and keyboard or controller. Vanilla+ is for people who want an enhanced version of the original game, bullet-sponge enemies included.

Frax keeps the best bits of H55, but fundamentally increases your gameplay options with more than eighteen new game changing abilities for Heroes, new abilities for all creatures, updated spells and mana mechanics for mages, and changes to balance which reward a mixed-race composition for any army. The mod also tries to maintain balance in multiplayer modes so more competitive players can dig in and learn a new but refined sandbox.

The Crysis Enhanced mod aims to provide the best experience for fans of the first Crysis. It primarily focuses on graphical updates and is powered by the partly revamped CryEngine 2 engine. Crysis' official remaster rubbed some fans the wrong way, but where one door closes, another opens, as with the modder-made Enhanced Edition. Moving Crysis to the newer CryEngine 2, it last made an update in 2021 but has 2023 set in its sights for a new release.

With some completely revamped units, new leader upgrades, spellbook makeovers and some balance changes, this mod should keep things fresh and exciting. Many difficulty changes have been made to balance the game in an alternative way, added features to major characters keep the level up loop rewarding, and a few dozen factions-specific changes all add to the game and create a new experience in the way only a dedicated fan can properly manage.

There's our picks for five games from GOG's Winter Classics sale, which runs until the 13th January at 11pm UTC. There's tons of other oldies there so if you pick up any of the other classics, don't forget to check out our mods on-site - there's probably a great piece of UGC for just about every one of them.