Game modifications, or mods as the community refers to them, are an aftermarket product exclusive to the PC market and the direct result of the blood, sweat and tears shed by the fanbase. These mods have been around for as long as the PC became a viable gaming platform, with classics like Counter-Strike and DOTA going on to become money-making franchises.

There are no rules when it comes to modding – if you’ve got an idea, the skills and time to put into making it a reality then there’s no telling what you’ll come up with. This has led to some very interesting third-party modifications being released. Some are completely over the top, some are side-splittingly funny and others are just plain weird.

Today we’ll be taking a look at some of the crazier mods that the gaming community has come up with over the years.

Just Cause 2 Multiplayer

Before you rush on over to the homepage in a bid to download and put Rico through his paces, be aware that Just Cause 2 Multiplayer isn’t actually out just yet. In fact, it’s in the very early stages of development, and thus things do go very wrong. The mod has recently begun testing, on which they will invite players to take part in a weekend-long period of insanity and glitches as they try and iron out as many bugs as possible.

The video above shows YouTube host LGR playing the latest round of testing, in which there are hundreds of people on the same server, all vying for attention, shooting each other and generally breaking things. Crazy is a pretty good word to sum this up, even when a lot of the bugs have been fixed, this is going to remain in the crazy category. Below are a few more videos of the mayhem:

GTA IV: Animal Mods

If I was asked to name one game with the craziest mods around I would hands-down choose Grand Theft Auto IV. The word “mod” is used fairly loosely here – so many “mods” exist as simple model swap-outs, but that doesn’t make them any less funny. Take this horse mod, for example:

If a horse isn’t exotic enough for your tastes then why not try the giraffe mod, as modelled here by YouTube user taligolt who seemingly tries out just about every GTA IV mod he can get his hands on.

If you can dream it, there’s probably a mod for it. Elephants anyone? How about the dragon mod? Or maybe you’d rather be a shark megalodon:

GTA IV: Novelty Characters

Ok, so the animal models probably also fall under the category of “novelty” but not quite in the same way these ones do. Introducing the GTA IV Teletubby mod, in which you and your fellow Teletubbies run around inflicting horror after horror on the general population:

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Not Spongebob, because he’s too busy stealing cars and shooting people:

And last of all there’s the GTA IV Goku (from Dragon Ball Z) mod which is another example of how fans can sometimes take their passion for popular culture to a whole new level:

Skyrim

Bethesda’s epic fantasy tale of dragons, mages and wedlock has seen some seriously adventurous modding from the PC community that really has left the console versions looking a bit meagre. From high resolution textures to new quests and items, Skyrim has its fair share of free downloadables.

It also has its fair share of crazy mixed in, with a past favourite being the Macho Man Randy Savage mod, which makes dragons do this:

A mod that quite literally trolls you:

And the Dr Zoidberg mudcrab mod, which comes complete with hilarious sound effects to listen to:

You can check out some useful Skyrim resources in this article, and more funny videos and parodies in this Stuff to Watch.

Mario & Sonic

To slightly break my own “rules” here, the following two videos aren’t mods but hacks, but they’re really too good to leave out. The first is an impossible Mario Bros hack being played by a guy who sounds like Christopher Walken:

The second is a Sonic hack known as Sonic XL. In this version of the game, rings now make Sonic fat – and he can easily die from obesity after consuming only around 30 rings. The object is to lose weight by running and to avoid eating too much and becoming an ex-hedgehog:

Garry’s Mod

Garry’s Mod is more than a mod. It started as a mod, a free one, which provided a sandbox for Half-Life 2 players to play with physics, models and the materials that made up Valve’s fantastic first person shooter. The mod soon evolved into a standalone “game” with so much more than the initial free release, and the community ran riot with what could be done.

Garry’s Mod allows you to do whatever you want – build a bathtub on wheels, pose some awkward looking models with zany faces or storyboard your comedy masterpiece. The result is sheer insanity, and of course a lot of very good machinimas like my personal favourite, Half-Life: Full Life Consequences (part one above, part two below) which is the adaptation of a real-life fan-fiction which you really should watch if you haven’t seen it by now.

Do you have any favourite mods? Working on anything exciting? Some great ideas? Add your thoughts in the comments, below!