Frankly, I'm not sure the Dragonball Z anime series appeals to everyone. It takes a special kind of patience to sit through half a season of two muscle-ridden warriors just taunting each other before commencing the clubbing. Thankfully, the upcoming Earth's Special Forces mod skips the drawl and cuts to the brawls between Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, and other characters from the show. The twist? Its stunning visuals are all built on Goldsource, the same engine used for Half-Life.
Earth's Special Forces isn't new. Its development team has worked on and released various alpha versions of the frenetic fighter for nearly a decade, but its not-so-New-Year's trailer shows off the most recent efforts of pushing the aged Goldsource engine to its absolute limit. Floored reactions are proof enough: "I absolutely cannot believe this is the Goldsource engine. Unbelievable," reads one comment on Reddit . "On what engine is this running? CryEngine 3?" asks another .
As for what you actually do in Earth's Special Forces, the mod's website explains it thus: "Select your favorite character and fly, power up, transform, melee, and beam your enemies into pulp. Each character is given signature moves and abilities to compliment different style of play. Some are stronger in hand-to-hand combat, others are better with energy attacks. Play in three different game modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the Dragonballs."
Not many games offer a mode where you blow up half the planet while chasing after euphemistically named spheres, but Earth's Special Forces pulls it off in gorgeous style. You can grab an older and less-glossy alpha version here to check it out, though it carries significant bugs and non-working bots.
