Well over the course of about 2 weeks I road tested all the DFX MODs I could find.

Here's the descriptions/reviews of the mods (anything rated ** or *** is worth a download and try, ratings likely to be skewed by my single-player, rather than MP bias):

Deep Jungle Xtreme (DJX v2.4, ~250MB)***: the DFX Deep Jungle Xtreme MOD (DJX, v2.4) has two excellent campaigns: "Deep Jungle" essentially the same set of 6 missions, including the unusual but fun "Grave of God" mission as found in the DFBHD version, but with different character skins, modified environments, changed weather and time of day to the original. There is also a whole other even better campaign of 7 missions in the DFX version of Deep Jungle called "East Camp", with missions like "Monastery" and "Poisoned Air" (action takes place inside a massive chemicals plant complex) in which you need to track down each and every bad guy to complete the missions. DJX uses the vanilla DFX pop-up zoomed-scope view but adds a few new weapons.

Mi-6 (v1.0 ~20MB)*: essentially a weapons mod with excellent skins and sound. There are no new SP missions, but you can replay the 20 DFX missions with these new weapons. Note that this is NOT a "realistic" mod in that all weapons seem to have zoom-able scopes, unrealistic ammo supply and strange alternate fire modes for the primary weapons (eg. the MP5 fires what seem to be in effect a series of mini-cluster bombs, the M4 fires a cascade of flashbangs, etc). Needless to say this gives you overwhelming fire superiority and makes the missions a breeze. Fun, but for only a short while.

Special Ops (SO, v1.0 ~580MB patched)***: a fantasctic MOD with two new SP campaigns ("Special Ops" containing 9 missions versus terrorists and "Island Wars" containing 8 missions verus "The Lynx", a renegade ex-Soviet general) and a stand-alone "instant action" mission called "Iceman's Illusion" (versus a drug lord). The SP campaigns are both fun and challenging and in which you get to select from a vast array of modern weapons with realistic scopes (no longer the pop-out zoomed view effect used by vanilla DFX), drive/fly/operate a variety of transports. There are also about 10 new COOP missions that can be played SP on LAN. Additionally all the skins for the various natonalities in JOTR & JOEsc, male and female, are available (including the regular and special forces of many "free-world" nations, including Australia, and "rebel" and mercenary). In addition to a vast array of assault and sniper rifles and LMGs you get to use Stinger and Javelin missiles. Your fixed secondary weapons are a MK-23 pistol, silenced MP5 and medpack. So you can select almost any primary weapon you like as you'll always have the MP5 for close quarters. It's simply a great MOD and well worth the download.

Black Ops (BO, v1.0 ~752MB)**: is a pretty large download that incorporates and expands on SO, including weapons and character skins and adds a new HUD and a restyled equipment selection menu that allows for selection of secondary weapons (including various pistols or silenced MP5). Without any dedicated SP campaigns or missions BO is arguably a weapons mod BUT with it has a number of new MP missions including 3 new COOP that can be played SP on LAN. You can of course replay the original DFX SP missions using the new weapons, many of which are availabel in the Rainbow Six and GRAW series, including XM8, Steyr, TAR21, Javelin and Stinger. This is what vanilla DFX should have been.

VX (VX, v1.2 ~254MB)**: is, on face value, a weapons (including flamethrower) and skins mod like BO which allows replay of the original 20 SP missions. VX (v.1.2) HOWEVER comes with over 60(!) new COOP maps playable SP on LAN and a trailer load of other MP maps. This mod has more bloodspray than vanilla DFX, but not in an overwhelming way. Your default secondary weapons are the M-23 pistol, flare gun and shot gun. The MP maps have German titles, which a basis German-English dictionary will decipher, some dialogue is in German however the mission objectives and goals are in clear English. The excellent mod is available from www.bearforce.de which is also responsible for the BF and DJ3 mods.

V9TE MED (V9TE, patched ~115Mb)*: essentially a minimal weapons, skins and environments mod and an earlier version of VX. One SP "instant action" mission called "Blue Tiger Snow" and about 100 MP maps of which about 50 are COOP and playable SP on LAN. There are many V9TE MP maps available around the various DFX sites.

Deep Jungle 3 (DJ3 ~526MB)**: incorporates elements V9TE/VX. Despite the title DJ3 is not connected with DJX (my reading indicates that "Deep Jungle" was incorporated in a number of MOD titles due to the success of the original). DJ3 comes with about 30 COOP missions and a separate map-pack with over 200 COOP missions all playable SP on LAN. Some of the DJ3 maps do have an annoying feature, which is "critters" these are deadly NPCs like snakes, rats, spiders and piranhas on maps ... fortunately these can be removed from a map using the "BFM Pest Repeller" program. All up looking around the various DFX fansites there are several hundred DJ3 MP maps, including COOP/SP, available. DJ3 v3.3, the final version, is available but failed repeatedly to install properly on my PC. Anyway, DJ3 has been superceded by BF.

Bear Force (BF, v1.2 ~682MB)***: this is an update, upgrade and expansion of its predessors: V9TE, VX and DJ3. BF gives you all of the best of its earlier incarnations and allows you to play all the countless DJ3 maps. BF comes with 7SP missions and over 300 MP missions, mostly COOP. So arguably BF is the "directors's cut" of DJ3. In addition to those annoying "critters" some missions also have a twisted sense of humour and the choice of soundtrack music is at times questionable ... the action in the majority of missions however is GOOD. BF v1.3 is also available but seems less stable and the BF Game Control Center, intended for DFX and JO MODs, did NOT work for me.

Based on this all you need to download to have a more or less complete DFX experience is DJX, SO and BF.

Alas you will find none of these MODs here at GameSpot but they can be found at the following DFX sites, generally in the downloads section: www.dfreload.com, www.nova-inside.com, www.hardmaps.com, www.bearforce.de, or www.novahq.net. Note that the MP missions of these MODs are best played on LAN or dedicated servers (see listings at these sites) as you may be punted or banned trying to log into NovaWorld servers that are not mod compatible.

I guess with all these hundreds of SP and COOP missions DFX does not really have a replayability problem. I have only skimmed the surface of the LAN COOP missions.

Based on the above play throughs I have updated my DFX review accordingly giving the game an overall rating of 8.5 (up from my original rating of 8.0).

Well I got through DFX pretty quickly ... it's a short game and somewhat "retro" in the sense that it is a return to the original style of gameplay in games like Delta Force (1), DF2 and DF3 Land Warrior, three older titles I have in storage.

The missions are spread over three campaigns from the original DF game but with much better graphics on par with DFBHD and TS (played recently) and the Joint Operations games. The campaigns are set in the disparate environments of Peru (jungle), Chad (desert) and Novaya Zemlya (snow). If you see DF(1) or DF2 on screen nowadays they look, well, ugly in comparison to DFX or DFBHD. But for me the DF series always had good gameplay. In DFX, like its better known rival BF2, we finally have drivable vehicles. The array of weapons is somewhat limited compared to say BF2 and similar to those in the earlier DF games.

Alas the AI in the DF series (based on playing DFX, the recently completed BHD & TS and memories of the earlier games) has NOT improved. In fact, in the more recent games if you snipe from a long distance they actually run towards your position, making them easier targets (as shown below in my two recent "hat tricks"). That said, the game is reasonably enjoyable and the scoring system makes me, replay the missions and try harder to complete the missions without getting killed and losing accumulated mission experience points. Unlike DFBHD & TSthere is no save system, if you die you return to near the last completed waypoint with a zero score (points are primarily for terminating bad guysand completing objectives, etc).You can, of course, ignore the points system and just keep playing until the mission is completed and the next one unlocked.

The enemy AI and progressive (re)spawn point system together make this game EASY. Alas one cannot adjust the gameplay difficulty level. As others have said in the various reviews DFX shines in its multiplayer aspect. I ended my year long self imposed exile from online play and played a couple of co-op missions online and it was great fun. Now to me, most online FPS games are much of a muchness, sure some have different weapons or environments but if your looking for a good modern warfare genre FPS then you could do a lot worse than pick up a copy of DFX, which is usually "budget priced" in most retail outlets. It's really no worse than BF2 in the online department and DFX, to me, is the betterSP game. My full review of DFX and its MODs can be found HERE. Some of the MODs for DFX are Deep Jungle, Mi-6, Special Ops, V9TE MED, Deep Jungle 3 (aka DJ3, an enhanced Deep Jungle), Bear Force (seems to be an enhanced DJ3) and VX. Obviously Deep Jungle, in its various guises, has stood the test of time.

The only "glitch" I have noticed is that I cannot get screenshots at resolutions higher than the recommended graphics setting. So when I play using the maximum graphics settings no screenshot is saved and a Windows error message comes up after exiting the game and your newhighscore for that mission is NOT registered. Apart from that, like DFBHD & TS, it runs without a hitch and installs of a PC-ROM.

Now playing the DFX Deep Jungle MOD (aka "Deep Jungle X" v2.4) and it is pretty much the same set of missions, including the unusual but fun "Grave of God" mission as in the DFBHD version but there are different character skins, modified environments,changed weather and time of day to the original. There isalso a whole other campaign in the DFX version of Deep Jungle. called "East Camp". Anyway (so far) it is as good as the DFBHD version and a recommended download if you wish to try some new SP missions with what appears to be slightly better AI than vanilla DFX.

Installing MODs to DFX is a bit tricky and based on experience I suggest that you make a copy of your entire DFX programs folder, rename it, and apply the mods to the copy. The DJX install, for example,overwrites all your saved games and hence unlocked missions, configuration and score records (fortunately I keep copies of such for all my completed games in case I wish to replay specific missions rather than a whole campaign).

As a parting note, DFX is very similar in look (except for the absence of DFX's pop-up zoomed scope view) and gameplay to Novalogics' Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising/Escalation multiplayer games and I would recommend JOTR/JOEsc as good "budget" alternatives to BF2 in the modern warfare FPS genre. Like BF2 these games have lots of good mods and maps available and a very active online community so you can readily join a MP game.

Aussies 46 : Poms 16 in Four Nations final.

Alfie Langer (in blue on left, former Broncos and Queensland skipper) still runs for the full 80 minutes ... but fortunately for a man of his vintage he doesn't get tackled any more!