The /newstuff Chronicles #347 Do0minat0r on Styx: Overall, I found the maps to be pretty good, especially considering they are the first maps by this author. The architecture isn't that detailed but generally looks good, and the gameplay is a good challenge, yet I rarely found it to be unfair. I found the maps very playable both as an episode and from pistol starts. (more)

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Doom 3: Phobos update (6:10 am)
Doom 3 - Posted by DoomUK - 0 Comments

The Team Future crew have updated their website with another periodic development blog. This time they are showcasing Episode 3, the hell-based portion of the expansive and ambitious Doom 3 modification, with some screenshots to look at and our usual ramblings about design philosophies to read over. Point your browsers towards the Doom 3: Phobos website to take a peek.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Toucharcade.com has an interview up done with John Carmack and Tom Mustaine regarding their recent iPhone releases. There are a fair number of neat tidbits in the interview concerning their future plans, but one project in particular stands out. John Carmack speaks:

So I like the idea that Doom Classic stays faithful to the original with OpenGL rendered graphics with filtering and a good framerate as well as slightly better sound quality and a number of these things… but it's still essentially the same game with a brand new finely crafted control system on it.

What would be cool is then go ahead and take all the things I'd like to do with it. (And my internal name for this is Doom++.) Where you take all of the art assets and modernize the gameplay in some of the ways we've learned to make better games since then. Make brand new levels, carry a story through it, and do some modern things. We haven't committed to any of this, but Tom would be the perfect guy to run through all this stuff since he has experience all the way back to the original Doom levels.

Could we be getting a new Doom game with classic assets? Full interview text is here.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Almost after a year since its first appearance, the actual official release of Doom64EX is out. The Doom64EX engine is based on the Doom3D source port. Doom64EX is a free clone of the Nintendo 64 game Doom 64 (developed by Midway). The goal is to perfectly recreate Doom 64 in every way possible and to support Win32 platforms.

Doom64EX aims to:

• Recreate the behavior to the original game as close as possible
• Provide the same look and feel as the original game
• Support custom content that can also be compatible with the N64 version
• Be the stepping stone for original open source FPS games

• Integrated Boom/MBF features (only bug fixes to the original Doom code)
• Internal tools to test resources such as sprites and textures (Work in Progress)
• Debugging features for custom level creation
• USF Music playback
• Full 32-Bit color
• xternal MP3/OGG support
• High resolution modes
• Console and QUAKE-style key bindings

Zenimax Media (the parent/shell company of Elder Scrolls/Fallout developers Bethesda Softworks) have, in a move surprising to everybody ever, aquired id Software. This means that while Rage and Wolfenstein will still be published by EA and Activision respectively, Bethesda will publish Doom 4.

Pretty wild, huh?

Saturday, June 20, 2009

udderdude on UAC Experiment: It's a classic Doom style map. It pulls this off pretty well, feeling like an expanded classic map, with a lot of monsters. The layout is large and non-linear. . . The map has 25 secrets in total, so you might want to get to hunting down those secrets. Fans of classic Doom will definitely want to check this one out. (more)

The final incarnation of ScoreDoom has been released after a lot of playtesting, tweaking and bug fixing. Grab the latest version and latest add-on pack from http://www.scoredoom.com for posting scores on the ScoreDoom leader boards. The latest files for running your own private high score servers can also be downloaded now.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Claustrophobia 1024, the inspirational sequel to Congestion 1024, was finally released on June 17th! Who knew it could take over a year to finish up a set of 1024 maps?

If you're not familiar with the 1024 mapping theme, it goes something like this. The playing area of each map can be no larger than a 1024x1024 box. Monsters, items, decoration...anything but the player is allowed outside of this 1024 squared area. One loophole to this rule is that the player is allowed outside of this area as long as he is killed upon crossing the border. The idea behind the 1024 theme is to force the mapper to focus on quick and fun gameplay.

A list of features includes:

• 33 brand-new, Boom compatible 1024 maps from various members of the Doom community
  
• Lots of brand new muisc
  
• New textures and a horde of new graphics
  
• New color palette