It's that time Boys and Girls (who are actually just boys pretending to be girls), another fabulous edition of Scuba Steve's: Newstuff. That's right, everyone's second favorite scuba diver is in charge of providing you with a current wrapup of everything new in the idgames archive (except 1994 wads because they are garbage and not worth mine time or yours.) It's funny, I hate doing newstuff, but I keep coming back, like an abusive relationship. Why do you make me hate you Doom ;_;

Oniria - Aluqah
ZDoom - SP - 300kb -

This is the kind of map that makes newstuff worth looking forward to. Inspired by Alice, Void and maybe a bit of BPRD, Oniria is an enjoyable trip (no pun intended) through an interesting level. A brand new palette was applied to turn everything grayscale except for the red index, which might not sound like much, but it really adds a whole atmosphere to this level. There are numerous new textures and some creative segments of the map that are definitely worth checking out. My biggest complaint was lack of new music, the level screams for some dark, brooding tune to accompany you. I will say however... Map of the Week.

Four Flippers
Psycho series: Neurosis - Aluqah
Limit Removing - SP - 136kb -

Another level by the author of Oniria. This one is a bit of a letdown after having just played Oniria, Neurosis is a rather average Doom map, monsters come out, you get keys and shoot things. Nothing spectacular.

Two Flippers, Two snorkels and a Goggle
Deadly Alliance - "John" (Seriously)
GZDoom - SP - 11779kb -

This is, how shall I describe this… grueling? The wad is designed for GZDoom but I'm hard pressed to find out why, there is nothing in this map to explain why it wouldn't work with regular Zdoom, heck the map doesn't even use slopes. The architecture is very dull and bland, there's nothing particularly BAD about it, but everything in this map is forgettable. A quick summary of this map, you shoot a bunch of monsters and a door opens leading to more monsters that you must shoot to open a door to more monsters which, when shot, will open a door to more monsters etc. The map is a bit less linear than that but it gets really old, really fast. Maybe the Hell Revealed lovers will get a kick out of it since there is a plethora of beasts to slay, but really, there just isn't much here in terms of gameplay and architecture. Also, why is this 12 megs?

Three Snorkels
Go Read a Book! - xbolt
Legacy - SP - 28kb -

Just a demonstration wad on making a readable book in Legacy using hud messages.
A New Hellspawn - Little White Mouse
ZDoom - SP - 9674kb -

A fun mapset from Little White Mouse, about demons and hell gates and all that crap. A New Hellspawn is littered with the little touches you'd expect from the author of Chosen, a plethora of new sprites, faux 3d models and textures to turn a rather drab map into something a bit more entertaining. This map is your standard fanfare, Marines open gate to Hell, demons come out, you go in to clean up and along the way you find some guns and shoot stuff. Also you will encounter a number of generic Zdoom events like getting parts to a weapon, finding item A to open door B instead of a key and trite doom font displayed onscreen for dialogue. There are some unique features to such as a windy canyon you have to watch to see when the leaves are not blowing so you can run across, and a datapad you use to drop claymores and use your personal teleporter (sweet when set up correctly to escape during the tried and true "escape in the countdown" segment). A New Hellspawn will not make you go WOW, but it is deffinately worth a play since all of the above features, generic or not, come together nicely to make a fun map.

Three Flippers, Snorkel and Goggles
Better Late than Never - jetflock
Legacy - SP/DM - 3039kb -

A mediocre mapset for Legacy with a Christmas theme. I can best describe this map as a very elaborate and modern 1996 TC. The maps are decent but it is littered with ridiculous sounds like you would hear from an old wad from the early years, a mixed bag of bad sprites and even worse jokes. This level is worth a play at most, if you happen to be bored. The wad consists of a singl eplayer level, map 01, and a deathmatch level (that no one will ever play) replacing map 02.

Two flippers and a Snorkel
High/Low 1 - Chris Hansen
Limit Removing? - SP - 102kb -

Despite Chris' comments in the text file that this isn't a good "Come Back" wad, I'd disagree. High/Low is a nice medium sized, Episode 1 style map. Fun battles, decent architecture, it has everything you need to make a good level. Recommended.

Three Flippers
Traps 2 - Dutch Devil
ZDoom - SP - 106kb -

Well, the name is sure Truth in Advertising, Traps 2 is just that, traps. You grab stuff and stuff happens. Aside from the utter abysmal mdoom logo, the wad is decent. It looks acceptable, as do most levels by Dutch Devil (hay that rhymes!) and the traps, while predictable, will provide you with some fun on a runthrough. Worth a play.

Two Flippers, Two Snorkels and Goggles

Well my fellow Doom comrades, this concludes Newstuff #284 and I hope you had almost as much fun reading it as I did writing it, read: none at all. I bid farewell for now, but may we all meet again at the 13th Annual Cacowards! (or the next newstuff which I will be forced into like indentured servitude.)