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Bloodshedder

The /newstuff Chronicles #388

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  • Zero Day - Kyle Towns
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 1467234 bytes -
    Reviewed by: yylow30
    Map01:
    When I loaded this up, the very first thing that caught my attention was the vast amount of space with a vast amount of hitscanners right from the start. The entire map was made up of poorly textured buildings with plain and poorly textured rooms. The only secret to this map was a... door, which you can easily go around to the other side. Ammo and health was not much of a problem here, since the entire map was filled with an abundance of hitscanners and health packs.

    Map02:
    Similar to map01, this map was also filled with hitscanners with the same theme - poorly textured rooms and buildings - just filled with more powerful monsters. At the start, I noticed a voodoo doll standing right beside me; I have absolutely no idea what it does or why it was placed there, and there is no time to figure it out, because as soon as I turned around from the doll, I was bombarded with fireballs from Cacodemons and Mancubuses. And for those who don't already know, if that voodoo doll gets killed, you will get killed as well, so your mission would include protecting that frozen clone of yours.

    Map03:
    Another voodoo doll beside you, but you can pretty much ignore it anyway. Once you clear the first wave of monsters, and after running down distances on the big railways, you will reach a very long dark corridor, or tunnel. These sets of tunnels are filled with a number of Spectres that can be pretty hard to see; by the time you hit one and kill it, it probably will have taken a bite off you. Now that's something decent. This stage is pretty linear; there is only one specific route other than a small detour you can take in the tunnels.

    Map04:
    You start off with big door ahead of you; enter through that door and you will come into what I call a village in a desert. Find the keys and exit. The entire map was just like the ones before, plain... dead plain.

    Map05:
    The concept of this map is the same as map04. You start off with a locked door behind you. Find the keys and exit. I am beginning to find myself struggling with ammo more now.

    Map06:
    This is similar to Map03, you only have one specific route to take. It was only in this map that I realized some jumping is required. The exit on this map can be pretty easily missed. The map looks is slightly better than before. But it is still as terrible.

    Map07:
    In my opinion this map is the worst of the lot. I can see not much effort has been made on this map. It seems like everything was made in a rush. The map consists of three small areas. One with an exit, one with a room locked with a key, and one area with the key. And these three sections only covered up to less than 1/5th of the entire map. All the other parts of the map are just long and endless mazes of corridors and narrow paths, filled with demons, and you will need to get into this maze and kill some demons before the key area opens up. I had a hard time here because I had totally no idea where I was heading. Most of the time, I simply stumbled back to the place I came from.

    Map08:
    You are suddenly thrown back to the building landscape, but it's at night. Similar to map01 and map02, your mission would be going to the correct building, find the key, open the locked door, finding another key until you get the last key which opens the door to your exit. It's only until the area with the last key that I finally found a room with a really decent look. With the key surrounded by a number of cell packs, I am guessing the mapper is trying to hint that there is a real fight coming on. BUT the finale is simply a fight with some Cyberdemons in an area so big that you can simply run around them to the exit.

    Overall, all eight maps were pretty badly designed, plain and simple, and some have rather poor lighting. And they are HUGE! And I really mean HUGE. Improperly pegged doors are plentiful. To download and play or not? Just look at the screenshots and decide for yourself...

  • Zero Day (MP3 edition) - Kyle Towns
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 42828232 bytes
    Reviewed by: yylow30
    The maps in this wad are identical to zeroday.zip. The only difference lies in the music. This file provides more optimized music. The music isn't too bad, I'll say.

  • RSL's Agent Diaz Patch - Richard Smith Long
    GZDoom - Solo Play - 492515 bytes
    Reviewed by: bgraybr
    Here we have a patch for Wild Weasel's Agent Diaz mod. It adds a new raise animation for all of the weapons, a few new graphics and effects, and changes the weapon behavior slightly. The new effects are decent, but the raise animations are very simple and the sprites aren't the best quality (the new chaingunner is just a modified Wolfenstein enemy). Other than that, there's really not much to comment on; the patch just doesn't change enough to justify its existence.

  • AZURE FOR HERETIC 1.2 REGISTERED - Omar Hashim
    Vanilla - Solo Play - 33839 bytes
    Reviewed by: schmerr
    Sorry for the lack of screenshots in advance.

    This is a pretty fun level, albeit pretty bland, and one room has the dreaded Maulotaur. The map is a square map with a door leading to a room on each side. Ah yes it's great fun up until you hit the RED ROOM OF PAIN!!! Actually it's just an empty red room with a warp on the other side. Then you take one step into the room and you fall under the floor. Then you're dropped into a deep room filled with Maulotaurs, yes, many many Maulotaurs. Overall, I don't recommend the map, as to me it's fething terrible.

  • Plut1 - AconyX
    Vanilla - Solo Play - 37320 bytes -
    Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
    "Plut1" doesn't have a remarkable title nor is the map itself anything special. It's the size of an ant fart and basically one long, slightly curving hall with 36 monsters on UV. But, in all honesty, it's bite-sized fun. Normally, I wouldn't enjoy such a dinky, pore-sized map, but this one was quite charming. It's great if you're bored or looking for something quick and simple to play through—this map will probably take you no longer than 5 minutes to finish, but that will certainly be an entertaining 5 minutes.

    The title is the way it is because it's a map designed for "The Plutonia Experiment" (fitting in map 1's slot). No new music is used, but the original dark, brooding, intense track works just fine. The author comments in the text file that this map was all about the "Plutonia" atmosphere more than design, and while the first statement is true, I have to say that the design is also very nice. You begin in a circular, ceiling-less room with tan brick walls and a cobblestone floor. A green strip runs through the center of the wall covered by brown vines, and the green adds some striking color to what is otherwise a...very brown room. Several Imps have their backs to you, and a berserk pack sits near them. You use this and your pistol to dispose of them, then you progress into a short hall with a green marble, Baphomet-faced plaque at the end. A switch is in his forehead and, when you hit it, a Hell Knight spawns in behind you. Luckily, you got the super shotgun right in front of the plaque beforehand.

    The switch opens up a small doorway into a slightly curved tan brick and stone hall. Rusted steel bars line the otherwise open ceiling, and a switch awaits you at the end. Watch it, though, as an Arch-Vile will attack you once you go back to the doorway. After this, it's basically back to the starting room, out its back door, and onto some vine-covered brick stairs. You take them or simply drop down in the pool below and take a tunnel that ultimate leads you to the exit.

    The ammo is very balanced, so much so that I wasn't careful enough at first and ran dry. Even though you get the super shotgun, always use the regular one for Imps and lesser Zombiemen as you won't be wasting two shells on weak enemies. This map has a couple Hell Knights and a Baron of Hell, so save the super shotgun for them. Still, even with the very precise ammo placement, this map isn't that hard to get through.

    Definitely give this isty-bitsy "Plutonia" map a try, as it's one of the better maps I've played in a while. I wish it were longer, as it could have been something truly wonderful, but, as it is, it's a charming little gift to the Doom community.

  • Foothills of Hell V.2 for Doom2 - David Ramos
    Vanilla - Solo Play - 37310 bytes -
    Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
    Wow, this was...this was pretty bad, probably one of the worst maps I've played in a good while. It has "1994" and "n00b" and "troll" written all over it. It's a small map that suffers from pretty much every flaw you can think of! I'm so glad it's a single-map WAD because any more of this shit and I would have just relinquished my claim or skipped to the end of the WAD or something.

    OK, so, you begin on a slightly raised platform of large, tan stone flooring. Black and gray tech pillars run down each side, and the room itself is made of tan cobblestone. The platform's tile is stained a faint green (or maybe it's stained a light tan?), which is a nice little detail. But I can tell you that the black and gray tech pillars are about as annoyingly ill-fitting for this otherwise brown industrial room as you can expect. To make matters worse, a silver tech door lies at the opposite end from where you're standing. A single shotgun dude stands just to the right of it, his back to you.

    OK, easy kill, no? Too easy. Also, there's a secret in the back of the room with a shitload of shotgun shells and a rocket launcher. Get them if you want...although, I'm not too sure just how much you'll need them in this map. When you exit this room, you step out into a hall/room with green marble tile flooring and ceiling and gray marble walls. A shorter hallway is to your right with some exploding barrels and a small off-white and tan door. To your left is the super shotgun. Before you are two pistol dudes, one in front of the other, their backs to you, and a buttload of blue health vials.

    Too fucking easy.

    At the end of this very marble area, to your right, a darkened entrance into a very narrow tunnel can be found. Two chaingunners are lurking here, but, they're hardly a threat even with the tiny amount of space you have in the very tedious "up and down, up and down" hall. Seriously, it's practically a very vertical zig-zag with more ammo.

    At the end of this maze there's the yellow key's door, which will lead you to the exit. The other door beside it doesn't require a key, and, when you enter it, it's probably the most memorable area of the whole map (but still, nothing special). It's overly-spacious, very brown, and the side walls are lined by hanging mutilated corpses. Kind of neat. But, this room overloads you with ammo: you have more than enough shotgun shells to take care of the group of zombie dudes and Cacodemons that attack you, plus you get a damn megasphere.

    Did I mention that you'll also get an invincibility sphere in this map? Yeah, it's not even that necessary. Well, it might be nice to have a little edge in the large...room with the Arachnotron, which leads to another area with some Chaingunners on a ledge with a Revenant and pistol dudes on the ground level. But, really, it's overkill. Over. Kill. You don't really need an invincibility sphere anywhere in this map, as every battle is quite basic with no need for superior tactical skills. I think I only died once, and I suck balls at Doom.

    You'll encounter your first Baron in a very large, overly spacious, nearly bare gray floored and ceiling room. By this point, you will probably have both the rocket launcher and the plasma rifle. But, don't waste your ammo! Just use the super shotgun--I had fun running circles around that Fortress of Moo dipshit and managed to off him easily with the SSG. A wall will drop that unleashes a group of spectres, but, you still have a damn football field to run around in, so they're easy kills, too. An Arch-Vile hides in a small room in this area, guarding the red key, but, once again, you have plenty of ammo to kill him. You even get plasma cells and boxes of rockets right before you encounter him.

    The texture usage and placement is quite awful. Industrial and tech textures are mixed and matched almost at random...I mean, why is there a green and gray marble area in a predominantly tan and gray industrial map? Why include gray walls with brown vines in one area but not any others? Why combine huge gray cinder blocks with tan tile? It's all just so ugly....and flat. This map has about as much structural depth and creativity as a piece of paper.

    This map has way too much ammo and way too much health, even with the 94 monsters. There's just far too much open, empty space to create any sense of challenge. Anyone--and I do mean ANYone--could beat this map without cheats on Ultra-Violence. Even those who really suck at Doom and can't form strategies for shit or those who can't aim for shit can do great in this map. I can't even say that those who are incompetent at Doom will find this map hard at all on any level. Advanced, highly-skilled Doomers will be so bored at this, they'll probably just skip to the end--or stop playing and delete the map from their hard drive altogether.

    If you haven't already guessed, don't play this map. It's poorly done on every level of mapping, and it poses NO challenge whatsoever. You could play 1994, 1995, and 1996 WADs that are better than this. This is just...bad.

  • The Black Widow (BLACKWID.WAD) - Ole J. Kielland
    Vanilla - Solo Play - 60824 bytes -
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    Today I played this map from the ancient depths of 1994 era uploaded from the Mysterious Phantom Uploader Perseus (TM), as the first time I've seen it on the archives months ago, I refused to download this map, due to the lower vote (0 stars!) given from some archive rater, and the most important fact that I remembered clearly to have this file already somewhere, and today I want to play to some un-reviewed maps, and the choices between the levels that most intrigue me in the usual huge list are "Camp or Underground" from foxysen and this one. So, since the other map got 7 levels, due to time choices I've choose this, but the lower vote given from other reviewers in the archives and a little consideration already given previously to the product, let me have some reservations before playing ... What horrible texture choices will burn out my brain? In what kind of bad layout I'll get trapped this afternoon? What cramped new graphics and over9000 beavis & butt-head sound rip-off I'll hear today?

    And now you'll have the dreaded response! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    After the usual dumbass shotgunner get arguing with a cyber-demon in the title prompt, I'll choice "New Game" and "Hurt me Plenty" from the game menu, I'm landed in the moon, and it was screwed from demons of hell! Oh my! OK, I'm pretty damn sure this place is our well-know satellite, since you seen the azure planet in the sky (for how bad rendered is, is the Earth!), from the very first contact you are in huge wooden building, and a stone arrow indicates you to check a certain wall... it stinks of a trap from a miles away, but I'll check it further, so I'm going in the structure behind me, there's some rare parts of human trace here and there like lights, cramped crates and a little gray tech base build into the famous red rocks of the moon...

    Wait a minute, WTF? Red rocks on the moon? Oh boy, we're already screwed up!!!!!!!! Personally I will chosen a sp_rock1 texture, or an ashwall2 thing, but red rocks... well, this thing don't make me mad about this map...

    Oh anyway, let's keep our guided tour in this moon base with award-winning company "Daimon's Travel Agency! - from Timbuktu to Alpha Centauri, the best travel of our lives!", and let's see more on this white stone in the space! Er, what, it's all here? Better check out that wall marked in the starting area... OK, I've got a blue skull in a pinky meat room, and after this a secret door suddenly opens and reveals a hot chick in topless in a green brick fortress place, guarded from a lower zombie. After I killed the enemy I'll check the room, running in the direction of the half-naked girl and... AW SHIT! I was screwed up from a spider mastermind in a dark room... this thing reminded me of episode 1 end, when you jump in that demonic teleport, just for being killed to the hell spawn in the darkest corner of hell, and give to me the same sense of frustration of my younger days... are you never tried to kill all the monsters to see what happens if you kill 'em all? Just thinking it now, but let's stop rambling and go to the point! I liked this homage a little, but don't gave a huge amount of chance to be THE BEST WAD EVAR but, guys, is a level from 1994, and so don't wait nothing of spectacular in terms of beauty... but then I think in the same year people made levels like GALAXIA.WAD and Aliens TC, and I get depressed again, thinking of what I've played just a pair of hours ago...

    Gameplay is a little bit confusing, since you don't know how to going, and you found some other hidden places at very random moments, like that alcove with the rocket launcher in the north-west section, but I think no one could be so stupid to jump into a room that turns in a pitch black place after you stepped in... but in this game the common sense it wasn't a first choice to survive! In this place you can go through it after some experiences of playing, and experience is your best friend to get out from there! I was killed 3 times after knowing all the level, but I did it over.

    The ammo and health balance it could been made much better here, but I finished with enough ammo... but there's some hard moments especially with the barons at the beginning and the rest of hell waiting you in the locked red skull base...

    Detail of this place is... oh, well, is what do you expect from this kind of map: ugly as hell, but not so much here to be honest. The places are highly recognizable here (also using a HUGE imagination), and the texturing choice was not so thrown in the air here, since there's the hellish/wooden castle in the beginning, and some tech section are scattered around this little moon outpost, submerged from evil, the red rock moon outdoors (again, that red rocks... I just can't digest them!!!!) and also a little hidden hell section (or this is just was thinking) to complete the context.... all right, is just a red wall maze filled with red lights over your head, it reminded the Hell part of the game "Yume Nikki" (actually is a huge, endless maze with red walls and a dark void floor) but there's some choices that wasn't so good like the misaligned crate room, a skull switch in the wooden room in the north-east path of the wooden castle (posted in the screen shots) that you think immediately "hey, if I push this switch, maybe I'll activate some kind of interesting secret, ooohhhh you are so tempting!!!!!" but a hanged fellow marine blocks the path, so you can't push it, also shooting it can't do a fuck so is there... just for detail. My anger grows up slowly... and the new textures aren't so awesome, but just think they're coming out from re-edited GIF pictures get from some ancient BBS around the old-school Internet....

    The music of this level is extremely weird, since is a jazz song made from the author that make me relaxed, it reminded me of Puzzle Bobble, the coin-op game with the shooting colored balls dragons, but.... sounds bizarre on Doom, so if you don't like it you can take down the music volume and use your favorite CD, or just use one of the music wad present in the archive...

    At last, I read some people in archive review says this level was already released in the archive, and checking around I found it! So, Perseus, what's the meaning of this? You start to falter in your insane (insane...) spamming dark ages maps upload? Or for what unknown reason? Only god knows....

    And whit this question I'll leave you, dear readers, but not before to says my judge about this level: when you start to play something of these years (94-95) it's like when you going to search a old, crap movie you heard some reviews on the net, and you found some horrible, crazy shit like Evil Clutch or something awesome like Riki-Oh... but in all cases, you just made some laughs on it. So, this level isn't nothing of incredible, but neither a endless pit of crap, is just stands in the middle like many other things in the life, so if you are bored take a play to this...

    OK, OK, in a word: MEH.

  • Marble 1 - AconyX
    Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 72678 bytes -
    Reviewed by: Liam
    "Marble 1" is outranked even by "Entryway" as map names go, but in terms of actual mapping AconyX proves to have modest potential. The map's biggest flaw is actually stated outright in the text file: an attachment to symmetry and rectilinear architecture that borders on fetishistic. The author also regrettably blew his detailing load in the starting hallway and left ancillary areas starved for attention. The player, on the other hand, receives almost too much and is guaranteed by the placement of weapons, health, and traps to be a step ahead of any challenge even on UV. It's not a poor map by any definition, but these factors combined prevent Marble 1 from leaving a strong impression.

  • Doom I & II - Edge Magazine reviews (1994) - convex
    n/a - n/a - 1946316 bytes
    Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
    The title of the file should be descriptive enough to provide you with an answer as to what this review is going to be for. Yes, I am reviewing a review, essentially, and I definitely have some problems with the reviewer's comments and criticisms, and well as his major inaccuracy in calling classic Doom, "Doom: Evil Unleashed." Last I checked, the first, original Doom game was simply called "Doom."

    The PDF file contains two separate reviews, one for Doom and one for Doom II: Hell on Earth as they appeared in Edge Magazine in 1994. It seems that the reviewer played a very early release of Doom, which probably indicates why the title of the game is incorrect and why he describes berserk packs as being green. But, then again, below a trio of screencaps at the bottom of page 2, he describes the berserk pack as being (correctly) black. Can we say, "proof-reading?"

    I also disagree with his description of an invincibility sphere as having a human face inside of it. Um...yeah, that's one fucked-up human face. It looks more like a demonic skull head with red eyes. Maybe I'm being harsh, and maybe I'm just an overly-picky bitch, but I have to say that, if you are going to review something, get your facts straight. Referring to the berserk pack as being green and then black within the same article is not only confusing, but entirely ridiculous.

    The person does get it right when he comments on how Doom is definitely visually superior to Wolfenstein. Thank you for confirming the obvious, Sir. While by today's standards, Doom is visually outdated and a little plain, it still possesses a certain intricately gritty visual style due to the detailed and varied textures present.

    The reviewer then goes on to call the chaingun the "multibarrel machine gun." What an awfully awkward name! The game, as he puts it, is simple, but why is the chaingun suddenly this complicated name? Doesn't make sense if you're referring to Doom as a simple-minded game for those with no desire to think about what they're doing. Doom is simple, but not simple in the sense it's a breeze. The first Doom is probably the simplest Doom game, but it still involved strategy and tactics. If you acted like a dickhole and just barreled through areas, then, yeah, you were going to get hurt unnecessarily.

    What really amused me (in the sense I wanted to "facepalm") is how the reviewer mentions that the exits are hard to find. Um...not really. Doom wasn't laid out quite as complexly as Doom II and Final Doom were. And as to why the reviewer suggested wasting ammo by shooting in frustration at the exit doors, I really don't know. I can't recall every feeling this way about any Doom game, IWAD or PWAD.

    Doom is violent, I'll agree with the reviewer on that much. But what makes it special in comparison to other 2D first-person shooter games? Well, Doom was attractive and technically still is. We also cannot forget the epic soundtrack that increased the dark, intense atmosphere of the maps. "Sign of Evil," the music used for E1M8, remains (for me) one of the best game songs of all time. It's somber, it's haunting, it's beautiful, and it's like a desperate attempt to cling to a false sense of triumph (since we all know how that map ended). Soundtracks are everything to games, and Doom had and still has one of the most thrilling.

    Plus, let us not forget the storyline: Yes, Doom is violent, but this isn't about killing civilians, cops, terrorists, etc. It's about killing demons from hell in order to try and salvage the UAC and Earth (or, what's left of them). To interpret any of the Doom games as grossly violent is a bit of an inaccuracy as you are not killing "good guys," or anything human for that matter. You don't get points in the game for your kills (and none are taken away), so it's not like you feel rewarded for mass slaughter.

    The reviewer complains about how you never get to explore the "glorious" mountain background textures. All I have to say is, "Get over it." Doom takes place at a military/science base in the future built on Mars (or one of its moons). It's not supposed to be about climbing mountains or exploring jungles. You clear the areas of the infected tech bases, which are attractive-looking in their own right. I think the reviewer was expecting way too much out of a game that came out before we had advanced, detailed, 3D graphics that we see today. Personally, I liked the mountains in the background but I never spent much time thinking about them. Why? Because I was playing the game, which was involved enough to keep me busy.

    Oh my sweet Jesus in heaven...it's so fail-tastic that the reviewer gives some jacked-up names to the three main bosses of Doom: The Barons of Hell, which essentially look like satyrs, are "pink/brown" things; the Cyberdemon is the "rocket-toting guy," and this is just stupid because, while the Cyberdemon is very male in appearance, he's a monster, not a person. A half machine, half flesh and blood creature with huge ram-like horns on his head and a rocket launcher for a left arm. Now, doesn't that sound far more descriptive? The reviewer does describe the Spider Mastermind rather accurately, though, calling it a "spiderdemon guard." Well, even a blind squirrel finds nuts once in a while. The review ends with how the person wishes you could simply talk with the monsters and make friends, and that would somehow save Doom from becoming boring. Yeah, OK, so we'll just talk to hellspawn! That's what they wanted all along, right? Just to be accepted and make friends? Just because they try to kill you doesn't mean they don't like you—they just don't know how else to express their pain and suffering at being emo loners.

    Bitch. Please.

    Now, for Doom II's review (and, hopefully, a more accurate one). He gets some things correct right off the bat by commenting on the somewhat more complicated, thought-provoking gameplay of Doom II. Naturally, this massive beast of a release featured superior gameplay, as id software had time to make improvements after releasing and reading reviews about Doom. The graphics are more varied and creative, and the overall "effect" is something that balances beauty, entertainment, and puzzles.

    But then the reviewer calls the Cyberdemon a "Cyberdaemon," and I almost banged my head on my desk. He also inaccurately calls the Mancubus (aka "Fasto") the "fat man." Um, yeah, the Mancubuses are totally human. That's why they have ugly monster faces and flame-ball throwers for arms. The chaingunners become sergeants and the Cacodemon is the "Cacodaemon..." Wait, what the shit?! The reviewer really fucked up here—he clearly describes and refers to a picture of a Pain Elemental as being a "Cacodaemon." Um...Cacodemons are red ball monsters with no arms or legs (and the Pain Elemental clearly has arms and is totally brown), and they shoot fireballs at you, not Lost Souls.

    Somebody clearly didn't have their Jimmy Dean breakfast that morning.

    The music of Doom II is negatively reviewed, being called "uninspired" just like the first Doom's soundtrack. I like Doom's soundtrack more than Doom II's, but neither is uninspired; both are atmospheric and intense. And there's a typo here: "week" is used when it is clearly meant to be "weak." Jesus Christ, does it kill people to spellcheck before they release text??? This is just pure laziness, this sort of mistake.

    Overall, I think the reviews are...mediocre and very inaccurate and flawed. Both can be excluded as "serious business," and both are forgettable. How is one supposed to take these reviews seriously when the person cannot even tell a Pain Elemental and Cacodemon apart? And what of the lame-ass descriptions of the Barons and Cyberdemon in the review for Doom? Oh, let's not get all Ernest Hemingway, man—your complex lingo might confuse the masses!

  • Multi.wad - Carlos
    cDoom - Solo Play - 204184 bytes -
    Reviewed by: Maes
    After postponing this review for various reasons, here it is at last. For anyone that has been living under a rock (well, not really) this is the second of the "multi" series of "real" levels to be used with Carlos Guariglia's infamous CDoom source port, a derivative of MBF (apparently) with the addition of a custom room-over-room 3D mode.

    Presumably, these levels are made by Carlos himself and are converted from an EDGE map (Base One) and a Legacy one (Beyond The Bridges)), which however I haven't played in order to draw direct comparisons, but they do look faithful reproductions by comparing them in DoomBuilder. Now, how can Carlos pretend that people make no derivative works upon what is a derivative work is something that beats me, but I'm digressing.

    On a previous /newstuff Chronicles edition, I had reviewed another similarly named multi.wad by Carlos, also based on EDGE maps, which were not bad at all, although they were obviously not thoroughly playtested, something which is pretty much the overall impression for multi2.wad.

    MAP01 of the two-level set is basically a cramped Doom II-esque techbase with many cramped lifts, passageways, catwalks, crates, nukage pools, etc. all augmented through the gimmicky 3D mode that CDoom supports, so you'll have to turn "True 3D gameplay" on" for this to work, in order to be able to use elevated bridges, catwalks, etc. The level itself is very intricate, chock-full of detail, secrets, and is generally dark and very cramped. It's also very puzzle and switch-hunting oriented, which will probably frustrate you if you were expecting mindless ass-blasting action. These criticism seems to hold true even of the original map, so in that sense, the CDoom edition lives up to the spirit of the original.

    Some of the areas you'll encounter are architecturally very impressive and intricate, and there's an abuse of the 3D feature, deep water etc. but their appeal is pretty much negated by the low resolution and low lighting levels. Also, often the 3D architecture just doesn't work as intended, as it's possible to fall off prematurely from certain 3D catwalks/bridges and either getting stuck in some unescapable (but non-damaging!) pit, or making the map unwinnable by breaking some sequence.

    The latter can happen way too often with another gimmick of this map: in several areas, two-way, double-switch elevator platforms are featured. While they are a nice feature (and rarely seen in most maps), it's easy to activate them without boarding them and thus sealing off entire sections of the map, since there's no external recall switch, essentially making the map unwinnable unless you reload or idclip. I don't know if it's an oversight or a deliberate "novice trap", but either way it's bullshit.

    Similarly, most supposedly damaging floors are not damaging at all (even the nukage pool in the blue key room, for which you're even given a radsuit), which again makes me think of a rushed job. Exiting the map, once you found your way to the startan catwalks, is easy, as there's no final fight; however, there's a risk of falling down in the courtyard before activating the switches, making the map, once again, unwinnable. "Bugs: No" Carlos said? Yeah right. Also, even if there is a multi-color-key big door blocking the way to the exit and a red and yellow key in plain sight, it's not necessary to get them to win the map (they might be there just for shows, AFAIK). In fact, a pretty big portion of the map involving walking puzzles in dark lava pits can be safely skipped.

    As for the fights, they are generally unremarkable. Due to the nature of the map, most fights are with zombies and imps in narrow hallways, plus the occasional spectre or pinky. The few higher-tier monsters you'll find are few and far between, and even in the final area, despite the rooms getting progressively bigger and there being a tension buildup, there's no final fight. The monsters themselves are often confused by the 3D architecture and will e.g. try to attack you from under bridges or get stuck in the protruding details and platforms. Often, the broken depth clipping may result in 3D platforms being drawn directly in front of monsters, resulting in confusing visuals.

    Unfortunately, the fact that cDoom is stuck at 320 x 200, that the map is overall pretty dark and cramped, and that the 3D effect has quite broken Z-depth clipping (so many times platforms appear in front of sprites) makes all this detail visually unappealing, and actually pretty mentally fatiguing. This map just BEGS to be played in a port with higher resolution and proper depth clipping, as there's only so much detail you can cram in 64000 pixels and 256 color without making it looking fugly.

    MAP02 appears overall more playable and tongue-in-cheek, looking like an early Doom II PWAD at which someone has thrown some 3D features. The fights are a bit more interesting than MAP01 even if you'll encounter SS Nazis. There are some interesting details like e.g. a table in the yellow key room, a "prison" with cells holding various monsters, and there's even a whole section of the map ripped directly from the starting area of E2M2 "Containment Area" which will create a sense of déjà vu.

    For the rest, the flow of the map is really random, reminiscent of a 1994 map with a lot of big plain areas, teleportation abuse, a lot of switch flicking etc. with the only really original feature being the "3D-ification". I wouldn't be surprised if this was an actual 1994 WAD before being first converted to Legacy and "3D ENHANCED!" and then dumbed down to CDoom format. Unfortunately, there's nothing too remarkable in terms of fights here either: it's basically going from one zombie + imp trap to the next.

    Still, it's shorter and more fun than MAP01 in a lot of ways, so if you really gotta play this two-level set for a quickie, play only MAP02. Then again, if Carlos really wishes to make attractive levels for his port, he should use more playable maps as a base. The previous multi.wad was a good start in that direction, but this one somehow managed to lower the ante.

  • Camp Or Underground - Foxysen
    Skulltag - Solo Play - 352115 bytes -
    Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
    Another review from me dear folks!

    And, as announced, I'll talking about this little hub from Foxysen called "Camp Or Underground", the story is this: you and your friend are miners somewhere in a little forest, then you've got a message via radio from this dude called Grom (what a kind of name...), he says he's trapped in the mine and he wants your help, and then you go the rescue...

    Talking about this level, well it wasn't so thrilling as I expected, maybe the bland layout, maybe something other, but this doesn't entered in my heart... Anyway this level set is nice, with a good progression of "from hell and back" stuff, and my favorite part is MAP04, got some reminiscence of Quake playing it...

    Talking about gameplay, it lacks of ammo and the clearing inventory script at each level of the mine you reach make me angered...

    Details, on the other side, are really well made in some little sections, and the decorate things are a fresh looking stuff...

    So, isn't a bad level at all, but isn't a masterpiece like KDiZD or Megaman DM...

    Take a look at it, you'll see something nice|

  • Doomguy's FORCED and PAINFUL Chocolate Shotgun. - Maes, phi108
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 108383 bytes
    Reviewed by: yylow30
    This is basically a SSG that shoots 4 times, BEHIND YOU, which injures you at the same time, while splattering the area behind you with red blue green brown stuffs. Very tedious to aim properly, very tricky to use in a proper game, and the sound effects are awful. Shitty jokewad. That pretty much sums it up.

    So just to check the spread of the new backside weapon, I load up MAP32 of Doom 2, in the easiest difficulty with this mod. I opened the door, opened the secret room with the SSG and the pills, went back to the door, facing towards the room I came out from, and made a couple of shots. How far and wide did the decals go? All the way to the other side of the wall, and the spread is surprisingly big. 6 of the 10 pillars, as well as the entire red wall was dotted with the aforesaid colourful decorations. Imagine that if this were to happen in real life. Impressive...

    But since the spread is big, this would make it an very inaccurate weapon at range, but it's pretty deadly close-up.

    Conclusion? For a laugh, this might be able do the job. Otherwise, skip it.

  • zfactory - Callum Guy Oliver
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 86246 bytes -
    Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
    "Zfactory" is a little ant fart, 2 hour speed map with a very heavy tech theme. It's nothing amazing, that's for sure, but it does pack a slight punch for being such a bite-sized map. On Ultra-Violence, it's somewhat easy/moderately challenging, but it comes down to how skilled the player is. I kind of suck so I had to struggle a bit, particularly with the Mancubuses in the lower waste tunnel of the facility. But, really, it's nothing difficult.

    You begin at the top of a flight of stairs in a short, narrow hall with tan-tiled floor, grey blocky stone walls at your left and right, and a fence built into the right wall. The fence allows you to see the right side of the vast main area, and it can work for and against you. When you get the Imps, Shotgun guys, and Zombiemen to notice you, some of them will come around and be good sniping fodder from that cage. However, if you're not careful (or not paying attention), they can shoot up at you and injury you.

    On the floor on the main area are four tall, techy blue key pillars that surround a switch. As it turns out, these pillars are stupidly and unnecessarily high—when you hit the switch (after obtaining the blue key), two doors open at the back of the main are. The pillars do nothing and provide nothing, which makes me wonder why the blue key's switch had to have so much attention drawn to it for no reason.

    The main area is mostly silver and gray, but you get a nice break from this in a lower level sewage depot and a slime-floored tunnel. As nice as the green slime and the brown industrial textures are, there's no radiation suit in this map, so you'll have to move quickly or you'll just lose health points you may want to keep for later. In the slime tunnel, you can take a silver lift to a little ledge that contains two medipacks. They are placed half-way through the tunnel, so you get a nice boost to keep from being totally drained for your encounter in the main area with some Shotgun guys.

    There's one secret in this map and it's in the slime tunnel. In the final third, you'll notice to your left a super shotgun behind some bars as well as boxes of shells. You don't get the SSG anywhere else in the map, and I highly suggest you obtain this secret as it's very, very helpful to you, especially with the handful of Mancubuses and chaingunners in this map.

    Ammo is a bit tight, not so much that you don't have enough, but there's definitely only enough to get you through the map with maybe a little extra at the end. This does make the otherwise short map much more interesting as you have to be a bit careful with your aim. If you're really good at Doom, you may find you have too much. For the rest, you'll have just enough. I actually ran out a couple times (as I didn't obtain the super shotgun until later in the game), so that made things a bit rough.

    You'll need all three keys to get through this map, which leads to me to wonder why. It's very small, so the need for three keys seems a bit ridiculous. I mean, one key would have been enough, and it could still have been challenging. Shoving three keys into this dinky map makes it seem like you're getting tedious busy work to do, and that's not cool.

    Since this is a speed map, it does suffer some visual pitfalls. In general, the structure is rather plain. The gray hall that leads down to an enclosed slime pit is extremely bare. At the front end are a couple items for you and a tall light. That's really it. This hall could have been much shorter and it wouldn't have affected the game play. The exit area is made of much darker gray stone with a set of bleacher seats leading to the top level. A switch is against the back wall of narrow path, and this switch unleashes some Mancubuses. Problem is, the area itself is far too open and plain. I don't think it was necessary to make into a miniature arena—there's not enough detail in the end, and 80% of the space goes to waste.

    The music is replaced with E1M4's track, and I find this much more intense than the original Doom II map 1 track; I don't even like the Doom II soundtrack much anyway. The music doesn't do much for the map itself, though, as it and the map seem to be going for totally different atmospheres. Maybe if they lighting had been a little more dramatic, the music would have been able to coexist better with the map. Overall, "zfactory" is a decent ZDoom speed map. If you're bored, it should provide a good enough play to entertain you. However, the somewhat bland visuals, triple-key placement, and short length make it so that it's not going to become anything memorable. If you're not bored, I suggest skipping this unless you really enjoy classic style maps of very small size.

  • Computer Gaming World - July 1993 article on Doom - Chris Lombardi (article) Uploaded to idgames by Simon Howard (fraggle)
    n/a - n/a - 10050278 bytes
    Reviewed by: fullmetalvaran33
    This is not a playable WAD, but a .PDF file containing two scanned pages from Computer Gaming's two-page review of Doom in 1993. This review is also a sort of preview, and the screencaps suggest that the Doom game reviewed was most likely a pre-release (Doom 0.4 alpha from April 4, 1993). This article is noted as the first time Doom was mentioned in print publication.

    The review is simple and straightforward, but quite favorable. The reviewer comments often on how Doom is basically the superior big brother to the previous first-person classic shooter, Wolfenstein. Doom possessed textures with more gritty, realistic detail, as well as a stronger variety. The lighting effects were somewhat advanced, actually portraying a light/shade environment like in reality. Wolfenstein was generally, flat, square, plain, and very bright.

    An interesting comparison the reviewer makes is how Doom and the film "Aliens" have similarities: Some time in the future, marines are sent into space to dispose of an extra-terrestrial threat on a man-made base on a different planet. Essentially, Doom (at least, the first one) is a bit like "Aliens," although, the visual style of both are quite different, and the monsters in Doom are demons from Hell, not aliens. Still, it's a unique comparison I've never heard, seen, or thought of, and it does make sense.

    The article makes reference to a double-bayonet weapon, something that wasn't in any of the Doom games, and provides an awkward description of the Pinkies: "muscular, horny, pizza-nightmare [...] demons." I figure he's talking about the Pinkies since they are the only creatures to appear in the screencaps (save for two marines). While the description is pretty much correct, "horny" isn't exactly the word I would use to describe the Pinky Demons....Well, maybe they are horny...and they just happen to think Doom Guy's into vore, and that's why they attack him.

    However, I don't think this was id software's...intention, and I think "horned" better describes the Pinkies. It's less...perverse.

    At the end of the article is a chuckle-worthy contemplation over how Doom was going to be pretty demanding for a lot of lower-end computers, thus, requiring a lot of gamers to upgrade their systems. It's funny because nowadays, the classic Doom games are about as low-maintenance as you can get. Still, the review is very nostalgic and brings up some good memories from the first release of Doom.

  • (title of your masterpiece) - Alexandra "Archvile78" T.
    Vanilla - Solo Play - 15381 bytes
    Reviewed by: Sodaholic
    So, here's somebody's attempt at a first map. I was going in with low expectations, and although the wad isn't too great, it's not as bad as I was expecting it to be.

    It's very short, and still has the default music (at least d_e1m1 is less annoying to me than d_runnin is), and has very, very low detail. The architecture is rather simplistic and cobbled together. There is also very little shotgun ammo, and I had to finish the last two monsters off with my pistol.

    The texturing was also repetitive, and looked sloppily chosen. The rooms felt very small, too.

    Certainly decent for someone's very first map, but it's not too entertaining otherwise, and could easily be skipped.

The /newstuff Chronicles is written entirely by players like you. Visit the /newstuff Review Center to help out. If you are not a member of the Doomworld Forums, please sign up, because you need an account to submit reviews.

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"Boy the lighting in this wad isn't very good"

*plays with a gamma level of a trillion*

yylow30, please turn your gamma down before taking screenshots next time, you can do it by pressing F11. You can't see anything.

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Heh. Thanks for the review?
Lemme have my two minutes of fun: :-D

<sarcasm>

the raise animations are very simple


Hmmm. I should probably have had the character juggling for a moment with the weapon, then make her throw it up and have it firing one round while in midair, and finally back to the ready stance. What were you expecting, Jackie Chan?

and the sprites aren't the best quality (the new chaingunner is just a modified Wolfenstein enemy)


You mean you don't like sprites by id software? Take into account they were already chosen by WildWeasel for his very own Diaz 2.

Other than that, there's really not much to comment on; the patch just doesn't change enough to justify its existence.


Other than that, there's really not much to comment on; the reviewer just doesn't evaluate enough to justify his exist... -AHEM- review.

</sarcasm>

Yet in the end, thanks anyway for spending some of your time to try out my cr@p.

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schmerr said:

Overall, I don't recommend the map, as to me it's fething terrible.

Aaaaaaaahhh it's spreading!

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Hey, fullmetal, I hereby request that you refrain from using "ant fart" more than once in any single /newstuff review for the future. I imagine you have enough creativity to find another way of saying "small" no? Also, Foothills is a 1995 map. Not bad reviews otherwise.

Also, Liam's concise style is pretty refreshing. Spot-on about Marble1.

Aside from that, not much going on here... Oh damn it, there's a fucking feth!!!!

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bytor said:

I think you spelt "fething" wrongly.

Hell, I don't even know what the fucking word means. ;p


It's fictional slang from Warhammer 40K.

People who use it are n'wahs.

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Gez said:

It's fictional slang from Warhammer 40K.

we should be thankful major rawne isn't a lobo fan, that'd get fragging confusing in doom's context.

also fmvaran, your reviews read nearly as long as those maps play, trim the walkthrough parts. i enjoyed your rage over the ancient reviews though. i recalled some other contemporary doom reviews and they all had the same quality, because any reviewer back then was just an amateur kid thinking himself a true game guru. oh and there was no real internet to google up the facts. what a romantic age.

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Snakes said:

Hey, fullmetal, I hereby request that you refrain from using "ant fart" more than once in any single /newstuff review for the future. I imagine you have enough creativity to find another way of saying "small" no? Also, Foothills is a 1995 map. Not bad reviews otherwise.


I didn't mean to use it more than once. I'll refrain from using it from now on and find something more creative and fun to entertain the masses.

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I liked Marble 1 and didn't feel it was too easy at all. Almost died at some point and ended up having to fight that cyberdemon with 22 health, despite having found the BFG secret. Great little map.

... and, despite disagreeing with the review, I also liked it. Straight to the point and informative. Can't speak for anyone else obviously, but lately I tend to just skip most reviews as they are in my opinion way too long for their actual content.

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A lot of these reviews are pretty awful. 70 screenshots per wad is a little more than a stretch if you ask me. I think you guys should lay off the F12 key and trim your reviews down to a paragraph or so and maybe two to five screenshots at most.

I'm interested in knowing what's new and whether any of it is good but I can't be bothered to read all this garbage. Just tell me what you liked about it and if you'd play it again and leave it at that. There's so much tl;dr in these /newstuffs lately I can't retrieve any of the information I want without spending a half hour reading and rereading all of it.

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Yeah, Liam's review of Marble1 was a great oasis of succinctness in the scorching desert of tl;dr that /newstuff has been for a while now. I'm all for thorough reviews when they're warranted, but most of these tend toward being overly verbose for the amount of content in them.

I especially don't want to read a complete walkthrough in here, nor a description of every single aspect of the reviewed wad. Though I admit it's largely a matter of personal preference, I'd like it if more people could distill their reviews down a bit in the future.

I've got nothing against the number of screenshots, though. I usually just randomly pick two or three from each review that includes them, and it'd be nice if every wad review included at least one or two, as appropriate.

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Csonicgo said:

carlos map again??? he can do all that but can't fix his mouse input and mono sound output?


Somehow, I can't quite picture him pulling out his DOS development tools and getting back at it. What for, anyway? To make a source port that will only be playable in DOS emulators or on 12 year old systems? If he was half-serious about it, he would have at least attempted a Windows port all those years. Even his released "source code" is a joke.

Your best bet is probably someone including support for CDoom's map format in a more modern source port, possibly in a new CDoom branch (yeah I know what you're all thinking...but I gotta get to Boom level first).

I have a hard time believing he's bothering making levels for it, but since even a Doombuilder configuration was released, at least HE must be playing it. He and Him, if you catch my drift. Oh and regarding the "he can do all that" part: don't forget that these maps were based on other people's work. He just converted them to CDoom format. On the one hand this is a good thing, as the few original maps he released were essentially tech demos of what cDoom can do. Plus, the trend seems to be to convert from other ports that had pseudo-3D extended RoR modes, so that limits the pool of maps he can draw from.

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Melon said:

"Boy the lighting in this wad isn't very good"

*plays with a gamma level of a trillion*

yylow30, please turn your gamma down before taking screenshots next time, you can do it by pressing F11. You can't see anything.


The screenshots too bright eh? Gamma at 3.0... That's because I find the maps too dark. So I ram up the gamma for the screenshots, if not nobody can see anything (you've said it, but that's the reason). Maybe I'll tone it down to 2.5 or 2.0 in the future then. =)

And oh, I noticed the screenshots here seemed to be much brighter than what the pictures were in my computer.

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yylow30 said:

The screenshots too bright eh? Gamma at 3.0... That's because I find the maps too dark. So I ram up the gamma for the screenshots, if not nobody can see anything (you've said it, but that's the reason). Maybe I'll tone it down to 2.5 or 2.0 in the future then. =)

And oh, I noticed the screenshots here seemed to be much brighter than what the pictures were in my computer.


High Gamma correction just makes the images look washed out. Just take screenshots of the wad as it is, after all you're reviewing it. If it's too dark then point that out. If you absolutely must make something seen than use the idbehold cheat to get the light amp powerup. Looks much better.

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Is this one of those off-weeks where nearly everything is crap?

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bgraybr said:

High Gamma correction just makes the images look washed out.


The gamma tables for vanilla Doom were crap at best. Instead of simply pushing the brightness envelope somehow, they also added some bias to black/dark colors, so "black" actually became grey. IMO they could use some tweaking by making non-zero colors lighters, but leaving very dark ones alone.

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On the EDGE magazine review: IMO the author (of the magazine review) was an adventure game junkie who half-heartedly accepted to review Doom, a game entirely out of his league and with a completely wrong mindset to boot.

The evidence? He keeps mentioning "poor interactivity" throughout the review, which reminded me that Doom was -among others- publicized as a "Virtual reality adventure", which he must have taken a bit too literally.

Maybe he was expecting something a-la Ultima Underworld or even something like Under The Killing moon -which came afterwards. Aaaand, in fact, he DOES mention Ultima Underworld and its "true 3D", and makes references to other adventure games (The 7th Guest, for starters). In general, he sounds like he was expecting a totally different kind of game, and was bitterly disappointed, not hiding his dislike for action games in the least.

Secondly, he seems very poorly informed on the game itself. He calls it "Doom - Evil Unleashed" while at the time of the review (April 1994) it was well beyond that Beta/press release phase and was simply "Doom", a finished product, unless he was actually given only a press release to judge from) and he doesn't sound very acquainted with the game itself -the review reads as if he fired it up a couple of times, grunted on a couple of doors, gazed at the sky, and for the rest he copy/pasted stock descriptions of monsters and bonuses straight out of some pre-release pamphlet or something, simply out of spite/boredom/can't-be-arsed-with-it mentality.

The Doom II review, done 5 months later, is totally different in style, and I doubt it's by the same author. That one is more in touch with the game's reality, although it's trying too hard to find massive improvements of Doom II vs Doom. The bit about the "improved" and "more detailed" level design will surely cause some chuckling.

Hmm...maybe I should have done the magazine review's review ;-)

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Those screenshots for Zero Day have some of the worst gamma settings I've ever seen.

This /newstuff seemed to be full of tl;dr to me - I actually couldn't be bothered to read it for once... which is probably good, as from what I've gathered all of the maps are crap, old or tiny. If a map can be described as ant fart, it shouldn't have a book as an accompanying review.

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I rarely read anything between a review's first and last sentences. Aside from Liam the reviewers right now are just a bunch of taffers.

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All reviews these days are walls of text. I don't really give a shit about anyones opinions on the wads I just wanna know what they are all about. And I could not care less about retarded map by map descriptions. Long gone seem the days when a newstuff review could be a single sentence.

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kristus said:

All reviews these days are walls of text. I don't really give a shit about anyones opinions on the wads I just wanna know what they are all about. And I could not care less about retarded map by map descriptions. Long gone seem the days when a newstuff review could be a single sentence.


I was once given one that was two words long. *smugface*

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it seems that ever since st alfonzo started reviewing people have been trying to copy his style and go into massive reviews with a lot of crap that isn't relevant. Not that I'm having a go at st alfonzo, I liked his reviews and its a shame he hasnt done any recently

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bgraybr said:

High Gamma correction just makes the images look washed out. Just take screenshots of the wad as it is, after all you're reviewing it. If it's too dark then point that out. If you absolutely must make something seen than use the idbehold cheat to get the light amp powerup. Looks much better.

Gamma corrections is a result of 'faulty' monitor settings. If you look at webpages, office documents and whatnot with white backgrounds all day, you end up decreasing the monitor's brightness (especially on CRTs, and especially at night or when living rooms are lit low), which then leads to reduced contrast in DOOM, because even (sane-textured) Doom maps in fullbright are rather dark. Brown (e.g. Agent Spork's Simplicity maps) more so than gray (e.g. Fredrik's Vrack). Since changing the brightness is on external monitors is not always as quick as hitting Fn+F5/F6/etc. one tends to keep the brightness for web levels and instead make use of gamma correction at times. </scientific explanation attempt>

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Foodles said:

it seems that ever since st alfonzo started reviewing people have been trying to copy his style and go into massive reviews with a lot of crap that isn't relevant. Not that I'm having a go at st alfonzo, I liked his reviews and its a shame he hasnt done any recently


I didn't copy anyone's style. I just review as I see fit and that's that.

I actually don't understand all the anger. Some reviews are long, som are short...I do reviews for fun, and I happen to like giving a good description of a WAD. I don't want to bore people--I am just sharing my thoughts. I agree some reviews can be lengthy (I don't like seeing a map-by-map review of a 32 level megaWAD) but I don't care much about it. I skim through, look at the screencaps, and that's all. I don't see the need to get angry and bash people's reviews since we all gave different tastes.

I mean, I can understand if someone types a review that is not clear, has lots of spelling and grammar errors, and never really explains why they liked or hated a WAD--that's bad and shouldn't be tolerated. Otherwise, though, I don't think there's anything worth making a fuss over.

As for the complaints about screencaps, I can see the point, in a way. I think that the review for Multi has way, way too many screencaps and it's not necessary. But, I think 7 to 8 isn't bad in most cases, depending on the WAD's size.

I just think everyone needs to relax and enjoy the reviews more for what they are--people's opinions on games.

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rsl said:

Heh. Thanks for the review?
Lemme have my two minutes of fun: :-D

<sarcasm>



Hmmm. I should probably have had the character juggling for a moment with the weapon, then make her throw it up and have it firing one round while in midair, and finally back to the ready stance. What were you expecting, Jackie Chan?



You mean you don't like sprites by id software? Take into account they were already chosen by WildWeasel for his very own Diaz 2.



Other than that, there's really not much to comment on; the reviewer just doesn't evaluate enough to justify his exist... -AHEM- review.

</sarcasm>

Yet in the end, thanks anyway for spending some of your time to try out my cr@p.


<SARCASM><SARCASM><SARCASM><SARCASM><SARCASM><SARCASM><SARCASM>HEY GUYS CAN YOU TELL THAT I'M BEING SARCASTIC!?!?!?!?!?!?</SARCASM></SARCASM></SARCASM></SARCASM></SARCASM></SARCASM></SARCASM>

A lot of these reviews are pretty awful. 70 screenshots per wad is a little more than a stretch if you ask me. I think you guys should lay off the F12 key and trim your reviews down to a paragraph or so and maybe two to five screenshots at most.

I'm interested in knowing what's new and whether any of it is good but I can't be bothered to read all this garbage. Just tell me what you liked about it and if you'd play it again and leave it at that. There's so much tl;dr in these /newstuffs lately I can't retrieve any of the information I want without spending a half hour reading and rereading all of it.


This god damn it. I actually consider it kind of selfish when a reviewer types out this massive essay that has little to do with the wad itself. It almost strikes me as a form of attention whoring and gives me the impression that the reviewer wants people to pay more attention to him than the actual wad itself.

What bothers me about Fullmetalvaran's reviews though is that they actually go too in depth. His review of Foothills of Hell is a prime example of this. It reads more like a walkthrough than a review and reveals just about everything a player will encounter throughout the wad.

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This god damn it. I actually consider it kind of selfish when a reviewer types out this massive essay that has little to do with the wad itself. It almost strikes me as a form of attention whoring and gives me the impression that the reviewer wants people to pay more attention to him than the actual wad itself.

What bothers me about Fullmetalvaran's reviews though is that they actually go too in depth. His review of Foothills of Hell is a prime example of this. It reads more like a walkthrough than a review and reveals just about everything a player will encounter throughout the wad.


Well, I certainly don't type lengthy reviews to be a selfish attention whore--at least, that's not my intention, not at all. I like to discuss my experience with a WAD. I could care less what people think of me--I want to describe the WAD. If I wanted people to pay more attention to me, I'd...probably write about myself than a WAD for the /newstuff. I just believe in giving thorough reviews for things (music, movies, games, etc.) I'm a detail-oriented kind of person. I could say a lot about "Unloved," but I can't see how that equates to me being selfish and attention-seeking. If anything, I'd be promoting "Unloved," not myself. It's the same with any review I do--I'm talking about the WAD, that's all. Just because I say a lot doesn't mean I'm being selfish.

As for my walkthrough reviews, I don't give every single battle away. I like to give an example or two of what's the WAD's like to play. I can exclude them entirely, but I swear I'm not giving away the entire WAD's battles/surprises.

But I can cut out the walkthrough parts. I don't mind. Although, I am a "she" not a "he."

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