Team Insanity

Seems we forgot to mention Team Insanity's latest update... that's what you get when not using our nifty news notification thingie guys :) Several new reviews have been added this time, taking a closer look at "Grinder", "World of Deth", "AfterDoom" and "RuinDM". Lüt also mentions the "Doom Millenium" project status... apparantly it might be released "within 2 weeks". That ought to be good news for those who have been waiting for its resurrection with baited breath.

Heh... "game wad" only, not "documentation, engine, website, etc." ;) Didn't mean to disillusion anybody, sorry - make it a month.

In today's addition of TI, we have lots of exclusive maps where we give ratings of less than 3!!! haha. Come on, aren't reviewers supposed to review well known or submitted maps?

They said it might be ready in two weeks about two weeks before doomnation went down. Here I was thinking, they must be eating this up. They no longer have to worry about pushing themselves to get it ready in two weeks. I figured they would definitely finish it in the two months it's been already.

Okay, people. It's been this long and it's going to be a bit longer, so don't disappoint me!

As I said in another comment thread:

Lüt, I completely and totally disagree with your review of world.wad. Is it beautiful? No. If the levels are played consecutively, is it particularly hard? Not really. But The World of Deth has some of the most fun gameplay I have ever experienced, especially when played on a per-level basis. Did you notice that all the levels are balanced so you have a chance when starting from scratch? You seemed more intent on dissing the mostly stone-and-wood level themes and the "redundant" gameplay. Seems to me that pretty much all Doom megawads are "redundant" if they consist of 32 levels where you find keys and kill monsters over and over. Personally I would probably give this WAD a 7/10 or so. It's too bad that this WAD will probably be overlooked and soon forgotten, because it has some really great stuff in it.

Hahaha...World.ZIP receives 2.5 out of 10, and RuinDM gets 9.5 out of 10? I haven't had a good laugh in a long time...thanks, Lüt.

It might look good, but it would totally suck in DM. There are way too many cramped spaces (as a rule, I try not to have gaps below about 96 in my DM maps), not enough weapons, etc.

Precisely, Nick. RuinDM would be horrid for a game of deathmatch. Sprawling and aimless, RuinDM looks more like a incomplete single-player level than a finished deathmatch level. Of course, the fact that Kristian Aro, the author of RuinDM, is a Team Insanity member MAY have had something to do with the inflated score...

I agree RuinDM wouldn't be good for DM at all, but damn the detail is impressive! I agree with Lüt in that it's fun just wandering around and looking at it.

OK. First off, Ling, I replied to you in the earlier comment thread. Second of all, comparing the DM maps to single-player maps; DM maps are oblivious to most of the criticism I can give to a SP map, where the difficulty, monster placement, etc. all play in, because the purpose of a DM map is completely different than an SP map. I happened to like RuinDM in a DM game a hell of a lot better than that Yesterday's Brownies texture showcase. Let's take this world.wad again - say most of the content had been delivered in a 12-level megawad instead of 32. I would have given at least a 5 or 6. Why? Like I said in the review; utter redundancy in every aspect of the game! An 8 or 9 would go to something like the 2nd release of Hell Factory, Hub 1. As for what I'm "supposed" to review, I am "supposed" to review anything I want. I noticed the /newstuff chronicles hadn't been updated in a while and I figured I might offer up my own opinion, but it was updated before I finished the main update. I considered not posting but decided I had a right to. The other two of those were submitted! If somebody submits something, it gets reviewed; we don't pass it up if we don't like it. And Millennium? Like I say, the game wad WILL be ready in two weeks at the least. Compiling that right now is my end of the deal and I'm very close to done. The only thing that may take extra time beyond that is fixing up a few engine bugs and game documentation.

I agree mostly with Lüt's review of RuinDM.
It is a very nice map with an excellent theme. A 9.5 score may be a little too high though. There were a few tight stairways which slow your progress. A HUGE no no in maps meant for deathmatch. I'd probably give it an 8 or so. I did actually play it with my brother in DM and it worked pretty well (aside from the tight stairs).

As for World.wad liked it better than
Lüt did. The gameplay was indeed quite fun, but I got a little bored after about eight maps. The same theme level after level kind of got to me after a while. Still, I found most levels were put together well. It just needed more variety. I'd give it a 6.

I don't get why there are as many bad levels as there are. If your level looks and plays like crap to you, then chances are that other people will feel the same way.

I'm not saying all levels have to be Gothic DM quality or anything, but some levels you see are just so appalling that the creators must have REALLY bad taste if they actually think their level is any good.

That same logic can apply to bad anything.

I've learned to distrust any reviews on TI of wads that are by TI members. There was another wad that got a ridiculously high score because the author was a TI member too, lemme see... Well firstly there's the whole Paul Corfiatis series, while not bad, I don't think they'd be worth of 9.5s, more like 7s and 8s. Then there's a review of Cyberdemon's Realm ( http://www.doomworld.com/insanity/rev21.html ) which is just COMPLETELY wrong in all respects. The architecture was horrendous, the gameplay was only "okay", yet the review gives it a 9.5 simply because the author is a TI member.

So basically just don't trust TI reviews of their own members' wads.

Goodness....

That wad sure is colorful! 8o

Was *every* Doom texture used? Sure looks like it :)

Actually, no. I wrote that review before Valentin joined TI. I only added "TI member" to the info section when I was updating all the reviews with the new (now old) format. So there :-P

And yeah, that was one of the very EARLY reviews. We were only 'learning' back then I have to say. That was over 2 years ago now I would think.

In general I am just a generous person. I'm sure it looks bad with the reviews of Paul's levels, but whatever you reckon, I didn't inflate the scores for any reason.

From now on, maybe you guys shouldn't review each others levels. Personally I didn't make the connection due to the fact that I'm not current on the membership of Team Insanity. However, it will help avoid the appearance of favoritism, whether any actually exists or not.

You guys have got the logic all messed up. Kristian's level didn't get a high score because he is a TI member; he is a TI member because he makes good maps.

I don't get what it is with people thinking all DM maps need to be the same. Personally I think the entire concept of a DM map is ridiculous, as I prefer DMing in maps like 11, 13, 16, 23, etc. of original Doom2. It's like, if you can't put a little thought into a full set of maps, you just throw together a little arena. At least this is what I see a good portion of the time in DM maps. Woo. This isn't to rat on people who like making DM maps, but since there's not much else you can grade them on besides looks, weapon placement and how fun they are in DM mode (which is usually nothing since they are so small and get boring within a matter of minutes), I can't deduct points for things I would normally knock in a single player game, and to drop DM maps points just because I don't usually like DM maps is rather unfair. So I don't.