The /newstuff Chronicles #90

Welcome to my review column! I kiss you! This week's measly two-map offering won't keep you in your seat much longer than an hour and a half, so crawl out from behind your computer screen, go outside, breathe in the fresh air, and try not to choke on a bug or melt or anything. Then you wouldn't be able to play the wads that show up in /newstuff next week... because you'd be dead. Not dead like dead in a tech base or Gothic ZDoom map, but dead in your front lawn, and you probably haven't seen that in Doom.



Blinded by Fear by Patrik Hoglund - - Grul's own 'teleport monsters only' palace for Doom 2 Map01. This one's a tech-y map sorta reminscent of a few of the early Doom 2 maps (Map04, Map06)... except with better architecture. Architecture I believe was the high point of Blinded even though gameplay was the author's focus. It's a golden example of beauty through simplicity and makes for a very convicing starbase map despite a few 'ugh' texture misalignments, while the 'stand in front of a teleport and shoot everything that comes out of it' thing got very tired very very fast. Aside from a pretty cool archvile battle and a hallway where monsters teleport in from BOTH SIDES (woo), Blinded gets no awards for fun from me. Of course it's one of two stinking wads this week so you should probably download it to prolong your inevitable death (by choking on a bug, the little flying bastards).

Sin by Inferno_45 - - Hey, swank dungeon. I'd want to live in this map if it wasn't for ZDoom. Inferno/Bardcat/whatever you're used to calling him shows off this intensely challenging Doom 2 Map01 replacement. Sin forces the player through an awesome looking Gothic castle, most credit for the 'awesome looking' to the atmospheric lighting. Think of all the stuff you could hide from your parents in the dark corners... yeah. Anyway, cool gameplay factor: you have to make good use of every last bullet and pick up every bit of ammo you can find. Missing a few shots can leave you having to tyson your way past a horde of baddies later for the ammobox across the room. This map isn't a pushover, and that leads us to one of the problems with sin, it only appeals to veteran doomers since difficulty settings are not implemented. The other problem is that 95% of the ZDoom features used are just fluff. A doom2.exe compatible map could've been made out of this and the gameplay would've been almost the exact same (death to particle fountains). Oh yeah, there's a soundtrack by Julian, rock on. Requires ZDoom.

Wheee! Patrik Höglund is back! I though the Doom community lost him. Great map, I really like it. If you never played any of his other maps, GO GET THEM NOW. URLs are in the readme.

Blinded by Fear is a very good download!

I've played and max recorded it several times. It's loaded with secrets and has good gameplay which makes it a double challenge.

Lots of monsters everywhere but enough ammo and health to survive and have fun in the process.

This wad won't break you back and, most often, provides or allows for alternate attacks while others are transporting in to join the fight.

Nice level!


Rich Sham

P.S. I still have to try the Sin map.

Rich said:

Blinded by Fear is a very good download!

Well that's good enough recommendation for me, downloads.
Hey Inferno great to see you're back with a map and a great sounding one at that, me downloads too.:)

Wow. This is the second week Revalvicate has been in /newstuff and not in the /newstuff chronicles. I've seen reviews of levels, sprites sounds, wall patches and textures in the /newstuff chronicles, why not music?

I haven't reviewed any of the graphics, sounds, or music replacements that have come through since I started doing the /newstuff. I guess I'll consider starting or ask ling or something.

Sorry to bitch about it but it's kinda annoying, working for three months on a complete music replacement and hardly getting any comments.

...

OK, so I did get comments from doomaster and sgtcrispy and fanatic and maybe one word from railgunner... I want more comments goddamnit.

Liam the Bard said:

I haven't reviewed any of the graphics, sounds, or music replacements that have come through since I started doing the /newstuff. I guess I'll consider starting or ask ling or something.

I thought you did. I could probably prove it... if I could flip through the past /newstuff chronicles like I could when doomworld was on the old forum system. Can you still do that on this system?

Scragadelic said:

I thought you did. I could probably prove it... if I could flip through the past /newstuff chronicles like I could when doomworld was on the old forum system. Can you still do that on this system?

AndrewB may have, I don't recall ever doing it. I'll go download your music replacement right now and comment on it here if you'd like...

... hey cool my post count is going up...

Liam the Bard said:

AndrewB may have, I don't recall ever doing it. I'll go download your music replacement right now and comment on it here if you'd like...

Yes!
/me hugs Liam

Think it goes in three days too...

stop spamming

RailGunner said:

stop spamming

With a post count of 22 he needs all he can get;)

oh well

Patrik Hoglund is back? I hope so. I remember playing some of his past maps and enjoying every second of it (except when I made stupid mistakes like charging into a room without a big gun =) ). In my opinion he sure as hell knows how to make a good map.

blinded.zip -> staying on my hard drive with the rest of the jewels.
sin2.zip -> I gotta play that again. Maybe 3-5 more times. No, make that 10...

1337ness!!! LOLOLOhehehehROFLAMOE LIAM OwNZ0rz!!! plpoplpopo
mwuahahahwu, heheh, ehehmdfm
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
PLAYING NEW WADS ALWAYS MAKES ME MELT STUFFZ0RZ LOLOLOLOLOOLO HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH SPANKSPANKSPANKS
I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!
I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!

I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!
I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!

I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!


Patrik Höglund Patrik Höglund Patrik Höglund Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee!

OK. i call that spam.

I vouch for non-map WADs being reviewed too, seems reasonable to me. Not only are they rarer anyway, but also easier to review. You don't have to play through them; just listen or take a look.

Also, Liam is quite right: If you want to make a WAD that's specifically for a certain engine, use its features extensively. If not, make it a normal doom (or boom, if necessary) WAD. What's more, it's weird when people write "requires zdoom" in the text when it does not. I remember this happening like a month ago to a couple of WADs, they didn't even require a "port"!

Now I'll go check Blinded by Fear, before that nasty flying bug gets me.

Blinded by Fear was good fun and left me wanting more, nice.Good thing there's lots of secrets to go back and discover.:)

Try this with -nomonsters in blinded.wad: go to the room with the blue key (the one opened from the adjacent room normally guarded by spectres), the door will close behind you; you can open it with the switch beside it. If you go back (without picking up the blue key), the door will close, but there is no way to open it again, as the switch opening it is a 1-timer. This bug could be fixed, along with the couple of scrolling doors... otherwise the WAD is pretty cool, from what I've seen already.

Bah, damn map got rejected again

Yeah im gonna download this wad. (was sidetracked a bit with neighbous silently imploding on my lawn. what they doin??)
Sounds impressive this wad, and I agree with reviewing graph/mus wads, my music efforts werent noticed in m-tekk meltdown (ppl said it sucked just cos of texture allignment. i see their point)
ok, i better wipe that crunchy pile from my lawn (hmmm..appealing)

If you want to make a WAD that's specifically for a certain engine, use its features extensively.

People can and should be able to do whatever the heck they like when making levels, they shouldn't have other people dictating what they can and can't do.

I finally finished Grul's map... indeed it's got a lot of secrets, it's worthy of a max run or two. The map certainly plays better if you try to hurry than if you play more slowly (standing by the teleporters waiting for the monsters to finish coming out).

NiGHTMARE: Uh, of course they can... It goes without saying; they can even rip someone else's textures off in the process! What's more, freedom is flowing so abundantly here in this world that people can dictate what can or can't be dictated about what can or can't be done... wow!

Scragadelic: Stop using my fish please.

Ok gonna go play these.

Inferno's level features a .ogg music track. So it actually requires ZDoom.

people can dictate what can or can't be dictated about what can or can't be done...

Umm, no. I said shouldn't, not can't.

Toke said:

1337ness!!! LOLOLOhehehehROFLAMOE LIAM OwNZ0rz!!! plpoplpopo
mwuahahahwu, heheh, ehehmdfm
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
DO NOT DIE IN YOUR FRONT LAWN!!
PLAYING NEW WADS ALWAYS MAKES ME MELT STUFFZ0RZ LOLOLOLOLOOLO HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH SPANKSPANKSPANKS
I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!I WANT A HIGHER POST COUNTNESS!!
I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!

I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!
I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!

I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!I HAVE ALREADY MADE A FRONT LAWN WAD!


Patrik Höglund Patrik Höglund Patrik Höglund Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee! Wheee!

oh my god it's cs all over again NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! *dies*

Let's say the text included with a particular WAD has a disclaimer that must be reproduced in the documentation accompanying any WAD or level that uses any contents from the former WAD. Let's say someone desn't even credit the authors of the resources. Not to mention that the best way to use those resources is to specify that the user should get the resource file itself (this shows respect for the original designers, since their art is being distributed and used in its original package; I remember Rich Sham did this with a recent WAD, as have many others).

This brings to mind the default username on the BitchX IRC client.