This Week in Doom is Back!

New article is up! This week's article is extra special, featuring a sneak peak at Soundblock's sweet new megawad, "Echelon," as well as a new interview, since the old one is old enough to sign up for the military, buy cigarettes, and become the macho man sailor we all wanted to be. My corny jokes aside, the interview turned out well and should be an interesting read. "Echelon" is a 30-map set for zDoom which takes the player on a journey through some of the most beautiful, minimally detailed maps I've played in quite some time, with a good emphasis on color and overall picture. A lot of moments I'll remember for a long time; likely bugging me 10 years down the road when "I'm trying to remember where these scenes came from..." heh. Each level is fairly short (many really short) and with the intermission text presented between each level, it makes for a pleasurable story-driven experience that keeps it moving, which is a great thing. Most maps featured one major set piece, with the rest incidental combat and none were too difficult, even on UV, which also kept things moving along fairly quickly. With each level completed advancing the story, as well as a good parallel between the story and the maps represented, this megawad kept me interested for more than one play through!

The rest of the article also had some nice wads, with rdwpa's newest creation, the limit-removing "Ahh!" as well as Impie's "Surreal Killer" mod. Added to the archives the week of the 17-24th were: Tiger's beautiful new DM wad "Morgenstern" as well as his new invasion map "Shadowmaker," both for Zand (SM for Zand 3.0); "Tritium Refinery" by Subucnameth, a 2-map vanilla set; "Shrooms" by Albertoni is a trippy (G)zDoom 6 (4) map set; "The Wreck" by Thomas Nijman, a partially underwater GzDoom map made for the Vinesauce contest; "Deliverance: ONI Facility Demo (stripped version)" by Fisk, a mid-sized (G)zDoom map that would fit well in the E1 category; "Industrial Warfare" by Carlos Lastra, a zDoom map that also fits the E1 theme; and finally "Russian DOOM" by Julian Nechaevsky, which contains an .exe based on Chocolate Doom 2.2.1 that plays Doom and translates its text into Russian, also containing wad files to change the map names for each iWad into Russian. DoomLauncher received an update; V2.4.0 is now out over at Realm667. All cool stuff; check it out!

































Head on over to Doom Wad Station and check out the full article!

Wow Echelon looks excellent.

must play echelon

MUST PLAY ECHELON

I'll second -- or is it third? -- rdwpa and kmxexi. Echelon looks great, and thanks for the interview, too. It was quite interesting and fun to read.

V: Over 15 years since the last interview, is Carlsberg beer still where it's at?

The interview just stops after that sentence.
Also, that Matrix-style background makes the text really really hard to read. Ever tried just solid colour? :]


--------
Anyway, good stuff, keep it up!

What a nice article, as always, Fonze! Echelon does look interesting to me, and I'm going to try it when it's released. Honestly I was expecting limit-removing or boom compatibility for that wad, but it's not a big deal, actually.

Very good article!
I want to play at Echelon too, looks really impressive!

But why the rwdpa map have the "All hell breaking loose" screenshots?

Nevermind, i'm dumb.

kmxexii said:

must play echelon

MUST PLAY ECHELON

Cannot not quote this

Can't wait to play Echelon. Also I have missed to play The Wreck, it's basically a remake of Tomb Raider 2 section of the sunken ship, and that's why it got those kind of puzzles. The wreck is broken in various parts which is why some are upside down and others not, but I guess that it makes more sense if you played the original levels.

bzzrak said:

V: Over 15 years since the last interview, is Carlsberg beer still where it's at?

The interview just stops after that sentence.
Also, that Matrix-style background makes the text really really hard to read. Ever tried just solid colour? :]


--------
Anyway, good stuff, keep it up!

Yes, Soundblock pointed that omission out to me as well. I'm working on a fix for the article (two other small typos), but for now the answer, iirc, was: "I'm loving it!" Coincidentally I've been trying to find Carlberg beer in my area...

I have to agree about the backgrounds as well. The background when I first started was SUPPORT3, which I really liked, but I think it is time to go to solid colors.



Also, thanks for that info gaspe! I was heavily confused how some parts, like the deck, were right-side-up when other parts were clearly upside-down. Still, it was interesting and fun, if fairly bland, but damn that water was terrible lol.

Thanks for the reviews :)

Is there a permanent link on both Shadowmaker and TGRDM3 reviews?

This is something I can get behind.

Thanks for giving Surreal Killer some love, guys, and for highlighting some other badass mods. Hope you find my other stuff worth reviewing, too.