The /newstuff Chronicles #301

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood RottKing, presenting you with a much delayed Newstuff #301! We have quite the mixture of good and bad, although I'm sad to report there's nothing "great" this installment, even with such a long wait and so many wads. Oh well, there's always next time! LET'S ROCK! I'll start things off with a guest-review from Mr. Scuba Steve! TAKE IT AWAY YOU WHINY BITCH.

• Skulltag Community LMS Project Version 3 - Various
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 5.83 MB - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Hay, nice to see so many pretty faces again (mine). RottKing has asked that I give "Skulltag Community LMS Project Version 3" a formal review since he was involved with the project or something. Seeing as how RottKing worked on this project, I don't really need to review it, I can just call it garbage and a waste of your time. Buuut... I suppose I can give it an actual review. Between the 16 maps, they range from decent to extravagant, with "Ruins of Vertigone" being the diamond in the rough. I was unable to test the maps in DM, since there are no servers on IDE yet, but I'm trying to envision a few of these maps as dm maps. Crate City, USA is bizarre; I do not understand how it could play as a decent map... but I could be wrong. Some of the maps are extremely large and complex and, for just a small group of players, might be a bit expansive. The majority of maps should provide a decent last man standing experience for you. Scuba Steve's verdict: 3 Flippers and a pair of Goggles.
  
  ** END SCUBA'S WORTHLESS OPINION **
  
  
• Alpha Invasion - Various
  Skulltag - Co-op - 2.22 MB - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Alpha Invasion is an invasion map pack for Skulltag, with 11 maps by various authors. I played through 4 or 5 waves for each map, and while obviously there's going to be maps that aren't as good as others, it's a decent effort. There's a nice variety of maps here with a few having a unique attribute to make them stand out from the rest gameplay wise. For example, Alinv05 has lava that slowly overtakes sections of the floor after each wave, while Alinv10 (one of my favorites in the pack) has low-gravity that allows the player to jump from island to island whilst slaying monsters. As for the negative, some maps such as Alinv04, and Alinv05 have a below average design and look pretty bland, and others are a bit too cramped for my liking. So overall it's a good (but could be much better) set of maps that should satisfy fans of the invasion game mode.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Kinda koul.
  
  
• The Arterial Fortress - Frank Maginnis (Kiev)
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 185 KB - (img) (img)
  An interesting and challenging level from Frank Maginnis. The first and last thing that sticks in my mind about this level is the level of curvature throughout its course, it gives it a unique feel and adds to the E3 atmosphere. Regarding the gameplay, it was pretty difficult, and health was extremely scarce. Then again I was playing on UV but still! Another annoying thing is that pretty much all of the challenge stems from the fact that it's a very cramped map, so it may turn some people off to it. Although it's nicely designed but a bit linear. Good detail, and cramped brawls are the order of the day with this map yessir! Worth a looksie.
  P.S. I also encountered numerous texture errors which, I think, is due to the author using the wrong node builder.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Kinda koul I guess.
  
  
• Blank - Jake "The Nutcracker" Stevens
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 8.62 MB - (img)
  You know you're in for something bad when the description of a map is "A short wad with no real reason for being built." and the author info "The world's worst map author". Well those sentences aren't far off, not surprisingly. The map is cramped, most areas lack detail, or any sort of design for that matter, lame battles, ACS glitches, there's a boss from a resource wad included just for the hell of it, some shitty portal gun puzzle, and I don't know if the map is even completable. Did I mention 6MBs are wasted on one music file? Yeah, don't bother with this garbage.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Turd!
  
  
• Break-in 4 - Catman
  Skulltag - Solo Play - 198 KB - (img) (img)
  Break-in 4 is a truly terrible map. It has non-existent detail, god-awful design, an extremely linear layout, along with fervent abuse of ACS scripts and ZDoom effects. I love how this map tries to have some ACTION PACKED and DRAMATIC story but just falls flat on its face. Seriously, learn the basics of decent map design first and then attempt something like this.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: UGHHHHHHHH
  
  
• Caronte - Aluqah
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 359 KB - (img) (img)
  Caronte is a map that's centered around some kinda demonic ship-thing, and plays fairly decent to boot. Detail and design is sufficient, and gameplay is fairly good. Although I have a few gripes. For one, at one point where I'm "trapped" I had no ammo left to kill the Baron of hell, so I had to resort to cheatin'. For the second, the part where you have to kill Cacodemons because they somehow prevent you from flipping a switch with their minds (who knew they were psychic!) was kind of tedious. Speaking of tedious, the final battle with Mr. Caronte himself was pretty boring, just a powered up Baron of Hell with a lot of health. So overall it's worth a play through, but you won't come back for seconds.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Kinda koul I guess.
  
  
• Deathkings Music - DJShrimpy
  Hexen Support - n/a - 4.24 KB -
  Seeing as how I do not possess the Hexen expansion pack I'll just take description from the text file: "Enables music for the maps of the Hexen expansion pack, HEXDD.wad"
  
  SERVEY SAYS: W/E.
  
  
• Deimos Laboratory 419 - Woolie Wool
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 59.7 KB - (img)
  Deimos Lab 419 is a very small duel map for Skulltag. The detail is nice, but I'm not crazy about it being so linear, so it would probably be a bit awkward with a human.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Meh.
  
  
• DooM 2 Episodes Patch - Lorenzo Davia
  ZDoom - n/a - 4.00 KB -
  This thing is some kinda KOOKY KRAZY patch that changes Doom 2 into an episodic format.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: heh
  
  
• Gamarra's soul story: Prologue "Training camp" - Giulio Glassi aka Glassyman
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 438 KB - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Well, it's a Galassi wad so you know it's going to be retarded, but I didn't expect this one to be so... lengthy. It starts out having you "learn" how to use various weapons against monsters, weapons such as a revolver, an automatic shotgun, and a molotov cocktail. By "learn" I mean killing hordes of monsters over and over that'll most likely overwhelm and kill you in a square room. (although I admit using the molotov cocktail was fun, but then again he didn't make that weapon.) When you complete that riveting map, the next one has you killing marines for whatever reason, I wasn't really paying attention to the text. Throughout the course of the second map, your character's spider-sense tingles whenever some marines spawn, and messages such as "I sense a danger!", and "Damn! I sense another danger!" follows.
  
  Truly gripping dialogue. Near the end of the map, there was a red paneled computer that obviously stood out from the others around it, and yet "Glassyman" still felt he had to point it out to you, what a swell guy.*** ATTENTION SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!! *** After you kill the final boss marine, Mr. Glassyman himself speaks to you, and he wants you to kill everyone who has ever insulted his maps. What a twist ending! *** END SPOILERS !!! *** The bottom line is, this map has more ACTION than that shitty Axle Doom or whatever it was called. Get it now! WAD OF THE WEEK!!!
  
  
• Kohe - Ruba
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 12 KB - (img)
  Oh joy, another Ruba map. Well this one is what you'd expect from a Ruba map. Virtually no detail/gameplay and it was extremely short. PASS.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: UGHHHHHHHH
  
  
• Later - Jake "The Nutcracker" Stevens
  ZDoom - n/a - 391 KB - (img)
  A fairly standard weapons mod for ZDoom. Insta-lasers, railgun, freeze cannon, some cool flame weapons (although I thought they were underpowered) and some other tame stuff. Worth a look for the flame weapons and that's about it.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Meh.
  
  
• M1 Revisited - Morbid DooMer
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 188 KB - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  M1 Revisited is a collection of maps for Doom which replaces the first map in each episode with a revamped one; the layouts are pretty much the same but with improved design and added detail. It sounds simple enough, and it is, but I quite like what he did with each one, it's solid and nothing felt out of place, the new palette was a nice touch too. Give it a go because it's pretty rockin'.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Koul.
  
  
• The Mine - Swanson
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 59 KB - (img)
  Oh man, a map so terrible that it actually rivals Ruba's! Holy shit, can you imagine if this map and Kohe were somehow able to duke it out with each other? It'd be like, Kohe starts off the brawl and knocks The Mine around a bit, but then The Mine says: "Oh yeah?!? LET'S SEE YOU HANDLE WALLS SO ANGLED AND THIN IT COULD CUT A HORSE IN TWO!" and then he lops off Kohe's left arm and blood goes everywhere. It looks bad for Kohe, but then he screams: "OH YOU WANNA PLAY HUH? BITCH MY MAP IS OVER SO FAST IT MAKES YOUR HEAD SPIN!" and he throws a mean right hook faster than light and dislocates The Mine's jaw and takes out one of his eyes. I imagine they would both be dead by the time they were finished, neither one able to get the upperhand. Epic.
  P.S. I can't believe the readme file was made in freakin' Microsoft Word 6.0. I had to use Metapad just to read the damn thing.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: UGHHHHHHH
  
  
• Outpost of Malice - Jonathan R. Millhouse (MORE LIKE THRILLHO)
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 325 KB - (img) (img) (img)
  As soon as I read that this was going to be an ammo conservative map I thought I wasn't going to like it, but after playing it a bit the non-linear-ness and the ability to explore made up for it. It's a demonic castle themed map, and I think he pulled off the theme nicely, although it's lacking in detail. The theme isn't what makes this map special of course, it's the fact that it's very non-linear with multiple ways of getting through the map, and even multiple ways of getting certain keys and weapons. One thing that pissed me off about the map is the scarce amount of ammo as mentioned earlier. Until I lowered the difficulty a tad, I just ran past a lot of monsters wondering where the hell all the ammo was, until I came across the pile of shells right near the beginning of the map! SonnuvaBITCH. Overall though it's a decent map that should be given a play through, and fans of ammo conservation simulators need apply!
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Kinda koul I guess.
  
  
• PC speaker sound effect format - Simon Howard, Andrew Apted
  doom2.exe - n/a - 18 KB -
  Some kinda crazy PC speaker thing or sommat I DUNNO AH JEEZ!!!
  
  SURVEY SAYS: w/e
  
  
• Rabbit Doom: Daisy Revenge! - Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 81 KB - (img) (img)
  Rabbit Doom is a map in which you hunt down Daisy heads and kill them. That's about it I guess. Oh and the map is pretty shit and even though the readme says there's 3 new levels there's only one. Good hustle good hustle.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Turd!
  
  
• SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #14: Halloween - Various
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 409 KB - (img) (img) (img)
  I dunno if I should even review these speedmap compilations, since there's not a lot of meaningful things I could say about them really. I guess I'll give it a try anyway. A demon invaded rural farm type area is the theme for #14, and is a very mixed bag even for a speed run compilation. Some maps are nice and satisfying, while others just pissed me off with a ludicrous amount of projectile monsters throwing crap at you from everywhere. Map09 was well designed considering the time constraint, although that goddamn revenant trap had me cursing like a sailor. So it's an interesting theme, but a good chunk of the maps were lacking in quality, worth a try I suppose.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: It's ok....... I GUEZZ
  
  
• SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #15 - Various
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 519 KB - (img) (img) (img)
  Ah, this compilation is a lot better than the last one, a good theme, better maps, (although one or two were unfinished) and a good looking texture set. Worth a download.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Kinda koul I guess.
  
  
• SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #16 - Various
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 262 KB - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Wowzers, I was impressed with the first map in this pack, quite lengthly and a well thought out layout; although the rest of them are good too. This time around the maps weren't based off of one theme, instead the authors were able to choose from three map descriptions from Boris' random map idea generator. I think this compilation is even better than the last one, so grab this also.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Kinda koul.
  
  
• SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #17 - Various
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 162 KB - (img) (img) (img)
  I didn't find any of these maps to be particularly interesting, they're also quite a bit shorter than previous compilations. So if you're a bit bored it'll entertain you for a little while but it's skippable.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Meh.
  
  
• SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #18 - Various
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 246 KB - (img) (img) (img)
  #18's theme is an E4-style hell-frozen-over type of thing, nothing too special here besides the theme, with Map04 being my favorite. It's better than the last compilation though.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Kinda koul I guess.
  
  
• SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #19 - Various
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 127 KB - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  The final speedmapping compilation for this edition of Newstuff (whew!), it's also most likely the best one out of them all. The authors were instructed to make a map similar to their favorite, for example Torn chose The Pit, while Dr. Zin chose some goddamn hair pulling Hell Revealed style map (but it was still fun). The quality of each map is superb, which I guess is to be expected with such authors as Torn and Karthik to name a few. So if you were to download any of these compilations, I would definitely recommend this one, it won't disappoint. I'd also say that this and Alpha Invasion are tied for wad of the week.
  
  SURVEY SAYS: MAO!
  
  
• Wild Wild West - Mentos
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 119 KB - (img) (img)
  A small western style deathmatch level from Mentos. It has all the hallmarks of an inexperienced mapper: misaligned textures, lackluster detail, sloppy design, and even a few unknown texture errors. It's not crap but as it is now it's below average. Keep reaching for that rainbow!
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Blarg.
  
  
• Doomguy's pimp ventures II: The More,The Merrier. - Randy & Mandy
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 1105 KB - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  *** WHOA BONUS REVIEW !!! ***
  
  Seeing as how this was forgotten last Newstuff, I take it upon myself to review this... Thing. I'll be honest here, I didn't know, and still don't know what exactly you're supposed to do in this wad. I wandered around for a good 10 minutes killing Imps, nazis and black dudes before I stumbled upon the fact you're supposed to "pimp" (kill) a few cyberdemons to make some door open in some building. Even after that I still couldn't figure out what to do from there so I just gave up. Although I admit the wad is quite amusing, and even... charming? Maybe. It's worth a download just to bask in all of the madness/SEXYNESS that radiates from this thing. Kudos to the voice actor too. "Ow. My ass!"
  
  SURVEY SAYS: Whoaaa.
  
  

fp and an awesome save by rottking at the bottom of the 9th

SURVEY SAYS: Whoa

The blackhole that lay dormant in my brain suddenly reawakened when I saw that my map was the /newstuff map screenshot. Awesome...glad you thought it was worthy of being the "Diamond in the Rough"...heh.

I didn't know what map it was when I picked it, I just picked something that looked cool.

RottKing said:

Well, it's a Galassi wad so you know it's going to be retarded

Beware! Don't insult me!

Get it now! WAD OF THE WEEK!!!

Ahhhhhhh! Thank you! I forgive you.

But there is still no Kill Gamarra review. I hope it'll be next time.

Hmm,... no Austerity 2 review? ... :(

Aww, at least my favourite WAD has been reviewed, thank you, THANK YOU RottKing :-p

As I have finished this many times over, I will post a minor spoiler: you're indeed supposed to make a key/switch hunting, and guess what, every important switch/key requires you to "pimp" a cyberdemon, except the time where you visit the basketball yard.

There are some not very obvious .DEH hacks in this map: e.g. the niggaz' basketballs are blockable, the "car" and "motorcycle" sprites can be destroyed and give you some bonus item, the "Wolfensse" sprite is shootable and dies (!) and there's even a new weapon....*cough cough* in a place where...uhm...hoes go :-)

After you have visited all 8 rooms a passage to the west opens...and there'a a special puzzle you must solve VERY quickly to avoid dying (it involves ammo, for the first time in the map). Just for the records, the map is completable on UV max if you play your cards right.

P.S. I love this WAD with all my body, including my pee-pee

"Three flippers and a pair of goggles"?

Tormentor667 said:

Hmm,... no Austerity 2 review? ... :(

Hahahahahahahahah :D

Tormentor667 said:

Hmm,... no Austerity 2 review? ... :(

Yeah I played that great map pack.Outstanding!

Replacing cacodemons with huge floating disembodied rabbit heads that shoot spectral carrots is neat; I liked that map which quite obviously is a jokewad. And this Gamarra is not such a great map. And thank GOD that the WAVE to PC SPEAKER converter thread created this PC Speaker specs! Now I can play Doom on XP -with- sounds -without- using DOSBOX or other @@#$# :P

cool

Another version of stlms? I hope you didn't get rid of the dome of doom or whatever we called it.

Nah all the maps are still there except for that "Q-IT" map, which was pretty crap.

Good reviews this week. I've got to admit though, the review of "Doomguy's pimp adventure 2" freaked me out. Sexyness? SEXYNESS? YOU'RE PIMPING A GOD DAMN CYBERDEMON. HOW IS THAT SEXY!? The only pornography in the level at all was the hentai pictures placed all over the level, and I prefer REAL women myself. <_<;;

Ok, it's official now. I'm going to have to hunt down Ruba and assassinate him...

Wheeeee new stuff thanks for the review RottKing, lets see if I can find some time to play some of them.

I HELPED TOO, JERK!

Scuba Steve said:

I HELPED TOO, JERK!

STFU you whiney little bitch and get back to work on Action Doom 2.
If I wanted you to use your fingers I would have told you to use them for what they was made for. >:(

http://www.doomworld.com/php/screenie.php?dir=/images/newstuff/301/&number=27

i don't knwo what's going on here????????

IM SO CONFUSED!!!!!

dethtoll said:

http://www.doomworld.com/php/screenie.php?dir=/images/newstuff/301/&number=27

i don't knwo what's going on here????????

IM SO CONFUSED!!!!!

GANGRAPE!!!!!!!

Nice work this week. I appreciated having real reviews for the speedmapping compilations. Sorry I threw so many up at once, but I didn't have them up on my personal space anymore.

Shadow Dweller said:

"Three flippers and a pair of goggles"?

Lurk moar...

@Rottking:
Nice reviews *g*

@Maes:
Pff, as long as i dont need to play it...

@Craigs: It seems you didn't see the Wolfensse (also in the screenshots), and didn't find the secret weapon, the R4z0r D1ld0 :-) And D00mguy's voice is VERY sexy too :-p. And the new textures? This is not just a map, it's a way of life. You may love it or hate it, and I think that was purpose of the authors.

@Bastet Furry: well, you had your chance to review it, seems someone else popped that cherry instead of you ;-)

Craigs said:

STFU you whiney little bitch and get back to work on Action Doom 2.
If I wanted you to use your fingers I would have told you to use them for what they was made for. >:(

Great way of casual conversation, really...

Tormentor667 said:

Hmm,... no Austerity 2 review? ... :(

I'll review it for you.

ALEXMAX'S NEWSTUFF THREE OH ONE AND A QUARTER SUPER TURBO EDITION

• Austerity 2 - Tormentor667
  ZDoom - Single Player - 1,337KB - (url) (url) (url)
  
  This mapset is certainly a mixed bag. Although Tormentor has almost certainly set the record in WAD size for a record breaking 1,483,567 lindefs in MAP01 alone, I did find that the walls ended up looking almost voxel-like in their intracate detail, which was a little more distracting that one would think at first. The GZDoom DECORATE speical effects were a nice touch, I was especially a fan of the new rocket launcher that shot chainsaws, but others, like the new hand-cranked chaingun, felt a little underpowered. What was perhaps most intersting was the fact that the README stated that he got the inspiration for his maps from looking at linear fractals, and as I examined the maps in detail, I found this to be the case.
  
  Overall, a great effort from Tormentor. 5 out of 3 thumbs up.
  

I <3 you Alexmax

AlexMax said:

• Austerity 2 (url) (url) (url)
  

Are these urls a joke?

Bastet Furry said:

Lurk moar...

Because I doubt Shadow Dweller will say it: NO U

Glassyman said:

Are these urls a joke?

No, they are very real.