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Hyena

The /newstuff Chronicles #99

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Newstuff #99. It sounds so final. It makes me feel old. I actually remember when we didn't have newstuff reviews. I think that's back when people knew who Covaro was and Ninja Doom was a promising upcoming project. Anyway, I'm trying to be fair with these reviews. So those of you with javelins levelled at my crotch, please refrain from hurling them with deadly accuracy.



8-Bit Sound by Gilbonga Gobinga
This man is my new hero. May fleeting batallions of women have sex with him and his decendants for generations to come.
Many of doom's sound effects in this wad are replaced by sounds from NES games. Among these many sounds I recognized some from Super Mario, Super Mario 2, Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Punch-out, Kirby, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Duck Hunt, and I have a funny suspicion the zombie-shuffling-around sound is from a commodore 64 game; Bruce Lee. There. Is that enough commas for you?
Some of the sounds are too long for them to work, such as the "start new level" sound which usually is a shotgun pump, but in this case is "end of super mario 2 level" which cuts out way to early. But this barely takes away from the transcendant glory of it all. It's NES damn it!
Needless to say this wad kicks five thousand anii right off of the butts of the kicked people in question and onto a collective anus heap.P.S. I don't know what sounds the guts noise and demon roam sound are from. And I forgot what the plasma sound is from. Please tell me, someone.

Enjay Toss Off by Nigel Rowand (Enjay)



Well, this one doesn't have 8-bit sounds from my nintendo favourites, but it'll do.
It's refreshing now and then to see a map without perfectionism in detail. The architecture is nice, and not overdone. The overall shape and walkthrough of the map seems rather original, although I swear I've seen that sky texture somewhere before and the music sounds very familiar :p
The text file also says "Inspired by E1M7 - nothing copied though" although some parts look suspiciously familiar to other doom levels . . .
The balance between monsters and ammo is excellent, and the traps are designed in a way that you don't quite see them coming. Or at least I didn't. It could be that I stupidly walked up to an undefended switch, thinking "Press button. button good." Seconds later my spleen is in my hands.
Personally, I found this map to be very challenging although some more experienced (ie better) players probably won't have much trouble. I also had a tendancy to get lost after finding the yellow key, and hitting TAB a lot more than is healthy.
Enjay's Toss Off has a very "Knee deep" feel to it that few maps accomplish well, without sacrifices in other departments. Definitely worth a few minutes of play.

Blind Alley, Nukage by Gene Bird
I smell a newb! :P
According to the text file, this is the author's first release. What caught my eye, though, was the miscellanous author info. "Doom Nut, Grandpa." If this really is made by a grandfather, I'm very impressed. My grandma leaves her VCR on all day because she can't figure out how to turn it on again. Not to generalize or anything, but I've never met anyone over the age of 25 who actually plays doom, let alone makes half-way decent maps for it.
To get to the wad, there are some indications of it being a newbie map, like the way-too-dark rooms, the old "Hit a switch but don't find out what it does" trick, and the walk-through wall with a megasphere right at the beginning-and I should note that the megasphere really takes away from the level's challenge. Besides that there's quite a bit of health to be found scattered all over the level, and you'll never have trouble with ammo.
Monster placement can be a bit substandard but other times it ranges from fairly good to . . . better-than-fairly-good.
What I found interesting was the detail. Not "Darkening 2" level detail, but pretty damn good for a first release. Although I'm not sure what the TV screens are for.
Of course, this wad does not look at all like a Blind Alley to me and there isn't much nukage. (Don't you love that word?) So don't let the title fool you. Thought you could outsmart me, didn't you, Gene Bird? I am wise to your plan, you should know. My agents have been observing you for some time now. Do not think you can win so easily. For none shall be spared the insufferable wrath of . . . I'm sorry, I did it again, didn't I? Where's my overlord pills?
So all in all; Nice work, Grandpa. Keep them coming.

Face-off Duel by Leon "Mr. Bond" Kartrovich

One room, one texture, one enemy, no exit.

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Hyena said:

Not "Darkening 2" level detail, but pretty damn good for a first release.


Thats considered good detail? Where have I been....

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Dang, that Enjay Toss Off really reminds me of DOOM E1M7-Computer Station, the music, the textures, the Architecture; all seem to be the same imo.

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but I've never met anyone over the age of 25 who actually plays doom, let alone makes half-way decent maps for it.


fod

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What is this "detail" thing you people mention, and why does it matter?

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Hyena said:

I've never met anyone over the age of 25 who actually plays doom, let alone makes half-way decent maps for it.


I turned 28 last thursday

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Here's the Enjay Toss-Off review I made before we decided on splitting the workload:

Constructed in a single afternoon, this is a large E1M7-style DooM 2 map. The detail is intentionally designed to match the E1M7 style, so it's not as high as today's wads, but more than sufficient for the theme. The difficulty is a bit easy (as it contains only DooM 1 monsters, hence mostly small ones) but it's a bit hard as well (as there are tons of shotgunners waiting to catch you out). In other words, it's just right. Ammo and health are balanced just right for a Phobos map, and the layout of the map is also E1M7-ish (ie. more than one way to approach each area). Those who prefer to be fighting big monsters all the time probably won't enjoy this as much, and those who love fast monsters should definitely play without -fast (those shotgunners are just too nasty in high numbers) but Phobos fans will love it. This is a pretty good effort, especially given the short build time.


(I'm not trying to steal Hyena's thunder, I'm simply posting my opinion on the wad. The only reason I've posted a newstuff-style review is because I had already done the review, as the newstuff reviewing setup hadn't changed at the time I wrote it)

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Oh no, not that word again...

Should I play the old man's WAD? That review wasn't helpful in making me decide. Input anyone?

The one room WAD is a 1337-style thing... kind of extremely lame in the opposite direction. 1337 was big and full of crap, this is tiny, with the bare minimals to be considered a finished WAD.

Enjay's WAD rocks. I'll play it some more later if I can.

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myk said:

Should I play the old man's WAD? That review wasn't helpful in making me decide. Input anyone?


I didn't like it, but you may want to read this thread for more opinions

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Hyena said:

I've never met anyone over the age of 25 who actually plays doom, let alone makes half-way decent maps for it.


That thar's fighting talk!

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Hyena said:

but I've never met anyone over the age of 25 who actually plays doom, let alone makes half-way decent maps for it.

Believe me there are many...who would both kick your ass and embaress your design.

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Was that duel batle thing a joke? I mean, what kind of stupid person makes a tiny room with a demon on it. hahahahaha

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Do any of you know how old I am?? It's funny man...


I'm a very old man of Doom...:)


Cadman - Member TeamTNT

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By anychance do u happen to be 666 years old?!?!? Hmmm? Do U worship the Devil? Hmmmm? are you satanic? are you corrupted by thou lord of the underworld? minion of the dark side? Fighter of the Shadow?? Hmm?? Hmmmmmmmmmm????

























If not.......then I give up man..

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Hyena said:
but I've never met anyone over the age of 25 who actually plays doom, let alone makes half-way decent maps for it.
[/B]


...actually we do play...once we find our reading glasses

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mustafa saed said:

Hopefully we will find quality wads by newstuff Chronicles #100


Heh, We'll see.

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I played Blind Alley and had a lot of fun! It looks nice and has a good variety of attacks.

The author's use of a megasphere (which is not visible at the start) allows you to play the wad anyway that you want. For me that meant going into the rooms and attacking the monsters while others might choose to fight from a greater distance. Also, if you happen to miss the sphere or decide to bypass it you can still play but it will be much harder. Your choice.

While the reviewer thought some rooms were dark he didn't mention the many contrasting well lit areas. In his defence though, while I thought the review was fair and thoughtful, you can't mention everything.

If you enjoy gameplay where you can blast away, with some measure of caution, you'll certainly find it in this wad.

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Dang Rich, u always have the show-stopping point of views on wads....Y dont U review some of 'em? from what Ive seen of ur opinions, u've got a good view of things....Just a though.

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I am 30 and all my doom maps (except one I think) were made after the age 25, so there. There are plenty of other older doom mappers, for one kdoom is about 30 as well I think.

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DOOM Anomaly said:

Dang Rich, u always have the show-stopping point of views on wads....Y dont U review some of 'em? from what Ive seen of ur opinions, u've got a good view of things....Just a though.



Thank you for your comments but my frame of reference is limited to Doom so I doubt I could provide insightful reviews.

However, I don't think anyone sets out to create a wad that is unpopular. We all try to express our individual artistry using the best ideas, experience and creativity that we have. Sometimes the results are great while other times their just 'okay'.

With that in mind I try to comment when I enjoy a wad and keep quiet when one doesn't seem to suit my interests; knowing that other players may really like that same wad. Besides, what's the point in insulting anyone?

As I see it, the reviewer is expected to state an opinion and that's acceptable as long as it addresses the wad and not the designer. A constructive review with a bit of encouragement is very helpful and doesn't leave the designer feeling angry, embarrassed, and totally discouraged.

I apologize for the long response.

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Hmmm, sounds like I got Enjay Toss off (beginning to regret that name) about right for what I wanted then. It was really just something to while away and afternoon, and to see what I could do in a limited time, but not as tight as a speed mapping situation.

FYI, I basically did it using some of the methods I would use for a speed map (but on a bigger scale):

I drew the whole thing in DeePsea without playtesting, keeping in mind an E1M7 layout, but making it as I wanted. I lost the scale for a while and started making huge areas. I realised this and re did them. Then I used prefabs and sector copying to make the doors and alcoves that link the various sections together. It took about 4-5 hours to get the layout of the map.

Then I played it. It seemed to work, so then I textured it. DeePsea allows you to search for any textures on any walls or (flats on) floors, so I changed everything manually and then searched for any textures that were still showing the original defaults - ensuring that I had changed everything.

Then I set the light levels to 0 throughout the map and did the lighting. I did that because I thought sectors with 0 light would be easy to spot as untouched. Of course, I missed the 2 windows that face you when you open the first door. Doh!

Then I populated the level, added a few extra sectors for traps and for monsters to teleport in from.

Finally I knocked the sky together from the Ep1 and Ep4 skies, exported the D_E1M7 music and bundled the whole lot up together.

Lack of detail and mistakes will be due to the fact that I turned 38 about 3 weeks ago. :-)

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Nice one Enjay, really enjoyable and looks great too. A bit repetitive on the shotgun but then again that can be Doom ep1 4u.

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mustafa saed said:

Hopefully we will find quality wads by newstuff Chronicles #100


Well, there'll certainly be some quality reviews regardless of the quality of wads, as I'm doing this week's...

Hopefully, we'll get SlayeR's Heretic map, and Epyo's next wad, so it should be a good week.


(btw, I'm not knocking Hyena's reviews, as they're pretty good.)

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I have just one question: what's going to happen with /newstuff 100?

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