Cacowards 2023 Mentionation Thread: You Don't Need To Post Myhouse Again

[Kwisior]

Might deserve an honorable mention. Fun WAD to quickly blast through.

[reflex17]

I would like to nominate the outstanding multiplayer mapset CULLING STRIKE by @Xenaero + team
 

 

[Master O]

 

[plums]

Ultimate Doom In Name Only just got an official "final" release. This is hands down the best set of UD maps I've ever played.

 

I think it deserves both a normal award, as well as a Mordeth award as it was started 8 or 9 years ago!

 

Disclosure: I playtested this at various points in development, and edited about 6 linedefs for bugfixes.

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by plums

[MtPain27]

6 minutes ago, plums said:

Ultimate Doom In Name Only just got an official "final" release. This is hands down the best set of UD maps I've ever played.

 

I think it deserves both a normal award, as well as a Mordeth award as it was started 8 or 9 years ago!

 

Showed up just in time to second Plums' mentionation: for me, UDINO might not be the 'best' set of UD maps I've played (very hard to define 'best'), but playing through RC1 was one of the rawest, most gripping Doom experiences I've had in a long time and I can't wait to play it again. It'll fool you into thinking it's not crazy for about an episode and a half (actually E1M7 kind of gives it away), but by the time you reach Inferno, it doesn't even bother pretending anymore. An updated list of Doomworld's Most Memorable Maps could easily take five from this set, no exaggeration. If Doom has recently been losing its luster for you, play this. You won't even know what hit you.

[baja blast rd.]

26 minutes ago, plums said:

Ultimate Doom In Name Only just got an official "final" release. 

...

For context, RCs or similar levels of finality have always been considered final enough, so there's no need to wait for official final releases, which sometimes happen years after the project is understood to be out (BTSX e1 2017 Cacoward when). 

 

Seems like this one hasn't been mentionated so maybe people thought they had to wait for final-Final versions? But in any case this wad, like 90% of the other wads on the tracker, was played by people before there was a single mentionation in this thread. :P

[Hebonky]

Infernal Gladiator actually looks pretty promising! I got to play the first few maps, and they are beyond brutal, but tons of fun!

 

[INfront95]

+1 For City of The Damned Apocalypse 2 aka COTD remake. It is impressive technical piece of work, better and bigger version of original wad, great use of light, particle effects, paralax occlusion shaders, voxels, sounds. All of it ties the metaphorical room together like a rug. Can't recommend it enough.

[CherubCorps]

Some more mods. Wanted to go more in-depth but haven't had the time.

 

GZchaos by KevenSevens

 

Sort of a combination between corruption cards and gun bonzai comes the craziest mod of 2023, GZchaos by Kevensevans (Creator of Gardovier has a gun). It follows 2022's trend of addon mods and will take your gameplay to the strangest depths. I won't lie, this is a mod you will either love or hate. Personally, I'm not a big fan of this one, but it is very impressive on a technical level and there is a group of people who will really dig the craziness. Give it a shot.

 

Doom Infinite by DifficultOldStuff

https://www.moddb.com/mods/doom-infinite

 

 

I'm blown away that no one has mention doom infinite. This thing is easily one of the most impressive works to come out of the Doom community in 2023

 

While there has been mods such as DRLA and DRPG that emulate roguelike, Doom infinite is the real deal. This is 1st true doom roguelike. It came out of nowhere from an unknown modder and is absolutely incredible. I can't do it justice, check out the video and you WILL want to play it. It's still being worked on and hopefully, it will get Doom 2 levels in the future.

 

Naku-Naru 2 by Joblez

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=78229

 

Sequel to Naku-Naru. A great weapon set with new art, weapons and more balanced melee. Solid weapon pack.

 

Voxel Doom 2 by Chello

https://www.moddb.com/mods/voxel-doom-ii

 

Chello finished what he started in 2022 and turned all the monster in Doom 2 into voxels. While this won the caco last year, I think it's worth mentioning that it's complete.

 

Overall, great year for mods.

 

 

[Hajo_official]

+1 for Hell Revealations, a spiritual successor to the Hell Revealed series. Levels are - as expected - balls to the walls difficult and require a lot of planning. Excellent choice for the difficulty junkies out there!

 

 

[Proxy-MIDI]

Just like @Hajo_official , I'll give +1 to "Hell Revelations". I had a lot of fun in this wad even if the difficulty was a bit high for me. But it was the coolest wad of the year in my opinion btw. ;)
 

 

[brendondle]

I wanna quickly nominate @raddicted for most promising newcomer, since this year he has absolutely blown me away with the sheer quality of his maps. Although not everything he makes is public (he frequently sends maps in my discord server and I urge him to make them public lol), his ability to combine fun and engaging combat with jaw-droppingly beautiful visuals and insane amounts of detail makes him a mapper to look out for. Plus whatever style he goes for with his maps, he absolutely nails. His most recent release, Knaht, was one of the most charming maps I've played from this year. The fights are fun as all hell and combined with the ribbiksian map layout and autumn theme make this a very enjoyable experience. Not to mention the cryptic secrets are incredibly cute, as well as being super rewarding. He absolutely killed it with what he was going for, and the fact that he made this in around a week? I swear this guy cannot be stopped.

Even his speedmaps are impressive. Although it's not publicly available yet, I made a video showcasing one of his speedmaps from his "Cramped Map Collection" (https://youtu.be/QlSJf38MbXs). I really dig raddicted's reuse of space throughout the map, and he makes every single enemy pull its weight. The amount of stuff he crams into such a small map is really impressive. Raddicted truly is the Ghoop (I have no idea what that means btw).

 

 

[El Inferno]

Speaking of talented newcomers, I'd like to shoutout @Ravendesk. He joined the community last year and has really outdone himself in terms of mapping since then. His two big exploration maps "Fool's Valley" from Sepia and "Acrophilia" from Hardfest 2 are absolutely stunning and are some of my favourite maps this year. His numerous contributions to other community projects are also worth checking out: charming, creative, and at times, ballbusting.

And I'm not even mentioning his solo release, Uroboros -- I am yet to finish it. 

[Jamatri]

+1 for The Thing You Can't Defeat

I think everyone needs to play this at least once. It's cursed in just the right way, and it makes you think about what it would be like if you actually couldn't think at all.

 

+1 for Abscission

Fantastic Doom2 re-imagining, much harder than the source material but still so fun, and a soundtrack that'll keep you up at night.

 

+1 for RAMP 2023

Something for everyone here, and a nice overarching metagame that tells you a bit of the project lead's origin story.

 

And if it counts, a massive +1 for Temporal Tantrum

Not sure if this one is permitted as there was an original RC a couple of years back, but it's here now and it's bloody brilliant. Definitely a Mordeth candidate if not a mainline winner. Also I just wanted an excuse to say "Washing Machine Enthusiasts"!

[espilka]

+1 Solve et Coagula by Nicolas Monti

 

 

[baja blast rd.]

Just a note that the cycle has ended ~Nov 15 as usual (and most decisions about the soon-coming feature are made already), but this thread is still free to use until the next one starts. 

[ChaosSmurf]

On 12/1/2023 at 2:45 PM, baja blast rd. said:

Just a note that the cycle has ended ~Nov 15 as usual (and most decisions about the soon-coming feature are made already), but this thread is still free to use until the next one starts. 

ah shit am i too late to recommend myhouse

[baja blast rd.]

never heard of it!