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deathz0r

The /newstuff Chronicles #154

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Well well, we got a rather interesting week of /newstuff this week. From MSPaint-drawn weapon mods to seriously bad levels, it's all in here! but of course, there just has to be some wads that are geninuely decent. As much as I hate finding a small amount of negatives in them, I still have to review them all. In a nutshell, there's 5 SP wads and 5 DM wads this week, so now nobody can complain about how there's too many/little of such and such, and certain people can't complain about how I leave wads out, since there was none of that old junk this week! Huzzah!

Cyb says: Indeed, /newstuff is 12 hours early today, and it's by deathz0r! better send some space heaters down to hell!

  • Fountain of Myth - Daniel Carroll
    29kb - Legacy - DM (img) (img)
    To kick off /newstuff this week, is a Legacy DM wad. The detailing in this is somewhat average, but I really like the connectivity between rooms and the decent weapon placement. Something you don't see in many DM wads nowadays are maps that are not symmetric, and this is one of those. A fun wad in my opinion, but everybody plays dwango5 anyway, so it makes little (or no) difference within the mainstream DM community.

  • IMMORAL CONDUCT: LIZARD EDITION - Lizardcommando
    205kb - ZDoom - SP (img) (img) (img)
    It's been in development for a long time, and now it's finally released. The best thing about it is the comic feel to it. Maybe it's just me, but MSPaint-drawn weapons and other sprites make Doom more interesting to play in. Then again, my mind is literally warped, so that last sentence isn't really valid.

    This is another damn weapons mod for EDGE (seems that a lot of them exist), which is from what I gather an unofficial Immoral Conduct release. Makes sense, no? Why it's even called Immoral Conduct is beyond me, but enough bitching about that. The weapons are somewhat dull and repetitive. If you don't really understand what I mean, there's a billion firearms and about four weapons that are explosives. In my opinion, weapons mods that are nothing but firearms get really boring after a short while, and I was definitely insisting to delete EDGE once again after I had a bit of fun with this. I didn't really see any of the friendly entities be of any use on the normal Doom 2 maps. Personally I wouldn't recommend this a weapons mod, but I definitely would as a novelty modification... those MSPaint drawings just look so interesting.
  • Intelligent Acid Structure Pool - Jow
    131kb - "GL Port" - SP (img) (img)
    Excellent map, I had zero clue on what to do after obtaining the blue key. Oh yeah, the detailing from what I saw is sub-par in many areas, so if you're looking for something you'd expect to be made in 1994 or 1995, with a bookcase of bugs, this is it.

  • Kill.wad - Richard "Twiztid" Long
    1.9mb - ZDoom - SP (img) (img)
    Ugh. Stolen graphics, sounds, barely any health on the ground, everything about it is horrible. Avoid.

  • Moneyman's Close Combat - Moneyman
    140kb - Doom2.exe - DM (img) (img) (img)
    This DM wad oozes in gameplay, but seriously reeks in texturing. Upon first glances, you'd mistake this for something from 1995, but after playing it for a while, you get used to it somewhat quickly. The gameplay in this is very decent, with secrets at odd places. Connectivity is quite smooth, easily enough for four gameplay-seeking people to enjoy. Weapon placement was also planned very damn well. Thumbs up, Moneyman, you've made a damn decent wad, even though detail is lacking and some walls are misaligned badly.

  • Tanis Base - Rodrigo Acevedo
    590kb - ZDoom - DM (img) (img) (img)
    Wow, this is the surprise wad of the week... if it was a SP wad. From literally out of nowhere, some beautifully detailed DM wad appears! Detail in DM wads is one thing, but the most important factor is connectivity and weapon placement. Weapon placement is a bit of a letdown, since the plasma gun is in such an incredibly easy to reach place, that it encourages people to plasma spam (not a good thing in maps like this). Connectivity isn't also the greatest, as doors really slow down the paceness of DM. On the bright side though, there's not one trace of elevation, so those who hate maps such as dweller2 map11 and judas23_ will find this a lot more relaxing to aim. It's also a good thing for those people with low connection speeds, as autoaiming is one of the main weaknesses of high pingers. If you're the type who is sucked in to detail (crap like gothicdm for example), then you'll definitely love this. Those who expect great gameplay should look at Moneyman's Close Combat or TLSD2003.

  • Their Selfish Realms - Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal
    306kb - boom Compatible - SP (img) (img) (img)
    I had played through every wad except icdlizard.wad, and I was hoping for a decent SP wad this week. Playing kaiser_3.wad (see the last review, I sort them out by title name (alphabeticly)), I was expecting the same thing. I was shocked to find yet another incredible SP level by Kaiser. I had reviewed kaiser_1.wad a few /newstuff's back, and I was impressed by the gameplay. Their Selfish Realms kicks the living snot out of it. The detailing is great, and the gameplay is even better. I was annoyed by a few cramped Revenant fights, but other than that, it was one great experience. The fake 3D bridge you see near the start (if you don't go through the other doors first) caught my attention as well. The amount of health is great for my playing level (and I suck at SP), and there's plenty of ammo around, especially shells. There's also a few surprises around corners, which really adds to the suspense that this level can create. A really enjoyable wad, download it and experience something that you most likely couldn't replicate, or do better.

  • The Last Strike Deathmatch 2003 Edition (fixed and now with wangotag) - Gothy, Jackass, and Chrono
    2.79mb - ZDoom-based - DM (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    basically a rerelease of tlsdm2k3.wad, with a few bugfixes and for some reason, wangotag.wad maps. I'm guessing the reason why Chrono decided to place wangotag maps in is because wangotag.wad isn't in the archives (kinda hard without a text file either). I know that this has been reviewed before, so I'm not going to thoroughly review it.

    TLSD2003 (also referred as TLSDM2k3) has 16 intense DM maps. Some are symmetrical, while others have really innovative layouts (airplane anyone?). The best thing about all of the TLSDM wads are the incredible music that Chrono places in them. Once again, he picked each song so it'd give a more intense feel to it. Most of them are detailed very well, except for MAP02 and MAP16. I could babble on about how they credited me in the text file, but I know how awesome I am anyway. Still, this wad is definitely one to have in your collection of DM wads, as it mixes detail with gameplay very damn effectively.

  • The ULTIMATE DM-WAD - Jow
    187kb - JDoom - DM (img) (img)
    Reading the title of this wad, I was expecting it to be the best DM wad ever. Then I remembered that I created "You Can't Hide!", so it automaticly sinked down to second place. Upon opening it with ZDaemon (even though it requires JDoom for some lighting stuff), I discovered to see a serious flop. Tutti fruiti effects on every wall, and that some rooms were so incredibly dark, that I considered exiting out of the map within a few minutes and deleting it. The insane amount of tutti fruiti alone scared the hell out of me. In conclusion, don't download it, it's a lot more healthier for your mental state if you don't.

  • Untitled - Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal
    41kb - boom Compatible - SP (img) (img)
    I don't entirely know if I should consider this as a joke wad or a technical wad, since the texturing and gameplay are debatable, yet the technical side of it is incredible. I can't really say much, as text nor pictures can really describe how amazing Kaiser implemented these boom tricks. Go check it for yourself, it's unique to say the least.

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Where are the props?

Cyb: pritch should have some cookies left from the jar I gave him last week.

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"If you're the type who is sucked in to detail (crap like gothicdm for example), then you'll definitely love this."

saywhahuh??

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Heh, someone used my imp sprites... too bad it was ranked the worst wad of the week. Looks like they stole other SkullTag graphics though.

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Just a note on the icd-lizard download... you need to get the folowing files to play it right:

Lizardwar.wad
Lizardwarfix.wad
icdlizard.wad

then throw them into the command line like this:

-file lizardwar.wad lizardwarfix.wad icd-lizard.wad

all available off Lizardcommando's site, check it in my sig. Makes it what it should be, with the full graphics change instead of all those regular doom enemies running about. Oh, and I'm working on a few maps that put LL to good use, so expect those soon too. Also, grab Lizards world from LC's site. It's a little megawad that is based in the Lizard universe. He's new at maps, so they're not spectacular, but they're still fun to play.

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From the TLSDM textfile...

"Why was udm2 worse that udm1? Someone got lazy..."
-Jackass


Yes, we got lazy. That's why udm1 was finished in 3 months and UDM2 took a year and a half of balancing and testing.

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Tanis Base is amazing!! Too bad it's for deathmatch.
The detail is on par with RTC-3057. The architecture is as detailed as the one of DOOM 3.
Nice work man!

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Despite its flaws and primitive-looking design, I like Intelligent Acid Structure Pool. The health and ammo seem to me extremely finely balanced (I've just achieved Maxkills, exiting with no ammo at all and about 20% health), and the gameplay is fun.

It's just unfortunate that the blue-key door isn't marked as such (though it should be fairly clear that you should try opening it, since it is the only unopened door in the vacinity), and that the visual errors exist (or to put it another way, that it restricts you to a narrow choice of ports if you want to avoid some glitches).

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I just noticed... Icd-Lizard is for EDGE, not ZDoom. Mislabled! Mislabled!

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Tanis Base does indeed have some good visuals. The architecture is pretty good (but could use more slopes ;)) I didn't play a DM game in the map, so I can't comment on that aspect. The biggest drawback I can see is the subpar texture use and alignment. The map would look a lot better had the textures been placed correctly and aligned accordingly. Another thing: I think it's sad that the wad uses textures from RTC-3057 even though the demo txt clearly states that is not allowed. I wish people would respect that more. All in all though: A pretty good wad. I'm looking forward to future projects from this guy.

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Grazza said:

Where are the props?

Cyb: pritch should have some cookies left from the jar I gave him last week.

If I have cookies one day it usually follows that I don't have them the next ;)

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Dunbar said:

I just noticed... Icd-Lizard is for EDGE, not ZDoom. Mislabled! Mislabled!

Damnit, I was on fire this week too! Not to mention that it should say 3.1mb instead of 205kb.

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Ralphis said:

Yes, we got lazy. That's why udm1 was finished in 3 months and UDM2 took a year and a half of balancing and testing.

And on a sidenote, we cut out at least 11 maps from the final build (all that I have in one single wad appropiately named udm2old.wad), so...

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Tanis base is indeed a great looking level. Gonna check it out in DM soon. Gotta ask you though shaviro, where do you see badly placed textures/misaligns? I only saw a handful, and even then at the speed you're gonna be running in DM, you aren't gonna notice those tiny errors.

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LorD BaZTArD said:

Tanis base is indeed a great looking level. Gonna check it out in DM soon. Gotta ask you though shaviro, where do you see badly placed textures/misaligns? I only saw a handful, and even then at the speed you're gonna be running in DM, you aren't gonna notice those tiny errors.


I just don't think the textures are well-placed. It's no biggie.

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You might wanna fix your review for The UltimateDM wad...

Hmmm, the author says it's for DOOMSDAY-jDoom so you go and try and run it through shitty zDeamon?!

The reason it's so dark is because you can't see the lighting effects in zDeamon.

Doh!

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A little off-topic, but here it is: I'm getting a new 'puter soon and when I do, let me tell you that you'll get torrents of new wads. I've been having mapping-desires built up and I'm ready to make some rather...interesting wads. Just thought I'd give a heads up.

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Haha, nice avatar Cyb. I thought I was the only one in the world who bought a Genesis.

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Kaiser_4 has Doom2 written all over it! Really enjoyable level which gave me quite a nostalgic feeling!

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DaniJ said:

You might wanna fix your review for The UltimateDM wad...

Hmmm, the author says it's for DOOMSDAY-jDoom so you go and try and run it through shitty zDeamon?!

The reason it's so dark is because you can't see the lighting effects in zDeamon.

Doh!

This computer has serious problems running JDoom.

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Heh, that opinion by Jackass is from the tlsdm2k3.txt version, so its been there awhile. I still like udm2...(especially with freelook, jumping, and my personal weapons pack!!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!! DIE PATHETIC COWARDS FROM MY RAILGUN SWEEPER!!! MUAHAHAHA!!!)...ok I'm done...

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