The /newstuff Chronicles #253

[Manc]

Hi, Mike here. Due to unforseen computer problems and prior engagements I was not able to do newstuff #253. What you see here is comprised of the awesome work of Rottking and deathz0r (authors noted below). I only managed to review what is probably the worst wad in the whole bunch slated for #253. I apologize for sodding off. Please enjoy.

This is deathz0r here. Due to a HUGE misunderstanding, I wasn't even aware that I was involved in this until Sunday morning (GMT+10) when that fiesty Manc told me that I was supposed to do the wads that weren't reviewed! (after I inquired about why #253 wasn't done.) Not only that, but I have to do the painstaking HTML for this, as both RottKing and Manc sent me their reviews as plain text, without any indication of their filename or the respective /idgames url! However, I'm going to be an asshole and steal the wads I'm intended to review and mix them with #254, since #254 only consists of two zips without the four wads that weren't reviewed this week.

Manc's Review:

• InsaneImp Weapon Pack - [II]Chromen
  ZDoom - N/A - 843kb
  Description : This is my best and fisrt wad i did it maybe simple
  But it kicks Ass!
  Chaingun,Plasma and bfg replacement with new sounds
  
  Build Time : Aprox. 24 hours
  Compatibility: Any sprite-in-pwad compatible port
  
  This pwad replaces the chaingun, plasma rifle and BFG with well known existing weapon sprites (with accompanying audio replacements). There is an additional weapon in the pwad but I have no idea what it is supposed to replace. Based on the lump names I can only assume a railgun and for ZDoom. If your Doom engine of choice complains about unknown sprites, just remove them as they have no bearing on the rest of the package.
  
  That said, you can see by the build time that he/she probably included the time to learn the lump tool and search time for sprites of choice. The text file is pretty empty, so there is no explanation on the purpose of this, but we can see above that it is the author's "best and fisrt [sic]" wad.

RottKing's Reviews:

• Frag Factory - Stephen Clark (The Ultimate DooMer / LG_T-U-D)
  ZDaemon - DM - 303kb - (img) (img)
  When I first read it was in a factory setting with crates I was expecting a fairly boring map, but thanks to a few new textures, ambient sound and decent level design I was pleasantly surprised. The thing that I noticed first was that there was no music, only ambient sound, which is a refreshing change of pace, and adds some suspense to the gameplay. The design itself is fairly solid, with everything you'd expect from a factory, crates, pipes, and so on. The only thing I found silly was the lift, which is very loud and doesn't serve a purpose really since the map is supposed to be played with jumping. But overall I think it's a fun map, and should be played by anyone interested in a good one on one map.
  
  
• Venom - Jacob H. Orloff
  ZDoom - SP - 37kb - (img) (img)
  Uh... Well, another 1995 wad that is pretty damn bad, I would definitely avoid this one. PUNK'D.
  
  
• Thy Infernal - Algeroth
  "jdoom or zdoom" - SP - 125kb - (img) (img) (img)
  The author states that it's a: "Large map with classic/demonic style", well, it is fairly large, but it's painfully, and I mean PAINFULLY non-linear. But, first, the design itself is alright, standard Doom demonic stuffs with plenty of dead bodies and pentagrams. A lot of the rooms are fairly boxy and there are some texture mis-alignments here and there, not to mention many claustrophobic hallways and corridors. Getting back to the map layout, which is, as I said before, horribly non-linear, it soon becomes a memory game of what key door is where, and the infamous: "What the hell did that switch just do?". Overall it's an average map that suffers from many poor design choices.
  
  
• Hangar27 - Dutch Devil
  ZDoom - SP - 359kb - (img) (img) (img)
  Dutchdevil has made a great little base map with some ideas taken from E1M1. The detail is plentiful and spot on, I love the textures, and the gameplay is balanced. I highly recommend downloading this one, you certainly won't regret it. Kudos!
  
  
• Last Mission - Marc A. Pullen (aka Fanatic)
  doom2.exe - SP - 189kb - (img) (img) (img)
  A fun, good looking (but dark) map in which you have to kill a load of Imps and Demons, and then survive for a few minutes while fighting off spawning monsters. It is a fun little level which is worth the download, although I did encounter some monster bugs in which a few of them were stuck together, which is a reminder to always play test your levels thoroughly. :)
  
  
• Raiders of the Lost Phallus - "My name here?"
  doom2.exe - SP - 68kb - (img)
  A map in which you kill many Nazis that whisper "give me your penis"... Well!
  
  
• RF Arena 1 - Ravage
  Skulltag - DM - 96kb - (img) (img) (img)
  A medium sized deathmatch map for Skulltag. The map looks quite nice, and although the map is a bit claustrophobic in a few places, (the mini-gun area, and the hallway next to it with the two staircases on each side) it's a good map that is fun to play.

[TheDarkArchon]

FP 2 IN A ROW.

Dutchy wins this week with Hangar 27. Though it hasn't had much competition, it's still a cool map.

The weapons mod appears to be for Skulltag, though. Nothing special.

[KwadDamyj]

3rd post party host.

Venom screenshot links are broken.

[Fletcher`]

Woo my map got reviewed!

Now to get my weapons pack reviewed! (shit deathy's doing it x.x)

[Donce]

Venom - Jacob H. Orloff
ZDoom - SP - 37kb - (img) (img)
Uh... Well, another 1995 wad that is pretty damn bad, I would definitely avoid this one. PUNK'D.

1995 wad for Zdoom?? Oh, I got it, 1995 was an adjective here.

[TwinBeast]

Woot! I thought my map got missed and not reviewed :D

[Dutch Doomer]

Thanks I hope you guys enjoyed my little hangar map, it probably would have been better if it was inside an multi map wad.
Ah well you guys liked it so im happy with it, the reviews where excellent good job.

[-_DLD_-]

Donce said:

1995 wad for Zdoom?? Oh, I got it, 1995 was an adjective here.

The first screen was really ugly...then the second one made me puke.

[Xtife]

it really is funny to see wads like that in this day and age :) not even my first map was that bad

[Martin Howe]

dutch devil said:

Thanks I hope you guys enjoyed my little hangar map, it probably would have been better if it was inside an multi map wad.

Well, yes I enjoyed it very much, but for the opposite reason: because it was a well-designed "short-and-sweet" single map. There aren't enough well-designed short-ish single maps with good gameplay value out there and I don't usually have time to play more than four maps in one go.

Furthermore, many map packs get a bit same-y as the level increases; for example, one of the recent map packs was too full of "100 monsters teleport in behind you and the doors close to cut off your escape" traps and they were getting easier to predict as the levels progressed. Yawn. I got bored and didn't finish it.

I'd love to see more maps like Hangar 27; it was everything that aforementioned map pack should have been; the only thing I could fault it on was that it was a little bit too short. I would have preferred a three or four pack of maps the same size or possibly a single map of the same quality but bigger. Otherwise, cool! I shall definitely go looking for the other maps DD has made.

[Grazza]

Martin Howe said:

There aren't enough well-designed short-ish single maps with good gameplay value out there and I don't usually have time to play more than four maps in one go.

There are plenty of multi-level wads where each map is designed to be fully playable from a pistol start. So you could just view them as a collection of single levels and play them accordingly.

[myk]

Martin Howe said:
There aren't enough well-designed short-ish single maps with good gameplay value out there and I don't usually have time to play more than four maps in one go.

There are many. Mappers could all die suddenly and we'd have enough to play for a long time.

[myk]

RottKing said:
Last Mission - Marc A. Pullen (aka Fanatic)
doom2.exe - SP - 189kb
[...]although I did encounter some monster bugs in which a few of them were stuck together, which is a reminder to always play test your levels thoroughly. :)

That was possibly a bug in the engine; none were stuck while I played. The map did crash Doom2 with an R_MapPlane error on one of the red hexagons at the end, so it'd be a "limit removing engine" map. The map is indeed too dark for software rendering, as noted in the textfile, though it did work okay with gamma set to 4.