The /newstuff Chronicles #299

[Bastet Furry]

Greetings from your most beloved furry here at Doomworld for a new issue of newstuff!
Not much to see this time, but its mainly because from now on I refuse to review any jokewad.
Dear people, these things aren't funny anymore, the energy you put into these is better used inside some real maps. I hope the other reviewers will follow me in this opinion.

And just for note, someone uploaded a real 1994 map. Grab it here: *click*

• Doom advent map - Hans (apocalypse) and sausage
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 74 KB - (img)
  The first map i tested was a little pseudo-invasion map that was made for the canceled advent project.
  The overall architecture is somewhat nice, even if some more height variations would help, otherwise it's two small forts with some lava river in the middle.
  The difficult is medium as long as you keep your two plasma-marines alive, otherwise you could get into ammo problems. In old plain English: get yourself the aggro and let the NPCs do the kills for you.
  All in all very playable.
  
  
• Shadow Androids - Lupinx-ressurected
  Boom Compatible - n/a - 61 KB - (img)
  This is a real nice substitution for the SS-Nazi, the shadow droids from Sonic.
  I would love to see this used in some Sonic TC that is not so "doomy" like the one we have but more Sonic.
  Very nice work for a fifteen year old :)
  
  
• Sigma - Didy
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 1105 KB - (img) (img) (img)
  Hooray! Just what I needed after all those not-reviewed joke wads, a nice and playable map.
  Sigma is a nicely made map from Didy, some map authors out there should watch and learn from the architecture. Not too much, just the right spot of detail.
  First you invase a tech base just for getting transported to a beach with some diving into a living(!) underwater world.
  Gameplaywise it's a bit linear but nothing too unfair. I had one situation where I got out with just some hitpoints left, speaking about a cramped control room and an Archvile.... still smoking, ya know.... ;)
  Clearly my favorite this issue. Download and enjoy!
  
  

[Sporku]

Very nice work for a fifteen year old :)

Age has nothing to do with the quality of someone's mapping (or, in this case, 'sprite replacement skills'). Besides, crappy sprite replacements aren't impressive in the first place.

[Bastet Furry]

SP!

You should encurage the young blood or this game will die because nobody does something. Even if its only some sprite replacement.


BTW, for those who care, i made these reviews in German first and translated them later, have a look here: *click*

[Maes]

How come Doomguy's Pimp Ventures II: The More, The Merrier was not reviewed? Before Sigma was uploaded it was actually the best thing for that week, at least judging by the votes, and was actually playable.

Edit: oh well, there's always newstuff 300 for that and for Gamarra's Destiny and the other jokewads of this week, I guess :-)

[Bastet Furry]

How come that everybody but me seem to like these jokewads?
Whatever, i refuse to review them because people should start making "normal" maps again and not such serverspace wasters.

[Schneelocke]

Bastet Furry said:

How come that everybody but me seem to like these jokewads?
Whatever, i refuse to review them because people should start making "normal" maps again and not such serverspace wasters.

Maybe it's just me, but if you're not reviewing those maps, why are you doing t/nc at all? I don't mean to belittle your effort, but it sure would be nice if you didn't cherry-pick what you do and don't want to review.

After all, the whole point of these reviews is that you play the crap so we don't have to.

[DooMAD]

My only complaint about Sigma is the fact that it's zipped up in it's own little folder. Other than that, it's quite brilliant. Well worth a play or two.

[Bastet Furry]

I dont cherry-pick, i will review a map that had been made bad because the mapper isnt better than that.
But i wont review deliberate attempts at bad mapping.
So, if its not reviewed by me then its a crappy jokewad that i honor by ignoring. Your choice to play it.
(And just in case someone asks, i playtest everything)

[Maes]

Bastet Furry said:

I dont cherry-pick, i will review a map that had been made bad because the mapper isnt better than that.
But i wont review deliberate attempts at bad mapping.
So, if its not reviewed by me then its a crappy jokewad that i honor by ignoring. Your choice to play it.
(And just in case someone asks, i playtest everything)

Not all jokewads are made "deliberately bad", some actually have quite complex mapping, tricks and even sounds/texturing/scripting. I don't see how you can put everything in the same pot.

[Murdoch]

I agree with Bastet on this one. There have been some genuinely funny joke WADs like that "How Not to Be Seen" one. But I have always found the "deliberately bad" joke WADs completely boring, annoying, unfunny and like Bastet, a complete waste of time that would have been better spent helping one of the many projects that would have been released years ago with more help from the community.

[Schneelocke]

Bastet Furry said:

I dont cherry-pick, i will review a map that had been made bad because the mapper isnt better than that.
But i wont review deliberate attempts at bad mapping.
So, if its not reviewed by me then its a crappy jokewad that i honor by ignoring. Your choice to play it.
(And just in case someone asks, i playtest everything)

That *is* cherry-picking, though. :P And while doing so is perfectly fine if you're just playing for your own fun, I'm just not sure it's really appropriate for a t/nc reviewer.

Would it really be so difficult to write a line or two about a WAD? Especially if you already have played it, anyway...

[kristus]

Bastet Furry said:

I would love to see this used in some Sonic TC that is not so "doomy" like the one we have but more Sonic.

You mean like Sonic Robo Blast 2? http://www.srb2.org/

[Dutch Doomer]

Small newstuff but better something than nothing @Furry why the sudden change in your reviews last time your reviews where ones that certaintly not encouraged people to keep mapping.

Screenshots are too dark imo.

[Scuba Steve]

I do think reviewers should review everything that week that was released, good or bad. Ebert and Roeper don't skip a movie because they know it sucks. Even if it is just "This map looks like crap from 1994 sucks don't play it blah", we understand, and at least all maps are accounted for.

[Grazza]

JoelMurdoch said:

But I have always found the "deliberately bad" joke WADs completely boring, annoying, unfunny and like Bastet, a complete waste of time that would have been better spent helping one of the many projects that would have been released years ago with more help from the community.

I agree with this view. However, when I was reviewing for T/nC I was always in two minds about whether to ignore them completely, or to give the bare details and a one-line "review" that just said "Unfunny 'joke' wad" or "Deliberately bad map". While the latter approach draws some attention to them (and in the main article, rather than just the comment thread), it also reduces the chance of the comment thread being overrun with questions about why X wasn't reviewed, etc.

DooMAD said:

My only complaint about Sigma is the fact that it's zipped up in it's own little folder. Other than that, it's quite brilliant. Well worth a play or two.

I agree with this too, on both counts. Didy really isn't helping by putting it in a subfolder like this, as depending on how you unzip it, you can easily end up wondering where the hell it is. Just a minor irritation though, so as long as you're not Dickie Driolent ("Trivial Irritations Make Him Violent"), it is no big deal. Note for anyone looking to speedrun this map: you can avoid waiting for the lift at the start by doing a map10/av25-style glide where the fence meets the cliff wall at the left-hand end.

[Schneelocke]

Scuba Steve said:

I do think reviewers should review everything that week that was released, good or bad. Ebert and Roeper don't skip a movie because they know it sucks. Even if it is just "This map looks like crap from 1994 sucks don't play it blah", we understand, and at least all maps are accounted for.

Hear, hear!

[Bastet Furry]

@kristus:
How could i, as a fan of old 16bit videogaming miss this.... shame on me!

@dutch devil:
Because i firstly wrote them in my mother lingo, German.
Dont ask, as long as it rises the quality it should be fine ;)

[RandomMarine]

Wow, /newstuff argument in record time.

I hope someone decent reviews #300.
Like any of the people who did october 2006's /newstuffs.

[RTC_Marine]

Even alex (and even deathz0r) used to GODDAMN SHITHOUSE review of the wad's :P

[Darkfyre]

RandomMarine said:

Wow, /newstuff argument in record time.

/impressed

Didy, man, great detail and design on Sigma! Perfect level of detail for moi, hope to see more by you!

[deathbringer]

Dickie Driolent ("Trivial Irritations Make Him Violent"),

Thats got Viz written all over it!

I like the "ambient sounds" at the end of Sigma, i was noclipping for bastard ages looking for the red key, when i look in the wad with Wintex i find it's a volcanic vent! personally, even if i was playing properly and not noclipping i would have stayed away from the volcanic vent expecting it to have a damaging sector around it. The invincibility is an octopus too... heh.

I like also that sigma is a huge battle at the start, but the end is a puzzle with no fighting at all, its still a challenge, but for the brain rather than the killer instinct. Beats a cyberdemon in a big arena filled with plasma cells anyway

[Bloodshedder]

Official /newstuff Chronicles policy since 2004 is that jokewads are ideally ignored and reviewing them is up to the discretion of the reviewer.

[Enjay]

I thought the end area of Sigma was quite stunning visually, if a little difficult to play through because of all the not-obvious-why blocking lines. Some really neat effects though.

[Jodwin]

Schneelocke said:

Hear, hear!

Hear, hear!

[RjY]

Bloodshedder said:

Official /newstuff Chronicles policy since 2004 is that jokewads are ideally ignored and reviewing them is up to the discretion of the reviewer.

[citation needed]

Come on you can't make a statement like that without backing it up with a link.

[Grazza]

I could give a link, but it wouldn't be of any use to you, since it would be to a thread in the hidden /newstuff Chronicles forum.

However, I can attest to the fact that it is so, and has been for several years (ever since there started to be a steady dribble of these things). Though as I said a few posts above, I'm not sure it is the best way to ensure minimum exposure for them.

deathbringer said:

Thats got Viz written all over it!

Yes, it was from a one-off strip called "Clarence Coxes - He Puts Used Matches Back in the Boxes".

If anyone wants the original files for getsum (someone on the idgames database comments was unhappy about the modified txt), then they can be found at cd.textfiles.com (except that it seems to be down at the moment, hopefully not permanently). It also includes the missing deh file referred to in the txt.

[Sporku]

RjY said:

[citation needed]

Come on you can't make a statement like that without backing it up with a link.

I don't think the guy who pretty much runs doomworld these days really needs to back something like that up with a link.

[Lüt]

RjY said:

[citation needed]

Come on you can't make a statement like that without backing it up with a link.

Here you go.

[funduke]

Grazza said:

If anyone wants the original files for getsum (someone on the idgames database comments was unhappy about the modified txt), then they can be found at cd.textfiles.com (except that it seems to be down at the moment, hopefully not permanently). It also includes the missing deh file referred to in the txt.

Here's a working link:
http://files.chatnfiles.com/Cream%20of%20the%20Crop%205/DOOM/GETSUM.ZIP

Greetings
Funduke

[Hobbs]

I think this thread may have broken a record for fastest drama in a t/nc thread.

Anyway, Sigma was nice, certainly one of the best (if not the best) wads released so far this year. Also, getsum.wad is k, at least as far as 1994 wads go.