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Bloodshedder

The /newstuff Chronicles #325

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A small chronicles this week, using up all the last finished reviews as of today. So without further ado, here's a whole six releases.

  • Hell's Mine of Saturn - Joe Kaminski
    doom2.exe - Solo Play - 130618 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: myk
    This is a medium-sized DOOM II level from '96 taking place in an underground location, uploaded by RL. It's a MAP03 level, I'm guessing for the moody music playing there, so you'll have to warp to it. Of the three WADs by Joe Kaminski, this seemed like the more playable one. It does have rather clunky texturing in many places; notably the use of SKINLOW in walls where it does not align very well, some tutti frutti effects, and the use of liquid flats without height variation.

    The author used lighting effectively though crudely, set out a series of traps throughout the level (the poorest one giving instant death, and the better ones being ambushes), and gave out adequate but not superfluous equipment. The encounters are generally mildly challenging because of the usually dark lighting levels and the not too generous space available. The level isn't really confusing but you may have to backtrack a bit without opposition when returning from certain areas. It isn't very big, but might take over half an hour to complete the first time around.

    All in all relatively fun but somewhat crude in appearance. In an included text file the uploader links to a review on the defunct Doomnation, although it refers to version 2 of the WAD, which may have included some aesthetic fixes at least.

  • Crushing fear - Hardcore_gamer
    Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 3509315 bytes
    Reviewed by: ellmo
    I'm not a great fan of Doom64, but I must admit it has an incredible atmosphere - thanks to nice, dark techy textures and great sounds. This WAD makes a good use of both, but unfortunately has some really bad things too.

    Bad, bad boy!
    Author states that the map works in Boom ports, but I couldn't get it running under PrBoom, because of texture errors. So I used GZDoom, which has some texture errors, but runs fine. That's because ZDoom / GZDoom always run fine, no matter the flat or texture error. Your resources are screwed.

    The looks
    Textures are used very well, but overall the map is very dark. Too dark for my taste and for my eyes. Increasing gamma makes the graphics just look bleached. All this makes the WAD at least average, until you consider the D64 sprite replacements. Dude! Your Imps are 3 meters tall (9.84252 feet), all other monsters are about 50% too large, while the Cacodemon is the size of an apple, and you mix them with classic Doom PC sprites. Some people may think it's a good blend. I don't second. Weapons, pickup sprites are all in good taste and they fit. You should get rid of the D64 monsters, or use only those.

    How does it play?
    The map is fairly simple, fights are straightforward, just as you would expect them to be in map01. Ammo and health are nicely balanced. Monsters never surprise you. My only complaint is - you can pick up two new weapons in the same 96x96 room. Come on, Hardcore_gamer! It's only map01!

    Summary
    This WAD looks very promising, but it fails in many aspects. A few more hours fixing the sprites and texture errors, then release more maps, and this would indeed become a very nice installment. It's a shame the author made only one quite short map, which, in order to play, you need to download along with a 3.5MiB resource file.

  • D-Day invasion - BiNaRy01
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 57755 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: ellmo
    I always liked the World War 2 theme and everything around it. When I read in the text file about invasion and fighting on the deck of a battleship, I was very interested. You should thank god, because now I can warn you.

    Looks
    Those maps present every single aspect of bad and erroneous mapping. Missing, unaligned textures placed randomly, wrong sector heights, vines mixed with Wolf textures (yes, some people still think Wolf textures are adequate for WW2 themed maps...), solid flats on the same level as the *cough* sea... The battleships look like kicked trapezoids, with "things" sticking out of the "deck" that resemble chimneys and gun turrets only if you're really stoned.Very, VERY bad mapping.

    Gameplay
    Actually it's non-existent. There are monsters (possessed humans, imps, Hell Knights and a Cyberdemon) attacking you from the beginning, TONS of guns, ammo and health on Map01, and three medkits and a green armour (total number of pickups aside from monster weapon drops) in Map02, but you don't really have to fight any of the bad guys, so you don't need to pick up weapons. Just ignore some of the monsters placed on top of one another, find a lift that looks like everything else surrounding it, and flip one of the four exit switches.

    Summary
    I know how people don't like when reviewers get offensive and rude. But I'm offended by this kind of "production" myself. You can download it for laughs, or (preferably) just avoid.

    Oh, and I don't believe this requires any kind of port. It barely has any functionality. You may need a source port to jump into a room in Map01, which is otherwise inaccessible, because of flawed design.

  • Evermore - Ruba
    doom2.exe - Solo Play - 27396 bytes
    Reviewed by: Wills
    As long as we keep giving Ruba the attention he wants, he'll keep making wads like this. I advise you to not download this wad, or any other wad Ruba ever makes, or to comment his wads in /idgames or talk about how awful they are, even in other places. Only this way can we stop Ruba's constant flow of awful maps, and, lacking the attention he desires, he'll go away.

  • NWT 1.3 source code - Denis Moeller
    n/a - n/a - 163337 bytes - (img)
    Reviewed by: Trasher][
    This is, as the name implies, the sourcecode to New Wad Tool. While perhaps not as useful nowadays, it's still an interesting piece of Doom editing history.

  • Thunderpeak - Björn "Vader" Ostmann
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 9255945 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Traysandor
    Thunder Peaks is a 2 level wad designed for ZDoom 2.2.0, and it presents itself very well to the Doomer. The first level is designed for exploration; you can pick and choose which areas to take down first (some are easier than others), and you can get pretty far before you have to go and get the yellow key to continue. I got a little confused in a few spots, but if you really look around, you can find some nifty secrets and out-of-the-way ammo and health.

    The main objective in the first level is to restore power to the stormy fortress you're in, and then make your way to the exit. Along the way, I ran into a very unique adversary (seen in the third screenshot), a greyish mix between a Baron of Hell and a Cyberdemon. It has roughly twice the health of a normal Baron and primarily uses its rocket attack (which does not hurt nearly as much as taking a Cyber rocket to the face would). You will be facing several more of those as you progress through the rest of this wad. The second level is a fairly straightforward fight across a bridge and into the arena that houses the final boss (seen in the final screenshot).

    Overall though, this is a well-detailed wad, using ZDoom effects nicely. There's a good balance of health and ammo, and was never too hard, the casual Doomer will be able to complete this wad on UV with some effort. The lighting is on the dark side, but not overly so, and matches the mood of the levels nicely.

    I highly recommend that you give this wad a play, it's by far the best offering I've reviewed thus far, and is a contender for Wad of the Week.

Like what you are seeing? Want to get in on the reviewing action? Visit the /newstuff review center and start writing reviews today! You need a Doomworld forums account to participate.

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I'm downloading Thunderpeak purely for the robot Baron.

Ellmo, why did you have 3 screenshots of the hideous map, but none of the D64 based one?

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kristus said:

I'm downloading Thunderpeak purely for the robot Baron.


It's the Cybruiser from Eriance's Demon Eclipse. It can be downloaded as a resource from Tormentor's "beastiary".

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Gez said:

It's the Cybruiser from Eriance's Demon Eclipse. It can be downloaded as a resource from Tormentor's "beastiary".

The first robot baron is, yes. The second one, which is the final boss (and is barely recognizeable as a baron, even if you know it's based on it) was created by Vader specifically for that map.

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esselfortium said:

The second one, which is the final boss (and is barely recognizeable as a baron, even if you know it's based on it) was created by Vader specifically for that map.

However, it is also available at the beatiary. It is called the terminator. And it kicks ass!

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If you play Thunderpeak on easy or medium, you will see the Zdoom <!> unknown thing icon in one of the rooms. It corresponds to items with editnum 22099. I assume this is something that was in the bigger project that these maps were extracted from and which Vader missed when copying across the resources?

[edit] I think they are supposed to be the suicide bomber zombies [/edit]

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So I see Thunderpeak is available solo for download now. I suppose Vader decided his map was too awesome for Zpack? Well, I guess that's not a bad thing. It was my favorite Zpack map. It's good to see Zdoom maps that use Zdoom features to enhance the map, which seems surprisingly uncommon given that most people I know use Zdoom 24-7 even to play Boom maps and end up creating Boom maps full of Zdoom-isms. =/

Anyways, the other map I might recommend is the Hell's Mine if you're like me and enjoy oldschool maps. I found the gameplay and the aesthetics both to be pretty interesting. The one thing I HATED about the map was all the crushing ceilings. it seemed like everytime I pressed a switch or picked up an item, I got crushed and had to start over. Whoever told Mr. Kaminski that getting crushed without warning is fun was lying to him. :( After I got killed by the forth different crushing ceiling, I just looked in an editor and ran a search for them so I could avoid them and spare myself the time-wasting from getting randomly crushed.

ellmo said:

I know how people don't like when reviewers get offensive and rude. But I'm offended by this kind of "production" myself.

I wouldn't worry about you being offensive. You didn't insult the author or the author's work. You just told us all the things you didn't like about the map and your experience playing it. That's exactly what a reviwer should do, IMO.

Just for the record: Hey Tango, finish KDIKDIZD, NOW! ;-P

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Enjay said:

If you play Thunderpeak on easy or medium, you will see the Zdoom <!> unknown thing icon in one of the rooms. It corresponds to items with editnum 22099. I assume this is something that was in the bigger project that these maps were extracted from and which Vader missed when copying across the resources?

[edit] I think they are supposed to be the suicide bomber zombies [/edit]


Oh dear, I think you're right... I thought I got rid of those. Not that it's a bad monster, but in the end I felt it wouldn't fit the mapset very well!

Btw, thanks for the review Traysandor and everyone else for all the comments on these maps here and in the archive :D

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ellmo said:

Your resources are screwed.


I did not create the resources, sniper did. Also i am working on 2 other projects so i did feel like spending to much time on Crushing fear, and that is the reason for why it is so short and why the gameplay is simple. I simply did not feel like taking to much time making it, your points are still valid though.

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Wills: That was a terrible review of Evermore. While his maps arent entirely of good quality, He has made his share of somewhat decent maps, and I admire is persistent attempts at mapping for the shear reason of making maps. I seriously doubt this rubbish of presumed attention-whoring. There was absolutely no content describing the wad in your review, and was really just an assault on Ruba.

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JohnnyRancid said:

Wills: That was a terrible review of Evermore. While his maps arent entirely of good quality, He has made his share of somewhat decent maps, and I admire is persistent attempts at mapping for the shear reason of making maps. I seriously doubt this rubbish of presumed attention-whoring. There was absolutely no content describing the wad in your review, and was really just an assault on Ruba.


Yeah, I've never gotten an attention-whore vibe from Ruba either. He just likes making maps. Now, it's a shame that he rarely spends more than fifteen minutes on a single map, but he does what he likes. If you don't like his output then ignore it.

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But I like Ruba's maps. I have a whole folder on my computer just for Ruba's maps. He maps for himself and simply shares what he makes with the rest of us. While Ruba's maps are often simple and "pointless", I like playing them and often find many of the simple concepts inspiring and capable of being expanded upon in my own work. While Ruba's maps aren't necessarily top-quality, I don't know why everyone is out to get Ruba, since he's done nothing wrong as far as I can tell. =(

At least Ruba doesn't seem to mind, which is good I suppose.

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leileilol said:

NWT source def. wad of the week for sure.


Yes.

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Evermore - Ruba
doom2.exe - Solo Play - 27396 bytes

Yet another contribution to the archive from one of the scene's most prolific mappers. The map's concept is straightforward enough - wander along a set of corridors, blasting monsters and hitting switches until you reach the exit - only to find another challenge waiting for you. Ammunition's very tight for the most part - you can't afford to miss - and there's only a few medikits. Fotunately the corridors are reasonably wide so there's opportunities to sidestep your opponent/s and grab the ammo that's behind them. Once you've teleported to the second part of the map there's too much ammo, no health and a fairly predictable suprise.

Evermore is definitely an improvement on the last Ruba map I played - it's neither a keeper or a stinker and kept boredom at bay for about eight minutes. Contrary to popular opinion I'd like to see what Ruba could turn out if he took the time to do some serious mapping.

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GreyGhost said:
Evermore is definitely an improvement on the last Ruba map I played - it's neither a keeper or a stinker and kept boredom at bay for about eight minutes.

I agree, actually; and it's more entertaining if one tries to kill all the hell knights, as the ammo is very tight (you might have to punch some). I have to admit I preferred it over some other more serious and elaborate attempts.

Contrary to popular opinion I'd like to see what Ruba could turn out if he took the time to do some serious mapping.

He night be doing so, under another name.

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kristus said:

Ellmo, why did you have 3 screenshots of the hideous map, but none of the D64 based one?

I was about to post them later, since it seemed I did the review a few minutes before expiring, and then I forgot. Please accept my apologies, dear Doomers and especially HardcoreGamer (I'm really hoping to see this D64 project going somwhere).

I think I should refrain from reviewing until I finish my programming work. I'm sorry for any inconvenience I might have caused.

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Wills wins for most useless review of the week. How could this pass quality control?

Ellmo wins for most well written bad review in a long time.

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Ruba desires attention? I never even seen him post here...

@Ellmo: Good, now get me some coffee.

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Thunderpeak should get a cacoward. Im glad that vader released it on his own instead of leaving it in Crap pack ZPack.

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Vader said:

Oh dear, I think you're right... I thought I got rid of those. Not that it's a bad monster, but in the end I felt it wouldn't fit the mapset very well!

Btw, thanks for the review Traysandor and everyone else for all the comments on these maps here and in the archive :D


Not a problem, I just happened upon a large sized download, and what later proved to be a really awesome map available for review in the /newstuff Review Center; I claimed it first then played it. Looking back and comparing it now to the rest of the offerings that were reviewed this week; obviously Wad of the week, without a doubt. (I actually reviewed this before last week's /newstuff came out, but the review I guess didn't get approved in time or whatever. I won't complain though.)

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Evermore is a godawful waste of time, and I gave it the review that I felt it deserved. Yes, it was nothing but an attack on Ruba. I've played some middling-to-decent maps by him, but no one can honestly deny that he's an attention whore, if not as obvious as Gamarra/Pinky's ass. Anyone who floods the archives with sub-1994 quality levels like his is either not in their right mind or desperately seeking attention (he's a self-desribed "Thai ladyboy"... come on).

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hardcore_gamer said:

I simply did not feel like taking to much time making it

Thats exactly the feeling I get when I am playing your maps, they feel like rushed out the door type of maps.Spend some more time and effort on them, I rather see one really good map from you than ten rushed maps.

Thunderpeak was awsome.

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Wills, I have an idea; we can start profiling the /idgames uploaders psychologically and begin campaigns against them if they don't understand what a serious business this is!

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