Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Bloodshedder

The /newstuff Chronicles #334

Recommended Posts

We always need your help.

  • Doom 2 downgrade patch from V1.7A to V1.7 - Martin Howe
    doom2.exe - n/a - 953028 bytes
    Reviewed by: udderdude
    This is a patch that downgrades Doom 2 1.7a to 1.7. That's about it, really. Great if you want to have every doom2.exe that ever existed.

  • amarcorde - Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 259447 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: udderdude
    This is a short map for Doom 2. The map is positioned on Map 02. It's apparently designed for speedrunning, but I found that hard to believe with all the switch hunting and teleporters all over the place. The actual monsters don't pose any problem, but figuring out what to do was a pain. This is the worst kind of switch hunting, where pushing a switch will cause some arbitrary thing to happen on the other side of the map, and you have to check every nook and cranny to see what it's done. Some of the switches are hidden behind objects and in places that are hard to notice. On top of this, there's an underground tunnel full of slime, where it's impossible to avoid taking damage after you've used the two radsuits provided. Backtrack enough in confusion and you'll end up dying from it. Oh boy. Maybe this is speedrunnable after you've played the entire map and memorized what every poorly visible switch does. I think you're better off avoiding the frustration.

  • Flashback: demo 2 - Torn (team leader), Esselfortium, Espi
    doom.exe - Solo Play - 592930 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: udderdude
    This is a demo of an upcoming megawad, which will have recreations of all the classic Doom levels. This demo only has 4 levels. The levels are pretty accurate renditions of the originals, with around the same level of detail. Some of them are much larger, and all of them have more monsters than the original levels did. If you're a fan of classic Doom, you'll like these maps.

  • RedemptioN DM - DooMAGE
    Multiplayer - Deathmatch - 1609837 bytes - (img)
    Reviewed by: TheMionicDonut
    According to its textfile, Redemption DM was released in September of 2007, nearly a year and a half ago. But for some reason, I had never once heard of it until today. After actually giving this wad a run through with a few bots I promptly found out why. This wad is simply forgettable. It's not terrible by any stretch (outside of one map that is ridiculously linear, even when putting single player maps in comparison), but it's nothing that I will remember a year, a month, possibly not even a week from now. The decoration is typical, even containing a handful of obvious texture misalignments. There are a few altered sounds, but they have been used before in another multiplayer wad, Forever, which this wad appears to take minor inspiration from.

    There are a total of five maps in this wad, two of which seem like brit or forever maps that didn't make the cut, while the others don't fare much better in terms of originality. Out of the five I would say map03 is the most worthwhile of the bunch. It plays rather awkwardly at times and has some bothersome pits, but I wouldn't mind playing a duel or two there. In the end, however, Redemption DM just appears to be another mapper's experiment in multiplayer mapping, and would only be worth playing if you just wanted to avoid playing on Dwango5 for the eleventy millionth time.

  • One against hell - Azamael (Kolybenko Misha)
    ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 493376 bytes - (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: TheMionicDonut
    Allow me to be frank here; I did not go into this wad with very high expectations coming from a description of, to quote the text file "You alone, you lose yoself in hell, you One against hell!" (By the way, this was the entire description of the wad.) So I went in expecting another run-of-the-mill fight with a few monsters and be done with it. And... that's pretty much exactly what this wad contained.

    In terms of looks and detail it really isn't too bad, but it's nothing special either. The gameplay is also about average. It may take a few tries, but the level would be easy to beat on UV in one sitting, due to the generous amount of soulspheres provided. There are a couple of new monsters. These consist of a pair of generic zombie marines, as well as an arch-vile revenant hybrid. These guys are a pain, due to their attack. They shoot a series of homing flames that inexplicably make the zombie death sound when they hit walls. What makes it particularly irksome is that they get shot out at an angle so its impossible to take these guys head on. And to make matters worse they are EVERYWHERE, and you rarely face one at a time.

    This brings me to the final "new monster," and let me tell you, in my fifteen years of playing Doom I have never seen a monster this bizarre outside of MAYBE jokewads, but those are a league of their own, and its still a maybe. I am speaking of course, of the cyber-caco-crucifix.

    Picture this, if you will. A semi-maimed cyberdemon nailed to a floating, metallic cross. This thing shoots an endless stream of caco-bullets out of its previously absent third eye, and it hovers around menacingly, due to its absence of legs. Never, even in my wildest Doom related dreams have I seen such a specimen of Satanic spawn. So Azamael, whoever you are, wherever you are, and if you are reading this, congratulations on making the Doomer who thought he's seen it all eat crow.

    It is for this reason alone that I insist that if you've got about an hour to kill, you give one1.wad a glimpse.

  • Connex 2 - Ruba
    doom2.exe - Solo Play - 208597 bytes - (img)
    Reviewed by: Wills
    You start out in a fairly good-looking room packed with ammo and weapons. "Oh, there must be a huge fight ahead!" you think. There is... kinda. You go to the next room, which is the exact same as the first room except the only thing here is a zombieman. Next room is the same, except with a shotgun guy. Next room is the same, except with a chaingun guy... you get where this is going?

    Eventually you get all the way up to the Cyberdemon and beyond, yet it never feels challenging because you take on the monsters one by one and you'll have enough ammo if you don't go around shooting at walls. It's not really interesting at all, since it's just the same room over and over again. Maybe next time, Ruba.

  • Dark Caliber - Alter's maps - Alter``
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 1718991 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Traysandor
    These series of three maps for any limit-removing port play a lot longer than they look. While these maps weren't bad, they weren't outstanding, either. Map1 basically tells you where to go for the most part. Map2 is probably the best of the three with balanced gameplay, health/ammo, and good detailing. And Map3... well, if you love the Plasma Rifle, this will become your favorite level as there is a huge amount of Plasma ammo present, and over 1000 monsters to slaughter on UV. Most of the monsters present don't come until the later half of the map though, and it's not really my idea of a particularly good HR-style level.

    Overall, it's not a bad mapset, but it could certainly use a fair few improvements to make them better.

  • Chasm: the Rift Textures - Taradino Cassatt
    n/a - n/a - 1329884 bytes
    Reviewed by: Wills
    It's exactly what the author says: "426 textures from Chasm: the Rift". They look good to me (very Doom-y, a plus) and I'm sure many people will find a use for these.

  • Deep Into The Depths of Hell - Isaac Rodriguez
    ZDoom - Solo Play - 409847 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: purist
    Deep.wad satisfies the basic requirement for a slaughter map: a fair chance of winning against initially seemingly impossible odds. Still, canny use of cover and the frequently available invulnerability spheres will leave the average Doomer finishing with ammo and health to spare (I completed the map even having missed the plasma rifle early on) and making it effectively a mop-up mission for masters of the genre.

    The overriding Hell theme is interspersed with other mixed theme textures. Architecture and layout is best described as functional, accommodating some huge battles. Strangely, these dwindle as the map reaches its latter stages and it ends somewhat low key in comparison to the earlier invulnerability-white tinged battles in the first two thirds.

    I would recommend this as a decent effort to fans of slaughter maps, though everyone else may find little to love here. Deep.wad plays on MAP29 and, according to the text file, requires ZDoom version 2.20 to play - though I suspect any limit removing port may suffice.

  • Nightomb (2x2 series) - Alexander "Eternal" S. (aka Deadall)
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 668184 bytes - (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: udderdude
    This is one of the best maps I've played in awhile. The author limited himself to using 2 flats and 2 textures; however, he uses this to great effect, and it never looks repetitive despite this self-imposed limitation. The map is designed to be an ancient tomb. Some of the map architecture is interesting, and feels very atmospheric. Each area has challenging fights, and it never feels boring. Health is also murderously tight, unless you find the secret areas. Ammo can be tight if you waste it all early on. There are a lot of traps, but none of them feel completely unfair. There's one insta-gib death trap, but you do have somewhat of a warning not to activate it. Custom sound effects are used; I wasn't too fond of the sounds used for zombiemen, but the sinister laughing from Doom 3 helped set the atmosphere quite a bit. Eventually, you get the feeling the tomb itself (and by extension the author) is fucking with you, and it's actually pulled off pretty well. Definitely recommended.

  • System Shock Textures - Taradino Cassatt
    n/a - n/a - 702039 bytes
    Reviewed by: Wills
    A set of textures from System Shock. They seem a little too monochromatic and cartoon-y to really fit in Doom, but someone can probably find a use for them.

  • Cyclones Textures - Taradino Cassatt
    n/a - n/a - 829385 bytes
    Reviewed by: udderdude
    It's 719 textures and flats from Cyclones, a game by Raven. They look pretty good; most of them fit well with Doom's theme and palette. You could easily make a set of maps using these textures.

  • Amulets & Armor Textures - Taradino Cassatt
    n/a - n/a - 1455088 bytes
    Reviewed by: udderdude
    456 textures from Amulets & Armor. These textures aren't too great. Almost none of them look like they were drawn from scratch, in fact I spotted quite a few that come with 3D Studio Max. The textures don't look too hot converted to Doom's palette, either. You might be able to pick out a few decent textures, but overall, meh.

  • Eclipse (2x2 series) - Alexander "Eternal" S. (aka Deadall)
    Limit Removing - Solo Play - 2659945 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Reviewed by: Jekyll Grim Payne
    This wad is part of a Russian Doom Community "2x2" contest. Its rules are simple: make a decent Boom-compatible wad using only 2 textures and 2 flats. This is a serious challenge, because with 2x2 you'd have to use all other possible means to make the wad look detailed, like multiple height variations, lighting, and, of course, gameplay. Also, this limitation applies to each level of the wad separately.

    Well, I was expecting something really interesting from the author of Gravity. I was not disappointed. Eternal made a pretty unusual choice of textures. For the first level he chose COMPTALL and ZZZFACE6 for textures and FLOOR5_1 and CEIL4_2 for floors. The level is mostly made in Doom 3 style, and I should say, while playing it I suddenly realised that this makes me feel like playing Doom 3 no less than Doom 2.5 itself. New sounds for enemies and weapons, as well as some new sprites and even dehacked Doom 3-like Imp (these assholes are really annoying) intensify this feeling.

    Second level is more of a techno-gothic stronghold, the idea is to solve some puzzles in order to find a way to fight the bosses (there are some interesting surprises about that...) MODWALL2 and LITE3 along with FLOOR7_1 and CEIL4_1 create a really moody and epic landscape.

    Both levels present a great detail level and rich usage of all possible Boom effects. Honestly, few modern GZDoom maps have such a mood. As for gameplay, it is mostly good, but a serious shortage of ammo may make the wad really difficult (I made it on UV, but had to use IDFA).

  • Realms of the Haunting Textures - Taradino Cassatt
    n/a - n/a - 10195818 bytes
    Reviewed by: udderdude
    1,344 (yikes!) textures from Realms of the Haunting. Unfortunately, the textures don't really work well with Doom's palette. A lot of dithering going on. On top of that, most of them don't look very good to begin with. I have a feeling they might work with Heretic/Hexen, but you would have to re-rip the textures and convert them to the Heretic or Hexen palette. Still, there are so many of them that if you have the patience, you could sift through all of them and cherry pick the ones you like.

Share this post


Link to post

Ah, excellent! A large supply of new textures with absolutely no legal or ethical restraints on their use!

Share this post


Link to post

This 2x2 contest sounds pretty interesting...
Personally I've never been a big fan of textures from other games. To me, they tend to just look tacky and out of place.

Share this post


Link to post

The cyber-caco-crucifix looks so fucking awesome that I think I'm going to compile zdoom.

Share this post


Link to post

I agree that dark caliber could use many improvements, then again, all maps were part of a big wad which fell up to Ellmo's plans to improve his life, of course i'm not mad at him anymore for THAT. I May make dark caliber II in future but that was decided to happen much later because i'm working on Xenus 3 on and off. Oh one thing btw, the difficulty in map03 was supposed to be gradual by any means, starts easy ends hard. Of course the map was inspired by HR and AV but that doesn't mean i attempted to copy their gameplay style at all. If it was a real HR/AV map, you would see shitload of monsters even on start. That's it, good review and i'm off to work on Xenus 3

Share this post


Link to post
Jekyll Grim Payne said:

Eclipse (2x2 series)
This wad is part of a Russian Doom Community "2x2" contest.

It's not a part of any contest. It's just with the same rules.

Jekyll Grim Payne said:

Its rules are simple: make a decent Boom-compatible wad using only 2 textures and 2 flats

Read the rules. It should be DOOM compatible.

Jekyll Grim Payne said:

Both levels present a great detail level and rich usage of all possible Boom effects.

Are you stupid? Specially for dumbasses... READ THE FUCKING TXT. IT IS LIMIT REMOVING AND DOES NOT NEED BOOM.

Jekyll Grim Payne said:

As for gameplay, it is mostly good, but a serious shortage of ammo may make the wad really difficult (I made it on UV, but had to use IDFA).

You are sucker if you need IDFA on these levels and if you are sucker, you should not speak it to all, because it's a shame to be a sucker.

Short version of your review:
This level is for BOOM, because I am dumbass and did not read TXT. It's pretty good. I have finished it with cheats and I did not see some of effects, because I used not recommended port

Share this post


Link to post

Wow, aren't we in a bad mood today?

To be blunt, I often felt the need to question a reviewer's competence but I never used such rude language.

Share this post


Link to post
Graf Zahl said:

To be blunt, I often felt the need to question a reviewer's competence but I never used such rude language.

Are you about "Specially for dumbasses..." part?

Read the comment of Jekyll Grim Payne for his Beautiful Doom

And I hate when people use cheats and write a review then. Just stupid. No fun.

Share this post


Link to post

That link makes it look a bit different - but I bet that most people reading this would have had no idea why are you being so rude without knowing it.

BTW, I also hate it when reviewers don't play properly and then proudly present their flawed reviews. I think you can remember those discussions. ;)

Share this post


Link to post

If reviewer did not read txt (if they do not, who should?), or has not finished a level or used cheats or used non-corresponding port, then he should be blamed openly. At least the first three conditions are very important.

Did you read? "Both levels present a great detail level and rich usage of all possible Boom effects." Boom effects!!! At least Etrnal should be flattered with this :)

Share this post


Link to post

I fully agree with that, yet several people here got away with it in the past and were even defended by some...

Share this post


Link to post

Eclipse was pretty impressive, the only problem I found was identifying doors and switches. It's not really a complaint as such, because I can't imagine how it could have been done better within the 2x2 restrictions.

entryway said:

Are you stupid? Specially for dumbasses... READ THE FUCKING TXT. IT IS LIMIT REMOVING AND DOES NOT NEED BOOM.

Surely it's not just limit removing, you also need a port that supports in-WAD dehacked? (in which case it wouldn't even run with Boom, heh)

Share this post


Link to post

Note about fbdemo2, I made a bug by mistake in e2m3 (e3m3). So that level is not able to play in doom.exe, sorry about that.

Share this post


Link to post
fraggle said:

Surely it's not just limit removing, you also need a port that supports in-WAD dehacked? (in which case it wouldn't even run with Boom, heh)

It's limit removing, because it has no any non-vanilla actions. If you want to play some of limit removing pwads in doom2+ you can try it: extract dehacked lump (even monkey can do it), apply it and use deutex for adding sprites. These things you should do for tons of limit removing pwads. It's obvious for most of vanilla lovers and if they want, they will try. There is no sense to put this algo in each TXT. After that, it not necessarily should work, because firstly: doom2+ or other candidate can have own limits; secondly: limit removing usually means removal of some bugs too (tutti frutti, low quality sounds, 32767- sidedefs, etc) and for avoiding such mess and unnecessary experiments, I clearly pointed about preferable 'limit removing' port. But reviewer did not read neither rules from iddqd nor TXT and he clearly noticed "rich usage of all possible Boom effects". Does he know at least anything about Boom effects after that?

Share this post


Link to post
entryway said:

It's not a part of any contest. It's just with the same rules.


Read the rules. It should be DOOM compatible.


Are you stupid? Specially for dumbasses... READ THE FUCKING TXT. IT IS LIMIT REMOVING AND DOES NOT NEED BOOM.


You are sucker if you need IDFA on these levels and if you are sucker, you should not speak it to all, because it's a shame to be a sucker.

Short version of your review:
This level is for BOOM, because I am dumbass and did not read TXT. It's pretty good. I have finished it with cheats and I did not see some of effects, because I used not recommended port

Daaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmnnnnn.

That seems a bit much for what was effectively a positive review telling people to go play the wad. :x

Share this post


Link to post
esselfortium said:

Positive review

Probably I have not understood what you told, but if you liked it, I can review your next project in similar way:

I played the first level of this Eternity mapset with IDDQD and IDKFA in DOOM2.EXE. It's very atmospheric. I skiped the next 9 levels, but I played map11 in BOOM with NOCLIP and it was also AWESOME. Recommended. 0/5

Is it positive review? Of course. Should it be subjected to criticism? Of course too.

Share this post


Link to post
entryway said:

Probably I have not understood what you told, but if you liked it, I can review your next project in similar way:

I played the first level of this Eternity mapset with IDDQD and IDKFA in DOOM2.EXE. It's very atmospheric. I skiped the next 9 levels, but I played map11 in BOOM with NOCLIP and it was also AWESOME. Recommended. 0/5

Is it positive review? Of course. Should it be subjected to criticism? Of course too.


You forgot "rich usage of ZDoom features". :P

Share this post


Link to post
Torn said:

Note about fbdemo2, I made a bug by mistake in e2m3 (e3m3). So that level is not able to play in doom.exe, sorry about that.

In E2M1 the lift that leads to the blue key also seems bugged, it won't lower. (I was using chocolate doom)

Share this post


Link to post
MasterOFDeath said:

In E2M1 the lift that leads to the blue key also seems bugged, it won't lower. (I was using chocolate doom)

Because of stuck. If you want to play it in vanilla you should remove thing #9 and thing #10. Both are demos.

In PrBoom/+ comp_floors setting ("Use exactly Doom's floor motion behavior") should be 0 ("No")

Share this post


Link to post
entryway said:

Is it positive review? Of course. Should it be subjected to criticism? Of course too.


While I agree, I would say you overreacted. And I've begun to think that you and Eternal are conjoined twins because you're always here to defend him. I'm sure you have your reasons, but the review wasn't even of your map; I don't think your response was really necessary.

Share this post


Link to post

Tango said:
And I've begun to think that you and Eternal are conjoined twins because you're always here to defend him.

Simply because Eternal don't speak english completely and not able to defend himself.

Tango said:
I'm sure you have your reasons, but the review wasn't even of your map; I don't think your response was really necessary.

Your opinion is wrong. His response was really necessary and righteous, because he always contributes greatly to Eternal's projects.

Share this post


Link to post
Hitherto said:

Simply because Eternal don't speak english completely and not able to defend himself.

Your opinion is wrong. His response was really necessary and righteous, because he always contributes greatly to Eternal's projects.


He wasn't attacked. So why would he need to defend himself? So the review had a few things wrong. Hardly a big deal.

Share this post


Link to post

Anyone admitting to having to use an ammo cheat to complete a map has either encountered an extremely broken map, or is terrible at aiming/conserving ammo. And there's a very strong chance it's the latter.

Share this post


Link to post

entryway said: (about 2x2 mapping)

It's not a part of any contest. It's just with the same rules.

Read the rules. It should be DOOM compatible.

Sounds like an interesting format. Where can I find the (preferably in English) rules?

Share this post


Link to post
Hitherto said:

Simply because Eternal don't speak english completely and not able to defend himself.

Your opinion is wrong. His response was really necessary and righteous, because he always contributes greatly to Eternal's projects.


There's nothing wrong with the fact that Eternal doesn't speak English. I would have a hard time believing, however, that if he could, he would be so rude as entryway has been. I don't believe I've ever seen anything said about Eternal's maps that are worth being so defensive over anyway; not everything needs to be reacted to in such a vocal manner.

My opinion is wrong? That's fairly blunt. And, regardless of any contributions entryway has had for Eternal's maps, a "half-assed" review does not warrant this:

Are you stupid? Specially for dumbasses... READ THE FUCKING TXT. IT IS LIMIT REMOVING AND DOES NOT NEED BOOM.


Civil? I don't think so. Like Kristus said: it's not a big deal. The review was perhaps not as complete and thoughtful as it could have been but calling the reviewer a stupid dumbass while referring him to the FUCKING TXT was not necessary. This review problem could still be avoided in the future without such an insulting post.

Share this post


Link to post

Please note: the Doom 2 downgrade patch physically modifies the .EXE file and the .WAD as well, and changes the timestamps to that expected for V1.7. Optionally, it also changes the timestamps of the other files to that expected for V1.7.

Personal note: I made this patch to test the auto-identify function of a program; if you're not a developer or an "OMG must have all versions OMG" freak then you really REALLY don't need this patch :)

Share this post


Link to post

Tango said:
but calling the reviewer a stupid dumbass while referring him to the FUCKING TXT was not necessary.

It was just a free citation from own Jekyll Grim Payne comment:

entryway said:
Read the comment of Jekyll Grim Payne for his Beautiful Doom

Seems this article has been deleted recently, so here another nice example of his rudeness:
"IF YOU CAN'T FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, COMMIT SUICIDE, PLEASE!"
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=15560

Share this post


Link to post

Beautiful Doom has been updated yet again (now at version 4) so the link entryway quoted is no longer valid and (unless Ling combines the reviews) Jekyll Grim Payne's very rude reply to a reviewer has hit the bit bucket.

Share this post


Link to post

God. If that's the attitude of Jekyll Grim Payne I'd HATE to see the attitude of Hyde Grim Payne.

*BAH DAH DUM DUM DISH*

Share this post


Link to post
×