The /newstuff Chronicles #464

[Bloodshedder]

• Another 32 over 32 - Donnel "Jazzmaster9" Enriquez
  Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 8327784 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: scifista42
  "Another 32 over 32" is a set of 32 maps for ZDoom, and a sequel to 32 over 32, reviewed here. The maps aren't included in one wad, but distributed as a folder of standalone MAP01s. The reason is that some maps replace stock sprites, weapons, monsters or sounds, each one differently. Also, the maps are meant to provide a different aesthetic/thematic/gameplay experience each; nothing else connects them together other than the fact that they were all designed by the same author.
  
  You will not need to separately launch 32 wad files if you don't want to - Jazzmaster9 made your work easier this time. He included a simple CMD-based launcher, where you can select a source port (ZDoom or GZDoom) and a particular map (1 to 32) to play. However, you still have to manually exit the game (like the whole game) after completing each map; immediately after that, the launcher will offer you to choose another map to play. I personally recommend using GZDoom because some of the maps use coloured lighting, which may look garish in software rendering. Namely these maps are "01" (arcane.wad) and "30" (warabys.wad).
  
  So what to say about the maps themselves? First thing to mention is that Jazzmaster9 has developed a very distinct and effective mapping style, which is easy to recognize and probably allows him to work fast. The speed of his mapping output is admirable indeed - during about half a year, he released 80+ maps in total, and none of them was downright bad (notably, he made two "32 over 32" mapsets and Innocence 1, 2, and 3). His style has its good and bad sides.
  
  Jazzmaster9 makes short and compact maps. His target group is moderately skilled casual players. The maps provide a lot of space for your comfortable movement, generous supply of ammo, and easily manageable fights (as long as you keep on your toes). They encourage an aggressive play style, but if you decide to play carelessly like that, making a mistake can easily lead to your death. Jazzmaster prefers simple choices over the complicated ones; I've never seen an overdetailed room or overcomplicated combat situation (more on that later). At the same time though, Jazzmaster9 likes effects: some maps use subtle ACS scripting, 3D floors, coloured lighting, fog (one level even has a snow!), custom monsters, weapons, sounds and graphics. Sometimes it has just a slight impact on the overall atmosphere, while at other times it makes for a very unique experience. There are techbase levels, city levels, hell levels, Plutonia-like levels, but also a Heretic-themed level, RoTT-themed, Blood-themed, Doom64-themed, Medal of Honor-themed, and much more! Admittedly, Jazzmaster9 sometimes gets inspired by other designer's works very directly, almost to the point of making a ripoff. I'm not impressed by this fact that ideas might be unoriginal, but whatever - as a homage, it works.
  
  Although the maps are very varied in their aesthetic themes, they are very same-y in structure and gameplay mechanics. Let me name a few common factors: frequent usage of 128-units high ceilings and 128-wide hallways to connect different rooms. Heavily orthogonal-based structures. Huge wall surfaces covered by a single texture. Very low detail in some areas. Secret areas feeling like an afterthought, and sometimes impossible to find without cheats, requiring the player to push a random wall or backtrack across the map to find a newly opened closet. And the most disappointing: practically no inventive gameplay ideas, only basic gameplay setups repeated over and over, namely: single enemies in a small alcove; several monsters on ledges; a group of lowly-threatening monsters waiting for you behind a corner or a door; lowly-threatening monster closet ambushes; occasional close-quarter encounter; occasional horde spam; occasional tough boss; and that's all. Mixing these setups together, or even mixing multiple enemy types together, usually happens in an unsophisticated way. Many of these negatives have their advantages, though, which I already mentioned: intuitive flow, comfortable movement, and enjoyably fast gameplay, only possible thanks to simplistic design and gameplay setups.
  
  All in all, it's a good and enjoyable experience, which can be completed in less than two hours. Jazzmaster's mapping style remains distinct, but consistently improves. Exercises like this one (making an extensive mapset) definitely can help the author make an improvement. If you're a casual, experienced while non-hardcore player, try out this mapset. In its uniqueness, it provides a lot of repetition but also a lot of surprises at the same time. You might find yourself impressed by the author's style or get bored by it after a while. Anyway, go for it - you never know what the next map will be like.
  
  
• UKK: Paluu Neuvostoliittoon - Bolshevik Interactive
  Doom 2 - ZDoom - Solo Play - 4119124 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: vtm
  UKK: Paluu Neuvostoliittoon is an interesting mod for Doom 2. This mod sets us in the feet of the legendary Finnish president Kekkonen who visits the USSR; the mod offers three levels with new monsters, sounds and graphics, and it's intended to play on ZDoom.
  
  The first level locates the player in a snow covered forest with lots of wild bears waiting to eat you. The player starts only with his fists but the chainsaw is available from the start of the map; the shotgun is also found and a good amount of shells for it. The map is very simple, no big details, and reminds of an old TC map. The major downside is that you will get lost in the forest at certain points and you cannot rely on your map to guide you. At the end of this map there is a poorly done fortress with a Finnish flag over it; as you get next to it the level ends.
  
  The second level is in the CCCP HQ, a lot of brick and a lot of Vladimir Lenins decorate the walls. New enemies are found here; one of them looks horrible and the other is a turret that fires rockets. Again the design of the map is very simple, too many unaligned textures. At some point in the map you will be able to grab a hammer and a sickle that will give you berserk and will send you to the final room.
  
  The third level has the form of the hammer and sickle, and this map holds a boss fight that end the game. Again a lot of unaligned textures, and the texture combination looks horrible in some parts. The boss here is a Stalin head over the mechanical body of the spider mastermind; he fires cacodemon and imp projectiles and when dead releases a floating head of Karl Marx.
  
  I found it amusing and did laugh at this. Give it a try, you may like it.
  
  
• Pirate Doom - Arch
  Doom 2 - GZDoom - SP/Co-op - 26862774 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: dew
  - You map like a dairy farmer.
  - How appropriate, you play like a cow.
  
  Pirate Doom adds pirates to Doom. How cool is that? And is it even possible to not know Pirate Doom? Everybody has played and loved this total conversion for GZDoom already, so the review will only be useful for future generations and those returning from a long mission in space, or prison. Arch (a.k.a. Darch) kept adding ideas, art and maps to his work for over two years and provided quite a lot of betas and revised releases in that span of time. If you hung around the project threads, it was actually harder to stay off the hype train and resist the temptation of having just a little peek in-game than patiently waiting for the finished product. I succumbed when Pirate Doom rightfully grabbed a 2013 Cacoward, thinking that this must be it, the final version at last. Alas, Darch added a couple of maps since then again. Hopefully uploading to /idgames will redirect his efforts elsewhere. Say, to a sequel.
  
  So, pirates. The zombies drink rum when idle, they yell piratey things like "Shiver me timbers", "Avast, ye scallywags" and everyone's favourite "Arrrr!" Imps throw flaming knives that stay stuck in walls and their pirate hats fly off when killed. Revenants release parrots carrying bombs and everything, everything has beards, tattoos, eye patches, peg legs, bandannas or fancy hats. Except viles, but it would be downright criminal to spoil all the surprises. All the weapons, without a doubt carried in your pants, are changed as well, but they don't stray too far from the original set. If anything, they feel like a cross between Doom and Outlaws with some sprites being direct rips from the latter. I'm not going to spoil them either, because discovering new ideas and jokes is half the fun here. Even though Darch enables using Pirate Doom as a gameplay mod for other wads, the real adventure starts with the campaign in maps 41 to 59, and it's not growing a beard.
  
  You start on your ship as it is overrun by pirates turned into demons by the nefarious LeChuck, but with your trusty pistol and cutlass and strategically placed reserves of healing rum it doesn't take you long to reclaim it. Then you set out on a quest to defeat the villain and save everyone from his demonic spell. Pirate towns! Gold mines! Island forts and fortresses! Mysterious lost cities! Swamps! A circus! The list goes on. It's amazing how varied and exciting all the different settings are and how frequently they change. Darch delivers them in just about the correct dosage, so you're pretty unlikely to run out of amused smiles on your first playthrough. Mmmaybe the hedge maze dragged for a bit too long, and the castle felt too much like, ironically, a Doom map. The levels are all pretty well designed and fun even if you take away all the ideas, interactivity, cute stylized sounds, graphics and effects, and most importantly jokes and references... but why would you want to do that? The pinnacle of Darch's fooling around comes in the circus level, which is full of gimmicks that exploit the engine in inventive ways, but also some of the best jokes. You don't get to see a three-headed monkey, but there's the fabled two— ah, spoilers.
  
  Speaking of Monkey Island, the golden age Lucas Arts spirit is strong with this one and not just by the number of references. Any fan of the series will radiate with joy, remembering the days of yore when games were true fun, wondering why no one got the idea to make this glorious bastard of unlikely parents sooner. You don't play as Guybrush Threepwood, though. Not because you get to meet him or anything, but you don't drown after holding your breath for 10 minutes. For shame, Darch, for shame. Also there's no rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle item pickup, so despite all that fancy pistol start and full multiplayer support, I give Pirate Doom no stars and demand a mission pack. Pretty please with sugar, nuts, a cherry and chocolate sprinkles?
  
  
• 20 Years of Doom - The French Doom Community
  Ultimate Doom - Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 1639768 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: scifista42
  An unusual episode replacement wad for Ultimate Doom, authored by several members of the French Doom community as a tribute to Doom's 20th anniversary. Each of the nine maps takes three consequent Doom 1 maps as source of inspiration and blends elements from these maps together to make an unique experience, of course with author's own touches and style. All maps except E1M1 use custom music (mostly pretty good), and there are also some new textures in this wad. E1M9 is supposed to be played after E1M3.
  
  E1M1: Phobos Inner Station by [WH]-Wilou84. Moderately long map with aesthetics that are definitely E1-like, but with high amount of detail (many small pipes and computer panels, multiple borderline textures where one would be enough). It works, though, as all rooms look rather nice. Layout is a little bit too orthogonal and room-corridor-room based, but the structure isn't bad at all. Features elements of both linearity and nonlinearity. The map only makes slight references to Doom's E1M1-M3; several rooms are shaped in a similar way, but otherwise it seems to be [WH]-Wilou84's original work. Plays well, and the gameplay reminds me of E1.
  
  E1M2: Control Tower by Sid Zetmeck, who also made the map's midi. The midi is quite good, the map itself not that much, though. It's almost entirely orthogonally structured, thoroughly linear (with stringy paths + some long backtracking once you get keycards), and there's little more than shooting gallery gameplay. Really, just blasting low-threatening enemies in front of you with your shotgun/chaingun. 347 enemies! It might get boring after a while, but it also might not. Admittedly, the environment keeps changing as you advance. Minimum references to Doom's maps, instead it's an original, long, generic map with E1 aesthetics. Due to the above-mentioned reasons I consider this map to be less quality, but I got used to the map's style half-way in and could enjoy it anyway.
  
  E1M3: Anomaly Center by NilsTheRed. This map is also orthogonal, but way different from the previous maps. It didn't rely purely on homages and clichéd texturing and design choices (although these are present here too). Instead, it provided an architecture which was structured like it could have been a real place, and like "oldschool" Doom at the same time. Exploration based, too, with interesting structure and gameplay moments, better than in the previous maps. And thanks to this aspect, I've found the map E1-like in the greatest way. I liked it overall, even though it had a little uneven flow and garish visuals at places, and an unpleasant, mandatory nukage run section.
  
  E1M9: Cathedral Of Pain by Sid Zetmeck. This map once again suffered from heavy linearity and the other faults of Sid's E1M2. It also didn't feel like original Doom that much; too much height variation in a RoTT-esque way. Not that it's a concern, but in my opinion it's inappropriate. The map was supposed to emulate E2M1-M3, but contained many E3-like elements instead (most of the map resembles hellish cathedral). Regarding gameplay, I'd describe it as almost "scripted", as you have little freedom to choose how to deal with the given scenarios.
  
  E1M4: Commander's Fortress by NilsTheRed. Moderately long and well structured compact map, where almost every area gives direct tribute to areas in E2M4-M6. Very loyal to E2 spirited structure and gameplay, while looking and flowing nice (I should add that I'm not a big fan of original E2). Occasional gimmicks and strange E2-like design choices, but none of them bad at all. Another map I liked a lot.
  
  E1M5: Gardens of Babel by Jambon. Nicely done E2-like level as well. Newschool architecture and oldschool feel blends well here. It has some homages, IMO unnecessary, but well working anyway, and of course there are many new and original areas. The map was linear, but I almost didn't notice, as it was an entertaining experience. Ends with a boss fight against two cyberdemons; they will test both your skill and endurance.
  
  E1M6: Slough of Kept Pandemonium by Oxyde. Very reliant on homages, but they were tweaked enough in the layout. It turned out well, and I liked a lot how elements from different Inferno maps blended together in a "natural", non-forced way. The only thing I disliked were non-obvious secrets, hard to find, and an inescapable pit in Pandemonium part (well, Pandemonium has an inescapable pit with damaging water). Author did a good job with this map.
  
  E1M7: Unholy Mt. Of Pain by JC. Despite some slaughterish elements, I enjoyed this map. It made sense even in the context of E3 gimmickiness. Nice layout, based on E3M6-like openness in contrast with smaller indoors in buildings. Homage-heavy in a way similar to the previous map, with a fair amount of original ideas and interesting shapes and gameplay mechanics.
  
  E1M8: Living Inferno by [WH]-Wilou84. Very extensive and nonlinear map, mostly inspired by E3M7: Limbo. There were too many damaging floors and very difficult gameplay setups. Great map, anyway. Final battle features an epic fight against thousands of enemies, which might get laggy in some ports (namely Zandronum).
  
  So, it's a little bit of a mixed bag, as certain maps have positive and negative sides, but overall the mapset served its purpose well, in my view. The experience is worth your time. Remember, it's a community compliment to 20 years existence of the game we all enjoy.
  
  
• Goatse - savagegrant
  Doom/Doom 2 - N/A - N/A - 13737 bytes
  Reviewed by: walter confalonieri
  This is a little graphic replacement for any Doom iwad that replaces the cacodemon with a modified picture of the terrific "goatse" picture, used also in Doomworld Forums Adventures 2, if I recall correctly. To find the nature of the picture you can Google it, if you have a strong heart and stomach.
  
  I'm waiting for a "Blue Waffle" wad now... NOT!
  
  Take a look at this wad if you are curious, otherwise go ahead.
  
  
• Canofbacon's Realistic Gore - Canofbacon & Calmperson
  Doom 2 - GZDoom - Solo Play - 2189 bytes - (img)
  Reviewed by: scifista42
  This is an attempt at a joke. The wad only contains a single DECORATE entry. It makes every monster spawn awfully extreme amounts of blood or gore, whenever the monster enters its pain state or gets killed. Particles of this blood and gore are the stock Doom(2) ones. Blood disappears after a brief moment, while gore remains in the level forever, and will slow down your framerate very quickly. All gore looks the same. Check the screenshot to see what happened when I shot a zombieman in Entryway. There's nothing more to this wad. Judge for yourself if it's worth downloading.
  
  
• The Death base - hardcore_gamer
  Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 63668 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: Jjp
  This is a single techbase map for ZDoom. It feels like someone's first map, with mono-textured walls, boring use of symmetry, 64-unit wide hallways at one point, and uninspired lighting. Also, the use of colored lighting feels unnecessary. Meanwhile, the text file claims that the map is fairly tough, but the archviles are the only remotely threatening monsters in it. The majority of the monsters come in homogeneous packs that are easily slaughtered by holding down the fire button for a minute, and most of them are revealed in front of the player. The final battle is a simple circlestrafing exercise.
  
  Overall, this map is forgettable. The map is playable and it does not seem to have bugs, but you should only play this if you are really bored.
  
  
• Grasstex - Doom textures with grass tops - scifista42
  Doom 2 - N/A - N/A - 138334 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: joe-ilya
  Grass tops for every outdoor texture of Doom 2, it's just a little bonus tweak so the grass on the textures won't look weird or whatever the intent was.
  
  Very useful for people who want to put grass flats on rock textures and stuff, not much of a texture pack, just a nukage stain on the tops, that's about it.
  
  Let's see who will use this thing. Shall we? Oh yeah, we shall!
  
  
• Marbland - Plut
  Doom 2 - Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 1773329 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: Zulk-RS
  Marbland is a wad that contains two maps for Doom II. The maps are small and monsters are plenty. Both maps have design choices that would fit well with Heretic. In fact, other than the weapons, monsters and items, it felt like I was playing Heretic instead of Doom.
  
  The maps are filled with ambushes and teleport traps. However, the monster choices remain more or less consistent throughout the entire wad.
  
  The wad isn't too difficult but isn't too easy either. But it has a sorta steep difficulty curve. You're thrown right under fire from the start of this map. It also features a custom final boss and some underlings.
  
  Overall this map isn't too shabby. Give it a try if you don't find anything better.
  
  
• The Combat Base - Paul Corfiatis
  Doom 2 - Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 67622 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: joepallai
  The Combat Base is a nicely-staged base map by Paul Corfiatis. The player starts off in a darkened hall and works his way through the metal lined halls of this base, until venturing outdoors briefly before going into the final building. Overall the visuals are nice and clean, providing just enough detail to be interesting to the player and not distracting in this fun, little map. Player running time should be anywhere between 5 - 20 minutes depending on how cautious a player you are. It's the perfect size map for a lunch break.
  
  
• Vault - Revan114
  Doom 2 - ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 3965353 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: scifista42
  This is a small map. You need ZDoom to play it, but the only notable advanced features are simple generalized linedef types, textures used as flats and vice versa, one random stealth monster, and the need to use jumping and crouching to access one secret. Otherwise the map could have worked as a Boom or even a vanilla map.
  
  Author is obviously a beginner, but he takes mapping seriously. The map is far from good, but it's also not downright bad at all. It's a reasonably structured and detailed techbase, though the detail usage might feel odd at times, and not really beautiful (I noticed one unclosed sector visual glitch). There are three separate, short and linear paths, each ending with a keycard. Once you get all three keycards, you unlock an exit room full of weapons and stuff, but upon stepping in, the map ends.
  
  Gameplay consists of clearing one cramped room after another, with occasional small-scale monster ambushes. There's not much more to it, in terms of interesting combat situations. Most enemies are low-tier, and even the symmetrical revenant fights weren't difficult. You always have more than enough ammo and powerful weapons, especially if you find the early SSG secret (which is kind of "meh").
  
  The map works as a coherent experience, though, even if the level design and gameplay are too far from top-notch. Nothing impressive for experienced players, but you might like it if your quality and playability standards aren't high. The author has potential for good mapping; now to properly develop it.
  
  
• Swamplands - riderr3
  Ultimate Doom - Vanilla - Solo Play - 120637 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: scifista42
  E2M1 replacement for Ultimate Doom. Author states it's vanilla compatible, and it pretty much is. However, a certain area near the exit has a lot of detail and it's possible to exceed vanilla limits there, so I recommend a limit removing port.
  
  This map is a sandbox-style, exploration based, enormously long and unintuitive adventure. Look at the first picture. Actually, it shows only a very small fraction of the map's entirety. Fortunately, the nukage is non-damaging, but on the other hand, there are barons and cyberdemons (!) freely roaming around the outdoors, and they're likely to kill you early on, catching you unprepared. Buildings have cramped indoors, mostly green SLADWALL corridors filled with imps and shotgunguys (sometimes they shoot out of windows). The second screenshot shows one of the larger indoor areas. Texture schemes and choices are rather monochromatic, but not entirely.
  
  Overall the map feels really oldschool in this regard. You'll have to travel enormous distances between playable areas, overcome a couple non-obvious switch or teleport puzzles, and then, if you happen to not have an appropriate skull key, your journey turns out as needless and you'll have to go searching elsewhere and return later. I needed to revisit certain areas more than five times before advancing properly. Kind of uncomfortable progression.
  
  With both easy and challenging situations, gameplay is moderately hard. But its main characteristic is that it's not very entertaining for most of the time. You don't have ammo and weapons to deal with the cyberdemons early on, so you have to explore first - and it's going to take a long time, trust me.
  
  The map's final area is 1) hard and tedious to reach, and 2) different from the rest of the map. It's well and nicely detailed, and provides a horde-slaughter gameplay. Hopefully you've brought all the powerful weapons with you, because the battle is not easy to skip and monster count there is pretty extreme (and there are more cyberdemons).
  
  This is not a map for modern-day players who want to be served all the fun right to them. Here, there's a need to explore, accept the map's oldschool feel and gimmickiness, and reconcile yourself with all the long traveling between places. As long as you don't mind this, I believe you can enjoy the map. It's possible to get to every corner and kill all monsters, and the author has put thought and effort into the map's playability. If anything, Riderr3 still needs to learn how to do it in a proper player-friendly way.
  
  
• 200 minutes of /vr/ - Various
  Doom 2 - Limit Removing - Solo Play - 1298373 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: scifista42
  A new speedmapping megawad of 33 maps in vanilla format. Each map was made within the limit of 200 minutes, which is 3 hours and 20 minutes. The challenge was organized at /vr/ "Retro Games" board of 4chan.org. Among the contributors to this project, there's only a couple names you might be familiar with from Doomworld forums (Onslaught Six, Sergeant Mark IV). Multiple mappers even submitted their maps anonymously!
  
  First thing to note, you need to consider these maps as speedmaps. If they weren't speedmaps, I wouldn't particularly like them. None of them has visuals that I'd describe as "nice", and they often play mediocre or are tad too simple. In my view, the majority of the mappers here didn't prove a special speedmapping talent, like for example Obsidian did in his (unrelated) 32-hour full megawad Countdown to Extinction. But as I said, these are just speedmaps from various people interested in Doom. For time-limited works, some of these maps are not that bad, and some even come up with pretty interesting ideas (even if half-baked). I know speedmapping isn't easy; I'm terrible at it myself, after all. Speedmappers need to focus on important parts of the gameplay in the first place. And admittedly, the maps here manage it well enough, more or less. I haven't encountered a single game-breaking problem.
  
  Maps 01-08 are rather dull, with simple idea-less gameplay, full of default texturing, misalignments and garish looks. MAP01 is about the best of them, as it's elaborate enough, considering the time limit. MAP07 is a blatant Dead Simple arena clone. Things start getting interesting around MAP09 - that's a well structured map with decently challenging moments. Still quite garish, though, like most maps. MAP10 has a clever jumping puzzle, and while simple, still has decent overall structure, complete with nukage pits, lifts, stairs, and some outdoors. MAP11 manages to be a nice, abstract, thematically unified, almost IWAD-like simple map. MAP12 also has an unifying theme and thought-out gameplay, but rather ugly and incoherent visuals. Maps 13-21 are relatively good, MAP14 in particular stands out for its extensiveness and overall work-out. MAP21 is also memorable for a certain "semi-realistic" charm. MAP22 features huge areas in contrast with cramped rooms; enemy placement feels random for the most part, but it's not bad. Maps 23 and 24 are simple in structure, but work well gameplay-wise. MAP25 - balanced quite badly and you're likely to be killed by a surprise archvile + demon horde ambush. MAP26 - a decent looking and well structured map. MAP27 - just a big arena and exercise in circle-strafing. MAP28 - damn hard. MAP29 - short, but very difficult berserk punching exercise in dark and really cramped rooms; this is the kind of speedmap like I'd probably make myself if I got the task, with effective but noticeably lazy design. MAP30 - Icon of Sin fight with an interesting twist: there are multiple Icons, and you need to find the one with open brain hole, get in front of it and quickly fire a rocket before it closes, then another hole opens and you have to repeat until he dies in three rockets. I liked it better than usual IOS fights. MAP31 - Nazi fortress with some outdoors and a non-serious music track. MAP32 - "Run and escape!" kind of map, simple structure, extreme height differences and lifts. MAP33 is big and long, partly featuring simple combat, partly extreme and dangerous hordes of monsters.
  
  You need to try the maps for yourselves. Some of them have good enough ideas and implementation to appeal to you, others not really. Again, for speedmaps, many of these aren't bad at all. They do their job: provide reasonable gameplay, new environments to explore, and more or less amounts of fun. For the good stuff in the megawad, and if you are okay with unpleasant visuals, it might be worth your time to check out.
  
  
• Adage - Obsidian
  Doom 2 - Vanilla - Solo Play - 113456 bytes - (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: scifista42
  A very small and short map, using Gothic textures and an ambient music track. According to the author's words, it's a birthday map for WildWeasel, made "in the space of one day" (even though Obsidian is known for being a very quick speedmapper).
  
  The map looks pretty good and plays okay. Your only weapons are pistol and single shotgun, but opposition isn't tough. Well... You'll face a couple tougher monsters, and some encounters rely on teleporting or insta-pop enemies. Overall difficulty stays very low. Nice for one-go quick fun with low challenge involved, but unfortunately there's practically no replay value.
  
  
• plums' skystravaganza - plums
  N/A - N/A - N/A - 1397818 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: scifista42
  This wad is primarily a resource of custom sky textures. 40 sky textures in total! All of them were made by plums. The wad contains a demonstrational MAP01 to show all of the skies in the game. Plums allows anyone to use these skies for their own purposes. As he states: "You may do whatever you want with the contents of this file. Credit is appreciated but not required."
  
  The skies are either edited Doom graphics, or based on photos. There are space skies, cloudy skies, natural skies, city skies, surreal skies and even remastered IWAD skies! They're variously sized (256 to 1024 wide) and most of them can be tiled vertically, which is a plus. The skies all look nice, more or less; some are relatively simple, some more elaborate. Just make a pick. 40 skies! Good to have such a resource to grab skies from.
  
  Also, certain purple sky textures are re-included in the wad in .png format to possibly allow anyone to recolor them or adjust them to custom palette.
  
  

Let me guess; one of those reviewers doesn't know how to properly appreciate a WAD that you liked this week. Want to do something about it? Instead of complaining in the comment thread like you always do, perhaps you can make a difference and write some better reviews than those idiots up there. The /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Put that Doomworld Forums account to constructive use, because you need one to submit reviews.

[Canofbacon]

scifista42 said:

It makes every monster spawn awfully extreme amounts of blood or gore, whenever the monster enters its pain state or gets killed. Particles of this blood and gore are the stock Doom(2) ones. Blood disappears after a brief moment, while gore remains in the level forever, and will slow down your framerate very quickly.

Ye son that's that realism in effect.

[mouldy]

scifista42 is the king of newstuff.

[Obsidian]

mouldy said:

scifista42 is the king of newstuff.

Reminds me of one edition where Creaphis just reviewed almost everything in the Review Center. "CreaphisStuff Chronicles" was a rather apt name for it.

[kmxexii]

the newstuff queue is looking pretty short right now, thanks to all of the BAD DUDES (esp. scifista) so far during this long and arduous campaign. i wanted to do a lot more but a lot of stuff came up so ive been being a newstuff cheerleader. the more voices talking about doom, the better, so keep on keepin on

and

once more, with feeling

[joe-ilya]

Ever since 1024abc was being able to get reviewed, "snakes" never stops taking the slot, it gets expired and then he takes it over and over again, what's the point of that? Is he drunk?

[dew]

Calm down. It's not like you can review your own work yourself and it's far from the bottom of the stack. Afaik Snakes is still playing the wad, so maybe he wants to have a thorough opinion on it. Free time is scarce for some and in my case I also need to wait for the proper writing groove. I hogged Pirate Doom for two weeks and it was still my fastest review, heh.

[kmxexii]

joe-ilya said:

Ever since 1024abc was being able to get reviewed, "snakes" never stops taking the slot, it gets expired and then he takes it over and over again, what's the point of that? Is he drunk?

chill out, dude, snakes is a certified BAD DUDE

[Memfis]

Yeah, Snakes writes nice texts about maps, I once sent him a random lev (the one that ended up in DMP2013) and he gave me lots of interesting and useful comments.

[joe-ilya]

Memfis said:

Yeah, Snakes writes nice texts about maps, I once sent him a random lev (the one that ended up in DMP2013) and he gave me lots of interesting and useful comments.

Then I'm looking forward for it, is he like doing a big review of each gaming map? I mean, it's been 2 months since he's been doing that.

[RjY]

scifista42 on 200 minutes of /vr/

there's only a couple names you might be familiar with from Doomworld forums (Onslaught Six, Sergeant Mark IV).

Evidently I need to raise my profile ;-)

In my view, the majority of the mappers here didn't prove a special speedmapping talent [...]

I believe the idea of the time limit was not so much to produce speedmaps as it was just to get the /vr/doom regulars, many of whom had never mapped before, to stop thinking about it and actually start mapping. The original project announcement also had a "get your maps done by Friday" clause. It was a great idea on the part of the founder (whose identity is still a mystery to me) - several maps were posted even by the first day.

I haven't encountered a single game-breaking problem.

It's nice to hear this! In all fairness it was a bugfixed speedmap wad. Some maps, especially the earlier submissions, were released in varying states of brokenness (Boomisms, ZDoomisms, crashes...) - it took a while before vanilla-only was even agreed upon. There are still two maps with drawsegs overflows, not mentioning the secret bonus map which only started as a 200 minute map. And of course that pit at the start of map18 that I missed completely...

[MAP29] is the kind of speedmap like I'd probably make myself if I got the task, with effective but noticeably lazy design.

It may seem lazy to those accustomed to the amenities of full 3d preview/editing modes and "press button to perfect textures" features, but in Yadex I have to do all that manually :P Seriously it took the full 200 minutes to construct, populate, and test on all three skill levels - I had given up two previous attempts after an hour or so upon realising that they were never going to fit in the time.

[...] it might be worth your time to check out.

Thank you for the fair and favourable review. I will also link to dew's FDA report as a complement to it.

[joe-ilya]

I'm going to do a 5th review for the next chronicle.

[dg93]

Good job BAD DUDES, the newstuff query isn't as backlogged like the way it was a couple of months ago. Keep at it.

[Foofoo]

hey, the piece of crap pirate wad doesnt goddamn work. a whole bunch of gzdooom errors im getting.

edit: downloaded a newer version of gzdoom and its all good to go.

its quite beautiful imo. congrats to the creator/s. (although the game did crash on level 11, i think. the level after 'the lost city').

[Snakes]

joe-ilya said:

Ever since 1024abc was being able to get reviewed, "snakes" never stops taking the slot, it gets expired and then he takes it over and over again, what's the point of that? Is he drunk?

Pretty much constantly, yes. I procrastinate when I drink.

The reality is I claimed it before I started playing it and run through the maps in chunks. I'm pretty determined to actually post the review this time, so chillax.

[Darch]

Foofoo said:

hey, the piece of crap pirate wad doesnt goddamn work. a whole bunch of gzdooom errors im getting.

edit: downloaded a newer version of gzdoom and its all good to go.

its quite beautiful imo. congrats to the creator/s. (although the game did crash on level 11, i think. the level after 'the lost city').

hah, this guy is alive. I like your maps, specially Grove. About that crap pirate wad, I don't know what might be crashing it on your end, maybe try it without fog? You can turn it off on GZdoom options. Or IDCLEV53 to skip this map. BTW, thanks for the review dew, hilarious text. Yeah I map like a dairy farmer, I know, I hear that all the time.