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    The /newstuff Chronicles #246

    duncan

    By duncan

    Welcome to another edition of /newstuff where I happen to host a distinct lack of new stuff. Most of those that aren't from 1994 look like they are. After sifting through a mountain of utter tosh, we come out with only a dwarf's handful of maps to play, and even they aren't that good. See what you can find among this lot to pass your time this week.

    • Bartshouse 2.0 - Bart McKendree
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 23KB -
      Right well, I was faced with a dilemma. Some reviewers mention these some don't. Some readers want them mentioned, some don't. I had a distinct lack of time, so I admit my playing each of these was a rush job. To make all happy, I WILL review them, but they will be very short and I'll get them out of the way first. I remember playing this one along time ago. It was rubbish then and is rubbish now. Meant to look like the inside of a house. It doesn't.

    • Theatre Of Doom - James Wilson
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 83 KB -
      Designed to be like a cinema and is one of the better 1994 Wads. Still ghastly.

    • DMJon - Jon Grieve
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 70 KB -
      I’ll quote: More of a collection of things he just tried out. See for yourself.

    • DMLaw - Unknown
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 35 KB -
      Meh, another 94 Wad. Good at the time I’d imagine. Awful now.

    • DMMisi - Unknown
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 18 KB -
      This probably wasn’t even good in 1994. It certainly isn’t now. (Sorry, these reviews aren’t helping, I should ignore them.)

    • Demongate v1.0 - Tony Lipscomb
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 33 KB -
      Inferno style 1994 wad--more joy.

    • Be Quick or Be Dead - Steve Faille
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 43 KB -
      The only thing more irritating about this map than the actual level is the name...

    • DMSFG - Ben Jordan
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 243 KB -
      Nine levels of 1994 rubbish instead of 1--so 9 times more to hate. This is so old that the author has to reveal the secret that monsters actually fight each other--my, how this will make my playing challenge a lot more lenient.

    • Welcome - Neil Reaner
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 45 KB -
      ...back to 1994 again. I love you Funduke. For review purposes, this is no better.

    • Whacker - Bobby Eddins
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 21 KB -
      A DM map of an arena that Funduke says looks original--maybe so, in 1994. You’d enjoy DM-ing in Doom 2 more.

    • DMLamou - Unknown, or if he is, he hasn't put it in the right place in the text file
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 522 KB -
      Two 1994 wads in one, both with hard gameplay--and predicatably nasty design. Avoid.

    • dmrsndpw - Unknown
      doom.exe - n/a - 238KB -
      Oh isn't this great. It's Doom with the f-word. *sarcastic applause*

    • Waffenmod - Kaiser Martins
      doom.exe - n/a - 379 KB -
      Okay that's the 94 maps outta the way!
      This mod changes weapon and soldier graphics to WW2 type images. A slightly new slant that could add a certain something for a few minutes at least. Oh, there are sounds too.

    • Alpha! - Chronoteeth
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 772 KB -
      Another new weapons mod, sorry I was stuck for time and couldn’t find EDGE on my cluttered computer so instead followed the author’s advice and provided a link for EDGE and a link for the map--try it yourself! I’m sure it’s great.

      http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2232

      Enjoy!

    • MGFX - Kaiser Martens
      doom.exe - n/a - 142 KB -
      Urmm the resources for Waffen.wad....take it if you want.

    • Dupe - GiltyGear
      doom.exe - Solo Play - 30 KB -
      Well another Doom 1 offering and not from Funduke this time. It’s actually pretty playable for a first time mapper creating a Doom 1 map. Give it a go, pretty fun and passes some time if you have no life like me. Haven’t got screenies for this as it was Doom 1 and I haven’t programmed a screenshot button.

    • Cavern - Zigmund Oswell
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 119 KB -
      This is ugly--we’re talking Jackie Stallone ugly here--random textures, awful gameplay, irritatingly long and repetitive lifts. *Sigh* If I don’t get a good map soon I’m going to cry.

    • Aquafina - Jacob H Orloff
      ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 31 KB -
      Was it me that reviewed you last time? Big piece of advice that will see steady improvement--stop trying to complete maps in a week. This is an improvement, but there is still little detail here. Good gameplay, very good try, and there is significant progress. Keep at it, take your time.
      Best map so far however--and that’s depressing.

    • Himmelfh - Kaiser Martens
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 81 KB -
      A level from the author of Waffenmod. Mistexturing, lava pillars with SS guards, HOMs and that was all in the first two rooms--which is all I played to. I don’t imagine you’d have the willpower to go any further.

    • Blofeld X - Didy
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 1007 KB -
      Finally a set of maps that are decent and worth playing. That’s not to say they are brilliant but in comparison to what we’ve had so far--6 maps, mostly outdoor areas, easy enemies, smooth playing, large rooms, some nice detail. One of my main qualms is the fact places look very big and bare. Overall, a good set of maps.

    • Inside of the Gray Building - Lucifer "Diablo" Kaminski
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 34 KB -
      What can I say? It’s a first map, in a grey building. I’ll be fair, there is effort here, but it’s your run of the mill first map really. All aligned as the text file promises. Good attempt, look forward to progressively higher quality offerings from this author in the near future.

    • Machine - Jacek "Illdo" Dobrzyniecki
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 30 KB -
      Sorry, but if I was as nice as I was in my last /newstuff, this may have escaped with a positive "well at least you tried". Unfortunately I’m in a bad mood--this sucks. Big style. Attempts at detail are rare and when done are out of place (see example pic of blood) and texturing is all over the place.

    • Missile - Chris Valentine
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 46 KB -
      Limited to just a rocket launcher (or missile launcher as the author calls it) there are several dashes along narrow ledges crammed with enemies. Inventive. Average enough design which becomes bland and repetitive and the gameplay is just plain irritating.

    • Outahere - Zigmund Ozwell
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 173 KB -
      Pretty nice. Some good detail and some nice intense gameplay to enjoy. There is no fixed theme and some areas are a bit random but structuring and design is done well and item and monster placement are very good. Plus there’s something very satisfying about mowing down soldiers with a double minigun.

    • Rockisle - Zigmund Ozwell
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 222 KB -
      Excellent, we have something of quality. Two maps set around white rock caverns. A cold theme is present with great height variations and intricate detail. A very good play, give it a go.

    • Superfly - Jim Jankowski
      doom2.exe - Solo Play - 71 KB -
      There are some nice rooms but textures vary quite a bit, sometimes for no apparent reason. Lighting is done pretty well and overall it’s a well designed map. Nothing out of the ordinary, worth a whirl.



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    Hobbs
    kristus said:

    Well, that's a very insightful opinion you express there, however I disagree and think Duncan did a pretty good job reviewing a rather unintresting lineup in very short time.


    Thats your right. I swear I haven't seen a really excellent /newstuff since the last one Scuba did. The wads either sucked very badly or the reviewer shouldn't have been reviewing anything. Or, like this week, both occured.

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    Hobbs
    Bloodshedder said:

    All right, that's it, we're cancelling newstuff! It all sucks anyways.

    huzzah

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    Fletcher`
    RjY said:

    if you're making maps just to get good reviews you're doing it for the wrong reason, but it's true---if you show your map to the internet, you're obviously looking for other people to play it, and saying "oh I love making maps just for the sake of it" is so much hogwash. If you were doing that you wouldn't need to release them and hang around the forums waiting for newstuff every week, would you?!

    Protip: Map for yourself First, others Second.

    Edit: I agree with most of what Duncan has said in here.

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    julz_d
    RjY said:

    I had this idea the other day:

    Newstuff would be better if instead of it being one guy each week you get several people each of whom specialise in different types of maps or source ports or whatever to do the reviews. For example:

    • somebody who likes old maps to do those
    • somebody else who plays deathmatch a lot to do the multiplayer stuff
    • people who prefer zdoom/skulltag/legacy/edge to review releases for those engines
    • even someone who appreciates weapon mods, I mean, say I had to review a weapons mod, I wouldn't give it a favourable treatment because I'm just not into weapons mods. But some people are, and they should be the ones to review each other's work, I guess.
    And so forth. Then each week one of the admins or news posters would have to collect the parts together and post it. It'd probably be too hard to organise but might solve some problems.

    It won't raise the signal to noise ratio of uploaded wads but I can't see how to do that other than the good mappers stopping being lazy and getting their projects out the door :grin:

    Of course the other thing is the standard for what counts as a decent wad in most people's minds is high enough that making one takes a lot of talent, time and effort. This can put new potential talent off, rather than encourage it to be developed---especially getting a one-line mostly negative review from an unappreciative reviewer, after possibly hours of work. I think it's as much a thing for newstuff to encourage authors as well as provide an overview for players.

    I realise people say that if you're making maps just to get good reviews you're doing it for the wrong reason, but it's true---if you show your map to the internet, you're obviously looking for other people to play it, and saying "oh I love making maps just for the sake of it" is so much hogwash. If you were doing that you wouldn't need to release them and hang around the forums waiting for newstuff every week, would you?!


    Now that is a really good idea!

    You need to find a TRUE oldskooler to review the 1994 (or 1994 style) maps. I've haven't seen very many of these older wads get a very extensive review. It would be a good idea to find somone who doesn't say something like "its old, its no good because its old and not up to todays standards." Gotta find someone who appreciates the older wads and gives them fair reviews for their time period.

    Also yes, you need someone who knows their DM to review a DM wad. There are a lot of people who don't even play Doom multiplayer. I'm a mapper and most of my time goes into multiplayer maps like DM and CTF. I play a lot on Zdaemon (wich is where most of the mp wads get played). This also ties into the whole reviewer by port idea. Have a person who plays a lot of zd or skulltag do these kind of reviews.

    As for new SP wads, that seems to be the main focus for DW reviewers, so leave that as is.

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    deathz0r
    HobbsTiger1 said:

    The wads either sucked very badly or the reviewer shouldn't have been reviewing anything. Or, like this week, both occured.

    Feel free to take this week, then. Until I see you (or anyone else) do a /newstuff review, don't fucking complain. At the current moment, myself and Duncan are the only people who are doing /newstuff regularly, and I'm more than willing to give up this week (or any other week I have) to give any shit stirring mong an oppurtunity to do the hard work themselves. Tormentor "the saviour of the ZDoom community" did the exact same thing ages ago, and he changed his opinion quickly after he finished writing the reviews.

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    Hobbs
    deathz0r said:

    Feel free to take this week, then. Until I see you (or anyone else) do a /newstuff review, don't fucking complain. At the current moment, myself and Duncan are the only people who are doing /newstuff regularly, and I'm more than willing to give up this week (or any other week I have) to give any shit stirring mong an oppurtunity to do the hard work themselves. Tormentor "the saviour of the ZDoom community" did the exact same thing ages ago, and he changed his opinion quickly after he finished writing the reviews.


    Tell you what deathz0r. Don't get you panties in a bunch. I promise for the next, lets say the next three, weeks I abso-fucking-lutley guaruntee you I wont bitch. If it makes you happy.

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    darknation
    HobbsTiger1 said:

    Tell you what deathz0r. Don't get you panties in a bunch. I promise for the next, lets say the next three, weeks I abso-fucking-lutley guaruntee you I wont bitch. If it makes you happy.

    are you menstruating right now?

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    Hobbs
    mallis said:

    are you menstruating right now?


    Does the parade end? (Answer only when you've figured out the question, because I'm going to ignore any idiotic response that has absolutely no relation to what was asked).

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    mystery8

    Dupe - Not bad. But not great either. Was fun to play, but not a keeper.

    Outahere - Very nice. I like outdoor maps and this one works well.

    Rockisle - Pleasing to the eye and fun to play.

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