The /newstuff Chronicles #265

Weasel returns for another round of newstuffage. I'm late enough as it is, so I'll forgo the typical introduction crap and get on with the damn reviews already because I'm sure you people have waited long enough.

• The Shadow War - Bryan Garza
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 12 KB
  A seriously poor deathmatch map that runs on Map15. Rather than make some semblance of balanced gameplay, we have several fundamental rules shattered here. Invisible deathtraps? Check. Inescapable crushing ceilings over Supercharge? Check. All the good weapons are piled next to each other, it seems (one hallway contains the SSG, Plasma, and Chainsaw right next to each other). The texturing is just plain awful and doesn't follow any sort of theme. Dodge away from this one.
  
  
• Weaps - Daniel
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 10044 KB -
  Daniel, not satisfied with releasing 99weaps a long time ago, has released this gargantuan package containing 18 individual weapon mods. Now tell me - did this guy learn his practices from used car dealers? Volume is not the concept we ought to be using for Doom mods. Just because there's 18 mods in one zip file doesn't mean that they'll all be good. Or unique. I'll go through each one on its own merits.
  
  weap01 - The guns from neodoom.wad, which includes 3 "Infractions" - the Shadow Warrior shotgun, that stupid 3D-rendered chaingun, and Cory Whittle's knife (you're NOT supposed to rip that stuff! Come on!).
  weap02 - Mostly ICD-SE graphic edits (again, you're NOT supposed to rip that stuff - Cory Whittle says so in his text file!), a shotgun that has an odd reloading animation after each shot, and the Smartgun from Aliens TC. Also contains the most annoying-sounding chainsaw replacement ever.
  weap03 - Almost entirely edits of the original Doom weapons, mostly well done, but the BFG looks a little odd in places, and the Devastator from Duke 3D is vastly overpowered.
  weap04 - Mostly hitscans, using Shadow Warrior, Duke 3D, and Cory Whittle rips. And guess what? Another Quad Shotgun! That makes 2 so far out of the whole pack.
  weap05 - More "realistic" weapons - unfortunately, severely overpowered. And it's possible to kill yourself quite easily with the plasma replacement, which destroys the gameplay in several maps.
  weap06 - Absurdly overpowered. The SSG fires three blasts at once. The BFG is utterly worthless though.
  weap07 - The cartooniest of the cartoony, using some very old Scuba Steve weapons that just don't stand up in quality today. The plasma is underpowered and the shotgun replacement is just too powerful.
  weap08 - You play as an Imp in this one, and the effect is pretty well pronounced aside from the human weapons thrown into the bunch (the two shotguns, chaingun, and chainsaw could have been replaced with better Impy or demonic-type replacements). It's probably one of the best in this pack.
  weap09 - Mostly stuff from the alphas, with some stuff from Doom 64 and the grenade launcher from Shadow Warrior (at least it's not the damn quad shotgun again). I kinda like some of the sounds in here.
  weap10 - Odd futuristic stuff, with some model rips and 1 Infraction (the stupid 3D chaingun render). Oddly placed sounds, and the shotgun is too fast.
  weap11 - It...SEEMS normal at first glance. But then you see the SSG replacement (a pair of boobs) and hear the ammo pickup sounds and stuff...this is not a normal weapon mod. You have a chaingun made of lego. You have a Smarties cannon. You have the ability to hock Mega Loogies as your BFG replacement. Joy. It is a little obnoxious though (like the belching for finding secrets in ZDoom, and the fart sounds for ammo pickups).
  weap12 - um...strange. A lot of Shadow Warrior, some Scuba Steve, and a model rip I did years ago (it looked like crap then, it looks like crap now). Overpowered mostly, and the BFG unleashes a naked Siren (ALERT: If you're under 18 years of age, don't use the BFG!).
  weap13 - gaahh...Here we have some Cory Whittle rips (FOR SHAME, DANIEL!), and about the crappiest looking Plasma, Chainsaw, and BFG replacements I've ever seen.
  weap14 - A disjointed package of odd guns. Powerslave's machete, the war blade (which has made its appearance in about 50% of these so far), a few Scuba Steve guns, the pulse rifle from Aliens TC, and...where the hell did that BFG come from? It looks awful.
  weap15 - Scuba Steve, HacX, and some edited Doom weapons (and one from Doom 2.5). It's vastly overpowered, much like many of the other ones in this pack.
  weap16 - Sin City, I suppose. It's all in black and white and consists mainly of pistols, the chaingun from Equinox, and some odd detonator as a BFG replacement.
  weap17 - Primarily energy weapons. It keeps to its theme pretty well, but the aesthetics need work (mainly, these are rips from Dark Forces, Skynet, and a couple guns from Xaser's wads).
  weap18 - This's gotta be the weirdest one of the bunch (outside of 11). The shotgun is bigger than the super shotgun, the chainsaw makes watery noises, and...well, it's just odd. But it's still overpowered.
  
  Overall, I'd give this one a miss. There are far better mods on the archives. Daniel, if you're reading this, QUALITY OVER QUANTITY.
  
  
• Hotel of Tragedy - Jacek \
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 129 KB -
  From Illdo comes a neat little SP level, which while it sports rather simplistic detail and a rather ugly Hell section, also has quite some fun factor and a decent challenge to it (though there is a particularly cheap room with a shotgunner and four chaingunners that kept killing me). Overall, a promising effort, and I'd like to see more from Illdo. Pick of the week.
  
  
• Ni! - Juan Manuel \
  ZDoom Compatible - Deathmatch - 10 KB -
  A simplistic DM map, with a fair bit of detail and quite a lot of weaponry in it. It's very small though. And while the text file says it needs a ZDoom compatible port, I was unable to determine what about this map required ZDoom. While I had no luck getting it running in PRBoom+, I did manage to get it working in EDGE with no errors (though DM'ing in EDGE is impossible since it lacks multiplayer support). It'd be good fun for a one-on-one match, and it'd be pretty fastpaced as well because it lacks doors or lifts.
  
  
• SVStrife 1.4 - Kaiser
  Strife Support - Solo Play - 1775 KB
  Outside of ZDoom/GZDoom, this is the only good way to play Strife in Windows. It's based on PRBoom, so whatever you liked about PRBoom, you'll like about this as well. It's a solid port.