Hello there, Agent Spork here again for another edition of the /newstuff Chronicles. What surprises will this week's additions to the idgames archive bring? Will Millennium finally be released? How about Mordeth? Well, I'm sorry to say neither of those things landed in /newstuff. I just wanted to get your hopes up for no reason. There are, however, a couple of good levels, and quite a few not so good levels. Beats the hell out of Millennium any day if you ask me. Now, on with the party.
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Armadosia the Mad Corridor - Arma Kero
doom2.exe - Solo Play - 10159 KB -
Armadosia is a megawad of 32 maps for Doom 2. The maps themselves could be considered pretty average by today's standards, as they are pretty bland in terms of both detail and gameplay. While there's a couple of maps I found wortwhile, the majority of them just weren't very much fun at all. This megawad also features a wealth of new textures, the majority of which look.. well.. strange. In addition to the bland level design and gameplay, and the strange new textures, there's also absolutely no new music to be seen, so it's 32 levels of normal Doom 2 music. What fun.
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Barrel Bash - DarkWolf
Legacy - Solo Play - 8 KB -
Now here's a pretty interesting concept. You're in an arena. Exploding barrels constantly spawn in the middle of said arena. There are imps looming about, which could either hit you, or blow up the barrels. We're not done yet, though! There's also a circle of spinning Imp fireballs slowly looming toward you, while also blowing up any barrels it runs across in its pursuit. Your mission is to survive as long as possible under these circumstances. DarkWolf has been known to bring about some interesting Doom Legacy maps in the past, and this is one of them.
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CrossFire - Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal
Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 313 KB -
This map pisses me off. Why, you ask? Well, it only further proves that Kaiser obviously doesn't know how to make a bad map. It's just not possible. CrossFire is a large, outdoorsy map with very nonlinear gameplay. The map has some very mild influences from PSXDoom and some of the maps from the Master Levels collection, both of which I am quite fond of. The maps may not have super extreme detail like, say, KDiZD, but it still looks stunning nevertheless. With gameplay equally as good, the map is definitely one of the best of the week.
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Blood Isle - Alex "Tac" Tacinelli
doom2.exe - Solo Play - 282 KB -
Unfortunately, I can't really give this map a full review, as I`m not even sure what I'm supposed to do on this map. What I saw didn't look all that bad, but it wasn't much; A single techy room with a teleporter that leads to the outside of a huge structure which I guess I'm supposed to work my way into. However, I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what to do after that. I found myself circling around the massive structure, finding absolutely no way to get in. So... I gave up. If anyone knows what I'm supposed to do, feel free to tell me. Oh, and I might add that the choice in music is a little bit.. strange.
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Scourge - James "Phobus" Cresswell
ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 1458 KB -
Scourge is a 23-level megawad for ZDoom by Phobus. According to the text file, it took over two years to make, which, in case you don't know, is a pretty long time. During that time, as also stated in the text file, the author's mapping abilities, and even the editor he used changed during the development of this megawad. As you would expect, it's a mixed bag. Some of the maps are fairly good looking, while others are... less so. Some maps can be pretty entertaining to play, while others can be quite dull. If you don't mind the varying levels of both detail and gameplay throughout the course of this megawad, then I'd give it a try.
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TGRDM1b - Nicholas G.
Skulltag - Deathmatch - 307 KB -
Here we have a wad by Nicholas G., a newcomer to mapping, with a ten map deathmatch wad for Skulltag. Most of the maps included in this WAD are either completely symmetrical or suffer from what I like to call Halo syndrome (extreme copy/paste). I tested a few of the maps with a couple of bots, and didn't find them to be all that entertaining.
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WASTED: UAC Waste Facility #253 - Rusty Slacker
Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 185 KB -
Another first time mapping attempt (or at least, a first time release), only this time from a fellow by the name of Rusty Slacker. This map is, if you cannot already tell by the map's title, a waste facility of sorts. The map looks fairly decent for a first release, and the gameplay is pretty good aside from a couple of flaws. There's only one radiation suit in the map that I could find, and I ended up dying after it ran out trying to snatch the blue key which happens to be sitting in the middle of some nukage. There are also some inescapable pits of nukage, which I found annoying.
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OMG!!!! WHY is PuMpKiNsMaShEr still Mapping? - PumpkinSmasher
Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 390 KB -
"Why IS PumpkinSmasher still mapping?" is the first thing I thought of when I looked at the title of this map. Actually no, I'm joking. OMG!!!! WHY is PuMpKiNsMaShEr still Mapping? is a map by some guy whose name I can't remember (it's not like his name is in the title or anything). The map has a varying theme, with some areas using techbase style textures, and others with obvious hellish influence (mostly the latter). Overall it's a good map, with decent detail and good gameplay to boot. Definitely an improvement over some of the other maps I've seen from him in the past.
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