The /newstuff Chronicles #297

Yes yes, it's finally here, the /newstuff you've all been waiting for, courtesy of myself (Tango). AlexMax was a big lazy bum and only finished 1/3 of the reviews he was supposed to, so I talked to him and Bloodshedder on Friday and finished everything. So blame AlexMax for not seeing any reviews for so long.

I apologize for such short and crappy reviews on my part, but at least I'm not a furry lion. Oh, and I'm sorry for having such a crappy intro. I blame that on AlexMax too. Props to th0r for reviewing "All i want is hate TNT".

By the way, I played the maps using Skulltag. Why? I don't know. :(

AlexMax's Reviews:

• Austerity - A Simplicity Tribute - Daniel "Tormentor667" Gimmer
  GZDoom - Solo Play - 2920 kb -
  Oh goodie, another overdetailed Tormentor667 map. The good news is that, unlike some of his previous maps, this one is actually not that bad to play...at least not at first. This map is 100% small arms, shotguns, SSGs and chainguns are the order of the day, and you're given a torrent of monsters to use them on, none too powerful or ridiculous. To be quite honest, the map was pretty fun. However, what I didn't find fun was Tormentor's penchant for restocking all of the places I had already fought through with another new fresh wave of monsters after I had already been through them. This isn't normally a problem in most maps, but I felt like Tormentor went a bit overboard in the 'restocking' phase. Of course his architecture looks fairly similar throughout the map, but I've got to hand it to Tormentor, his variation in architecture has vastly improved since his Sapphire days. Oh, and I had a nice screenshot where there was a ton of HOM in a room near the red key, but I decided to be charitable and not post it, it's easy enough to see as is. Next time, Tormentor, if you claim your map works in ZDoom and GZDoom, you might want to actually play your map in ZDoom to see if there are any glaring HOMs in it.
  
  
• Halvung 1024 - Stupidhead
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 392 kb -
  Two more entries into the pile of 1024 maps that have been accumulating recently. Difficulty-wise, there isn't much terribly wrong with it except for a cyberdemon at the end of the second map. However, visually, the whole affair looks pretty messy due to the whole "column of lights" thing it has going on. The modified palette looks interesting at first, but with his choice of textures, it looks very garish. However, if I had a single huge complaint about this mapset, is that all of the maps have nonstandard doors that close way too fast. Considering the amount of room-to-room combat that goes on, not being able to get that second shotgun shot inbetween door openings is a major pain in the ass. A half-enthusiastic "meh" from me.
  
  
• Frozen Inferno - Ryan "DomRem" Barreras
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 187 kb -
  Whee. This map doesn't last very long at all, but it's fun while it lasts. Well detailed, well laid out and is just a nice map overall. Of course, I do wish it was longer, but I also think that it was a bit too easy, but maybe that was a HNTR adjustment. Whatever, go ahead and take a look.
  
  
• Stone Turmoil - Tango
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 135 kb -
  This is another nice map. It is very nicely embellished, but what I particularly like about it is its layout. Whereas on a map like Aust where backtracking was tedius, on this map it's actually a pleasure due to how nicely the map flows.The fact that the author included the 'original' version of the map in the second map is a nice feature as well. It's a pretty short affair, but it's a blast while it lasts, and is well worth the download.
  
  
• Towers 3000 - Moneyman
  Legacy - Deathmatch - 114 kb -
  Here we have a map for Doom Legacy, a rare sight, and not only that it's a Deathmatch map. And unfortunately, it's not something that particularly makes me want to download and play Legacy for. It makes OK use of 3D floors, and I've certainly played worse maps, and it's certainly not the most terrible looking map I've ever seen, but it's just not a good enough map to stand on its own. I'd pass unless you're specifically trying to play Legacy over the internet and need a throwaway FFA map.
  
  
• Twisted Joke - James \
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 408 kb -
  Here's a fun little Christmas gimmick WAD. It starts out with a 'kill em all' type scenerio, and gradually has you running around looking for three keys so you can open the three-keyed door and face your final challenge. As christmas wads go, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how well made it was, and it was also a fair bit challenging as well. If I have a gripe about it, it's that the christmasy theme was a bit spotty in places, with sections of the level looking quite ordinary, and minimal changes being done to some of the later monsters. Also, I'm not a huge fan of arena 'kill em all' type gameplay, and that tends to pop up here and there on the map. Overall, worth a look.
  
  
• Giulio Galassi Must Die - Wills
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 118 kb -
  Normally, anything Giulio Galassi related would get an instant shithouse from me, but this WAD is actually kind of nicely made, if a bit short. Thankfully, it doesn't try to replicate Mr. Galassi's 'unique' (and by unique I mean stupid) architecture, but tries to be a little classy. I can't say I'm a fan of the overuse of silver on the floors and ceiling, and the cyberdemon at the end...meh, can't you just use an extra-tough baron that's color-shifted and call it done, so I don't actually have to concentrate on the supposedly funny final battle? Also, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't take over my view for a cutscene while imps are clawing me down, but whatever.
  
  
• Nativity in Black - TheUltimateHeretic
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 17 kb -
  Probably as close as you can get to 'pointless' visiting the shithouse. A nativity scene in Doom. No, I'm not kidding. You then flip a switch and kill the entire nativity scene, which is probably the only redeeming factor of the map. At least it's not a particularly terribly map in and of itself.
  
  
• Triple Challenge - Surreily
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 891 kb -
  This set of three maps is pretty standard fare as far as ZDoom maps go. However, as far as quality goes, this one is a step up from say...Austerity. The texturing is clean, reasonably varied - especially on level 2, my favorite of the bunch - and not overdone. The challenge is decent, and I found myself set up in some interesting combat situations especially on the third level. However, I felt like the first map was a little too simplistic, and that the cutscene was completely unnecessary for a map that size. Also, the third level was a step down in architectural variation for the bunch. Still, nothing bad enough to really complain about, and I highly recomend a playthrough.

• #1dwango.wad (legalized version) - Tom Mustaine (a.k.a.: Paradox), Dracos, LONESTAR and some unknown authors
  doom2.exe - Deathmatch - 429 kb -
  Unfortunately, this set of deathmatch maps are actually as bad as the name (dwango) suggests. The layouts themselves are actually worse than what'd you expect from something with the name dwango, probably due to the year it was made. Most of the maps have layouts that look absolutely horrid for deathmatch, not to mention they're filled with monsters. I don't know about you, but I sure wouldn't like to have a group of Chaingunners shooting me while I'm wandering around the map looking for my opponent. Of course, something with the name dwango must also look ugly too, so you should probably cover your eyes.
  Well, at least random deathmatch wads on the archive never get played anyway. Wait, forget that, this one's dwango. Oh well. :(
  
  
• FORTRESS 1024 - Paul Corfiatis
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 103 kb -
  Excellent 1024 map. The layout is certainly interesting, the gameplay entertaining, and the looks appealing. Really, there isn't much to say about the map, aside from it's awesome and you should go play it now.
  
  
• A lost soul - Jodwin
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 94 kb -
  A nice looking map filled with Arch Viles. However, the ammo situation makes the map unplayable. I was constantly running out of ammo while fighting, which is why I quit after playing for only a few minutes. The traps were nice from what I saw, but I don't care to try and finish the map when I end up using a pistol to take out several Arch Viles. I'd love to tell you that this map is fantastic, but the ammo situation sucks so much that you shouldn't even bother.
  
  
• Barrels o'Fun - Milian & Zdaemon community
  ZDoom - Deathmatch - 657 kb -
  Quite a nice looking set of deathmatch maps. The gameplay revolves around the idea that all players look like barrels. Sounds like fun to me, but because I'm banned from Zdaemon and I have no friends, I can't accurately judge the maps, but I'm sure they're probably a barrel of fun (har har).
  
  
• bleah! - Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri
  doom.exe - Solo Play - 55 kb -
  Okay, I'm really not sure whether this wad is supposed to be a joke or not. The author has tried to make the wad oldschool, but it seems more like an E2 ripoff from '95 than something you'd see in 2006. The fights weren't all too bad, with the exception of the Cyberdemon boss fight at the end, which is a total joke. Come on, do you really need to give the player an arena that takes up half of the map to fight two Cyberdemons? Oh, and there are a bunch of cells and a BFG, along with an Invulnerability sphere thrown in. Also, half of the map's gameplay is made up of backtracking across the map just so you can open a door and get another key. Like I said, it's hard to tell if this wad is some sort of a poor jokewad. For whatever reason, the author used circus music or something, and the titlepic is an utterly retarded MSPaint image. I suppose if you're bored and have already played everything on the archives, play this, but otherwise, just don't bother.
  
  
• CerberusComplex - th0r
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 436 kb -
  Not a bad map overall, but it is missing some things that would make me call it anything more than average. The texturing looks quite messy, as flats and textures that are cut into where they probably shouldn't be. Height variation is practically nonexistent in the first portion of the map; I often found myself fighting monsters in rooms that might as well have been perfectly flat.
  Further into the map, the rooms begin to look more interesting, but the quality of the detail remains the same. While it's not boring, the gameplay isn't anything special either. Not a whole lot to say about it, but I'd like to mention that I had to backtrack frequently, which I don't really enjoy. Nevertheless, still probably worth a single play through.
  
  
• The Day the Community Died - Paul Corfiatis
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 166 kb -
  Ugh, I hate jokewads. Basically, you kill some monsters and then watch some Shotgunners fight, half of which resemble members in the Doom community. For some reason, the author decided rape you with 20 Arch Viles if his character dies. Yawn.
  
  
• DominationDuel - th0r
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 148 kb -
  Nice looking, gothic duel map for Skulltag. Like I previously mentioned, I have nobody to play this with (and bots suck), but it looks like fun anyway.
  
  
• DominationDuel2 - th0r
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 1837 kb -
  This time, there are 5 gothic duel maps instead of just one, all of which look slightly more appealing than the first Domination Duel. Map05 in particular seems of high quality, probably because the texturing. If you get the chance to play this, go for it.
  
  
• DEMON DRIVER!!!! - Ed
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 132 kb -
  I have no idea who Yngwie Malmsteen is, or even how to pronounce his name, but this map has some fun mayem. Although killing a giant mob of monsters seems somewhat pointless, it's fun for a while.
  
  
• Deserted - th0r
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 236 kb -
  Once again, a Skulltag duel map, but with an Egyptian theme this time. It's a bit... spacious, which will probably lead to some distant battles. Once again, I can't say whether it's worth a play or not, but try it if you can. Oh, bonus points for Yoshi's Island music.
  
  
• Dyke Project!!!! - Kenesen
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 10 kb -
  Whee, I just love fighting Nazis and Arch Viles in large, random shapes! Oh, by the way, the text file says this requires Risen3D. I couldn't figure out why, so I marked it as limit removing.
  
  
• Exist - th0r
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 1885 kb -
  Better than Th0r's previous maps, but it still suffers from a few similar things that his last single player map did. The hallways are too many and some of the rooms too flat for my tastes, but this map has some more difficult fights than Th0r's last map. The music used seems like a mix between a crappy .mod file from 10-ish years ago and something good that you'd find today. Overall, despite the flatness and hallways, it's better than most of the crap in the archives.
  
  
• Heretic/Hexen sounds - Steve "Vermilion" Thiesmeyer
  Limit Removing - n/a - 430 kb
  Just a bunch of sound replacements. Nothing new.
  
  
• Monolith Part 2 - Richard Wiles
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 112 kb -
  One of the first things that immediately stood out to me in this map was the lack of any music whatsoever. Fortunately, I have an abundance of songs that I don't mind listening to while playing, but knowing that most people are going to sit through D_RUNNIN for the millionth time irritated me. On top of that issue, there were a few other things that bugged me. First of all, the map had some texturing schemes that I personally consider very out of place next to one another. One room would have brick walls, while the room next to it looked like a perfect tech base. Obviously, some people don't mind these things, but I find it odd to have such themes in the same map, especially when they're in rooms directly next to each other. Not only that, there also seemed to be quite a few instances of textures being used alongside flats that didn't match.
  One of the other things that really grinded my gears was the use of FLAT20 in this map. I'm really not much a fan of using FLAT20 to cover large areas, just because it looks so boring and ugly. Light textures were also used to cover larger walls than you'd usually think, but it wasn't anything serious. I don't believe I saw anything that exceeded 64 units wide, but 64 still seems overkill for a texture that's usually used on 16 unit wide lines.
  Aside from these few quirks that I had, the map was superb. The rooms themselves contained many height differences, unlike a certain popular someone I don't care to mention (hehe). The layout also had a very connected feeling and a good flow; definitely something that most maps need more of. In addition to those things, the map boasted high quality ammo and health balance, clever secrets, and ideal weapon progression.
  
  
• Paradox 2 - Tom Mustaine
  doom2.exe - Deathmatch - 17 kb -
  A somewhat vertical deathmatch with some bridges in the middle. I can't comment on the gameplay blah blah try it if you get a chance.
  
  
• The Road to Wolfenstein - mattbratt11
  Legacy - Solo Play - 1606 kb
  Sorry, but this doesn't work in GZDoom, and Legacy doesn't like my computer anymore. :\
  
  
• Songs of the Damned - Trevor Primmett
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 980 kb -
  The map uses a variety of different textures, but still manages to make everything match. Most of the rooms were made up of tan brick, wood, metal and stone, all of which were used in the rather above-average architecture. However, the difficulty aspect really got to me. For the first 10 minutes of the map, I was running around with over 100% health due to a Megasphere I picked up at the beginning. I didn't use any of the stimpacks or medkits supplied to me in the first portion of the map, and hardly had to use anything else once my health ran down to 100% or below. If you ask me, the wide open spaces everywhere could have been put to better use; I only saw but a few monsters sprinkled in the large fields, making dodging barely require any effort. On the other hand, the ammo was perfectly balanced, with only a few spots where I ran out of shells and bullets for more than a few seconds.
  All things considered, it's an awesome map, but the difficulty could use some work.
  
  
• Hell Fucker Castle!!! - Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri
  Heretic Support - Solo Play - 50 kb -
  Design is boxy and plain, but it's a fun map. Worth a play or two.
  
  
• All i want is hate TNT - Walter "Daimon" Confalonieri
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 308 kb -
  Standard map for TNT that doesn't really excite me. You start off in a pretty generic "4 door" room with some really illogical lighting overhead. Very repetitive gameplay at the start, hit a switch that opens a doom behind you and some monsters teleport and so on. There is even a part with many ctrl + v desks with computers on them; really doesn't help the repetitiveness. Includes an edited zombieman sprite. TNT always makes me think of BIG open rooms, but damn, you open up a door into a HUGE area with only one spider mastermind. Ridiculous. There are monsters on the upper levels but come on, Add something to the main area!
  The map includes a section that is supposed to keep you from going into areas you're not supposed to, but it fails. You can easily walk by the things that are supposed to block you. The author really seems to like adding cyberdemons and spidermasterminds, because there are quite a few. Overall, boring, repetitive, illogical, ridiculously large areas, but slightly fun I guess.
  
  
• Reverse Sounds - Unknown
  doom2.exe - n/a - 773 kb
  A wad that reverses all of the sound effects.
  
  
• Odamex CTF - AlexMax, Ralphis, AgentSpork, deathz0r, Toke
  CTF Support - Solo Play - 1725 kb -
  An awesome set of 8 CTF maps with nice music choices.
  
  
• Monolith Part 4 - Richard Wiles
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 166 kb -
  Yet again, Richard Wiles didn't care to put any music in the map; that doesn't prevent the map itself from being terrific, though. Similar to Monolith 2, there are a few areas that abuse FLAT20, but it's still not so much to make any parts of the map look ugly. The general theme in the map is much more consistent than Monolith 2; I didn't see any texturing that looked out of place compared to the rooms next to it.
  For whatever reason, you start right next to a Hell Knight; not a bad thing, but it's odd. As I expected, this map in the Monolith series also had exceptional health/ammo balance. My only complaint about this map is the boss fight. You're put up against a Cyberdemon sitting on a raised platform, but you can easily stand in a spot so that his line of fire is obstructed by the railing bars. Aside from the stupidly easy boss fight, this map is well worthy of your time.
  
  

• endial - paul vallejo
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 168 kb
  Six levels of orthagonal walls, hordes of monsters and ammo and stupidity. Avoid.
  
  
• Doom2 to Doom3 - Cutmanmike
  ZDoom - n/a - 1 kb
  OK, I'll admit, I laughed. But only because I love oldass catchphrases.
  
  
• DOOM2 NEW GFX - DOOM2 UPDATED! - Contundent
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 2360 kb
  A hilariously bad texture replacement WAD. Avoid unless you find such things funny for some sick reason.
  
  
• Manly Confrontation - Maes
  Boom Compatible - Deathmatch - 58 kb
  
  A seriously terrible deathmatch map with no redeeming features. Cramped, gimmicky and altogether not fun. Unworthy of even a throwaway map on DWANGO.
  
  
• The Archives Are Doomed: Gold Edition! - Wills
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 1236 kb
  Maybe it's just because I don't like jokewads, but I played this for 5 minutes and decided to put it here. Oh, and Wills, it'd be nice if you named your text files so that they matched the wad name. I can't tell what wad "readme.txt" is from. :\
  
  
• Gamarra:'s story: Part IX "Pyramid of problems" - Giulio Galassi
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 88 kb
  Actually, I couldn't get this map to run, but it's Gamarra. Who cares. :D
  
  
• Doomguy's pimp ventures. - Randy & Mandy
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 135 kb -
  Wow, some people actually find this funny? What a waste of file space.
  
  
• Frost Temple - Ryan Albright (High Flyin' Ryan)
  Legacy Compatible - Solo Play - 640 kb
  Flat. Uninteresting. Try and make your rooms more interesting, and use less hallways.
  
  
• Habita T7 - Ruba
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 8 kb
  Uh, it's by Ruba. I don't think I really need an explanation to shithouse it.
  
  
• Spell of the Archvile - Ruba
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 101 kb
  Another Ruba map.
  
  
• Hell Cave - Andrew "Dman" Orman
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 23 kb -
  Small hellish cave filled with Nazis. Don't bother.