Budoka

Look no further than the previous page. Also, while I likened it to Battletoads scrolling stages, I don't think it's intended as a direct reference or anything like that. Numb: Packed with noteworthy moments, this one...

Well, that happened a lot quicker than I figured! The first time you nailed it must have been thoroughly satisfying... Anyway, I just reached MAP19. Chapter IV as a whole exudes an almost Lovecraftian quiet uncanniness that marks it as probably my favorite so far, even in the first three were all amazing in their on thing. Side note, "Freya" is probably the most breathtakingly beautiful level I'v ever seen in...well, anything.

Catalyst: Gave me Flashback to the Battletoads game series... luckily, I'm one of the rare few nutters who unironically thinks those games are great. I wonder if it was an inspiration at all though.

Right, absolute brain fart... also, PSA since I forgot earlier, don't miss out on the regular exit sequence, it's quite the show. I'm not leaving though.

...A 9x9 slider in Doom. Great. And I thought I'd seen everything. Don't even know what to make of those other two rooms, but I suppose I'll have to figure it all out...

Seems like Egypt ended up on the wrong side of the Atlantic ocean. (...That's not Egyptian symbolism). Titan: Second gear engaged, eh? This one was an absolute blast, but I can't actually say anything specific about it without hinting at what it's like to some extent.

Most of Sanctuary could stand to bite harder on UV continuous, but I suppose it shouldn't be modified too much anymore at this point. I think the biggest contribution factor might be the sheer abundance of armors and Supercharges. The early portions of this chapter are also sprawling to the point of perhaps inducing some level of confusion and/or memorization headaches. Well, on the other hand, it's nice to see completely open and non-linear FPS maps that aren't filled with giant stretches of nothing to artificially lengthen the playtime or hidden snipers everywhere forcing constant cover play just because. The episode as a whole is also absurdly atmospheric, and executes its theme (a rare one in PWADs!) with an approach I don't think I've seen ever. Charge: Having reached the final fight I can say this level is amazing. I won't comment anything about it for now though... Also, I'm not shocked this megawad took five years to make, almost every map in it so far is good enough to be stand-alone release, and the rest isn't much worse. It's all... a bit much, almost.

Redshift was excellent, especially how the health and ammo distribution seems to consistently punish excessive camping (assuming that's on purpose because it sure felt like it). Had a lot fun figuring out how to kill every single enemy in the level and eventually succeeding.

An entire melodeath verse to explain the most basic of sequel premises in existence. Yup, it's Eviternity for sure. The first three levels are absolutely amazing, and I love the concept for the first episode in general. Only missing one secret on MAP03 after forty minutes of searching, too bad it's the one I actually want. I didn't see the sign next to it at first, but even so that light color instantly clued me in as to what that is. Now to figure out how to get there...

They don't need changing, they need to disappear. All those works that stood the test of time, like for example the most famous symphonies we remember today? Mostly created in times and places where there was no legal form of "authorship protection" whatsoever. Whenever there is, it quickly turns into and exclusive club of dipshits who don't really need to try that hard. And yeah, regarding this current issue, editors trying impede the aggregation of information can piss off. EDIT: Yeah, what segfault said...

This isn't new information, and neither is it relevant. I would encourage you, OP, to check out decino's old one year channel anniversary video. He's... probably not quite the character you imagine.

Much like others here, I'm more concerned with the level having an individual sense of aesthetic vision than with what the volume of detailing happens to be. Starting from counterexamples, things like having a nearly featureless void of entirely basic shapes and around two or three textures total, or an incoherent garbled mess of shapes and colors, or a literal cloning of the Id members's aesthetic styles (however well-copied or not) are things that I would consider to be signs of a lack of creative vision, and will contribute to me finding the visuals of a level either too unmemorable or just off-putting. Well, sometimes that second one is completely intentional (TimeOfDeath), but even then that doesn't mean I'll like it better. All of that is why I'm very biased in favor of custom texture packs, which can do wonders when competently wielded (BTSX, Ancient Aliens, Eviternity...). Although they're not always necessary, see for example Going Down, which exudes personality from every pore while being made almost entirely of stock assets.

"Resurrection" might well be the most obnoxious Tyson map ever released. It's easily the most frustrating one I've ever had to play through. Poison Ivy II I actually like a lot, but yeah, its approach to gameplay is certainly... more than unique. Overall, as much I do like Speed of Doom, I definitely think Resurgence is the better of the two. I've made some half-baked attempts at playing UV Solo-Net Plutonia lately, as I do from time to time. It actually plays really well, but dang is it intimidating.

Because it does. Video Games are works of art like every other medium, regardless of the much higher level of interactivity they provide. And since you brought it up, I do in fact effectively dislike every weapon mod and gameplay mod released for Doom II, and literally never apply them when I launch the game. The very reason I play classic Doom instead of more recent FPS games is precisely that its base mechanics stand the test of time as well as they do. The only exception is partial/total conversion mapsets where the mechanics are modified towards a specific level design purpose, and frankly in practice even the majority of those don't quite meet my expected standards of quality. For what it's worth, the Doomtubers who stand out from the crowd with their content tend to think the same way(decino, Coincident, Peter, David Assad, Zero Master...) By the way, I think the baseless assumption that people who enjoy more challenging games than you do must necessarily be modding them in order to enjoy them is, itself, far more malicious than the supposedly malicious intent which usually gets attributed to hardcore gamers in this discourse.

I don't know about that. I'd say sometimes you can't, even when you can there's always a limit you're going to hit eventually. You'll spread yourself thin and go down trying to get every gamer alive to appreciate your game. Also, a factor that has yet to be brought up in this is that often the level of challenge presented in a video game is not an element that operates in isolation, but rather interacts with the other components (soundtrack, visuals etc.) to generate a specific mood and atmosphere. To re-use the go to example, Dark Souls made easy would not feel like Dark Souls does. You wouldn't make the experience that fans are going through accessible to a wider audience by making the game cater more to lower skill players, because it wouldn't actually be the same experience anyway. The same principle goes for the power fantasy feeling conveyed by, well, Doom Eternal. If the mechanics allowed just about anyone who tries playing the game to do well, the victory rush when one makes progress in the game would feel much more hollow than it does. Does that make it exclusionary on some level? Well yeah, but literally everything than humans could possibly interact with has some characteristic that's exclusionary. Reality itself always discriminates, in ways that we can't magically fix just because they happen to frustrate us on some level. Ultimately, not enjoying the way a video game is is fine, but we'd best not forget that a game is how it is because the people spend their time playing it do like it the way it is.