NuMetalManiak

"What do you plan to do when Doom turns 26 years old? Will you be getting stuck in some abandoned mines during the depths of hell? Will you be going Ballistyx through castle walls and hellscapes? Will you be trying to enter an underground bunker? What about going through these damned halls finding a maze, numerous rooms, and even a fake exit? Regardless of what you'll be doing today, know that today is the 26th anniversary of the shareware release of Doom, and with it, the legacy of the main game, it's sequels, and more importantly, it's thriving community of mappers, playtesters, and cool kids. 

Early this year, we have seen the Doom community hyped for so many announced projects, those which are already familiar to the community, but have remained unfinished for years. Such projects feel like each one is racing to be the top spot for the Mordeth award. It either takes an epic thread bump, or perhaps a new announcement thread from the creators, and the community goes wild. Sure, announcements of new material are simply announcements, but members love screenshots of new things from dormant projects, as the earnest among us always love seeing things get mapped fully, bug-tested, playtested, and properly run so they can replay such wads over and over again. In February alone, we saw the renewal of Deus Vult II, a new map for Sunder, as well as a hype thread for BTSX's third episode, along with so much more.

And you'll be seeing such projects right here, in this fine selection of wonderful projects we have assembled for checking out."

I'm working on my fake cacoward writing. How is it.

*installs python 3 and package specifically for 3*

version is 2.7

WHAT

guess i'll fail

Review of Return to Hadron E3 - Slayers Swansong by @cannonball:

Return to Hadron E3 does what E1 don't and what E2 doesn't. but it's much of the same except with the hell theme predominant more or less, so those used to cannonball's style well there's not much new. NOT that it's a bad thing if you're interested in gameplay, as this is what cannonball focuses on most. most areas are populated heavily, but each area also has fluidity so getting lost isn't an issue for once. there's at least two long levels at the end but are well-balanced and good enough to go through. my only complaint would be the baron usage as there's one too many in most maps. E3M5 in particular in a real nasty one.

Review of Doom: Catastrophe

hey look, a classic Doom 1 megawad. what do we got? well...it's not as good as expected. there are bits that work and lots of bits that don't work. there's quite a lot of classic Doom homages, and a few that seem like they are inspired by DTWID, but there's a number of problems that give this a stanky 90's feel. big one would have to be the times when you're in the blinking hallways, pitch-black areas that blink every now and then. other problems include the HOMs, awful backtracking, and yes a few levels may actually be broken. the idea of playing as a female army student seems neat, until you realize she shrieks at just about everything including pressing walls, which gets old quickly. this wad and perhaps several others are made for schools? seems interesting but I think the quality needs to be better. for some reason E3 is unfinished?

you can pass this one up, as it does things that others do better and with less issues.

Review of Interception II

before I start this I should note that the link is not really the final as they are still bugfixing and well they'll get to it considering I gave some feedback on bugs. this review is on how the overall wad is though.

so I'd say this was a well-anticipated megawad considering I really did enjoy much of the previous Interception (even if many of the levels there seem mediocre now). we've got lots of custom music which is excellent, and the promises of action-packed stuff. okay so that's there and all. above all else though, the biggest issue is the overall pacing. there's no short maps in the set aside from MAP31 (which is a gimmick map and doesn't really count as much). every map is medium to large-sized and it's very likely a player will get fatigued or forget where they are going overall. we can appreciate the long map between other maps in a megawad but not multiple in a row in most cases. that's not even getting to why they are so long. I'd wager that speedrunning this in any category is nauseating, as the pacing of the maps tends to go to a standstill once you don't know where to go. for completionists, it's even nastier, as items are scattered everywhere and monsters are placed precariously, with plenty of secrets in most maps. and my god, stop with forced arena fights. many of the Boom triggers seem screwed up it makes me wonder why they didn't stick with vanilla compatibility. while anticipated, it blew my expectations to the ground with just how the gameplay tries to do everything to make you regret playing it.

Review of Short maps for short people 2

hey! be nice to short people please! with the joke aside, smfsp2 is apparently a presequel of the first smfsp, which was done by @datacore. this one was actually mostly authored by @Roofi, but also includes three datacore maps and one from Vergogneful.

now these are speedmaps and have to be treated as such, most were done in 30 minutes with the exception of two Roofi maps and all Datacore maps. as such, the quality is largely varied and there's bound to be some fucked up stuff throughout. to really craft something amazing in 30 minutes, this does not do that, but it tries at least. and by try I mean try to come up with something that seems crafty in many cases. the wacky texture usage is an obvious echo to the TimeOfDeath mantra, although there's not a lot of slaughter in the maps that have this texture usage. then you have the abstract MAP26 which as small as it is is certainly one of the better 30-minute maps. plus MAP03 and its 6000+ monster count. there's a lot of dissonance here as you play maps both short and not-as-short, moments where the crampedness combined with the monsters present could spell an early grave, a la Swift Death at times. the three Datacore maps are not speedmaps, but they obviously look the best and surprisingly don't take as long as you might think. the custom skies are neat fits.

but at the end of the day this is predominantly speedmaps and fit the nice little coffee break for the day, if you can get past a few hurdles that is.

Review of Unholy Journey Begins by elio.exe:

here we have an 11-level Doom II wad using IWAD music and generally speedmapped layouts. a few other changes like different-colored textures and such, and the layouts work alright for the most part. levels are usually done fairly quickly. some notable changes include a plasma trooper which replaces the SS as well as a spectre version of the cacodemon. also the lost soul is green and for some weird reason, the hell knight has a more pixelated sprite (I don't know why this is the case at all). one of the weird highlights is the last level, which in actuality when you trigger the spawn shooter it actually makes no sounds for spawning enemies (they spawn in teleport closets and go to the main area more or less, but you pretty much need to beat the level quickly anyways). so it's another generally short speedmapped set. not anywhere close to the best but more could be coming.

Congrats @Lüt!

GUESS WHO JUST REACHED THE 27 CLUB

oh wait...

A 2020 Cacowards review corner mini-pseudo-thread-thingie where I will play everything I haven't played this year that will be periodically updated.

Clock Out by @Afterglow

(disclaimer: I will eventually play Isolation after this)

"Ready to leave work today?" "Uh, sure". Clock Out is a map clocked out of a project for going overtime, which is quite a cut above the project's intended pay grade. in any case, it is designed as a speedmap. Afterglow is one of the unsung mappers that people know for specific certain maps, but is still somehow underrated in the community by quite a lot. this map definitely reminds players of his Jagermorder levels of old, the level is reasonably sized with ebbs and flows of difficulty. highlight that rough beginning with the chaingunners, then you go from there. other chaingunner encounters prove to be difficult. the encouragement of cacodemons, which seem to be one of the guidelines in Isolation, was used to full effect here, even flinging cacodemons, literally, into the main area. the bridges section is well done. my only complaint is one of the final areas with the arch-viles on the conveyor and the cacodemon horde, which well it's difficult to even hit the former enemies there. Afterglow sure does make some of the better standalone levels in any case though.

A review of Mass Extinction by @nicolas monti

nicolas monti is still pumping, despite all the quirkiness of his previous wads he's not abandoning the signature mapping style anytime soon. Mass Extinction is proof of that. Fans of classic gameplay with Doom Alpha textures are sure to find some comfort and challenge in the maps shown. It slowly introduces each monster, but not too slowly, giving worthwhile progressive difficulty. Both gameplay and layouts are fairly consistent, and the time it takes to beat each map shouldn't be too long for the most part. The intricateness of many layouts is what really shines, and there's quite a few maps not to be missed here. A great overall improvement on the nicolas monti style.

Alright video card superheroes and superheroines I need your help.

Is AMD Radeon HD 5700 Series good for playing heavy slaughtermaps like Cosmogenesis on GZDoom (4.5.0)? I've been following this thread's advice and I'm seeing some better progress but I'm still getting issues.

Processor btw is AMD Phenom II x6 1090T 3.21 GHz if needed.

Cool, new slaughtermap on idgames just dropp...

May Not Run With        : gzdoom 
Tested With             : dsda-doom

Did Doomwiki's clock break? I made two recent changes and it says I did them two hours ago.

Did the most recent one at 9:32 EST (probably approximately 2 hours before greenwich time but still) and when I checked the Recent Changes it also says I did it at 5:38 which also isn't really right.

Don't mind me just making informal reviews for stuff I just recently played.

The Slaughter Spectrum

Just because your submissions to a community project get rejected does not mean you should throw away all your hard work. @Bridgeburner56 releases The Slaughter Spectrum, formerly from the Refracted Reality project, and those of us who have seen just how amazingly detailed the project is and have been itching to try out more than a demo from day one will get some detailed doses here. The Slaughter Spectrum serves as an early bird special to this project despite its rejection, and while resource-intensive, is a complete blast to see and play. Of course, expect there to be slaughter, it's right there in the title.

Paradise

Is paradise supposed to be given? Answer that question while you start up @Tango's newest green creation called Paradise. The jungles are teeming with harmful liquids and demonic life that prowl at every corner, while the weapons given to you will prove useful. The Classic Doom feel is in spades, with several changes to weapons and monsters to liven up just what paradise can truly be. Never take a moment to rest however, as some of the denizens of the jungle want to enjoy their paradise without interfering marines and are prepared for heavy ambushes.

Doomwiki Secret list descriptions checklist:

Finished and on a doc:
-TNT The Way We Remember It
-All DBPs for the ones without level pages so far

-DBK02 and DBK03

-Jamal Jones Trilogy

To do:

-PUSS series (going to do secret descriptions for all the ones with pages so far)
-WMC series (same as above)

-Maybe a few other ones.

Basically at the point I'm currently in I've got a doc ready for when the level pages for those are up. I vaguely remember knowing how to create some level pages on the wiki but I'm currently way too busy this week with work and I need to get my phone fixed at the moment to make some. Still, this is where I'm currently at.

enjoying music on this site right now. jump in to chat if you want.

https://www.dubtrack.fm/join/mosh-pit

History of Doomworld Forums drama (I'm posting this cause I want to aight):

1999-2004: Doomworld was a young site, with many users of old no longer being here for various reasons such as moving on but then again there still is more than a handful who are still the hardcore Doom enthusiasts of they were years ago. At the time, there were quite a few dramas that have been left to fade, such as python_junkie = crendowing thing, the stupidity level thread, King REoL's crap, and the infamous "ball shit snakes" incident which is still a Doomworld meme. Also the Shadowrunner thing. One of the most infamous examples there.

2005-2010: Site grows well, plenty more members came in and did or did not understand things depending on the user in general, which is okay. Main dramas were over certain wad projects, the most famous ones being darkexodus and Glassyman perhaps. Also mattbratt. Plenty of idiots thought they made super cool stuff except it wasn't well received and butthurt commenced. There was also the fall of Newdoom, the "nickbakery", CjWraith79 (or whatever his name was), as well as KDIZD drama.

2011-2015: Drama still tended to get mixed in with some major forum projects here and there, if I recall there was the D-D leaving CC4 thing, the DTS-T dramas (there were two, one on sourceports and the other because some guy kept whiteknighting it), several TNT2 dramas, plus one on DTWID. Lakisoft's Ultimate Doom unofficial patch was him basically pulling a darkexodus. LittleTemple thing happened here, as did human body allegory. Numerous BDL moments were sporadic, as well as the popularity of Brutal Doom causing some stirs on occasion. My favorite drama is still the idSoftware981 posts on "Doom 4 Should Have" thread, though.

2016-present: Doomworlders got really political in 2016 and always got into arguments, which basically was the reason a moratorium was drafted in order for people to STFU and take it somewhere else. Aside from politics, not a whole lot of drama really occurs unless someone was either spamming or really was triggered or if they just wanna be asshole. There were two notable instances of speedrunners cheating during this time period, with one heck of a post from BK. There was the recent plagiarism fiasco. Also can't remember if the anime avatar apocalpyse happened in 2015 or 2016.

I don't intend to start drama with this post. I am just so interested in the history of things that have happened here. It's been fun reading all the crazy stuff that has happened over the years and I remember a whole lot of it.

Holy shit.

That latest Rain page, it got me. This whole week the three pages of the comic were bound to be some heavy stuff, but damn. This really does mean everything.

How about 4 episode replacement reviews

Deadly Standards 2

what's the standards you go by? Deadly Standards the second comes right after the first Deadly Standards, giving us the same limitations, which basically means make whatever as long as you have the stock textures. for the most part it's good enough, the maps are medium-sized and only get bigger and bigger, with veteran mappers like Confalonieri, SteveD, and Roofi giving it their all. hate to be blunt though, I hate the direction towards longer and more confusing levels these mappers are making, preferring maps that are generally more action-packed than "action and then you run around trying to figure out what you need to do next"

this is blatant in Roofi's maps and especially the final level. you nail the atmosphere at the sacrifice of gameplay, with the only notable gameplay parts being the cyberdemon fight at the end (very dependable on the skill setting it seems) and the fight around the blue switch. but a lot of the things you gotta do here have progression that makes heads spin. and come on, LET ME GO ON THE TILTED SHIP IT WOULD BE COOL. other maps, well E2M3 is kinda sloppy but still doable, and E2M7 was made to be as aggravating as possible instead of enjoyable. rest that aren't mentioned have decent gameplay for their sizes.

3/5

1HBPV1_3.zip

well the textfile says exactly what it is, a complete episode replacing E1, rough looks, typical of the 1994 era. yep, that's what you'll get if you play this episode replacement. the monster counts aren't THAT high, but the supply counts definitely are. all those soul spheres in specific rooms. and then you have the other issues: required keys in secrets, no hints to doors, bad usage of lifts, pressing random walls just to get things to work, node issues with crushers and monsters not being active. the names Funduke and Perseus are credited, these are usually associated with uploading the Maximum Doom PWADs and generally bad 1994-quality stuff, respectively. you can easily pass this E1 replacement up.

1/5

Hell on Phil Episode 1: Phantom Phobos

Philnemba's general mapping style is entirely generic, often utilizing techbases with simple design and simple architecture. not much else to really say is there? Hell on Phil Episode 1: Phantom Phobos is a vanilla episode made entirely like this, although it's not all techbase as E1M6 shows. the episode replacement is just plain and average overall, not too good but not really too bad. E1M4 is actually the same map from Doom 2 Unleashed (MAP38), except now it actually is finishable (originally the level was unbeatable due to a weird design flop). E1M8 is a neat finale map, heavily BFG9000-centric and being a weird slaughtermap with invulnerabilities. charming indeed, but not extremely exciting overall.

3/5

Guardian Angel

here we have a 10-level wad for Doom 2 and specifically for GZDoom with UDMF triggers and CC4-tex included. no real changes to actual gameplay, just 10 nice-looking levels that are medium sized and have reasonable monster counts with generally good flow. the layouts are done quite well, a few homage the maze area from E1M2 and the encounters aren't too tough to deal with. perhaps it is a bit too easy. I get a bit of Suspended in Dusk feel at times. atmosphere is done well and there's no sacrifice to the gameplay thankfully. overall it isn't bad but it's far from memorable, plenty of other wads do this kind of thing better.

4/5

I can't believe Tim Feerick is dead. Had this song on repeat for those delicious bass openers. 

I had to say it about myself eventually, but here it is, because I needed to vent:

I quit my job

I pretty much had to. The people at the hotel were working me to death over there. My main duty was to empty out vacated rooms of trash and dirty laundry, and take them down to the laundry room. Simple? Yes. Am I fast and efficient. Oh hell yeah dawg. And the overall pay of it was great too. Heck, I was even good with the guests, who were actually the least of my worries.

So what made me quit? Well, the main reason I can think of would be the annoying coworkers. The other housekeepers there won't stop complaining about their job all the time. And they get at me for some dumb reasons like I'm not stripping their rooms fast enough and what not. Hey newsflash I'm on another floor! I've got a whole slew of rooms to empty out most of the time and these impatient housekeepers really drive my patience. Especially considering how I'm the fastest worker there overall and I actually have to wait until the others are finished, so depending on how fast things go, I wait about six hours for them to finish up. Yes, I actually have to wait for the slower housekeepers before I clock out; sometimes I directly help them out on their last few floors if necessary. Another reason I quit? Most of the people I actually liked on the job either got fired quickly or decided to just stop showing up altogether. The fact they ended up being uncooperative makes my work days even longer, cause assigned slots get moved around and things just move slower. And one more thing! Barely any fucking AC. I find this to be a big one considering its hot as hell outside and everything. So overall, this job would've nearly killed me if I stayed a little longer than I currently had. I just can't work with a team of people who complain a lot and frequently never show up. If I'm working with a team, give me one that's competent and doesn't complain or skip work frequently.

I reviewed something I never thought I'd review, something that actually is considered horrible by the community. If you want to see it, here it is READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I wonder if I'm the only one who hates seeing the Michael Jackson popcorn gif or other reaction gifs.

I mean it doesn't really contribute anything to a discussion anyways, but whoever posts it could post something more informative.

(don't attack me)

I wonder what originated this (appears if you hover over the blue arrow).