trem0lo

Just wanted to reply and say that I really enjoyed Grey Dwarf. I spent a good while hunting down all the secrets—it was a nice change of pace to the combat-oriented skillsaw maps. You clearly had a vision about what the level was supposed to be… It was artistically risky and liked it. From one musician to another, keep taking risks and creating what you believe in.

Ah, that makes sense. I’m definitely familiar with slaughtermaps though I find them tedious at times. I enjoyed Sunder and Sunlust immensely so I think there are ways to make them more interesting. Valiant is next on the list and I’ll definitely be playing the others soon, thanks for the suggestions!

Like plenty of people here I’m catching up on some WADS that had been on my list for a long time. Back to Saturn X Episodes 1 & 2: Episode 1 is fantastic, great music and fun level design. Deserves the hype, really well-done. Not overly difficult. Episode 2 is good but more uneven in quality, plenty of good maps to discover though. Where both episodes shine is the dark and mysterious storyline. Ancient Aliens: Awesome! I loved this. Skillsaw might be my new favorite mapper. Tough but fair, except for maybe map28. Excellent soundtrack, very evocative. Boarding UFOs, warping to distant planets and uncovering a vast conspiracy gives it a real sense of adventure and tongue-in-cheek humor. I didn’t love the new enemies quite as much, however they are a nice addition to mix up the gameplay. Just a really fun WAD that doesn’t take itself too seriously. If you haven’t played this yet you really should. Community Chest 2: I had been wanting to play map 24, The Mucus Flow, (which I appreciated but didn’t love) for awhile so I decided to play through the whole WAD. It’s a mixed bag with mostly good-to-average maps after a surprising (yet brief) opener by Erik Alm. Some maps are just plain bad (Gene Bird I'm looking at you) while others explore some fun ideas. Others seem tedious with skyrocketing difficulty. Map 15, City Heat, was a standout. It’s a lot like Odyssey of Noises from Plutonia with more puzzles and monsters and interesting building interiors. It gets a bit spammy with all the warping baddies but once they’re disposed of, finding the hidden switch in each of the 9 buildings to open the secret exit was very satisfying.

I picked up Doom again after a long, long hiatus in 2015 and played though Scythe 2 after noodling though some Cacowards lists. Not knowing much about it I was enjoying the level design quite a bit; however I was taken aback at the slaughterfest in the latter part of the WAD. I can hold my own so I bore down and managed to complete it on UV. Intense gameplay for sure! That one level, Whispering Winds, was borderline traumatic. I’m currently working through Sunder now and it’s a really impressive WAD from a design perspective. I’m on Map 10, The Hags Finger. Great atmosphere and some interesting fights there (particularly liked the “imp gardens” and tunnel of charging pinkies and endless HKs). The opening vista of the path to the huge wooden castle is fantastic. I enjoyed Map 2 (The Burrow) a lot, even though it took me a few tries to realize you need to leave a Cyber alive to deal with all the Revenants. The pink tunnel is a stunning work of art and a nice vantage point to sneak-shoot the Revenants. Map 8, Pale Monument, was borderline too much for me... soooo many Cacos and they just kept coming.

Map 1: Uprising A homage to TNT Evilution's Map 1, Revilution starts with a Berserk set piece in a fairly tight arena set in a mountain fortress. Once the low-level imps and zombies are liquefied, a shotgun is preferred to explore the rest of the level. After taking out a few more chaingunners and surviving an ambush of pinkies, the way to the exit is not difficult. The blue key is optional, however it rewards the player with a rocket launcher and an immediate chance to use it in the bed of the newly-drained nukage pool against Revenants and Hell Knights. The cramped nature of the map makes this battle especially tricky. Musically, the midi is a remix of a classic TNT tune that puts the player immediately into the mood. It's a little slower than the original and thus looses its "metal" edge. Overall, Map 1 is a solid overture to what is hopefully a high-quality addition to the TNT legacy.

My main gaming rig is a repurposed cryptocurrency mining rig. 2x7990s crossfired and an Intel i5 at 3.7ghz. I put a custom watercool loop in it to not worry about the heat. It's probably dated (nooo it runs Windows 8.1) but it gets the job done and runs lots of monitors. I have an AMD laptop running Linux as a secure work computer and that's what I do my Doom gaming on. It doesn't run much else. Team Fortess 2... sort of. So at least I have two choices when I travel. I recently got a Raspberry Pi 3 and it's a lot of fun. It boots Retropie, Openelec or Ubuntu 16.04. It currently occupies my mancave next to my turntable. Next I need to set up my NAS to stream audio though Openelec via USB to my headphone amp, but I keep getting distracted by Retropie. It's a hit at parties.

+++ Plutonia I've not been posting but I have been keeping up... well, trying at least. I'm on map 20. My work schedule is a bit crazy as of late but this is my first time in the club and it's been nice to dust off the old shotgun again. A highlight was Carribean, map 32. And Dead Zone reminded me what a fantastic DM level it is, but it's no wonder why many of you didn't like it solo. Plutonia seems like the logical next choice. And the last time I tried it on UV I was emotional mincemeat by about map 10. Shouldn't be short in the challenge department.

You could try some Satanic-themed classical music. Liszt, Dante Symphony Boito, Mefistofele Gounod, Faust Berlioz, Le Damnnation de Faust Schmidt, The Book of the Seven Seals Bruckner, Apocalyptic Symphony

Im a really, really good singer. I'm a pretty good artist and writer. I enjoy cooking with fancy ingredients. I'm healthy and still have all my hair. (You younger guys won't appreciate the hair thing until later.) I go on Doom binges about once a month. I take drugs everyday.

The first Doom wasn't all that challenging by today's standards. Doom II offers more of a challenge and Final Doom (TNT & Plutonia) is even better. I'd definitely recommend checking those out, Plutonia especially for its extraordinary level design and legendary difficulty.

Good luck. It doesn't get any easier.

More often than I'd like to admit. One of the best game soundtracks ever, it's a classic in its own right.