Midnight_00

Revenant missile, but, honestly, it wouldn't feel nearly as frustrating if the screen didn't flash red when it happens.

RROCK01. It's the floor texture with the red rocks.

My biggest hope is for higher difficulty across the board. I found Hard difficulty very easy overall in Amid Evil, even with warrior mode turned on. I'm sure even with auto soul mode it isn't much harder because you get into soul mode so quickly and there's so much ammo for the Aeternum. I didn't complete Evil difficulty admittedly, but I remember it not seeming as difficult as expected for a hidden extra hard mode. Perhaps I'd prefer if Black Labyrinth was less generous with ammo, at least for the Aeternum (if that's even in this expansion).

It's simple enough for classic Doom, since there aren't many bindings necessary. I don't usually play WADs with things like reloading or inventory cycling. I use: 1 - 4 for the defaults, R for the rocket launcher, Q for the plasma rifle, F for the BFG, V for the Unmaker. I set things up similarly in Doom 3, incidentally.

Maybe a bit of an unusual choice, but I'd say Grove.

This shocked me more than I thought it would. I discovered his blog because of his epic retrospective of the entire Mass Effect series and I've been reading it quite often since then. May he rest in peace.

Yes. I mostly like thrash, black and doom (the metal subgenre). I don't like the metal soundtracks from most FPS games though, surprisingly.

I've completed the six original episodes and Spear of Destiny on Death Incarnate. Barely touched the Nocturnal Missions. The closer you are to enemies the more damage you do to them, and they do to you. You can take advantage of that to kill enemies quicker and save ammo, but I'd keep your distance when engaging officers and mutants if you can because they fire very quickly (instantly in the case of mutants). You can save ammo by using the knife on dogs and lone guards or SS (more risky). You can camp in front of doors and kill enemies as they walk through in a line. That strategy loses effectiveness as the levels become more intricate though (not to mention having more officers and mutants).

Yeah, but at least most of the levels are good. Does anyone actually know how much it cost at the time?

I don't think you're wrong to compare them. Maybe not all slaughter maps are difficult but the comparison still comes naturally. I don't really play Kaizo hacks, but I've seen some playthroughs of them and they're clearly far less forgiving.

If you just get Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Final Doom, the Master Levels (which I actually like unlike most people) and the BFG Edition IWADs then that would already be pretty good on its own. As for the other choices, Scythe 2 - Since it's my favourite, and still the WAD I have the most fun playing. Sunlust - Or something else in the same category like Abandon, by which I mean WADs beyond my skill level which would give me something to practice on. Lost Civilization - Plenty of experiences to be had with this. Community Chest 4 - I like the variety you get out of community projects like these, and CC4 is probably the most consistently high quality I've played so far. Return to Hadron - I like to have a break from the Doom II stuff every now and then, and this is another one I can always go back to just because of the fun factor. Now I wonder if you also get Doom Builder or another editor.

I played The First Encounter and I was quite impressed by the enemy placement. It was a pretty challenging game too. The enemies spawn far from you, but I still found them threatening, either because they advance on you rapidly in large numbers, or they can threaten you considerably from a distance (like the enemies with homing magic, don't know their names). The problem is definitely the pacing and the environments in general.

The design of the original Halo is a bit of an outlier among more modern shooters because it isn't that scripted and is fairly open ended. Unfortunately it does still periodically force you to stand around and wait until you're allowed to move on. Also, I'm not sure I agree with puzzles being a characteristic feature of modern shooters either outside of Half Life. I certainly don't remember them being present in games like Halo, Medal of Honour or Call of Duty.

Definitely not from a price standpoint, since you can get the whole series (well, everything that's available digitally) dirt cheap in a bundle during sales. If you have it anyway, you might as well give it a try for yourself. I've yet to complete it, but I've heard mixed opinions.

Oh, I'm just talking about the combat when playing as the Mage. Sorry for the confusion. That's useful to know. It sounds like it at least cuts down on busy work when fighting large groups of enemies.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but I've quit out of irritation and boredom before completing Seven Portals with the Mage every time I've tried it. It's the fact that all you have is a fairly weak starting weapon and the freeze magic which forces you to switch weapons if you want to shatter the enemies which makes the combat really tedious. Playing through the game with the Cleric struck the right balance for me even though the Centaurs get really horrible later on.

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Careful with Jedi Knight 1. That game is notoriously painful to get working on modern operating systems. Otherwise those games are some of the best out there for Star Wars fans. Having played Outlaws, it's fairly short but sweet, so it's probably a good choice at a low enough price. Might alternatively want to wait for The Force Engine to support it. I'd give Serious Sam a try as well. Don't expect something exactly like Doom though. It's nearly always high pressure encounters with high enemy counts.

The image from the OP is from Prometheus. Omicron is a reference to the new COVID variant as others have already clarified.

Not sure if intentional or not, but this is wrong. To me, Heaven and Hell is a natural evolution from what preceded it. Black Sabbath isn't just one thing, even with Ozzy. Never Say Die sounds nothing like the first album. As far as quality goes, I like both. No doubt Ozzy's style influenced a lot of the darker side of metal in the 80s and 90s.

Well, there's Icarus: Alien Vanguard.

I'm gonna ignore mods, just to keep things simple. Wolfenstein 3D E3L8 - It's probably the most challenging and intense level out of the original three episodes in Wolf 3D, all done by a clever use of object placement and timing. In particular, the corridor with the barrels at the end is a sequence I always look forward to. Doom 1 - Mt. Erebus and Limbo. I feel like both of those levels really pushed the genre forward with their use of openness and elaborate and hazardous navigational challenges. Doom 2 - Inmost Dens. Still looks excellent, well thought out and clever. Dark Forces - The last level, Dark Awakening I think it's called. Very climactic and challenging with good music choice and a lot of Dark Troopers to fight. Honestly, it feels deserving of being the final level more than perhaps any other finale I can think of in FPS history, perhaps largely because of how long it lasts. Blood E2M5: The Haunting - It's just well laid out, good looking and appealing. It's the first I think of when I think of Blood. Don't have much else to say. Quake E1M5 Gloom Keep - It's the design and visuals for this one. It just represents Quake's unique setting so well. I like the split key path structure as well along with the clever secrets. I still feel the influence of this level in a lot of later games, most notably the first level in Amid Evil. Unreal's Nali Castle - Pretty obvious choice. It actually is a huge castle with a haunting atmosphere and a lot of objectives you need to complete. I see a lot of people included immersive sims like Thief and Dishonored, which I don't really group with traditional single player FPS games. That would definitely be an interesting list of its own though.

I spy Death's last four albums on the bottom right (Human, Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic, Sound of Perseverance). I think I recognize all of the ones by the Beatles, Sabbath, Zeppelin and the like.

This just seems like your typical sensationalist ranking list with a recency and popularity bias.

The automap lets you leave markers. Use them if there's an area in the map you want to take note of (except for doors that need a key since those are colour coded, at least in source ports). Don't rush maps when you're playing them for the first time and try to be mindful of the layout and how many ways you can go. None of that applies to solely combat focused WADs of course, so I guess a third would be to know what kind of WAD you're getting into.