8-Bit DM - G0dCells

There are two Doom communities, three if you count those Speedrun and Tool Assisted weirdoes. We have the single player community, and then we have the Skulltag/Doom Connector/DM community. Rarely do these two meet on any sort of plane, and it takes a special project to bring them both together. This year, this was 8-Bit Deathmatch.

8-Bit Deathmatch combined some of the most unique seizure-inducing level design with classic video game mod tunes, drawing both single player enthusiasts to it to marvel at the fascinating architecture and catchy Commodore 64esque music, while dragging fraggers in to slaughter one another in the strange surroundings. Unfortunately, no matter how great a deathmatch levelset is made, be it 8-Bit DM or the also impressive UniDoom DM3 pack, it matters little because nobody ever stops playing Dwango5.

Doom: Rampage Edition - "Doom Rampage"

Few times in Doom's history are we graced with projects of such magnitude. Each year the Doom community is glad to receive maybe one or two solid, well-produced projects. 2004 had seen the release of Alien Vendetta, Hell Revealed 2, Action Doom, and was eagerly awaiting the release of RTC Hub 1... and it was shaping up to be a great year for Doom aficionados indeed. When Doom: Rampage Edition was released, the community cheered as they were given a 32-level ZDoom TC that placed you in the role of a Baron of Hell during the events of the Phobos Anomaly and the subsequent aftermath. However, their cheers were short-lived.

In what will no doubt go down in the annals of Doom as one of the greatest abominations unloaded on the community, Doom: Rampage Edition, on the surface, doesn't appear as "worst" material. There is no one element to DRE which would place it as the worst wad of the year; after all, we see wow.wads all the time. Unfortunately it is a never-ending series of events that leads to DRE's acclaimed worst wad title as opposed to nothing more than a mediocre TC. An 80MB download featuring 60MB of illegal MP3s, a joke of a skybox, bland beginner-looking maps, boring repetitive gameplay, weaponry like shotguns and chainguns that you can apparently use as a Baron of Hell--all these elements together help make Doom: Rampage Edition an utter failure. These elements alone were shadowed by the response of the author to the criticism of his work. Like a child defending his actions rather than an adult learning from his mistakes, he began spouting that everyone else loved it and it was perfect (the validity to which "everyone else" loved it is undetermined, as the general response was of less than favorable opinion).

The author's brash, thick headed attitude towards the critiques of his work stands as part of the package why Doom: Rampage Edition is this year's biggest failure; however, the project itself can stand on its own faults and still capitalize on this award.

Hellcore - Robert Babor

When Hellcore was released in 2004 it marked the end of one of the longest developed Doom projects in history. Few projects short of the award-titled wad itself can claim work in progress status for almost nine years.

The longer time drags on the amount it can raise expectations to ridiculous levels, and in the case of Hellcore, people may have been expecting miracles... or maybe suspecting no release at all. How did Hellcore fare when all was completed and the wad was available? Not too bad actually; unfortunately, the project was rushed out the door, as the team and all involved had become either too busy or cared little for the project anymore. This resulted in a rather mixed bag for the project, as some maps are simply phenomenal, like map 32, and others are relics which remind you that some of these maps date back to 1997.

Hellcore certainly deserves the Mordeth Award for longest development time for a released project, but what can we expect for 2005? Millennium perhaps, or maybe the award will finally be received by its inherent recipient.

Doomworld Forums 3 - "Annonymous"

Every now and then we need to take a break from boring repetitive gothic techbases and indulge our funny bone(r). It just so happened that this time it was at the expense of the Doom site NewDoom and their hacked forum account.

Doomworld Forums 3 is the epic climax of the Doomworld Forums trilogy, arriving at the final episode where you must single handedly bring Newdoom to its knees. For a joke wad, Doomworld Forums 3 has a surprisingly high level of work put into it. Cutscenes mimic the Max Payne style, while the dialogue is well written and tops <Sarge> talking in front of a computer monitor of so many other ZDoom projects. For its humor and clever jabs at Doomworld and the Doom community in general, Doomworld Forums 3 is a worthy finale to the DWF saga and this year's Mockaward for most humorous wad.

B.P.R.D. (FooFoo)

2004 saw the amazing works of many prominent mappers. Kaiser was on a mapping roll this year with some very great maps, Tormentor had a few great maps, Shaviro and company put out an abundance of great work with RTC, but no mapper this year stole the spotlight like B.P.R.D.

With Equinox under his belt from years ago, and the series of semi-joke wads Nuts, there was no way we could have prepared for what he delivered in 2004. Starting off with Grove, one of this year's top wads and the recipient of a Cacoward, and following it up with an amazing level for the Community Chest megawad, B.P.R.D. put out, arguably, two of the best wads of this year. All of his maps this year have transcended what traditional maps are for Doom, and even rival modern game add-ons for creativity and originality. The music in his maps lends to the surreal nature of them, and the levels themselves are top notch. With works like these two, it's no surprise B.P.R.D. is recipient of this year's Mapper of the Year award.