The /newstuff Chronicles #337

[Bloodshedder]

• Harvester - Blzut3
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 5377 bytes
  Reviewed by: udderdude
  A mod for Skulltag that allows any CTF map to be played in the Harvester game mode, based on the mode from Quake 3: Team Arena. The wad is an amazing 4,850 bytes in size. That's about it.
  
  
• Eternal Revelation (DEMO) - Alexander "Eternal" S. (aka Deadall)
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 427360 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: udderdude
  This is a 3 map set for Doom 2, using Eternal Doom. You will need the original eternal.wad to play this mapset properly. The levels are a demo for a megawad which will replace every level from Eternal Doom, when it's finished. The maps try to reproduce Eternal's epic map size, but the layouts aren't as amazing.
  
  The first map is a tech base which is almost completely flat, and entirely uneventful except for one room that you pretty much have to know how to do ahead of time. Second map is a temple/tomb type deal, where you're almost guaranteed to get stuck and confused. The layout and monster usage are both improved, though. Third map is probably the best out of the three. It's got more monsters than before, and the layout is decent. There's a bug where you can get stuck in the yellow key room, though.
  
  Overall fans of Eternal doom will enjoy this, but I found myself confused and underwhelmed. Give it a try, I guess.
  
  
• Kingpin Textures - Taradino Cassatt
  n/a - n/a - 5614356 bytes
  Reviewed by: WildWeasel
  You would think that a texture wad based on one of the most infamously brown games available would translate well into Doom's palette. Unfortunately, you would be wrong; there are a lot of textures here that end up with horrendous color bleeding thanks to a bad job at color conversion. Also, author Taradino has opted to include nearly every texture from Kingpin, INCLUDING the environment-map, which is pretty much useless in Doom (unless you were working with Doomsday - though I could be wrong). 1271 textures and many of them are just darkened/lightened versions of ones already in the package. It really doesn't help Taradino that Kingpin's textures are ludicrously easy to rip already, with it just being a matter of having the right program and a quick batch-job.
  
  Who knows. Maybe some mapper might find a use for this. But it's sure as hell not Afterglow material.
  
  
• Necrodome Textures - Taradino Cassatt
  n/a - n/a - 506633 bytes - (img)
  Reviewed by: TheMionicDonut
  Yet another set of textures from Mr. Taradino Cassatt, a fellow who, if he were to have a nickel for every texture or flat he uploaded, would probably have a fortune to rival Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Scrooge McDuck combined.
  
  This particular volume contains around 75 textures from the hit classic Necrodome, and the textures themselves are pretty decent and wouldn't look half bad in a Doom level. My only real qualm with this set is that the textures that are obviously meant to be moving (namely, the fans) DON'T when run in Doom. But I'm sure that would come as a relatively easy fix for anybody who so chooses to put that texture in their wad.
  
  You know who you are.
  
  
• MWeaps - Marcello Delai
  ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 189025 bytes
  Reviewed by: D_J
  This is a small weapon replacement wad for Doom 2. It's always nice to see wads with new weapons in them. If you've been playing Doom for 15 years, killing demons with the same old guns can get pretty boring. Most of these are just plain old hitscanners - an Uzi, sniper rifle, the Mega Shotgun, and an M16. The only projectile weapons are the Baron fireball, dual railguns, and the BattleHammer - which looks like Samus Aran's arm-cannon and does slightly more damage than the BFG. It's nothing special, but it isn't bad.
  
  
• Titan 2 - Jesper Krag Rasmussen (Ixnatifual)
  GZDoom - Solo Play - 8913927 bytes
  Reviewed by: Brandon D. Lade
  This 10-level episode, which includes one secret level, and is a sequel to the first Titan released many years ago, is pretty much the best thing I've seen in a while, save maybe PL2. It requires GZDoom, and you should run it in OpenGL mode to get the full effect. The maps contain plenty of monsters and are generally medium-large in size. Rare for Doom levels, the maps also come with their own par times! The wad also comes with new monsters, a new weapon, new music, and a few new graphics.
  
  The new music is generally good, with some pretty nice tunes, and I believe it is pretty much original - I don't remember hearing these tracks elsewhere. The music fits the themes of the levels well. The new weapon is a double machine gun - one I don't think I've seen before in a Doom level, or at least it is quite rare. The new monster(s) are pretty cool, including a Baron that shoots fireballs on the floor.
  
  The architecture and level design are both very good. There are plenty of outdoor and indoor areas and it does not get repetitive. No level seems to drag on for unnecessarily long. The detail level is about right and almost all areas look good. There are only a few new graphics, much of which are lava textures and a new sky, but the wad makes excellent use of the original graphics. There are also certain floors that are designed to make you go only slowly across them.
  
  This episode makes the grade with regard to gameplay as well, as there are plenty of monsters and the challenge factor is quite reasonable but not unfair. I did not get bored while playing it. All in all, this wad is a quite worthy sequel to the original Titan, which was released over four years ago - a long wait for the sequel but trust me, it was worth it. Definitely a recommended download.
  
  
• Darkness Falls - Starscream
  GZDoom - Solo Play - 32652503 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: udderdude
  3 maps for Doom2, using gzDoom. Detail level is pretty high, with lots of gzDoom effects being used. Unfortunately these maps suffer from a host of gameplay problems that drag it down, the end result ranging from boring to unplayable.
  
  The first map is a tech base that is supposed to resemble an actual base. As such, it's mostly flat and boring. None of the architecture really stands out, aside from the detail level. The first point I realized something was wrong was when I went into an area with green fog so thick I could hardly see anything. Apparently the room was supposed to be full of poison gas. But it didn't hurt you, only falling in the slime below did. After hitting a switch that clears the air and opens some doors, I exited the room to see the green fog instantly dissapear while I was standing in it, instead of gradually fading away. Uh.
  
  Next, I went out on a balcony. It was here I thought the map was completely borked and I was stuck, but it turns out the author wants you to take a flying leap over a wall with some bars blocking it, and wade through more slime, instead of having the door you came in through open again. And of course if you miss the jump, you take lots of damage since you fall right in slime and have to swim back around. There is a rad suit, but if you grab it too early, you'll have no protection if this happens, and will probably die.
  
  A bit later, you fight a Cyberdemon in a wide-open courtyard, except there's one problem - there are trees everywhere, and you can let the cyberdemon fire at a tree while you fire through it with your SSG and kill him with hardly any effort at all. There's also piles of ammo lying around here, most of which you'll just leave lying there.
  
  The next part that got on my nerves was a large outdoor courtyard, with a Cyberdemon on a ledge, and a Spiderdemon walking around. On top of this, there are ZDoom-scripted plasma guns that fire whenever you cross their path, and they are everywhere. Of course you can't kill them, since they are just spawners. Extremely annoying.
  
  The second map takes place in an underground base. The map layout is a little better, but not by much. The first thing you run into is a room full of green fog. Once you step in, a script activates, and then an arch-vile appears. Keep in mind this room is rectangular, and there's nowhere to hide. If you warped to this map from a pistol start, all you'll have is a shotgun and chaingun. The only thing you can do here is hope to luck out and knock the arch-vile out of his attack animation so he doesn't kill you. On top of this, those plasma shooters from the first map are embedded in the walls, and you can easily get hit by them. Other than this, it's mostly like the first map. Boring fights in flat rooms and hallways.
  
  Third map, it's basically a bit of an extension to the second map, where you go into an underground area and destroy a scripted boss which sits there and takes a lot of damage, shooting out spawncubes (how original). Once it reaches a set amount of remaining health, the platform you are on starts to lower. The problem here is that occasionally the boss will close itself off from taking any damage, so if these two events coincide, you're pretty much fucked. By the time it opens again, you'll have been lowered into the abyss. Once you kill it, you are teleported out (why? how? it's not even explained) and have to run out of the map before a timer runs out, or you die. Also, even after it dies, it continues to spawn monsters, which you can still hear spawning, but can't kill. So it's impossible to get maxkills. Oops. You have to backtrack through most of the second map as well, which has been refilled with pretty much the exact same monsters you killed the first time you went through it. Eventually you fight a Pyrodemon, which is just a baron with different coloring. Hooray.
  
  This map exemplifies the worst excesses of ZDoom maps in general. Way too much emphasis on detail, scripts and special effects, with hardly any effort put into gameplay and testing. I wrote a lot, but I felt I needed to explain exactly why it sucked instead of just writing "Shit; avoid". Well, after saying all that ... avoid these maps.
  
  
• Elegy - Masayan
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 849192 bytes - (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: Sonikku7
  Elegy is a straightforward episode for Doom 2. Most maps follow a consistent outdoors Hell theme, though a few maps do feature tech bases of some sort. Elegy is unique in that the maps are usually quite small; very small, as a matter of fact. The main focus of the wad seems to be on delivering short, linear maps that can be completed in a matter of minutes. You will probably never get lost in these maps. However, this simplicity is what gives Elegy its charm, as the levels get straight to the point and deliver both a solid and fun experience. The atmosphere is surreal for the most part ,and the uplifting music goes well with the map set. Wads like Elegy are proof that you don't need some massive, insanely detailed megawad to have an enjoyable Doom experience. Even though no wad can appeal to everyone, Elegy is worth a try.
  
  
• 33in24 - Naut's best wad ever yet to date - Nautilus (NOTE: not actually Nautilus)
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 2586 bytes
  Reviewed by: Shaikoten
  This is a an anonymous user's take on Nautilus' take on YEDS classic series, 32in24, in which the author claims to be Nautilus. It contains one map, which is a cyberdemon killing you. If you would like to further know the history of this piece of shit jokewad about a jokewad, simply browse Post Hell for 33in24. All you need to know? An in-joke about an in-joke that wasn't funny in the first place.
  
  PS: I'm pretty sure Rott wasn't homeschooled, but DD was.
  
  
• UAC Outpost 11 - Jeff Ligda aka Davitch
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 76971 bytes - (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: udderdude
  A short map for Doom 2. The author mentions this was meant to be part of a megawad, and it definitely feels like it. It's exactly like you would expect the first map of a megawad to play like. It's short, with only 56 monsters on UV. Detail level is pretty average, but the map layout is good. Worth a quick playthrough.
  
  
• Omega Invasion - Marcello, TheMaharadja (a.k.a. Rob) and Mazu
  Skulltag - SP/Co-op - 2987045 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: udderdude
  10 Doom 2 maps using Skulltag. It's an Invasion map set, which basically means it's one long non-stop teleporter trap from beginning to end. Monsters come in waves, increasing in number with each one, until you are almost completely overwhelmed. You pretty much get infinite health and ammo, which constantly respawns almost as soon as you grab it. The health spawns can easily be overrun with monsters, though. The map design isn't too bad, and the waves of monsters come pretty quickly. There's a few custom monsters used, nothing ridiculous though. If you like Invasion maps, you can't really go wrong with this one.
  
  
• High/Low 3 - Chris Hansen
  ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 311796 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: udderdude
  This is a Doom 1 map for ZDoom. It's a very well-designed hell map. The map layout is amazing; despite being huge and full of twists, turns, drops and platforms, I never got lost or felt confused. Detail level is high, with plenty of stuff to look at. Ammo starts out tight but loosens up towards the end; health is pretty tight over the whole map. Gameplay is very well done as well; I never felt bored or underwhelmed, which Doom 1 maps usually end up doing to me due to lack of monster variety. Overall, amazing map and highly recommended!
  
  
• DOOM 2: EVOLVED (Version 1.2 Doomworld Release) - Dave Billing
  GZDoom - Solo Play - 3225735 bytes - (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: udderdude
  This is a 3 map set for Doom 2, using gzDoom. It's remakes of the first 3 maps from Doom 2, with much improved detail, 3D bridges and lighting effects/reflections. The maps stay true to the originals for the most part, with a few exceptions. Some parts of the maps are missing (possibly because it's not complete yet), and some parts are redesigned. The monster count and difficulty are pretty much the same as the originals. Overall, it's worth a quick playthrough, but if you've already played Doom 2 maps 1-3 to death, you might want to pass.
  
  
• Classic Doom Music - Devil Hunter
  Limit Removing - n/a - 39631956 bytes
  Reviewed by: D_J
  There's really not much to say about this one. It's just a wad that replaces the episode one music with Sonic Clang's versions from Classic Doom 3. It also replaces the title screen and intermission music with PSX Doom's music. It was originally made for Skulltag but it works perfectly fine in ZDoom and any other port that supports Ogg Vorbis music.
  
  
• Hellopolis - Isaac Rodriguez
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 2258959 bytes - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Reviewed by: TheeXile
  Note: This is my first review, but I have played many maps, so I'll try to give this one the best review and overview that I can.
  
  What we have here is a slaughter map definitely in the flavor of Deus Vult with a parade of assorted themes. It's a very large map (physically), and at over 2,000 monsters, it should give you a fair challenge (mostly in the beginning few rooms, though). As with all slaughter maps, it helps to plan out how you're going to tackle each area, which brings me to the first point of interest: Gameplay.
  
  Ammo and health availability is balanced nicely for how much you'll make use of them at first, though it gets a bit on the surplus side later on. Monsters seem to like to hang out in automatically-refilling elevated cages and teleport pads, so (at least for the first half or so) you're in for a fairly systematic progression. Also, be sure to put on your running shoes, since there will be some very large areas later on.
  
  Level design-wise, it's not bad with detailing throughout. Huge and unique areas abound, all rhyming with a primarily hellish theme (gee I wonder why Doom is so good at that? :P). Noteworthy areas include an impressive recreation of a large football stadium, a colorful tall "reactor" room area, and a wide assortment of other colossal atriums. Author seems to enjoy making liberal use of blinking sector lights, too.
  
  There were a few issues with the design at parts (relatively minor), such as a few door tracks that weren't pegged properly, a few inescapable pits (those water pits with the Arachnotron platforms coming out of them in the blue key room come to mind), and a small Megasphere secret area with refilling monsters that couldn't get out. Also, for some of the monster teleporters (particularly with the boss monsters, Spiderminds and Cyberdemons), circumstances of the gameplay would lead them to get "stuck" on their little platforms and basically become sitting ducks. This might just be an issue with ZDoom, though (what I played on).
  
  Another gripe was the occurrence of almost completely skippable monster teleports. In particular, the red skull key room would all of a sudden flood with monsters that you could literally just walk away from (unless you wanted to get 100% kills or something... in which case it became bit of a job of tedium to pluck them out of their little cages via peek-a-boo). Didn't strongly affect the gameplay, but I thought it noteworthy to mention. If you were to speed-run this map, for instance, you could get by with probably less than 5% kills.
  
   All and all definitely not a bad map. Not as good as Deus Vult (and I'm sorry to be using that as a comparison, but it's the only real reference I know of to judge for these kinds of maps), but definitely comparable.
  
  

Like what you are seeing? Want to get in on the reviewing action? Visit the /newstuff review center and start writing reviews today! You need a Doomworld forums account to participate.

[Xaser]

What's up with the main page showing a quote from the Darkness Falls review instead of something that was actually positive (i.e. Titan 2, which rules)? Seems pretty weird to put a negative review on the front page since it's clearly not the "highlight of the week." Might turn off people -- they'd assume since that review is negative, then all of them are.

[Creaphis]

Nah. I'd say the purpose of the front page blurb is to be a few interesting sentences, and negativity is just as interesting (if not more interesting) than positivity.

Regarding the review for Eternal Revelations:

The first map is a tech base which is almost completely flat, and entirely uneventful except for one room that you pretty much have to know how to do ahead of time. Second map is a temple/tomb type deal, where you're almost guaranteed to get stuck and confused.

So in other words it looks and plays like Eternal Doom. Seems fine to me.

[GreyGhost]

Seventeen screenshots for one map - is that a new record?

[TheeXile]

GreyGhost said:

Seventeen screenshots for one map - is that a new record?

Sorry. Just being thorough. Now that I think on it, the map itself probably didn't deserve that much attention, frankly. At least not compared to some of the other entries.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

If P2 wasn't hard enough...here comes T2. The big 1300+ monster map and the final map have to be among the hardest things ever - it took some real strategy and a lot of patience to beat those on UV -fast. The detail and the new monsters are great too.

The winged baron even uses the attacks from the prototype orange baron I made for an early version of KDIZD, nice to see some things weren't forgotten.

*grabs Hellopolis for another dose of extreme hardcore action*

[entryway]

Creaphis said:

So in other words it looks and plays like Eternal Doom. Seems fine to me.

He didn't play Eternal or does not like it. And I do not know how it's possible to get stuck on map03 in yellow key room. How it's possible to get stuck in a small square room with yellow key on the column in the center of room with switch for lowering it and with yellow door for exit? So I think "the bug" is only in underdude's head, not on map03.

[Brandon D. Lade]

Well, you have all gotten to see my first /newstuff review ever! (The Titan 2 Review) What do you think of it?

[Wills]

I thought the par times thing was amusing.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Another gripe was the occurrence of almost completely skippable monster teleports.

Skipping them is perhaps the only viable strategy on this map, since each one contains enough monsters to drain even the biggest ammo (and health) supplies. Especially the billions of pain elementals with their billions of lost souls.

[Deeforce]

Brandon D. Lade said:

Well, you have all gotten to see my first /newstuff review ever! (The Titan 2 Review) What do you think of it?

Oh my god, no pictures! The review is good, but next time be sure to email Bloodshedder some pictures!

[ducon]

I can’t play Hellopolis:
PrBoom crashes because it can’t find a texture.
ZDoom crashes when I enter the little room full of ammo in the back left of the first marble room.

[scwiba]

Didn't even realize High/Low 3 was out. Chris Hansen maps are always a welcome surprise.

[esselfortium]

Brandon D. Lade said:

Well, you have all gotten to see my first /newstuff review ever! (The Titan 2 Review) What do you think of it?

If you're telling us about how great-looking something is (or even if not), it helps to show us a couple of demonstrative pictures. :p

[Brandon D. Lade]

esselfortium said:

If you're telling us about how great-looking something is (or even if not), it helps to show us a couple of demonstrative pictures. :p

Sorry, due to security reasons I am only allowed on specific pages online. Sorry there are no screenshots. But, if you play the wad yourself, what do you think of my actual review?

[Naan]

Creaphis said:

So in other words it looks and plays like Eternal Doom. Seems fine to me.

Yep. I would add that ER are more reinterpretations of original maps (think KDiZD) rather than an actual addon.

If I'm not mistaken, Titan2 is more of the HR type of map, isn't it ?

[printz]

Brandon D. Lade said:

Sorry, due to security reasons I am only allowed on specific pages online. Sorry there are no screenshots. But, if you play the wad yourself, what do you think of my actual review?

Not even home? Also, people want screenshots because in actuality they don't have much time to play the wads.

[LexiMax]

Bloodshedder said:

• Harvester[/b] - Blzut3
  Skulltag - Deathmatch - 5377 bytes
  Reviewed by: udderdude
  A mod for Skulltag that allows any CTF map to be played in the Harvester game mode, based on the mode from Quake 3: Team Arena. The wad is an amazing 4,850 bytes in size. That's about it.

If anyone cares to try this gametype out, I'm running a Skulltag server with this mod.

funcrusher.ath.cx:10672

[40oz]

Udderdude, why did you explain what invasion was in your review for Omega Invasion, which is a Skulltag-only pwad, but not explain what Harvester is for people like me who don't have Quake 3?

[Creaphis]

Yeah, I honestly don't have any idea what Harvester is. Not explaining it was a bad call.

[Xaser]

Xaser said:

(complaint on the first post about front page review not being Titan 2)

Deeforce said:

no pictures!

Oh, that's why. :o

I thought it was a rule that t/nc reviews aren't accepted without screenshots... a shame in this case. The review is good, but without a screenshot or two the chances of T2 being passed up are slightly higher. To me it should've been the highlight of the week, but lack of pics alone is probably what stopped it from getting a front-page spot. :(

Just remember it for next time, DLade. Not to be too slammy on my part.

Also random: "this is my first review" is a pretty silly thing to put in a review... if it's done right (which it was), there's no need to say it. :P

[Blzut3]

Creaphis said:

Yeah, I honestly don't have any idea what Harvester is. Not explaining it was a bad call.

Indeed. For those who want to know. Harvester is a variant of one flag CTF. Initially it is played as Deathmatch. Once a player is killed their soul appears in the center of the map. Pick the soul up and deliver it to their base (the base the color of the soul (this is important for 3/4 team games, but for two teams it can be simplified to "deliver it to the enemy base")) to score. If you are killed you can remove your soul from the map by picking it up. If someone carrying souls is killed they just disappear. You can tell if someone is a carrier as the souls will form a tail behind the player.

While I'm on the topic there seems to be a bug in Skulltag that is preventing the souls from disappearing if they are picked up by a person on the same team as the soul (Red player picking up red soul for example). I still need to look into this. (I fairly certain it's a bug on Skulltag's part since the mod works fine offline.) Not game play killing, but certainly annoying since it makes it appear as if it's difficult to pick up the souls.

[Brandon D. Lade]

Xaser said:

Oh, that's why. :o

I thought it was a rule that t/nc reviews aren't accepted without screenshots... a shame in this case. The review is good, but without a screenshot or two the chances of T2 being passed up are slightly higher. To me it should've been the highlight of the week, but lack of pics alone is probably what stopped it from getting a front-page spot. :(

Just remember it for next time, DLade. Not to be too slammy on my part.

Also random: "this is my first review" is a pretty silly thing to put in a review... if it's done right (which it was), there's no need to say it. :P

As I said, I have no access to sites I can upload pictures to, even at home. But I would appreciate it if that does not undermine my ability to do reviews. If someone else would like to provide the screenshots, they may feel free to do so.

Also, despite my rave review of Titan 2, I have not been able to find the secret level (Map10). Does anyone know how to get to this level (besides using idclev10)?

[Gez]

http://www.imageshack.us/
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/
http://tinypic.com/

All allow you to upload images without being registered.

[Brandon D. Lade]

Gez said:

http://www.imageshack.us/
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/
http://tinypic.com/

All allow you to upload images without being registered.

If I try to use any of these 3 sites, I get the message: "Sorry! Content advisor will not allow you to see this site.". Therefore, I am not able to provide the pictures.

[Naan]

After a few tries, it seems Titan2 levels aren't designed to be completed from pistol start.

[Brandon D. Lade]

Naan said:

After a few tries, it seems Titan2 levels aren't designed to be completed from pistol start.

Why would you think there were? There are 9 (or 10) STRAIGHT levels in this wad for a reason, after all. Okay, I do understand that some community megawads are designed to be completed playing each map separately, but level packs made by just 1 author are rarely designed to be completed that way.

[Bloodshedder]

Brandon D. Lade said:

If I try to use any of these 3 sites, I get the message: "Sorry! Content advisor will not allow you to see this site.". Therefore, I am not able to provide the pictures.

Surely you have access to an e-mail account that allows you to attach pictures and send them to me.

[Brandon D. Lade]

Bloodshedder said:

Surely you have access to an e-mail account that allows you to attach pictures and send them to me.

Yes, I have an email account on AOL. But how do I attach the pictures, and what email address should I use to send them to you? If you could provide me with that information, it would be highly appreciated.

In fact, if you tell me, I would be happy to attach and send to you some pictures from Titan 2 so that the /newstuff can be updated with them.

[Wills]

Send them in a zip file via email to bloodshedder@doomworld.com