By the year, your favorite wads

[vinnie245]

ToP just makes me wish there was more PSX style episodes/megawads.
Even Doom 64 style episodes are criminally underused.

[Megamur]

Unloved was totally great, but I actually put the effort forth to beat Threshold of Pain, so I think that wins my favor by a hair.

vinnie245 said:

ToP just makes me wish there was more PSX style episodes/megawads.
Even Doom 64 style episodes are criminally underused.

I agree. Actually, I don't think I've played a DOOM 64-style episode ever. I'd like to. Maybe such things will become more prominent once editing tools for DOOM 64 EX become widely available.

[MegaDoomer]

fullmetalvaran33 said:

Well, I have no idea what may or may not appeal to you but I found these ones to be worthy for various reasons:

Unloved
Valhalla
Dawn of Reality
Arcadia Demade
Speed of Doom
Drip Feed
Threshold of Pain
Paranoid
Temple of the Lizard Men 2
UAC Ultra
Epic 2
Stronghold: On the Edge of Chaos
Realm of Cheogsh (I suggest playing the first two in the series if you haven't already. It's a good WAD trilogy, imo)
Claustrophobia 1024 2: The Mystery of Too Many Maps
Brood of Hatred
Spire

I think you should be able to find something to enjoy out of all of these. 2010 was a solid year for WADs, I thought.

Good listing for Doom II but I think a couple significant Doom I releases were overlooked: Two episodes by Foodles (Knee Deep in the Undead and F_episode 2), an episode by Stormwalker (Phobos Massacre), and also one by hervoheebo, Deimos Deja Vu. All four of these lean towards classic style Doom I. Also there was Base Ganymede E2, semi-classic overall at least.

EDIT: Oh, and let's not forget Beyond Revival? That even was an honorable mention.

There were other stuff too that's worth playing, too much to list it all though. Biggest in terms of number of maps in probably TNT Renaisance E1 by Eternal. Biggest individual map would be Jade Earth by Jodwin. Not trying to say bigger is always better, but just thought I'd use size when throwing one or two more suggestions out.

[vinnie245]

I have 3 custom episodes for Doom64 currently, heres the links to them.

Redemption Denied (Needs The Outcast Levels)
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=15817

The Reckoning
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=15281

The Outcast Levels
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VFQ6HG3S

[DeathevokatioN]

Beyond Revivial and Hexen: Scourge of Viscerus are the best wads to not get cacowards last year. Brilliant stuff.

[MegaDoomer]

DeathevokatioN said:

Beyond Revivial and Hexen: Scourge of Viscerus are the best wads to not get cacowards last year. Brilliant stuff.

Beyond Revival was an honorable mention. Scourge was robbed entirely, however. :( Although, this thread focuses for Doom, not Heretic/Hexen.

However, of all the wads to get awards, Stronghold should have definitely stayed in the "ZDoom mentionables" section and have Beyond Revival or Scourge take its place IMO. (Probably Beyond Revival simply because there was already one award given for something Heretic/Hexen and no previous years had any Heretic/Hexen caco's so giving two Heretic/Hexen wads awards would have been a bit of an anomaly.)

That said, without getting too far OT - Icebound, Call of the Apostate, and likely soon-to-be-released Dark Belly's Bastion all warrant Heretic caco consideration in 2011.

[DeathevokatioN]

I think Unloved should have also been a runner's up because it just strikes me as dull and unremarkable. Especially in comparison to Base Ganymede and Beyond Revival. But eh, that's just my opinion.

[MegaDoomer]

DeathevokatioN said:

I think Unloved should have also been a runner's up because it just strikes me as dull and unremarkable. Especially in comparison to Base Ganymede and Beyond Revival. But eh, that's just my opinion.

I actually loved Unloved but to each their own opinion.

Not the case with Stronghold though.

Still, almost all the "ZDoom mentionables" were worth playing last year IMO. I think TUD just picked Unloved and Stronghold to be the best of the bunch (or second best, if to avoid awarding his own Hexen coversion).

Talking about caco's and focusing on a single year might be getting a bit on the OT side though. Not sure if it is; but the thought did cross my mind.

[dew]

if i had to name one wad that got robbed, i'd say 1024 claustrophobia. looking at 2009 cacowards you just have to wonder what the fuck happened there. the list includes so much fluff when compared with 1024clau... LoS? GvH? blah. WoS? NDCP2? okay, but i wouldn't pick them before claus. robbed, i say!

[MegaDoomer]

dew said:

if i had to name one wad that got robbed, i'd say 1024 claustrophobia. looking at 2009 cacowards you just have to wonder what the fuck happened there. the list includes so much fluff when compared with 1024clau... LoS? GvH? blah. WoS? NDCP2? okay, but i wouldn't pick them before claus. robbed, i say!

I think all you mentioned except GvH got legitimate awards (NDCP2 marginal though). However Ultimate Needs more Detail was almost equally robbed IMO, also in 2009.

I'd have junked GvH and probably NDCP2 to get them in there.

I posted earlier on this thread what wad was IMO most robbed of an award each year, and while I picked no more than one wad per year, it is honestly a flat tie for me between 1024clau and NMDU for 2009.

[fullmetalvaran33]

MegaDoomer said:

Good listing for Doom II but I think a couple significant Doom I releases were overlooked[...]

I didn't mean to leave any of those out on purpose. Most of the ones you listed I didn't play/don't really want to play. I played "TNT: Renascence" and "Jade Earth" but they weren't my cup of tea. The list I made was comprised of WADs I played and liked, so it was a personal recommendation list. No offense was meant towards what was excluded.

vinnie245 said:

ToP just makes me wish there was more PSX style episodes/megawads.
Even Doom 64 style episodes are criminally underused.

This is one of truest truths of all truths.

And am I the only one shocked that "Dawn of Reality" was passed over in the 2010 Cacowards and their honorable mentions? I'm not upset about it, just...surprised, as it has to be the best--or, at least, oen of the best--city-themed WADs out there. I also greatly admire the use of custom textures based on real life textures. Plus, it's hard to deny the sheer amount of insane effort required to model a large map after an actual city. I don't think I'd ever do that.

[MegaDoomer]

fullmetalvaran33 said:

I didn't mean to leave any of those out on purpose. Most of the ones you listed I didn't play/don't really want to play. I played "TNT: Renascence" and "Jade Earth" but they weren't my cup of tea. The list I made was comprised of WADs I played and liked, so it was a personal recommendation list. No offense was meant towards what was excluded.



This is one of truest truths of all truths.

And am I the only one shocked that "Dawn of Reality" was passed over in the 2010 Cacowards and their honorable mentions? I'm not upset about it, just...surprised, as it has to be the best--or, at least, oen of the best--city-themed WADs out there. I also greatly admire the use of custom textures based on real life textures. Plus, it's hard to deny the sheer amount of insane effort required to model a large map after an actual city. I don't think I'd ever do that.

I understand :), no offense intended. FWIW though did you play Beyond Revivial? If not, then you should IMO. :)

DoR may have beeen overlooked because of the framerate. It might be the best technical achievement ever, though.

[fullmetalvaran33]

MegaDoomer said:

I understand :), no offense intended. FWIW though did you play Beyond Revivial? If not, then you should IMO. :)

DoR may have beeen overlooked because of the framerate. It might be the best technical achievement ever, though.

I haven't played "Beyond Revivial" (what is up with that word? "Revivial?") Not sure if it's my sort of thing. Is it very classic style? If so, ehhh...I may put it off. I kind of like WADs that look and feel different from what classic Doom was like.

And I keep forgetting about DoR's frame rate issues with some people's computers! I wish there would be another, less laggy release for those with slower computers.

[Megamur]

I'd still like to know what suggested specs are for Dawn of Reality. Does anyone have a clue?

*looks up TNT Renascence* Oh wow, I have to play that, too. Love TNT. :)

[fullmetalvaran33]

Megamur said:

I'd still like to know what suggested specs are for Dawn of Reality. Does anyone have a clue?

If you scroll down to the review of DoR, and go to the end of it, the author mentions how things were with his laptop:
Newstuff Review of Dawn of Reality

This ZDoom thread talks about various specs that have been successful or not so successful when playing DoR
The author's specs

That's the best I could find.

[Megamur]

fullmetalvaran33 said:

That's the best I could find.

Thank you!

And the /newstuff reviewer's video card seems about twice as powerful as mine and occasionally had framerate dips. Then again, judging from the screenshots, he seemed to be playing with rather high resolution, which I never do, so maybe I'd fare okay.

I guess it's worth a shot, regardless. Dawn of Reality seems "important," as far as DOOM WADs go.

[MegaDoomer]

I just thought I'd throw in a list of several of the more major wads I can think of, by year, that were clearly good enough to be top 10/caco/runner up material IMO (these are in addition to those mentioned in my previous post where I just picked one per year). Obviously not all these could be picked, given the limit of 10, but there's at least several cases where inferior material to these was chosen instead in my view. In some year I can think of quite a few; in others not as many. (Wads by the same author as another awarded wad are still not considered as to not focus too many awards on one author.) In parentetheses, I have put anything from that year that should have been ditched in favor of one of these IMO.

1994 - There's a level that has a motif of being "the first ID quality map"; I can't remember it's name but I know it was a very good map for '94 and is not in the top 10. Others: RAGE DOOM, Nuke Mine, Dead Base, rrward02, both Invade levels. (Serenity, Slaughter until Death - their authors both had another 1994 top 10 and this is the inferior of the two in both cases.)

1995 - Return to Purgatory, Perdition's Gate by Alex Mayberry (H2H-Xmas)

1996 - Infected Area, Odyssey2.zip, [Once Again]: Sillouhettes of Phobos, helinhel.wad (All Hell is Breaking Loose)

1997 - I really can't find any pick from this year to disagree with.

I need to pause now - but will look at other years later.

[Megamur]

Dead Base is pretty awesome, I agree. Its sequel, Mountain of Fire, is also quite amazing.

[MegaDoomer]

Continuing on...

1997 - Forgot a few: Beginning of the end, Inva_19.wad

1998 - End2, Sector 666, Insertion (Earth, Venom - both are the inferior of two wads that year listed by the same author)

1999 - Biowar, Twilight Zone 2, Vengeance (Twilight Warrior)

2000 - Can't particularly recall any missed or faulty pick(s).

2001 - Same as 2000 (though in both cases my wad listed previously could have fit in...recall I'm not duplicating what I already suggested in my first go - see my post at 21:42 09-14-11).

2002 - DSV4

2003 - Congestion Control 2, Community Chest (RTC3057 Demo because it's only a demo)

2004 (runner-ups are considered as awarded from here on) - Endgame, DSV5, Bloodrust, Reanimated, Titan, City of the Damned, Simply Phobos, Nilla Doom (Grove, Chosen)

2005 - The Spire, Italian Doom Ep1, Decadence, Vae Victus (HeDRox, Crimson Canyon)

2006 - The Spire 2, Xexus, Any one of Dutch Devil's releases, Scimitar, NeoDoom, Sapphire (Operation Overlord, Hellcore v2.0, Foreverhood)

2007 - Elegyftv, Prometheus Experiment, Hatomo Battles the Yomi Demons, City of the Damned 2 (Wonderful Doom, Sine Die)

2008 - Clavicula Nox, 32 Inch Nails, Beyond Horrible!, Wart 04, Dark Resolution, Axiom, Eclipse by Deadwing, Unknown Project, Sin City 3 (Gravity - replace with 32 Inch Nails, Thunderpeak - replace with ZPack)

2009 - Ultimate Needs More Detail, Titan 2, The Great Bicycle Mystery 2, Doom 2 Reloaded, High/Low 3, Mr. Chris's E2 series, Styx, Insanity's Edge, Mini-level Megawad, Base Ganymede E1 (Ghouls vs Humans, Harmony, NDCP2, Cheogsh 2)

2010 - F_episode 2, Jade Earth, Deimos Deja Vu, Spire, Awakening, Teleportation Test Lab 13, fm5_shad.wad (Stronghold)

Remember, the wads in () are the ones that got awards that I don't feel deserve them. And the single wad I listed on the first page for each year is also in the list; I just didn't repeat it. That completes my list of all the award nominees (and mis-nominees) per year.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Time to turn up the contrast:

1993 - doom.wad
1994 - UAC_Dead, Subway21, Epi2best, Talpoida, Sapidusb, Serenity, Eternity
1995 - Infinity, Fava Beans, Abbey3, Axes4
1996 - Plutonia, Dawn of the Dead, Debut, Aniceday, Go2kill, Ironhall, Iloveyou, Relive, Temple2, Chuxen
1997 - HR, Requiem, T_dunn01, Ipray4u, Dothejob, Abigjob, Carnage, Ichor, MDomain1, T_dunno03, Cent092b, Caldera, Newhub4
1998 - Nitelife, Aday2die, Moon2000, Runbuddy
1999 - Herian, Herian 2, Watrcity, Watrcast
2000 - Op-lite 2 (original completion date), Darkening E2, The Mars Plague
2001 - Fragport, Revolution!, Darkest Hour
2002 - LTSD, AV, Dark 7 + mp1, Shadowcaster, Sinful
2003 - CC, Mock 2, Massmouth 2
2004 - SSD, Vile Flesh, Garrulismo, CC2, New World 1+2
2005 - Kama Sutra, Scythe 2, Hordes of Chaos X, Resurrection of Chaos
2006 - Hellcore, Operation Overlord
2007 - KDiZD, DoP, Cheogsh 1, Demon Eclipse (E1/2)
2008 - Deus Vult II, Remain III, ZPack, BGPA, Urban Brawl, DBZone (single player), History of Fruit
2009 - Bicycle Mystery 2, Titan 2, Cheogsh 2, D2Reload
2010 - Stronghold, Threshold, Paranoid, Freak5, Cheogsh 3, Awakening, Dawn of Reality, Chibi Rebellion, Speed of Doom, Arcadia, Curse, HTC, Hehretic, Serpent, Viscerus
2011 - Mandrill, Double Impact, PCCP, 1994 tune up, Apostate