The /newstuff Chronicles #88

It's a Deathmatch-oriented /newstuff this week as two new DM wads for a total of 33 DM maps wiggle their way out of /incoming and into /newstuff, including the already insanely popular megawad Green War. If you outplay that, there's one extra map here for your fragging pleasure (or possibly pain). Load up ZDaemon, the Doom Connector, MSN Zone, or whatever you use to frag your friends and enjoy.

• Robotic Dreams by Kim Vidal - - Kim Vidal takes idiotic plasma spam to a whole new level with Robotic Dreams, a 2-4 player DM map running on Doom 2 Map01. Compressing four player starts into about 5% of an arena consisting of three gigantic gray platforms of varying height, this gem's gameplay consists of spawning, firing your plasma around like an idiot until you get killed by the guy behind you, and respawning. Rinse, lather, repeat. If you get bored you can always teleport up a few platforms to snag a soulsphere but I guarantee you'll be about ten frags behind when you get back down. Playing one-on-one fixes that little map design issue, but it doesn't help the repetetive gameplay at all. Also the new textures don't tile. At all. Safe bet to pass this one up. Advanced Doom port required.
• Green War by Jason "Hellbent" Root - - Avid DM mapper Hellbent releases this awesome Doom 2 DM megawad for your fragging and not-playing-Dwango-5 pleasure. Green War consists of 32 mainly outdoor base-like maps in the vein of the early Doom and Doom 2 maps, some good for one-on-one, some more suited for 4 player FFA, and some which offer great DM gameplay for either one (unlike, say, Dwango 5). The majority of the maps have an extremely deathmatch-friendly design (read: multiple entrances to each area, good mix of spacious arenas and narrow hallways, no irritating nukage pools or dead-ends, no megaspheres or badly-placed soulspheres, etc). Where the wad fails is in the architectural design... not that detail is of high importance in a DM wad but some maps don't have anything to distinguish them from the next 'series of rooms and hallways' fragfest. I didn't find that to do anything to lessen the experience however, so with the exception of one or two 'spam maps' that snuck their way in *cough*Map25*wheeze*, Green War is a winner. ZDaemon regulars should eat this one up.