this week in doom - week ending March 13, 2016 (doom date 22.8128)

Well, faithful followers of "This week in Doom", here we are in the year 2016. As I have been doing for the majority of the history of Doom's existence, I will continue to bring you new doom wads, new reviews, updated news and much more. This particular page is my modest attempt to keep you abreast of all the current goings on in the Doom community - new Doom wads, new Doom 3 maps, updates on projects, Doom engines and more. Enjoy and Keep on Dooming!

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       This Week in Doom: 03.13.16

While this may not have been the biggest week for Doom in terms of the quantity of maps uploaded to /idgames, this week was ripe with quality! From all of the uploads to /idgames, to several wads lurking on the fourms, to an impressive Scythe speedrun; this week rocked!

For starters, Bob Larkin released the next installment in his current Ultimate Doom episode: E1M3 "No Place to Hide" can be found here: http://doomwadstation.net/npth/

This small map pits you against a baron in close quarters, before dumping you in a nice open room where the old "Floor is Lava" games come to mind. Despite opening up considerably from the beginning, this map continues to put pressure on the player as they move on and includes a few extra, optional areas for the curious. Though not too terribly difficult, you'll prolly die once or twice, all with a smile ;) Check it out right away!

Jumping into /idgames, we have only three new wads coming in this week, but they're all good wads!

In the first position we have a map I was thrilled to include in last week's article and am stoked to get a chance to play it again this week! Lainos uploaded "Urotsuki 2: Cargo Cult" to /idgames! Time to jump into this beauty again! Find it here:

Ur2cargo

This map runs in PrBoom+ (-complevel 2) with .OGG support under the Doom 2 iWad.

This map is one of the most awe-inspiring maps I've seen; the detail and texuture work is phenominal. I have absolutely no idea what the theme was here (old egyptian ruins with tech taking over, military moving in and random washing machines? I think that's about close-enough), but I loved it. This map just blows me away.

Gameplay-wise, it really isn't too difficult of a map if you just stay on your toes and make it through the first area with decent health. I think that hitscan-heavy encounter kinda sets the tone for how the rest of the map is going to feel for you. They are very sneaky... heh, but it's a good way to show the player not to take small, unseen for granted.

This map is Cacowad material, so if you haven't yet, you need to play this map!

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Second up is a map that is a "loose sequel" to a map covered over on One Man Doom a couple weeks ago: "The Blood of Virgins." Zrrion the insect has made another map in the same aesthetic; it's called "Sins of the Flesh" and can be found here:

A_soft

Run this beauty in (G)zDoom with the Doom 2 iWad.

Another gorgeous map! I really like the attention to detail here, evident in the little things like the lighting and the layering of the detail-work. The textures used worked really well to add their borders and illusion of depth, making rooms feel bigger and more detailed. The use of 3D floors was perfect in this map, adding even more depth and paths to explore to the few rooms they were used in.

This map is pretty generous on ammo, but I found myself frantically searching for more at the very end to kill that cyber, not that that's a bad thing, as he was from earlier, so it was nice to have him crawling around for a good portion of the map. The map itself wasn't too difficult. I highly recommend this map!

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Our last wad of the week for /idgames is a "reupload of the legendary 1996 Doom II episode, The Troopers' Playground v1.03, to repackage it in a manner suitable for modern users. The map was created by Matthias Worch and was repackaged/reuploaded by The Green Herring; find it here: ttp-rp.zip



This wad contains nine SP levels, plus one additional SP and 2 bonus DM levels. It runs in vanilla under the Doom 2 iWad.



These maps were a ton of fun to play; each map kept me interested and wanting to see what would come next. Considering the time it was made, it looked absolutely excellent and I always enjoy when authors take the time to make their maps look good, which Mr. Worch certainly did back in '96. Great set of old maps; download these oldies but goldies right away!

Bit of a slow (but good) week for Doom so-far; let's see what turns up around the web.

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Starting with DoomWorld, there are a couple sweet wads that have come up!

Shadowman put up a wad called "Mogor's Winter" that is pretty sweet! It features 6 maps for Boom/Doom 2. If you were a fan of "Hellfire" then you will definitely be a fan of these maps! Give 'em a check today! https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/86672-mogors-winter/

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"AeonDM" is a really sweet-looking CP for Zandronum, ironically found on the DoomWorld site:

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-multiplayer/86050-aeondm-or-bourgeois-lms/

This project is headed by Decay and has a lot of awesome-looking screenshots up. More were recently added by HeavenWraith that look to have an Alice in Wonderland theme going on. These maps all look great and I can't wait to frag some friends in 'em! Keep an eye on this DM project!

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On the zDoom forums, Yholl posted up a mod called LegenDoom v1.1 a couple weeks ago. It looks pretty darn cool and is receiving some nice reviews. Basically it randomly replaces replaces normal enemies with legendary ones which operate similar to Fallout 4's mechanics; causing normal enemies to transform into more powerful varients after reaching half-health. They then drop legendary weapons which basically add an additional effect to a weapon, such as healing items healing more, or bouncing shots, etc. This thing looks really cool, so give it a download right away!

Find it here: http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=51035&sid=b7ba569137ba4c6216003083cef5fa24

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Over on the Zand forums, Tiger has finally released a beta for his DM map "Morgenstern" which was originally posted a month ago. The screenshots are amazing and the beta fun, so head on over to the Zand forums and check it out right away!

Find the thread here: https://zandronum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=6955

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One Man Doom has one new review up. It is of an awesome map by Xaser, "All Aboard the Mega Magilla Gorilla Flotilla."

The map is one of my favorites and this article from KMX E XII is excellent. Read it here:

http://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2016/03/all-aboard-mega-magilla-gorilla.html

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Wads In Progress has some new info on a wad called Phobos Echos by Zemini. Seems most things are done except skills 4/5 and a few other odds-and-ends. Still, no reason to not give HMP a shot! Check it out here: http://wadsinprogress.info/?a=listwads&wad=1797

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Realm667 put up a blog about DoomLauncher's new version, v2.2.0. Looks like there are a lot of bug fixes and added features! Awesome job here Hobomaster22! Check out Doom Launcher here: http://realm667.com/index.php/en/doom-launcher

While you're there, check out all the other cool stuff over at Realm667: http://realm667.com/index.php/en/

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New update to Slade! 3.1.1.1 is out; check it out here: http://slade.mancubus.net/

Awesome job here fellas! Seems 3D floor preview in 3D mode is planned for 3.1.2! Keep your eyes peeled for that!

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Doomsday has a new blog, "Game profiles, autobuilder upgrade" is about, well, what the title states. Seems that with a new version of Ubuntu around the corner, skyjake will be discarding the 32-bit Linux builders and switching over to 64-bit builders for Ubuntu and Fedora, with hopes to get a 64-bit builder for Windows as well! Best of luck, skyjake!

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4shockblast has put up a single segment UV-speedrun of Scythe in under 12 minutes! Wow; that's mindblowing! There were all sorts of risky tricks and tight moments in this demo, but 4shockblast somehow sold his soul to the devil and made it through. Everything about this was just smooth, even the movement! I can't recommend watching this speedrun enough! Find it here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1573789

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Unfortunately Doom 3 news is sparse, but that just leaves more time for Doom Reborn!

http://www.doomreborngame.com/

Take care and God Bless!