this week in doom - week ending March 20, 2016 (doom date 22.8135)

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: 03.20.16

Clu-clunk, clu-clunk, clu-cluck; the sound of a cyberdemon's footsteps nearby is etched into every person's brain who plays Doom. One of my favorite things about Doom is the uniqueness and memorability of its roster of baddies. Each enemy serves a unique purpose that no other monsters can fill; sure, some are very similar, but they all excell in certain areas that makes each of them special and supreme in their own bailiwick. It is the placement of these monsters that can lead to set-ups so insidious that they require specific planning and grant a sense of gratification to have passed, encounters that are so boring they can be skipped without missing a thing, and everything in-between. Many mappers hold an excellent grasp on what monsters work best where and wads today still manage to produce unique and interesting encounters, which I think we can all be thankful for :)

This week was a very slow week for /idgames, but within the last day a few more have poured in with dates across the week, so I guess I'm glad I waited for this, heh. When I would have normally wrote this only the first wad was up and... well let's just jump into /idgames!

Up first is a wad called "Help Out" by the guy who brought us "Winnie Pooh" and Something Awful," Bzzrak Ktazzz; find it here: helpout.zip

The text file says it runs in vanilla under the Ultimate Doom iWad, E3M1 mapslot. The most exiting part of this map was 2 cacos teleporting in behind me when I grabbed a key. It was very bland and looked like a first map. Keep trying, bud.

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Next is a wad called "Outpost 2048" by Subucnameth and can be found here: outp2048.zip

This wad runs in zDoom with the Doom 2 iWad.

While this map was visually appeasing, it's gameplay was sub par. Lotta entering rooms only to find shooting galleries, though this one did have 2 nice AV trap-ish things. Way too much ammo, but I was happy to see some of the higher tier monsters make an appearance. I totally skipped every baron/HK in the second-to-last hallway.

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Up third is a wad called "No Sleep for the Dead" by Jan Van der Veken, which can be found here: nos4dead.zip

Run this wad in any registered version of Doom (sweet!) and it replaces E1M1-E1M9, plus a bonus level E2M1.

If I were visiting Russia and some guy stopped me on the street, pulled this out, and sold this to me saying that it was an official expansion to Doom I would probably believe him; it's that good. Totally looks and plays with the best iWad quality and coming from the same guy that made 1997's "Dawn of the Dead," it's no surprise this wad is awesome.

The inclusion of a bonus level was peculiar to me, but it was a lot of fun to play through. Each level was fun to explore and medium sized. This is a must-play for every Doomer; download it today!

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Our last wad of the week is called... well, its file name is "map_name" and we'll just leave it at that, but it's by ijon and can be found here: map_name.zip

This wad runs in the MAP07 mapslot of the Doom 2 iWad and works in PrBoom+, Eternity, (G)ZDoom, or Zandronum, though zDoom-specific ports do get an "easter egg." This wad requires cc4-tex.wad to run as well.

What an absolute delight to play! (and the mapper was nice enough to include some screenies in the folder itself, too, lol) This map was just beautiful and the encounters were well-hashed. Good trap setups and general thing placement. Great layout and design. Interesting concept. This map had many things going for it and it turned out well! I'd highly recommend this wad as well!

Hey, any week that has such fun wads uploaded is a good week in my book! Let's surf the web...

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On the DoomWorld forums, there is a CP in the works called "To Honor Ty" which is headed by Chris Hansen and pays tribute to one of the greatest members of the Doom community and a member of the great Team TNT: Ty Halderman. This CP has been around a little while now, but has been getting some awesome contributions by fantastic mappers such as antares031, Mechadon, pcorf, dobu gabu maru, Z0k, Mithran Denizen, Doomkid, didy, Gothic, Angry Saint and of course Chris Hansen. The CP is Boom-compatible and runs in the Doom 2 iWad with its own special texture set based on Team TNT's retres.wad texture pack. Everything can be found in the OP on its thread here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/74194-to-honor-ty-a-boom-comp-community-project-maps-music-etc-still-very-welcome/

At 16 maps strong and with a team this skilled, this CP promises to be one of the best of the year and it's for a good cause, too. If you haven't played any of these maps yet, you are not only really missing out on a great time, you are also missing an opportunity to aid the mappers with their tribute. There is still time to submit maps, midis, or other resources, too, so if that's your thing then feel free to drop in on the dev thread and lend a hand! Honor and respect to Ty, who for 18 years managed the archives so that the rest of us would have stuff to complain about, heh. Ty was awarded the much-deserved Espi Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 and the community truly would not have been the same without him.

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DoomWorld member rdwpa has been slowly cranking out speedmaps over the last 8 months on a thread titled "Rdwpa speedmaps (19 Boom-format maps so far)" and as you can guess, there are 19 Boom-compatible maps completed thus far. I had the opportunity to play some of these and while I can assure you they are possible to beat, most of them are tricky, evil little devils. I like rdwpa's maps because he is one of those mappers that has a superb understanding of the roster of monsters; their strengths and weaknesses, how well they work with each other and how they affect a players strategy to pass an area. Intellegent Monster Placement abound here, so take a look:

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/73750-rdwpa-speedmaps-19-boom-format-maps-so-far/2/

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Over on the Zand forums, "SamsaraHold Resurrection + Monster Randomizer!" is a sweet thread by Untitled that aims to mesh together Samsara and Stronghold. Now, the thread itself isn't so much news, but the monster randomizer has been upgraded to version 2, which I think is pretty darn cool!

For those who don't know what Samsara is, imagine playing Doom as Corvus from Heretic, or as Duke Nukem, or as the dude from Quake. For those who don't know what Stronghold is, imagine a tower-defense-type game in Doom's first-person world. This thing is totally cool; so download it right away! Find more info on the dev thread here:

https://zandronum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=3053

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Wildweasel's "'(File)Size Matters' 64K Competition" thread has continued to see some interesting things come in. Most recently is a mod that basically turns the player into a flying vehicle a la Decent. Controls include changing pitch, yaw, roll, and throttle. Sounds like competition is heating up over there :)

Head on over and check it out; still a month and a week to go! http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=50859&start=165

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Srgt. Mark IV's FaceBook page has a new demo video up of Brutal Doom 64's early Alpha gameplay. Looks cool! Check it here: https://www.facebook.com/BrutalDoom

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One Man Doom got a new review this week. Xaser's "Sharp Things" is its subject.

This map is a lot of fun to play and looks visually-awesome. Xaser truly is one of the best detailers in the Doom community and each of his maps show it. Read KMX E XII's sweet review here:

http://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2016/03/sharp-things-xa-sharpwad.html

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Wads In Progress has some new info on a wad called "TGRDM3 [Morgenstern] by Tiger. This DM project looks awesome and I bet would be absolute fun to kill a few buddies in. Beta builds now available! Check it out here:

http://wadsinprogress.info/?a=listwads&wad=1728

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Lotta really cool demos rolling in for miscellaneous Ribbiks maps on the thread "Miscellaneous Ribbiks demos" which can be found here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1575445

Gotta love these demos; what superb skill! Keep 'em coming guys!

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Doom 3 has some news! "Overthinked DooM^3 v1.666" has been uploaded to Game Watcher (formerly Strategy Informer) and it combines many mods together and further tweeks them. This includes gameplay as well as aesthetic mods and it sounds pretty cool. There is also a version sans crosshair and a config file to boot. The site credits punk0x29a for these files, so big props to him for putting something out there for us this week! Check the mods out here: http://www.gamewatcher.com/games/doom-3/mods

Don't forget to show some love for Doom Reborn!

http://www.doomreborngame.com/

Adios till next week and keep it coming!