Before I begin, I just want those of you who have taken to this on a week in and week out basis, there will be NO TWID Chronicles on Labor Day Weekend. I'll be out of town and unable to do the update. Never fear - I'll be back the following week with all the news and some new maps to check out, too.

     I'm going to change  it  up a bit this week and rather than lead off with maps uploaded to the archives this week, I'm going to circle the community (so to speak) and bring  you the news and other goings on in the community first - then I'll move on to the new maps.

P.S. All of these maps are direct linked in my personal back up of the archives along with GOD KNOWS how many others for Doom, Doom2, Doom3, ROE, Wolfenstein 3D, Castle Wolfenstein, Duke 3d, Strife, Hexen, Heretic and more here

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do anything in depth - as it were - but I did open up the maps and get some screenies for you and my quick impressions based on what I saw....

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     Over on the Zdoom forums in this thread, I came across the following.

Brutal Fantasy Doom

Description :

 This mod looks like it is endeavoring to create a Doom conversion based on Final Fantasy (hence the  name). There doesn't appear to be much there yet, but might be worth looking at for shits and giggles - it is in very early alpha stage so long way to go, but, hey.....

download link  

The file is in .pk7 format - just drag and drop onto zdoom  and off you go....

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Golden Souls

Pre-Release Trailer
 

I'll be damned if I can remember where I found this - maybe the Doomworld forums, but definitely looks like it might be worth checking out.....

CURRENT VERSION DOWNLOAD
Pre-Release V3 - Gzdoom Only
Download Link:

General Description
Doom : The Golden Souls is a groundbreaking hub-based mod, heavily influenced by one of the
greatest games of all time: Super Mario 64.
To progress through the game, you must collect "Golden Souls" in order to unlock doors in the
main hub, a big mansion. You can access any level through the paintings on the walls.
In order to explore every single part of a level, you may even need to backtrack in an older
painting, after finding an important item.

The Gameplay
This mod has got alot of different gameplay styles: You may have to simply reach the golden soul
in a level, while in another you'll have to rush through an Athletic level, avoiding obstacles
and such, you may have to help some NPCs in order to reach your goal, or even collect 8 red coins
to get the Soul.

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Over on One Man Doom, I came across a couple of new reviews that you can check out.....

Here's the first one - called Microplutonia....

Microplutonia:

Micro Plutonia is one of those offshoots of the Plutonia Revisited Community Project. Most of the rejects have found their way to release one way or another, either as solo works or parts of larger mapsets. Matthias Johansson's "UAC Garden Facility" was one of the later, worked into this minisode for The Plutonia Experiment, released in 2011. The original is MAP06, while MAP04 and 05 were made to pad things to a trio. The story is about as self aware as can be - the demons have invaded some bases that are identified as "Plutonian" and you're going to make them wish they
hadn't.


 

And the second map - I also included a small portion of the review so you can tell if it's something you want to investigate further....
Esselmap I: Testing Facility (TESTFCIL.WAD)
 

The mere existence of this single level for Doom II, circa 2006, must gnaw away at Esselfortium's cold, black heart. Testing Facility is his earliest released work, a fairly large level for limit-removing ports that draws a lot of its aesthetic from Knee Deep in the Dead. It's actually a pretty cool MAP01, loaded with intricate secrets, some of which I think (related to the plasma rifle) are a one-time affair. Anyway, while it's for Doom II, it's largely in the style of the Phobos episode as far as textures go, though not exactly in architecture or anything. It also doesn't have a story, not that you really care about the .TXT files that come with Doom PWADs...
or do you?

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Over at Wads in Progress

3 new maps showed up

Silent Dreams

Imagine if world was full of good people! Wouldn't it be nice? Going to the park with friends,
isn't that a joy?

...

Our hero woke up. He dreamt that. What woke him up were children who were crying because their mothers died, and their fathers mutated. Our hero says: "For the sake of children, I am gonna kill all those mutants! I can't watch innocent lives dying! I must stop it!"



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Secret Doom: The Green Machine

Description:

Your mission is simple. You have to find and activate The Green Machine in the Congo sector. The only issue is, this area has been completely overrun by demons. Your only way in is to locate portals that transport you throughout the facilities until you find your way there. You have no
backup, and no way out. If you fail, the war will be lost.

Secretdoom: The Green Machine,  is the second installment in the Secretdoom episodic series. There will be 10 maps in the episode, excluding a few secret levels, and a revamped survival mode that changes up all the main levels into an endless horde mode.



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Recon Obsolete




8-19-2014------------------------------------------------------------------

I originally made a wad with the same name about two years ago, but the data for it here got wiped as well as the latest wad data on my laptop... >:(

It was posted for a while on Realm667

I've been working on a newer version of the wad, definitely trying to stay with the atmospheric/winter theme though. Wanna try and push GZDooM without taking away that old school doom feel. Wonder how that'll work hehe.

As usual there will be new features such as weapons, sprites, textures, music, sounds, hud... The
whole package.

And again as usual it will be a one man project, so this will take a while.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Playthroughs

Ok - so on to some playthrough fun - I always find these kind of interesting as many other people do, so here are the ones I ran across this week. Enjoy.

Brutal Video Vault
Doom WAD Playthrough - Knee Deep in Hell, E2M1


Brutal Video Vault
Doom WAD Playthrough - Dark Side of Deimos, E2M7


Cyberdemon531
Doom 2: No Rest for the Living MAP09: "March of the Demons" UV Speed in 0:28


NerdyRaina
Nostalgia Rush Episode 1 : Doom
 

I stopped pasting the embed code into my pages because when I'm editing it takes FOREVER to save the pages - so, it's just easier to post the link. Have fun....

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Now on to the new maps that got released this week
 

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Waist Deep in the Dead - A Doom Episode 1 remake (Doom 2 mod)

I ran across this one on MOD DB - based on the description - this looks like it might be VERY interesting, and possibly (if there is time - worth a review, but I'll probably save that for when it's  finished).

This is a rework on the first episode of Doom to give it a more modern feel, implementing more
features and details into each map. It uses Doom 2 as a base (for weapons and monsters)

Detailed Maps
Every room has a more organic feel and features lots of details. Lots of rooms are receiving
complete overhauls. Some cool stuff like glass, ramps and overhead platforms bring a new feel to
some maps

New Areas
Every outside area was just a big emptiness. This WAD turned them into entirely new areas.
In E1M1 Hangar you actually start in a place that looks like a hangar!

Open World
All maps are connected. You can go back to a previous map and it even keeps track of secrets in
each map separately.

Reworked Secrets
Getting rid of the famous "push a button here and something happens somewhere completely
unrelated" and "look for a slightly different wall texture" (well, most of them). Some secrets
might not be exactly where you remember.

Better Difficulties
I've rampped up the higher difficulties. If you play on difficulties 1-3 you might not see much
difference, but 4 and 5 are considerably more interesting

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Title : Castle Courtyard
Filename : casyrd.wad
Release date : 15/08/2014
Author : Gwenvaël Le Bihan (subject_119)
Email Address : gw.lebihan@laposte.net
Other Files By Author : Some maps you can find here, some others on
Doomfrance that I'll upload to idgames soon
Misc. Author Info : Nothing interesting

Description : A map I made for wrack a while ago, I ported it
to Doom removing the real 3d parts.

A quick peak of this one looks like it might show some promise. Starts off in a plain jane room
but gets interesting very quickly as soon as you step through the teleporter

Direct Download
in:
 (Doom2/A-C)
 

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Title : Exitway v1.3
Filename(s) : exitway.wad
Release date : August 16, 2014
Author : Tuxlar
Email Address : webutek@gmail.com

Description : A vanilla map to further practice at
my mapping style. Gameplay was the
priority, but expect a few...
surprises. ;)

Direct Download
in:
 (Doom2/D-F)

Lots going on here - looks like it's going to be really busy, and really hard. Nothing really
that stood out in design from a quick first look



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Title : Progress

Primary purpose : Single play
Filename : progress.wad
Release date : 2014-08-19
Author : Henrik Heino
Email Address : henrik.heino@gmail.com
Misc. Author Info : http://henu.fi
Description : Somewhat challenging dark indoor map.

Direct Download
in:
 (Doom2/P-R)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Title : Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 9
Filename : abysped9.wad
Release date : 08/19/2014
Authors : Obsidian
Gifty
TheMionicDonut
Darsycho
Ribbiks
Tuxlar
4ShockBlast

Email Address : themordicant@gmail.com(Obsidian's email address)

Misc. Author Info : The Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions are held by
Obsidian and are open for pretty much anyone
to participate in. PM Obsidian on Doomworld,
ZDoom forums or the Abyss if you're interested.

Description : 7 maps made during the ninth Abyssal
Speedmapping Session in the space of two hours,
with 15 minutes for music and texture selection
and 15 minutes for bugfixing. Each mapper had 3
concepts to choose from:

- Fortress on the edge of a cliff
- Aqueduct
- Space station

4ShockBlast used the Alfonzo Treatment.

Direct Download
in:
 (PORTS/A-C)

Here are screenshots - 1 for each map, in order of appearance (Map 1 - 7)