Reviews and Submissions

Started by Forge, 08 December 2011, 16:29:29

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zykoveddy

#165
http://www.scent-88.com/reviews/E/e1l10a/e1l10.php

This is really weird. The review is basically a description of E2L10 from Duke 3D, and the screenshots are obviously taken from there, but I downloaded the map and it's nothing like that. The map from zip file is made in 1997 by The Master, judging by the signature, and it looks pretty cool actually.

From the flight of the seagull come the spread claws of the eagle.

Puritan

It's not weird....only me shuffling files back and forth behind the scenes  :)
Obviously this one wasn't for public eyes yet. It's just something I'm fiddling around with.
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

MSandt

The map posted on the main page as "Moonland" by Nick Celender is "V5" by Ryan Isenberg. Get the real version here: http://dukeworld.duke4.net/classic%20dukeworld/maps/u-z/v5.zip
"Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential." -Howard Roark

Puritan

Well, I'll be damned...?


Thanks Mikko  :)
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

Forge

I missed it. Did somebody steal someone else' work and call it their own, or were the review/screenshots and map mismatched?
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Puritan

#170
Looks like something have gone wrong at a point in the past.
Dunno if this is thievery or not.


I think the zip file is inside that huge map pack floating on the web.
Anyway, I've attached the zip file that I'm having on my HD.
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

MSandt

Yes, I too originally downloaded & played the map as Moonland (back in 1998) but it's V5 by Ryan Isenberg, no question about that (see Hive Duke for a very similar map).
"Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential." -Howard Roark

Forge

i can see where there's confusion since that moonland map "by" Nick Celender is also in the classic Dukeworld site
http://dukeworld.duke4.net/classic%20dukeworld/maps/k-o/moonland.zip

it's obviously V5

the Nick version zip file has a set of "generic" non-matching dates for it's files like what you would find on one of those "500 greatest Duke Maps" CDs that used to flood the market for a cheap buck.

My guess is that this is where the file originally came from and the template and map were mismatched together in confusion over the moonland.map file name (there are old versions of V5 that use moonland.map instead of V5.map - it's why the title is called V5(moonland) even though it doesn't mention the moonland moniker in the template)

Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Micky C

So it's just a simple case of file mixup of files? No stolen work?
Wall whore.

Forge

#174
It's hard to know for sure. One template (Ryan) describes the crash landing at the beginning, the other (Nick) describes a lot of wall cracks. They both can fit the map. It could be stolen - that was back in ('97) the dialup days and there weren't many stable or well established Duke sites (tripod, aol, freehostingwhatever,etc). Collecting and distributing maps was happening, but there wasn't alot of intense scrutiny or reviews, so thievery would have been easier to get away with. Ryan could have used Nick as an alias for some reason. The only way to really know for sure is to find an original copy of Nick's moonland.
All i can say is the time stamps for the files in Nick's zip smack of crappy CD compilation.
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Loke

#175
Another review I did today after finishing my recent map projects. I'll probably do the sequel tomorrow or something. Screenshots are in the .zip file.

QuoteHexhouse is the first map made by author Aaron Barber released back in '96. It's quite a large level, on par with The Abyss from the original game, and offer quite a decent amount of playtime.

Hexhouse isn't something you'd normally expect from someone who's never released anything prior to it, i.e. it's not a complete pile of shit. As mentioned the level is large with a lot of hidden passages and secret rooms for the player to discover. One path leading to another is occasionally broken up with multiple passageways giving the level a much more non-linear progression. Rooms aren't built just for the sake of it but actually contain value items so exploration is a very rewarding experience.
The map, however, isn't much of a challenge even for the lesser experienced Duke player. Even with around a hundred enemies to kill you will pretty much blast through it in about half an hour with most of that time spent exploring the map and finding your way through the canyon and comically large house.

While Hexhouse generally look good there are a few oddities regarding texturing which is a bit sloopy from time to time with either unaligned textures or questionable placement of textures that look really out of place for such an environment.

Hexhouse is a fine example that not every first release is a complete waste of time. If you're a sucker for canyon-themed maps this one is definitely worth checking out.

Score: 75

Puritan

I'll put it up tomorrow.
Thanks a lot and a Merry Christmas, Loke  :)
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

Loke


Loke

#178
Alright, as promised, here is Dark Gate. It's the sequel to Hexhouse. Don't know if the author did any more after this.

QuoteDark Gate is the sequel to Aaron Barber's first release which went by the name Hexhouse. Dark House follows its predecessor in a similar fashion with large rooms and a lack of enemies, however, rather unfortunate, it also replaces the non-linear design that was very prominent in Hexhouse for a more standard linear type of progression. In a way it's less impressive but also a bit more interesting due to its more varying locations.

While it is more linear compared to Hexhouse, Dark Gate still manages to offer a solid experience with its interesting form of progression. While early on it's basically your usual wading on through huge corridors and big open spaces while killing enemies later on you'll come across two locked doors which need to be opened after finding their corresponding key card. Finding these key cards however is the fun part of it as they're both located in these strange and illusive places.

As with Hexhouse, however, Dark Gate is not without its problems. Texturing is sloppy like its predecessor with some odd texture placements. Furthermore, for some reason, most of the sectors which use the water texture aren't actually tagged as water sectors so they behave like a piece of solid ground. I don't know if this was just an oversight of the author or if he actually thought it was a good idea. So think twice before actually making a leap of faith into what you think is a pool of water.
Sadly, Dark Gate also manages to be even easier than Hexhouse with only about 70 enemies to boot on a fairly large map with lots of ammo. Also, don't expect any difference between the difficulty settings as the enemy count is the exact same across all of them. But to put some light into it enemy variation is good as you will combat most of the enemies that the game has to offer including mini-battlelords and a mini-overlord.

Unfortunately, Dark Gate is a bit lacking due to getting rid of the big open non-linear design from Hexhouse and for being just too easy. There's just not enough "oomph" to say the least. But still it's worth checking out on a boring and rainy day when you got nothing better to do.

Score: 70

Puritan

Thank you, sire  :)
Properly uploaded.
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise