Reviews and Submissions

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

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MSandt

Aaron Barber is a professional mapper (HL2, Portal,...) these days btw.
"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

methy

Cool. So that makes at least 3 duke mappers who turned pro mappers at some point! There was also  Enric Alvarez (Lem series) I believe and obviously Robert Travis
http://thisshitaintscary.blogspot.com/ - The only Blog solely dedicated to Horror video games

Forge

What does DavoX do?
iirc he is (was) in that industry or something related to it
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

MSandt

"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

Loke

Quote from: Forge on  26 December 2013, 15:59:41
What does DavoX do?
iirc he is (was) in that industry or something related to it

Level designer I believe.

methy

http://thisshitaintscary.blogspot.com/ - The only Blog solely dedicated to Horror video games

MSandt

Quote from: methy on  26 December 2013, 19:09:18
Where did C3PO work?

http://www.magnarj.net/

If you have HL2EP2, you should definitely check out his Mission Improbable.
"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

Gambini

The other day I was talking to this guy I know from the hl2 world and he told me that C3PO now works on Valve, he did some maps for CSGO at least, so maybe we played his maps the other day hehe.

Loke

#188
Another map called Mega Plaza Shopping Center. Thought it was a great map. Actually played it before in the Duke Attrition mod but this is the first time I tried it in vanilla.

QuoteMega Plaza Shopping Center is a large city-themed level built entirely by Andras Piroska. It focuses on a shopping center located in the city of Los Angeles which was recently overrun by aliens and it's up to Duke to clean up the place and then get the hell out of there before it blows up in a fiery blaze.

Mega Plaza focuses a lot on its non-linear gameplay which relies heavily on finding well hidden key cards. Finding the first one is actually the tricky part and definitely my favorite moment in the map. The areas a very well constructed in a sense that you can very easily see the key cards but they're either hidden behind an indestructible glass window or a fence blocking your path, a "so near and yet so far" moment if there ever was one.
Scouring the map for cards isn't the only highlight of the map. Exploring the map for every nook and cranny is another great moment that the map has to offer. Cleaning up every room isn't necessary however, but it's definitely recommended and very rewarding since they house a lot of goodies that will help you along the way.

Starting off Mega Plaza can be a bit challenging since ammo is a bit scarce and you have to look around for it. Nonetheless, with that said, it's not a particularly hard map despite the hectic brief introduction and a few nasty but well designed ambushes mostly due to the abundance of health packs.

If there was something that I'd criticize it'd be that while the map certainly looks good the shading leaves a lot to be desired. Frankly, a lot of areas look a bit drab due to the lack of good shading resulting in a very bright environment. One would might argue that of course it's bright, it's a shopping center and yeah, you're right, but this is also a building that's been overrun by aliens. Think of sections of the building with poorly lit rooms or hallways with aliens lurking around corners. I'd preferred if the author could've experimented a bit more with the shading but I also understand the style that he went with. Don't get me wrong, it's not a major issue just a bit unfortunate when the rest of the map is so solid.

Overall Mega Plaza Shopping Center is an excellent map well worth your valuable time. Piroska pretty much nailed everything that makes a Duke Nukem 3D map good, be that the well balanced combat or non-linear design that isn't overwhelming. Definitely check it out or Duke will go medieval on your sorry ass.

Score: 85

Puritan

Man, this is weird.
I had "Mega Plaza Shopping Center" almost ready for an upload myself  :o


But of course, you guys first.
I'll upload your review.
And you get to be the map number 600 contributor too  :)
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

#190
Thanks. I got another one from Piroska. :)

QuoteUnderground Base is a canyon/hi-tech-themed map by Andras Piroska. The basic premise revolves around an underground base that has lost contact with the outside world and it's up to Duke Nukem to figure out what happened.

Underground Base isn't particularly ambitious nor great but what it do offer is a solid 15 minute romp through a decently constructed hi-tech base. The shading is occasionally a bit wonky; some areas look good while others seem to lack any form of shading at all. Texturing leaves a lot to be desired with a lot of odd texture choices (using a hi-tech crate texture for walls, really?) but overall it does a good enough job of depicting some sort of base.

Unfortunately, one of the weaker aspects of the map is also the combat. You'll be granted a big arsenal of weapons and explosives early on from one of the supply rooms which is almost enough to stomp through the map with minimal effort. On the bright side you do get a lot of different colored enemies but sadly they're quickly eradicated by Duke's explosive armament.
Ultimately, you pick up the Devastator weapon and from there on out you're pretty much unstoppable which also, towards the end, makes short work of the big guy waiting for you.

Underground Base is a bit uneven especially when compared to Piroska's clearly superior release "Mega Plaza Shopping Center". It's not a bad map, definitely not, but it's also not great. You might enjoy it, who knows. I just expected a bit more.

Score: 65

Puritan

Thank you once again, 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

Forge

there's an updated version of Lara Croft's house that was released in '99. supposedly it improved multiplayer
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

LeoD

The Library map reviewed here is a modified version of LIBRARY.MAP contained in Sunstorm Interactive's Duke Xtreme (same layout, pickups modified).
Polymost HRP / Z-Pack: customize your HRP  |  User Map Maphacks
"Redneck Rampage has chickens. If you put a chicken in Duke3D then it's Duke3D with a chicken."

Puritan

^Thanks for that info.
Now, I'm not sure if I will add Sunstorm as author.
Might get me in trouble with all kind of copyrights.


After all, it was somebody who actually released this map somewhere back in time.
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