Last Mod You Played

Started by Forge, 15 December 2011, 14:28:35

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Forge

Crackdown by EmericaSkater

Kind of a classic style. For some reason it reminds me a little bit of Castle Wolfenstein meets Rise of the Triad Blake Stone as far as the environment goes. Could be the enemies, the general layout, the texturing combos & shading, could just be me. Either case, I like it.
Game play can be a bit challenging, seems I was always one or two good blasts from dying, but it was fun, not frustrating.
I'll get this reviewed soon


http://www.scent-88.com/reviews/crackdown/crackdown.html
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Loke

Crackdown was a lot of fun. The difficulty was spot on for me; it was very similar to the higher difficulties in Blood in which the cultists could wither you down in seconds if you'd be careless.

Last mod I played was Imagination World v2 by James. Can't believe I missed this one when it was released. Had A LOT of fun with this one -- great action and pacing. All of the weapons felt great with my personal favorite being the Jackhammer. Episodes 1 to 3 had great action overall while episode 4 delivered some fantastic atmosphere, loved it.

Forge

#2
I'm trying to come up with a universal scale to rate mods & TCs. I don't want to grade them the same as I would single maps (with or without art & cons), episodes, or anything else that doesn't really change major properties of the game. Makes no sense to rate map textures when I want to discuss how the features are changed in the game.

some areas I'm tossing around =

Features Affect the Player: **/20
Features Affect the Enemy: **/20
Features Affect the Core: **/20
Maps - Included/Integration: **/20
GamePlay: **/20

I'm trying to avoid being specific about art. not all mods & TCs use it for every aspect of the game (i.e. Attrition uses pals for some of the enemies that have different abilities and weapons)

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

MSandt

What's your definition of a mod? For example, would Afterglow be labeled as one? If so, I think the penalty for no features it too high (each weight is 0.2) if the total score is simply a sum of the variables.
"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

#4
Pretty much the discussion we had before. Anything calling itself a map (i.e. bedrone, biglight, etc.), single maps with some art and cons, episodes with or without minimal art and cons are not TCs nor Mods. They can easily be rated on the map(s)

TCs and Mods like Crackdown and Attrition which change one or more major aspect of the game are what I'm trying to quantify in general, all encompassing categories.

The problem being: not all TCs and Mods change every aspect of the game. Some may have new enemies and/or enemies with new abilities, some may not.

Another problem with categorizing: the less categories you have, the less accurate the score becomes

That's why I asked for suggestions. If no epiphanies emerge, I'll probably toss the whole idea out the window and give it a total score.


Too many variables from one project to the next. I'll go with one total score.
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Forge

#5
CrackDown by EmericaSkater 

http://www.scent-88.com/reviews/crackdown/crackdown.html

Currently a two level TC, Crackdown features new enemies, weapons, slightly altered tilting physics, and mission oriented game play aspects. The combination of the new enemies and the ambiance of the levels gave me the impression of a cross between the first Castle Wolfenstein and Blake Stone. Definitely Duke, but with an old school flavor.

The two maps included are well designed with interesting floor plans that branch off in several directions for short distances and require some exploring without causing too much backtracking.
In the first map, the mission is to kill every last enemy and rescue a scientist. The mission in the second map requires you to find a set of secret documents then make good your escape.

Game play can be a little difficult; most of the weapons you carry don't point at the center of the screen, and this in combination with the tilting physics, can throw off your ability to accurately shoot the bad guys. The enemies hit hard and almost never miss, so there's no way to avoid being chipped away at over the course of a level. I spent most of the time, especially in the second map, at a health level of one or two good blasts from dying. You are provided with a variety of weapons and must discover for yourself under trial and error which weapon works best on which enemy. If you figure this out, it'll make life much easier, because you won't last long trying to go toe-to-toe with even the weakest of baddies. Despite the balance being tipped towards your opponents, gameplay is very challenging without being impossibly frustrating.


90/100
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Puritan

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

EmericaSkater

Quote from: Forge on  15 December 2011, 14:28:35
Crackdown by EmericaSkater
http://www.scent-88.com/reviews/crackdown/crackdown.html

Good review. I'll probably get started on reviewing Duke 12_12 earlier next week. Could've done it earlier, but the holidays are a bitch...

Quote from: Loke on  16 December 2011, 15:00:56
Crackdown was a lot of fun. The difficulty was spot on for me; it was very similar to the higher difficulties in Blood in which the cultists could wither you down in seconds if you'd be careless.

Hah, I just saw the video playthrough you did for the first level. Loved how you visibly stopped to read creepy-fuck messages on the walls. Unfortunately, you missed one of the buildings that had an extra assault rifle stashed in it.
ANARCHY

Micky C

Quote from: Loke on  16 December 2011, 15:00:56
Crackdown was a lot of fun. The difficulty was spot on for me; it was very similar to the higher difficulties in Blood in which the cultists could wither you down in seconds if you'd be careless.

Last mod I played was Imagination World v2 by James. Can't believe I missed this one when it was released. Had A LOT of fun with this one -- great action and pacing. All of the weapons felt great with my personal favorite being the Jackhammer. Episodes 1 to 3 had great action overall while episode 4 delivered some fantastic atmosphere, loved it.

I have fond memories of Imagination World v2. Absolutely loved the first 3 episodes, but while the atmosphere of the 4th was good, given the choice I'd rather blast through some more action packed levels. The 4th episode almost felt like a different game. It's much closer to the soon-to-be-released AMC TC which has very atmospheric levels, but also a fair amount of action.

Unfortunately at the time of its release, IWv2 was plagued with bugs and crashes, such as black textures. Although with all the eduke fixes since then, plus additional minor fixes on James' end when the new patch finally comes out, it should be an even more enjoyable experience, and be worth a worth a full new playthrough.
Wall whore.

James

thanks guys...I'm in a bit of a tight spot as far as life is concerned which is why I'm rushing AMC TC's release but I will work on a IWv2 patch when things clear up.

Loke

Quote from: EmericaSkater on  17 December 2011, 04:31:56
Hah, I just saw the video playthrough you did for the first level. Loved how you visibly stopped to read creepy-fuck messages on the walls. Unfortunately, you missed one of the buildings that had an extra assault rifle stashed in it.

Heh, I loved reading those creepy messages. Hopefully the video might brings some new faces into the Duke community.

Quote from: Micky C on  17 December 2011, 08:47:31
Unfortunately at the time of its release, IWv2 was plagued with bugs and crashes, such as black textures. Although with all the eduke fixes since then, plus additional minor fixes on James' end when the new patch finally comes out, it should be an even more enjoyable experience, and be worth a worth a full new playthrough.

Yeah, I had those black texture issues at the start while also being unable to save properly. Tried downloading the latest EDuke32 version at that time and it fixed both issues.

Forge

The Imperium

An eight level episode that's been several years in the making and includes a narrated prologue made up of cut scenes that fill in the backstory. The meat and potatoes of it all is, of course, to take out hostile aliens with extreme prejudice.
This release also includes DukePlus. Some elements where neat, but under used; such as the invisible objects revealed with night vision goggles. Some elements where unnecessary, felt forced, and thankfully, where underused; such as the skycar. Most of the effects could have been achieved through other methods and this episode could have done just as well without it.
In the first level you start off in a base and get exposed to a few tricks to get you familiar with some of the gameplay aspects before you move on to the thick of things in some canyons and caves with intermingled alien base structures. This map also contains the only skycar which is present as an optional and quicker means to reach the other side of the map. Purportedly there to also help in the replay value, which is ridiculous since this is the first map of eight and the only one with a skycar, taking it will make the player miss some interesting locations in the map and lose out on gathering some needed ammunition and other resources.
The second level consists of sections of an alien base inter-connected by a series of tunnels, caves, and a pretty impressive waterfall cavern.
Level three is made up of a huge canyon with several side caves branching off that require some exploration. In the center of it all is a large alien spire that must be conquered to reach the top and teleport to the alien space base.
Level four is the alien space station. The layout of this map intersects itself in several locations. This, coupled with a few passages that unlock without any indication that they opened up, can create slight confusion and cause additional, unnecessary exploration.
The fifth map has some of the most interesting ambiance of the whole episode. After Duke escapes from the alien space station, his ship rendezvous with a human vessel that's being attacked by enemy forces in a fairly large space battle. The aliens have also boarded and are taking the ship deck by deck. As you make your way from the landing dock to the bowels of the craft, the atmosphere changes from "under siege" to "Alien-esque" creepy.
Part two of level five continues on the spaceship. It's too late for the crew, and the vessel can't fall into enemy hands. So Duke must make his way to the bridge and set off the self-destruct.
Level seven starts where Duke has been taken prisoner and transported to an alien planet. Since he's here, he might as well kill some alien scum.
Picking up where level seven left off, Duke continues to fight his way through the base on the alien planet with the mission to take out their enormous communication tower located on an isolated plateau. Duke's finally done enough destruction to capture the attention of a few of the enemy's leaders.
An action oriented episode with some solidly designed maps; The Imperium is highly recommended to fill your need for alien blood.


95/100
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Merlijn

Thanks a lot for your review Forge, I really enjoyed reading it!  :)

To reply to some of it (not that your opinion is invalid in any way, I just like discussing stuff!  ;D): I personally thought that dukeplus added a lot to many of the levels and allowed me to add a lot of stuff that would have been missing otherwise. Since you mention the ambience of level 5: I don't think I could have pulled that off without dukeplus..
The effects just aren't as in your face as some of the earlier dukeplus maps, a lot of the time I used them purely for ambience purposes (such as the blood/gore falling out of holes in the ceiling at triggered times). But those little things make all the difference to me, even when a lot of people wouldn't even recognize them as a dukeplus effect.

Most people didn't like the addition of the skycar and I can see why. In hindsight, it might have been better to not include it (it was a decision made a few months before release IIRC). That level has been adjusted many, many times over the course of 5 years, and the somewhat weird choise between a long route on foot or a autopiloted skycar sequence is a result of that. Oh well, it is what it is.. :)

Puritan

Review and rating added  :)
Thanks once again, Forge!
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

Quote from: Merlijn on  20 December 2011, 20:41:33
Thanks a lot for your review Forge, I really enjoyed reading it!  :)

Ha! The thanks goes to you  (and everyone else involved) for making it  ;)

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