Recent posts

#91
Classic Duke 3D / Re: Reviews and Submissions
Last post by Aleks - 03 October 2021, 22:58:03
Nice to see you're digging up all these little forgotten gems from 1996-1997, Puritan!
Anyway, seems this year is very fruitful for Duke community, even Mikko can't keep up anymore - here's a couple of recent maps:
https://forums.duke4.net/topic/11620-michael-hunt-map-series/ - Luna One, the 5th and final level from Michael Hunt's episode. This one is really good and quite original, taking place in a city on the moon!
https://forums.duke4.net/topic/11811-release-sm64-wet-dry-world/ - Wet Dry World by ToiletDuck64, yet another map by this author in quite a short period of time. This is a reimagination/reinterpretation of an apparently famous/infamous (?) Super Mario 64 level, which looks/sounds cool from the screens and description, but I've yet to play it myself.
https://msdn.duke4.net/hotboxesanddoors.php - Boxes and Doors by Daniel Skladany, I have no idea who that is or how the map plays (the screens look very BobSP-ish though), but seems Mikko really liked it, so should be worth trying out!
#92
Classic Duke 3D / Re: Reviews and Submissions
Last post by Puritan - 03 October 2021, 14:49:58
Teaser:
I've uploaded the fourth map in an episode I assume is titled; "Orbital" by Jaap Menist
The level is a space station styled adventure with tons of fights and cool areas to roam.
I'm hoping to have the rest of the episode up here at CGS next weekend.

Try it for yourself here: http://www.scent-88.com/reviews/O/orbital/orbital.php
#93
Classic Duke 3D / Re: Last map you played
Last post by Puritan - 02 October 2021, 13:04:14
A little surprise for you avid Dukers today.
I've uploaded a map from the first year of user made maps, 1996, that is one of the better ones.
The Meltdown Cafe is top notch for it's time with tons of fun.
The author, Michael J. Romanowski, wasn't very well known in the mapping community but he deserves to be mentioned among the best ones from that year.

The Meltdown Cafe

Check it out yourself  :)
#94
Classic Duke 3D / Re: Reviews and Submissions
Last post by Puritan - 16 September 2021, 20:34:24
Excellent, sire.
The review is uploaded.
Thank you very much  :)
#95
Classic Duke 3D / Re: Reviews and Submissions
Last post by Aleks - 16 September 2021, 20:19:20
I've also recently played DannyFromNewOrlean's new map, Promise - and decided to write a small review as well, as it was quite a neat level!

Promise is a new entry from DannyFromNewOrleans, who has published quite a few maps during the past 3 years. Despite being published in August, the map has a strong Christmas theme, which provides for a nice relief from the hot weather (at least according to the Author himself). The map also comes in 2 variants – day and night, although the only actual difference is changing the sky texture, even leaving the shading values the same. Regular or "day" version uses a nice orange sunset sky, while the night one uses a starry sky, albeit the one that is kind of stretched (making the same mistake I did nearly 2 decades ago in Alex City). It is interesting to see how the mood of the level changes between these 2 versions, in my case I played the sunset/daily one.

The map is quite large and will provide a lengthy quest to finishing. There is a somehow open gameplay, as you are required to bring 3 gifts for your girlfriend (who is apparently Lara Croft) from various locations around the town. These can be collected at any order (although it is important to notice that due to a bug, the red "gift" – or keycard – has to be input under the Christmas tree as the last one). The map is filled to the brim with monsters (about 230 on Come Get Some), but the combat doesn't get unfair at all – in fact, it presents us with some quite nice and clever encounters, especially with some Battlelords pinning you down in a couple of buildings.

The layout of the map is very clearly divided into 2 large street parts (and a 3rd, smaller part, closely connected to one of them), which are connected mostly through 2 routes that lead across different buildings. This works good in enclosing quite large gameplay area, but might also make it a bit difficult for navigating. We are required to visit bookstore, supermarket and gun store, although there is many more amenities which are more or less typical for a Duke map. The notable thing about the map is the fact that a lot of these other locations can be completely avoided, as some provide alternate routes or are just there for extra supplies or secrets.

Danny is known for a classic and clean design, which this map is a very fine example of. There's a lot of neat, contrast shadows (with a particular fondness of showcasing a light coming through semi-closed swinging doors), mostly these of larger scale while omitting some lesser details (which is what the original game also did). The map could maybe use some more wallshading for improved depth. The use of textures is quite careful – there's your usual city stuff with some more originality and variance, everything seems to be aligned very diligently. Using different textures for snow on the roads and pavements is a particularly clever move. Also all the Christmas decorations, spread around the level, are quite original – from Christmas trees and lightbulbs to a cool little snowman – and greatly increase the mood.

There is a total of 9 secrets in the map, some of which are quite well hidden or difficult to access at all, with one particularly unfair that basically requires checking how to access it in Mapster. Nevertheless, the openness of the map feels very inviting for exploring around and looking for these secrets. The level is generally a very fun and entertaining experience, without much to complain about.

Rating: 92/100
#96
Other Games / Re: Half-Life 2
Last post by Puritan - 16 September 2021, 10:14:58
Gambini doesn't only map for Duke Nukem 3D.
He has released a very good mod for Half-Life 2 this spring (March '21).
I've played it and the layout and gameplay are top notch.
Southernmost Combine takes place on a railroad yard and it's surroundings.


Southernmost Combine
#97
Classic Duke 3D / Re: Reviews and Submissions
Last post by Puritan - 15 September 2021, 18:04:38
Thank you very much, Aleks
A nice and clean review it is  :)


Edit: the link on the front page is broken. I'll fix it when I'm home from work tonight (CET)
#98
Classic Duke 3D / Re: Reviews and Submissions
Last post by Aleks - 12 September 2021, 18:41:55
ToiletDuck64, who's released Chillin' quite some time ago, has released another map, Infernal Foundry, about a month ago, which went kinda unnoticed. Since I've made quite a lengthy post with my opinion about it on duke4 forums, I decided I could edit it a bit and make a small review of it for this site:

Infernal Foundry is ToiletDuck64's 2nd single player level, and while Chillin' was a lot more experimental and unorthodox, both in gameplay and design ideas, this one is back to the roots - an essentially Doom style level, with very restricted use of sector geometries and texturing.

Along with the flat lighting, the lack of details and the mentioned restricted use of textures is a concious decision to stylize the map for this Doom look, and I personally really liked how the sky and the reddish bridges turned out. However, in terms of progression and the level flow, this must have been by far one of the most confusing and obscure maps I have played.

There was no indication whatsoever as to what any of the switches did or how many are there to push, which given the labrenthine layout of the map, hardly indicated any sense of progression at all. I got to the exit - only to walk into an ambush (notably a really cool one, which would definitely work better in a bit different circumstances). After being faced with more monsters that I could handle and noticing that the cage protecting the final room will be closed if I escape it, with no way of going back - I just reloaded a save game and wandered around the map for like 15-20 minutes, killing some remaining monsters and thinking what I should do with the yellow card in my inventory. Only after trying out seemingly all possible ways, I have decided to have another go for the ambush, escaped and noticed that some random doors, spread around the map, which were previously closed - are now unlocked (again, with no indication). It still took a lot of walking around the map to find them back, not being sure what is going on at all. The least the Author could have done would be adding some different texture on these doors to indicate they will be open later (or a viewscreen).

The map's visual style and layout didn't help at all with these kind of gameplay progression, as basically everything looks very similar, there are no focal points (even the central lava bridges look all like eachother), so backtracking was quite tedious. There is a total of 16 secrets, some pretty clever, but a lot seem to be just random wall-humping or ones that would trap the player in a pitch-black loops.

The map offers some nice combat encounters (notably the one with a bunch of commanders in a dark stairway, with lots of lesser monsters inbetween - it was pretty cool seeing a barrage of RPG rockets flying one after another and there was just enough room to dodge them, but nothing to take cover). However, most of the map still feels a bit flat in terms of a challenging combat, even the Battlelords at the end - this is the same problem as with Chillin', so too many stayputs, which can be tricked quite easily into just trying to walk into invisible wall. I struggled for ammo quite a bit at the beginning (also the shotgun seemed to be located quite far into the map, same with chaingun) - but then I came to a series of secrets which proved to be vital.

From positives, the "classic" look of the level is a nice change of tone towards current user map trends. The layout felt very 3D, with lots of interconnections (which unfortunately only led to more and more confusion) and the final ambush was a really neat idea, but with no indication on what's going on it was quite a miss. I think a proper beta-testing by someone else besides the Author would help a lot and make this level much better without too much extra work. It is still a solid entry, just might require some more time than it might seem, which will be spent in rather tedious exploring and confusion.

Rating: 77/100
#99
Classic Duke 3D / [RELEASE] Promise
Last post by DannyFromNewOrleans - 24 August 2021, 08:30:08
Hallo,

here's my new wintery map with lots of Christmas decorations and one snowman with a hat. Both the original and nighttime version are included (sky texture is their only difference).


CGS download/review
#100
Classic Duke 3D / Re: Reviews and Submissions
Last post by Aleks - 19 July 2021, 22:02:31
Yet another WG map has been released: WG Fang! https://forums.duke4.net/topic/11745-new-release-wgfang/

Also Vitaliy Bondarenko has released his older maps: https://forums.duke4.net/topic/11747-release-dnvs-forgotten-maps-mods/