Happy Doomyear!

I just discovered this in the DoomWorld Forums news section and thought that it's worthy of sharing here since some of you might not visit DoomWorld often. It's a clickable, sortable list of every file that was uploaded to the DoomWorld / id Games Archives from Dec. 10, 2010 to Dec. 10, 2011. Files can be sorted according to author, title, date, et cetera and clicking on an individual entry takes one directly to the page where the file can be downloaded.

I'm finding this extremely cool because lately I've been spending a bit of time in the Archives looking for megaWADs that I've yet to play. The Archives (at least when accessed from DoomWorld's web front-end) provides a search function, but sometimes it can be a bit counter-intuitive and net 0 results unless one has entered EXACTLY what one is searching for. This list is quite convenient and easy to use, and I especially like the fact that it can be sorted by a column indicating the number of maps in a submission since it's sets of maps that I'm looking for at the moment. MegaThanks to TimeOfDeath for this!

Now, if we just had something like this that covered the entire history of the Archives...

Dragon Age to Emulate Skyrim?

While poking around the web this afternoon I found this GameSpot article referencing this interview suggesting that the next Dragon Age game might be less like its predecessors and more like Skyrim. (I won't quote the articles here since you all know how to follow links.)

I suppose the idea should be good news to me since I'm a fan of Bethesda's products, but if this info is correct and BioWare actually makes dramatic changes in the next DA game then I can't help but feel that it would simply be an attempt to mimic the big moneymaker Skyrim rather than an endeavor to actually improve upon their own franchise. While I prefer the Elder Scrolls games over the Dragon Age series, I have to admit that I'd have more respect for BioWare if they stayed true to their established Dragon Age formula and simply worked on what needs to be improved rather than attempt to turn the series into an Elder Scrolls clone.

As with most things, however, only time will tell what will actually develop...

Dave Billing

During one of my recent random websplorations in search of old-school Doom content I discovered Dave Billing's Level Design Blog. As the title suggests, the blog is not dedicated to Doom only, but rather is a chronicle of Dave's projects for several different games. From what I've seen so far his works are quite impressive, but rather than bore you with my ramblings I'll simply recommend that you give the blog a look yourself. If you're into any of the games he's produced content for you won't regret it.

Something I've never seen before...

Yesterday I sent out an e-mail or two to friends regarding the most recent inflammatory comment on the file upload for my Doom randomizer mod on the DoomWorld / id Games Archives. I'm not going to reprint said comment here, but suffice it to say that it was yet another of those comments that repeats a single derogatory term like a dozen times (albeit apparently somewhat in defense of the mod this time). Yet upon looking at the Archives this morning, I find that the comment and all subsequent comments have been removed while the previous comments remain for viewing.

So now I REALLY find myself questioning how the "archive maintainer" runs things over there. Exactly what kind of censorship is he practicing? If a comment uses a derogatory term a dozen times to criticize a mod it's allowed to remain for all eternity, but if a comment uses a derogatory term to defend a mod it gets deleted within 24 hours? This doesn't bode well for their defense that DoomWorld doesn't exercise personal biases. It really makes me wonder what other comments have been deleted before I was able to see them, this being the one time that I was actually paying attention.

I used the "report review abuse" button at the bottom of the page to submit a query on this. Only time will tell if anything comes of that query, but if it does you all will be the first to know.

STEAM SALE

No, I haven't suddenly become a flag-waving Steam patriot. But even I have to admit that one of the easiest ways to legally acquire almost all of the games I've ever discussed here is to download them from Steam. Thus I thought it would be worth mentioning that the internet gaming icon is having its usual holiday sale, which includes some good prices on just about everything ever published by id. So if there are any holes in your collection that you've been looking to fill, this could be a good opportunity. In my case the sale is too late to be of any benefit; I bought the id Super Pack almost two years ago when it was $69.99. While I've been a collector of all things Doom for quite some time, I realized that I didn't own a single Quake game and thus made my first ever Steam purchase. But if you're like me and are fairly certain that all the "Santas" in your life have absolutely no clue what you'd actually want for a gift this year, now might be the time to do some shopping for a gift or two for yourself.

Aeons Of Death v6

Never let it be said that I'm afraid to let folks see my competition...

The classic Doom mega-randomizer Aeons of Death has recently been updated to version six. To describe it in a nutshell, it pretty much works the same way that my own Doom Upgrade works, but where I did my best to keep things in the original Doom flavour AEoD does its best to cram into the game every possible bit of content from every other game possible. I'm not saying that as negative criticism; I'm just saying that's what it does. But rather than attempt to describe it in text, I'll let you judge for yourself from a variety of videos and screenshots.

The mod can be downloaded from the following links (both files are required):

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bun9am

http://www.sendspace.com/file/4fgd5n

...and you can read more about it here...

Herculine's Top Ten

TOP TEN INDICATIONS THAT MY GF WILL NEVER BE A PC GAMER:

#10:
Her favorite games are Frogger, Ms. Pac-Man and Space Invaders, and her favorite PC games are Super Collapse and Spider Solitaire.

#9:
Her hand-eye coordination is apparently limited to two dimensions. When I attempted to teach her to play Oblivion she couldn't get her avatar to look at anything but the ground.

#8:
When shown an image of the universal power symbol, she has no clue what it is.

#7:
Quote: "All you and your brother ever talk about is those boring video games."

#6:
Video games are a part of pop culture, and her knowledge of pop culture includes such gems as the facts that the aliens with the big ears in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are called "Fergies" and the big hairy guy in Star Wars is named "Tobacca".

#5:
When I attempted to teach her to play Fallout 3 her attention span would not allow her to play any farther through the tutorial than the G.O.A.T. exam and she has expressed no further interest in the game.

#4:
In the years that we've been together, she has never looked at my computer monitor and said: "Hey, that looks cool!"

#3:
Two years ago as a Christmas "stocking stuffer" I gave her a keychain with a USB flash drive attached. It has never been used for anything other than a keychain. (The same applies to the mp3 player I gave her as a gift for her birthday that same year.)

#2: 
After reading the epilepsy warning in the instruction booklet for The Sims 2 she refused to play the game ever again because she is convinced that the game will cause her to contract the disorder.

#1:
She hasn't turned on "her" computer in over a month.

SkyEdit (TES5mod)

While we're waiting for the official Skyrim editor to be released, those of you itching to start modding might find SkyEdit useful. Note that I haven't tried it yet myself; I just happened upon the wiki page and thought I should share.

Archive Updated

I'm not really sure why I bother to keep my works up-to-date in the DoomWorld / id Games Archives (the latest anonymously-posted "review" of my randomizer mod was simply the word "GACK"), but I suppose to someone it's worth mentioning that the FTP transfer was successful and the most recent version of my Doom Upgrade mod is now available for download there. Whether it be famous or infamous, it remains a part of Doom history...

Arrow + Knee = Meme

Given the turn taken by the comments of my previous post, I couldn't resist checking to see if Megan Lee Heart had anything to say about this new meme:

Sure, she's cute... but Tessa was vlogging first...

The 18th Annual Popularity Awards

Those of you familiar with my gaming habits might be a bit surprised that I'm not more excited about the 18th birthday of my favorite video game and in turn the 18th Annual Cacowards (no, really... that's what they're called). (Or is it the 8th Annual Cacowards? They've called it both on different pages.) I guess it's just hard for me to get excited about a popularity contest in a clique that has done its best to make me not want to be a part of it. I'm not disparaging the quality of the projects that have received awards, mind you, I just don't feel like baking a cake is all I'm sayin'.

And just for the record, "Bloodshedder", the cake picture is on the right side, not the left.

Again With The "Final Version"?

While taking a break from recently-released games that require insta-patches before they can even be played, I discovered a few little things that I needed to fix in my infamous Doom Upgrade randomizer mod (you remember, the one that turns everything into an "unplayable mess"). The first thing that was nagging at me was that many of my PSX sound effects were not working properly, most noticeably the sound that I intended to have play when the player attempts to open a locked door without the proper key. While fixing that issue I finally noticed after countless hours of playing with the mod that one of the custom imps wasn't behaving properly, to the point that he was somehow committing suicide with his own attacks. So while I had the hood up I remedied that issue as well. Since I was editing the DECORATE scripts I also decided that I needed to finally change the spawn frequency of the Cheshire Cacodemon because he was appearing far too often considering how much more difficult he is in comparison to the other Cacodemon replacements. Then, while pondering other possible changes while I was at work this evening, I decided to add just one or two new monsters, including a rocket-launching Arachnotron of my own original creation (despite the assertions of my critics that I'm incapable of coming up with anything original on my own). Finally, just for fun, I added the nice warping effect (a la Quake) to all the liquid floor textures. Now I think the mod is ready for it's umpteenth "final release" (perhaps I should follow the examples of Bethesda Softworks and call this file update version 1.95673482195300347285). I'm updating the link on the blog downloads page, but whether or not I share the update on the Archives will likely depend upon my mood in the days to come.

Oh, and one special note to those of you (or perhaps just the one of you) who actually downloaded and played previous versions of the mod: I've removed, added and renamed a thing or two, so saved games made with previous versions might not work with this one. If you're in the middle of a set of maps that you were playing with a previous version and you don't feel like starting over, you might want to wait before overwriting your old file with this one. If you find any bugs, please let me know and I'll be sure to fix them in version 1.96673482195300347285.

That's pretty much all I have from the land of Doom delusions for today. Until next time, happy Dooming!

Speculations (?) From The Community

I know some of my readership might not care too much about gaming forums, but in light of recent developments regarding the revelation of Bethesda's plans for Skyrim modding I thought that you all might be interested in browsing this Nexus Forum thread, particularly the first post by the famous Robin "Dark0ne" Scott.

In my honest opinion, I think this might be the beginning of the end of game modding being any fun at all.

EDIT:

(Sorry. Yes, the thread is in the modder's forum, meaning that you have to have a Nexus upload that has been downloaded like 1000 times. It was only a month ago that I realized that I meet that criteria.)

STEAM Mods?

As my friend Nos has opined on his blog, everything is pretty much going to hell in a hand-basket this time around.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. If anyone needs me, I'll be here playing and modding games from 1995 that weren't built entirely around DRM in an attempt to control every aspect of my leisure activities and to suck the money directly from my coin-purse...