If you’ve hung around these parts long enough, you’ve likely noticed an immensely prolific mapper’s conspicuous absence. Somehow I’ve made it ten years writing about Doom WADs and literally never mentioned him a single time? How could this be?! Well, don’t fret, old friend; even I know that there’s a special place in Hell for a WAD reviewer who ignores our most decorated mapper, Paul “skillsaw” DeBruyne. But I have to admit up front that part of the reason I’ve not yet written about any of skillsaw’s WADs is because I’m not exactly sure what I think of them. I’ve
Tag: Scythe II
Scythe II
Scythe II and I have a complicated relationship. I was a massive fan of Scythe years before the sequel was a thought in my head, so when II was released, I jumped on it like a rabid wombat. In the beginning, I was blinded by love for Erik Alm and the Scythe name. As the initial high faded, I found myself a tad disappointed. It wasn’t quite there for me — not quite what Scythe had been. And back in those days, I had an strange preference for tech maps, of which there were only five or so buried in
A DIGITALEIDOSCOPE Exclusive: 13 Most Memorable Maps
It’s the holidays! Another Doomsday just a few days ago, with Christmas and New Years right on the horizon. There’s another sort of holiday to celebrate today, too: the 25th episode of What’s Awesome, Doom?, and just over three years that I’ve been doing the column! Yeah, I’ve really only done 25 episodes in all that time. What a professional! To celebrate the holiday season and these big landmarks, I’ve put together a special episode: one of those Top Ten lists the internet loves so much. Except this is a Top 13 — my personal most memorable maps: three official
Scythe
It’s weird to think that I’ve been doing this Doom thing consistently for over a decade. 2002 is when I really got into it, even if I did dabble in Doom as a kid back in ’94. I was a teenager by 2002: no longer terrified of the pixelated demons, and newly equipped to navigate the internet and find WADs to play. That’s where I found the three names that still embody that early time of wonder and discovery, as I first stepped into the glorious world of Doom WADs: STRAIN, 2002 A Doom Odyssey, and Scythe. Returning to Scythe
Flashback to Hell
Past few days I’ve been working my way through the meaty innards of Flashback to Hell, a megaWAD by Stormwalker, a name I admit I’m not at all familiar with. There’s some Cacoward talk surrounding it already, so you can pretty safely assume it’s good, but all I knew going in was this: it’s a classic-styled WAD. 15 levels. And with a story — something that a lot of WAD-makers leave out but I really appreciate when it’s there. I dove in with some definite expectations. I knew what I was getting into; I expected your standard oldschool WAD. All