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[Detective Beauregard]

So, partially it's been because ID Software sure can make their game really addictive, partially because everyone's enjoying The Dark Ages currently, but I've been playing Doom Eternal pretty much exclusively for the past few days (well, whenever I have time to play when the boys are asleep). And sure, playing it on Nightmare is really exhilarating, also whenever I do a Slayer gate on this difficulty, it feels like a flex and you get this "alpha" feel, lol. However the fourth Slayer gate in the ARC Complex level, wow. Two cyberdemons (yeah, I know, Tyrants) in a cramped arena, several mancubi and whiplashes and that's just the first wave? Fuck me sideways, this is really insane. And I say this as someone who managed to finish both Alien Vendetta and Hell Revealed on Ultra Violence, lol.

EDIT: And I did it anyway! Who's your Daddy, ha?

Hot damn do I love Doom.

I’m about halfway through The Dark Ages, and while Eternal was far less my jam than 2016, parts of it were better (namely Mick Gordon’s sick tunes). Aesthetically this game is like Hexen and Doom had a baby, and while I loved the OG Hexen (I’m old), a bit of this game just doesn’t feel like Doom.

I still remember those crisp winter mornings in the mid-‘90s when I would wake up and run to the PC to dive into Doom while @MrKnickerbocker was playing in his crib or something. The feeling of entering the Tower of Babel thinking I was armed with the weaponry of a tank, only to get blown to tiny little chunks by the Cyberdemon’s rockets… that was the life.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

and while I loved the OG Hexen (I’m old)

As one TV Troper once said
"I'm a shirtless Viking guy and I just punched an entire level to death and a giant flaming skull asked me if I was ready to die and omfg this game is METAL."

Hexen was great, but I actaully got to it only later, my childhood memories were of its spiritual predecessor Heretic (I still know every level by heart) and Doom 1 and 2 (and partially Wolfenstein). Precisely the feelings that you mention.

Also, even after I got into the custom made levels later on (besides Plutonia and TNT, also all the fan made megawads like Vendetta, Memento Mori etc), I still kinda feel like successfully pistol starting E4M2 in the original Doom is among my greatest gaming achievements, lol.

And although I first played Alien Vendetta only at the university, it still feels inherently nostalgic - a hot summer night, my wife studing for exams (I usually played Doom instead and then did an overnight study session and usually had better grades than her; she was always pretty pissed off about that, lol), depths of the Dark Dome level, a world-music oriented web radio that we used to listen to back then, an occasional smoke while sitting in the open window, not a care in the world...

 

[Meliegree]

Damn, I just love Doom. Maybe not Doom Eternal (I dislike fps platforming in general) but Dark Ages is quite nice only thing that it lack is for me main thing that in 96 made me love doom - the idea of combining a modern environment with a demon invasion. At the time, it blew my 8-year-old brain :-D

 

[Detective Beauregard]

As one TV Troper once said
"I'm a shirtless Viking guy and I just punched an entire level to death and a giant flaming skull asked me if I was ready to die and omfg this game is METAL.”

You know, it really is. The first level alone has you infiltrating a cathedral under cloudy night skies and clubbing those hilarious two-headed orc things while smashing stained glass windows for magic vials. It’s basically a Dio album.

Hexen was great, but I actaully got to it only later, my childhood memories were of its spiritual predecessor Heretic (I still know every level by heart) and Doom 1 and 2 (and partially Wolfenstein). Precisely the feelings that you mention.

I need to revisit Heretic as I think I only played it once. I preferred Hexen since I first played it on the N64 when I was a teen and the atmosphere really impressed me. I still fondly recall getting lost in that swamp level, and the ice caves…

I still kinda feel like successfully pistol starting E4M2 in the original Doom is among my greatest gaming achievements, lol.

You are mad. That level is insane!

And although I first played Alien Vendetta only at the university, it still feels inherently nostalgic - a hot summer night, my wife studing for exams (I usually played Doom instead and then did an overnight study session and usually had better grades than her; she was always pretty pissed off about that, lol), depths of the Dark Dome level, a world-music oriented web radio that we used to listen to back then, an occasional smoke while sitting in the open window, not a care in the world...

I played Alien Vendetta a few years ago and thought it was great; another one I’ll have to revisit soon. Never much cared for Plutonia or TNT, though. Something about most of the maps’ designs didn’t gel with me, although I did like most of the levels better than vanilla Doom 2 (which I’ve always thought was massively overrated).

What’s your favorite megawad?

Damn, I just love Doom. Maybe not Doom Eternal (I dislike fps platforming in general) but Dark Ages is quite nice only thing that it lack is for me main thing that in 96 made me love doom - the idea of combining a modern environment with a demon invasion. At the time, it blew my 8-year-old brain :-D

I think 2016 hit the sweet spot between platforming and whatever Dark Ages is, although dying when you fall was something that I’m glad they corrected.

Did you like Doom 3?

 

[Meliegree]

You know, it really is. The first level alone has you infiltrating a cathedral under cloudy night skies and clubbing those hilarious two-headed orc things while smashing stained glass windows for magic vials. It’s basically a Dio album.


I need to revisit Heretic as I think I only played it once. I preferred Hexen since I first played it on the N64 when I was a teen and the atmosphere really impressed me. I still fondly recall getting lost in that swamp level, and the ice caves…


You are mad. That level is insane!


I played Alien Vendetta a few years ago and thought it was great; another one I’ll have to revisit soon. Never much cared for Plutonia or TNT, though. Something about most of the maps’ designs didn’t gel with me, although I did like most of the levels better than vanilla Doom 2 (which I’ve always thought was massively overrated).

What’s your favorite megawad?


I think 2016 hit the sweet spot between platforming and whatever Dark Ages is, although dying when you fall was something that I’m glad they corrected.

Did you like Doom 3?

Yeah, i like it. It was nice horror game and for me it had nice half life vibe. It wasnt perfect but it was good. I was a little bit bummed that they didnt delivered on all promises. Either way - good game but nothing beats Doom II and building own maps. And yeah, I also think that doom is metal af.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

What’s your favorite megawad?

Yeah, Vendetta is probably overall the most impressive, visually, gameplay-wise and everything. I also am very partial towards Memento Mori 1 and 2, mostly for nostalgia reasons. Hell Revealed is a classic, but very spotty in places (and the sequel felt somewhat meh) and I also remember enjoying Scythe and Icarus back in the day. Community Chests are very hit or miss, I mostly gave up on them after the notorious Citadel at the Edge of Eternity, which is borderline unplayable.

Never much cared for Plutonia or TNT, though. Something about most of the maps’ designs didn’t gel with me, although I did like most of the levels better than vanilla Doom 2 (which I’ve always thought was massively overrated).

I agree that Plutonia and Evilution also always felt a bit weird to me, but being "official" and being there so long (and replaying them so much) has made me used to them in the end. Plutonia in particular - despite it uses less monsters on average than the latter ultra-fights megawad, it uses them in a very careful and concise manner, it feels really oppressive throughout and kinda memorable.

Doom 2 is very hit-and-miss, Sandy was really inconsistent as a level designer - but then again, the original game was also suffering from this, let's be perfectly honest - most people remember primarily the first episode Knee-Deep in the Dead, and although it's fair to say that most remember it because it was in the shareware version and therefore most popular, it was also nearly entirely designed solely by Romero and works in a way the other ones just don't.

Did you like Doom 3?

Back then when it came out, I felt like I was the only person in existence who absolutely loved it. It felt very well put-together, narratively, I enjoyed the survival horror aesthetics, it looked great and the main title sounded awesome, in all its nu-metallish glory, lol. I need to revisit it one of these days.



Also, in the Eternal Nightmare run, I'm already at the Slayer gate in Mars Core, so far so good. Honestly, playing through the entirety of the game on Nightmare up to that point made feel the first Marauder fight somewhat easy, lol. Certainly one of the easiest fights in the game so far. However now he's back in the Slayer gate with all the fodder and Barons of Hell afterwards and I'm fucked, lol.



In other news, while I expected Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to be successful, possibly not this successful, however where I expected foreigners to be inquiring about Hus and Hussites (and pre-emptively took up some reading for exactly those cases), so far the gamers abroad are more instead in competing who spent more time in "Trotsky"



However I'm only slowly going through the first game (again) so far. If all goes well, I'll be able to pick up the second game once the winter DLC drops and I'm allowed to visit at least some churches (aka, the selling point of the original game, lol).

 

[Onhell]

Taking a break from crushing student's dreams IRL.

I'm on my last week of the semester, putting up grades and meeting with desperate students, ugh. Anywho, haven't had much time for gaming, but I've made a summer resolution of sorts. I have A LOT of games on my gamepass play later list, so I'm uninstalling all my games except for Alan Wake II and Control (replaying it on the series x version), then I'm intalling as many GamePass games as possible and work my way through those. On that list we have Doom 3, Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, Doom Dark Ages, Oblivion (both OG and RM), Still Wakes the Deep, Mass Effect Trilogy, etc. So I'll see how much I can get done from next week til the second week in August, cuz aside from fully moving I got nothing else going on and Imma game like it's my full-time job.

 

[Firakks]

Taking a break from crushing student's dreams IRL.

I'm on my last week of the semester, putting up grades and meeting with desperate students, ugh. Anywho, haven't had much time for gaming, but I've made a summer resolution of sorts. I have A LOT of games on my gamepass play later list, so I'm uninstalling all my games except for Alan Wake II and Control (replaying it on the series x version), then I'm intalling as many GamePass games as possible and work my way through those. On that list we have Doom 3, Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, Doom Dark Ages, Oblivion (both OG and RM), Still Wakes the Deep, Mass Effect Trilogy, etc. So I'll see how much I can get done from next week til the second week in August, cuz aside from fully moving I got nothing else going on and Imma game like it's my full-time job.
You know, it really is. Only the first level has you sneaking into a cathedral under a cloudy night sky and beating up these hilarious two-headed orcs, smashing stained glass windows for magic flasks. It's basically a Dio album.I need to rewatch Heretic, because I think I've only played it once. I liked Hexen better, because I first played it on the N64 when I was a teenager, and the atmosphere really impressed me. I still fondly remember getting lost in that level with the swamp and ice caves... By the way, if you need variety in terms of games, here is a site https://spin-star.cz/ about interesting online games and how to start playing them. I advise you to read it, you will learn a lot of interesting things!You are crazy. This level is insane!

Play Expedition 33. In my opinion, the best game of this year, and maybe not only this year. Very cool gameplay, visuals, plot, and the music is simply the best!

 

[JudasMyGuide]

I'm sexy and I know it



100% it too. Now it's the DLCs and then Dark Ages.

(I'm especially looking forward playing the Slayer Gate with possessed Marauder on Nightmare, lol)