800 Reviews and a Happy Doomsday!

When I posted the 700 review milestone back in January I wasn't expecting to hit 800 at the end of the year. Close, maybe, but not within ten months! This was a crazy year, my most productive since 2012. I've been writing a lot about a twenty-six year old computer game.

In review (with a repost of my mid-year state of the blog to start):

Mid-Year State of the Blog: 2019

Mid-Year State of the Blog: 2019

Longtime readers may have realized that the pace of reviews has been faster as of late with all of the single-level posts. As of the beginning of July I have already posted more reviews than I did in 2017 overall (63 vs. 48).


What this looked like, in summary:

700 reviews

700 reviews sure sneaks up on a person. Gosh, that's a long time and a lot of words to be writing about a twenty-five year old computer game. To mark the occasion, I decided to post my review of Kama Sutra a little earlier than it would normally have been and further stepped up the timetable in the running by posting each one a day earlier than usual (e.g. two instead of three for single maps).

In review:

ONEMANDOOM Rides Again

I've formally changed the title of this blog from Doomed: Doom WAD Reviews to ONEMANDOOM: WAD Reviews. ONEMANDOOM is usually how I've seen it introduced on the internet since that is its unique URL; it doesn't clash with the DooMed Speed Demos Archive (DSDA); and it has a nice, punchy rhythm.

The moniker came from the blog's original title, One Man's Journey Through Doom. The idea was to present it as my travelogue through the Doom community's offerings both past and present with the intent to emphasize that I am but one person offering an opinion on my own experiences. I didn't want to claim a monopoly on writing reviews even if I virtually had one by default. I certainly never thought that I would have taken a part in writing any of the Cacowards, though I remember thinking that it would be cool to be asked to write something for 2011.

I would like to think that I recognize where my writings over the past seven years have shaped the way that we as a community describe the experience of playing Doom levels. I also hope that by providing an example I have given others who might not even know where to begin a starting point so that they can feel comfortable discussing their opinions with their own, unique voices.

I thank you for reading ONEMANDOOM and I'd also like to thank the mappers, musicians, graphic artists, coders, writers, and anyone else who makes the Doom community such a treat to be a part of.

600 Reviews

In spite of a dry spell brought on by things that must dominate my time outside of this blog, with the review of Deus Vult I've broken into 600 reviews with six and a half years of operation. Gosh, that's a long time and a lot of words to be writing about a nearly twenty-four year old computer game.

Things to look out for:

500 Reviews

by my reckoning, this blog is now at 500 reviews and almost five years of uptime. gosh, that's a long time and a lot of words to be writing about a twenty-two year old computer game. so, here is the request list from last year, with the completed stuff removed. feel free to make requests, unless you are BDL, because seriously. anyway, here's to another wonderful year of Doom.

2015 for posterity

SUGGESTIONS

Plutonia 2
Dark 7 / Dark 7 Mission Pack
Ultimate Simplicity
Massmouth / Massmouth 2 / Massmouthmas
Scythe / Scythe 2 / Scythe X
Dolphin's Dream
Unhinged
Castle of Eternal Carrot in the Sky
City of the Damned: Apocalypse
Virus: Episode One
Super Sonic Doom
Oniria 1 / Oniria 2
Happy Time Circus 1 / Happy Time Circus 2
Dark Hell
Hellcore 2.0
Claustrophobia: The Walls Close In
Junko
Grime
Elysion
Disturbia
Cheogsh / Cheogsh 2 / Realm of Cheogsh
NeoDoom
Alien Flower (RDC Freakmapping #5)
Caverns of Darkness
Paranoid
The Darkest Hour
Sinful Discharge (Heretic)
Gulag (Heretic)
Curse of D'Sparil (Heretic)
Codename HYENA Killermachine
Plutinya 1024
The Crypts
Town of Witchcraft (Heretic Treasure Chest)
Cassie Steele
The Experiment
Balls
One Bloody Night
e6y3
hellrun.WAD (Doom / Doom II)
Istanbul
Nordhell
Phoebe
RRWARD01 / RRWARD02 / RRWARD03 / RRWARD04
Scimitar
SJS1: Streets of Fear
Triad Experimental Corporation
Kama Sutra
Community Chest / Community Chest 2
Vrack 1 / Vrack 2 / Vrack 3
Deus Vult
The Abyss
Slugfest / Torment / Phobos: Relive the Nightmare
Marswar
SlayeR
TVR!
World of DETH
Post
Nerves of Steel
Impure Offering
1 Monster
Action Doom / Action Doom 2
Deus Vult II
Hellcore
Equinox
Armadosia: The Mad Corridor
Hellfire / Hellfire: Reborn / Hellfire: Dreams
5 Years
Jade Earth
Sacrifice in Blood
The Corrupt Priest
Doom: A Megawad in Two Weeks
Mayhem 2012 / Mayhem 2013
Legacy of Heroes
Infested Outpost


COMEDY OPTIONS

Doomguy's pimp ventures II: The More,The Merrier.
pol.wad
School Doom II
21ratmaz
AOL Girls Museum
Duke Nukem Level Conversion
ZBlood
Otakon
Doom Center
Dawn of Reality
The Ghoul's Forest 3
The Mystery of the Marie Celeste
Calgon, Take me away!
RTC-3057
Nimrod: Project Doom
Phocas Island 2
Pinochetstein GL
Doom 3: Mr. Smiley's Head Safari


PROMISES

Wonderful Doom
2002: A Doom Odyssey
Claustrophobia 1024
Titan 2
Titan 1024


IT CAME FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION

Claustrophobia 1024 2: The Mystery of Too Many Maps
Bloodworks
Mitnal
The Hub
cwave.wad
The Ultimate Torment and Torture
Stronghold: On the Edge of Chaos
ZPack: Random Maps for ZDoom
Knee Deep in ZDoom
Community Chest 3
Classic Episode 2: Singularity Complex
Flashback Demo 1 / Flashback Demo 2
Urania


TUMBLR TRAVAILS

Reign of the Spider Gods
Demons of Problematique / Demons of Problematique 2
Whispers of Satan

DELAYED-SION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
(hidden for your sanity)

Respawned: Back From Hell
Doom: Redemption
Inferno
Phobos: Anomaly Reborn
The Dying End
~The Complete Works of Paul Corfiatis~ / Death Tormention / Verada / Big Boy / PC_PLAN / PC_WOLF / The Twilight Zone II: Final Dreams / Toxin Refinery /  Death Tormention II / Vectra / SELFISH1 / SELFISH2 / SELFISH3 / Candy Choppers / Elliot Goblet / 0scraps / SPACIA: A Silly DOOM Adventure / MAD STUFF FOR DOOM 2 / scene missing / 1 Monster /
~The Complete Works of Kristian Aro~ / The Brotherhood of Ruin / scene missing / 1 Monster / 
~The Complete Works of Chris Hansen~ / The Revenge of Avind / The Blessed Hex / The Unknown Chasm / A Time to Face Your Fears / Quail / The Aqueous Rise and Fall / UAC Nukage Processing Area / Antithesis / Fait Accompli / That Urban Sence / The Unaided Eye / Flay the Obscene / Flay the Obscene - Part Two / Flay the Obscene - Part Three / CH Retro / CH Retro Episode / Rip It, Tear It, Smash It! / 2002: A Doom Odyssey / 
No Rest For the Living
Chex Quest
Paranoia
Paranoiac
Something Wicked This Way Comes / Wickedly Simple / No Rest for the Wicked / For the Wicked Shall Perish / Death Comes Not Gently to the Wicked / The Wicked and the Damned / Wicked Be the Ways of Men / Damnation Awaits the Wicked / Exalt Not the Wicked
Planet Phobos / Planet Hell
Innocence / Innocence 2 / Innocence 3 / Innocence: TNT / Innocence X
~The Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions~ / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 1 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 2 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 3 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 4 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 5 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 6 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 7 /
Congestion Control / Congestion Control 2
~The Complete Works of Memfis~ / Voyage to Deimos map02 / Kashimir / Sticky Blood / Requimem / Not In My Courtyard / Green Day / MEM_OLD1 / Kurogane / MM2MEM01 / Relive X2 / ICARUMEM / Menkui / Tayutayu / Beware of False Prophets / Kukuku / Overheat / Horalky / Gordia / Love You With Poison / Toilet Break / Download / Silent Halls / Gredna / Mega Tear / Ultimate Doom Project Leftovers / pus06 / How Eye Killed Time / Garbage / Make, test, post. /
NewDoom Community Project / NewDoom Community Project 2
Harmony
A Taste For Blood
Endless Torture
King Dime's Birthday Mapset
~The Complete 40oz Birthday Map Collection~
Favillesco Episode 1: Genuflected on Io / Episode 2: Tragedy Over Europa / Alpha Episode: Apostasy on Amalthea / Alpha Episode 2: Desecration On Thebe
Matt Tropiano Birthday Maps
Happy Birthday TMD!
NOVA 2
Arcadia Demade
Drip Feed
Valhalla
Epic 2 + Anything else Eternal made between 2007-2010 (excluding Long Days)
Beyond Revival
Hell Ground
Mapgame
Gravity
Eternal Doom IV
Back to Basics
Cold as Hell
Epic
Songs of the Damned
IC2005
Vae Victus (2)
Decade
Tremor (Part I: Genesis)
Phobos Revisited
Plutonium Winds
Doom Raider: Crypt of the Vile
Ruma
007: License to Spell Doom
Sin City / Sin City 2 / Sin City 3
Null Space
Doom: Resurrection
Threshold of Pain
Monument
Sacrifice Episode
Argus
Pax
Induction
Monument
Jared's Doom
Sharp Things
All Aboard the Mega Magilla Gorilla Flotilla
Pcorf Community Project 2: 2048 Unleashed
Jiffy Bag
Bloodstain
Tech Gone Bad
Freudian Slipgate
EndGame
Infected Area
KILL! Zone / KILL! Zone 2
Sillouhettes of Phobos
Dinner
Beyond Horrible
Nuke Mine
Deimos Deja Vu
Realm of Shades
DemoniZed
Azagtoth
Crimson Canyon
Rylayeh
The Invaders
Knee Deep in the Undead
Styx
Can't Run Frm Evil
Sinister Intention
Sparta
Spire
Baker's Dozen
Imperfection Has Its Charms
Data Center
Dark Resolution 2008
Hatoma Battles the Yomi Demons
The Spire
No Sleep for the Dead
Doom the Way id Did: The Lost Episodes
Sins of the Flesh
Urotsuki 2: Cargo Cult
The Artifact (Boom Edition)
Suitcase of Gor
Japanese Community Project
Mayhem 1500
Ancient Aliens
Somewhere in Time
Nex Credo
Extinguished

not so stealth update

Nebula 95 now has its own series page, which is something I've been meaning to do since, like, March, but it got bogged down in a really long essay on the pathetic "elitism" vs. "rugged individualism" slapfight that I see going on in the community, which i have since cut out. It was a "stealth update" because, uh, that's how I've handled all the Serial Killing features so far. Heck, i don't even know how many people know that the feature even exists!

Serial Killing is one of the features on the blog, which really means that I should be featuring them whenever they're written instead of sneakily inserting them at the day after the last review for the series was posted, but there are many things about this site that I am uncoordinated with. I guess this is my attempt to do these articles justice since they constitute some of the least-trafficked areas of the blog. Serial Killing is a very not politically correct title, and it still feels a little gross having it there, because I find nothing glamorous about its namesake. I am strongly considering changing the name of the feature to "Super Serials" as I am writing this.

anyway, regardless of the name of the feature, it had its genesis in the Master Levels For Doom II article. one of the things I did was do exhaustive playthroughs of all the surrounding material, which included several different series - Titan, Inferno, and Cabal. at some point I foolishly thought that it would be pretty cool to build posts similar to my multi-map reviews for the "collected" series. in fact, I didn't have the infobox style in place at the time. after "borrowing" it from andy olivera's Visions of Doom page, i tweaked the format and tested it out in the series pages and then, on recommendation, reformatted the rest of the site reviews using it.

another thing I started doing like a few years ago but never really knuckled down to finish was something similar to the series feature but geared more toward authors, like a career retrospective. i still have the Christen David Klie article bouncing around in my drafts. I've also had a bunch of other feature ideas kicking around, but the only one that's made it was the hastily slapped-together Maximum Doom article.

in any case, if you didn't know about the series features before, I hope you'll give them a read! they were fun to write, and i hope they're at least fun to read, if not informative.

color scheme

dickin' around with the blog color scheme after reading some pointed feedback given to raymoohawk about his sprite edits re: the color of perfect pitch black. it was an easy pick when i started this up, back when it was One Man's Journey Through Doom, but I think its time for a change. your feedback is appreciated. after all, its your eyes that have to put up with the damn thing!

400 Reviews and Happy Holidays

i let a few milestones glaze by, but as of Mayan Mishap, Doomed: Doom WAD Reviews is sitting pretty at 400 reviews and has been semi-active for almost four years. every year people make more stuff than i can play, and thats good. ive also been part of the cacoward team since 2012, a position i did not envision but have since kept up with... more or less. actually, 2014 has been my best year since 2011 since i kept up plenty of buffer reviews for irregular updates in case I got waylaid. the only really big addition to the blog has been the tumblr, which has been a neat experiment at delivering something more specific than my blog to a different audience. anyway, i could do some kind of cool retrospective or something but id rather solicit you guys for a roadmap for 2015. what super-obscure stuff would you like to see reviewed that isnt on the blog? what cacoward winners from 2010 and earlier are you dying to see words on?


SUGGESTIONS

10 Sectors
Plutonia 2
Dark 7 / Dark 7 Mission Pack
Urotsuki: Inferno Road, Dead End, Radical Way
Ultimate Simplicity
Massmouth / Massmouth 2 / Massmouthmas
Soldier of Fortune
Scythe / Scythe 2 / Scythe X
Dolphin's Dream
Unhinged
Castle of Eternal Carrot in the Sky
The City of the Damned
City of the Damned: Apocalypse
Virus: Episode One
Super Sonic Doom
Oniria 1 / Oniria 2
Happy Time Circus 1 / Happy Time Circus 2
Castle Phobos
Dark Hell
Unloved
Hellcore 2.0
Claustrophobia: The Walls Close In
Junko
Grime
Elysion
Disturbia
Cheogsh / Cheogsh 2 / Realm of Cheogsh
NeoDoom
Alien Flower (RDC Freakmapping #5)
Caverns of Darkness
Paranoid
Darkest Hour
The Golden Souls
Sinful Discharge (Heretic)
Gulag (Heretic)
Curse of D'Sparil (Heretic)
Codename HYENA Killermachine
Plutinya 1024
The Crypts
Town of Witchcraft (Heretic Treasure Chest)
Cassie Steele
The Experiment
Hoover Dam
Balls
One Bloody Night
e6y3
Escape From Phobos / Escape From Deimos / Escape from Natas
hellrun.WAD (Doom / Doom II)
Istanbul
Nordhell
Phoebe
RRWARD: RRWARD01 / RRWARD02 / RRWARD03 / RRWARD04
Scimitar
SJS1: Streets of Fear
Triad Experimental Corporation
NUTS.WAD
Area 51
Kama Sutra
Hell Revealed II
Community Chest / Community Chest 2
Vrack 1 / Vrack 2 / Vrack 3
Deus Vult
The Rebirth
The Abyss
Phobos: Relive the Nightmare (and other works by Shamus Young)
Dimensions of Time
Marswar
SlayeR
TVR!
World of DETH
E2MWalter
Big Woodchip
Operation Biowar
Beta Labs
Post
Strange Aeons
Nerves of Steel
Impure Offering


COMEDY OPTIONS

Doomguy's pimp ventures II: The More,The Merrier.
pol.wad
School Doom II
21ratmaz
AOL Girls Museum
Duke Nukem Level Conversion
ZBlood
Otakon
Doom City
Doom Center
Dawn of Reality
The Ghoul's Forest 3
The Mystery of the Marie Celeste
Calgon, Take me away!
RTC-3057
Nimrod: Project Doom
Phocas Island
Phocas Island 2


PROMISES

Wonderful Doom
2002: A Doom Odyssey
Claustrophobia 1024
Exquisite Corpse
Titan
Titan 2
Titan 1024
Dark Covenant


IT CAME FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION

Claustrophobia 1024 2: The Mystery of Too Many Maps
Bloodworks
Mitnal
The Hub
cwave.wad
Quake: Descent Into Heresy
The Ultimate Torment and Torture
Stronghold: On the Edge of Chaos
ZPack: Random Maps for ZDoom
Knee Deep in ZDoom
Community Chest 3
END1 / END2
Classic Episode 2: Singularity Complex
Flashback Demo 1
Flashback Demo 2


TUMBLR TRAVAILS

Reign of the Spider Gods
Demons of Problematique / Demons of Problematique 2
Whispers of Satan


STUFF I'M EMBARRASSED TO NOT HAVE PLAYED YET ...done! :D

Stardate 20X6
Swim With the Whales
UAC Ultra


DELAYED-SION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

32in24-14: How the Hamburglar Stole Christmas
Respawned: Back From Hell
Doom: Redemption
Inferno
Phobos: Anomaly Reborn
The Dying End
~The Complete Works of Paul Corfiatis~ / Death Tormention / The Twilight Zone II: Final Dreams / Death Tormention II /
~The Complete Works of Kristian Aro~
~The Complete Works of Chris Hansen~
No Rest For the Living
Chex Quest
Oblivion
Paranoia
Paranoiac
Something Wicked This Way Comes / Wickedly Simple / No Rest for the Wicked / For the Wicked Shall Perish / Death Comes Not Gently to the Wicked / The Wicked and the Damned / Wicked Be the Ways of Men / Damnation Awaits the Wicked / Exalt Not the Wicked
Planet Phobos / Planet Hell
Innocence / Innocence 2 / Innocence 3 / Innocence: TNT
~The Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions~ / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 1 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 2 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 3 /
Congestion Control / Congestion Control 2
~The Complete Works of Memfis~
NewDoom Community Project / NewDoom Community Project 2
Harmony
A Taste For Blood
Plutocracy
Return to Hadron
Endless Torture
Ol' No Name
Sunlust
King Dime's Birthday Mapset
Nuclear Halls
Estranged
~The Complete 40oz Birthday Map Collection~
Favillesco Episode 1: Genuflected on Io / Episode 2: Tragedy Over Europa / Alpha Episode: Apostasy on Amalthea / Alpha Episode 2: Desecration On Thebe
Prime Directive
Matt Tropiano Birthday Maps
Happy Birthday TMD!
NOVA 2
Arcadia Demade
Drip Feed
Valhalla
Epic 2 + Anything else Eternal made between 2007-2010 (excluding Long Days)
Beyond Revival
Hell Ground
Mapgame
Gravity
Eternal Doom IV
Back to Basics
Cold as Hell
Epic
Songs of the Damned
IC2005
Vae Victus (2)
Decade
Tremor (Part I: Genesis)
Phobos Revisited
Plutonium Winds
Doom Raider: Crypt of the Vile
Ruma
007: License to Spell Doom
Sin City / Sin City 2 / Sin City 3
Null Space
Doom: Resurrection
Threshold of Pain
Monument
Sacrifice Episode
Argus
Pax
Induction
Doomed Space Wars
50 Shades of GRAYTALL
ICAR2015
Monument
Way Too Many Dead Guys
Breach
Jared's Doom
Sharp Things
All Aboard the Mega Magilla Gorilla Flotilla
Pcorf Community Project 2: 2048 Unleashed
Jiffy Bag
The Warlock's Hearth
The Last Sanctuary
Bloodstain
Tech Gone Bad

Anniversaries

So, uh, I guess Hellbound became my 300th review, plus the Cacowards saw their 20th (10th) iteration, and somewhere along the way, this blog reached a run time of three whole years, if you count the six or so months I blew off playing a bunch of games that weren't Doom. Thank you, dear readers, whether you comment or don't, and special thanks to authors that chat back; that makes writing and playing so much easier. What follows is a list of WIPs I originally compiled back when the Cacowards were themselves in progress; I didn't edit it to what it is now, but I didn't want to have to be the one to cut stuff out in the first place. These aren't all the WIPs worth looking out for (it's excessively weighted toward map packs), and some of these may fail to impress when they're done, but thanks for making new content for Doom, because the user content keeps this community alive, even if I rarely if ever touch the gameplay mod side.

More New Stuff

I have stealthily (until now) added a few new pages. Statistics is just numbers porn, derived not wholly but at least in part from Colin Phipps's Doom Underground. It resulted in a pretty thorough review of my actual numbers, finding that I had somehow missed counting a handful of reviews and authors and a bunch of maps (in the neighborhood of 150!). I also added Icons of Sin, an index of id-sanctioned "commercial" releases which will eventually be filled out. I snuck in overview posts for Final Doom and the Wraith Corp. megaWADs, kind of like the Master Levels summary. Finally, the Perdition's Gate and Hell to Pay reviews have new screenshots in the 640X style. They are hands-free, at the base brightness level, and have no embarrassingly stretched skies. Enjoy!

What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid

Hey! It's been awhile. I've been taking a break from Doom, of course. The straw that broke the camel's back was the release of Borderlands 2 while I was trying to slog through Masters of Chaos.

Borderlands 2 is very fun. I think I loved TVHM even more, with the exception of shit like Badass Pyro Threshers. Playing a Siren, rabid enemies didn't bother me so much. It's way above and beyond the quality of the original in story and locales and all the crazy gun stuff, though I never got behind E-tech weapons, whose fire modes are just not what I needed on Maya. Handsome Jack is a great villain and the whole game does a good job of being goofy while highlighting an undercurrent of seriousness that's there for anyone who wants to really sit down and think about some of the darker stuff that goes on during your playthrough. The enemy and health bar variety in TVHM is a great way to enforce the importance of gun variety, even the much poo-pooed fire weapons, which are invaluable for taking down stuff like rabid skags and other high-HP but only red-bar enemies. The DLC isn't exactly as interesting compared to the original's (sans the Underdome) but still fun.

McPixel was a fun throwback to the 8-bit adventure games I grew up with, sans confusing text parser and multi-screen inventory puzzles. Sometimes I wish the game had more depth, as the two-click puzzles only involve grabbing an item and then using it somewhere else. As WarioWare as the stages are, an additional step would...actually be pretty work intensive, but certainly appreciated. Still, it was a lot of fun, even trying to gold plate that final bonus round.

I haven't finished Fallout 3 yet, but I'm most of the way through the main Story. It's a very different game than the other FPSers I've played, much slower-paced and truth be told not interesting combat, but it's the exploration that's the main draw, and if you want a realistic simulation of what it's like scavenging the assorted nameless areas in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Washington D.C., then Fallout 3 is there for you. I love Galaxy News Radio and the little interactions you get with some of the NPCs. The levelling system is a pretty big "meh" coming from BL2, which just has more interesting powers all around vs. the somewhat more realistic DC wasteland. What really justified this probably year-old purchase was gunning down slavers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Saints Row the Third is an absurd cavalcade of the goofiest shit wrapped up in a light package. The actual game blows by pretty quick but the surrealism escalates quite fast, with bloody cartoonish game shows, a paramilitary invasion, zombies, and Burt Reynolds. And the S&M horse cart chase, with exploding horse carts. And, well, you'd have to play it yourself to see. The plethora of side-diversions (streaking, car-surfing, base jumping, etc.) are cute but aren't really enough to keep the game going once you've conquered Steelport. Still, I enjoyed playing the comic-bookish anti-hero, what I'm assured is a departure from the previous two outings. And the character creator is a ton of fun to play with!

Upkeep

I've been undergoing a phase of site improvement that's 95% under the hood, stripping out garbage HTML and some slight edits here and there. All of Sverre Kvernmo's Cabal levels have an appropriate "series" TOC similar to Titan, Inferno, and the Top Ten. And, in case you're wondering... Yes, I've elected to take an extra three day period off for reviewing that forty-map monster, Doom 2 Unleashed. Lunatic will be posted on Saturday. Additionally, I have a tentative list of WADs set aside for the period between 2011 / 1998 and 1999. It's pretty big, but not as big as 2011 is turning out to be. Jeeze. I may post it at some point in a desperate bid for comments / suggestions. Also added an About page.

Spooky

I just noticed that, if my update schedule remains on track (i.e. no need to shoe in some filler updates), Hell Revealed will be my 100th update.

Doomed Remains Scoreless

Blog readers were bitterly divided in the poll, with six votes for scores, five votes against, and two people who just didn't care. For now, Doomed remains without scores. I looked into ratings as a way to make some WADs easily identifiable as favorites via the main review index. I may still look into something down the line, like a simple thumbs up for mapsets I'd recommend. Or maybe a secret page with a rating index that's not entirely serious... Yes, yes...

Also, I'm one WAD away from Hell Revealed, the moment I've been dreading. At least I've got like a month of updates backed up.

Poll - review scores?

Ten days ago I added a poll which you can see in the site's upper-right hand corner. In essence, I'm asking whether actual review scores are important to people, and if they'd like to see them. If so, I would be rating WADs on a scale of 0-6 stars (though in practicality it would be on a scale of 1-5), with 3-6 star ratings being general gradations of "I would recommend this!" and 0-2 being gradations of "I wouldn't recommend this!". If I get enough interest I'll retrofit the current index to include the relevant information. 

Site Upkeep

While on vacation I've researched CSS and used it to clean up some of the indices, mainly the sortable index (shrinking down the text and using highlights for Cacowards instead of bolding/underlining the filename) and shrinking down the text for the author index.

As indicated by the itinerary, I'm up to date through Jim Flynn's solo works. I played through I, Anubis, only to find out that Osiris is literally I, Anubis expanded, rendering my written review obsolete, but it gives me another talking point. After I finish Osiris and replay Chosen (should be pretty fast) I'll move on to Sverre Kvernmo's stuff and then Hell Month. Well, more like two months of Hell, or that's what it will be if I follow the update schedule. I'm hoping my buffer will hold out for when I slow down on 1997.

Second Opinions

Some visitors may have noticed a Second Opinions tab after WADS by author. As described, this is a link to other sites that feature reviews in some form or another. All but two of them are dead, but I thought I'd provide them in tribute to the many others that have come before me.

Current status: MAP19 of Doom Core. If I finish Doom Core before Tuesday, I'll put it up instead of the Chris Klie single map reviews. That's not very likely, though (Valkiriforce makes some tough levels). After Doom Core I'll continue to indulge in 2011 releases, looking at Callum Guy Oliver's (aka forum superstar phobosdeimos1) Corebinder, Digon Base and Spire Complex mapsets, all part of his RAW ACTION series (well, Spire Complex isn't, but I don't see why it can't be). 

New Author Index

I've made some changes to the WADs by author index. It's been a long time coming, but I've been learning how to make Javascript function on the page. This will be incredibly handy when doing monographic series of reviews on particular authors. The basic gist of it is that clicking on an author name will expand a list of all their contributions reviewed on the site. I don't know how many people use the author index, but hopefully this is infinitely more navigable. There may be some minor changes to come, like shrinking down the font, but this is basically my happy spot.

My other technical update will involve welding the file/date/author index into one single table, sortable by the viewer. I suspect it'll take a lot more work than combining the author indices, but it will make things much more browseable than the current configuration.

Edit: Actually, it's way easier than I thought! Thank you, javascript! And thank you, Christian Bach! Once I convert the indices over, I can rest easy.

Edit 2: The new index is up! my review index is now sortable by filename, title, date, author and type (single, minisode, episode, megawad). Just click on the table header for automatic sorting.

What's in the pipeline:

Anthony "Adelusion" Czerwonka
Dystopia 3: Re-Birth of Anarchy - Add-On Level

Matthias Worch
The Trooper's Playground

Christen David Klie
The Catwalk
The Combine
The Fistula
The Garrison
Subspace
Subterra
The C.P.U.
Device One
The D.M.Z.
The Enemy Inside
The Fury
The Hive

What's incoming:

Doom Core, by Michael Jan Krizik aka "Valkiriforce"

Review Pacing

Just a semi-formal pacing schedule I'm setting right now. Depending on what the latest review is, you can expect to see another in a given span of time.

• Single Map: Review next day.
• Minisode (2-6 maps): Review within the next three days.
• Episode (7-15 maps): Review within the next five days.
• MegaWAD (16+ maps): Review within the next seven days.

I work twelve hour shifts at the moment so I rarely take the time to Doom on working days. This should let me build up a buffer on my days off without getting burned out (and enjoy the glut of games I got during Steam's summer sale on the side). Dystopia 3 and its add-on level are ready and waiting. Meanwhile, I'm muscling my way through The Troopers' Playground, made a bit rough due to the switch to PrBoom-Plus (and those devilish evil troopers).

Also looking to improve some bits of the site with Javascript (namely the indexes). Dunno when I'll actually get around to it, but expect the slowly growing database to become a bit more manageable.