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!

The Corruption of Substation Alpha (DIAMONDS.WAD)

THE CORRUPTION OF
SUBSTATION ALPHA
by Bill McClendon

If you know Bill McClendon, it's probably as a contributor to some of the best projects to come out in 1997. Maybe you know him from before, though. He had two solo releases in '95, subsequent to STRAIN and Requiem. The Corruption of Substation Alpha (aka DIAMONDS.WAD, no doubt after the diamond-shaped lighting) is the second, published for Doom II back in '95. It's a MAP01 replacement which he prefers you use IDMUS09 for. As for the story, you've been sent to reestablish contact with Substation Alpha, which has been silent for four days. Of course, Hell has invaded the base, and done a short job of it.

HACX: Twitch'n Kill (HACX.WAD)

HACX was never destined for greatness. A commercial TC published for Doom II in 1997 and featuring some of the better-known authors of Doom's golden age ('96-'97) (notably superstars Adelusion and Iikka Kernanen), it came out subsequent to the release of the new breed of FPS games, namely Quake and Duke Nukem 3D. It's odd, because HACX feels like a natural bridge between the Doom and BUILD engines. It has themed maps, destroyable objects, and a penchant for goofiness that lies outside the normal bounds of Doom. Unfortunately, it never fulfilled the proposed design documents, topping out at twenty-one out of thirty-two levels replaced, and that's looking at it from a purely numerical standpoint.

CHORD2 (CHORD2.WAD)

CHORD2
by Malcolm Sailor

Malcolm Sailor's claim to fame is the CHORD series, which consists of small, brutal, but gorgeous levels. Imagine my surprise when I open up CHORD2, the second map in the sequence, and find that it fields not only 150 or so monsters, but is also a very large level to boot. CHORD2 was released in 1997, replaces MAP26 of Doom II, and is something of an enormous castle. Sailor provides no story, nor does it really need one.

Final Doom

FINAL DOOM
TNT: EVILUTION	THE PLUTONIA EXPERIMENT

Final Doom was id's last commercial expansion in the Doom II style until No Rest For the Living...which still isn't available separately from the Doom II packages in any legal sense. As far as contemporary video game reviews went, Final Doom was panned. It wasn't Doom III, in that Doom III would have ostensibly added more monsters, textures, and possibly weapons to the already aging Doom engine. It also got criticized for the same reasons Doom II was slagged, in that it was still using the Doom engine and the same gameplay fundamentals, albeit in radically different fashions from author to author (more notably from IWAD to IWAD). It was just two new thirty-two map replacements for Doom II, TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment. Quake was hot on Final Doom's heels, published all but five days later, and the entire industry was "moving on".

The Plutonia Experiment (PLUTONIA.WAD)

Dario and Milo Casali were already part of TNT's Evilution, sold to id for them to publish as their own. The Casalis sent American McGee a project of theirs and the maps so much impressed the overlords that they contracted them to make another megaWAD, which was to be sold alongside Evilution as the Final Doom package. The rest, as they say, is history. Plutonia has enjoyed a more positive legacy than its sister WAD, being the beneficiary of two unofficial full-replacement sequels and countless imitators. It's thirty-two more maps of Doom II action, but as anyone can tell you, Plutonia is a beast unto itself.

CHORD1 (CHORD1.WAD)

CHORD1
by Malcolm Sailor

Malcolm Sailor loved (loves?) Sverre Kvernmo, hated Tim Willits (and probably still does), and thinks that the CHORD series is the best level set he's ever done. CHORD1 is the first map in his pet project, a MAP25 replacement for Doom II published in '97 that looks something like Doom II's Hellish fortress / mansions. His CHORDs are renowned for being short but brutal affairs, interesting some of the best and brightest of demo recorders. CHORD1 sets the standard with a berserk pack and two revenants in a circular room. I hope you're good at fisting, because you'll have to do some punching before the day is done.

TNT: Evilution (TNT.WAD)

As you likely know, TNT's Evilution began its existence as a freeware megaWAD developed by Team TNT, who had its origins in a certain Doom mailing list. A bunch of people poured their hearts and souls into the mapset, and just as it was supposed to be released, John Romero popped in, asking if id could buy it, to be published as a commercial work. TNT agreed; thus began a rigorous playtesting / polishing session that delayed the release of Evilution until after TNT put out their freeware sequel, the illustrious Icarus: Alien Vanguard. Nowadays you can find Evilution as part of the Final Doom package alongside The Plutonia Experiment (which is kind of a TNT project, in that the Casalis were members of Team TNT).