Nov 2, 2023
“Silence” by Jan Piecha,
Courtesy: 2023 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest
seen from Belgium
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seen from United States
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seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Indonesia
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Italy
“Silence” by Jan Piecha,
Courtesy: 2023 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest
RUNNER-UP RUMBLE
Just when you thought you knew what the spoiler was, the game throws another curve ball! We still have the end of the losers' bracket, what you might call the winner of the losers! A throwdown for third place!
Who's the bigger spoiler?
Suit... of Armour (Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward)
Red Suit (Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective)
If you'd like to confirm who you're voting for, the characters' names are listed below the cut. At this point in the tournament, you know the drill. Spoilers ahoy.
Bryce Burkett, Minnesota Storm
Pics Mark Beshey/The Guillotine
Doom WADs’ Roulette (2005): Altar of Evil
Three days after the 413 reckoning.
You come out of your bunker with a shovel in your hands, and some random stray cat tied to your waist.
A- Are they gone?
...
You hear nothing.
Oh, thank God! They came back to their degenerate caves.
You come back to your room.
Now, let’s get back to work.
S2: Altar of Evil
Main author(s): Ronald Lubbelinkhof (Dutch Devil)
Release date: March 8th, 2005 (original release)/ July 7th, 2005 (database upload, updated version)
Version played: Updated
Required port compatibility: ZDoom
Levels: 1 (MAP01 replacement)
Our second runner-up WAD (or rather map) from 2005 is Altar of Evil. And spoiler warning (because I don’t know what to say in this section): It’s better than For Whom to Bell Tolls; and no, the fact that it needs ZDoom doesn’t mean anything in that department.
So why won’t we take a look at this map, and see what works and what doesn’t?
Altar of Evil looks really good. It tends to get repetitive due to how the texture pallet is almost the same in every room but somehow I didn’t feel like it constantly looked the same. Honestly, for me, this con sounds more like a nitpick due to how the author makes it all look incredible for the lack of better words.
What’s funny about this map, is that whenever you look through the window, there is nothing but emptiness; not even when you are looking at a place where the nearby room is; suggesting that the titular area is in some God-knows-where location.
Sound effects from Doom 64 and the music from Doom I are almost always welcome for me when it comes to Doom II WADs/maps.
This map isn’t really that hard to understand, although it is kind of ridiculous when you have to press the door near the beginning to reveal a switch that will open the door you just pressed.
As for more interesting stuff, the first key you acquire (the red one) is actually needed for the exit area, but you basically end up going around the map to actually reach the red door.
Also, in one of the secret areas, there is a hidden switch that will open up an area across the secret, leading to an optional area where you can get Plasma Gun and Rocket Launcher earlier.
Altar of Evil is kind of challenging. Half of the time it’s rather fair with battles, but another half is basically you ending up surrounded by Imps that bombard you behind cages/bars. The fact that there are 361 Imps on Hurt Me Plenty doesn’t help. But to be fair, I’ve played levels that were more annoying and had more unfair difficulty. And knowing that Altar of Evil doesn’t have even one hitscanner is a blessing.
This map also adds new enemies to the roster; and depending on which skill level you choose, you will fight either two new types of monsters, eight of these, or none at all.
On HMP you will encounter Flame Demon and Nightmare Spectre, both of which are just tougher variants of Pinky without any new abilities. It probably wouldn’t surprise me if the rest of the new monsters were like this but I might be wrong here.
Also, five original enemies have a new look now.
The new Imps’ look doesn’t help with fighting them.
The only bug I’ve encountered was with new Pinky variants having scuffed attack sound effect that actually plays when they manage to bite you.
With all of that in mind, I can definitely recommend Altar of Evil. As I said at the beginning, it is better than the previous WAD and its cons are more like nitpicks for me rather than actual problems.
And speaking about both runners-up, they get promoted to the Revenant Awards 2005 too (For Whom the Bell Tolls to the Pug-of-Pink section, and Altar of Evil to the Sole Survivor section).
Welp... Guess it’s time for me to take another two-day-long break (technically just a day of a break after uploading this post since I finished this review yesterday). But after that, we can finally take a look at the best ten WADs of 2005 (according to Doomworld).
I’ll see you then.
Bye!
I’m thinking of having a contest
Runner-ups part 2!
@stoneforge-misclick
@sultaiascendancy
@the-awkward-sixth-praetor
@thetabbybadger
@zurgo-nerdpuncher
@wpandp
Thank you to all who participated and best of luck in future contests!
It’s time for Gov. Christie’s Official Portrait to be painted