dei_eldren

That we live in a simplified black and white world of good and evil where all you need to do to know the truth and assess things is to watch the news or read a newspaper. and occasionally donate money to where you are told you should - and that's just for starters, as a generic superficial summary tailored for you, as a believer in this system we live in. This whole system, which is supported by a parallel consensus that i don't agree with, is supposedly kept up by threats of coercion and war, both domestically and internationally, and when the balance, allegedly, tips, then war is enacted upon by one side or the other. And then all the supporters of this system, which again, i do not support nor partake in, start hating war - especially when it's not their side that's the aggressor. Hey, you people who wanna donate to suffering Ukrainians, how much did you donate to Iraq in the 1990s and early 2000s when USA was ravaging it? No, if you don't think USA was, i'm not going to debate you or tell you any facts about it, your ignorance is your business. You think the Iraqis weren't suffering? You have any idea how many civilians were killed? Where were you then? So what's different now? The aggressor? i bet you don't even know the real reasons for the conflict. But i'm not giong to go there.

No, false narrative. i disagree with the consensus, and some other people felt that was a reason to start derailing the thread with ad hom attacks against me. i reserve the right and have the will to address points made directly about me. And i entirely disagree that it's me who's embarassing myself, but then the opinion of the unthinking makes little difference to me, so if someone finds me embarassed, you're welcome to it. i can withstand your disapproval.

Spoken like a member of the mob. Why does what i say need to be shred to pieces, you can't bear dissent? i've no problem with anyone who doesn't agree with me... see the difference? Why is that? This isn't a thread about geopolitics anyway, so is this the thread to tear what i say to pieces? By the way, before you know whether or not what i say should be torn to pieces, shouldn't you know the reasoning behind it? This isn't a thread for that discussion, and i'm not sure i'd be willing to have such a discussion on a Doom-forum. You're just knee-jerk reacting because i'm a threat to your cherished worldview... you need consensus and orthodoxy so that you can feel good about yourself. That's what's going on with you, my friend.

i guess i don't think in the same terms as you do. Your interpretation of my words and actions is based on the image of me you've created with the help of your prejudice and imagination alone. But no, i do not support (political) social causes, ever. i have my reasons. Am i callous? That's just a word you throw to condemn me. Am i proud? Why? Because, like everyone else, i said what i think? My intent was to lament the fact that i can't buy the map in good conscience. In fact, you seem to be proud, virtue signalling, to judge me. Why not just accept some people don't see affairs of the world in same light as you do?

Oh damn... unfortunately i never support political causes, no matter what the universal opinion on them is. My loss.

MAP03 Ground Floor (HMP, continuous, blind): K 100%, I 100%, S 100%, D 0, T 12:23 Grade: B / Difficulty: B Who's Who

MAP02 Nullth Precinct (HMP, continuous, blind): K 100%, I 100%, S 100%, D 0, T 19:09 Grade: A- / Difficulty: B- Who's Who

MAP01 Pistol Panic (HMP, continuous, blind): K 100%, I 100%, S 100%, D 2, T 28:05 Grade: B+ / Difficult: B- Who's Who

Already mentioned, but Sign of Torment, especially the last episode is thick with horror - extremely atmospheric.

Summa Summarum - Ultimate / Doom the Way Id Did One of the top five sets i've played (for context, the rest are: Si666il, Moonblood, Sign of Torment, & Hell Revealed). Enough said! But to elaborate. i approached this WAD with what could be said to be extreme prejudice, not only because of my earlier brief encounter with it that left me dismayed early in the first episode, but also simply because of the apparent goal of re-making the OG, which turned out to be a wrong expectation altogether. So i was not possibly quite fair to the first few maps, due to them not being according to my initial expectations. But the quality of the maps - from aesthetics and design to gameplay - wore down my reservations and nit-picking about maps being 'sprawling' and not keeping to the limitations of what Idness properly would set. Fact is, all the differences aside, apart from a couple of exceptions and frankly syntax errors, the whole set invokes similar atmosphere with the OG. My scores jumped from solid 8's to above around the map E1M5 Engineering Bay which marked the turning point in my expectations. Yet, the first episode is not as good as the next two, and without replaying it's difficult to say is it simply because (uncorrupted) techbases in general are not my favourite environment thematically nor visually, or because of the maps themselves. Shores of Hell is practically a perfect episode - E2M5 Deimos Command was and remains a transgressor because of its unexpected trickery which would have been fine in a different context, but in a set like this blocking the player from the secret exit should not have been allowed. (MAP15 in KINDa had a similar shenanigan installed and TheMightyWhoosh was kind enough to warn the club beforehand about it, even when there really were no expectations how his maps should play.) E2M8 Vault i did not care for, because frankly in pure boss-maps the first half of the map is wasted, and ultimately the exploration required feels like a waste of time, just like the central pillar was a cool idea and impressive visually, but ultimately a waste of time in the context. The star of the episode was of course E2M6 Foundry with its atmosphere and exceptional design that is at least equal to anything in Si666il (it doesn't have many flaws, but its maps tend to be on the shorter side, and Romero could have fleshed many of them out more than he did.) Similarly, Inferno is near-flawless, and not a single map received a score below 9, or B-, from me. i don't know if the opener Abyssal Stronghold is the finest, but it made a strong impression on me with its updated and expanded take on Hell Keep. Still, i'd lower the score from 10+ to 10 now, because of the earlier access to the shotgun, and not having a good opportunity to weaken the Cacodemons and kill the Imps by making them infight, which is an essential part of the original (i think someone mentiond about this in their review.) So in that particular sense only is it weaker than the original, otherwise, it is better. The thing about my rankings in this episode is that there properly considered is no worse map, i can't even fault any of the design choices in a single map, and shockingly i actually enjoyed E3M8 Core! Traditional in its ethos, it wasted no time in pro forma preliminaries, and was striking to look at, fun to play, and had some non-malicious meanness to its design. And then, Thy Flesh Consumed. i'm only superficially familiar with the OG, apart from the opener, and watched BMD's playthroughs of the original levels sometimes before sometimes after to playing the equivalent map here. The visuals and designs are pretty easy to categorize and recognise, and the episode here was very consistent with them. Same is true of the gameplay, except of course certain maps here deliberately going out of bounds. And i hope i'm not just an inflexible old geezer (probably am), but i don't see the point of agreeing to make levels in a certain style and then giong out of your way to not adhere to the concept you agreed to. This is akin to false marketing, only more futile. The thing is, E4M4 (which i came to terms with after counselling and therapy - and now i'm not sure if it should be included in this group) and in particular E4M7, and to somewhat lesser extent, E4M8, are the kind of maps that have nothing to do with TFC except on most superficial level, and frankly i wouldn't play them outside of this WAD - which should not have maps like them, if it sincerely followed its own stated objectives. Anyway, that's not meant too seriously :) At the end of the day, those are just maps i didn't enjoy, for stated reasons - nothing bigger than that. Fact is UDTWID remains a flawed yet ultimately a stellar episode. The maps were very faithful and consistent, and were executed pretty much to perfection. Other than stated above, i enjoyed it as much as i did Inferno, including the opener which gave me so much more trouble than i would have expected. But that was fair. Yeah, for myself, despite the length, i feel no UD fatigue, and kind of wish we could go on directly to play D2TWID and then DTWIDTLE! But perhaps the latter will be picked up at some later date, so i won't go on to play it for a while on my own. And in the meanwhile, maybe someone could curate UDTWIDTWUDTWIDD ;) So, that's how i feel about this set. i still enjoy the immersive experience the Club offers, really enhancing on the experience of mere playthroughs. Thanks to everyone for their reviews, demos and videos (i think i read everything and watched most, still have some demos to watch - apart from DSDA demos which i don't have setup unfortunately, should get that done - in fact i don't even know about it much), and thanks for reading/watching mine. As an aside, this by the way marks the end of my first year of participation here - having missed only two months in that time (Heretic, and Interception II.) See you in March, at least if the dreaded CC wins! (PS: By the way, does not the Club play too few UD episodes/wads? Only one was played last year, Base Ganymede... making it two this year wouldn't be overkill! Apart from UDTWIDTLE there has been a few interesting suggestions already...)

E4M7 Hand of the Heathen (HMP, continuous, blind): K 87%, I 90%, S 50%, D quite a few, actually, T 21:39 Grade: D / Difficulty: B+ Who's Who

My third vote is pretty clear by now... +++ Community Chest

E4M6 Molten Gods (HMP, continuous, blind): K 100%, I 100%, S 100%, D yes, T 27:59 Grade: A- / Difficulty: B- Who's Who

E4M5 Doctrines of Devils (HMP, continuous, blind): K 100%, I 93%, S 67%, D few, T 25:18 Grade: A- / Difficulty: B+ Who's Who

First i skipped high school afternoon classes with a friend to play Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny, and were very disappointed to reach the end. Then i found Doom for us to play, and we again skipped classes to play it, and next Doom II. Never did anything with my high school diploma (literally), but here i am playing Doom still.