#doom 2008

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2008): Escape from Castle Chezcrea

Okay, people. Enough of the cereal kid shit. We are back at the familiar, bloody, and gory territory.

G9: Escape from Castle Chezcrea

Main author(s): Paul Hiebert (Creaphis)

Release date: February 16th, 2008 (original version)

Version(s) played: 1.1

Required port compatibility: Boom

Levels: 1 (MAP30 replacement)

Looks like we have another underdog today, people.

Escape from Castle Chezcrea is the first Doom WAD created by Paul Hiebert (at least the first one uploaded on the internet). So that means I will try to go easier on this map.

I have nothing else to say, so let’s take a look at the map.

For starters, I like how this map looks. It looks like a prison wing of the castle with torture chambers and machines turning bodies into meat. There is even a part with the sewers at the last third of the map with a leaking pipe that has blood/liquid meat swimming through it. If you could try to guess a concept of a map just by its title and if it fits, this one would fit rather well. it would be only better if there were an original music track.

Chezcrea is rather simple to understand – you try to escape the titular castle through various locations until the floor near the fake exit collapses and you are forced to escape through the aforementioned sewers. Not to mention going through the tunnel darker than the asshole (to the point that it doesn’t even show on the minimap) before the sudden drop.

Overall, I don’t think you will get stuck while playing this map. It’s rather easy to understand where to go and what to do.

I like the cleverness in most of the secrets. The best one is with the pickaxe. If you press the use key on it, you grab it, and you will be able to break through the gap in the wall in the nearby area with the conveyor belt to get a secret rocket launcher.

I would also mention that in the original version, there was a puzzle placed somewhere in the halfway point of a map; and judging from the textfile that it was moon logic level of complexity (AKA utter bullshit), I don’t think you will feel like something was missing.

I would not call Chezcrea a hard map. Sure, you are usually forced to punch demons before reaching the area with the yellow key where you will find green armor and a shotgun nearby, and there are some bullshit moments here and there (mostly involving fighting demons in complete darkness) but honestly, it was still an easy map (at least when compared to the tougher WADs from 2008).

Escape from Castle Chezcrea is a fun map to play. I am even capable (to some degree) forgive some of its cons due to it being probably the author’s first map. Give it a try.

Only last WAD from the 2008 roster to go people. I’ll see you then.

[redpapercraness]

redrew some of the recent renders that got released for sonadow gens

[thatfilthyanimal]

Megamind Rules / Megamind Vs The Doom Syndicate is NOT made by AI

Listen y'all what we're NOT going to do is make shit up and accuse the writers of Megamind Rules / Megamind Vs The Doom Syndicate of using AI to make the scripts. I've been following them on twitter since before the show was even announced; they are against AI as it directly impacts their livelihoods and there was an entire team of writers for the show/movie. Just because you don't like the concept or animation isn't enough reason to just blatantly lie; Brent Simons, Alan Schoolcraft, Eric Fogel, and the rest of the team for sure put their hearts into it. It's not their fault they got such a small budget that makes it look crunchy. The Doom Syndicate were also ALWAYS a concept that existed; they were enemies removed from the original film late enough that they're all over the Art Of book and the 2010 video games. And YES Megamind is isolated and awkward, but the existence of the Doom Syndicate in his past is NOT impossible by any means-- it is entirely possible to feel absolutely alone in a large group of people that make you feel inferior or unsafe. When he said in the movie "it was me and Minion against the world" what he means is Minion was his main support growing up. It would be impossible to have no adults in his life even isolated in a prison, and other villains would absolutely be trying to use his smarts to their advantage. Again, just because the animation is crunchy is no reason to just make shit up and blame the writers of using AI; perhaps the AI is picking up that plot because THIS CONCEPT ALWAYS EXISTED and has fueled countless fanfiction and fan rp blogs that said AI models stole from. :) Thanks for playing!

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

RIP Madeline Bassett you would’ve loved Caramelldansen

[basically-fabulous]

when will a game come out that is good actually

[thornedclover]

favorite character poll game!

tagged by @michiganstray, love you bb! 🩷

rules: make a pool with 5 of your all-time favorite characters & then tag 5 people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite!

...let's go! (i have more favs but i have to play by the rules XP)

tagging: @ortegalvr, @miathebiweeb, @ashen-char, @comet-forgot-you, @calumikey & anyone else who wants to join in! 🩷

[rubbish78]

Ryan Ross performing ‘Northern Downpour’ live in Phoenix, AZ 2008 (x)

[batsplat]

maybe it's from the particularly acute disappointment of marc injuring himself at the sachsenring but this weekend (so far) has made me feel incredibly nervous for marc's future. like no guarantees of course but if marc was going to win anywhere this year (when the gap between the gp23 and gp24 is increasingly obvious, as you mentioned) it was going to be here. and i'm definitely overreacting because i'm emotional about it but it feels like him hurting himself here feels like a bad sign not just for this year but for the future at large. because it's a reminder that his body can't handle the riding style that used to take him so far. scary!

taking these two together ahahaa. this is truly the life of a sports fan huh

honestly with marc I've now swung so often and so far between 'it's so over' and 'we've never been more back' that I've gotten to an exciting point of. well. I suppose we'll have to see. I mean look, back in that jerez to catalunya stretch it did look like he might be able to be a serious title contender this season. at risk of making myself look like an idiot, I think we can pretty safely conclude that's not happening this year. but y'know, broadly what he needs to do is to figure his shit out for the rest of the year... like he kinda needs to just understand what this version of him can do under what circumstances. the thing about winning is that it's also a habit, it's something that becomes essentially muscle memory, you need to kinda have that reflexive understanding of how you've done it in the past - both in the context of races and titles. and it's still in there for him!! but he's just got to... take the rest of the season to chip away at the gap. currently, pecco and jorge don't just have the edge on him in pace, they have the edge on him in process. that's not just the bike, though it is also affected by marc being less familiar with the ducati. but pecco and jorge have just kind of gotten to the point where they know how to approach most weekends in a way where, more often or not, they will kinda maximise what was on offer for them that weekend. sometimes they chuck it down the road! but in terms of pure pace potential, right now they're getting to the point where they're there. marc is just a series of 'what ifs'. they're not all his fault, he's gotten unlucky, he's in a tough situation, he's still getting used to the new tracks on a ducati etc etc etc... but that's what this year is for. figure out the process, figure out how you actually go about getting wins in the current era - keeping your physical condition in mind - and take it from there

the physical stuff is the... yeah. the thing is, I do think he is capable of winning without all this crashing to figure out the limit. honestly, this approach of his made me deeply uneasy well well before what happened at jerez 2020. that injury and aborted comeback didn't feel like a fluke, it didn't feel like bad luck - in an awful way, it did feel like it had been a long time coming. that being said... well, y'know, marc was the only one who could win titles on the late 2010s honda, and part of the reason for that was that he figured out how to get a capricious bike just to the limit during races. you do not need to chuck the bike down the road fifty times per season to win the title on the ducati. pecco and jorge have very much shown that. sometimes it will just be dumb luck who gets injured or not! the sachsenring crash yesterday you can't really put down to marc being stupid or being irresponsible. he was hardly the only one who fell, weather conditions were tricky, shit does happen (not ideal that he tried to save the crash specifically because he knew his other bike had problems, plus the thing where he went out again before going to the medical centre, mind you). sometimes you fall a lot and you're fine, like marc for most of his prime. sometimes you crash at the start of the race and fall in front of the pack and your survival is up to fate. which is of course what happened last year to pecco, still one of the scariest crashes I've ever seen live in terms of crashes where you really do think you just got very very close to watching someone be killed in real time. this is the thing, right... at the end of the day, you can hope that marc finds an approach that relatively minimises the risk to his body - but also, you can only control so much. especially with where his body is at right now, there's only so many bad knocks you can take. you never know, you can only hope

overall, I have been thinking for a while that it's almost a bit... odd? how the physical stuff hasn't really featured at all in 2025-26 hot takes? I reckon people don't really want to think about it playing a big role, and also I suppose 'well one of them could get injured' is treated as just an underlying assumption of following motorcycle racing... but like we saw with catalunya last year, it's not just stuff that takes you out for ten races that can have big title race repercussions. especially given how marc traditionally went about winning titles, how big a part of that process it was for him. we've had such an incredible lucky streak from the start of the season until mugello that being afraid of injuries has almost... receded a little bit? in everyone's minds? after last year, in particular, where it just felt like you were always worrying about someone, it was just so relentless... and now injury worries have just come back with a vengeance these last few weeks and it is a little scary. a lot of this is scary. no real escaping it I'm afraid

but yes! anon! I agree with you! we'll get back to the smile and we'll get back to the optimism too.. at the end of the day, you can only do what you can do. we'll see what happens. if we're all massively underestimating just how much that sweet red bull cash can do and ktm comes out with a rocket ship next year and pedro wins the next ten titles, so be it. you never know

[melxted88]

[reckonslepoisson]

We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, Los Campesinos (2008)

We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed but we are, on the whole, much, much more doomed. Los Campesinos’ sophomore saw their view of the world deteriorate; their relationships all bitter and hopeless, their actions misanthropic, the futures consisting of little, if anything, to look forward to. And isn’t that like quite the same for a lot of us, really?

Pick: ‘Miserabilia’

[cinematitlecards]

"Raiders Of The Lost Ark" (1981) Directed by Steven Spielberg (Action/Adventure) . . "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom" (1984) Directed by Steven Spielberg (Action/Adventure) . . "Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade" (1989) Directed by Steven Spielberg (Action/Adventure) . . "Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull" (2008) Directed by Steven Spielberg (Action/Adventure)

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette: Revenant Awards 2008

You look out of the bunker. You see nobody.

Okay, I think they are gone now. I’m back on the surface.

THE IRON KUNG FU DOOM GUY – REVENANT AWARDS 2008 EDITION

Well, folks... We did it. 15 years of the best Doom WADs (according to Doomworld and not even all of them) reviewed. It is another big milestone, yes, but only one WAD will win one of the awards, and in this ceremony, we will be choosing four winners (not counting the ones by default).

Okay, enough of the pretentious rambling. Let’s start with the first category.

SOLE SURVIVOR – BEST ONE-MAP WAD OF THE YEAR

In this case, we have a surprise. The winner is the underdog – Escape from Castle Chezcrea. I do realize that XXXI CyberSky is a better map in almost every department, but unfortunately, that map is also a slaughter-type one, and I’m not really fond of these. At least Chezcrea is more accessible.

PUG-OF-PINK – BEST 2-7 MAPS LONG WAD OF THE YEAR

Here, though, Eternal and his WAD, Gravity, easily win. Thunderpeak has its moments, yes, and gameplay-wise is more interesting to play, but, like many other ZDoom before it, it tends to have annoying and unnecessary moments that feel questionable at best. Not to mention Gravity looking much more pleasant and original compared to the other WAD.

PLATINUM REVENANT – BEST 10-19 MAPS LONG WAD/MEGAWAD OF THE YEAR

Another category, another slam-dunk by Eternal, this time with Remain 3. It feels like a reverse situation with Sole Survivor, where one of the two WADs (in this case Deus Vult II) is better than the other one in many departments but I still prefer the other WAD because it’s not a slaughter map/WAD. In that category, Eternal’s WAD lost; in this, however, his WAD won. Even when most of the non-slaughter maps from DVII are better than in Remain 3, I would still rather play the latter.

OFF THE WALL – BEST PARTIAL/TOTAL CONVERSION OF THE YEAR

I thought it would be harder to choose the winner here, but it wasn’t that hard. Of course, I removed Eternal Doom IV and BGPA from the equation because these are just more of the stuff that I hate in their predecessors. Meanwhile, Community is Falling 3 and Cold as Hell: Special Edition might be technical marvels at the time they were originally released, but the former’s almost entirely juvenile humor and the gameplay becoming more and more annoying as you progress, and the latter’s questionable decisions with some new mechanics and changes in gameplay, soured my enthusiasm for these WADs (but at least I managed to finish Cold as Hell compared to Community 3).

And so were are now with two golden eggs – Urban Brawl and Chex Quest 3 (or Chex Quest Trilogy as I like to call the latter). One is the FPP Beat ’em Up that came out of nowhere and became an instant classic that I am appreciating more and more with each passing day; the other is basically Doom for children that even adults can enjoy.

But there is one thing in Chex Quest Trilogythat makes it better by an inch– expectations. Urban Brawl is the prequel to Action Doom, an already fun homage to Contra and similar games, so people thought they would get a fun game too after playing the previous one (and they got); Chex Quest’s concept sounds like a perfect recipe for disaster and people were expecting flop before ending up surprised that it was a high-tier quality product. That’s what makes CQ3 the winner in this category.

But you know what? There is still a part of me that badly wants to play Urban Brawl again. Even if it’s not a winner of this category, I’ll still play this when the Decade of DOOMstruction returns as an honorable mention. I seriously need to try it again to see if I’m not losing my marbles.

OTHER AWARDS

And now for the WADs that won by default. Starting with Golden Spider (best episode replacement) and its winner, Back to Basics...

sigh

This WAD is lucky there wasn’t any other episode replacement, let alone the vanilla one.

But let’s not forget about Diaz: Last Hours of Purity. I didn’t like it that much, but it still deserves an award for being a gameplay mod for Doom. And so, I’ve come up with an award for it (and the future gameplay mods as well) – Tei Tenga’s Arsenal award for the best Doom gameplay mod of the year.

cricket noises

What? I couldn’t think of a better name.

CONCLUSION

And that’s all for the 2008 roster of Doom WADs. At this point of writing, I have reached the half point in Doomworld’s yearly lists of the best WADs. And that’s in almost four years since I started reviewing these things, with shorter or longer breaks.

Speaking of breaks, I need to finally finish both the original Half-Life and its Source remake Black Mesa. It might take me less than a week; it might take more than that. It will depend on how many WADs from the next year will check out. Either way, after one day of finishing both of these, I’ll start properly looking at the 2009 WADs.

Thank you all for reading my life-coping slop. I’ll see you next time.

Bye.

[onlyhurtforaminute]

DAYLIGHT DIES-CATHEDRAL

[ozkar-krapo]

Slobodan KAJKUT

"The Compromise is not possible"

(2LP. Wire Globe / God rcds. 2008) [AT]

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Soulfly - Doom

[cowboy-tendencies]

Bleeder - True Widow