Singleplayer Favorites
1. Doom 3 Maps & Mods
2. about Quake 4 Singleplayer / Quake 4 Maps & Mods
4. Mods Quake 1, Quake 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom 2
5. Win Ports Shadow Warrior, Rise of Triad
okay, here we go.
DOOM 3
--- General
Sikkmod (2011) from Sikkpin
known graphic & gameplay mod
download
Wulfen textures pack (2011) from Wulfen
better looking texture, often used with sikkmod
download
Duct tape mod
shot and have flashlight at the same time, the original
download
--- Custom Maps
Once Upon A Time (2005) from Thomas Creutzenberg
my favorite map. good gameplay. sadly the author did only that map.
walkthrough video,
download
Urukhai (2000) from Uwe Amberger
weird abstract map
download
T-Labs Complex (2004) from Kaiser
so many ideas in it. a trilogy.
i also liked:
Endarchy (actually its a mod, good lighning, nice secrets), Mancubus (super short), The Breeding Facility (impressive graphics, good map layout)
--- Modifications
In Hell (2006) from Steve 'Doomi' Kirbst
my favorite mod. real Doom/Quake classic feeling, more monsters on the screen as D3 original, traps, diff settings. 2 endings, if you play it twice maplayout will change a bit.
trailer,
download
Desolated (2013) from
Atmo Horror with RPG influences. very diversified gameplay. buy weapons, rpg missions, monsters have other colors, fights in a train, jump stuff, good scripts. the arena place fights are influenced from "In Hell" and thats always good. their doing all what is possible today in D3. if you want it easy, slow down the time and use shotgun at near.
trailer,
download
HardQore 2 (2009) from
2D Sidescroller. there is another version for Quake 4.
download
Shambler's Castle (2007) from
short mod, Doom 3 goes Quake 1
download
other big mods: The Dark Mod (2009), Ruiner (2010), Hexen: Edge of Chaos (2010)
they are objectively well made but not my taste
Phobos
not released, people waiting for this for years
homepage,
moddb
QUAKE 4
a few months back i looked closer into Quake 4 singleplayer, because the release of "False Dawn" mod for me was so impressive.
Quake 4 singleplayer boxversion is fun, a good game. else i wouldnt write this down. But Raven did to much uninspired frontal attacks. mapdesign was linear, sometimes 2 doors in front of the player but only one door was right away to open. there was only minimal backtracking. Raven could done better thats for sure. i say this with the look from 2014 on it and with the complex leveldesign of Doom classic in mind. on one map, in the sewers, there was this old Doom classic joke, the players sees the exit from the start point.
models & animations, doors, doorframes and pillars look amazingly detailed still today (with custom resolution). doors & pillars are kind of basic gameplay elements from Doom classic. crouch & strafejump is limited in sp in comparison to the multiplayer. feels strange but works.
there is little known about Ravens development. id Software said only, the engine was already there so Raven could work on Bot AI and Buddy System. Raven said recently* the game was planned only for pc, but in the middle of development id wanted a parallel version for x360. At that time the x360 console wasnt released yet. i did speculations what that meant, probably time pressure, game console mapdesign influence.
*from minute 40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu7pnvgnG6g
beautyful models
if you wanna see the models in silence nearby, 'devmap game' or 'map game/', press tab to chose a map. 'god', 'give all'. 'spawn monster_" and press tab to chose a model. 'notarget' to make them blind/def so they stand still.
advanced engine
every time i see the big marine ship to land i must laugh, because this is clearly a demonstration of new outdoor function, wider, longer, higher open areas in the engine. i see it before my eyes that id said to Raven, do this big landing ship, we need this for a trailer. at gamestart you see the high front fassade of the station, Doom3 couldnt do this. if you play Q4 again, try to look up sometimes to see the very high ceelings.
pixel detection damage hitzones
this is singleplayer only. it is all known since the ucguide. but i wanted to feel and see it for myself. i did do shoot tests and counted the shots. and looked up the def files in the pak files for info.
zones are head, torso/arms, legs. plus the factors zoom and metal-or-flesh system.
headshot makes better damage. zoom in general makes very slightly more damage, and help to reduce the mg spread. zoom on head makes the most.
conclusion. do headshots if you like. do zooming with mg/rail but dont ecspect to "feel" more damage. forget the metal-or-flesh system. or just hit the model anywhere that works good too :D
metal-or-flesh system
i could say something about the metal-or-flesh system. stroggs have either metal/armor plates or open flesh on the three zones, but the damage difference is not wide. in theory this is a nice idea, but a) not much difference b) in a fight there is not much time to search the flesh c) even if the model stands still while zooming im not all the time sure what is metal and what is flesh d) the hit sounds & visual hits are alternating (metallic pling tone, no tone) (blood, no bood) if i shoot at the same point. this doesnt help to hit the flesh. it gets weirder, some strogg heads have 1 part metal and one part flesh. all in all its like play lotto to hit the flesh.
i made pics, cant find them, in the meantime this
Machinegun on Berserker, g_skill 2, solo shots until frag
model stands still with 'notarget'. shots on berserker nearby, because in the distance the mg has spread. with zoom there is no spread.
-----------without Zoom---|-----Zoom
-----------Metal---Flesh---|---Metal--Flesh
Head*----14-------12-----------11------9
Torso-----28-------25-----------21----18
Legs------35-------35-----------28----28
*Berserker head is split, low head is made out of metal, upper head has flesh
bugs
i started to fiddled around with cvars in the console and from that point on the game wasnt stable anymore, it sometimes randomly crashed.
there is a low textures bug that happens sometimes, if you start a map in Q4 you will see it right away. ugly washed out textures. i did solve it, i used a config against that, but now cant find the config. so if that bug happens, try to change the texture quality via menu (for example from ultra to high) and do a vid_restart. it has to do with autodetection settings i think.
---
played all Maps & Mods
i played all custom content i could find in 2014, around 20 mods & maps. thats not much in comparison to all doom3 modding. i guess most doom 3 modders did work on their unfinished big projects, over long years, so there werent much people left that did quake 4 singleplayer content. this and of course the quake manpower did go into the multiplayer mods/maps. to be honest i wasnt aware until now there is even sp custom content. this was fun, download it all, tried it without to read about it.
--- General
Quake 4 Envolved (2008) from Fatal_Impurity
graphic mod. Bloom, Paralax Mapping, Specular Mapping, Self Shadows, Enhanced Shaders and Reflections, Enhanced Detail Terrain and Bumpmaps. undocumented changes like more blood. under settings/evolve you find 5 more settings. does less than sikkmod but for the age it is okay. i guess today everybody will use sikkmod, including me.
download
Sikkmod (2011) from Sikkpin
Bloom, Color Grading, Film Grain, Vignetting Post Processing, Kanten Schärfung, HDR, Dither, Ambient Light, Explosion Effekte, Blood Spray. for SSAO and Motion Blur look into readme. advanced gameplay options with Health Regeneration, Quake 2 Player Physik, longer crouch time is automatically activated.
download
some people use sikkmod with Parallax Mapping Engine 2.0 (2007) which should make bump mapping better. i was so happy with sikkmod that i didnt try out the parallax mod.
with sikkmod the game is a bit darker. and monsters left items after frag, i couldnt find the cvar to deactivate it, someone told me
how to deactivate it. but no common player will go to def files in the game pak.
--- Custom Maps & Mods
in my opinion, and that validates for all Q4 sp custom content, dont expect the uber quality of Doom 3 modding. it never reached that level.
these two are the highpeak of custom content
False Down (2014) from Little Gears
nice graphics and light, speaker with humor, integrated sikkmod, good place fights, duration 1-2 hours.
download
Use Destruction (2008) from Tombery
Team Action, surprises, good leveldesign and enemy positions, map1 has a cool war atmo at begin, good endfight.
download
---
also fun
AI Warzone (2005) from
the player looks from above on a battlefield and sees the default Q4 AI fight each other. will stroggs or marines win? lol.
download
Control Network (2011) from
short map, surprises. the two bots besides me did died fast but didnt matter.
download
Devils Waitin (2007) from Lukin
short map, nice intro.
download
HardQore (2007) from Atomic Armadillo
2d sidescroller.
download
Strombine (2007) from Lunaran
test map, scripts & textures have a HL2 feeling. if you are stuck, watch youtube walkthrough.
download
Stroggs Revenge (2013) from Benpulido
author did two other mapsets, The Evil & Hell Violence. this mapset is not finished but was better than the other two. his style is not for everyone. he does basic combat in basic tubes and boxed rooms (arena), for some people this is just poor mapdesign/enemy positions - but i get what he wants. after the doctor i cant come further (map broken?), also kane is missing i think its possible he felt into the lava (lol).
download
---
average:
Empire Strogg (2008), Frontline (2006), Guridian Beta 2 (2009), Ubilitus (2007)
bad:
Cold Steel (2006), Clone Wars (2008), Megatexture (2006)
nothing:
Base, Gladiator, Zombietown Beta
Stargate Mod (2011)
unfinished, only fragments exists, not tried
Strogg Universe (2013)
kind of broken and buggy in singleplayer, for multiplayer i was too late. a big size mod, i saw only 1 ugly map. maybe i try it again, i mean what is inside in such a big file?
Ubilitus
im not 100% sure with this. there is much effort in it, technically its done nice, but the gameplay tries hard to copy the maingame and the enemy positions were boring.
-----
Remakes
Doom Reborn (2014) / Classic Doom 3 (2007)
i find the classic Doom remakes for D3 just boring to play. felt not right. try it out yourself.
Q2 Episode 1 (2010)
Q2 remake for Q4 is better
Quake II: Lost Marine (2005)
and the Q2 remake for D3 is much better, is technically nice and i was impressed that it was so old. the maplayout was slightly different than Q2. water and bodies on the water. funny how different these last two mods are in comparison.
----
Outstanding Singleplayer Mods
from Quake 1, Quake 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom 2
(i wrote about them at release & after playthrough. but the description here will get short because my website is down atm, cant look it up, so from memory only)
QUAKE 1
Remake Quake (2011) from RQM team
modernised Q1 (RMQ). a demo with a few maps. nice textures, hud, good ideas like a walkable wodden ship floats in the sky. i liked it a lot, for me it was just a good mapset. Q1 fundamentalists didnt like the modern touch. make your opinion. these "direction fights" between vanilla/modern are common in all mod communities, this is also the case in Doom classic mapping (vanilla-boom format vs unlimited zdoom format).
website,
download
Retro Blazer (2012) from Amil Parra
oldschool fps game with many game citates. demo with a few maps. colorful, fast, arcade music. dodging comes first. based on Q1 Darkplace Engine.
website,
news
QUAKE 2
Slight Mechanical Destruction (2013) from Musashi
i think it was a big map. nice graphics, good layout & scripting. didnt know what was possible in Q2.
download
DUKE NUKEM 3D
Duke Nukem Forever Mod (2013) from Gambini & Mikko Sandt
the devs built up scenes from old DNF trailers and material. a few levels, fun to play. script wonder, ride on a motorcycle and a donkey, terminators awake - known settings from the old trailers like hollywood and western. i read about it that they did impressive things with the engine. a addon from other devs was later released but sadly i didnt play it. based on the engine client Eduke32.
download
many game news sites wrote about the mod release - for most of them it was only a story that contained the name Duke Nukem in it. I doubt that most writers really played it, but they should. the mod advertising (pics, texts, trailer) was funny, like "this is the real Duke Nukem Forever, better than the shit DNF game", and if you google today Duke Nukem Forever you sometimes find this mod :D a wonder that gearbox didnt sue them. i think the advertise was a bit over the top, because this layed weight of expectation on the mod. also the commercial game and this are two pairs of shoes, you cant compare them really.
trailer lol
DOOM 2
Not easy for me to recommend a few maps or mods, because i know so many good stuff. a good beginning would be the commercial Plutonia Experiment (harder gameplay, is part of Final Doom), Master Levels (different playstyles, like riddle maps), many old community gems from 1994-1997, Hell Revealed (top gameplay), new stuff. but if i need to chose one project for old and new players i would go with
Pirate Doom (2013) from Arch
this changes the look of Doom and plays with the pirate theme. Pinky Pirates, parrot rockets (Serious Sam). textures look like in monkey island, crooked wodden. pirates music. its no secrets that some content was ripped out of older pirate games. we have many game citates, humor, nice levels, good graphics (due to GZDoom), good scripts, ghosts. various locations: underwater with a luigis mansion ghost feel, labyrinth, ship, castle, sewer fabric, circus, bar etc. in the sewer level i got a bioshock1 feel. gameplay is also nice. it just creates atmosphere. so this is a win even for non Doom players. it shows what a limitless Doom can be. you need client GZDoom to play.
GZDoom,
download
---
if you want to play these old dos games again, use the following win source ports
SHADOW WARRIOR
my biggest enemy in the game was a passage in the mountains with wild bees. the world of shadow warrior is deadly as fuck, all things are after you, a misstep and your dead.
Shadow Warrior Classic Redux (2013) by General Arcade
maingame plus two worthy addons. i read the third unfinished addon is lost. two source ports from community were released before this port. but they werent perfect. the port from GA is the best you can get. higher resolution, wide screen support, weird mouse feel of the original is reduced. they added also a new startscreen, sharper font & hud. you can get a glimpse of the artwork in the Shadow Warrior iOS free demo app over itunes.
over steam
RISE OF THE TRIAD
the game got forgotten because Doom stole the show. its a mix of a fps game from tom hall. good music, traps&riddles, secrets, nice maplayout, plus strange things in it. its safe to say the mp weapon is overpowered. really impressive that this is based on wolf3d engine, more advanced. fog, bulletholes, breakable glass, room over room mapping which Doom hadnt. i watched the begin of a
video walkthrough, the guy told some inner works of the game which i wasnt aware, like that enemys spawn randomly at mapstart.
WinROTT from Birger
i bought the original game over steam, in the apogee pack. but the dos emulator version was unplayable for. the resolution hurt my eyes, pixel salad, i couldnt see anything, and there was this strange look up/look down. so i searched for a good source port to higher the resolution. i remember i found this website of WinROTT, chaotic site. but the port was good. right now im not sure if i used WinROTT or WinROTTgl. i think the picture ingame looked smooth filtered, so i guess it was GL graphics. could be that the port had free mouse/save function. anyway, the port had to offer many new settings via menu over the orginal.
website
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