Found a moment to sit down the other day and play this pack! No demos, unfortunately, since I usually die and reload quicksaves too often to keep restarting. I'm terrible. I did record videos with commentary, though, and I'm uploading them to Youtube to be available over the course of this week. Watch the playlist for updates:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoGPuWBXfT0fTgZmrgp6hXk4UFoWNQo_X
An apology up front to Breezeep, Bloughsburgh and NewHouse, whose maps' visuals were slightly glitched thanks to new Nvidia drivers (375.95) that apparently don't like me Alt+Tabbing in and out of fullscreen Quakespasm. I did briefly revisit all three maps at the start of Qmaster's video, just to make sure I knew what they were supposed to look like.
Breezeep:
The aforementioned glitch meant I couldn't see your flames, but I still had a ton of fun dealing with your monsters. This map was tough; I'm not sure if that's rusty skills on my part, or the seemingly high density of in your face close combat. The difficulty made it satisfying to fight through, ultimately, so no points off in my book.
Bloughsburgh:
Again I missed out on the flames, and this time upside-down! I feel so embarrassed, my apologies again for not noticing my graphics issues until after the fact. Like Breezeep's entry, though, none of it detracted from the playability of the map.
What I loved most about this was the constant feeling of being watched, the "fishbowl" approach so to speak. Always being on edge and looking over my shoulder is the best way to play Quake.
I think maybe the flashing lights were a little hard on the eyes, but then again so was E3M5, and you even included the classic secret from that same hallway, so hats off to you! Is that secret a reference to something I'm missing out on? I'm not up on the latest dank memes and such.
NewHouse:
Swimming up out of what I've decided to call a toilet is never a bad thing! Better out than in, after all. Loved your floating obelisk, and the slow wind lift is even better. I do have to say I was surprised to find grenades are also affected, and I almost blew myself up trying to kill that zombie. If there were a way to introduce that mechanic earlier I think it might be less "oh my god what have I done", but maybe that was on purpose? I certainly understand the joy of messing with players.
A curious thing, my graphics problem led to really funky looking blue flames here, which I thought fit the map pretty well. I even stumbled over some invisible enforcers, too, but there were only a handful, and they made for an unexpected challenge. Sorry for screwing up your map's presentation, but as with the previous two I don't believe I sacrificed any fun.
Qmaster:
If I'm not mistaken you said you'd made this fit in some sort of size restriction? It worked out beautifully! Tight confines, with tall, narrow walls and windows makes for a standout look that's a change of pace from the other entries.
The map is a warren of enemy nests, folded back and forth on each other, it's cozy as all hell. Having the wind pads changing their destinations based on progression through the map is even better: just disorienting enough to shake me up, but not so much as to leave me totally lost. Makes it feel like there are hidden nooks and crannies I'm walking right past but managing to miss every time.
You could use more health and ammo, maybe? I might just be a terrible Quake player, but at least the final fight with the Shambler/zombie combo was a bit touchy for me. I think I lost most of my health to Skrags, of all things, so again, I might just be out of practice.
"Shambler":
Sucking up to the Jam organizer, I know, but this was a fantastic map! Spaces just tight enough, and hordes just big enough, to make for tremendously gratifying quad-powered gibfests. And the infighting; they were tearing at each other like nobody's business, this is a perfect example of how fun it can be when a map gets chaotic. I wanted to offer more chances for gibs in my own map, but ended up going so retro as to worry about packet overflows in WinQuake, so I dropped most of that. Glad to see someone went for it.
All in all a great map, thanks for giving it to us! I was more than happy to receive.
Shamblernaut:
Oh, sure, everybody's got something to say about my textures but not a peep about BLINK BLINK BLINK BLINK with the lights. :P
This one's chambers were a bit oversized, yes, but I must admit part of my nostalgia for 90s shooters includes giant empty spaces made from simple geometry; Turok, for example. Something about huge flat walls, big rooms with few enemies, it speaks to me. Like arcane, eldritch things are secreted away behind those walls, or that the map is anticipating a need for such volumes of space, but we never get to find out why.
That rotating brush hack is incredible, I'll be looking for places to use that every chance I get.