Ruining It For Everyone Else Since 2004
Returned to the battlegrounds of Trick & Tear! Finished a couple of levels before calling it a night. I’ve spent so much time Quakeing and Castlevainiaing that I haven’t given myself time to go over this deadly wad of deadliness. As usual there are more pictures in my post over at Mastodon, or your choice of Fediverse.
I was determined to kick Dracula’s ass… and after a few hours of bitching out the screen in constant failure I succeeded! The worst part was Dracula spawning on top of me, but eventually I psyched him out until I got him to show his final form. The second part was actually pretty easy to do compared to Dracula’s teleportation bullshit at the start of the boss battle. But now I can finally say that I BEAT CASTLEVANIA!!!… and I have the achievement to prove it! Sooooo glad I could use save states.
Put a little bit of time into chipping away at Castlevania. I’m really glad they allow you to save whenever you want via the emulator, because if I played this back when it originally released I probably wouldn’t of had the patience to complete it. I had to watch a video to get some tips on how to “git gud” and it seems Holy Water is the perfect weapon. There are only 18 stages in the game, and so far I’ve made it to stage 13 before saving and calling it a night. I might consider grinding it more tomorrow, or if I’m too irritated with it switch to another Castlevania/Metroidvania. I’m so glad the newer ones have save rooms…
Returned to modded Quake and successfully finished a couple of maps in the 2019 Quake Jam. This one had all kinds of Halloween vibe, tough and fair overall. I think it’s time for me to take a break from this universe though, it has consumed my weekend and it’s time to move onto something else.
Introduced a friend to the world of Quake this evening! We made it three episodes in before calling it a night, had a fun time blowing things up and finding secrets. We played the Remastered Version just so they could get a feel for the controls. One of these days I’ll have to see how well we can co-op with mods! Speaking of…
I finished up the 2018 Halloween Jam, so it only made sense to see what the 2019 Halloween Jam had to offer. It starts off very similarly to the 2018 version, but it has even more maps. I’ve only played a few of them so far. The level design is incredible, if not even better than the previous year.
My current favorite is The Outhouse. It features a shitter that takes you to another dimension. Traverse the void and interrupt a Satanic ritual, and eventually fight the outhouse after it transforms into a demon. Amazing what people can come up with for a game that was released decades ago.
One series I need to finish is Heretic/Hexen. I always set out on an adventure, have an excellent time like I do in DOOM… and then I get distracted by other games. Every. Fucking. Time. I decided to try and find a Halloween mod, but only found an unfinished one. So here I go through vanilla again via GZDoom. I made it back to where I previously left off, and even made sure to find all the secrets I missed, so at least there was some replay value to be had.
I’m glad I stumbled upon the Quake Halloween Jam! I finished The Black Procession tonight, a map that takes place at the Church of Quake (I’ve decided). Even with these old visuals there is still something beautiful about this digital hellscape, or maybe I just like the night sky,
I only have one map left to go through, then I might have to look into the other Halloween Jams! It’s a great way to keep an old game alive! As usual, if you want to see a couple more snaps I’ve posted them over on Mastodon.
After venturing around for DOOM Halloween mods the other night I wanted to see what the Quake Community had to offer. I found the Quake Halloween Jam from 2018, which sports a total of nine spooky maps to play. So far I’m two levels through it, each level presenting a challenge even on Normal difficulty.
When you load the Halloween Jam you start off underground in a coffin, but eventually make your way to a haunted house containing large portraits on the walls that you can leap into. I played Pumpkin Grind, which lives up to its name of having lots of pumpkins and being a grind (a FUN grind!).
Then I ventured through The Four Incantations, where you have to fight off four wizards to open a seal to leave. That one also did a good job of throwing monsters at me. It gave me an excuse to download the latest vkQuake to check out. It was pretty easy to get up and running. I never really did much in the way of modding the old Quake. It was always DOOM and Quake III Arena that got my most modding attention as a kid. Better late than never I guess.
I thought about tearing back into DOOM last night, this time GZDoom! I wanted to download some Halloween themed DOOM wads. Tonight I tried Trick and Tear – a Halloween themed megawad for DOOM 2. So far I’m three levels in playing on “Hurt Me Plenty”, or as they call it in the wad “I Play With The Lights Off”. Trick and Tear features a total of nine levels by numerous authors, so far I’ve only survived through three of them.
I’m about half way through Map 3 (Rigor). Surprisingly the Revenants in the image don’t attack you! (not yet anyway). Made it to just outside where I keep getting pounded by rockets from fully functioning Revenants. I won’t lie… I’m kinda wishing I went at least one difficulty back. Some of the areas feel almost impossible to trudge through when you’re locked in an area with a sudden demon moshpit, and no wiggle room to effectively take them out. But I didn’t give up! Just took breaks whenever I got irritated enough. Think I’ve had my fill for the evening. It gave me an excuse to check out wads… it has been a good number of years since I last looked. You know a game is really good when you have people who are playing AND making mods for it decades later.
More images can be found on my Mastodon.
Quake was calling my number tonight like a good ol’ friend in need of a chat. Even managed to get a few achievements! Rare ones even! So far I’m half way through the second episode. Still finding all of the secrets, maybe I’ll finish this ep during vacay. :v