| Best Multiplayer
32in24-11: Occupy Doomworld - The 32in24 Team
I had a lot of trouble with the best multiplayer award this year, partially because I am not
much of a multiplayer Doomer, but mostly because it was hard to find something that stood out
as clearly the best amongst a pool of great options. Eventually I narrowed it down to
32in24-11 and spacedm9. Although spacedm9 has all the zany fun that we've come to expect
from the series, I found 32in24-11 to be better for one very good reason.
That reason is that 32in24-11 is one of the best overall DM wads that anyone has ever played.
All of the 45 maps (that's not a typo, I'm serious) in this set are enjoyable for play in DM,
without fail. Each and every one of them offers something worthwhile to a Doom multiplayer
connoiseur, making it excellent for continuous play on a server. This is not only the best
multiplayer wad of the year, it might be one of the best multiplayer wads ever.
Best Gameplay Mod
Brütal Doom - Sergeant Mark IV
As was noted in the intro to the awards this year, I've added a category for best gameplay mod.
For too long the gameplay modding community has been ignored in these awards, and instead of
honoring whatever wad that was meant to be intentionally funny but wasn't, this year I have the
honor of showing of something much better.
Brütal Doom turns Doom into an ultra-violent gorefest, turning your regular Doom experience into
something straight out of a horror porn film. Except this is actually enjoyable. With features
like massive gibbing, dismemberment, and headshots, Brütal Doom will let you paint any map
red with the blood of your enemies, all while carefully maintaining an excellent yet new
gameplay balance. This wad is solid proof of why a gameplay mod award has been needed all
these years.
Mordeth Award - Released project with the longest
"development time"
1994 Tune-up Community Project
- Various
It's really rather surprising that no one saw this award coming until TheMionicDonut
pointed it out in the nominations thread, but yes, the 1994 Tune-Up Community Project
actually has technically been in development for far longer than any other release this year.
With each one of its levels built upon a different map that was originally released to the public
in 1994, the year after Doom's release, 1994 Tune-Up really had this year's Mordeth award in the
bag. After 17 years of inactivity, it's about time they stopped screwing around and finished this
thing-- okay, okay, fine. I'll be serious.
1994 Tune-Up Community Project wasn't one of this year's Top 10 picks, but it was nonetheless
a frequent nominee, and from looking at some of the folks who worked on this thing that should
come as no surprise! While the mapset can be seen as something of a mixed bag (as is inevitable
with most community projects, really), there are some levels in here that were totally worth the
wait.
- Esselfortium
Mapper of the Year
Skillsaw
2011 has become colloquially known as the Year of the Megawad. We've watched as a seemingly
endless stream of high-quality releases coming out of the community in a yearlong shout of
vitality to defy all who have suggested the spark of the Doom community was finally readying
itself to burn out for good. In the past month alone, three complete high-quality one-man
megawads have been published by Valkiriforce, Jimmy, and Khorus. Even faced with such fierce
competition, one community member's work has managed to stand out above all else.
When Paul "Skillsaw" DeBruyne returned to the Doom community in 2007 after a 10-year hiatus,
he quickly got back into mapping and started gradually building his talents with a series of
impressive map releases, most of them contributions to larger projects such as Stronghold and
ZPack. In 2011, he made a name for himself with three fantastic solo releases: the
Boom-compatible map packs Vanguard and Lunatic, and the GZDoom slaughtermap Hanging Gardens.
Skillsaw's levels take influence from some of the great mappers of Doom's recent and
not-so-recent history, blend elements from each of them together with a knack for quality
and cohesion, and add plenty of his own creativity into the mix. His versatility is evident
in the range of styles and settings he's crafted, from simple little romps to psycho slaughtermaps,
lunar moon bases to tropical islands. He's even taken on deathmatch mapping this year with his
contributions to 32in24-11.
And all-importantly, his maps are just plain fun, though I'm contractually obligated
to make the shameful confession that many of his more difficult maps are a bit much for
my own level of playing skill.
In the coming year we already have more in the pipeline to look forward to from Skillsaw,
including a Community Chest 4 map (assuming Community Chest 4 is ever released, TGH) and at
least four Back to Saturn X maps (assuming Back to Saturn X is ever released, Essel).
Maybe he'll take pity someday and give one of us mere mortals a chance at Mapper of the Year
2012. In the meantime, congratulations!
-Esselfortium
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