I was just looking through the latest shots in Doomworld's "Post your Doom picture"-thread and spotted something that was definitely worth sharing to you. The screenshot is from Ed's latest work in progress for GZDoom and is totally mindblowing.

Ed says: "Skybox is one of my favorite parts. The mountain range is md2 geometry / skin. I had my doubts about how that would come out, but I think it works well. The sun is a stack of additive / normal lights. It also has a scrolling 3d under layer of clouds that when under the outer sunrays (normal light source) the under layer lights up, but drowns out the additive sphere. It's a really cool effect! The really tall building is actually a 1024x384 mid-texture. It's pegged to the floor about 512 units and pierces the sky at 640. 240kb is a cheap price for a nice background piece."

More screens can be found in the apropriate thread. Let's simply hope that this doesn't take forever, people might be already very keen on the wad now.

Over at Doomworld, the latest /newstuff Chronicles has been published. It features the usual gap between quality stuff and random not-so-quality releases from the past few weeks, but it's worth reading anyway. The most interesting wad featured is definitely dutchdevil's Riot Control, a 4 map wad using Quake textures and TNT music with challenging gameplay and a superb look, just as usual from this mapper. Another thing that's worth playing is definitely the 32in24 single player edition with numerous maps done in just 24 hours. Check it out!

Base Ganymede : Complete by Khorus has just been released and it's a blast! The 3 episode vanilla megawad for Doom 1 contains a total of 27 maps, set on one of Jupiter's moons called Ganymede. Each episode has it's own progression rather than the usual one, so you can actually expect a lot of different settings. The mappack itself feels and plays very classic, so if you are into that kind of projects you will definitely love it. You can download the full wad from the /idgames archives. Enjoy!

What more testament does Doom need to show that it has withstood the test of time? We all know it's a great game, fun and enjoyable, and easy to modify, with a dedicated community that is 18 years strong. Not to mention all the "Top 100 Games of All Time" lists that are sure to have Doom noted on there, but why not make it official?

Well the Smithsonian American Art Museum has done just that for a upcoming Video Game Exhibition that will be held. Possibly through popular vote or formula, Doom 2 won out among the many other action genre video games on the DOS/Windows platform for the "Era 4" section of the exhibition. You can check out all the winning games in their eras and categories here if you're curious, or skip straight to the page in question and see for yourself.

One of the past years greatest mapsets has been definitely Brotherhood of the Ruin (original download) by Kristian Aro. Many of us have been desperately waiting for a sequel to this - and damn, today is your lucky today - The Lost Temple has just been announced. It's currently under heavy development and it will definitely take some time until it's released but you can follow Kris' progress in the official Doomworld thread, take a look at some screenshots and also get an idea what you can expect.

Some of you still remember Powerslave? This old unfinished game based on the Build Engine? Well, we have a good chance that after several years it finally gets released in a certain way - and on a good and modern engine called GZDoom. I just spotted this on the ZDoom forums where you can find further screenshots and a download link to the first alpha version. It's quite promising and already delivers a good mixture between Doom and Powerslave with a very egyptian nice atmosphere. Try it and give the mapper some feedback, Jaegerman45 will be happy, I'm sure.

Just spotted over at Doomworld.com that nicolas monti released his new megawad Eviltech the the public. It's a total of 34 boom compatible maps that vary a lot in style and theme but mostly are themed tech bases with a few exceptions that feel more like the shores of hell, some city themed ones and even some Doom2-inspired tech maps. Overall you will get a nice mix of various stuff that keeps you busy for a while. For my personal opinion, the map set feels a lot like a mix between Doom and Doom 2 with this special '96 feeling - which is actually not a bad thing. Do not expect a lot of fancy new stuff and features but a solid classic experience that's worth playing. Screenshots, information and a download link can be found here.

Just spotted over at Doomworld that the latest version of the Eternity Engine has released around Christmas. There is a long list of changes with numerous improvements, fixes and new features that are worth checking out - not only in a player's perspective. This update also features some EDF improvements, some more steps toward Hexen support, various bug fixes, further improvements to compatibility, and even more speed optimizations. Downloads, more information, and a full readme text can be found in the release thread in the Eternity subforum, just as usual. And if you are too keen to wait, just pick v3.40.20 "Mjolnir" here. Might be a good moment to play the Vaporware demo again...

Ever heard of Kinsie? If not, you definitely should have as he is one of the artists who is responsible for crazy and different mod ideas from the past few years, e.g. "Night of the homeless" or "Truckosaur" to mention two of them. The former one has finally got its sequel - but expect more than just a flat-out sequel

"Each game is divided into five sixty-second rounds. In between each round, this slot machine in your HUD activates, changing the rules set for the next round. One minute you're rolling around in an absurdly large tank crushing Hell Knights beneath your treads without a care in the world, the next you're desperately fleeing at half speed while firing Wolfenstein weapons futilely at an invulnerable hellbeast, then the next you're flying around lobbing petrol bombs at Imps. The choice isn't yours, it's all up to chance and a cruel, unforgiving RNG. And if you survive all five rounds...?"

A gameplay video as well as further information, screenshots and a download link can be found over at ZDoom.org in the development thread. Reelism is something that you will like or hate... well, I like it!