This is one of the most historic events of all time for any of us Doomers: John Romero released a new map for Doom after being absent for 21 years, actually his own replacement of E1M8 for "Knee-Deep in the Dead" (Sandy did the original one that we all know). This is what John says about what to expect:

After exiting the Computer Station you knew the worst was up ahead. You still hadn't reached the place where the demons were coming from. The steel door shuts behind you as you realize you're there; you're at the Phobos Anomaly. Cracks from hell are all over the place as seepage from the portal invades the entire installation. Now it's time to find the portal and stop the demons from coming through. You know UAC had hundreds of scientists working at a high-tech lab somewhere in this area, and the portal must be connected to it somehow. Time to lock and load.

So check the Doomworld thread for a download and enjoy the master's creation, I doubt that this will happen again anytime soon.

Welcome to this special Saturday edition of Realm667 News! Why is that, you say? Well, simple! Glorious leader of pure ACS (and soon ZScript) fun and Eternal internet whiner Kinsie (Together with The Shadsy) revealed Reelism 2. Almost half a decade later and nine years since the original launched are they back with one of the more popular and famous modifications in the Doom community and beyond. Embracing the move from ACS to ZScript where possible, Reelism 2 promises the same hilarity of the original + more.

If you never played the original Reelism, here's how it works: It's basically an arcade survival mode where gameplay is split into five sixty-second rounds. At the start of each round, three modifiers on a slot-machine style display are re-rolled, changing gameplay rules and what weapons and monsters spawn. Some of these are fairly normal, like, say, "explosive weapons" or "Imps and their many variants". Some are quite a bit less normal, like "drive an invulnerable tank", "swarms of the dogs from Wolfenstein 3D" or "shrink to the size of a Pinky's toe". If, after five of these rounds, you've somehow managed to stay alive, a strange and wacky boss will swing by to finish you off. Defeat the boss to achieve victory! Alternatively, die hilariously and vow to get a higher score next time!

Reelism 2 is still heavily in progress since the vast amount of mechanics is being rewritten. However, with the legacy of the original being the catalyst for this sequel, it is clear that Reelism 2 will deliver. I mean, you can dunk on dogs with a basketball and attempt to eat a salty dog flask (???). All in all, in Reelism 2, canines aren't a Marine's Best Friend. ;)

Korax Mod 5.0 is available for download from SourceForge and ModDB. Released in June 2001, Korax Mod 1.0 was the first ever Hexen gameplay mod. Throughout the next few months and years, it introduced a slew of new RPG features: experience and leveling, customizing your character during creation, new weapons and spells, monsters dropping silver and gold bars, buying and selling items at shops, special "damage skin" sprite sets to make it clearly visible a monster is badly hurt...

Today, the same team is raising the bar once more with the release of Korax Mod 5:

• Introducing an RPG complexity setting that allows the player to mold the game to his personal playstyle, from a complex RPG system to a near-FPS setup that feels a lot more like Heretic's fast-paced gameplay than the classic Hexen shuffle.
• Shortcuts: breaking up the linear monotony and the frustration of the tedious search for the last hidden puzzle switch - now you need to solve less than half of a hub's puzzles to be able to proceed to the next hub (but you might want to linger for the experience and loot).
• "Pistol Starts": built-in support for warping to the beginning of any hub and receiving weapons and armor automatically so you have an actual chance of beating the game from that point without using any cheats.
• Vastly expanded bestiary: not only are there a few completely new enemies and many new types of existing monsters, even the "classic" ones might surprise you by dodging your attacks, running away when low on health, closing large distances with a single leap, and generally finding ways to move around the map and reappear behind your back.
• Defeating Korax wasn't a solo effort: embark upon this epic adventure with a supporting cast of merchants and craftsmen, as well as two sidekicks that will race you to kill the most monsters in the area they stake out.
• A large arsenal of new weapons and spells; custom armor with resistance gems.
• Designed to support custom maps and mods out of the box: create your own mini-RPG using a large number of new items, weapons and spells, as well as NPCs with pre-configured conversation scripts offering all basic services. Korax Mod is distributed with a Developer's Reference Guide containing detailed instructions on how to create and distribute your maps and mods.

Korax Mod v5.2 is now available on SourceForge and ModDB. Version 1.0, the first ever gameplay mod for Hexen, was released exactly twenty years ago on June 14, 2001. To celebrate this occasion, a special 20th Anniversary Edition has been released today that includes a unique in-game menu called "Anniversary Extras", containing a short history of Korax Mod, a long-lost interview, and player feedback from the early years.

Improvements and fixes:

• The inventory and spellstrip movement bug has been finally fixed
• When RPG Complexity is set to Off, instead of the useless weight/hunger/fatigue indicators a new overlay is shown, displaying the current values of all six D&D abilities
• Healing prayer now doesn't deduct Faith if the player is at full health
• Create Mana cantrip now doesn't deduct Magic if the player has full mana stores
• The default roll is now more suitable for the early game
• Feedback messages for class abilities are now always displayed in the top left corner
• All class abilities now respect the sound setting
• Improved the behaviour of the gimme cheats for gaining levels and acquiring all class abilities

Killing pixelated nazis never seems to get old. Since the good old days of the original Wolfenstein 3D on DOS, passing through all the great WolfenDoom mods that have spawned every since, here we have Kriegsland II - Untergrund.

Made by GAA1992, that's a sequel to Kriegsland: Blutorden, a well received WW2/Wolfenstein themed mod. In Kriegsland II, you'll see a very different take from the first, ranging for a more complete (but not boring) gameplay. Forest Tyler (the mod's protagonist) has many tricks out-of-the-box, partially thanks to his glasses that grant a nice HUD, Nightvision and zooming view! While this mod does not have the astonishing laser effects, dozens of weapons, cross akimbos (YET), sliding and spetacular effects from the first, you'll notice that weapons are far more simple, more effective, more satisfying to shoot, game looks more beautiful in general. 

The mod also has a lore attached to it, set in an alternate reality where nazis won the second world war - just like in Wolfenstein: The New Order. You must fight against nazis in K2's own version of the 80' which is pretty much a sci-fi setting. 

You can check this and much more at the official Kriegsland II - Untergrund thread at ZDoom.org.

Though it were a Christmas release, we are saving this for the last day of this year. Map crafters usually make use of Doom Builder 2 or, if needed, GZDoom Builder. However, the latter has been discontinued for a few years now, and most mappers tend to use GZDoom Builder-Bugfix instead. This is a joint effort lead by author ZZYZX. Over time, the effort developed from a mere bugfix branch to host completely new features. So much so, that ZZYZX discontinued GZDB-Bugfix and instead announced a new builder. Enter Ultimate Doom Builder (UDB).

Ultimate Doom Builder comes with a slew of new features compared to ye olde GZDoom Builder:

• All the features of the original GZDB!
• ZScript support
• Visual attenuated lights support
• Visual spotlights support
• Doom 64 sector lighting support
• Various bugfixes (e.g. dynamic lights properly render on middle textures, dynamic light intensive maps work better, less crashes)
• Various performance optimizations by anotak
• Native 64-bit version implemented by StrikerMan780
• Better Linux compatibility implemented by dpJudas & Talon1024
• 3D mode performance improvements by dpJudas

As such, UDB is a significant stepping stone in the world of Doom level editing. But with new features come new requirements.They are as follows:

• 2.4 GHz CPU or faster (multi-core recommended)
• Windows 7, 8 or 10
• Graphics card with OpenGL 3.3 support
  Beware: this requirement is new! If GZDB-BF works for you, UDB may not.
  But, if latest GZDoom works for you in 3D mode, UDB will, too.
  Because of this, GZDB-BF will not automatically update to UDB.

The release of UDB marks the end of another Hellish year in Doom. Since this is posted on the 31st, allow me, on behalf of the entire Realm667 Team, to wish you all a HISSY NEW YEAR AND A SAFE AND FRAGTASTIC 2020.