I imagine the first thing most level designers do when firing up a new tool is to try and recreate their own homes. After all, it’s a pretty immediate, familiar space to try and get to grips with. But in what’s sure to already be knowledge to some folk, it seems Doom II shipped with a fairly accurate rendition of developer Sandy Peterson’s home, with the venerable designer this week taking us on a tour through both the real-world and “Hell On Earth” versions of his abode.

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Have you played Quake? If you have you’ll, like me, probably have wondered why Episodes 2 and 3 don’t end with a boss fight. This week, former Id designer Sandy Petersen explained some of the hacks he and American McGee tried bashing together to fill those boss-shaped holes, from a tower-block sized rotter to a giant grotesque spiderthing wot would’ve chased you around the entire map.

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Quake

‘s a gritty fast-paced shooter where you dance around enemies and splatter them with beefy guns. Modder “Redfield” clearly thought, “But what if I inject some Bloodborne into it?”, and so Raven Keep was born. It’s a mod which throws players into a gothic castle where “Old Ones” (sound familiar?) have left some spooky chalices behind. To uncover their mystery, we’ll have to blast knights, ghosts, and even some bosses straight from Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Count me in.

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Microsoft are buying Bethesda

, or rather their parent company ZeniMax Media. Like a nesting doll, Bethesda themselves are the parents of yet other game studios that Microsoft will also own. What of, say, Id Software? One of Id’s co-founders John Carmack reckons that the Bethesda buyout is a good thing. He says that the new Microsoft ownership could allow him to “reengage” with his old work.

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Update: Microsoft say they’ll “keep the commitment” to bring Bethesda’s Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo to PS5 as timed exclusives. More below.>

Microsoft just announced they’ve bought ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda. The developers of games such as Skyrim, Fallout, Dishonored, Prey, Doom, Quake and all those classics are now technically Xbox Game Studios. Xbox boss Phil Spencer made a post welcoming the developers, in what he calls a “landmark step” for both Microsoft and Bethesda.

What a year.

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If you fancy rocking out to a little bit of Quake, the game’s original soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails is available to buy on vinyl now. It’s the hot record for 2020, featuring aptly named tracks like “Life”, “Damnation” and “Aftermath”. Oh and “Quake Theme”, I guess.

When the listing for the record went up yesterday, a cheeky note said that it was supposed to come with essays from former Id Software devs John Carmack and American McGee. Alas, an “unnamed video game publisher made it impossible to include this in the package”. I wonder who it could be?

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Have you played Quake? The eldritch lords at RPS HQ don’t let me write HYP posts, of course, but I thought I’d ask anyway. See, it’s QuakeCon At Home this weekend, and Bethesda are giving away a seminal piece of shooter history – and every character in its arena-blasting descendant Quake Champions – for free ’til the end of tomorrow.

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QuakeCon At Home is live this weekend on Twitch, though it really should be called BethFest when you look at the schedule. The event has moved wholly online thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the rescheduled celebration of id’s and Bethesda’s games has an intriguing schedule. Here are a few of the highlights.

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If you’re anything like me, you’re currently going through some intense Animal Crossing: New Horizons FOMO. These sort of lifestyle sims aren’t for me, but I’ll admit – watching my mutuals posting their island adventures non-stop has me a little jealous. Where’s my> Tanuki landlord? Why can’t I have a best friend who is also a dog? For the Doom marine, the latter is only a download away, thanks to a new mod for Doom II that lets Animal Crossing’s Isabelle join you for some righteous bloodshed against the legions of hell.

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There’s only a few weeks left in 2019, and we’re fast approaching this year’s Cacowards, Doomworld’s annual community awards, so it feels only right to see what’s been going on in the classic Doom modding scene these past few months.

I’m beating the Cacowards to the punch, really, and giving you a handful of choice picks to get your teeth into early. We’ve got Doom 4 for DOS, eldritch weirdness, shareware era nostalgia, a crossover with Blood, and an all-you-can-eat buffet of around 2700 levels for the Doomer who can never have too much.

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