Map Battle 25 'Something's Not Right' - Vote & Final Images

[Wasabi]

I just love Dark Soul's combination of lighting, displacements and dust. It's simply awesome.

[dissonance]

alphakennyone made me shit bricks.

[Dark soul]

Thanks Wasabi and who ever else voted for me.

It was a tie for me between Cremator and PaulH but I had to pick Cremator because of his use of custom content.

[JLea]

Deathmonkey!

[Grudge]

Oh god it's a fight between Cremator and PaulH. This is intense muck.

[LEEE]

PaulH

[Mess]

Protostar wins for me. He's the only entry that actually fits the theme.

[BaRRaKID]

I'd like to make small reviews of some of the maps that got my attention before saying who my vote goes to:

Kremator - Was the only map that really captured the "something's not right" theme, in a twisted almost pedophilic kind of way. The only downside for me is the light, although i understand that you wanted to give attention to that particular part of the scene, i think it toke away some quality from the map by hiding some nice details that you had in the background, it also looks a but too saturated, but that's just how your style is

Deathmonkey - I always liked your maps, but this one didn't quite do it for me. It lacked some color contrast (and again i understand this was intentional) which made the quality of the textures go unnoticed. It's also a bit too simplistic, since it's basically just one room. I think the problem is that I've seen what you're capable of doing, and this map is not at the same level as your other work in my opinion.

Dark Soul - The light is amazing in this map, some of the best I've seen, but the theme is a bit to generic and unoriginal. I advise you to next time choose a theme that can give you more freedom and allows your imagination to go wild.

Mr. Happy - Original idea, more or less well executed, but lacked a 3d skybox to give it some depth. That's all I've to say

Killa-cow - I really really loved the textures, light and color contrast, but there's not much to see. If you had elaborated a bit my vote would probably go to you.

The Maker - WOO! Really nice map, the depth, scale, the sky, the fog, the lights and color contrast, everything fits perfectly, this is perfectly executed. The problem is i don't know where this fits with the theme, i really don't get the "something's not right" feeling by looking at that image, maybe if you had added another screenshot it would show more clearly.

PaulH - You know i love your work, and it's amazing to see how much you've improved since the first map battle you entered. About this map in particular, I've read a post in another forum of you explaining more or less how you made the map, and you really used some clever tricks to make this work. The explosion is perfect, and the "composition" of the screenshots make you stand out from the rest. The only problem i see here is that the buildings in the background look flat, i know why that is and it was a choice you had to make to accomplish your vision, but it didn't worked that well.

Zipfinator - It is a nice, and maybe a bit controversial, idea. Your explosion looks great, but PaulH's one is even better, so that puts him one point in front of you. The towers also look great, altough they are a bit too far away to really notice the details.
The major problem I've with your map is that everything looks like it was modeled in a 3D application (tell me if I'm wrong) instead of being done in hammer, which for me is a big downside. This could have worked well if you had added more depth to the textures of the buildings to make them look less flat (by adding a normal map), since this makes your buildings look like just a bunch of boxes spread around the map instead of real buildings. You could had also improved the light by adding small light details to the buildings (all the windows are black!) to make them more distinct.

Taking all this in consideration my vote goes to PaulH

[Habboi]

I think I know what's not right in Cremator's. There's four letter cubes that I think spell "lood" so it's missing a "B". Now that's freaky

[KILLA-COW]

In The_Makers there is a hunter on the roof. You just have to look really carefully, I had to get it pointed out to me.

[Clocked]

Lots of amazing entries

Really glad I tried this, it's allowed me to improve my lighting skills by a lot, my scene has changed quite a bit from my original idea though maybe if we get another map battle with a theme that I can fit it into I'll try the original idea.

[Grudge]

Map Battles are perfect for mappers who want to explore their skills and find a cure for the itch of wanting to map, but have no idea what to make. I will hopefully be in the next battle so I can find a remedy for my mapping need.

[Prototstar]

I noticed there a guy sitting upside down on the ceiling in Mak's entry.

Good job everyone! Glad to see a lot of people participate in this battle.

[Simon]

I voted for PaulH as I think he deserves to win just a tiny little more than Cremator both good entries though. Alphakennyone was my second choice.

[Kremator]

I think I know what's not right in Cremator's. There's four letter cubes that I think spell "lood" so it's missing a "B". Now that's freaky

Actually it's "LOST", to signify innocence lost, the painting up above the rabbit is by Edgar Degas called "The Interior" but also its more infamous name, "The Rape".