I decided to review most of the maps released this week.
System: 1/10: lameass box 2, 2/10: A box, a normal AI varient, 3/10: A box with stuff in it, 4/10: A box with stuff in it that is textured OR a un-textured hightmaped level, 5/10: A hightmapped level, 6/10: A hightmapped level with a bit of effort put it, 7/10: A good hightmapped level, or a lower-level non-hightmapped level, 8/10: An averadge non-hightmapped level, 9/10: A good non-hightmapped level, 10/10: Yoyorast Island

I also decided to remove points if the map contains a lot of plagiarism (3 or more tags, -2, also if tag is uploaded to site no point docking unless specified in the tag readme, and it is 2/10 if over 10 plagiarized tags appear), or if it is a mod of a non-bungie map without credit to original map maker (-3 or down to 2/10).
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SandStorm
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4126
My Rating: 5/10
Recommended: No
About: Ok, so, nothing custom here but a hightmapped level. Texturing and UVW mapping is poor. The map is big and uses only tags found on the site or included in HEK.
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Observatory
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pg=3&fid=4125
My Rating: 7.5/10
Recommended: In between if you have time and yes
About: Still no custom tags (except some lazor i can't find :V), but that doesn't detract here. It isn't bad, but the terrain... needs some work. A lot. There also are obvious errors which make me think the map was rushed. The UVW mapping and texturing wasn't horrible, but it is where most of the errors take place. This map maker shows promise, and I'm looking forward to his future releases.
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Night Time Motel
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4124
My Rating: 2/10
Recommended: No
About: Contains plagiarism
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Mission Beavercreek
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4123
My Rating: 6.6/10
Recommended: If you have time
About: No cutscenes. That is a big problem there. They also used an anti-cheat script and it is too hard for my bad playing skills. The scripting and stuff such as that isn't bad, but could use a bit of work. At least it's a SP level, and I always tend to like those.
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Modern Warefare V2
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4122
My Rating: 2/10
Recommended: Heck no!
About: Bloodgulch AI mod.
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Metroid Processing Plant
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4121
My Rating:2/10
Recommended: No
About: Contains plagiarism
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Labs
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4120
My Rating: 8.7/10
Recommended: Yes
About: A nice map. Best one out this week (besides that one only on modacity). There are nice lighting effects and texturing, and classic weapons. The coolest thing is, the flood AI trapped behind glass. All over the level. Not only is that cool, but it has a problem: when a carrier form explodes, infection forms can escape from the glass. But even with the bug, it is a nice map.
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Isle
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pg=3&fid=4119
My Rating: 4.8/10
Recommended: No
About: Dark. It's so dark you can't tell it's a hightmapped level while ingame.
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HT Ground
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4117
My Rating: 6/10
Recommended: No
About: It is hightmapped. But, he actually moved the vertexes on the cliffs to make them look better. That and the bad extrude bases upped it to a 6 from a 5. I like it when people make thier own bases no matter how much worse they look then the ones on halomaps, as it shows that they have more modeling skills than just highmaps.
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Castle Island
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4113
My Rating: 2/10
Recommended: No
About: Contains plagiarism
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Bad Dreams pt2
Link: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4112
My Rating: 2/10
Recommended: No
About: Contains plagiarism

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Non-Halomaps Releases
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DMT-Broken Indigo
Link: http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?t=12348
My Rating: 9.2/10
Recommended: Heck yes!
About: Wow. Awesome. Shooting glass to kill someone? Sounds like something I wish I thought up. So, you shoot glass and hope for the person to fall down the whole and die. When they fall, the glass floor gets repaired. The model looks good, and gameplay is... OMG FUN!11!!11!!

Overall Best Map: DMT-Broken Indigo

Ok, changed making it just katana's mods with 2/10 to maps containing lots of plagiarism, as all of katana's mods contain lots of it.
Edited by gruntfromhalo on Oct 13, 2008 at 08:06 PM
Edited by gruntfromhalo on Oct 13, 2008 at 08:09 PM

Biased.

Personally, I think Observatory is best. though the texturing sucks. Couple of Model Problems. Not enough weapons. Only about 7 vehicles for a large map. Gameplay is good and environment is okay

Considering I've gotten into the habit of completely ignoring the Halo CE Maps page, I appreciate something like this. Thought it's just an opinion, it's better than missing out on CE maps completely. I think I'll check a couple of them out. Thanks.

I can explain.

How can you not be when you are giving your opinion of something? Some person may like box maps and give them a higher rating. Another might vomit every time he sees a box map, and give them ones. How can you not be biased when rating something? A good newspaper doesn't rate each political candidate or tell people who they would recommend to vote for, they give you facts about each and let you decide. I am giving you my opinion of the maps this week, not a newspaper article about them.

Well you just say it is some guys map and they suck. The best way to do it is to have a list of things about the map like lag, gameplay, originality, etc. and use them all and average it.

Maybe I'll try that. One word post's are not very descriptive. The thing is, that mapper makes bad box maps with other people's stuff, and they plagiarize the other people. Because of complaints, i changed the reason to why I gave them a low score to plagiarism. Oh, and I don't lag as much as others do, so that wouldn't work well.
Edited by gruntfromhalo on Oct 13, 2008 at 08:10 PM

You also should state In my opinion. Sure, should be obvious but it's the internet. People tend to take things the wrong way. To be honest most of your ratings in my opinion were correct.

not like theres much to crit. i would just provide a link to one global post that basically covers just about every map that gets uploaded here
now who wants to make that post....

Ehh, too much work.

Indigo was only good for its fun. No gameplay. The "best" map is Observatory, based on gameplay.

Actually, I found Indigo to be the most fun. When I played Observatory, everyone was banshee noobing me :(

whenever i play it, the level resets :(

You can't use cheats. Also, map_name command to start. And, don't jump over the purple things, it resets the level also.

Exactly, if it lags for you, then it is going to lag alot, therefore, a lower score should be given.

Good reviews.

I'm happy to see this week had 2 good/ok maps. It's mostly just mods, horrible maps, and a few models of guns or bipeds.

Edited by madkiller92 on Oct 14, 2008 at 07:01 PM