Ziscor

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• India

I am so in love with both of these. Currently it is impossible for me to pick one over the other, they're just so polished. You guys have set benchmarks in my eyes for each theme. One might be my favorite representation of a conventional medieval-setting in this game ever, and the other... well I've never seen a Star Wars film and only know a little through internet culture, but I don't need to know jackshit to admire the work gone into this. This is magic and I feel like a kid again. I also really can't appreciate the sound design on both of the maps enough. It's insane to me that this much effort is possible in so little time.

I'll update this post to a proper review as early as I can before my vote. All the best to both parks! What a round.

 

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Lostileth

Throughout my experience with this map, one thing felt so apparent - there is an insane attention to polish here. As so many have also expressed, the way the rockwork is dealt with, the way the landscape makes way for the architecture to come in, is something I'll be using as reference to learn more often in the future. A little ashamed to say it but I very often mentally process-out any rollercoasters that I see, because it's just something I'm not good with identifying 'good/bad' in. That said, I really admire how well it was integrated into the map. Mad appreciation for how it goes through and around the rockwork, the way it comes through from between that abandoned looking tower-like red structure, and when it dives into that round pit of sorts. That kind of interaction made the environment all around those moments shine and really stay in my mind ever since day 1 of when I say this park.

 

Though it shouldn't have as much emphasis as the rest, I also adore the sound design as I mentioned in my quick impressions. This is the kind of music that can mesmerize someone in the theme, not wanting to leave and to keep exploring. There's individual stuff happening like the whirring spaceship things, the laser shooting sounds here and there, the muffled cantina music (the fact it is a little muffled being what I appreciate most). Although I deeply appreciate the effort that went into the eye-candy, the... ear-candy(?) really deserves appreciation too. <3

 

The most visually spare area of the map is also not full of stuff to look at either - the center. I have no clue what's going on and why posix needs to examine a rift with some R2D2 clone, but it looks ethereal with the pulsing wave of light moving through that blue gap in the land. Something which adds yet another layer to the map and keeping interest.

 

Past this (and also before this) I'd only be repeating the same words of appreciation that everyone else has said in much better words. I read through other reviews to read of any small details people mentioned that I possibly missed, so that I could find everything and every reference there might have been. I love the heist angle going on with the library. The way the map is shaped, you naturally end up at the library very soon, and that was a really fun narrative to explore! That said, this is just a map that, even without the Star Wars tag, shines so bright.

 

It feels unfair to ask for more from a park made in 28 days. This is one of my absolute favourite maps out of H2HX, and the contest has barely even started.

 

Troubadours et Baladins

 

I had so much to say about the sound design for Lostileth, but here's the park up against it, doing just as much, and perhaps more, I honestly think, to make this place feel real through music. There's so much individual stuff happening, that with the quality on display, this really comes close to giving off level-from-a-medieval-setting-based-isometric-2D-game-strategy-management-sim-from-the-90s energy. What a terrible phrase, I apologize. But you can hear the ballista going off I think, you  hear chains and gears pulling the stuff powering each ride here, you can hear horse carriages individually in each ear, with horse neighs, there's the sounds of chickens, there's little music made by the band near the stairs that lead all the way up to the bridge. There is fanfair from trumpets as something or the other happens (either the jousting, or the parade leading up to the castle? I get so excited every time is goes off again! It's like a victory chime from a game). I just love that aspect, and maybe I'm overreacting but I find both of the parks this round have had a greater impact on me through music than in R1.

When I think of all the things this park could have possibly done to do a medieval theme any better, I draw a blank. What is there is as good as I can currently imagine this type of theme to get. There are nitpicks with everything and so there's always a way to go higher, but the setting is so beautifully realised. Some nuance to the typical medieval theme is always nice to have, so that there's something novel to look at, but Troubadours doesn't bother with it much. It's a park I find to be quite confident in doing this stereotypical theme so well through the level of polish, the hidden details, the cheeky fun stuff, the great answer to "what if this was actually meant to be feasible?" And of course the architecture. I mentioned the animated peeps by MK on Discord but thank you for making them haha, I can not wait to see them add life to so many more parks in the future.

 

So much unique stuff stands out. There's the quarry, there's the burned and blackened house, there's the military camp with the tents, the quest giving tavern area... the little cart that met an accident, the ballista or whatever those are - aiming at the target made above the RMC's track. The bee house with the Nic Cage nod haha. There's the great jousting arena, too, which adds so much to the macro. Why was Kumba sitting underneath a suspiciously extended part of the castl--oh... oh no haha.

 

If there's one thing I've noticed through each repeated viewing, I think the ambition on this, with the 28 day limit, may have made one angle of the map hurt a little. That one view that's from the castle towards the town. In this angle a few things seem less detailed or touched up, but not at all by a lot. Worth a mention however, because I can only imagine how much you guys must have wished for there to have been more time to touch up more stuff.

 

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Despite sitting on my vote for so long, it is still quite difficult to justify one over the other. In the end, I found Troubadours won me over just a little more than Lostileth, and it's a painful decision to have made. Both teams should be so proud of these maps. I hope they are both strongly remembered and brought up in discussion in the future.

Apologies for writing too much!

It feels like time flew by between draft day and Round 1. I'm expecting to say this for next match-up and every match-up of teams too, but congrats to the Dambusters and Jazzcats for putting out parks of such high quality!

The Dambusters - Radio Park Tbilisi

I did not know what and where Tbilisi was, so I googled a little. Now I see the Ferris Wheel and the main radio tower coming from that area. As many people have pointed out, this park is so full of charm and commitment to the theme! After the round, I'd be curious to hear how the conversation went to pitch and build this, and how all the radio related ideas were thought up to take this to the next level haha. All the ride names, the various structures like 'Marconi's Macaroni' lol, the beautiful playground area, the microphone on that super cool looking "on air" sign, god every single sign actually...

In particular, I love the center of the map with the pinwheel-shaped lights over top, with the flat-ride 'Groove Spin', near which almost every tracked ride moves through. I loved staying on that scene to see all those rides move around at different moments.  

My favorite building on the park is the one with the radio tower at the center, tethered to the edges of the roof (the one Hobeon also happened to post above). In the process of taking a screenshot of that building, I kept realising I love more things next to the building until I kept expanding the frame so much that I had gone till the other edge. Basically everything is just very well laid out at a macro level. 'Ordered chaos' isn't the phrase, but I'm struggling to think of how to describe it.

The mutedness of the palette felt a little unpleasant at first viewing, but as I explored more, I slowly found out it absolutely has its place here. The easiest way to find out is to switch to the default palette haha. I also appreciate the cleanliness where it exists like the paths, and where the crunch takes over like the flat roofs. It would have been easy to consider doing crunch on every path surface as well, and I think that would have lessened my experience of feeling the balance.

It's an R1 park to be proud of. You guys really did a great job making things feel super busy, moving and noisy without being that overwhelming, at least to me.


Jazzcats - The Royal Institute of Extraordinary Biota

This park appeals to me with its theme so much. I love the violin and cello players in that huge gazebo structure with people both standing around as well as sitting on benches to hear it. Nearby is a giant cherry blossom I think, with pipes to mist the grass? It's all classically beautiful to see. The whole map feels very intently built with each building block serving its primary purpose and only that purpose, if that makes sense without sounding pretentious. The map has the feeling of being part of a larger map, while also cropping right where the most interesting parts come together.

If I had the hardware and the 3D rendering know-how I'd ask how you make objects like the ones you make, spacek! Years of experience under that old TF2 hat haha. It's a wonderful addition to the theme of this map. That maze is definitely among my favorite things on here.

The university(?) building and the botanical garden + greenhouse together are great points of interest for a map, and it was very fun exploring inside! If I were on this map I can imagine myself being bothered that I forgot the ride entrance building is visible inside the university haha but hey, it happens. I love how the interior on the university is clear through the glass windows. No more single-color tinted glass baby, we do away with it here at the jazzcats house. Or jazzcat-tree. Or jazz-catskill's. Gotta wander around the neighborhood and chat up other felines. With the greenhouse and adjacent garden of exotic flowers, those bright flowers really help introduce more strong colors to an otherwise more reserved theme-appropriate approach for the map.

I'm also a fan of the rockwork around the water, but watch me say that for every single damn park lol. Clean execution, makes me question why I'm so bad at it.

The train station is beautiful, but I especially love the texture work behind it where the olden cars have made tire tracks on the dirt roads. It pushes the realisation that this is capturing a certain time period/vibe. Very few opportunities to show that, otherwise. In fact I wouldn't mind if there were more of that in many other ways! Perhaps it wasn't a large point of focus and I'm reading too much into how that time-period thing is important to the overall vision.

Composition-wise, I love each scene in isolation so much. In small views, this is as good as it possibly gets in my eyes, but I keep getting proven wrong. The quality is through the roof these days. Anyways...

Oh I didn't even mention the map edges! Y'all, whoever did the floral pattern at the corners, and the entire thing in general, deserves all the praise. Plus if there is one sign we desperately needed, it was a serif font sign in two different weights. It is put to hilarious use, and I loved reading all of them haha.

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It is undoubtedly a tough vote for me. I love both parks for some of the same reasons but also in the very obvious contrasting differences as well, such as the height differential and the kineticness with rides. There aren't any significant obvious flaws in execution for me so with quality like this, it almost feels harsh not voting for one over the other. I'll sit on my vote for now and see where I lean more.

This is easily among the most memorable parks out of GT23 for me personally.

Role: Player
Games: ORCT2
Availability: It is difficult for me to predict right now I'm afraid.

Would like to share that based on past performance, I can be a small contributor, but not strong enough to take good charge on any park. I really like being given tasks.

I'd legit frame this.