what was your favourite / most inspiring map

Probably Well from QWTF or TFC.

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The remake from TF2 is great, especially in CP (TF2 doesn't play well in CTF to be honest) but the flag room doesn't allow for impressive plays anymore. I really liked the small window, anyone who watched TF Done Extreme will know why.

Also Dustbowl and Goldrush from TF2. Especially with their uses of translucent surfaces, 1-way doors, flank routes, etc.

Life of a Party from Thief 2 is a classic.

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Also if anyone remember the game NoX I think the wizard guild is the best part from the warrior campaign, along with the final boss. It almost plays like an arena FPS sometimes.

L4D No Mercy Campaign... it felt great to run through in the first days of L4D. Eventually, everyone began to corner camp and abuse of things such as meleeing the door in the Gas station level, elevator bug smoker tongue, tank blocking elevator, and the narrow ladder chokepoints. The campaign is a blast to play on expert though. I love the atmosphere! It is far from perfect but I had so many epic moments that it is one of the most memorable set of maps for me.

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Quote from ChA1NsAw

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Tomb Raider 3: The Jungle

The music, the sound, the secrets, the animals, ability to explorer. I never felt so immersed in a level as this one. As a kid I couldn't solve anything except by trial and error. Ran around for hours in this map, not getting bored. Only when I got impaled by spikes I'd get a bit frustrated.

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inspired me sooo much too that I made a cs map for it a looong time ago

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One of my favorites world from Tomb Raider serie.

I've seen some great games and levels, real nostalgia trips... BUT! Does anyone remember this beaut?

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Some parts were very linear, but I just loved this so much

Such an eclectic mix of environments! I was probably too young to really know if this was a "good" game, but it has dinosaurs, robots, cow boys and space!

Sadly I can't find any good "signature" images.

EDIT: It's Gunman Chronicles if anyone needs reminding

Rutherford Manor in Thief: Deadly Shadows is pretty memorable to me, just a really fun level

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Or Lord Bafford's Manor, of Thief: The Dark Project

Or the opening sequence of Half-life, in the testing chambers

Or the opening level in Unreal

Or the first few testing chambers of Portal.

Apparently I have at thing for first levels! I just love seeing all the mechanics get set up, especially in gradual and organic ways.

As far as multiplayer levels go, I'd have to say:

CS:

CS_Office

DE_Inferno

TF2:

PL_Goldrush

CP_Well

CP_Dustbowl

CTF_Gravel Pit

CP_Steel

UT99:

CTF_Facing worlds

DM_Deck16

DM_Morbias

CTF_Coret

CTF_November

DM_Pyramid

Alright I'll stop; there's a bunch more I could probably think of. I'm really bad at picking a favourite, I love all these maps! This thread is really stirring up some nostalgia.

I find a lot of the new maps being released in the Operation map packs in CS:GO very inspiring as well, I love seeing what people here come up with. Cheers!

Gunman Chronicles was amazing! I loved that game back in the day. I liked the introduction on the space station with the elevator that went in all different directions.

I only started Gunman, then for some reason I couldn't pick it up to finish it; it was a bit boring when I was playing it. I wanted to play it with the move to Steam, but I remember it wasn't accepting the serial at the time.

~

In terms of multiplayer maps there are loads that I played hours and hours, online or against bots, lots have been already mentioned and in terms of teaching something I struggle cos I actually have never distributed anything so...

cs_italy: I would say has the most iconic spawn, with the choice you have it's great player direction.

Blastpit: although Half-Life is a goldmine and has set so may standards for the modern shooters, especially with the now very much imitated non-violent interactive introduction, Blastpit is probably the summa of everything's singleplayer. It basically encapsulates a three-acts narration in its own and offers everything spanning from exploration to the most heart-racing sequence, shooting, frantic platforming and "wow" moments.

I wouldn't know what to pick for Day Of Defeat, I think all official maps in the retail version rate great to awesome.

Haven't played Q3 or UT enough to be able to name a perfect example of good DM flow; for the latter I was just in love with the already mentioned Morpheus

I decided to take this thread super serial and really try to track down my biggest inspirations.

[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/pNbXl7j.jpg][Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/OpKAh7W.jpg]Ins_Almaden by Erratic. Was a big big inspiration for me during my Insurgency days. I never saw such a cool vista, it's still incredibly badass, I mean, just look at it. For me it was always the most visually impressive map in the mod.

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ND_Russia by Briscoe + others (and the Japan level screenshots by Sa7an) If you worked on Nuclear Dawn you were probably awesome and brilliant.

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The Dust2 of Day of Defeat, Avalanche by Fingers. Tied with Dust2 for best overall multiplayer goldsource map of all time, IMO

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CS_Bikini by 3D Mike. Legendary mapper's best work? Maybeeee

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Call of Duty 1 MP, Pavlov's House. Holy PHUCK this was fun. CoD1's MP was rock solid. Amazing.

[Blocked Image: http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100224051608/cs_/images/0/03/De_dust.jpg]De_Dust by Johnston...Dust1 you say?! Yep, primarily because playing this angle with an AWP in pubs was about as much fun as you can have with computer games circa early 2000s.

also, if i re-made a map (Veil, Cache, Season), it pretty much goes without saying I liked the map a ton and learned a ton from it

Quote from FMPONE

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CS_Bikini by 3D Mike. Legendary mapper's best work? Maybeeee

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Call of Duty 1 MP, Pavlov's House. Holy PHUCK this was fun. CoD1's MP was rock solid. Amazing.

CS_Bikini:

Lost track of how many hours I spent diving around this map shooting up my buddies with golden colts in The Specialists(Never played it in CS), fantastic map. TS had a whole handful of inspiring maps, great stuff!

Pavlov:

Loved this map! Tons of fun; CoD1 had some really amazing maps, Dawnville, Carentan, Chateau, Harbor

Aah, the memories.

Ins_almaden impressed me a lot and...still impress me !

And you're right with 3D Mike, I was a fan. He made pretty good and memorable maps (predator, survivor, bikini, greenhouse, deadlock,...). During this period there were a lot of good mappers with a lot of variety in custom map. I remember Lanmaniax.com (RA7, please come back !!!) where you were able to find the pretty good custom maps for cs, hl, dod,...sometime I miss this time.

Quote from clankill3r

I remember that screenshot. I really liked that model. It looked so smooth for that time. Was the game any fun?

I grew up on half life and all the mods surrounding it so I probably have biased memories, but the bad guy who looks like Ron Pearlman / General Patton, the out of control AI you team up with who eventually gets her own body as well, the variety of environments. I loved it!

Quote from PogoP

Gunman Chronicles was amazing! I loved that game back in the day. I liked the introduction on the space station with the elevator that went in all different directions.

I forgot about that! I remember loving the chemical gun which you could tweak the pressure and varying levels of chemicals in each shot.

Quote from blackdog

I only started Gunman, then for some reason I couldn't pick it up to finish it; it was a bit boring when I was playing it. I wanted to play it with the move to Steam, but I remember it wasn't accepting the serial at the time.

Buddy, you missed out! Obviously people aren't going to like every game, but I think it's a gem.

Gunman Chronicles sadly never made it to steam I would love to see it picked up again. Probably would be better as a Source remake than a sequel.

I already saw some cod1 maps mentioned and I feel the need to mention one of the most impressive cod:uo custom maps I've seen: uo_broadsword, influenced by the movie where eagles dare, featuring a huge alpine landscape with a castle on a mountaintop only reachable by cable cars.

http://callofduty.filefront.com/file/UO_Broadsword;60856

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Knowing the limitations of the engine, the sheer size and scale of this map amazes me.

awesome thread! seeing the stuff that inspired me most is already here i have nothing to add really. especially 3dmikes bikini map got me into level design (along many quake and ut maps)
funniest thing that happend to me last year: during an assessment for my game design study I found out the Mike that was the external consultant on our assessments was actually 3dMike!
holy shit i almost crapped my pants right there

(edit) nice to see some old familiars here as well, ClanKiller! you are Doeke right? I used to study ict in hoogeveen along with some of your friends (Marco and Stefan)

I'm Jarno, we probably only met once or twice so yeah you probably don't remember me

Lanmaniax was just my goto for inspiration and guidance when I starting diving into mapping... the memories

wow cs bikini! i remmeber

for me ns_nothing by ken20banks

and ns_bast by mendasp