Country Academy (JA)

is James Culley - you guys might know him as Sith-J-Cull, a prolific JA mapper. Thanks for the review, James! :) ~Amy ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- First of all, I would like to thank Amos for giving me the chance and the honour to review this ShroomDuck exclusive – yes, that’s right, EXCLUSIVE - and what a map … so imaginative, with such a lot to do. Description: Well as the name states this is a country theme based map, essentially a country fair with stalls and games for you to enjoy, with countryside farmyard surroundings, animals, blue skies and lake complete with rickety bridge! (Sounds like a holiday brochure!) The idea behind this map is to have fun - there is so much to do. Basically you have a farmyard with some booths which give you access to the various games on the map: Get Lost a very mad maze Flying pig who can stay on the flying pig? Well an interesting bottomless pit for your falling pleasure! Square Dance a game of death using crushers The square dance is my favourite game which should be really fun with a load of players – unfortunately I was testing this map out alone so I couldn’t actually have the satisfaction of killing anyone. The map has its own public transport provided by the native chicken - yeah that’s right, Shroom brings us the Chickenvator J, trust me where ever you see chickens; fun is sure to follow, make sure you jump on every chicken in your sight, as most serve as a means of transport to and from the different areas the map (oh yes and look out for the Turtle!) Textures / Lighting: 7/10 Country Academy uses almost all custom textures to pull off the country fair farmyard theme and it does so very well, the signs are amazing and the theme stays consistent throughout the map, there are lots of wooden textures of differing colours all of which are well done, there were a few completely black buttons here and there which I don’t know were intentional, if so maybe they could be sorted. The landscape was kept simplistic I think to keep the brush count low for frame rate reasons – as I know many people now use Easygen for landscapes which gives you more control over texturing. The hills that surround the map if I’m not wrong are made from huge brushes which have been clipped into slopes, the texture applied when viewing a large area of it do seem repetitive, although I know there isn’t a lot that can be done about that as stretching them too far looks ugly, so I think the way it was done here gives the right feel for the map :) The lighting again Is simplistic but it doesn’t need to anything else – the farmyard is such eye candy I do feel that it could look even better with a touch of ambient coloured light, ambient light would have helped reduce the completely black :( areas in the Maze area for example. Architecture: 7/10 This was the aspect of the map where I was both amazed and sometimes left wanting more. The whole feel and look of the map is generally brilliant, although the architecture goes from “wow that’s very cool” to “hmm that could look better” but then I am a mapper and I know Shroom would have thought the same about any of mine maps, I think that generally mappers go around playing maps and spend too much time looking at the technical aspects rather than having some fun playing – although I DID have a lot of fun playing this. Some highlights were the Barn and the Windmill very cool J and I enjoyed the various technical aspects used to create the fun things in the map, things like func_trains, triggers and teleporters, crushers and jump pads! The map seems to be full of simple shaped brushes that in part are simple, but when they come together they form something that’s more than the sum of its parts. Game play / Level flow: 9/10 Well I don’t think anyone will be taking this map as a serious gunfight and that’s because there are no weapons on the map – The idea of this it to HAVE FUN and fun you will. The level is laid out well with the farmyard being the main area that connects all of the other areas together – for example the stalls can all be found here and each stall leads you the games, although getting back from each area normally requires getting on a chicken which gradually lifts you up like a lift into a teleporter that zaps you back to the main area again, this may be a problem with a lot of players as there may be arguments when it comes to getting on and off the chicken now ya’ll behave you hear! There are plenty of areas perfect for duelling which I am sure will please a lot of you, and there are also lots of things In the map that I probably didn’t mention in this review – but you will find them as you explore this world that is Country Academy (by the way make sure you use the outside toilet)! Music hmm/hmm Ok it was good the first time round The second time round it wasn’t bad The third time round I turned down my music volume! Fun Factor: 20/10 Fun, Fun, Fun :) Well I hope this review gives you guys the right message which I think is basically this: DOWNLOAD THIS NOW because ShroomChicken has provided us with hours of fun! Bot Support: No New Textures: Yes New Music: Yes Game Types: FFA Sith-J-Cull (James Culley)
I'd like to introduce something a little new for JK2/3Files.com. Occasionally I'm going to have mappers and other developers in the community do guest reviews for the site. Our first guest reviewer