NN-Evening: Nerf Neighbourhood!

Nerf Neighbourhood: Evening

RR: 9.5

This is the only version of SLAM's Nerf Neighbourhood that is relatively stable. The other two types, the NN-Day and NN-Night variations, have a nasty tendency to crash, if you are making the server, especially if you try to enter the Skyscraper area (pictured above). If you aren't the server-maker, you tend to be booted out of the game, getting one of those error messages on your desktop instead. Spike and I did manage to make a little progress (check out the screenshots on the other page), but we quickly found that even walking backwards was no guarantee that things would stay stable. Spike did try sending a sidewinder alt "camera" in, but that booted him out of the game, leaving the disc stuck in mid-air just in the doorway!

Ah, but the evening version will certainly do to keep us happy for a while. The old favourite areas from the Betas are still there, if slightly changed here and there, while the Amateur doorway takes you to a yacht or catamaran off the Barracuda beach, and the Championship doorway takes you on board a nicely-made airliner, a little less complex than the one in the recent Nerf Airlines map from Duo (which SLAM was not aware of when he made this...). As a special bonus, the Sequoia doorway still takes you to the original picnic area - but the teleporter at the rear of the entrance cave takes you to the Ranch area, which has already, for convenience, been spun off into its own separate map, with the title SLAM's Homestead. Here it is just about lacking in weapons and pick-ups, but you can bring them in with you, and it is a gorgeous place to explore.

The main change is to the Skyscraper area, the "Tycoon City", which has had a lot done to it. You can see the old hotel in the background of this screenshot, but the new centre has been added; even the hotel has more rooms, and a revolving door, plus a relative of mine called Euster dancing behind the front desk. Look at the intricacy of the under-construction building in the screenshot; enough careful jumping-around, and you can score a megapower there. Most of the main buildings have interiors, with a cache of weapons here, other interesting stuff there. There are fire escapes, corridor-routes where you have to leap from one building to the next, and at the end of one route an open window... leap out, and try and dive into the water-tank far below!

There is the "Laser Tag" "arena". There is a great cafeteria, run by my cousins Auster, Buster and Duster, where you can get lunch, a drink, and a megashield. There are back alleys and dead ends, and space enough to swallow updozens of players. Hopefully, this will get released, in an expanded way, as its own map - it will be less of a distance to walk back from the respawning point then!

I'm being a bit conservative in my Rating here, but we have to keep something in reserve, right? And the map i still very slightly unstable, apt to give you a warning judder or two as you enter the Skyscraper area, while there is a flaw by the edge of the road in there too, if you turn right at the old hotel. You should (or shouldn't...) find a bit of "invisible wall" at the curb towards the end, with even a touch of "instant death" if you aren't careful! But a great map, well worth the wait. How can anyone, even SLAM himself, top it?




			Nerf Neighbourhood: Evening RR: 9.5 This is the only version of SLAM's Nerf Neighbourhood that is relatively stable. The other two types, the NN-Day and NN-Night variations, have a nasty tendency to crash, if you are making the server, especially if you try to enter the Skyscraper area (pictured above). If you aren't the server-maker, you tend to be booted out of the game, getting one of those error messages on your desktop instead. Spike and I did manage to make a little progress (check out the screenshots on the other page), but we quickly found that even walking backwards was no guarantee that things would stay stable. Spike did try sending a sidewinder alt "camera" in, but that booted him out of the game, leaving the disc stuck in mid-air just in the doorway! Ah, but the evening version will certainly do to keep us happy for a while. The old favourite areas from the Betas are still there, if slightly changed here and there, while the Amateur doorway takes you to a yacht or catamaran off the Barracuda beach, and the Championship doorway takes you on board a nicely-made airliner, a little less complex than the one in the recent Nerf Airlines map from Duo (which SLAM was not aware of when he made this...). As a special bonus, the Sequoia doorway still takes you to the original picnic area - but the teleporter at the rear of the entrance cave takes you to the Ranch area, which has already, for convenience, been spun off into its own separate map, with the title SLAM's Homestead. Here it is just about lacking in weapons and pick-ups, but you can bring them in with you, and it is a gorgeous place to explore. The main change is to the Skyscraper area, the "Tycoon City", which has had a lot done to it. You can see the old hotel in the background of this screenshot, but the new centre has been added; even the hotel has more rooms, and a revolving door, plus a relative of mine called Euster dancing behind the front desk. Look at the intricacy of the under-construction building in the screenshot; enough careful jumping-around, and you can score a megapower there. Most of the main buildings have interiors, with a cache of weapons here, other interesting stuff there. There are fire escapes, corridor-routes where you have to leap from one building to the next, and at the end of one route an open window... leap out, and try and dive into the water-tank far below! There is the "Laser Tag" "arena". There is a great cafeteria, run by my cousins Auster, Buster and Duster, where you can get lunch, a drink, and a megashield. There are back alleys and dead ends, and space enough to swallow updozens of players. Hopefully, this will get released, in an expanded way, as its own map - it will be less of a distance to walk back from the respawning point then! I'm being a bit conservative in my Rating here, but we have to keep something in reserve, right? And the map i still very slightly unstable, apt to give you a warning judder or two as you enter the Skyscraper area, while there is a flaw by the edge of the road in there too, if you turn right at the old hotel. You should (or shouldn't...) find a bit of "invisible wall" at the curb towards the end, with even a touch of "instant death" if you aren't careful! But a great map, well worth the wait. How can anyone, even SLAM himself, top it?