Linkin Park's upcoming album Minutes to Midnight will be released on May 15 2007!  (Hey, my birthday!)  Can't wait to get it, but for now, we can all be satisfied with the one single that's been released so far.

It's called "What I've Done" and I liked it a lot.  Quite different from other Linkin Park songs (a softer song than usual?), but the emotional lyrics are very much present.  You can hear the song and watch the video on YouTube, here.

Now, getting into the Doom-related news: I've not had much time to work on my level, Stygian_Nebula in the past days, because like I mentioned earlier, weekends have been busy and on weekdays I come back home late at night, too tired to work on it.  Anyway, remember I was talking about building the exit room last time?  I have a small screenshot here, and to quote a line from 2010: "My God, it's full of stars!".  As it is a shot of the exit room, it could be considered a minor spoiler.  So if you don't want to see the exit room beforehand, don't look at the shot.

I managed to play three interesting Doom levels recently though.  One was released to the /idgames archives, but the other two have thus far only appeared on WADs in Progress, and it's because Doom_Dude mentioned them on Newdoom that I came to know about them.  [By the way, if you're reading this Doom_Dude, thanks for the posts about my level on Newdoom!]  Anyway, here are mini-reviews for these levels:

• Meek by Chris Hansen — Chris writes in the text file that he built this E1-style map at work, over a couple of months.  Man, I wish I had the time to do that at work!  Anyway this is probably not one of Chris's standout maps, but is still an interesting level to play through.  It could have probably fit well with his Retro Episode, in terms of style.  For a level built in spurts during free time, it certainly has an expansive layout, using a good mix of indoor and outdoor areas.  Once again, like Chris's other E1-style maps, there is an high level of detailing without straying too much from the style of the original levels.  Nice one.  7/10.
• Monolith Part 5 by Richard Wiles — Out of the blue, the author of the awesome Crusades and SlayeR started up a new series of maps, and this is the fifth release.  I played it on Skill 1 and this was quite a challenging map.  Appearance-wise, the earlier maps in the series somehow didn't feel like "Richard Wiles maps" (heh, I know, that's an odd statement... but maybe it's because he didn't bring back his sound replacements?), but this one did.  On Skill 1 there was an interesting use of monsters, where he makes you encounter mostly Lost Souls and Pain Elementals, while bringing in the tougher monsters (Revenants, Mancubi and Archviles) during key moments (yes, when you pick up keys... pun not intended).  A satisfying map with a nice layout and nice use of various areas.  A couple of places show off lighting very well (yellow key room for example) too.  8/10.
• Final Doom TNT: MAP01 Crispy Version by SgtCrispy — There have been a number of original Doom/Doom II levels remade in recent times, and now we have a remake of Evilution MAP01 courtesy SgtCrispy.  It's a nicely done level, and the original flow of the level has been more-or-less retained.  However, there are some additions (hellknight in the outdoor area), and some deletions (chaingunners after picking up the blue key), and the whole map appears to be on a bigger scale than the original one.  The strong blinking lights used here and there are a nice touch as well.  The map comes with a custom sky too.  Good job!  7/10.

Well, it's late again (past 3 AM) and I have to go to work tomorrow, so I will wind up this update.  It would have been good to have the day off tomorrow.  Anyway, I will plan for a few days of leave and a visit to Hyderabad in the beginning of May.