First GOTM finished for October 2023. You always hear about how it can run on anything, how it defined a genre, how much fun it is to rip and tear. While this is my first time playing Doom, I quickly came to understand the love for it. The soundtrack and atmosphere lend itself well to a playthrough in October, and the howls, grunts, and growls of the enemies as they stalk you is legitimately creepy. The weapon variety is good, the power-ups and item pickups are fun and often located in a tense area of the map, and the movement is surprisingly good for an FPS without twin-sticks. Some very annoying level design (especially in later levels) keeps it from being top-notch, but this one is a banger and you should give it a try.

(Replayed on Ultra-Violence with the DOOM CE Conversion)

DOOM has always been one of my favorite shooters ever made, a very influential game to me and gaming as a whole. Looking for different ways to experience it after getting the urge to play through all of it again, I heard about the PSX port that is apparently a large tonal shift from the original game. After playing, I can definitely say that much is true. The atmosphere has been made much more sinister and dreadful with the new lighting, the music has been taken from an adrenaline-pumping thrash backtrack with occasional slower groovy tracks to a full-on droning and haunting ambient soundtrack that makes the world around you much more hellish. Playing on the Ultra-Violence difficulty is the way to go, not frustratingly brutal and but too forgiving. Absolutely my favorite way to play DOOM, very close to perfect, still think that the last chapter is way too easy to get lost in though.

With Quake just mere months away from release, DOOM found its way to the Sony Playstation in late 1995. Dubbed the "Custom Playstation Edition", DOOM PS1 is an incredibly unique, more mature take on the PC original. The lighting has been revamped to create a horror-themed atmosphere, alongside an entirely new soundtrack. Having played every officially released version of DOOM, I can safely say this ranks as the best of the 90's console ports. Every change works for the better in this iteration; the darker level design and ambient soundtrack all work together to create a game that feels fresh and exciting. There's a new sense of dread that awaits down every corridor. You'll work your way through a pitch black room, illuminated only by a pulsating cobalt light with the growls of demons coming at you in every direction. Gone is the fast-paced, heavy metal angst of the original, and in its place is a tension fueled nightmare that more than earns its title: DOOM.