Camcorder22

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• United States

• Accolade Panelist

Ive always been self conscious about my ability to write good rct reviews but that ends now!! These amazing parks deserve some more reviews!! obligatory “shame one park needs to lose”, it really seems like both teams brought their all and this might be the strongest match so far, with 2 parks that will be talked about long after the contest ends.  

VERB

First of all, absolutely in love with the concept, maybe one of my favorite RCT concepts of all time.  It allows exploration of a new open feature, and also kind of breaks the 4th wall about an aspect of RCT maps that we usually just try to ignore, and makes it part of the map itself.  

It seems like high concept space fantasy parks are having their time to shine, at least in the contest/small park format, and you’d expect a lot of parks start to look kind of the same. This park treads the line perfectly of looking like the builders doing what they do best, while still introducing a completely fresh aesthetic. The color scheme is VERY bold, and easily could’ve looked like a bunch of chewed up skittles if it was done wrong, but it appears the builders were very mindful of this, and this is where the composition of the park comes into play.  The rock layers help create some separation between the intense colors while also setting themselves apart from the typical Fisch layer rock meta.  The foliage/water, the most vibrant part, has enough separation from the more dense parts of the map such as the archy-heavy areas that it prevents intense clashing, while the architecture sticks to a still bold, but smaller selection of colors that is less present in the foliage.  And the result is a map that, despite everything that’s going on, looks like SOMETHING when its zoomed out, which is honestly, a feat.  Another bit I like is the “void” gaps built into the middle of the map, for things like the coaster loop, etc.  fits the theme, looks cool.  Checks all the boxes of a great h2h map and then some, don’t think I have much negative to say about it at all.  

The Yard

Ive always been a dark palette truther so this doesnt bother me.  It does feel quite dark, especially after looking at VERB ironically, but my eyes adjust pretty quickly and nothing is lost.  Yalls monitors just aren’t bright enough!  Another fairly novel concept with an old industrial area turned into an nightlife entertainment area/amusement park.  I like the way that unlike many other urban parks, the amusement park/urban aspects are fused together instead of having an amusement park + outskirts.  On a purely technical level, this park might be even more impressive than VERB, and maybe any other park this contest.  The archy is flawless, the half diagonal use makes everything look dense and off the grid without being like “this is a half diagonal”.  The interaction is top notch.  Looking at the side of the map with the two coasters weaving in and out of each other, through the industrial buildings, and above layered paths and bridges… i don’t know how yall did that and made it look good.  The whole section with the boat and the double decker car carousels is so cool too.  

Since I have to split hairs in order to vote on this match… I’d say the aesthetic of The Yard feels less novel.  The concept is fairly unique, but the overall dark industrial vibe and palette inevitably brings to mind parks like Le Coeur.  If anything, changing up the color scheme a bit to focus less heavily on the burnt red could’ve prevented this.  The park does set itself apart as unique with more viewing, but that was my initial reaction.

Vote ended up going to Jazzcats.  Two expertly crafted parks, one which felt a little more unique with a concept I loved a little more.  Matches like this are both the tragedy and fun of H2H!

Whoops part of the list got cut off by going across monitors!

 draftfixed2.PNG (12.73KB)
downloads: 103

Realizing a flaw with this game in addition to being a pain in the dick to make a prediction, is being a pain in the dick to calculate score.  so yall are on your own with calculating your scores lol.  Anyway here's my results: 

 draft result1.PNG (35.55KB)
downloads: 108

 draft result2.PNG (34.21KB)
downloads: 110

That comes out to a total score of 529.  I'm realizing that average number of draft positions error is much more informative though, and that number for me was 6.37 (divide score by # of all players that participated in the draft, which was 83).

oh this is a really fun one for me

H2H5: Elementalists

this was my junior year of high school and i vividly remember frantically working on Art of War while traveling on a trip to visit colleges. shortly before my first era in this community ended... hard to believe it was only three years and i've been back for 6 now.  

H2H6: Heavens Gallery

i came "back" around the end of my sophomore year of college but i didnt really feel like i was all that back as much as visiting.  i think i built for a collective total of 3 days in between the end of my college semester and traveling, after which i feel like i went awol again.  

H2H8: Team Spacecrab

super depressed dude at a job i hated, spending a lot of time working on music in my free time but feeling like i wasnt really getting anywhere with it.  signed up on a whim after not checking NE for years and seeing a facebook or instagram post.  kind of questioned why i was taking so much time away from music at the time but it felt right. also i had just emergency moved out of my old place due to constant water leaks, and was living at a coworkers house.  i remember building haystack in his basement lol.  winning H2H and open got me back into the game and getting to know people in the community.  funny enough talking to other gay people from NE was one of the first times i ended up questioning a lot of things in my life...

H2H9: Scream Queens

girl mode!  and my band had just released an album that had the most positive reception i've ever experienced, eventually leading to us getting signed and touring a lot.  and it was the end of covid lockdown with vaccines rolling out.  and I ended up quitting my job halfway through to run my recording studio full time.  kind of dropped off the earth again because of all this and wish i could have been more active, and i definitely take partial responsibility for us coming up short in the end. 

H2H10: ???

busier than i've ever been, playing 50-60 shows a year and touring the country, working on 30-40 studio projects a year and kind of again asking myself what the fuck i am doing signing up for this, but i cant stay away clearly.

ignore my accidental drawing in paint, i am very smart and can be trusted with roller coaster tycoon 2