Skyhigh Arena

Description
Before I begin, this needs saying - the forcefields are overused.

OK, summary. Rock platform held in the air by hooks chained to some torches (hey, don't look at me...), with a forcefield in the center showing the battle zone, two forcefield sideline benches, and two forcefield advert screens.

Firstly, the good parts. The map, as a whole, is flawlessly constructed. As a neat little touch, you can see other platforms similar to the main one out in the distance. One or two of the adverts are amusing parodies. The battlefield itself has a good size to it, allowing a moderate amount of movement. The skybox works pretty well with the map

Parts I disliked. The refractive effect on the small red blocks underneath the torches was [i]too[/i] refractive. By all rights no reflection can ever look like that. Changing the shader would be a good bet for a future version. The pulse effect over the adverts just makes them look bad, and the rendering on the adverts themselves is rather choppy, which again doesn't help things. Speaking of the adverts, they are mostly kinda boring due to the fact that a lot of people won't get the joke behind them.

As for the music, I gotta say that it doesn't fit well at all, but the wind drowns it out almost completely - so whatever, just bear in mind next time that you're making a Jedi Academy map, not a Neverwinter Nights module. If you want that kind of effect from the environment and music combination, then it's the Aurora Toolset you need, not GtkRadiant. It's not just the map you need to pick the right song for - the song also needs to compliment the game itself, and the type of gameplay it offers. A game that's all about combat and action is a bad place for calming music, which is why soundtracks from RPGs or movies have no place in an FPS.

The map is pretty standard fare, aside from the generalised theme. It plays like a typical duel map, but looks pretty cool, because it's got that whole mysterious colosseum thing going for it.

If you'd like a duel map that's a bit different, this one will be worth the time it takes to check out. I quite like it myself, although I'm not too fond of how it was executed due to individual tastes.

~ Kouen

[b]Bot Support:[/b] Yes
[b]Custom Textures:[/b] Yes
[b]Custom Models:[/b] Yes
[b]Custom Music:[/b] Yes