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Doom III Officially Announced

Posted by michael on Fri May 03, 2002 09:08 PM
from the boom-click-click-boom-click-click dept.
Entertainment Games
Jacek Fedorynski writes "The end is near. First, id Software's site is updated for the first time since the Quake II times and now they officially announce Doom III!" If you recall, there were some screenshots released last year, but I don't think there's been much since then - these are probably out of date.
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  • great! (Score:4, Funny)

    by The-Pheon (65392) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:12PM (#3461180) Homepage
    Now i will have a replacement for solitare at work.

    hope they include a "Boss Key" ;O)

    • Re:great! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by smaug195 (535681)
      I am soon to start working on a First Person Shooter for a new company. In fact one of the things I purposefully put in design mode was a panic button for single player mode. Not sure whether to have it pop up a screenshot on screen, or pause and minimize(the screenshot would be customizable, and it would probably be faster *shrugs*) anyhoo, just letting you know your concerns are heard ;-).
      • two things, 1, record the image of the screen before the game starts. When the user hits the panic button, the image would be displayed in the game. Then minimize the game, that way the boss won't see a flash of the game, and the computer would still be useable if the boss does more then just walk by.
            • Do what I do.. move the mouse and say "oh this damn thing locked up again!" and then hit reset! ;) Works every time. AND it got me a new work computer because they were convinced mine was too "old" and locked up too much because of it.
    • There's a much more popular game than Doom, solitaire, or anything else for that matter out on the market.

      It's called Karma Whoring.

      The goal of the game is to come up with the most inventive, interesting, and funniest comments you can think of just in order to eventually make it to 50 karma points. When you do, this Magical Taco comes out of the sky and gives you the Sword of Moderation.

      With this sword, you can strike down and flame other would-be people who are trying to attain karma. Your high karma score is devalued if lots of other people have Karma as high as you.

      The goal is total domination and popularity among your peers. Imagine the results:

      Friend: Thresh is such a great quake player.
      Me: So what!?! I have 45 karma on Slashdot!
      Friend: Really?!?!
      Girls: Oooh, can I have your autograph?

      Technologically the engine behind Karma Whoring is pretty weak. Whilst Doom 3 amazes people with its pretty OpenGL graphics and Violence, Karma Whoring is only built using PERL of all things. It's text based, much like some of the older games of the 80's. But didn't we all like Zork anyway? :)

      Where Karma Whoring is better with is multiplayer. Whereas Doom will only have one character class, Karma Whoring has many. And you can choose your role. Karma Whore, Spammer, Nerd, Geek, Troll, Flamer, or even Anonymous Coward.

      Karma Whoring is more addictive than Doom. In fact, many of the people who score high Karma also experiment with other addictions. Especially with the line, "Those moderators are all on crack". This is a literal expression.

      The best thing is that Karma Whoring doesn't just have a boss key, it IS the boss key! You can always tell your boss that you're "researching important information on how to configure and optimize your apache server for optimal traffic", even when what you're really doing is browsing at -1 and blackholing the WIPO Troll.

      Best of all, it's free! The only thing you have to pay with is reading a Katz article and an anime story now and then. Compare that to $49.95 and tell me which one you prefer :)

  • Now I'll have to.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by parkanoid (573952) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:15PM (#3461195)
    Overclock my geforce2 above boiling point, like that guy who opened a dimensional rift with his CPU.

  • I guess I'm in the minority (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cbensinger (127227) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:15PM (#3461196) Homepage
    but I'd rather see something new than yet another Doom game. Yeah the graphics will probably be impressive and all; but I just can't see the attraction to rehashing the same concepts over and over. I suppose I'm no better as I have Civilization 1, 2, & now 3; but even though I've enjoyed each game in the series none was as good as the first there is just too much repetition in the series (and in any series really).

    Seems like the resources that'll get dumped into Doom 3 could be put towards something new and exciting; although I guess in the economic climate the easy decision is to revisit what's been successful...

    • Re:I guess I'm in the minority (Score:4, Insightful)

      by glwtta (532858) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:31PM (#3461256) Homepage
      Think of the resources as being put towards a big part of many new and exciting (and many more boring and repetitive) games - the engine will mostly likely be licensed by many companies over the next few years and will contribute to the development of interesting games... hopefully.
      • The only thing is Id just isn't far enough head to deserve all the press they get. I'm not knocking them; they do make the best 3d game engines around. But their competitors aren't nearly as behind as people would like to think.

        Usually you can't tell which engine a 3rd party game uses, anyway.

  • DOOM 3 poised to ruin old games? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Phexro (9814) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:16PM (#3461197)
    The mere thought of a new DOOM game is certainly exciting, but... RtCW ruined any joy I could possibly have replaying the old Wolf3D games - there's such a massive gap between high tech 1992 and high tech 2002.

    I have many fond memories of playing DOOM late at night with the volume cranked way up, and it was the game that gave me my love for horror games (Silent Hill, etc) - but could DOOM 3 destroy the replay value of the original DOOM games?

    I think the only saving grace is DOOM's atmosphere - I remember getting jumpy a few levels into episode 2. The graphics in Wolf3D couldn't really present an atmosphere like that.

    What do you think?
    • New games more advanced than old games? Well yes, it's pretty hard to argue with that, though I don't quite see the point. Would you like new games to look as bad as old ones?
    • Don't tell me you weren't at least a little creeped out by the zombie soldiers breaking through the walls or rising up from the fog. I admit, I did the "late night, lights off, volume up" thing myself to try and enhance the atmosphere, but for at least one level the RtCW guys did pretty good by themselves.
    • I too remember playing DOOM for the first time on my cousin's computer a long time ago. It was daylight out but the atmosphere of the game just gave you...an insecure feeling. DOOM II was (sorta) more of the same, but ever since then it seems that the games that have come out, though they have better effects and realism, are just not the same.

      I suppose all us twenty-something old timers need to keep in mind that DOOM came out when we were young and malleable, and we've been playing these games all our lives. Maybe we've become desensitized. Anyone younger care to say what they feel on DOOM vs a more recent FPS?

      • Re:DOOM 3 poised to ruin old games? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Thing 1 (178996) on Friday May 03 2002, @11:34PM (#3461550) Journal
        Anyone younger care to say what they feel on DOOM vs a more recent FPS?

        I was a couple years out of college when Doom came out. I remember distinctly two events:

        1. Playing Doom enough that when I came to a window in the game, looking down on the courtyard (which I always thought of as Jeremy, possibly because that Pearl Jam album had just come out then) -- and I sat up straighter and craned my neck to see what was out the window.
        2. Walking down the halls of my workplace -- looking for guns and ammo.

        The first is cool because the game had no z-level -- there could be raised floors, but there could never be anything under them. For a game with no z-level to make me believe it enough to crane my neck is impressive.

        The second is just freaky, and I think I may have scared some people discussing it at lunch. ;-)



        To answer your question, I enjoy Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, but they don't "grip" me like DOOM did.

        One of my favorite games lately has been Sacrifice, which has a somewhat-first-person-view (camera is behind the wizard). The best part is to have an easily-mapped "pause" key (I use "x" since movement is with the WASD method). Then you can really direct your creatures to their fullest extent -- many of them have powers that, during the heat of battle would be difficult to activate. Pausing makes a huge difference in the outcome. ;-)

        I tried Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but it was very dark and jerky. Perhaps that was just the beta version; I deleted it.

        I think it's like heroin or cocaine or any number of drugs for which the body develops a tolerance: it will never be as good as the first time. It cannot be, because of the chemistry involved. Similarly, I've already been surprised by a videogame. I'm not sure it'll happen again, at least not to the same extent. And I miss that. Guess I'm just getting old.

  • Hmm. Think the storyline might be different this time? My guess is the same old, same old. . .but as long as they keep the cliche exploding barrels from the original games (Doom, Doom II), I'm sure it will play like a charm :-)

    • Re:What, another *space marine* game? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Ravagin (100668) on Friday May 03 2002, @10:49PM (#3461458)
      Think the storyline might be different this time?

      If you recall, the first DOOM was space marines vs Hell. In the grand tradition of Dante's divine comedy, DOOM 3's space marine protagonist will take on the mildly rude legions of Purgatory.

      On the distant moon of Pluto, a top secret government project goes horribly wrong, opening a portal into Purgatory itself! Heathens, unbaptised babies and who knows what else have been set loose, and only you can save humanity.
      And they killed your rabbit.

  • Yay for tech demos (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Perianwyr Stormcrow (157913) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:20PM (#3461213) Homepage
    Each id game is pretty much a tech demo for what we should expect to see in the intervening years between games- I don't expect much out of Doom III- but it's a harbinger of the next Half-Life.

    • Re:Yay for tech demos (Score:4, Informative)

      by tswinzig (210999) on Friday May 03 2002, @10:55PM (#3461467) Journal
      Each id game is pretty much a tech demo for what we should expect to see in the intervening years between games- I don't expect much out of Doom III- but it's a harbinger of the next Half-Life.

      Speak for yourself. For many people that enjoy deathmatch over single player, the id Software games are king. I still prefer Quake 3 Arena over any other for deathmatch.

  • Doom Gameplay in a fully 3D engine (Score:5, Interesting)

    by galaga79 (307346) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:21PM (#3461218) Homepage
    It will be interesting to see if they can retain the original Doom gameplay in a fully 3D engine. I recall in the original the gameplay was very arcade like with with lots of enemies to fight at once, and that was possible because sprites use up far less resources than high polycount models. However looking at the screenshots it appears the emphasis is less on large confrontations and more about creating a sense of supsense through lighting.
    • Two words:

      Serious Sam.

      That game had TONS of enemies onscreen at once, all of them running straight for you. I guess there were 50-100 at most. If nothing else, it shows that even fully 3D games can have more than five enemies at once.

      (but that doesn't mean Doom 3 will go for lots of enemies. And sometimes less is better. Remember Alien?)

  • Why link to Yahoo!? (Score:3, Informative)

    by cLive ;-) (132299) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:21PM (#3461220) Homepage Journal
    ...when the press release is also on the ID web site [idsoftware.com]???

    .02

    cLive ;-)

  • may 22nd (Score:5, Informative)

    by Maskirovka (255712) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:22PM (#3461222)
    For the record, the electronic arts expo is may 22nd to 24th, which is when they'll show off Doom3.

    • Re:may 22nd (Score:2, Informative)

      by Osty (16825)

      electronic arts expo

      That would be Electronic Entertainment Expo (thus, E3). Electronic Arts (EA) is a game publishing house, most famous for their sports lines (Madden, NHL, FIFA, etc). While they're big, I don't think they're big enough to have such an important expo dedicated solely to their products.

  • Quake, to this day is still my favorite.

    Sure, I loved Doom 1 -- I first started playing on my 386sx25, postage stamp sized screen in low detail... i could tell when someone was shooting at me because the screen turned red. I would swivel in a circle until i saw flashing :)

    Then, my upgrade to an SLC2/66 -- Still couldnt run full screen full detail, but it was much better...

    Lots of late nights playing co-op over my v.fc zoom modem (sysop special)

    Playing 4 player doom2 over modem (APCi add on, lotsa money, lotsa hardware needed) was awesome..

    But, I'll never forget my first night playing doom. Sitting in my bedroom, sound going through my stereo, fire up the game and the first thing you hear is an awesome NIN song.... the ambient sounds were just awesome. The music couldnt have matched the maps better....

    Monsters jumping out, sounds perfect... scare the hell out of you. I have never felt so immersed in my life while playing a game.

    Thats just single player... multiplayer I spent more hours in that game then any other game ever. Alot of the mods kept it alive, especially TF before cheats became rampant.. If there was a cheat free version, I'd still be playing it today. Even the non GL version, since the "feel" was there, and it wasnt in the GL version.

    I dont think id has ever come close to Quake as far as "feel" has come.. the mouse always feels not quite up to par, and the movement has been slightly 'off' since that engine... Just, nothing has ever felt right since then.

    Its the small things that make all the difference.
    • Exactly, and i think the problem is making things more realistic. people don't want real, they want fast and smooth. It's all about reflexes, and i think Quake 1 shows it. Take a look back at streetfighter II and those types of games...even ms. pacman was a really fast game. They try to make it too realistic. the theory of running around shooting dumb guns and doing rocket jumps is all a falsehood anyway.

      The game should be quick and engaging. What makes the new engines suck is the level of detail that was implemented at the cost of making everyhing slower. i want speed, pretty always comes second.

  • It's been announced before (Score:4, Insightful)

    by OblongPlatypus (233746) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:27PM (#3461241)
    Aside from the original .plan update [webdog.org] from Carmack, there's been at least one official press release [shugashack.com] announcing Doom III before. This is just one of those "it's getting closer to release date so let's announce it again to make sure people haven't forgotten about us" press releases.
  • Yes, Doom 3 could do it. Betcha it comes out right about the time people are looking for a way to justify buying nVidia's latest & greatest and AMD's shiny new ClawHammer. Surely they'll do a x86-64 compile? Millions will buy new gear to play the game in all its glory. Hooray, we are saved!...

    ...but then tech worker productivity will plummet for the next month, the Internet will crash from millions playing Deathmatch, the federal deficit will skyrocket, and the whole economy goes into the crapper. Damn, I knew there had to be a catch.

    Screw it. Pass the railgun, lock & load.
    • "...but then tech worker productivity will plummet for the next month, the Internet will crash from millions playing Deathmatch, the federal deficit will skyrocket, and the whole economy goes into the crapper. Damn, I knew there had to be a catch. "

      right.. but there'll be a mainstream 64-bit processor? clearly, the good outweighs the bad.

  • Officially announced means (Score:4, Informative)

    by Screaming Lunatic (526975) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:38PM (#3461269) Homepage
    It means that they found a publisher, which is Activision. Having a publisher means they can put on a better show at E3. id definitely did not want to go to E3 without a publisher. Activision does what it is good at: marketing. id does what it is good at: making cool shit. The Activision deal should not be a surprise since they also published RtCW.

  • DOOM is what turned me into a geek... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2002, @09:44PM (#3461290)
    If it weren't for DOOM 1 and 2, I probably wouldn't be the CS major and full-time geek I am now.

    All those days of editing config files and especially creating my own levels that many of my friends have played -- that's what made me love the command-line, what later led me to love *nix, what made me realize the true power of computers.

    John Carmack, thank you for paving the way to my future.
  • ... so that for future school shootings ... when the media mentions that the kids played "video games like Doom", they will be talking about something that modern kids *actually* do.
  • I can see this now, special inputs for those of you with Borgified implants

    extra creepy crawly skin sensations, programmed just for you by those wonderful game programmers.

    Especially good when you are hiding in a corner, trying to stay perfectly still in ambush.

  • Play jDoom just for kicks... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by antdude (79039) on Friday May 03 2002, @10:07PM (#3461352) Homepage Journal
    If you can't stand the original DOOM graphics, then try JDoom [newdoom.com] with pretty graphics and effects. I had a blast replaying episode 1, 2, and DOOM II. It uses the original WAD files so you still need the original DOOM games!

    Sorry, no Linux port (only Windows) :(. Bug the author for one though ;).

  • What makes Doom (Score:5, Insightful)

    by steveha (103154) on Friday May 03 2002, @10:11PM (#3461362) Homepage
    The big question on my mind is whether this will really be a Doom game with modern technology, or whether it will really be another Quake with some scary trappings.

    To me, the defining features that make Doom are:

    Dozens of monsters swarming you all at once

    Monsters that can be tricked into killing each other

    Light and music providing atmosphere

    All this talk of how pretty Doom III will be, and how you will need a GeForce 4 or Radeon 8500 to play it, are making me worry that maybe you will only see a small handful of monsters at a time (like Quake). I'm not too worried about the other points.

    By the way, the screenshots reminded me a lot of the movie Aliens (the James Cameron sequel to Alien). I hope someone does a total conversion, or maybe they use the Doom III engine for an Aliens Vs. Predator game.

    steveha

    • Re:What makes Doom (Score:4, Informative)

      by Vireo (190514) on Saturday May 04 2002, @03:44AM (#3462004)
      I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I read somewhere (I think it was an interview with Carmack) that Doom 3 will be so polygon-heavy that even the basic gamespeed will be slower (and more realistic, no more running at 30 mph) -- not to mention that there will be few monsters at once. Last year they mentionned a GeForce 3 as a minimum for the game.

      However, you'll probably be delighted by the lighting and overall atmosphere, judging by last year's screenshots. Also, if I remember, dynamic lighting computations will allow tricks like a character half hidden in the shadows, slowly revealing himself as he moves; or incredible lights-behind-fans effects including shadows.

      I think Carmack and the rest of id Software know very well that yet another no-plot, dumb-action Wolf/Doom/Quake-like game will be badly perceived by the public; for my part, I wouldn't be surprised if Doom 3 is a story-driven game much closer to an interactive movie.
  • I'm really looking forward to any product ID Software puts out. Why? Because they always raise the bar as far as 3D game engines go. However, I really don't enjoy ID games. Their forte is in graphics engines and not putting it all together. For example, I personally believe that Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is superior to RTCW in every way (graphics, sound, multiplayer). And yes, I own both games.

    Put this engine into the hands of a development house such as Raven Software, and you will see works of art!!

  • Doom3 spurs on the next Tech economy! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Apoptosis66 (572145) on Friday May 03 2002, @10:22PM (#3461391)
    I know this is going to sound rediculas but it is true, I have been planning my next computer purchase around the release of Doom3 for almost two years now. Hopefully that new Nvidia GPU is out before the game, I would also like a Hammer (or whatever they are calling it today) to go with it. I think Doom3 will be a big boost to computer sales. I remember going out and buying the first pentium computer just to play Doom 2 with my friends. Is Doom 3 going to increase anyone elses computer spending?

  • x86-64 and OpenGL 2 versions? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2002, @10:39PM (#3461430)
    John Carmack is realistically the only reason we have any OpenGL support from companies like ATI.

    Will he release an OpenGL 2.0 targetted version of the game with more features for next generation cards like the one announced by 3DLabs or just release one version with half a dozen different rendering paths for all the different chips that can run the game to avoid favouring any company? Probably not because Windows will only be at version 1.1 of OpenGL, but maybe if he wants to see OpenGL 2.0 be viable instead of just DX9...

    Is there a company more likely than id to release a downloadable x86-64 version of their game? I'll be interesting to see if x86-64 with all those other SSE registers can offer extra performance in a game... We've heard 5% more performance on average, will FPU intensive games be at the 0% range or really high?

  • Perspective (Score:4, Interesting)

    by A_Non_Moose (413034) on Saturday May 04 2002, @12:33AM (#3461714) Homepage Journal
    Wolf was great because it brought FPS's on to the scene...but IMO it was not very immersive.

    DooM I and II were visually impressive for their day, but the Immersion Factor is what made the games kick ass. Fun with chainsaws too.

    Ultimate Doom. Summation: AAAAaaahhhrrruuughhh!
    Get the most sadistic SOB's to make levels that challenge you to no end. Even if you tired of DooM...those levels just plain ROCKED!

    Heretic (doom engine)..I can look up! and down! and I can FLY, I can FLY!! yeeehaaa.
    Not terribly immersive, just fun to play.

    Quake. Hummm... just WOW ain't quite good enuf.
    Fun, Fast paced, decent AI, Swim, dammit, swim!
    And a rocking soundtrack to boot.

    Quake II. Good deathmatching, so so Single Play.

    Kingpin. Solid game play and death match. Fast, furious, neat weapons (HMG's rule..they RULE!)
    (loved getting quake players in game and using the grenade launcher...doesn't explode on contact..hehe...freak out time)

    Quake III. Awesome Grfx, well done AI, and Single Player Deathmatch...interesting and fun in an eveloutionary way.

    (I leave out Descent 1,2 and 3. One came out after doom2 and had a section called "Doom recovery 101. True 3d environment and wicked AI.
    Bots would *HUNT* you, tag team you, rush you or lure you while others smacked you around... just brilliant...and kept getting better).

    DooM3...We'll see. The only saving grace for Q3 was: I could play it on my Mac, and now on my dual box with SMP enabled and a TNT2 (was a gimme, and PCI only system..meh).
    I hope id makes some concessions for "us" of the not-quite-state-of-the-art-fronkenstheen-boxen-own ers.

    .

  • idtla (Score:3, Funny)

    by MadFarmAnimalz (460972) on Saturday May 04 2002, @03:19AM (#3461972) Homepage
    Open letter to John Carmack:

    The masses demand their 'iddqd' and 'idkfa'. We wimps wanna Doom too. And three even.

      • This has all been hashed out many times (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Chirs (87576) on Friday May 03 2002, @09:46PM (#3461296)

        Go read some of the FAQs on the C++ newsgroups and sites.

        C++, when programmed well, is about the same speed as C when programmed well. However, it offers various ways of improving programming when properly handled.

        Look at the Boost++ library as an example of using C++ to get levels of numerical performance near to Fortran--which was almost impossible with plain C.
      • Since when are "applications that don't squeeze the last drop of performance out of a system" not qualified as real programming? For the most part, remember, CPU speed isn't the big bottleneck that it used to be; the overhead involved in using C++, in most instances, isn't particularly important, even in gaming.


        Now, the whole 'C++ is better than C' notion is rather silly (of course, since you were replying to a troll, it's not like anyone was claiming it anyway), but stop slinging the FUD about. It's not a matter of one is slow, and one is fast -- it's a matter of picking the right tool for the job.

    • Re:GPU (Score:3, Informative)

      by wackybrit (321117)
      In fact I was waiting for Doom III to buy _the right_ 3D card for it. Now the time has come.. wich one is it?

      Don't get too excited, my friend. Don't expect to see Doom III for quite some time. No dates have been mentioned yet, and it might not even be out by Christmas.

      That said, Carmack has said a good GeForce 3 will run the game at a 'playable' frame rate.. but that might only be at 800x600. A super top-of-the-range GeForce 4 should see you okay.

      However, since you don't want to play games, and Doom III won't be out for ages anyway, why not just wait until a few weeks before its out and then buy whatever you can afford? You'll probably want to get up into Athlon 1400+ territory too, and some DDR memory wouldn't hurt either ;-).. it's gunna need some serious memory bandwidth.
    • Hmm... I'm not even sure it's so much "atmosphere" as it is originality. When games like Doom (or even Duke Nukem 3D) came out, they were so much fun because you never knew what was going to happen next. The weapons were mostly "never seen/done before", and the enemies would truly scare you as you kept running into more and more powerful ones with new tricks up their sleeves.

      This whole 3D shooter genre has been done and re-done so many times now, I think we've gotten to the point where we've seen everything. Tricks like grenades you could toss and detonate with a second click of the mouse aren't "awesome" anymore. It's not exciting anymore when you push on a secret wall or walk over a sequence of buttons on the floor that open up a new room. All that's left is to keep incrementally improving the graphics resolution, and make good use of surround sound.

      When they attempt to improve things by adding more storyline (movie sequences/intermissions), that's not even so great anymore. It is, after all, still supposed to be an action game. Those cut scenes just make for more B.S. to click past and slow down the loading of the next level. There was a time when people watched those in awe, just to see the "real-life" graphics quality of them. Nowdays, everyone's seen full-screen multimedia - and we just don't care anymore.

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