



Doom 3 Xbox Previewed, PC Version No-Show At E3 69
Thanks to IGN Xbox for its hands on preview of the E3 demo for the Xbox version of Doom 3, Vicarious Visions' conversion of id's long-awaited FPS title. They comment: "The atmosphere is dark, the pacing of the demo somewhat slow, and every aspect more fitting of a survival horror game than a run and gun shooter", but praise the results: "That's not a bad thing at all, in fact, it makes for a more intriguing title... The hard part for fans is going to be looking past expectations of what a DOOM game should be and embracing what DOOM 3 is." Elsewhere, GameSpot has a preview confirming that the PC version will not be shown at E3, since id "is locked in 'completion phase' at the company's Mesquite, Texas, offices", and both previews also reference the previously revealed, not yet playable Xbox-exclusive co-operative mode.
exclusive features are stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:exclusive features are stupid (Score:1)
By then the X-Prize will have been won, Armadillo will have at least duplicated the feat, and the private space club will be working on X-Prize-2: Orbit.
Re:exclusive features are stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:exclusive features are stupid (Score:1)
Several of us in my office enjoy playing games together, and co-op is our most favorite mode. Unfortunately, games makers, now including Id, are missing a great market. Working together through a great storyline is tons of fun - more so than the standard DM / CTF / etc modes.
The reality is that Id was probably paid a boatload of cash for
Re:Don't make me play with those XBox controllers. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Don't make me play with those XBox controllers. (Score:2)
What I know they won't be keeping, unfortunately, was Doom's incredible raw speed. The original Doom was fast (well, when running) - faster than Quake 1 even. The catch was it was also slippery as heck, so you had to walk if you didn't want to fall off of things.
The other thing Doom had that I know we won't be seeing are those rooms of 50 imps. I guess Serious Sam remains as the only *
Re:Don't make me play with those XBox controllers. (Score:2)
Re:Don't make me play with those XBox controllers. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Don't make me play with those XBox controllers. (Score:2)
With the specs that have been demonstrated, they'll be lucky to get a half dozen animated meshes onscreen at once - PC or XBox.
The removal of Co-op, i'm guessing, is because the PC requires alot more compliance testing, and that takes time and money. On the console, there's only one hardware config - and that leaves you some breathing room to get fancy (when the publisher is aiming for a near-simultaneous launch).
That and XBox Live is broad-band only, meaning co
Re:Don't make me play with those XBox controllers. (Score:2)
Re:Don't make me play with those XBox controllers. (Score:2)
I understand that I don't need a super high-end rig - but I've got a 1ghz celly, and a geforce3 as stands. Getting a new processor requires a new motherboard - which requires a new power supply and new memory. (my curre
Re:Don't make me play with those XBox controllers. (Score:2)
And I can't see how the Xbox is ever going to handle something like HL2's level of interactivity and complexity
Exclusive? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Exclusive? (Score:1)
Re:Exclusive? (Score:3, Insightful)
The exciting thing about the article is that it hints that the PC version is in "final lockdown." If that means the same thing in the gaming industry as it does in the enterprise software agency, Id is in the f
Re:Exclusive? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Exclusive? (Score:2)
Re:Exclusive? (Score:2)
I just hope... (Score:2, Interesting)
Sounds a bit like Eternal Darkness. I just hope they don't use any more insanity effects, especially not the BSOD one. Too many people will be so used to seeing it that they'll just restart the machine automatically. Not good after three hours of unsaved playing.
Re:I just hope... (Score:2)
Imagine playing the game on Linux and getting a "game effect" BSOD.
Re:I just hope... (Score:2)
Sounds like someone needs to be introduced to Mr. Quick Save.
Re:Oh boy... (Score:3, Insightful)
As for HL2, we don't know what they'll have yet. HL2 will be shown in two different places (ATI and Valve each have it at their booths), but no word on whether it'll be playable or not, just that there will be new content. If I were them, I'd go for a small playable area: they can get tons of postitive feedback without having to give too much more of the game away. But it might just be more movies (likely that is what
No PC version (Score:3, Funny)
Re: No PC version (Score:1)
The PC and Xbox versions
the PC version under development at id
Xbox version will ship after the PC version
the PC version will ship when it's done
id will not show the PC version at E3
there will still be multiplayer for both Xbox and PC
it's not certain if the PC will support more players
The PC version will ship with a level editor
having seen both the Xbox and PC versions in action
No PC version? Scandal!
Re:No PC version (Score:2)
Doom 3 Is Old Hat Anyway... (Score:5, Interesting)
I love ID as a company, but I don't think the new Doom deserves all the empty hype and massive system upgrades.
Besides, what made ID, Doom and Quake popular in the first place was mindless, bloody, fast paced carnage. That's what ID needs to focus on, IMHO.
Re:Doom 3 Is Old Hat Anyway... (Score:3, Interesting)
IMO I had the chance to taste it and I can tell you this much, Doom 3 is to doom What the new ninja Gaiden is to the nes ninja gaiden. Simply the best horror game Ive played.
I didn't like Doom 64 (Score:2, Informative)
I got tired of
Re:Doom 3 Is Old Hat Anyway... (Score:3, Interesting)
There were two games that came out from another developer which featured this kind of content. They were Serious Sam and Serious Sam : The Second Encounter. Both of which initially retailed for $20 USD. Fans loved it. Reviewers praised it. But money didn't come.
Its not easy releasing any game with a back history these days. If Half-Life 2 somehow manages to suck
Re:Doom 3 Is Old Hat Anyway... (Score:2)
Huh? What does that mean? It didn't sell?
Re:Doom 3 Is Old Hat Anyway... (Score:2)
Also, since when do opinionated Internet gamers cause game companies to go bankrupt? I can see if they don't recoup their expenses, but it'll take more than complaining to get that to happen.
Re:Doom 3 Is Old Hat Anyway... (Score:2)
The same with Quake. In fact, looking at my Quake box, most of the praise seems to be going towards the game's atmosphere and scariness. You remember how dark the game was, right? You remember Trent Reznor's creepy soundtrack, right? You remember monsters jumping out at you from the shadows, right?
It's unfortunate, but id
Ouch. (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation: Our xbox version (which is relatively simple) is kind of ready but theirs (which is very complex considering the range of cards it has to work on and internet/modding features) is not, so we wont release any version until they are both ready, the cows come home or armaggedon is here.
There goes another E3 and no Doom 3 yet.
And for sanity's sake someone should ban the term "when it's done" in an interview, gamers are traumatized with Duke Nukem Forever.
"when it's done" (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmmm, you must not be familiar with the trauma of waiting six months for a patch to make a game that you've already paid for playable. That, my friend, sucks far more and that's a fact.
I think Id saying "when it's done" is just fine. It's them being arrogant and realistic at the same time. Good for them.
Don't blame companies like Id and Valve for being in control of their own destiny.
Re:"when it's done" (Score:2)
*cough* Halo PC *cough*
well I don't know about you.. (Score:5, Insightful)
sure, it got into a run and shoot after you played it through couple of times or in a deathmatch, but the first time it was pretty horrorish, lights going out, monsters breathing and stuff like that.
Re:well I don't know about you.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Even more so was the Aliens Total Conversion mod for Doom (or was it Doom II?). That, my friends, has been the only game ever to literally have me jumping out of my seat as I played it (at midnight, with the lights out, and headphones on).
Granted, my gaming has asymptotically been aproaching nill ever since that time as I grew older (that game is, what, 10 years old now?), but man, I've never found a more thoroughly immersive gaming experience as Aliens TC.
BTW... anyone know where I can score a
Re:well I don't know about you.. (Score:3, Interesting)
The Aliens TC was s*tcanned by the studio almost immediately after it came out. Bummer. The guys who created that created a work of art IMHO. I saw an early beta and was blown away by the textures alone.
I'd love to be able to point you to a copy but I never got to download the thing. I was on vacation the week it came out, and it was gone by the time I got back.
wbs.
Re:well I don't know about you.. (Score:2, Informative)
Legacy Doom has some good, but not perfect, compatibility with older wads. And theres of course the jDoom/Doomsday Engine, which has made the original Doom a great experience.
Aliens TC can be get here [filelibrary.com].
Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure why everyone's spoiling their pants over this one. Ok, I do. Gamers go wacky over screenshots and pixels. But we're not only living in a post-DirectX9 world here, we're living in a post Half Life, post Halo, post Call to Duty, post Deus Ex etc FPS world. What I mean is that we're living in a gaming world where games tell stories. Sure, they're not always great (Far Cry comes immediately to mind). But sometimes they are (Deus Ex 1, or the FPS-esque Max Payne). Doom, redone in today's gaming environment, would not only be pretty but not be Doom anymore because it would actually have a legitimate story. As far as I can tell, there is none in Doom III (zombies on a space station sums it up). This isn't surprising, as Carmack has often evangelized that games are as much about story as pornography is.
Doom III is a tech demo to sell the engine off to more competant storytellers. There's a whole other audience besides gamers that no one has really mentioned, and that's the developing community. Doom III is as much about licensing the new engine out, if not more so, than making a fun game to play.
To the PC fanboys who have been whining about the Xbox version, you need to realize that you're not the only one Carmack is making this game for. It's not just developers for the PC, which are becoming rarer and rarer. It's developers for consoles, which are quickly becoming much more numerous. I would venture to say that Microsoft probably did not pay much, if anything at all, to get Doom III on the XBox. It's doubtful they could replicate a reasonable facsimile on the PS2, and (sadly) why bother on the GC? Rather, if iD and Vicarious can port the D3 engine over to the Xbox, it opens far more doors in this market than the PC version does. So why the exclusive co-op? Because I think that although iD might be afraid to say it out loud for fear of alienating their PC fanboys, there is more money to be had both on the consumer and especially on the developer side with the consoles (represented by the xbox in this case).
*Of course, it could be duly noted that Doom III may be instrumental in turning the tables in the cycle and perhaps making the PC more prominent than it has been with this generation of consoles. That, though, is only temporary (a year at best) if the next generation of consoles starts to come out 2005.
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:2, Interesting)
When I want to play a game with a great story, I turn to Planescape: Torment, or The Dig, or Day of the Tentacle, etc...
By the way, last year I attended a meeting with Carmack at Stony Brook University, and he said pretty much the above: Doom doesn't need no stinking story. He also said PC games are usually much more st
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:1)
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:2)
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:1)
You're a marine, one of Earth's toughest, hardened in combat and trained for action. Three years ago you assaulted a superior officer for ordering his soldiers to fire upon civilians. He and his body cast were shipped to Pearl Harbor, while you were transferred to Mars
Upgraded storyline? (Score:3, Funny)
You're right, I haven't orgasmed over every little screenshot that's come out. I watched a trailer a few months ago, and I don't remember seeing much about a storyline, just swinging lights, nice mirrors, and bumpmapped zombies. On a space station.
you might have found something similar to the following text in the readme file
So, if the storyline is upgraded for Doom III does that mean we'll have to look in an XML file to read i
Re:Upgraded storyline? (Score:1)
Apparently you didn't watch the trailer. Go to Doom3.com and try again. I haven't tried the leaked alpha, and besides the screenshots on the website and what's been said here on Slashdot, I haven't seen much either. Somehow I was able to figure it out though
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:2)
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:4, Insightful)
And if you've played the alpha, then you'll know that they really have tried to work in ongoing events, scripted cutscenes and dynamic (though still scripted) custom in game animations, into the game. The way you move seamlessly from computer controlled in engine cutscenes to player controlled action is a great way to give the adventure some life and story.
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:2)
Not true at all. An excellent example is Nintendo based consoles. Not only do you have to pay for an proprietary development environment, but you also have to pay for: Licenses, Production, Certification, that little sticker that sais "Nintendo", and a whack load of other stuff that you don't have with PC games. Oh and if you think that you can use the third party based development tools to develop
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:1)
Re:Doom III = Tech Demo Redux, and Why Xbox (Score:2)
Id isn't reponsible for this (Score:2)
Exclusitivity & Modding in a PC/Console World (Score:4, Insightful)
In the case of Doom3, I would think that this would lead to some enterprising person writing the code and getting a good start before the Xbox version hits the streets.
Survival horror? (Score:2)
Well, I guess that just confirms that I'll be playing HL2 first.
Rob
Oh no. . . Oh no no no. . . (Score:4, Insightful)
If id isn't showing the PC version off at E3, it means the Xbox version is looking more presentable. I'm scared, Dave. It's ruining lives.
After I was disappointed by DX:IW, I'm scared to see the Xbox dethroning the PC version at E3, regardless of the reasons used.
Re:Oh no. . . Oh no no no. . . (Score:2)
And what happened with DX:IW is that the devs made the Xbox and PC versions simultaneously and basically identical, crippling the very design of the game with Xbox insanity. id instead is focusing solely on the PC, like they always have. An entirely different developer is then taking their stuff, and changing it so that it works on the Xbo