Doom3 first impressions

leeroybrown

ID made Doom3 as a platform to demonstrate/sell their next generation engine. Now they'll slot into their normal business of licencing, upgrading and maintaining the engine for other games.

If there is ever a Doom4 it will be for their next big game engine project (the start of which is at least 3 years away).

KdjaCL

Splash Damage seemingly doing RTCW , ID have a team on Quake , carmack and the doom team moving onto a new IP using Doom 3 engine.

Im sure there be somfin before next years e3.

kdjac

neXus9

l3rian wrote:

i got bored of farcry, thief, painkiller, manhunt very quickly, because of the dumb computer ai, and repeatitive gameplay

Really? I thought the AI in far cry was pretty good compared to other games.

Pugsley

neXus9 wrote:

Really? I thought the AI in far cry was pretty good compared to other games.

Nah not really, I found it mediocre at best, and I also found Farcry rather boring and uninteresting, however I kept playing hoping to get better, but the game was just 'ok' the whole way through IMO.

stakey

got my copy this morning, have a repeat exam next week so i wont be playing this much if not at all until the exam is finished after tonight...

anyway, thoughts and first impressions,

9600 XT Graphics Card, 512MB TwinMOS Twister, Athlon XP @ 1.95

playing doom 3 in 800 x 600 at high quality

--GRAPHICS--

with the above spec: results -- excellent

impressions -- better than the far cry engine, though we are only looking at dark shaded indoor levels, not lush huge outdoor jungles, so we'll have to see what this engine can do...

-- GAMEPLAY --

highly entertaining, hasnt left the classic doom gameplay totally in the bin but leans alot to the gameplay of later ID titles like Quake.

levels are good, somewhat linear but again, doom, not halflife here, doom...

speaking of halflife, despite being competitors nice nods in HL's direction throughout

addictive as ****, really want to come back and pick up the shotgun over and over...

limit on ammo is great! intelligent marines is great! zombies (mmm... annoying only because you waste most of yer ammo on the bastards)

-- SOUND --

really atmospheric, could've done with Trent Reznor on board, but really good, some really good moments, hadly hair raising but very atmospheric and draws you right in to the game...

-- OVERALL --

Its not hard, FPS old timers will find it easy enough, just go in on hardest setting for a challenge, graphics rock, gameplay is great and sound is at worst overwhelming.

Will i play on? Yup!

WORD OF ADVICE?

If you have a system that meets the minimum spec the game will play no prob, dont freak out and buy the latest gear buy it and have a whirl

you folks who's machines are overheating etc seriously WTF?

Bunny

Just played DOOM3, first modern game I've played really since Half-life and I thought it was pretty rubbish..

Doom3 is just half-life basically with doom monsters and alot darker, anyone looking for an original game shouldn't bother buying it, if you just want to kill things that constantly pop out of secret doors and look at pretty graphics then get it..

The whole thing is just another boring games cliche but not of doom1 or 2..but of half-life..I don't want to look at another monorail or 'talk' to another scientist or blah you get the idea.

neXus9

Pugsley wrote:

Nah not really, I found it mediocre at best, and I also found Farcry rather boring and uninteresting, however I kept playing hoping to get better, but the game was just 'ok' the whole way through IMO.

To me it's the best for the group AI that's on offer at the moment (It's cool when they flank you down), or is there better? What's the doom 3 AI like? Do the monsters team up against you and work together?

PcP

Bunny wrote:

anyone looking for an original game shouldn't bother buying it, if you just want to kill things that constantly pop out of secret doors and look at pretty graphics then get it..

anyone looking for an original game probably shouldn't buy something with a 3 at the end tbh. Don't get me wrong, if it's not your thing then fair enough but it never pretented to be anything other than Doom on a really sweet new engine. Personally, I love killing things that constantly pop out of secret doors and looking at the pretty graphics

Pugsley

neXus9 wrote:

To me it's the best for the group AI that's on offer at the moment (It's cool when they flank you down), or is there better? What's the doom 3 AI like? Do the monsters team up against you and work together?

If you let them flank you your either A) reloading, b) half asleep, c) out of ammo all together. Anyway, pretty much 90% of their attempted flankings are just because thats the quickest route to you, cant say I ever even got close to ebing surrounded by the guys in FarCry, even in the dense jungle area's just keep your guard up and nothing ever gets close, or very far after being seen, same goes for Halo tbh (while its better than FarCry IMO, still higly overrated). In Doom the deamons rarely team up mainly because you only really fight 3 or 4 at a time, most I have ever fought would only be about 12 or so, and most of them were the spiders (probably about 6 or 7), and the area's are too compact to have any sort of tactics in the fights, however their use of cover is second to none, the zombie marines really know what to hide behind for optimum cover, I have even seen one get out from behind a small crate he was hiding behind in favour of a larger crate, for better protection, while his team mate just gave covering fire.

koneko

There isn't much AI to speak of in Doom3, but ID have (afaik) always said they weren't interested in AI. The monsters are pretty basic, run at you and shoot/claw/bite/whatever. The marines may seem like they have AI but it's really basic. They may hide behind a box and peep out to shoot at the same intervals (each guy has the same pattern), as soon as you remember/notice their timing you can kill them without them getting you.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game and all, but it's pretty basic gameplay wise (graphics are brill). Pop out and shoot as someone said. Once you pass the invisible trigger on the ground (or pick up that item), the monster will appear. It's a pretty basic formula. Don't expect any revolution in gaming besides the graphics and you're grand, it's another Doom game, it's exactly what you'd expect.

DAMN SPIDERS! heh

neXus9

Pugsley wrote:

If you let them flank you your either A) reloading, b) half asleep, c) out of ammo all together.

I mean, it's cool when they try to flank you down.

Pugsley wrote:

same goes for Halo tbh (while its better than FarCry IMO, still higly overrated).

Are you saying that the group AI is better in halo, or the game itself is better?

Pugsley

The AI is about par, but Halo the game I found more fun (loved the way the armour worked in it), and Halo had more lastability to it I think (rather hazey on it though).

Placebo

playing it at 640 x 480 or whatever . LOWEST setting, just doesnt cut it.
Ultra high setting = around 7fps .

High = seems reasonable, gonna try it out properly.
Some zombies at start died too easy, **** scary though, dont see myself playing this alone, at night specially.

runs good on high, very good game, scary as hell though. I have to say playing the beta did wreck it some what for me, cause the zombies here are dying much quickly as opposed to that ****e i played.

Is1ldur

It really is exactly like the original Doom. Only the Doom games can make mu jump like that when the lights go out. Excellent use of sound also. The graphics, I need not comment on, except to say that I wish I had an uber-system, instead of just playing it on high, with a few stutters here and there. Maybe slightly disappointed that Valve appear to have come out with the better game, as far as story, interactivity, etc.(I'm just basing that on the movies Valve released and could be proved wrong), are concerned, but I am enjoying it nonetheless.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Finally finnish Doom III. Have to say I found it a bit of a chore. Dark room...picl up ammo....monster appears in front and behind you over and over again. But thats doom gameplay although the origionals didn't try to be so sly just serious sam sytle outnumbering with baddies. This trying to scare you becomes tedious after a while.
The graphics are Good no doubt but am I the only person to thing the farcry graphics and physics are better? The textures in Doom III are so low res they look crap close up. The specular highlights are not used as well as in farcry and all the surfaces look flat. No doubt the Doom engine is great but I dont think that Doom III is the game that really shows it off to its potential.
The surround sound is top notch....none better
AI in Doom III is non-existant full stop
All in all Doom III is a good game that looks pretty enough I think that Farcry stole a lot of its thunder though. The wow factor just was not there with the graphics cause Farcry already raised the bar. The gameplay was mediocre at best. I was more than a little disappointed. I look forward to STALKER and HL2 and hope thay can deliver some of their hype.
Just my opinion

-ADREN-

I dont know I dont like it so much for some reason, it si very atmospheric and all, but there is just something that I cant quite pin point that makes me not love it.

I think its alot like half life as well..

Facility Malfuntion, zomies, random strange spawning of creatures from differnet worlds (zen), see the 2 lads trying to get to someplace, and you only being able to see them and here them (The G-Man)

I know what some of you are gong to say.. that the original doom had the zombies and the random spawing, but the other things coupled with half lifes major success makes doom 3 look all to familure.

The graphics are nice, but theres something about them that makes me feel clumped or something, it might well have to do with me only playing games from the half life engine in the past 4 years, but the likes of quake 3 seems better moving abouts and stuff than D3. Its something I cant place just yet, but its making the whole experiance of doom 3 not so great.

Bring on Half Life 2.

swiss

I finished it recently on the marine setting, I'll probably replay it on the veteran setting.

Performance wise, I have to say that despite doing a few tweaks I feel I should be getting a little more out of my system. I'm running 1024 x 768 at medium settings and using a tweaked config. Most of the time, especially in dark areas I'm hitting the 60 fps mark. However, in expansive areas with lots of light sources, such as the EPD (if I remember that acronym correctly) the FPS drops to the 22 mark. This is with an AMD XP2600+ with 1Gb of RAM and a 9800Pro. I've considered flashing my 9800Pro BIOS to an XT but given the reports of artifacts with overclocked hardware, that might be a bad idea.

Gameplay wise, I found it quite linear and the spawn pattens of various monsters became quite predicatable after a while. That's not to say I didn't get a few surprises, but for the most part I would find that I would walk into an area, then turn around in case an imp or similar baddie would spawn. I was usually right.

What really made this game stand out was the graphics, the textures and the pure attention to detail that really makes a game immersive. I'm talking about the cola cans that lie on workstations, the option to save files on some workstations which seems to be a purely cosmetic feature, the news feeds on the working televisions etc.

As for the ammo shortage, I have to say "what ammo shortage"? Just before

I entered hell for the first time

I had over 250 shotgun rounds, 120 odd pistol rounds, and the ammunition for my other weapons was maxed out. On the extremely rare occasion where I was running a little low on ammuntion, I simply switched to another weapon. I can only assume ammo is tighter on the veteran skill setting.

Dr. Loon

swiss wrote:

, the option to save files on some workstations which seems to be a purely cosmetic feature, the news feeds on the working televisions etc.

I've been wondering what that's all about. It serves no real purpose does it?

As for the game. I love it. Can get predictable, but still great. It's exactly what I expected from Doom and then more. The interaction with displays and keypads is brilliant. Lighting and atmosphere truly excellent, and with the new soundpack floating around, the guns and beasts sound alot better.

jesus_thats_gre

I was starting to loose interest in it ever so slowly but I am getting into it again. The first half of the game on medium difficulty wasnt actually hard at all but a few more enemies seem to be appearing now.

The story elements of the game seem to be an after thought too.

jesus_thats_gre

Pugsley wrote:

The AI is about par, but Halo the game I found more fun (loved the way the armour worked in it), and Halo had more lastability to it I think (rather hazey on it though).

Agreed, Halo is a far more impressive game. I would put Doom 3 on a par with Far Cry tbh..

Giblet

I hated halo with a passion, the movement felt rubbish, and fighting the same three terrible looking bad guys for two hours doesn't help while running around a grey walled space ship.

Doom has character.

Speedway

Ok i got the game this evening and i'm not that impressed mainly cause of how badly it seems to be running on my machine
my specs are:

P4 2.8Ghz w/ hyper threading
1024mb DDR Ram
Gainward GeForce FX5200 w/ 256 mb mem
120GB Seagate Barracuda ATI Drive
etc etc
It is nearly double the minimum requirements to run the game but for some reason its so jerky its nearly unplayable. I ran far cry fine on my machine on medium settings but no matter how much i tinker with doom 3's it wont run well. I even set it at 640X480 with all effects off AND playing it in a window, not in full screen and it still is very jerky. Any ideas anyone??

RuggieBear

Speedway wrote:

Gainward GeForce FX5200 w/ 256 mb mem

That i believe is your problem!!!:D EDIT: It ["it" being Doom 3 not a fx5200] kills my machine as well...altho the tweaks make it run better!

p

Speedway

how do u mean thats the prob? the chipset just not up to it or what?Any ideas where to pick up the tweaks for it?

RuggieBear

Speedway wrote:

how do u mean thats the prob? the chipset just not up to it or what?Any ideas where to pick up the tweaks for it?

You'll have to forgive me here (I'm a bit jarred) but if you search for doom and tweaks on boards or on the net you might be able to find it. Look at this thread for some idea on how that card will go. I coild well be mistaken but i've always considered that card weaker than the ti4200 in everything except for Dx9

Giblet

Yeah the card is dismal, and never run games in a window!

neXus9

I found this tweak which seems to work. Havn't tried it yet myself, though.

Tusky

hmmm - got it installed but the sound wont work any ideas ?

KdjaCL

Tusky wrote:

hmmm - got it installed but the sound wont work any ideas ?

fiddle with the in game options and if you have creative thingy ,in its contrl panel change the settings to sync.

kdjac

neXus9

neXus9 wrote:

I found this tweak which seems to work. Havn't tried it yet myself, though.

The tweak works pretty well, much smoother play. I set it to seta image_cacheMegs "128" (I have a gig of ram).