Doom 3 first impressions

[HangFire]

Since its out in a few places and going to be out everywhere immenently, I'd like to hear what people have to say about it after they try it.


And no, I didn't pirate my copy. I pre-ordered my copy months ago, so ID has had my money for a long time now.


In my opinion, it definently lives up to all the hype. Graphics are excellent, its frightening and tense, and above all the gameplay is top notch. I only have a few complaints, such as the fact that ID dropped the coop multiplayer for some damn reason. Well actually thats my only complaint. This game isn't perfection, but it comes close.

I really like how they add in things reminiscent of the original Doom. Theres various references to it and I've heard sound effects from the original in Doom 3.



Also, its amazing how many people already have this game and its not even supposed to out yet. This proves what I mean, but its a potential spoiler ahead.




This here site (http://www.martianbuddy.com/)


This is the site of "Martian Buddy", a fictional company in the game. Sort of like the ones in Max Payne 2. Its part of a secret in the game, going to the website gives you the code for a locker. Anyway, look at the "unique visitors" at the bottom of the page. Over 27,000 last I checked. And thats the people who found this secret. Theres probably at least 50,000 people by my guess who have Doom 3.

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

i have also preordered it and will have it tommorow morning.

[biohazerd87]

I already have it and it is sooooooo sweet fellers i hope you have a good system 2!!! ID (maker of the game) says to play the game at ultra high graphics you need a 512meg graphics card which are scarce mainly cause they are work stations hahaha

[stefanhendriks]

I already have it and it is sooooooo sweet fellers i hope you have a good system 2!!! ID (maker of the game) says to play the game at ultra high graphics you need a 512meg graphics card which are scarce mainly cause they are work stations hahaha
by the time i buy my computer, i bet the hardware to run doom 3 will be uber cheap :D

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

i built my system for 1100 bucks american

[HangFire]

I play it at 800x600 and it looks spectacular. Raising the resolution to 1024x768 made very little difference to graphics quality and a huge difference in my frame rate.

The game's auto-detect even wanted me to run the game on 640x480. Thats a bit too low for me.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

oy, 512MB video ram.. that's just as much as my DDR o_O

[TruB]

i got 128.. it better be enough.. i dont really care about the game.. but its something to do until DA game comes.. hl2..

[stefanhendriks]

and thats why HL2 will rock with its scalable engine and such. People who play HL1 and CS 1.6, do not care if the engine looks 'less good' then 'super hl2 gfx', as they are already used to the cs 1.6 gfx. I bet they will see improvements anyhow, its more like: "You get eye candy, but it depends on your system how much it is". Therefor anyone has a benefit , PLUS you do not have to upgrade your computer.

Ah, but we did not mention STEAM yet heh ;)

[biohazerd87]

Doom 3 = Better Graphics x 10

Half-Life 2 = Better Physics
Better AI

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

i got 128.. it better be enough.. i dont really care about the game.. but its something to do until DA game comes.. hl2..thats plenty.

[TruB]

its not hardcore.. ID seems to want you to have that..
its not latest either.. radeon9600

but about what you said BioHazard..

ive read alot of discussions about which got bets GFX.. doom or hl2.. they talk about how many object rendered at that same time in a scene.. hl2 with massive areas.. and many characters.. alos the nice face expressions..

doom.. it looks really good.. more polys.. on each thing.. smaller areas.. indoor?.. lesser charachters..

then what is what can be discussed over and over again..

some say you cant compare the grafik.. since they got diffrent goals of there engine..

but in the end.. the gfx do little.. its not about that.. yes you wanne see nice views.. but when you really enjoy the game.. what do you look at.. you dont look really.. you are in middle of fight.. or just finished a puzzle..

alittle like stefan talked about.. the cs players.. who played cs.. no good gfx to talk about.. they dont really care about it.. why do most of the look forward to cs s?.. its not only the gfx i can tell you that..

[cruft]

Here's an interesting article on what hardware will run the game:
http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0

According to the article, and according to id software, "If you have a 1.5GHz Pentium and a 3D card that has been made in the last couple of years, you should be able to enjoy the DOOM 3 experience as it was meant to be."

Looks like all you need is a 1.5GHz processor, 384MB system memory, 2GB of hard space, and a geforce3 or better. Of course, you won't see the game in it's full glory with this config but at least you don't have to worry about having to upgrade your machine just to play doom3.

[TruB]

got P1.6
256 ram
radeon9600 128mb

i lack ram..

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

its not hardcore.. ID seems to want you to have that..
its not latest either.. radeon9600

but about what you said BioHazard..

ive read alot of discussions about which got bets GFX.. doom or hl2.. they talk about how many object rendered at that same time in a scene.. hl2 with massive areas.. and many characters.. alos the nice face expressions..

doom.. it looks really good.. more polys.. on each thing.. smaller areas.. indoor?.. lesser charachters..

then what is what can be discussed over and over again..

some say you cant compare the grafik.. since they got diffrent goals of there engine..

but in the end.. the gfx do little.. its not about that.. yes you wanne see nice views.. but when you really enjoy the game.. what do you look at.. you dont look really.. you are in middle of fight.. or just finished a puzzle..

alittle like stefan talked about.. the cs players.. who played cs.. no good gfx to talk about.. they dont really care about it.. why do most of the look forward to cs s?.. its not only the gfx i can tell you that..
You dont need the latest cards to run the games i am running it on a GeForceFX 5700 lol and it runs perfect though myne is 256..

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

got P1.6
256 ram
radeon9600 128mb

i lack ram..
I originally was gonna run it with my old dell dimesion 4300 with a radeon 9000 pro 64 with 256 ram and a 1.6 p4 proccy

[HangFire]

You don't need that good of a system to run Doom 3. My last PC was about 3.5 years old and some-what crippled but it still ran the game reasonably.


And ATI just released new beta drivers for their cards, and I've heard that they do in fact help performance in Doom 3.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

geforce 3 or above ???

butbutbutbutbut... I was told that my geforce 4 MX is in fact a geforce 2 core, so that would mean I might not be able to play doom 3 ? :|

does anybody know if this game runs on a gf4mx ?

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

geforce 3 or above ???

butbutbutbutbut... I was told that my geforce 4 MX is in fact a geforce 2 core, so that would mean I might not be able to play doom 3 ? :|

does anybody know if this game runs on a gf4mx ?
the geforce 2 core is the best nvidia core me thinks if your gonna buy an nvidia either get a 5700 or higher.

[Exilibur]

I'd prefer Elasto Mania at any time...

But to stay on topic, i think graphics are far overrated... of curse it's cool, but i don't really need a really cool-looking oildrum if it just stays there, frozen to the ground (exaggerated, i know)... No need to say I'm looking more forward to hl2 ;)

But anyway, my point is that there seem to have been a very narrow focus on the graphics up through the development of computergames. I mean, it's not like i dislike cool graphics, but i just think playability, physics, intelligence, and depth are things so much more important to a computergame...

but then, it probably would be boring to play counter-strike in 2d... but if they'd spend the time on ai instead, I'm sure the bots would have been awesome :D

[biohazerd87]

its not hardcore.. ID seems to want you to have that..
its not latest either.. radeon9600

but about what you said BioHazard..

ive read alot of discussions about which got bets GFX.. doom or hl2.. they talk about how many object rendered at that same time in a scene.. hl2 with massive areas.. and many characters.. alos the nice face expressions..

doom.. it looks really good.. more polys.. on each thing.. smaller areas.. indoor?.. lesser charachters..

then what is what can be discussed over and over again..

some say you cant compare the grafik.. since they got diffrent goals of there engine..

but in the end.. the gfx do little.. its not about that.. yes you wanne see nice views.. but when you really enjoy the game.. what do you look at.. you dont look really.. you are in middle of fight.. or just finished a puzzle..

alittle like stefan talked about.. the cs players.. who played cs.. no good gfx to talk about.. they dont really care about it.. why do most of the look forward to cs s?.. its not only the gfx i can tell you that..
I relize and totally understand what you are saying ( A LOT IS 2 WORDS) but some people want the game for both perpouses.(which i can't spell) But the point of the game isn't just for playing, it is a milestone for graphics(which i can spell correctly) and lighting. Never has this much detail been placed into a game. That said about Doom 3 I have the leaked HL2 and although not complete the engen (which i can't spell) and physics are so amazing. And it was leaked over 2 years ago. I mean the interaction with objects in the game is so amazing you would think your actaully in the game moving things it's just crazy. I have doom 3 and here it the minimum system reqiurements

************************************************** ********
Minimum System Requirements:
· English version of Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP
· Pentium® 4 1.5 GHz or Athlon(tm) XP 1500+ processor
· 384MB RAM
· 8x Speed CD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate) and latest drivers
· 2.2GB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 400MB for Windows® swap file)
· 100% DirectX® 9.0b compatible 16-bit sound card and latest drivers
· 100% Windows® 2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and latest drivers
· DirectX® 9.0b (included)
· 3D hardware Accelerator Card Required - 100% DirectX® 9.0b compatible 64MB Hardware Accelerated video card and the latest drivers.
o ATI® Radeon 8500
o ATI® Radeon 9000
o ATI® Radeon 9200
o ATI® Radeon 9500
o ATI® Radeon 9600
o ATI® Radeon 9700
o ATI® Radeon 9800
o All Nvidia® GeForce 3/Ti series
o All Nvidia® GeForce 4MX series
o All Nvidia® GeForce 4/Ti series
o All Nvidia® GeForce FX series
o Nvidia® GeForce 6800 series
Multiplayer Requirements:
· Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported
· Internet play requires broadband connection and latest drivers
· LAN play requires network interface card and latest drivers

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

the fx series isnt good for nvidia unless u use the 5700 or older under 5700 sucks.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

perpouses.(which i can't spell)indeed :D

[TruB]

it lagged a lot on my comp.-..
i must say.. it felt alot like hl1.. comes to work.. a secret location where they do all kind of research. something goes wrong.. your "buddies" transforms to evil (headcrabs in hl).
you the last hope..

the story line is really good.. i played it.. bc of lagg.. i died.. realized i didnt save.. and im not sure im gone play it again..

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

how's the music ?

the music was responsible for a lot of the atmosphere in the DOOM 1 and 2 (and IMO that was around the BEST tunes ever made for a computer game :D)

does the new one match up with the expectations too ? :)

[TruB]

i had no expectiations..

the music?.. i almost never hear that.. hear one..
the sound.. i use headphones.. this is the first game i have real problem know where the sounds come from.. since i rely on it, its desturbing..

and the gun sounds.. whats up with them.. i mean.. the machinegun.. sounds like a gun you use to put up thin wood,, do the same amount of damage too it seem..

the most cool thing about it is that you can use computers.. you can look in menus and shut down things or open doors.. i like that.. one bug though.. if you shut down a comp.. some you can.. those where you save a backup file before shutting down.. easily missed.. however.. it seems like you still can operate it after it shut down..

why does it feel like i get stuck on things when i need to move..

physic engine.. heard they did it them self.. what i also heard is that it was good.. one of the better.. i can say is bette then battlefields.. but it still sucks.. i find little realism in it..

i dont like those 3rd person views when it want give some sekvense.. and the guy moves to a position i wouldnt go..

still some good stuff.. some well dont animations before something new is up.. like the large dog vs rhno thing comes.. i almost shit my pants when it came through the window.. me and my pelllet gun took it out.. after a while.. the cabinets is pretty fun.. i bet there is cheats up already.. every cabinet got a numbers.. and a pass.. so that would be easy

came pretty far.. but since awhile back.. i got bored.. the same darkness all the way.. some noise in the back.. i enter a room.. sometimes i there some things there already.. else some things will come.. the only quistions is from where..

[HangFire]

The music isn't like the original, it doesn't play constantly. It only plays during certain dramatic situations; ie when Mancubuses start crashing into the room. Its allright music, but not as good as the original's midis. Not as memorable anyway.



To get the code for the lockers you have to pick up PDAs and read the emails in them and listen to the audio logs. I fail to see why anyone would want to cheat in this game, its not that difficult. I'm only the 'medium' skill level and my health has hardly gone below 50.

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

The music isn't like the original, it doesn't play constantly. It only plays during certain dramatic situations; ie when Mancubuses start crashing into the room. Its allright music, but not as good as the original's midis. Not as memorable anyway.



To get the code for the lockers you have to pick up PDAs and read the emails in them and listen to the audio logs. I fail to see why anyone would want to cheat in this game, its not that difficult. I'm only the 'medium' skill level and my health has hardly gone below 50.
play it on nigtmare!

[biohazerd87]

it lagged a lot on my comp.-..
i must say.. it felt alot like hl1.. comes to work.. a secret location where they do all kind of research. something goes wrong.. your "buddies" transforms to evil (headcrabs in hl).
you the last hope..

the story line is really good.. i played it.. bc of lagg.. i died.. realized i didnt save.. and im not sure im gone play it again..
For the love of god, a lot is 2 words

[TruB]

hey!!..only one mistake.. well some cheat anyway.,,.. did it once.. probably do it again.. im not talking about me..

my health is almost at top.. all the time.. i play medium.. thought about going for veteran.. but then i would get mad thinking it was too darn hard so it would suck bc of that..

[HangFire]

The average FPS gamer should be playing on vet. Medium is too easy, and nightmare is too difficult. I heard that your HP is capped at 25, and if it goes over it slowly drains to 25. And theres no medkits on the ground, only source of HP is those things on the walls.

Hopefully the critters don't also respawn. That would make it nigh impossible. On Doom 1 even with a buddy I don't think we could ever get past the fourth or fifth level on the first episode.

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

nightmare is gonna be like the old doom imposible to beat.

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

i am prolly gonna have nightmares cause of this game :/

i cant get past the part where you have to fix the reactor :'(

[TruB]

its the same over and over again with some diffrences here and there.. i only feel a bit unconftible when i stop and start looking..

[biohazerd87]

This is one of the first games that supports Dolby Digital 5.1 or 6.1 and trust me when that is on, the game isn't scary but things scare the shit out of you with it lol. Like your walking along all the sudden there is a guy wailing on your head from behind you and you can hear people walking behind you. Or those voices, man those are freaky. I like you Mike (Micheal Carmak creator of doom), what f*cked up part of your brain did you get these monster from? LoL

[g4s]

I spent two nights finishing the game. Deleted the game immediately after that and I think I would never play it again. The hardware requirement is bullsh*t. I got a 3.2 cpu (overclocked), 1 gig ram, ati radeon 9800xt vid card (overclocked), and I cant even play the game under 800*600. It just freezes sometimes and got slower during heavy fight. And the thing I dislike the most is that the game scared the shit out of me!

This could be the first time I play doom, well I tried before, but never got into it coz I'm not interest in any monster games at all. Also I just finished Far Cry by 2 nights, comparing with doom, maybe all of the 3d games out there, it is amazing, impressive. well, for doom, its just my own opinion, don't know why it is so popular.

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

some people may not know this.. DOOM 3 has issues with ATi cards. as it was built of off nvidias system, and iD actually recomends nvidia i have a geforce fx 5700 "LE" low end. not the greatest card its half the punch of a normal 5700 and i run it under 1028 x 758 or whatever resolution it is i dont remember. i run it on high not "ultra high" with a 2.8 proccy 512 ram and its only laggy when i get into alot of detail and it has only lagged once.

I am using Digital Surround sound USB speakers :D so the sounds friggin make me jump out of my seat last night i was laying in bed for 3 hours afraid of a imp coming at me!
o_O

[biohazerd87]

some people may not know this.. DOOM 3 has issues with ATi cards. as it was built of off nvidias system, and iD actually recomends nvidia i have a geforce fx 5700 "LE" low end. not the greatest card its half the punch of a normal 5700 and i run it under 1028 x 758 or whatever resolution it is i dont remember. i run it on high not "ultra high" with a 2.8 proccy 512 ram and its only laggy when i get into alot of detail and it has only lagged once.

I am using Digital Surround sound USB speakers :D so the sounds friggin make me jump out of my seat last night i was laying in bed for 3 hours afraid of a imp coming at me!
o_O
I hate to tell you man but it was actually built on the ATI 9700 FireGL card;) ;) ;) But I won't tell anyone hehehee

And G4S I don't know why you would lag like that i bet it is heat isssues or your drivers arn't up todate. Cause I am running:
P4 2.8Ghz Prescott Core 800 Mhz FSB and Hyper Threading OC to 3.2 Ghz
ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe MB
ATI Radeon 9800 XT
Kingston 512MB DDR 3500 RAM
2 Rapor Sata Drives
And it runs fine on medium and high quality on 800x600 or 1024X768

[HangFire]

I spent two nights finishing the game. Deleted the game immediately after that and I think I would never play it again. The hardware requirement is bullsh*t. I got a 3.2 cpu (overclocked), 1 gig ram, ati radeon 9800xt vid card (overclocked), and I cant even play the game under 800*600. It just freezes sometimes and got slower during heavy fight. And the thing I dislike the most is that the game scared the shit out of me!

This could be the first time I play doom, well I tried before, but never got into it coz I'm not interest in any monster games at all. Also I just finished Far Cry by 2 nights, comparing with doom, maybe all of the 3d games out there, it is amazing, impressive. well, for doom, its just my own opinion, don't know why it is so popular.

Something is serisously wrong then with your PC. By the specs you posted, your is about a 1/3rd better than mine, but I can play the game even at 1024x768, and I have an ATI card also.

Theres a lot of reasons its popular. First of all, its Doom, and its by ID Software. That automatically makes it popular, no matter if its the greatest thing ever. Aside from that the graphics are excellent, it has good atmosphere, and it feels like the original Doom. Gamers for the mostpart are a nostalgic bunch.


Everyone will have different tastes for games. Doom 3 is the best FPS I've seen since Half-Life, but thats my opinion. Max Payne 2 and Call of Duty were both good, but they were shamefully short. Painkiller was a rip-off of Serious Sam's gameplay. And I disliked that gameplay. Clive Barker's Undying was probably the second best since Half-Life in my opinion.

Theres a lot of other FPS games out in that time frame that I didn't mention, but nothing I liked. Far Cry didn't impress me much and I got tired of the game five minutes into the demo. You can't please everyone with a single game, no matter how good it seems to the majority.

[biohazerd87]

Something is serisously wrong then with your PC. By the specs you posted, your is about a 1/3rd better than mine, but I can play the game even at 1024x768, and I have an ATI card also.

Theres a lot of reasons its popular. First of all, its Doom, and its by ID Software. That automatically makes it popular, no matter if its the greatest thing ever. Aside from that the graphics are excellent, it has good atmosphere, and it feels like the original Doom. Gamers for the mostpart are a nostalgic bunch.


Everyone will have different tastes for games. Doom 3 is the best FPS I've seen since Half-Life, but thats my opinion. Max Payne 2 and Call of Duty were both good, but they were shamefully short. Painkiller was a rip-off of Serious Sam's gameplay. And I disliked that gameplay. Clive Barker's Undying was probably the second best since Half-Life in my opinion.

Theres a lot of other FPS games out in that time frame that I didn't mention, but nothing I liked. Far Cry didn't impress me much and I got tired of the game five minutes into the demo. You can't please everyone with a single game, no matter how good it seems to the majority.
Nice! He is right I mean I remember when the original Doom came out and I am only 17 now. I mean back then it was the shit!!! And Doom players have been waiting a long time for one to come out!

[TruB]

it might have to do with support with some effects.. that you use.. or some little setting.. i go with the lowest one everthing except i use 800*600.. it lags some.. but not too much..

[g4s]

i bet it is heat isssues or your drivers arn't up todate.I always keep my drivers/firmwares up to date.
Something is serisously wrong then with your PC.I don't think so coz all of the other 3d/fps games are running perfectly on my pc. ok, doom3 does not lag too much, just sometimes freezes for about half second. maybe because I compare it with other games running on my pc. indeed, doom 3 takes a lot of resource!
as you said, everyone's got his own games. anyways, doom is not the style I like.

[Huntkillaz]

doom 3 looks good, i like the fact you can see yourself in the mirror's perfectly and movements done ..only have a split second delay (could have been comps fault)

but i'm just waiting to shoot some tyre's down the hills in hl2\cs:s and watch em bounce off the wall and hit the dirt 8o

[TruB]

what i would miss the most from doom when hl2 comes is the stationary computers.. i found those controlles amazing..

[stefanhendriks]

so so so this game will even run with my crappy geforce fx 5200? :D

[Whistler]

My computer is: Celeron 466/64MB RAM/15GB HD (with a lot of bad clusters, ~12GB remaining)/NVidia Vanta
And CZero is already quite laggy, I don't think I'll buy either Doom3 or HL2

[stefanhendriks]

I installed it; first impressions:

- no sounds?! (wtf)
- uber slow (on 640x480, low quality)

machine specs:
2.4Ghz Intel P4
512 MB DDR RAM
64MB Geforce FX Go5200

I bet the latter is the worst.

[stefanhendriks]

ok, tried again:
- i updated my sound drivers

it still runs slow on some parts, but most parts work fine. It looks great even on low detail ;) It plays ok, gives me a kinda HL 1 feeling at start. I died on my way back, i just rushed and fought my way through the mines, but i died heh.

[TruB]

its as hl1 it can be.. it even got an teleporter.. guess what came through there.. did i tell to much?.. its not like its story line to talk about.. maybe for 5-6 years ago.. but not now..

hope i finish it soon.. it was longer then i expected.. seems like all i got to do is get back..

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

doom3 has the basic same story as doom95 (ultered a little) and doom95 came out before hl so it could be hl copied doom :p

[HangFire]

Except in Doom its Hell instead of Xen. I actually prefer hell a lot more to Xen. Xen was annoying. Hell was fun.

[biohazerd87]

This game takes more VPU power than CPU power, you could run this game on a 1.5 Ghz P4 and a 9800XT and it would run almost just as good on a 2.4 Ghz

[TruB]

what stands the v for in vpu?:.

i know CPU stands for Central Processing Unit

[biohazerd87]

what stands the v for in vpu?:.

i know CPU stands for Central Processing Unit
well there are 2 terms for it a
VPU-Visual Processing Unit
GPU- Graphics Processing Unit

[Terran]

Nice game, bought it today and got impressed!

[HangFire]

And word is out that ID says the SDK is coming pretty soon. I beat Doom 3 earlier this week, so a coop mod would really hit the spot right now.

[biohazerd87]

Micheal Carmack is speaking at Quakecon!!! Damn I wish I had gone lol

[stefanhendriks]

So, did anyone play the game entirely?

[Cheeseh]

I got it a few days back and finished it like a few days after then :) All in all, I like the graphics and everything, ran pretty smooth most of the time, sometimes went slideshowy, dunno why, there wasn't much exciting stuff happening at the time. It's really aimed at those only that liked doom I think (Playing by yourself all the time without backup). I prefer going around in squads of AI :)

*spoiler??*



Only happened once while following a civilian in a dark area, which I thought was quite cool, but as usual they get killed at some point! All the time when I think, cool I'm gonna group up with some marines or get some backup a monster kills them before I can get to them :P




*/spoiler*

[TruB]

So, did anyone play the game entirely?not me .. i got really bored when they did the same mistake as in hl2.. what is that.. check spoiler beneath..



SPOILER:

in hell... the dark part btw.. it was pretty cool.. he died a few steps before the end of the darkness.. so i decided to play that part again.. just to have the company.. darn.. he cant survive longer then that..
END SPOILDER


over all.. i think the game is prettu crappy.. monster games is sooo out.. been since Q3.. or daikatana.. i am pretty forgiven to hl2.. since it got so much more..

[HangFire]

Monster games aren't "out", its just individual preference.


And as horrible as Daikatana was, it wasn't so bad as to make everyone dislike monsters in FPS games. Came close though. Getting killed by mosquitos and frogs when you're suppoed to be some sort of super samurai was incredibly frusterating.