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REVIEW:'Doom 3' a Terrifying Experience
AP via The Greenville Sun ^ | August 10, 2004 | MATT SLAGLE

Posted on 08/11/2004 5:02:13 PM PDT by Skooz

By MATT SLAGLE AP Technology Writer

Think of "Doom 3" as an extended version of that moment in a haunted house when the monster jumps out from behind a corner. Like some sort of gag reflex, you can't help but instinctively scream in terror.

This new video game certainly has excellent graphics, but it's what you can't see that makes this sequel from id Software Corp. one of the scariest video games ever made.

Darkness hangs like a thick fog in this first-person shooter, shrouding your vision and adding a nearly unbearable sense of dread to a grim mission pitting you against a cast of hell's minions.

You're a nameless marine stationed on a Martian base owned by the Union Aerospace Corp. Somehow, hell's denizens have teleported onto the base and transformed just about everyone else into lumbering zombies. It's up to you to wipe them out before they spread evil to Earth.

What you see in this M-rated game is definitely NOT for children or the squeamish. The vivid three-dimensional graphics, a true step forward for computer games, allow for some extremely gross death scenes involving large quantities of blood and various human and monster guts.

You start out on the base, worming through one narrow, dim corridor after another. Just as it starts getting repetitious, you enter a portal to hell and fight the demons on their own turf.

"Doom 3" doles out monsters in small batches. While they aren't particularly intelligent, there's a steady supply of flying demon heads, oversized spiders, flame-throwing demons and other more sinister foes lunging, leaping and dive-bombing you from all directions.

I only wish there had been another tactic besides shooting first and thinking ... never. By the end, my fear had been a bit numbed by a familiar pattern: enter darkened room, wait for monsters to spawn all around you, kill them all, go to next chamber, repeat.

I enjoyed the game's rich, layered sound effects. The low-frequency hums and high-pitched whirs of giant high tech machinery, when mixed with the grunts and groans of nearby, unseen demons, really added a convincing sense of atmosphere.

The game has a few shortcomings compared to other recent titles in the same genre. You can jump, run and crouch, but you can't lean around corners or crawl. And the only real innovative weapon in your arsenal is the "soul cube," an alien device which automatically devours the most powerful enemy on screen and transfers its life force to you.

One nice touch adds a great deal of tension: you have a flashlight that never runs out of power, but you can't use it at the same time as your weapons.

"Doom 3" is best enjoyed as a solitary experience, with the lights off and sound cranked.

The included multiplayer modes, meanwhile, were quite limited compared to the sprawling, team-focused online battles in games such as "Unreal Tournament: 2004."

The game supports just four players at a time per game (though some gamers have somehow managed to work around that limit and support a dozen or so people).

You can choose from only a few basic multiplayer modes, such as death match, team death match and last man standing, where you simply have to kill more opponents than anyone else in order to win.

On my broadband connection, games frequently suffered from an effect called lag, turning matches into slideshows that were hard to play.

Despite the technical sophistication, "Doom 3" generally performed well on my high-end home computer with a zippy AMD 64 bit processor and a gigabyte of memory.

The basic requirements are pretty steep: You'll need at least a 1.5 gigahertz computer with 384 megabytes of memory, 2.2 gigabytes of free hard drive space and a 3D video card with 64 megabytes. And the $55 price is higher than most games.

"Doom 3" doesn't revolutionize computer games as we know them. Rather, it polishes the horror-themed first-person shooter genre to a high gloss.

It's not going to provoke any deep thoughts or philosophical debate, but anyone looking for a good scare will enjoy this gorgeous nail-biter.

Three stars out of four.

-----------------------------------------

On the Net:

http://www.doom3.com


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
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To: Shryke
Woohooo ! I'll try in tonight.

I'm in one Gig of RAM ,on a 2.7 ghtz P4, through a ATI Rad 9700 with 128 Meg.

41 posted on 08/12/2004 12:04:33 PM PDT by ChadGore (Vote Bush. He's Earned It.)
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To: ChadGore

Exactly my system, with an Athlon. You are going to freak out. You owe me a beer.


42 posted on 08/12/2004 12:05:37 PM PDT by Shryke (Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.)
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To: Shryke
Re: You owe me a beer.

You're on !

43 posted on 08/12/2004 12:10:42 PM PDT by ChadGore (Vote Bush. He's Earned It.)
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To: Skooz
I must live vicariously through the gaming experiences of others.

Sigh... I must as well.

Doom 3 bump...

44 posted on 08/12/2004 12:13:50 PM PDT by StoneColdGOP (Nothing is Bush's fault... Nothing is Bush's fault... Nothing is Bush's fault...)
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To: Skooz

Does anybody out there have or play Metal Gear Solid?
My hubby got to the end of the first disk and has a question.


45 posted on 08/12/2004 12:19:35 PM PDT by diamond6 (Everyone who is for abortion has already been born. Ronald Reagan)
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To: Bacon Man

46 posted on 08/12/2004 12:30:03 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I love this job more than I love taffy, and I'm a man who loves his taffy.)
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To: Xenalyte

That picture seems a little lonely. You forget to add something underneath it?


47 posted on 08/12/2004 1:13:48 PM PDT by Bacon Man (Guns kill people like spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.)
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To: Skooz
This is the first PC game that I literally leaped back from the monitor while playing. I'm lucky I didn't poop my pants.

I have a high end PC that can easily handle the ultra graphics, and I can swear that those are real monsters who want to kill me.

Three thumbs up for Doom III.

48 posted on 08/12/2004 1:24:36 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Skooz
One nice touch adds a great deal of tension: you have a flashlight that never runs out of power, but you can't use it at the same time as your weapons.

That's why you bind your mouse buttons:
MOUSE2: pistol, then chainsaw
MOUSE4: shotgun (you want to be able to pull this one out quickly)
MOUSE3 (press the mouse wheel), MWHEELUP, and MWHEELDOWN should go to other weapons, like the sub gun or the plasma rifle.

That way, you can run around with your flashlight out, and not have to worry about getting to your weapons.

Doom3 is very disappointing in that the enemies do not react to the light from your flashlight (so you never have an incentive to turn it off) and, as the author says, they aren't very smart. I haven't gotten extremely far into the game, but they never seem to be actively hunting me, they just follow scripts and then charge at me when they see me. Having stupid enemies lessens the fear factor by a lot. The only thing you really have to worry about is monters being teleport-spammed in.

I upgraded my graphics card just to play this game, and it was worth it, because the graphics are beautiful, especially the way shadows are cast. Heat flare is neat-o, too.

If HL2 is as good as promised, it will blow Doom3 out of the water. We'll just have to wait and see.

49 posted on 08/12/2004 1:32:15 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: xm177e2
If you have played Counterstrike, you're gonna love how it plays on the new Halflife2 engine.

Check out this sneak peek

50 posted on 08/12/2004 2:13:07 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: ChadGore

There is a beta driver for download at the ATI site. When running Doom 3 on ultra high graphics and bumping it up to a 1280 x 1024 resolution, the game was crashing even on my advanced system. Downloading the driver fixed that problem and now it's unbelievably good.

I know three people who have downloaded it and none had a problem with it, even though it's still officially beta.

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-DOOM-HOTFIX-8-05-040727a-017086E.exe


51 posted on 08/12/2004 5:20:15 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Dog Gone
Wow, that looks really nice. Does anyone know how much of a vidcard you will need to play games with the HL2 engine?
52 posted on 08/12/2004 5:32:34 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: xm177e2
Minimum system requirements appear to be a 1.2 gigahertz processor with 256 megabytes of RAM and a DirectX 7 video card. The recommended spec is 2 gigahertz or higher processor, 512 megabytes of RAM and a DirectX 9 video card.

By all accounts, ATI cards are performing best.



53 posted on 08/12/2004 5:50:13 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Dog Gone

I've got a 128MB FX 5700. I bought it for Doom3. If I'd known how much better the Radeon cards are for HL, I would have gotten one of those :-(


54 posted on 08/12/2004 5:54:29 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: xm177e2

You'll probably be okay unless you run into me in one of the online games. But I sometimes have trouble shooting straight, so maybe it will be even.


55 posted on 08/12/2004 5:59:53 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: StoneColdGOP

You and me both....

BUMP!


56 posted on 08/14/2004 2:32:43 AM PDT by RandallFlagg (<a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com" target="_blank">Hatriotism)
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To: Skooz
Thanks for the ping, Skooz.

I'm always on the road and sometimes it's difficult for me to keep up with all of the things that go on in this forum.

As far as Doom 3 is concerned, it's the best single player game that I've played in a very long time. I own and have played, Half-Life, Deus Ex 1+2, Serious Sam, Unreal 1+2, UT up to UT 2K4, NOLF 1+2, MoH, CoD, Painkiller and Far Cry. All of these games are great fun.

Doom 3 stands out in my estimation as a Best of Class and it r0x0rs past the pretenders. There is something so visceral and compelling about this game that drives me to play it. The sound, atmosphere and creepiness factor alone are worth the price of admission to me. Have fun with this one folks.

GG...id Software!!

57 posted on 08/14/2004 4:59:14 PM PDT by IoCaster ("That to live by one man's will became the cause of all men's misery." - Richard Hooker)
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To: xm177e2
Doom3 is very disappointing in that the enemies do not react to the light from your flashlight (so you never have an incentive to turn it off) and, as the author says, they aren't very smart.

I'd have to respectfully disagree with you here. I'm not sure why my experience was different, but they sure as sh!t reacted to my flashlight. I have certainly shined the old beamer into a far off dark corner and spurred some zombie to the attack on many occasions. Perhaps it's dependant on the particular type of enemy or something?

58 posted on 08/14/2004 5:15:12 PM PDT by IoCaster ("That to live by one man's will became the cause of all men's misery." - Richard Hooker)
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To: IoCaster

Usually it's just if you get near enough to them. For instance, I shined my flashlight down on a zombie snacking on a corpse, and he didn't notice, but when i got near him (not necessarily within his line of sight!) he came stumbling out after me. I think the whole thing is proximity.


59 posted on 08/14/2004 8:31:08 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: IoCaster
There is something so visceral and compelling about this game that drives me to play it.

I just don't feel that when I play Doom 3. I am, however, compelled by Natural Selection, a free mod for Half-Life.

60 posted on 08/14/2004 8:43:37 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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