Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Demophobe]

Well, I got the game today....a bit early.

Wow. This is a very, very polished product. The first thing you will notice is that the game is carefully crafted, as though each detail were drawn by hand. The textures, are crisp and sharp and the levels are large and complex. Load times are a bit long, but it seems to be only on the initial world-load; subsequent loads appear to be 'mini' loads and are quick.

Characters are excellent, aside from the fact that a few more polygons could have taken some of the angles off of character's heads. Lip-sync is quite good and expressions are well done. The zombies encountered thus far (you will meet the first one about 20 minutes into the game after a tour of the initial Mars facility, seeming more like a control orientation) are really quite scary. They have attacked me with pipe wrenches, hands and in the case of zombified marines, handguns and shotguns. When blasted, they gib quite well. This is an Id game. One freaky thing that I'm sure Id are laughing about is this: If you want to use the flashlight, you cannot also hold a weapon at-the-ready. You can switch them quickly, but it's very unnerving to enter a pitch-black room without a weapon in your hand. Cool and very freaky.

The interface is clean and easy to navigate. The PDA which gives you most of your mission info and such during the game is a bit daunting, but it quickly becomes intuitive. The on-screen HUD is well done, though a bit large for my liking. Perhaps this can be changed somehow, but as of yet, I don't know.

I played through about an hour so far, and just wanted to give you an idea of why this game is so hyped.

Competing most directly with Far Cry (all other games are not on the same level at all) I would give the nod to Doom3. They are entirely different games, although the tighter, indoor sections of FC are similar. Far Cry still maintained the "game" feel to it; I could never forget that it was a game, and thus, my experience in FC seemed a bit incomplete. Doom, so far, has sucked me into it's world...it's so immersive and detailed, that it's extremely easy to get pulled in. The atmosphere in Doom is heavy. Very heavy with cinematic ideals. I feel more like I am making a horror/sci-fi movie than playing a game. Very cool.

As far as visuals, talking FC vs. Doom3, I would again say that while FC took more chances with huge draw distances and massive rendering tasks in regards to the outdoor environments, Doom is just more powerful and less "cartoony". Doom 3 does stick to mainly tight, indoor environments, but I already had a brief stroll on the Martian surface, and it looked amazing. What it comes down to is intention.

Id intended to make Doom 3 an experience, and Far Cry was a game. Really, I enjoyed Far Cry immensely, but the last hour has made me realize the level of dedication that Id software have. Doom 3 is stunning...simply stunning. Far Cry was a licensed game engine and another developer made the game. Doom 3 was built from the ground up to the final product by one team. The difference here really shows. It is obvious that Doom 3 wasn't about money (although it will make a pile), but it was a product of care and pride. The attention to details is what gives this away.

Everything has been thought of in this game. From how your character enters a scripted scene, to the method of PDA interaction is just slick. This really is a high-class product....there is no other way to describe it.

Anyways, I will update this little read as I dive into the game further, and I'm sure there will be more that perhaps I don't like about the game, but for now, I am all gush. It's very impressive and the four years it took to come to fruition really shows.

As a side note, I will buy this game, as I hope many do. The copy I have now is not legit, and I do feel a bit of shame about this right now. I have ordered the game via Canada, so when it does come in 4 or 5 weeks, I will feel better. In the meantime, I got mine from Overnet with the file names being:

rld-d3a(µÒ3,doom3).bin, rld-d3b(µÒ3,doom3).bin and rld-d3c(µÒ3,doom3).bin

This is one of the very few working copies on Overnet...there are an ocean of fakes.....beware. My download took 1 day.....about 10 hours in all.

My system specs: P4 @ 3.5, 1 GB PC3500 DDR, ATI Radeon 9800XT (Cat. 4.8 Omega), Asus P4C800 Deluxe and my game HDD being SATA WD120GB, 7200 RPM RAID, running with no AA or AF.

I run the game at 1024x768, details all on high and it seems very smooth. I have only had 2 monsters on screen together thus far, but it's like butter. I will pump up the resolution one more notch just to see, but right now, it's very playable and it looks amazing. I will also enable AF, as I heard that Id made a special attempt to allow most users to enable AF without a big performance hit.

Well, I guess it's back to the game....

[dogbert]

Thanks for the nice review!

[Bulsajo]

It's all sold out in my area due to pre-ordering, AND it's going for $64 CDN (whereas Far Cry was $49).
It's also very short, apparently.

Still, it's obviously THE game of the year (at least until HL2 and San Andreas arrive).
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/doom3/

[eamo]

Sounds great.

I've loved all the Doom games right back to the first in 94/95(?).

I recently downloaded the original Doom 95 version for a bit of nostalgia. Whoa! It seems so blocky and basic now. I loved it then though.

Can't wait to get my hands on this new one.

Far Cry was too hard for me. I'll get back to it with cheats enabled but it's not really the same with cheats on.

[Bulsajo]

[Demophobe]

[mack the knife]

I'll be uploading a $5.00 copy from Yongsan onto my SeXbox when it arrives on the 21st.

Right now I'm lumbering through D&D and KoTOR. Nice games, both.

[Demophobe]

[Bulsajo]

First impression? Beautiful!
Second? Scary as hell!

[Gollum]

Gotta get this one. Wondering how my aging Geforce4 TI-4600 will handle it.

Frame rates on other newer DirectX-type stuff are good, but gotta keep it at 2X anti-aliasing.

[Demophobe]

A GF4 4600? Hmm...well, I would say 800x600 @ Medium Quality. It will still look good on that resolution, though. The game engine is just that good.

Sorry, but I have a very hard time believing that a GF4 can Anti-alias anything. Perhaps at 800x600 you could, but why would you play at that res? 1024x768 would look tighter with no AA and your PC wouldn't be giving you a slideshow.... nVidia's AA was never very good. The performance hit was incredible...usually making most games a slow-mo, jerky nightmare. I mean hey....that card is very, very old. We weren't much past 1024x768 gaming then.

The 6800 seems to be doing a lot of things right though...hats off to nVidia for hanging in there through the 5800 debacle.

Anyways, this game needs a lot of massaging to get the framerates up and stop your PC from bursting into flames. Carmack even said that this game is going to tap into previously unused parts of the graphics card, so overclocking may be tough, let alone at stock speeds!

Again...great game. Even if you aren't a big gamer, get this one.

[The King of Kwangju]

Don't forget the duct tape mod, or the Hello Kitty flashlight mod.

[Bulsajo]

KoK your timing is superb, thank you! Colour me crazy, but somehow I think the Hello Kitty mod might just spoil the scary atmosphere a wee bit, but the duct tape mod is a keeper!

[ZUL]

first, this game is very demanding on your machine. you must have an up to date machine in order for this game to look and run right.

second, this game can be pretty freaky at times. so for everyone with surround sound and a killer moniter, close the blinds, double check the closet for monsters and hunker down for some thrilling action.

all that said, this game is sweet in every way i've seen so far. worth the wait.

[Demophobe]

The flahlight mod ruins the game, IMHO. The Hello Kitty mod is a joke.

I think it's pretty cool and obviously intentional that one must choose between a weapon and a flashlight.

I have almost finished the game and let me tell you, it get's pretty scary later on, as well as pretty difficult.

Most memorable moment so far: The first meeting with the Pinky Demon. You remember? YOu are in the control room, he comes in through the **** (no spoilers!). Very cool.

Have fun people....see you on the other side....