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Doom III Officially Announced

Jacek Fedorynski writes "The end is near. First, id Software's site is updated for the first time since the Quake II times and now they officially announce Doom III!" If you recall, there were some screenshots released last year, but I don't think there's been much since then - these are probably out of date.

14 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. I guess I'm in the minority by cbensinger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    but I'd rather see something new than yet another Doom game. Yeah the graphics will probably be impressive and all; but I just can't see the attraction to rehashing the same concepts over and over. I suppose I'm no better as I have Civilization 1, 2, & now 3; but even though I've enjoyed each game in the series none was as good as the first there is just too much repetition in the series (and in any series really).

    Seems like the resources that'll get dumped into Doom 3 could be put towards something new and exciting; although I guess in the economic climate the easy decision is to revisit what's been successful...

    1. Re:I guess I'm in the minority by glwtta · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Think of the resources as being put towards a big part of many new and exciting (and many more boring and repetitive) games - the engine will mostly likely be licensed by many companies over the next few years and will contribute to the development of interesting games... hopefully.

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    2. Re:I guess I'm in the minority by nomadic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The only thing is Id just isn't far enough head to deserve all the press they get. I'm not knocking them; they do make the best 3d game engines around. But their competitors aren't nearly as behind as people would like to think.

      Usually you can't tell which engine a 3rd party game uses, anyway.

  2. DOOM 3 poised to ruin old games? by Phexro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The mere thought of a new DOOM game is certainly exciting, but... RtCW ruined any joy I could possibly have replaying the old Wolf3D games - there's such a massive gap between high tech 1992 and high tech 2002.

    I have many fond memories of playing DOOM late at night with the volume cranked way up, and it was the game that gave me my love for horror games (Silent Hill, etc) - but could DOOM 3 destroy the replay value of the original DOOM games?

    I think the only saving grace is DOOM's atmosphere - I remember getting jumpy a few levels into episode 2. The graphics in Wolf3D couldn't really present an atmosphere like that.

    What do you think?

    1. Re:DOOM 3 poised to ruin old games? by glwtta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      New games more advanced than old games? Well yes, it's pretty hard to argue with that, though I don't quite see the point. Would you like new games to look as bad as old ones?

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
  3. Yay for tech demos by Perianwyr+Stormcrow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Each id game is pretty much a tech demo for what we should expect to see in the intervening years between games- I don't expect much out of Doom III- but it's a harbinger of the next Half-Life.

    --

    What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey

  4. It's been announced before by OblongPlatypus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Aside from the original .plan update from Carmack, there's been at least one official press release announcing Doom III before. This is just one of those "it's getting closer to release date so let's announce it again to make sure people haven't forgotten about us" press releases.

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    -- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
  5. What about the tomb levels? by roystgnr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't tell me you weren't at least a little creeped out by the zombie soldiers breaking through the walls or rising up from the fog. I admit, I did the "late night, lights off, volume up" thing myself to try and enhance the atmosphere, but for at least one level the RtCW guys did pretty good by themselves.

  6. Re:Doom Gameplay in a fully 3D engine by ymgve · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Two words:

    Serious Sam.

    That game had TONS of enemies onscreen at once, all of them running straight for you. I guess there were 50-100 at most. If nothing else, it shows that even fully 3D games can have more than five enemies at once.

    (but that doesn't mean Doom 3 will go for lots of enemies. And sometimes less is better. Remember Alien?)

  7. Re:Quake, still my fav. by theCURE · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Exactly, and i think the problem is making things more realistic. people don't want real, they want fast and smooth. It's all about reflexes, and i think Quake 1 shows it. Take a look back at streetfighter II and those types of games...even ms. pacman was a really fast game. They try to make it too realistic. the theory of running around shooting dumb guns and doing rocket jumps is all a falsehood anyway.

    The game should be quick and engaging. What makes the new engines suck is the level of detail that was implemented at the cost of making everyhing slower. i want speed, pretty always comes second.

    --
    "i can never say no to anyone but you"
  8. What makes Doom by steveha · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The big question on my mind is whether this will really be a Doom game with modern technology, or whether it will really be another Quake with some scary trappings.

    To me, the defining features that make Doom are:

    Dozens of monsters swarming you all at once

    Monsters that can be tricked into killing each other

    Light and music providing atmosphere

    All this talk of how pretty Doom III will be, and how you will need a GeForce 4 or Radeon 8500 to play it, are making me worry that maybe you will only see a small handful of monsters at a time (like Quake). I'm not too worried about the other points.

    By the way, the screenshots reminded me a lot of the movie Aliens (the James Cameron sequel to Alien). I hope someone does a total conversion, or maybe they use the Doom III engine for an Aliens Vs. Predator game.

    steveha

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  9. Re:Officially announced means by OblongPlatypus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Activision deal should not be a surprise since they also published RtCW.

    ..and Doom II, and Quake, and Quake II, and Quake III, and..

    --
    -- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
  10. Re:DOOM and DOOM II were all about atmosphere by King_TJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hmm... I'm not even sure it's so much "atmosphere" as it is originality. When games like Doom (or even Duke Nukem 3D) came out, they were so much fun because you never knew what was going to happen next. The weapons were mostly "never seen/done before", and the enemies would truly scare you as you kept running into more and more powerful ones with new tricks up their sleeves.

    This whole 3D shooter genre has been done and re-done so many times now, I think we've gotten to the point where we've seen everything. Tricks like grenades you could toss and detonate with a second click of the mouse aren't "awesome" anymore. It's not exciting anymore when you push on a secret wall or walk over a sequence of buttons on the floor that open up a new room. All that's left is to keep incrementally improving the graphics resolution, and make good use of surround sound.

    When they attempt to improve things by adding more storyline (movie sequences/intermissions), that's not even so great anymore. It is, after all, still supposed to be an action game. Those cut scenes just make for more B.S. to click past and slow down the loading of the next level. There was a time when people watched those in awe, just to see the "real-life" graphics quality of them. Nowdays, everyone's seen full-screen multimedia - and we just don't care anymore.

  11. What I would do. by autopr0n · · Score: 3, Insightful

    two things, 1, record the image of the screen before the game starts. When the user hits the panic button, the image would be displayed in the game. Then minimize the game, that way the boss won't see a flash of the game, and the computer would still be useable if the boss does more then just walk by.

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.