Slashdot Mirror


Doom 3's Release Date; Quake Turns 8

LehiNephi writes "Apparently, GameStop has an updated product page for long-awaited PC FPS Doom 3, along with the note: 'Official launch date of August 3rd, 2004 confirmed!', although the official Doom 3 site hasn't yet been updated, sporting just a 'coming soon' notice. [Blue's News also has further info, noting 'that the British Board of Film Classification has a DOOM III Listing with a rating for the game, a seeming indication that they've already been able to review all its content'.]" In related news, Ag3nt writes "One of the biggest leaps in PC gaming technology, Quake, celebrated its 8th birthday yesterday, according to an AmpedNews piece - there's also a birthday note on John Romero's homepage."

82 of 398 comments (clear)

  1. Believe It When I See It On Shelves by gbulmash · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Just Monday, the "Foxtrot" comic strip was joking how it seemed Doom III would never come out.

    Seeing a confirmed date on a reporting site, heck even on ID's site, seems like reading portents in the tea leaves. Even when they announce ship dates, these companies are notorious for having last-minute changes. Thirty-six hours before you should be able to pick up your precious pre-order, it's announced that you'll have to wait another two weeks... maybe three... they're not sure.

    I'll believe the release dates when I have a copy in my grubby little hands and not before.

    1. Re:Believe It When I See It On Shelves by Ignignot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I prefer to deal with companies on a case by case basis. id software has almost never disclosed release dates until they were done. They've always followed the "when its done" philosophy of development. When they finally said it will come out this summer, I trusted them. The Aug 3 release date is in the summer, so if it comes out that day I'll continue to trust them where it comes to releases. The one thing that disappoints me is that they're letting quake 4 be developed on the doom 3 engine. :-(

      --
      I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
    2. Re:Believe It When I See It On Shelves by chimpo13 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Isn't any "Doom III out soon" an automatic dupe? Hasn't this been a topic since 1920? Isn't Doom the first of the talkies?

      New Star Wars sucks
      Doom III out soon
      SCO sucks
      Microsoft sucks
      XBox is great
      XBox sucks

    3. Re:Believe It When I See It On Shelves by Maudib · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wolf was published by ID but put together by an independent developer (who had previously worked at ID) who licensed the engine and the Wolf Copyright.

    4. Re:Believe It When I See It On Shelves by l810c · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The one thing that disappoints me is that they're letting quake 4 be developed on the doom 3 engine. :-(

      Why on earth would this disappoint you? Seems like using their latest and greatest engine for Q4 would be the only obvious choice.

    5. Re:Believe It When I See It On Shelves by Fweeky · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Probably because the Doom 3 engine may be more suited to slower paced single player gameplay, and Quake's traditionally been quite a fast paced multiplayer game. Multiplayer at 25FPS/800*600 doesn't sound so great to me.

  2. Time to update... by tcopeland · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...my WAD file parser. Argh!

  3. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    If we were to take that poorly worded title literally, that would mean Doom 3 was released yesterday. W00t!

  4. I Want DOOM3 More Than Anyone... by th1ckasabr1ck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... but remember id still hasn't budged from it's "when it's done" release date.

    1. Re:I Want DOOM3 More Than Anyone... by Dan+Farina · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040511/sftu128_1.html

      "Activision and id Software Confirm Summer 2004 Ship Date for Doom 3"

      It's not "when it's done" with no qualifiers, as you imply. id and Activision have a rough idea of when "it's done" will be.

  5. Original Doom almost 11 years old by csirac · · Score: 5, Interesting
    ... according to this.
    10 Years of Doom

    Ten years ago on December 10th, 1993, id Software released the Doom shareware, forever changing the world of PC games. Doom pretty much defined the very young first person shooter genera, and set the bar for future games to come. With immersive, colorful levels, deadly enemies and some of the greatest gameplay any game has ever seen, Doom can be best described as nothing short of a masterpiece. Even to this day it is still cited as one of the best and most signifigant games made.
    1. Re:Original Doom almost 11 years old by danny256 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      With immersive, colorful levels

      I don't know about colorful, I seem to remember a lot of grey and brown...

    2. Re:Original Doom almost 11 years old by Wanderer2 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I don't know about colorful, I seem to remember a lot of grey and brown...

      Funny thing is, I remember Doom as being quite colourful, but hated the shareware version of Quake because it was all grey and brown and colourless by comparison...

      Of course, Doom 3 promises to be colourful in other ways.

      --
      I say we take-off and slashdot the site from orbit... it's the only way to be sure
  6. The official release date by PovRayMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    "When it's done"

    Part of me wishes this was the industry standard instead of forcing themselves to abide by release dates only to output a buggy product.

    However the downside to "when its done" would be our favorite game Duke Nukem Forever.

    WHEN WILL YOU BE DONE?!

    1. Re:The official release date by TheSpoom · · Score: 2, Funny

      My theory is that the name Duke Nukem Forever is an inside joke about how long it will take before it is released.

      --
      It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
      - E. Debs
    2. Re:The official release date by falser · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually I think they should just abandon telling us when it *will* be released, but rather when it *was* released.

      -- Press Release --

      Oh we forgot to mention that Doom 3 was available at all retail outlets yesterday. Sorry about that.

    3. Re:The official release date by toolio · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Like most things, projects need to find a medium between setting a goal and trying to attain it and keeping quality number one.

      If a project doesn't have a goal for a launch then odds are the project will fail.

      Most who say "When it's done" only mean it to keep the media off there backs. I think most have a good idea of when a release is likely to be.

    4. Re:The official release date by Tatarize · · Score: 2, Funny

      A close friend of mine showed me some Duke Nukem Forever clips he downloaded. He said "This game is gonna rock". I called him an idiot.

      --

      It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
    5. Re:The official release date by iabervon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm nostalgic for the old days, when nobody believed that iD would actually release the game they'd been talking about, and that they couldn't possibly actually implement the stuff they were saying they had planned. Then they released it, and it had sloped floors, water, and walls with triangular holes, in addition to most of the claimed features. Although they never did do melee combat like they had originally claimed. A bit later, they released the official version, which wasn't nearly as cool. Ah, how I miss chasing people around with a plain brown stick, blowing myself up.

    6. Re:The official release date by thrash242 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think he's talking about how, in an interview with John Romero, he said that Quake was going to be purely medieval and purely melee combat.

      I quote:

      "In Quake you'll fight, say, three monsters at the max...but it's going to be like a virtual fighter. ... In Quake, you'll have to really kill things. You wont' just press the trigger and hit it, you'll have to heat the living shit of of the thing until it's dead. So you'll have this huge hammer and you'll pound in into blood paste on the floor, and you're going to ahve to take a while, too. ... You won't have this arrow point-and-click kind of thing."

      This may have something to do with Romero leaving, since the rest of the team didn't seem to go along with this. The way he was describing what Quake will be like (there's a lot more) sounds more like Morrowind than anything else.

      Anyway, yes, most games have handheld weapons, that are used very rarely as an absolute last resort, but I don't think I would consider that melee combat like was planned in Quake.

    7. Re:The official release date by YOU+LIKEWISE+FAIL+IT · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Prescient though - a rich hand to hand combat system focusing on individual engagement with small numbers of enemies seems to yield great satisfaction for the player when implemented properly, for example Ninja Gaiden, Shenmue series ( originally Virtua Fighter RPG ) and the upcoming Jade Empire.

      I wish NG's developers had just included a straight out deathmatch multiplayer mode. Would have been a scream. Romero! Make us a big multiplayer hand to hand game in the style of Battlefield: 1042 or something.

      --
      One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
  7. I pre-purchased doom3 long ago by ekvin · · Score: 4, Funny

    My pewter mancubus is sitting on top of my monitor, where it's been laughing at me ever since I paid $10 way ahead of time to own doom3. All I can say is, it's about time! (... to upgrade my video card, that is)

  8. Hardware nightmare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't wait to upgrage my box to run this and HL2, then have to throw it all in the trash next year so I can upgrade to a Longhorn spec machine. Wheeeee!

    1. Re:Hardware nightmare by Deusy · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can't wait to upgrage my box to run this and HL2, then have to throw it all in the trash next year so I can upgrade to a Longhorn spec machine. Wheeeee!

      Why would you want to play Longhorn? It doesn't look like a very fun game.

      What's that? It isn't a game? But what about the...

      Oh right.

      but what about the...

      Ah ok.

      But why would they bother to do that? Did they think Enlightenment was going to be ready before - can't say Doom 3 - Duke Nukem Forever shipped? Crazy multinationals...

      --

      Free Gamer - Free games list and commentary

  9. Skeptical by generic-man · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm always skeptical about release dates, but at least two stores are consistent this time. EB Games has the release date for Doom III listed as August 3 as well, but the strategy guide comes out on July 10. You can spend three weeks reading up on the game and then kick ass at it!

    --
    For more information, click here.
    1. Re:Skeptical by shystershep · · Score: 3, Funny

      On the other hand, Amazon claims "Date first available at Amazon: July 5, 2002"

      You can theoretically pre-order, but it doesn't seem to be working right now.

      --
      The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer. - Albert Einstein
    2. Re:Skeptical by generic-man · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Amazon also claims August 1 as the release date.

      I'm more curious about the 67 customer reviews. How do people take Amazon's customer reviews seriously when 67 people review a game they haven't played yet in final form?

      --
      For more information, click here.
  10. In other news... by jesser · · Score: 5, Funny

    Warez group announces August 1, 2004 release date for cracked version of Doom III.

    --
    The shareholder is always right.
  11. Impending Doom by joNDoty · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No doubt that this game's gonna have everyone flipping head-over-hoof. I just hope the game will actually deserve its reaction. Much like any good trilogy, the third release is often a dissapointment. (with the exception of the original star wars trilogy ;-)

    1. Re:Impending Doom by getnate · · Score: 2, Informative

      Doom3 is not the third episode of a trilogy, it a retelling of the original doom story.

    2. Re:Impending Doom by iamsure · · Score: 4, Funny

      the third release is often a dissapointment. (with the exception of the original star wars trilogy ;-)


      Blasphemy. All Jedi had was a bunch of muppets.
  12. Quaking... by KoshClassic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wow, I can't believe that it was only 8 years ago. When the original Quake was released, I honestly wasn't that impressed by it. Perhaps that's because I never had such hot hardware to run it on. But, mostly I remember thinking that the main way in which Quake, as a gaming engine, improved on Doom / Doom 2 (which I really loved) was by providing a true 3D environment, as opposed to Doom's psuedo-3D. Yet, to me, Doom was so well done in terms of level design, etc, that all Quake did was make me aware of things that Doom did not do, but that I had never missed in Doom as I never really realised that Doom wasn't doing them.

    --
    Understanding is a three edged sword. - Ambassador Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5
    1. Re:Quaking... by Ignignot · · Score: 5, Funny

      Romero, will you never admit quake was better? We know its you!

      --
      I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
  13. More Importantly by smclean · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When is the Linux release date? Does it say anywhere whether they are doing a concurrent Linux/Windows release? Will there be a nice free demo, as is ID's habit?

    --

    "'Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue."

    1. Re:More Importantly by th1ckasabr1ck · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, they definitely are shipping Linux binaries with the game. Also word is that there will probably be a demo AFTER the game is released.

  14. Getting hacked by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember a Half-life 2 release date... and I'm still waiting for it.. believe it when you install it and it runs without five hundred bugs :)

    --
    I like muppets.
  15. Wouldnt it be cool by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldnt it be cool if they modelled an Armadillo Aerospace rocket crashed somewhere on a Doom 3 map? ;)

  16. VideoCards by artlu · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'll have to wait until August 2nd to get a video card that can handle doom 3. Oh wait, I use a laptop guess I can't play :(
    Damn.

    GroupShares Inc. - A Free and Interactive Stock Market Community

    --
    -------
    artlu.net
    1. Re:VideoCards by afidel · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not sure if things have changed in the last year or so, but Carmak's origional goal was to have it play on any card with a vertex shader which meant the lowest end card is the GF3Ti200. Today there are laptop's with MUCH more powerfull GPU's including the GF4Go, GeForce FX Go5700, and ATI offerings.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  17. Doom 3 and the 30inch Cinema Display by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There have been rumors that Apple will release a 30 inch Cinema Display for WWDC next week. Imagine Doom3 on a dual 2.5ghz machine with a 30inch cinema display!

    I can just see my skin becoming more pasty and pink.

    1. Re:Doom 3 and the 30inch Cinema Display by cK-Gunslinger · · Score: 4, Interesting


      I think a "measly Radeon 9600" will be able to run D3 as well as HL2 just fine. The recent Doom 3 leaked Alpha runs on my Athlon 2600 / Radeon 9600 XT with perfectly acceptable rates. I can't actually see or adjust the detail level, but the default is still nice looking. I imagine that the retail version will have some tweaks and optimizations that will improve performance.

  18. In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Duke Nukem Forever will become bundled with Doom 3 as well.
    8/3/04.

  19. Oblig. PA Reference by marnargulus · · Score: 5, Funny
  20. Until Duke Nukem Forever by Man+in+Spandex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This will keep me occupied until that ghostware will come out.

    As a hardcore doom fan who still plays doom 1/2 (plutonium pak and final = no fun. just repeating d2 stuff), I can't wait to get my hands on this game no matter what the gameplay is. ID Software has always been the company I've supported the most due to their quality fps games & engines. I own quake 3 since it came out in 99 and I still play it today. Now that was a game worth of buying!

    With doom 3 finally comming out soon to the public, you can just imagine the other companies hopping on ID's leg for a license.

  21. id is the only reason I buy new computers by geekd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    id software's games are the only reason I buy new computers. Sure, I'll update my video card, or get a bigger hard drive, but as far a whole new system goes, it's just when id's new games come out.

    Quake 3 - new machine
    Wolfenstein - new machine
    Doom 3 - ordered new machine yesterday. (from endpcnoise.com - wife is complaining the 3 computers in the office are too loud. We'll see if thay are as good as they claim.)

    I wonder how much hardware worldwide id is responsible for selling?

    1. Re:id is the only reason I buy new computers by tjwhaynes · · Score: 2, Interesting
      id software's games are the only reason I buy new computers. Sure, I'll update my video card, or get a bigger hard drive, but as far a whole new system goes, it's just when id's new games come out.

      I believe it. I've been holding off for Doom III to get close to release before I replace my machine so that I will end up with something capable of running ol' Doom3 well, rather than the scrag end of technology currently sitting under my desk at home. Athlon 650MHz? That's tech from the previous century!

      On the other hand, it also gives me an excuse to stock up on the other games I haven't bought recently because my machine isn't up to it. UT2k4 here I come!

      Cheers,

      Toby Haynes

      --
      Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
    2. Re:id is the only reason I buy new computers by geekd · · Score: 4, Interesting

      How about donating the old computers your wife says are making noise to charity?

      I do, kinda.

      I "kick them down the line" to friends who just need a machine for email and stuff, and don't have the personal income to just go out and buy one (students, stoners, musicians :).

      Once upon a time, it was me on the recieving end of a free "new" machine, and I was very gratefull, so I figure it's my responsibility to keep it going.

  22. backhanded compliment .... by JSkills · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I just checked out Romero's homepage and although he mentions Doom 3, he also used the word "sequelitis" and goes on to list all of the sequels ID has produced since he left (as opposed to attempting to launch some completely new game as he did).

    After reading Masters of Doom, this smells a little like sour grapes to me ...

    1. Re:backhanded compliment .... by JSkills · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Right on the money? Bzzzt. Wrong.

      The success of all subsequent Dooms, Quakes, and even Wolfenstein will attest to people's love for the various franchises that had made ID successful. What you're not realizing is that each sequel is a new game - because of the engine. The improvements in the game engines are nothing short of amazing work each time around.

      And the maps, weapons, sounds, art, opponents, and rewards are all new as well. The only thing that is the same is the name of the game and the fact that is a first person shooter ...

    2. Re:backhanded compliment .... by aardwolf204 · · Score: 5, Informative
      Incase anyone was wondering, it goes kinda like this:

      Wolfenstein 3D :: Wolf3d Engine

      Wolfenstein 3D 2 (Spear of Destiny) :: Wolf3d Engine

      Doom :: Doom Engine

      Doom 2 :: Doom Engine

      Quake :: Quake Engine

      Quake 2 :: Quiake Engine (beef'd up)

      Quake 3 :: Quake 3 Engine

      Return to Castle Wolfenstein :: Quake 3 Engine (Beef'd up)

      Doom 3 :: Doom 3 Engine ...
      ...

      So now we've got 3 Wolfensteins, 3 Quakes, and 3 Dooms. Each of which has an original and a sequal on the same engine, and a third on new engine, which gets recycled to make the next game.

      Whats coming next?...

      Quake 4 :: Doom 3 Engine (prolly?)
      Then what, Wolf 4, Doom 4.... I'm all for new and shiny, but at some point id needs to come up with something fresh. Their last new series was 8 years ago.

      --
      Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the /.crowd.May ur days b merry & bright & may al
    3. Re:backhanded compliment .... by borgboy · · Score: 2, Funny
      --
      meh.
    4. Re:backhanded compliment .... by Rew190 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, Carmack was the one who wanted to do Doom 3 and threatened to quit if it didn't happen.

    5. Re:backhanded compliment .... by beardz · · Score: 2, Informative
      I'm all for new and shiny, but at some point id needs to come up with something fresh. Their last new series was 8 years ago.

      It seems as though some id employees feel the same as you.

      Taken from a GameSpy interview with John Carmack :

      GameSpy: I am surprised that you do not see Quake IV using this next generation engine.

      John Carmack: Wolfenstein worked out so spectacularly well. Inside id there is a group that really, really does not want to do another sequel. Our next game is not going to be a DOOM, Quake, or Wolfenstein sequel, it's going to be something new and that is a foregone conclusion.

  23. Nuking... by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 3, Funny
    I always felt that Duke Nuke'm was better than Quake 1 despite the psuedo-3D used in Duke because it was more fun to play. There were all sorts of cool details:

    You could get healthpoints by taking a leak and drinking water.

    You could pay the hookers to dance.

    All the piggy cops had LAPD written on the uniform sleeve.

    The list goes on...

    But most of all I liked the way Duke lived up to his promise to rip off the Uberfiend's head and sh*t down his neck. When he sat down on the thing and unfolded the newspaper I fell of the chair laughing...

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
    1. Re:Nuking... by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Duke Nukem's interactivity (allthough very limited) was very cool at that time ; Ok, the pooltable made no sense, but hey, you -could- pocket those balls ! (in the meantime , trying to get them piggy cops off your back ;) )

    2. Re:Nuking... by mbbac · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, but Quake had deathmatch that allowed people to drop in and out. In Duke Nukem, everyone had to be present at the start.

      --

      mbbac

  24. That warez group's going to by vijaya_chandra · · Score: 2, Funny

    get doomed out of business pretty soon for being that late

    (Karma be damned! I am no better than an AC anyway)

  25. 8 Years ago? I'm getting old. by g00z · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride..."

    I clearly remember when Quake came out like it was yesterday. I remember that at the office I was working at there was a big debate on what was the better game... Duke Nukem 3D or Quake. In the end Quake won, but not without some heated arguments in DN3D's favor.

    And of course, before that I remember playing Deathmatch Doom on the office lan on a 386 with a b&w monitor (shivers).

    --
    "The Wright brothers were the first to fly with a heavier-than-air machine, but boy did they have a lousy plane"
  26. I'm an old bastard! by goldenfield · · Score: 5, Funny
    Every so often, something comes along that reminds me that I'm 29, for all intents and purposes old, and probably not cool anymore.
    • I'm no longer in MTV's core demographic (12-26)
    • Younger family members think "Take My Breath Away" by Jessica Simpson is such a great, original song.

    And now this...Quake is 8, Doom is over 10. It couldn't have been that long ago, right? I got it when I got the first Snoop Doggy Dogg CD...oh, wait...
    1. Re:I'm an old bastard! by Zed2K · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And 20 years ago what you thought was cool, the then 30 or so year olds said the exact same thing about the culture of the day.

    2. Re:I'm an old bastard! by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Insightful

      bah, try 30+ years ago. I still remember the hippies, and I'd have to say the last original fads I can recall were parachute pants, leg warmers, and big hair - Not the "big" hair of the 50s, or the piled wigs of the 1400s-early 1900s, but that big teased looked like someone tried blow drying their hair while bathing look. These fads were all possible because of technological marvels of the day - artificial satin-like material, lycra, and the combined blow dryers, perms, and super hold hair spray.

      OK, that's not entirely true, the last cool original fad I can recall was the punk/modern rock/post-modern/alternative music movements, all original before the "alternative" mainstream movement began around 1990. This was driven by the "new" electric guitar and newer multi-phonic electronic keyboards. The last 2 major innovations in musical instruments.

      That whole wearing pants too big for you was pretty much done in the 30s, when people were so poor they bought clothes for their kids to grow into. The body piercing et al - pre-1900s folks. Same for "body art", which I think they've actually dated for women as a fad in the 1700s.

      As for being less cool, what's less cool than walking around in corduroys, parachute pants, or leg warmers, much less that fire-hazard hair? And let's not forget the left-is-cool right-is-wrong escapade. All were phases, and they passed, for the most part. The only thing less cool in the last 10-15 years is the music scene, which thanks to the pandering of the members of the RIAA, now targets 12 yo's and has dropped all pretense of actually supporting music.

      Well, that's enough of a rant in one posting.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  27. The 8th Anniversary by AntiChris · · Score: 5, Funny

    We celebrate id Software's ability to create more shades of brown than ever imaginable... and love every minute of it!

    -

    --
    From 0 to drunk in $20
  28. NVIDIA and ATI should give id tons of money by Lord+Kano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It was because of Quake that 3d accelleration made it to the big time. When I was 21 I plunked down 200 of my hard earned dollars to buy a Diamond Monster 3d card JUST TO PLAY GL-Quake!

    Lots of my buddies did the same. Before Quake 3d accelleration was just a novelty.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  29. Gameshops telling release dates : What's new ? by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 4, Informative
    They have been doing that as long as they 've been selling on-line. They don't know, but are counting on the people foolish enough to pre-buy it with them.

    I won't believe any dates untill i see a 'we gone gold' message from the id-dudes themselves.

    Setting the date at the start of August, would still be very convenient for the die-hards at Quakecon (12 -15 August) to have a LAN-go at it.

    Anyhow, I'm very curious , and patiently await the 'we gone gold' message.

    On a last note : Seeing that Splashdamage took the multiplayer portion as their part (at least leveldesign) i -know- the MP part is gonna rock my socks off, since they (co-) created the very cool (free) game Enemy Territory. For more info on this upcoming studio, check out their site, and give Enemy Territory a try, if you haven't allready. www.splashdamage.com

  30. Amazon has pre-order for $49.99 and different date by DJFelix · · Score: 4, Informative
    Amazon.com has Doom 3 available for pre-order as well, with August 1, 2004 listed as the release date.

    Oddly enough, they also have Half Life 2 available as preorder as well listing September 1, 2004 ...

    They will even give you a deal if you pre-order both at the same time ... I'm not holding my breath.

  31. Re:On Quake.. by nightsweat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I had the same experience. Quake just was missing... something. Doom had it, Half-Life had it and UT2004 has it.

    Haven't tried Farcry yet.

    --

    the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
  32. Not that this post matters... by devphaeton · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's ironic (this story comes up) in that a friend of mine recently duped me into installing and running quakeforge. I went along with it because my gf keeps telling me that i need to play more video games.

    It's hilarious. I have a fairly up-to-date athlonxp system w/ 512mb of ram, huge fast drives, a decent surround sound system and such, but since i'm not a huge FPS player, my video card is still the old STB Velocity 4400 (i.e. a RIVA TNT) from the k6-II that now serves files from my closet.

    I get about 17 FPS in fugly-graphics mode, but it cracks me up. I fire up the game and all of a sudden it is 1997 again. All i need now is Duke Nukem, Doom, Sim City Classic and HotelChat, and i get all those warm fuzzies i haven't felt since the days on the roommate's 486.

    w00t!

    Disclaimer: i love both debian and freebsd

    --


    do() || do_not(); // try();
  33. Doom 3 Uses OpenGL by SeinJunkie · · Score: 3, Informative
    IIRC, id had to write all of their own shaders for OpenGL, but are definitely not using DirectX. DirectX would have let them use the API's shaders, I believe, but OpenGL hadn't defined theirs yet. So, all of the shaders you see in Doom 3 were written in assembly code.

    Refer to this article for more information about the engine.

    1. Re:Doom 3 Uses OpenGL by Viking+Coder · · Score: 3, Informative

      If it was written in Direct3D, they would not have used built-in shaders. They would have been written in assembly code, too (PixelShaders 2.0 versus ARB_fragment_program is not that different). It's not like DirectX has something here that OpenGL does not.

      Everyone has to write all of their own shaders, at this point.

      Move along, folks - nothing to see here.

      --
      Education is the silver bullet.
  34. This is *so* wrong. by LordPixie · · Score: 4, Funny

    I went along with it because my gf keeps telling me that i need to play more video games.
    ...
    my video card is still the old STB Velocity 4400


    The geek with the gamer GirlFriend has a video card that's more than six years old !! What. The. Fuck. Any gamer knows that those things are meant to be upgraded every six months.

    This is why it's so hard for a gamer to find a decent girlfriend. They've all been stolen by people with 30 times as much system RAM as VRAM. I guess the size of your Video Card really doesn't matter !


    --LordPixie
    </joking>

  35. Re:Karma Be Damned!!! by swordgeek · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Never played it, but it sounds sort of like System Shock, which was way better than Doom. :-)

    OK, DOOM was brilliant as a 2D/pseudo-3D adrenaline rush. SS was brilliant as a 2.5D/3D plot-driven FPS.

    --

    "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
  36. Re:...and your memory is getting bad by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I had the same configuration. Pity us, please!

    12" monochrome paperwhite vga, 8 bit soundblaster compatible and an AMD 386 DX 40. ISA video bus. Definately not playable at full screen!

    It more the size of one of those big fancy postage stamps... or maybe a dollar folded in half :-)

  37. preorder link from doom II official site by frieked · · Score: 2, Informative

    To any skeptics out there, there is a pre-order link on the official Doom III site with links to 3 sites, EB Games, Gamestop and Best buy... All 3 list ship dates of 8/3.

    --

    I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
    -Xenocrates
  38. Re:Linux, Mac and DOS in the same box? by HarbV7.0 · · Score: 2, Informative

    No word on a Mac version at all. Maybe it'll be released at the same time as Duke Nukem forever? Ironic as I believe it was originaly previewed at Macworld a few years ago.

  39. Re:Question by Wyzard · · Score: 3, Informative

    "TCP/IP" refers to a family of networking protocols including IP, TCP, UDP, ARP, and less strictly, DNS and the routing protocols. So it's perfectly valid for a game to use UDP and say that it's using TCP/IP.

  40. Same by Slappy00 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember quite vividly playing Doom 2 on an old 486 (DXII boyiee) connecting to my frined in the suburbs to play coop through the whole game. Half of the fun was getting your @%$^% init strings right for our modems, loading up quemm and sucking every last byte available from the soldered on packard-hell memory, only then (after a few failed connects) the game would work work. Now a days is turn computer on, load game, play. I know i come of as cane-waving but back in those day you auctually had to know a bit about computer hardware before you could play anything. and before anyone else does the obligatory Python sketch: Man#1: Aye, in them days we was glad to have the price of a cup of tea! Man#2: Aye, a cup of cold tea! Man#4: Without milk or sugar! Man#3: Or tea! Man#1: Aye, in a cracked cup and all! Man#4: Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled-up newspaper! Man#2: Aye, the best we could manage in those days was to suck on a piece of damp cloth! Man#3: Aye, but we were happy in those days, though we were poor. Man#1: Because we were poor! My old dad used to say to me: Money doesn't buy you happiness! Man#4: Aye, he was right, I was happier then and I had nothing. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof. Man#2: House! You were lucky to live in a house! We had to all live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, half the floor was missing, and were all huddled together in a corner for fear of falling! Man#3: You were lucky to have a room! We used to 'ave to live in a corridor! Man#1: Oh, we used to DREAM of living in a corridor. It would have been a palace to us. We used to have to live in an old water tank in a rubbish pit. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House! Huh! Man#4: Well, when I say house, it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us! Man#2: We were evicted from our hole in the ground. We had to go and live in a lake! Man#3: You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us, living in a shoebox in the middle of the road! Man#1: Cardboard box? Man#3: Aye! Man#1: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down at the mill, fourteen hours a day, week in, week out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home, our dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt. (slight pause) Man#2: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of damp gravel, work a twenty-hour day at the mill for tuppence a month, and when we got home, our dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky! Man#3: Well, of course, we 'ad it tough! We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and lick the road clean with our tongue. We 'ad two bits of cold gravel, and worked a twenty-four hour day at the mill for six or seventy-four years, and when we got home, our dad would slash it to us with a bread knife. Man#4: Right. I had to get up at ten o'clock at night, half an hourbefore I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down at the mill and pay the mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our mother and father would kill us and dance on our graves singing Halleluja. Man#1: Aye, and you try telling young people of today that. And they won't believe you. Man#4: Aye, they won't!

  41. Quake is still going strong! by Jagasian · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some people still play old games. Chess for example has been played for hundreds of years. Quake... well it is only 8 years old, but it still has an active community of players, developers, competitions, etc.

    One reason that Quake is still going strong is because it is that Carmack open-sourced the game engine a few years ago. This has made it possible to update the game's technology. Sure it isn't as graphically intensive as modern games, but it isn't bad looking either. The most important thing in Quake is a high frame rate, which is quite easy considering the game's system requirements.

    So what are you waiting for?
    Download Quake! Note that you will need the two retail content ".pak" files to play on most servers. Carmack opened the game engine, not the game content (skins, sounds, levels, textures). However, the eQuake package comes with tons of free content, so you can still play, somewhat, without buying Quake.

    Join the community!

    Finally, you might ask, "Why play Quake"? Well, why play Chess? Some games are classics, and they are classics because they are fun. Quake is the best game for fast, furious gameplay. Unlike tactical shooters such as Counter-Strike, Quake is more concerned with fun fast paced action than realism. So if you want slow realistic, but sometimes boring gameplay - stay away from Quake.

    If you want fast, furious, chaotic and violent gameplay... Quake is your ticket to fun.

  42. Way OT: Sig improvement by tmasssey · · Score: 2
    Wouldn't this be a better way of expressing Yoda's famous words?

    do() || do_not(); //try(); In your way, there is a not-try() option. In my way, there is no try. At least, when it's compiled! :)

    Can't wait to see *this* one get modded... Don't ask me why I'm doing this logged in...

  43. Re:q2 was its own engine, I believe by Osty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I could be wrong, but I think the Q2 engine was just a highly modified Q1 engine.

    You're wrong. The Quake 2 engine was new. While it may have taken concepts and possibly even some code from the Quake 1 engine (hey, they were both written by theCarmack, so that's to be expected), the Q2 engine was not built on top of Q1. Perhaps you're thinking about Half-Life, which was built on a highly modified Q1 engine (many people get confused and think that Half-Life was based on Q2, since it was released around the same time).

  44. The ESRB rating doesn't indicate doneness by danshapiro · · Score: 2, Informative
    the British Board of Film Classification has a DOOM III Listing with a rating for the game, a seeming indication that they've already been able to review all its content

    According to the article "Lawmakers in a Tizzy Over Parent's Responsibility" in gamedeveloper magazine (June/July 2004):

    "The publisher submits a completed questionnaire revealing the game's contents along with video footage of 'the most extrme content and an accurate representation of the context and the product as a whole', according to the ESRB."

    Clearly, this can be done many months before the game goes gold. That's necessary so that box designs, which have long lead times, can be locked down early.

    --
    This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
  45. Mac by peeon · · Score: 2, Funny

    Jason from "Foxtrot" forgot he is looking at a Mac...

  46. Re:On Quake.. by Sigma+7 · · Score: 3, Informative
    What's with all the hating on Quake? I view it as *far* more atmospheric than Doom ever was.
    Mabye, but when I play games, I tend to look for gameplay more than eye candy. As a result, I hate games that tend to be dead simple on the hardest difficulty, as well as games that are impossible on easy. With Quake, the third dimention was a bonus - however, the monsters effectivly has the same AI as Doom - move towards player, but walk alonside a "wall" if you bump into one (where a wall indicates a high vertical slope up or down.)

    The first time around, it felt like they cut out the use command - didn't affect me to a degree, but I had a feeling that certain situations could arise where you accidently touch a button of certain death.

    After beating it on Hard, I tried nightmare mode - that difficulty option was hidden from view mainly because it is considered too hard for most players. However, there was really not much difference from Hard - the only changes would be the monsters firing or re-firing more frequenrly and the Shambler inflicting 10 more points of damage per shock. This is not much of a difference, since you can still dodge most attacks (they either don't have lead-ahead, or have predictable lead-ahead.)

    Mutliplayer was acceptable, provided that you knew that you should switch to W-A-S-D and to type "+mlook" in the console. Otherwise, you'll encounter situations where you will get creamed by other players even before you should even know that mouse looking is even possible.