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Doom 3 Reaches Gold Master, Due August 5th
Rogerpq3 writes "Yes, this is the official word that [long-awaited PC FPS] DOOM 3 has been code released and has been approved for manufacturing! According to the .plan file of id CEO Todd Hollenshead: 'We literally just hung up with Activision and have confirmed that our latest release candidate has been mutually approved and is finally GOLD. So, the next question is release dates. Retailers in the States will be allowed to pick up games starting at 12:01 AM on August 3rd. The official street date is actually August 5th in the U.S.A., but some of your favorite stores will probably have it early for those of you who have to have it first. Check with your local retailer for that information... [Internationally] the UK will probably get it first, on or about August 6th. Everywhere else will probably be Friday, August 13th (cue Twilight Zone Theme) or close to that date, with just a few exceptions (e.g. Russia and Poland)'."
Look, if you want to combat piracy, release it on the same date world-wide. This one-week-later crap will only result in lots of illegal copies in "late" countries.
I'd hardly call time spent attempting to produce children wasted.
Actually, that's a bit misguided.
It really is more related to the Doom engine in design because Quake was "real 3D" where as the Doom/Build engines were basically hacks which is why they ran so much faster.
For instance, it was really a challenge for the developer of the Build engine to have support of a room directly above another room.
Build/Doom engines are raycasters. That's why when you looked up or down (or 3rd-person mode) in the Build/Doom engines walls looked skewed.
The Quake engine was actual 3D and never had this problem.
But, I will say that Duke 3D and Quake came out about the same time and were direct competitors.
Umm, that's rediculous. People have played HL2. To even think that it is Vaporware is simply ignorant. Yes, it has a very delayed launch, I personally spoke with some of the lead designers at valve last may at E3. I also attented the sneak peak conference which showed off Half Life 2. let's just say they've spent a lot of their time on that physics engine, which was absolutely amazing. I won't be the only one who will spend entirely too much time playing with the gravity gun.
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What this really boils down to is that Valve has all the money in the world. Just like ID. They can take their sweet time making games. They don't have to meet deadlines, because they get to set them. They are concerned with making the best game they can and getting it to us when it's finished. I will take that ANYDAY over a rushed to market product that is riddled with bugs and the ending chopped and nice features left off for "expansion packs". If you'll notice well funded companies that actually finish their games rarely need "expansion packs" every 6 months, which is the industries new way of making you pay for a beta test, and then pay again for the finished product.
Thank god Blizzard is taking this same stance with WoW. I'm in Beta, they don't have all the classes even finished yet, there's no way they are releasing in August, and they won't. Every blizzard game has been delayed, and everyone complains, yet how many copies did Diablo 2 sell? Yeaaah