Doom 3 Gets Reviews, Piracy Questions, Exultation

Yeti Von Baseball writes "Now that Doom 3 has officially shipped to stores, Computer Gaming World just posted its Doom 3 review - they also posted about 100 or so new screens." Elsewhere, GameSpy has an in-progress weblog and first-look impressions on the "claustrophobic corridors" of the game, Telefragged posted one of the first reviews, praising "a grand slam of action, story, atmosphere, and pure terror", the BBC reports on how "potential sales could be hit by the extent of online piracy of the game", and Time Magazine has a feature on Doom 3 and id.

Comments

I bought my copy today

[FuzzzyLogik]

And it's good :) doesn't run so hot on my setup though..
amd athlon xp 2400+
512mb ddr 400
7200rpm hard drive
nvidia geforce 4 ti 4400 (128mb)

it doesn't detect my surround sound setup (sb live! with klipsch pro media 4.1's)
it runs at medium detail @ 640x480 and gets pretty choppy in places...
my only complaint so far is that it's so dark that even the flashlight doesn't even really let you see much (i'm trying not to turn my brightness up but it seems i may have to so i don't keep running into guard rails and such)...
overall though.. i think the intro was a bit long.. i wanna kill stuff.. and kill it i shall... after the 15-20 minute introduction :-/ great for the story.. bad for my trigger finger

Re:So what's next for id software..?

[FuzzzyLogik]

they said they're doing something totally new... quake 4 is being done by someone else, and the wolfenstein series is being done by someone else.. so they're doing something totally new this time around and they should be starting on it soon.

Experiences thus far:

[bravehamster]

I've got 4 computers at my disposal of various capabilities, and this is how Doom3 has run on them:

XP 2600
Ati Rad 9800 Pro
2 x WD Raptor striped raid
1GB PC3200 Corsair

Can run smooth on High settings at 800x600, AA disabled. Game looks fantastic

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XP 2000
Geforce FX 5200
80GB 2mb buffer maxtor
512MB PC2700 Generic

Barely runs at 640x480. Framerates are in the 10-20 range. Would not recommend purchasing if you have similar specs. Upgrading the CPU or video card would have the largest impact.

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

P4 2.4Ghz B
ATI Radeon 9500
512MB PC2100
2 x 80GB Maxtor Striped RAID

Runs smooth on Medium settings at 640x480, or Low at 800x600. Definitely playable.

-----------

Haven't tried the 4th yet, but I don't hold much hope. It's an XP 1600 w/ GF4 Ti4200.

Tweak Settings

[Jorell_Kovin]

For those of you finding the game too dark try these settings:

1)In game bring down the console (ctrl alt ~)
2)r_gamma 1.3 - The default is 1, try a range from 1.2-1.4, some have said to go as high as 1.8 but that is way too bright and takes away from the atmosphere imho.
3)r_brightness 1.5 - Again the default is 1, try a range up 1.8 to what looks best for you.
4) Turn off AA, turn on vsync on.

To boost performance try this!

In your DOOM 3 directory, find "DoomConfig.cfg" (x:\Program Files\Doom 3\base). Open DoomConfig.cfg in Notepad.
Find the line:
seta image_cacheMegs "XX"
Where XX is try increasing this value in according to how much ram you have. I have 1 GB of ram, and set it to 256, HUGE boost in framerate, game runs a lot smoother now. Try these values: 32, 96, 128, 256.

Re:I just got it.

[MournsForHumans]

Yeah, the single player game is great. I'm decently far in (I have the BFG) and I'd have to say that the atmosphere and tension are excellent. I'll be moving slowly through an environment, wondering where the next group of enemies will pop up, and then something will happen and I'll find myself in an intense fight. The beginning of the game has a lot of smaller encounters -- don't worry, the difficulty and intensity continues to escalate throughout the game. While the game itself tends to be fairly linear, I think it's understandable in that it's more of a methodical, horror type game that makes use of scripted effects and sequences to heighten the tension and terror. At the point I'm at I feel constantly nervous with a sense of foreboding; while I've been scared I haven't jumped out of my chair (unlike my girlfriend, who had to stop playing)

I have played 4 player DM with my friends and I have to say that it's a blast. I've always preferred smaller DM (I don't see the point in spawning, killing a guy who happens to be next to you, then dying quickly), and the well designed DM maps are very fun to play on. I've had a good mix between surprises and insane firefights (wait until you try berserk mode!)

Regarding how well it runs: I have an Athlon XP 1600+ with 512 MB of RAM and a Geforce FX 5700 Ultra. I can play in 1024x768 at medium quality with high effects and only experience some occasional stuttering. One of my friends has a similar computer with a Geforce4 MX and he says that 800x600 at medium runs very smooth.

All in all, I'm very pleased with this game and would say that it definately lives up to the hype. Make sure your monitor brightness is set to a decent level -- at first I had mine way too dark, and the game wasn't nearly as enjoyable. You should be able to see your environment without a flashlight. Also be sure to set your system to surround sound in Control Panel->Sounds and Audio->Volume Tab->Advanced, as the game doesn't support EAX and its autodetection or whatever.

Re:Will the monsters fight?

[RatBastard]

Actually, it works like this:
Species that shoot bullets can injure, and get into fighst with, any monster in the game.

Species that use missile attacks can only injure, and therefore get in fights with, members of other species.

That is to say that a Grunt can get into a fight with any other monster, including another grunt. While an Imp can only get into fights with any monster that is NOT an Imp.

There are four exceptions to this:

1. If a monster hits another with it's physical attack it will start a fight, regardless of species. This rarely happens with monsters of the same species, but I've seen it happen.
2. Barons of Hell and Hell Knights are imune to each other's missiles.
3. Monsters that use special attacks, like the Archvile, can injure and get intii fights with other members of their own species.
4. Pain Elementals can injure each other, but because their weapons are Lost Souls, the injured monster gets into a fight with the lost soul, not the Pain Elemnetal. Yeah, I'm a DOOM geek.

Cheats and Console Commands

[Davak]

The cheats and consoelc commands have changed some since the alpha version. One of our users posted a pretty good list here:

Doom 3 Console Commands and cheats

If you figure out any more, please let me know.

I didn't really get that old doom feeling until I turned on noclip and walked through a few walls anyway. :)

Re:Quake3 engine open-source? When?

[John Carmack]

By the end of the year. There are still a lot of higher priority things, but it is coming soon.

Hopefully punkbuster will keep the source release from having any negative impact on the player community.

John Carmack