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

Save the cash...

[CashCarSTAR]

It's a tech demo.

Ok, I thought it would be a tech demo for the longest time. When I started playing it, I was impressed. It looked nice. The sounds of the marines when the base fell were impressivly cool.

The game gets real boring real fast.

There's no real oomph to the weapons. You feel like you're fighting with peashooters. The enemies don't reaact to being shot. The game feels so sterile. There are pretty cool scenes in it, and the graphics are nice...

The game itself is very bleh.

Yet all the game sites will give it top of the line reviews, mainly because they've been hyping it for so long, to go back on that now would look bad.

Compared to the latest and greatest, off the top of my head, Painkiller and Nitro Family were more enjoyable. It's all about the funfactor..something id forgot about.

Re:The Doom 3 piracy troll...

[macdaddy357]

Will Doom3 be pirated? Yes. They have priced themselves out of the market. It has a suggested retail price of $54.99, and most gamer kids just don't have that. They will want to play it though, so they will get it by hook or by crook. "Copy protection" will only be a bump in the road, and the DMCA ignored like the 55 mile per hour speed limit.

If Id and Activision would sell it for $29.95, their sales would probably increase 500 to 700 percent. Overpricing because of greed will be the kiss of death.

Re:piracy

[DarkEdgeX]

And more importantly, allowing the term "theft" to apply merely proves that the RIAA/MPAA/etc's tactics of making sure everybody thinks downloading MP3's (or movies, or software) is theft is working.

They're trying to redefine the word to mean something it doesn't.

Re:The amount of piracy going on

[DarkEdgeX]

I will admit that part of the problem is that ID hasn't released a demo, so no one has any way of knowing whether the game will run on their systems or not. And all the news coverage going "Sure, this game runs just fine on an Alienware 3.0 ghz P4 with a Radeon 9800 pro, although it does make my machine feel a little mediocre" (gamespy) really honestly is scaring the fuck out of me.

I'll admit, this is why I downloaded it and I'm glad I did.

I run Windows Server 2003 (which I figured wasn't listed in the system requirements because not a lot of people run it as a desktop). Lo and behold, the Doom 3 installer quits bitching that the OS must be Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Wonderful. Saved me $55 + tax to have downloaded it and found that out rather than to have bought it, found out, then been unable to return it because it was opened.

Re:The amount of piracy going on

[DarkEdgeX]

Well gee... it's hard to imagine it not working on what is effectively the newest Microsoft OS... Besides, those spec's are usually written as a lowest common denominator. This is the first time I've heard of something newer not being supported (even through compatibility mode!).

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Re:I'm proud of it.

[Jonsey]

Hi John,

I'm a more average FPS geek out here.

I've been a long-time FPSer, and rather good about it when I get the time to practice regularly.

I've played every game you've attached your name to, and paid for all of them but Quake 1. I love the things you've done with gaming.

That said, I'm not in a rush to get Doom3. Because of how many years (and months of playtime) I got out of the original Half-Life, I'm eagerly awaiting the GPA drop that HL2 will provide me.

I plan on waiting until after I've blitzed that, assuming that they stick to this September release date, to go out and buy a copy of Doom 3.

And though I will probably play it with the lights on and some sort of comfort nearby, I look forward to it.

Every post you make is always followed up by many fools ripping you a new one. I'm not on edge about Doom 3 (at least, not like I would have been for Quake 4) but I know that when I do go buy that game, the $50-$60-$whatever will be money well spent for a good entertaining if adrenaline fuelled time.

You and your lead programming team do great work, the engines that you've had a hand in have redefined PC Gaming. Your efforts are appreciated, and your name is respected.

Ignore the flamers, congratulate yourself for getting a product out to market after a long development cycle (most seem to flop after too long in development) and know that there are a lot of folks who will rush out to get it as soon as they can, and a lot of folks who will get it eventually whol like what you do.

I've been rambling, but that's because I'm an IT intern making below industry average intern wages in an area with an extremely high cost of living. : )