Slashdot Mirror
Marine Finds Duct Tape on Mars
mhore writes "It seems that one of the biggest complaints about Doom 3 has been resolved. Thanks to Glen Murphy, you may now use your flashlight and weapon at the same time, thanks to the ingenious 'Duct Tape' mod! While some may think this ruins the game play, I disagree and think it is worth noting." There's plenty of other Doom 3-related coverage over at PlanetDoom, including a pointer to a new IGN review, which PlanetDoom considers "a lot more fair and balanced than some of the reviews we've seen so far", with an overall 8.9/10 score.
I kept wondering why, why why why, that marines in the year 2195 didn't have flashlights standard on their helmets.... or why for that matter our hero in this game didn't have a helmet. =/
Now how about:
1. Modding all the weapons to have this feature, and...
2. Modding all the models so they look like they have the flashlight strapped on 'em with duct tape.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
I've found that by playing only at night, in pitch black, so that my eyes start to adjust to the dark, the extreme darkness of this game isn't that annoying.
:)
If I play in the morning before work, when the sun has risen, my eyes can't dynamically adjust from the light room to the dark screen, and I can't see anything. Maybe I need to eat more carrots or something.
In any case, the bonus about doing it this way is that the game is way scarier at night.
I was anticipating this game since it was first announced, and now that I've seen the trailer and all the IGS vids, I don't want it.
I bought RTCW, and I hated walking through a morg with monsters coming after me. It wouldn't been way cooler if Carmak and his crew designed something more realistic (but not 100%) like the Bourne identity. It freeks me out walking around in dark corridors not knowing what the heck is beside me.
Good job ID, you made it so scary I don't want it!
There was nothing scary about the firt Doom, the graphics were so bad that it didn't matter. Boy how that's changed.
Apparently the only fair reviews are those that are proportionally positive in respect to the square or the hype+publisher's net-rep. Oh wait, it's an IGN review (rolls eyes).
I have to honestly disagree that Doom 3 is a "good game" in any respects other than graphics technology. I can check out how well my current video card will run with entertaining benchmarks for free kthx.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
I disagree.
Doom 1 was seminal because it popularized FPSes. Doom 3 isn't innovative. Yes it uses some technology, but who remembers technical achievements? They're the minor awards at the academy awards.
People remember Mario 64 for having to chase baby penguins, because it was the first game to popularize the 3D platformer.
Doom 3 doesn't change the formula. Maybe, as a console gamer I'm biased, but Doom 3 is certainly the belle of the ball now, unless the mod community really takes off I don't seeing it being a watermark for gaming.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Who cares? The "old" Quake 3 engine still looks great (I've been playing RTCW on Linux lately), and it's smooth. I don't give a crap about super-spiffy graphics. I want fun gameplay.
Look at GTA3. That's much closer to being the "seminal game of our generation", because it's fun.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
First off I've beaten Doom3 with no mods or outside info of any sort, it was awsome. Now about the flashlight....
Needing a seperate flashlight ADDS a LOT to the feeling of vulnerability, that something could jump out and attack you when you are most vulnerable!
Lets put it this way, How do you feel when you have your gun out with light, versus having no light? You can't see well, you're not sure about your surroundings...something may be over there...but it still provides a sence of security.
Taking away the gun takes away that sence of security. You can see better, but now you're vulneable, you'd feel better if you had that gun out wouldn't you?
So basically I think it's great game design. It greatly enhances the feeling of insecurity and vulnerability. I think even having this mod is great proof that id made a design that makes some people feel a little too insecure :)
There were a million ways that id could have handled the light issue, but they chose to pick the one game mechanic that slaps the player in the face with the fact it's just a game. It's a game, it has rules, and I am ripped out of the immersion.
This really upsets me with Doom 3, for those moments when I can stop playing it. It's not quite the letdown that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Crushing Disappointment turned out to be, but it's got the same sense of wasted potential.
I can see why gun-mounted lights got left out. It would take away a lot of the stress & fear that comes from playing the game. But here's just a few ways they could have accomplished the "Player's vision is severely restricted in the midst of a firefight" effect, without ripping the player out of the game:
1) Only the pistol can have the flashlight out. Think about it, modern-day cops have a flashlight and a pistol out simultaneously all the damn time (flashlight held high with the non-weapon hand, pistol in weapon hand). It wouldn't have been that hard, and then they could have stuck with the massive heavy mag-lite they modelled.
2) Helmet light. Make the flashlight bob a bit with the player movement, lead the camera on quick turns (Marine turns his head), jiggle with recoil, etc. Lots of opportunity to immerse.
3) Right-angle flashlight in a breast pocket, a la Silent Hill 3. This is my favorite of the ideas. Put the light a little bit lower, and then if the player moves to fire a two-handed weapon, the arms begin to obscure vision, casting massive shadows everywhere and bright light back from the Marine's pale white arm into the player's face. I mean, it's not like the marine gets much sun, he's pretty reflective.
I hope someone takes that last idea & runs with it, but I'm not optimistic.
On the other hand, for a game as deeply flawed as Doom 3 is turning out to be, it is undeniably stressful, entertaining, and has that "just one more corridor" hook to it. Much like a Renny Harlin film, I enjoy it in the moment, but take even greater pleasure in deriding it afterward to my friends.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
The whole point of the flashlight is having to choose between seeing where you want to shoot, and being able to shoot there. This mod simply eliminates one of the aspect of the game.
How about an aimbot mod for singleplayer, would that be "brilliant"?
Instead of a guy hauling all these weapons around, we need an Stargate weapons mod: P90 submachine gun (with the rail options being optical and laser sights, or a flashlight), 5-7 sidearm, Zat gun, a staff weapon, and some grenades. The Zat gun would be particularly fun to watch.
b oo k/database/weapons.html
http://planeta.terra.com.br/lazer/stargate/blue
Most were licensed by id. There were problems because their servers were supposedly hacked before they could license the game engine out to other developers. No matter, id licensed the Quake engine out to many companies. Many games were fighting against Quake yet they were using Quake's engine. Next everyone else got into the market - making their own engines.
This is what I hope happens with Doom III. In 6 months I want to see screen shots of other games using this engine. I love the game, it is pretty awesome, but wait till other artists get their hands on it. Competition always keeps things spicy.
Doom mods will be nice, but new games will rock.
Get your Unix fortune now!
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Kudos to the author for recognizing non-IE users and fixing the bugs that affect us.
What happened to pistol in one hand, flashlight in the other?
Yeah it makes sense for something like an ak, shotgun or rocket launcher but I'd hope a space marine could fire that pistol one handed.
It would also be sweet if you could use the flash light like a club. I would think the lighting effects of doing that would rock.
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
Switch to NVIDIA. Infact, grab a 6800 GT. Fastest card for Doom3, and when the Linux port comes out, you can upgrade TO Slackware, erase Windows XP, and get going with the simple to use NVIDIA Linux driver script. I know it will be hard to learn how to do new things on your computer without the help of an animated talking dog who finds your files, but if you people don't seriously consider doing something useful with your computers, I will seriously consider cutting you all.
The GTA series is far more significant because it brought the roaming/point mission concept to gaming. Everything from The Simpsons Hit and Run to freakin' Jak II has knocked off of it in some manner. Doom 3 has great graphics and that's about it. If it wasn't called "Doom" it'd just be a great looking incredibly simple-structured shooter. Any game where you go from room to room shooting things and finding key cards isn't ground-breaking as a whole. It's essentially the same concept from 1993 with a few extra tidbits like PDAs and cool crap like skin falling off of skeletons and stuff. On a similar subject Duke Nukem Forever is the seminal vaporware of our generation, bar none.
Doom 3 is not any kind of Quake.
Doom 3 is not any kind of Half-Life.
Doom 3 is certainly not any kind of Tom Clancy game.
Doom 3 is the state of the art in interactive terror. If you want a simple FPS, don't buy it. If you want a shoot-through RPG, don't buy it. If you want something that accurately represents military weaponry, don't buy it.
If you like having to sleep with the light on after a gaming binge, by all means, buy Doom 3!
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
This highlights what was, for me, one of the biggest problems with Doom 3, namely the fact that iD confused "what's cool at first" with "what's cool for the entire 20+ hour game". Not being able to have a pistol and a weapon drawn is neat and scary at first, taking me right back to the original Silent Hill. After about 5 hours, it's started to get more annoying than scary because, of course, the combat is a much bigger and more frequent aspect of the game than it was in Silent Hill. When you get to and they take your flashlight away, it's back to playing "bump the wall to find the way forward", which took me right back to the old Eye of the Beholder games (in a bad way).
It's not just this trick that gets over-used. The first time an imp spawns behind you during a fight, it scares the hell out of you. By the 20th time, it's getting old. By the 200th time, you can turn around and shoot the imp with your eyes closed.
Doom 3 is a good game... probably the best actual game we've seen from iD since the original Doom. However, I also agree with the criticisms in the IGN review (8.9/10 strikes me as pretty much bang-on, as scores go).
1. I like the frantic pace. :] :]
2. I quite like the effect of seeing four glowing eyes before it pounces out at you from the darkness. If I wanted great looking monster designs/models, I wouldn't be looking in a FPS.
3. Not sure how you found shotgun useful for anything other than short range.
4. Kept me on my toes. You can usually hear them comng or spawning. Also, it made me think about how to approach each room.
5. Not sure what you're talking about here.
6. Don't see your point here. Are you complaining about the difficulty? Set it to 'Easy'.
7. Er... what?
8. What do you mean by puzzles? I'm not that far in, but all I've encountered so far that could be considered a puzzle was picking up a PDA and scanning through the emails to find access codes.
9. Haven't experienced this yet, so I can't address this.
10. I'm playing on Normal difficulty and I find myself unable to pick up alot of ammo because I'm constantly full. If you're on Hard or Nightmare and complaining about low ammo, that seems a bit silly. If you're on normal and still don't have enough, play on Easy. If you're on Easy... then I have no idea what to tell you.
I'm not sure if I'm alone here, but I don't think the FPS was ever meant to be a straight shooter. To me, FPS games were always about immersion into the environment, which involves exploration. With that in mind, I'm enjoying Doom 3 immensely. Perhaps you should be playing games like Time Crisis and/or Raiden instead.
Yeah quite. I'm quite a way into the game now. At first I couldn't hack the darkness too well and struggled to fight/find my way about. Now it is easy, I've got the hang of it and it is awesome. You need to encourage the monsters to come into the light in order to fight them more easily, it adds a whole new strategy element I haven't seen in other games before.
Graphically it rules with the darkness too. And boy is it scary. Rules.
This mod is for people who have no patience in my humble opinion.
Yes it uses some technology, but who remembers technical achievements?
Well, I for one will never forget the first time I saw GLQuake, or the first few games that I patched to use my new 3D accelerator card.
Broadly speaking, I agree with you - but don't be too quick to write-off new technology. Sometimes it does have quite an impact for those around to see the transition.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
None of the stuff you've said is an argument against a helmet or gun-mounted flashlight. Instead, everything you've said is an argument that any helmet- or gun-mounted flashlight should have an off switch. And I would argue that given the marine's destination (an enclosed moonbase, not an open battlefield), a gun-mounted flashlight would be an appropriate part of his gear.
Don't do flips and twists to justify the default setup in Doom 3 as somehow 'realistic', or as making good sense tactical sense. As you yourself say, if they were concerned with realism, id would have given you the duct tape themselves. The game forces you to choose between flashlight and gun because having to make that choice heightens the tension and creepiness. End of story.
Two things: "DUCK" is one brand of duct tape. More importantly for this article, duct tape is not for hot air ducts or anything else that'll heat up rapidly. How hot does a firearm get?
Which reminds my of the RIDICULOUS three-eyed headgear that Sam Fisher wears in Splinter Cell. Looks cool, but totally impractical. A bright green triad of glowing lights moving slowly through the shadows... and the guards never notice. Oh, but one ray of light from a regular light source, and BAM, they're all over you.
Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome
What's the point in making it so exactly logical it is no fun? If you don't enjoy the darkness fine, just say so. But saying the darkness aspect of the game is silly because it is easy to tape a torch to the gun and thus it is not enjoyable is just daft. It's a game. It would be less fun if it was 100% believable. If you disagree with that statement then I am sure there are other games for you, but it seems daft.
Did you get similarly annoyed that in Doom1/2 you could jump of a ledge of any height and not die? Or that in mario just touching a goomba would kill you? Or that in doom3 exiting the mars base into a very low atmosphere didn't make you explode due to the pressure differences?
There always has to be a certain level of compromise when it comes to believe with any work of fiction. Surely you know this?
That would be pretty badass, actually. Raise ambient light slightly over time. Each time you can see a strong light source, fire your weapon, or use your flashlight, you drop the ambient back to its original value. This would be even more evil that the gun/flashlight choice because it makes you choose whether to fire and blind yourself, or run and be able to see.