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.

Comments

Thank the lord

[Rooked_One]

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. =/

Re:Thank the lord

[Arathrael]

I just want to know why he can't hold a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other. I mean, you can see his reflection in the bathroom mirror in game. It's a one-handed flashlight. It's a one-handed pistol. The maths isn't hard.

I was also slightly disturbed that the majority of people on Slashdot and elsewhere, rather than thinking along those lines, seemed to instead jump to the idea of duct tape, and occasionally helmets. But then I realised that perhaps if the majority of people, a) only use one hand for everything, and b) have an obsession with duct tape, I would probably be happier not thinking too much about it. :-)

Appropriate name.

[strredwolf]

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.

Darkened room = less need for this mod

[IvyMike]

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. :)

Not buying it

[kryocore]

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.

Re:Not buying it

[sad_]

There was nothing scary about the firt Doom, the graphics were so bad that it didn't matter.

sure, now they are bad, but back then, oh boy! i played that game again and again, and let me tell you how scary it was! it got me jumping out of my chair when my mother would walk into the room. the original doom used lighting as well to create fear, you must remember all the halls which were half lit, or with flashing lights, or the many traps where the lights would go out and a secret door would open releasing zillions of imps.

it was scray then, it is scary now, it is DOOM :)

Fair Review My Ass

[Jack9]

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.

Re:I disagree

[dancingmad]

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.

Don't do it!

[Fiz Ocelot]

Ok I'm sure someone already posted this sentiment, but I'm compelled to post :P

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 :)

Re:Don't do it!

[randyest]

I agree.

I will not install this mod.

Yes, it makes sense -- space marines in 2045 should have duct tape and/or helmets with flashlights and/or nightvision and/or fucking-A genetically engineered cat-eye night-proof eyes-from-hell.

But that's not what this space marine happened to have handy when the shit hit the fan.

And I like it that way!

The light thing

[fahrvergnugen]

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.

Re:Poor guy...

[FrenZon]

I'm also seeing some problems with both OmniWeb 4.5 and Safari 1.2.2

hmm, I have now disabled the javascript thinger for Safari users. I ended up being able to replicate the error by visiting the page and hitting refresh five times. How embarassing. I will look into a fix shortly (I'm not suprised it doesn't work though - the JS was written in two hours, so I think it's time for a rejib).

Ingenious?

[EulerX07]

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"?

Re:Ingenious?

[servognome]

The problem is its a contrived limitation on the player to make the gameplay work. When you have a game so aimed at realism, devices such as this to make the gameplay work become an annoyance. It's a cop out on not having the extra complexity of level designs that comprehend the player having both a very limited and targeted light source and weapon at the same time.
I have the same problem with games that have gimmiky boss battles. The boss isn't hard enough by himself so the devs make it so you can't hurt him unless he screams "slashdot effect!" which occurs for 2 seconds at 45 second intervals. It breaks the realism and just feels more like a trivial challenge. Unlike a boss battle that has a "logical" limitation like the fire monster can't be hurt by plasma weapons.

Re:Ingenious?

[sprayNwipe]

When you have a game so aimed at realism, devices such as this to make the gameplay work become an annoyance.

Realism?

You're talking about a game where you're a military person in a science-based research lab, where they somehow manage to open a portal to hell that causes everyone to turn into demons and zombies, and that has convieniently placed guns and armor shards for you to add to yourself, and you're complaining that having to lower your torch to aim and fire with a shotgun or machine gun is unrealistic?

More important...

[ImaLamer]

Remember when Quake hit the shelves? It was being hailed as a jump in FPS, and IMHO took PC's to the next level. Soon however there were a million Quake clones it seemed.

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.

Re:Poor guy...

[AnotherScratchMonkey]

It's a game site. For a very dark game. Accessibility isn't the objective. Or is there some new accessibility feature in Doom 3 that I'm not aware of?

Kudos to the author for recognizing non-IE users and fixing the bugs that affect us.

Re:I disagree

[Secret Chimp]

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.

Repeat After Me...

[ca1v1n]

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!

Re:Thank the lord-A vain attack.

[Z-MaxX]

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.