Doom 3 Demo Available

sanderb writes "The Doom 3 demo is out (on Windows). It does not seem to be linked on the Doom 3 site yet, but is available from e.g. 3D Gamers (includes torrent). Time to see what my FX5200 can do..." Other readers point to Fileaholic.Com and Shacknews.com.

Comments

oh the power

[crtfdgk]

[looking at minimum requirments] Man, imagine a Beowu....Oh nevermind.....

Re:oh the power

[Anonymous Coward]

min. requirements aren't that bad.
bad are only the poor models. hands look like fist-gloves with a texture wrapped around them. and even in the beginning where all people are supposed to be alive their skin looks like they've became zombies 2 years ago.

the only neat things in doom3 are the light effects. and yeah the darkness!!! ;)

Re:oh the power

[CaptnMArk]

In my observation, even on a GF4-Ti4200, the game looks really good when in motion. The screenshots really don't do it justice.

Re:oh the power

[Zooka]

In my observation, you had better have a fast CPU to compliment that GF4-Ti4200, because with a processor that is also close to minimum spec (AMD 1600+), the motion is often very sluggish and choppy... YMMV

Re:oh the power

[packeteer]

I just played the whole game of Doom 3 usnig a fx5200. It will work surprisinly well. I just recieved my 5600GT after beating the game and went back to play it again. Its a fun game while on a slow card but on a fast card i keep pausing and starting, it just looks so good.

Re:oh the power

[Anonymous Coward]

imagine a first post that said "the sky is blue". that would be redundant.

Re:oh the power

[superpulpsicle]

Isn't it funny that Nvidia card owners are already beating the game. ATI owners like me have just gotten a working Catalyst 4.9 driver a few days ago. I have had the game sit on my desk for a month collecting dust. Oh the other irony is that they release the demo AFTER the Catalyst driver... hmm....

Re:oh the power

[zonker]

hmmm... you know i am really curious as to the percentage of folks that just borrowed a copy or downloaded a copy of the game off the net instead of waited for the demo to come out. i know very few folks that actually paid for the game, several of whom almost always buy their games (rarely pirating) but with the hype around the game, they wanted it badly but wanted to play it before buying.

seems to me this was a really bad idea for id to wait so long to develop a demo, as their business model was derived from the 'try before you buy' model of shareware that they helped pioneer... i suspect they lost a great many sales to folks that now are unlikely to play good and buy the game after playing a pirated copy (though there will be those few that do).

Re:oh the power

[qopax]

lol, catalyst 4.9 crashes my computer, so i'm happily playing Doom 3 at relatively high graphics with catalyst 4.8 , with only a 2500+ and a 9700 pro...

Re:oh the power

[richy freeway]

Worked flawlessly for me on my 9800 Pro SE with the DOOM-HOTFIX drivers that ATI released at roughly the same time as Doom 3.

Re:oh the power

[Anonymous Coward]

It runs fine on my Pentium 4 1.8 GHz with a 768 MB RAM and a Geforce 3.

http://www.freeipods.com/default.aspx?referer=9153 194/

You mean

[OverlordQ]

they're just *now* getting a demo out? Doesn't that usually come *before* the game is released?

Re:You mean

[phantomAI]

I think id's strategy was to get people to buy the game first, even if it meant that their systems couldn't handle it.

Re:You mean

[th1ckasabr1ck]

Maybe, but why should it?

Id decided to go ahead and take care of the fans who have waited years for this game and get the full thing out there as quickly as possible. The people who aren't sure if they want to buy it or not can wait, I guess.

When I put it like that it sounds like bad business.

Re:You mean

[gl4ss]

well, at least they're getting it out.

can't say that much for other companies which pretty much just drop everything on a game once it's out of the door.

Re:You mean

[Jonny_eh]

They always said that the game would get released 'When it is done'. 'It' wasn't the demo, 'it' was the full game. The demo is a nice thing to have but if they waited till the demo was done, the game would only see a release now.
Now, only if they hired an extra person to work concurrently on the demo so it could've been ready in August...

Re:You mean

[sinergy]

Creating a demo before the final product just pushes back the final product's release date.

Re:You mean

[Hi_2k]

Not for ID. Video games are becoming mainstream, but ID is still a "Hardcore" gamer's company. They know that their market is the kind of people who hang out in IRC and play 6-8 hours daily. Sure, some "Normal" people will buy it, but their fanboy base is huge.

Re:You mean

[Anonymous Coward]

they're just *now* getting a demo out? Doesn't that usually come *before* the game is released?

No kidding. Don't waste your bandwidth, Doom 3 sucks royally. It's too dark and boring. You can't have your flashlight on while holding your gun so it's a pain in the ass to even see an enemy coming at you. Also, multiplayer is virtually non-existant! I think the most players you can have is 4. WTF is this, 1994?

Re:You mean

[KDR_11k]

What, you need the flashlight during combat? There are maybe two or three parts in the game where you need additional light to spot the enemies. Except for those I never had any problem spotting the monsters (is it just me or does the game get brighter the farther you get?).

Re:You mean

[Jahf]

That's nuts ... if you have a system that you doubt can run it, you don't buy it until:

a) the demo comes out

b) you upgrade

or

c) you cave in and try anyway

It isn't id's fault if people do c) ... especially if they've announced that the demo will follow on the full release (even before they finish the Linux or Mac binaries), which they most definitely did say.

And the trend lately has been for demos to come out shortly following the full release. Fact is, people who release a demo before a game's release are doing it with the knowledge it will probably not be a full showcase and it is worth it to try and drum up business. On the other hand, if a company knows that the game is high profile and will sell, there is far more incentive to finish the full game and then do a polished demo.

Re:You mean

[Finkbug]

"they're just *now* getting a demo out? Doesn't that usually come *before* the game is released?"

Let's see. I've got a game that millions pre-ordered years in advance. It's arguably the most anticipated computer game ever. It will sell out on the first day.

What exactly do I gain with a pre-release demo?

Seriously folks: why on earth would they demo DOOM 3 before the release? People were going to buy it anyway. Heck, a demo might well have decreased early sales as some (such as me) found it maybe the third best FPS released so far this year. An early demo would have gained them *nothing*. Releasing one now will help pick up a second wave or purchasers.

Demos are essential for selling WidgetMaster: The Velvet Antenna of Dragondom. DOOM 3 didn't need one.

Re:You mean

[Anonymous Coward]

You're apparantly not a fanboy, since you don't know it's "id".

Re:You mean

[nomadic]

Are you kidding? Id is probably the most mainstream FPS maker out there. Hell, it's probably the only FPS franchise that non-gamers have even heard of.

Re:You mean

[bheading]

No, the strategy was to get people to buy the game first, as it isn't actually all that good.

When you've got stuff like FarCry doing all kinds of mindblowing things with the visuals and the gameplay, and compare that with how far Doom3 has come given how long it has supposedly been in development, Doom3 is a huge let-down. I suspect ID were well aware of this, so they delayed the demo by a month and kicked a huge marketing machine into place behind the game to shift as many copies as humanly possible, banking on the fans of the previous versions (ie folks like me) to snap it up straight away.

Re:You mean

[Neophytus]

Or do what Epic Games (Unreal) do. For every main build of an in-house game their script creates a 1) Full game 2) Dedicated server and 3) Demo build. The latter two are cut down from the full game as specified. Typically, though, the second two are not released.

Re:You mean

[mikael]

Going by all the Hollywood movies I have seen, you never go into hand-to-tentacle combat in space space unless you have:

1. A spacesuit with a large illuminated helmet with headcam so the aliens know where to shoot.

2. A large rifle with infinite rounds of ammunition with and grenade thrower and flame thrower, and laser pointer that shows everyone where you are. Glow sticks are optional.

3. A dodgy radio communications system that will alway pack up when you go into a washroom or are within 5 metres of an large alien with sharp teeth.

4. A state-of-the-art alien detector that tells you how far away the aliens are to the nearest nanometer, but won't tell you if they are
above or below you.

5. An android with reflexes faster than a laser-rifle, and an IQ to match your PC's clock speed, but who has decided to contemplate the meaning of life and become a buddhist monk instead.

Re:You mean

[JamesTRexx]

...the 3 cd's I downloaded wasn't the demo!?

Re:You mean

[C0rinthian]

Not being able to use the flashlight with guns is INTENTIONAL. Wishing desperately that you could use both is the intended effect. You are not supposed to be comfortable. Honestly, if you could use both at the same time, you'd never turn the flashlight off!

As for multiplayer, I have 2 points. First: DOOM3 is primarily a SINGLE PLAYER game. They added multiplayer as an extra. If you bought it for multiplayer, you're stupid. Second point: Check out the maps. They're small, dark, and close quarters. (much like the single player game) 4 players is a good limit for the maps that shipped with the game. I know that limit is not hard coded, and player made stuff has already upped that player limit.

Re:You mean

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Creating a demo before the final product just pushes back the final product's release date.

Why? Isn't a demo just a stripped down version? Why would releasing a stripped-down version affect the product timeline? id had four years working on the project too, so even if making a demo wasted a man-month I doubt it would affect the final timeline.

Re:You mean

[xsecrets]

well maybe, but at least doom3 will run on my computer, while far cry is nothing more than a slide show.

Re:You mean

[euxneks]

Some have a reasonable explanation ;)

3. A dodgy radio communications system that will alway pack up when you go into a washroom or are within 5 metres of an large alien with sharp teeth.

Of course, every xenobiomelecular.. ologist.. person.. Knows that aliens give off radio interference that does _not_ comply with US federal regulations.

4. A state-of-the-art alien detector that tells you how far away the aliens are to the nearest nanometer, but won't tell you if they are above or below you.

Obviously designed by Microsoft. Or open source, but the open source solution is meant to mimic Microsoft's.

5. An android with reflexes faster than a laser-rifle, and an IQ to match your PC's clock speed, but who has decided to contemplate the meaning of life and become a buddhist monk instead.

The android has reached a level of existence much beoyond our own feeble contemplation; the AI programmer thus has succeeded - I for one welcome... ah nevermind.

Re:You mean

[Anonymous Coward]

Not always; at least, not always anymore.

In the past it was true that most demos came out before the game launch, but of late, more and more demos are coming out after launch.

Even the original Half-life's demo came out after the game launched, so this is hardly anything new.

Re:You mean

[Firehawke]

Really? I was totally disappointed with Far Cry. The AI seemed really flaky, where they could sometimes see you crouching in the middle of bushes so thick you couldn't see out, but other times couldn't see you if you were standing practically in front of them. Admittedly the water looked good, and the environments looked nice, but the gameplay was really suffering.

Re:You mean

[kannibal_klown]

You mean they're just *now* getting a demo out? Doesn't that usually come *before* the game is released?

That used to be the case. First the demo, then the game. The demo would drive sales.

But recent events have proven the Demo is either un-necessary or can even hurt sales.

If a game has such a major fan base, like the people drooling over DOOM 3, then you have their sales already without the demo. They're going to buy the game opening day whether they've played a demo or not.

Besides, nowadays there are so many sites with screenshots and video clips of betas, not to mention the sheer number of reviews, the demo isn't AS necessary to make the decision.

After the first couple of weeks, you have to then draw in future purchases, and a demo is a good way to attract them (assuming the game is any good).

Now, look at "Deus Ex: Invisible War." People were drooling over that game because of the greatness the first one possessed. However, the "DX: IW" demo showed a lot of people how horrible it was. It came nowhere near meeting their (our) expectations, so a lot of people decided not to buy the game.

Yeh, demos are great for the consumer. But for the seller, sometimes they are useless in the beginning, or can hurt sales.

Re:You mean

[bheading]

I guess it's a matter of opinion, but if you want to talk about the AI in FarCry, how many other games do you have where the baddies all get confused if you shoot their leader from the distance with a sniper (for example) ? I thought they pulled off a lot.

Re:You mean

[tonyphilip]

When I was young the demo came before the game, what next Eggs hatching chickens?

Re:You mean

[nolife]

you don't buy it until

Getting off topic here but something I will ALWAYS check for first is what copy prevention methods they use. I just got burned with Sims2. It will refuse to load if you have any "CD/DVD emulation applications installed", that means CloneCD, Nero, or Roxio installed on the computer. I am not talking trying to use the virtual CD to run the game, it will refuse to run from the original CD because it detects that software. The FAQ states to unload those applications and then play the game. I have CloneCD and Nero. I could not get the game to work unless I completely uninstalled CloneCD through control panal, not just "disable" it by removing the virtual drive option. The FAQ states there is a compatibility issue between virtual cd software and Sims2 which is COMPLETE BULLSHIT and a complete f**king lie, what they really mean is there is a chance that with those programs installed, you might be able to play the game with out the CD in the drive. I now either have to install/uninstall CloneCD all the time, sit and look at a $50 disc I purchased from EA, or wait until I can get a crack for the game I already bought. I should have just waited for the crack and not even bought the game to begin with. I tried to take the game back but of course, they refused because I opened it. I am still waiting back from EA tech support for what I can do with the game I just bought. I have a feeling I will get a canned response that it conflicts with the game or some other canned response that basically says tough shit sucker, you are out $50. What that means to me is don't buy any more games from EA, just wait for them in alt.binaries.games, you'll have a better chance of them working correctly.

Re:You mean

[mikael]

4. A state-of-the-art alien detector that tells you how far away the aliens are to the nearest nanometer, but won't tell you if they are above or below you.

Obviously designed by Microsoft. Or open source, but the open source solution is meant to mimic Microsoft's.

That would be release 1.0. Release 2.0 fixes this problem, comes with a built in camera, and allows you to send and receive E-mail with attachments, but will take 60 seconds to boot up, and the batteries will only last for half as long.

Re:You mean

[Anonymous Coward]

5. An android with reflexes faster than a laser-rifle, and an IQ to match your PC's clock speed, but who has decided to contemplate the meaning of life and become a buddhist monk instead.

You're not really screwed until it thinks it all through and decides it'd be better off with the aliens.

Re:You mean

[cgreuter]

Or open source, but the open source solution is meant to mimic Microsoft's.

Hey, I'm writing this for free! If you want vertical as well, hire me to add it, ya cheapskate!

Re:You mean

[disntrstd]

It's a good game though.

Re:You mean

[Wehesheit]

Damn straight.

Just buy it, and don't even unpackage the bloody thing, download the working game and play that.

I am notoriously bad with cd's and break/scratch them all the time. Before clonecd and daemon tools I was screwed and now that there is a nice convenient way to play their games without having to go fishing for the cd they fuck us, the paying customer, over with outrageous copy protection.

Re:You mean

[fishdan]

You forgot to mention that it's obvious and patheticly silly in what it does to make the game competitive. The reason the demo was delayed? I would NEVER have bought this if I'd played the demo. But here I was thinking "You know, I like ID, I want to support them." The more fool I. The complaint about Doom have been well documented, so I won't go into them here.

Just play the demo before you shell out you cash.

Re:You mean

[zonker]

i dunno if they detect for daemon tools, but it's worth a try (and its free).

Re:You mean

[zonker]

i suspect that carmack figures id will make their money by licensing the engine to developers that make good games. it has been a long while since id developed a good game, most of their games have been marketing tools for their engine technology, only to allow other companies to do creative things with their engines...

Re:You mean

[KDR_11k]

File a fraud claim. The box didn't say anything about the game not working with a virtual drive emulator, right? Therefore, the purchase happened under the assumption that the product will work with a virtual drive but the product didn't. The product EA delivered differed from the product you agreed to buy. Fraud.

Re:You mean

[Westley]

A demo may well be a stripped down version (although it isn't always) - but stripping down costs time in itself.

Installation procedures (which often need to be slightly different for a demo than for the full game) need to be sorted out, inappropriate options need to be disabled, you've got to work out what to do when the player gets to the end of the demo, etc.

Then the whole thing needs to be tested.

Re:You mean

[KDR_11k]

You'd need to change the maps you include to properly work with someone just starting out there. Means things like remove or change story elements (to not spoil or confuse), alter weapon placement and monster appearances (after all, the demo should begin with easier monsters and the player with weaker weapons, right?) and of course handle continuity.

Re:You mean

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this moderated funny?

It's true. There's something extremely sucky in Far Cry, probably too much textures and the software does not check for amount of texture memory available.

Re:You mean

[Anonymous Coward]

Gunmounted lights are available TODAY:

http://www.safetyleague.com/Products/Flashlights /G un_lights/m3-spec.htm

Not having this as an option is idiotic.

Re:You mean

[Anonymous Coward]

and exactly how is this off topic? I'd say mod up!

Re:You mean

[danila]

Greetings from the land of piracy, Arrggh! The game will be available in stores (and at stands) throughout Russia on September 25. Needless to say, the version is expected to have significantly lower "security requirements". I bet it will even run without a CD in drive. :)

It's a wonderful idea to inconvenience your customers, while everybody else enjoys your game. Makes total business sense.

Re:You mean

[Anonymous Coward]

I have heard that if you take it back and say that you didn't agree to the EULA, they have to accept it. Just explain what an EULA is, and how its contents are not known until the package is opened. Of course this could be complete crap, but its worth a try.

Re:You mean

[danila]

This isn't actually true (in general, some computers may have trouble running any particular game). First, Far Cry doesn't require a powerful processor, while Doom 3 will not run faster than 25fps on a P4 1.5 (minimal requirements). Second, Far Cry runs at approximately the same framerates or faster on most setups. Check out any recent videocard review - they must have both game benchmarks.

Re:You mean

[danila]

I am not aware of any existing mainstream FPS games with better AI than Far Cry. Even though it might not work flawlessly sometimes, at least you had bushes to hide in. In other games, such as Doom 3, hiding is basically impossible and the AI is basically limited to 10 LOOK PLAYER 20 RUN FORWARD 30 BITE PLAYER.

Far Cry, had great team AI that had a few quirks and could be outsmarted sometimes, but at least it was there.

Re:You mean

[lmckayjo]

I have a great suggestion for you (bad attitudes about 1994 aside): Play Quake. As is Quake 1.

I just re-visited that old favorite along with the Tenebrae project - and let me tell you, if you've got the hardware to run Doom3 already, then Tenebrae Quake is a must-play.

For those of you who don't know what it is, check it out (at sourceforge). It makes Quake look better than Doom3.

- Luke

Re:You mean

[Phixxr]

That's funny.. 'cause I have CloneCD, and Nero, and Alchohol 120%, and Daemon tools, and guess what, it ran fine. -phixx

Re:You mean

[Some_Llama]

great team AI my ass, shoot one of the people and the others would all run to the spot where he died... how is that AI? no cover fire, no flanking progression... just rush to the spot.

Then they would run in, one at a time and die the same exact death... how about a flash bang then rush? or after 3 of your buddies have died once they entered a room, toss a HE grenade in? there was no team AI.. just groups of people shooting in unision...

Seriously, if you turn down the graphics the game is at best mediocre... Doom3 is worse tho, turn down the graphics and it is mudane and predictable... and at least with Farcry the weapons actually did damage, 3 shotgun blasts to kill an imp any were more then 2 ft away? Plasma gun was no better...
sheesh...

isnt this already out?

[Alkivar]

i thought this was already available in stores?

now a Quake 4 demo i'd love to see ;)

Re:Uh...the game is out

[Syzar]

To test how well game works on your comp, that is without pirating it.

That's good of them - a demo of the beginning

[Enlarge Your Penis]

Hasn't the main complaint with Doom 3 been that it gets crap in the middle? Publishers releasing demos highlighting only their showcase early levels are the reason people pirate games to try them out.

Getting your hopes up.

[Bullseye_blam]

"Time to see what my FX5200 can do..."

Please don't.

[and please don't buy an iMac for the purpose of playing Doom 3 acceptably - the 'Ultra' tacked onto the end doesn't change much].

On second thought, if you just run around the game without ever using the flashlight, you won't be able to see anything anyway, so you won't realize that you're only getting 13 frames per second!

-Bullseye

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[grumbel]

Depends, for god-mode and just looking at the graphics a FX5200 + 1Ghz is enough, as long as no enemies are on the screen it also runs quite well or at least not much worse then the original Doom did on a 386er. Sure, as soon as monsters apear and the action starts the fps will drop down and the game will be almost unplayable, god-mode will help here.

So yes, a FX5200 isn't enough to play the game, but its enough to look at the graphics and walk around a bit.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[sanderb]

Too late :-)

Short performance review: Pentium 4 2.8 GHz with FX 5200 does not really cut it. What is nice is that the 'heated air' effects work really nice because it's a DirectX 9.0 card (I also see no real slowdown there), but even at the lowest of all graphics configurations it's realllyyy slow. I wish I would get 13 frames when one of these goblin type creatures enters the picture, feels more like 2 frames a second then.

I always planned on upgrading the videocard after the new generation of games came out, I now know I can be sure of a visible difference.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Bullseye_blam]

Oh, that's right... this game wasn't meant to be played anyway, just looked at.

I forgot!

-Bullseye

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhhmm. I've been playing the game in my GeForce MX400 and it plays well.
Let me explain: This is with all graphic settings at minimum, and then some, lowest resolution and whatever else I could lower in the options screen.
This computer also sports a fast CPU (athlon 2000+).

The game runs ok, rarelly do I notice low framerate, and I get hickups when I open most doors (loading the levels, I believe).

As usual, YMMV, but don't discard the game without trying just because you have a crappy GPU.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Anonymous Coward]

I never realized how much a 5200 FX card sucks until I got doom 3. AMD XP 3000+, 512 mb ram, and the freaking fx card is slowing it down. I get around 20 FPS when fighting monsters and a steady 30 when enjoying the scenery its playable but not the kind of quality you come to expect from a new upgrade. I didnt realize till yesterday when I was researching a new card that the 5200 FX card is about 1/2 as fast as the GeForce 4 Ti 4200 which is sad cause that card is a little over a year older. Thats what I get for buying a $100 video card. ATI X800 XT here I come.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[phoxix]

What is nice is that the 'heated air' effects work really nice because it's a DirectX 9.0 card (I also see no real slowdown there),

Doom3 is based on OpenGL, not DirectX-Anything. Actually, all of Carmack's work is OpenGL based. Hence why Mac and Linux love his games, and there is always a linux/mac port of his games eventually

Sunny Dubey

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Being a DirectX 9.0 card refers to its capabilities. Whether or not the game uses OpenGL doesn't come into it.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[stonedonkey]

Doom3 is based on OpenGL, not DirectX-Anything.

Actually, OpenGL is just for graphics rendering. The "GL" stands for Graphics Library, IIRC. The game may still use things like DirectSound, DirectSound 3D, DirectInput, and other DX odds and ends. That's why the installer requests that you have DX9.0b on your rig before running the game.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Anonymous Coward]

a "DirectX 9 enabled" card is in fact required for the heat ripple effect. even if it's not using it, that is the rubrick of modernity.

unfortunately i know this cause my card is not in fact a DX 9 card.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[ergo98]

On second thought, if you just run around the game without ever using the flashlight, you won't be able to see anything anyway, so you won't realize that you're only getting 13 frames per second!

I completed Doom 3 on my rather antiquated GF4 Ti4400, and have a few comments regarding this:

• The demands of the game vary considerably. On my lowly GF4 Ti4400 I ran at Medium quality, achieving a very acceptable framerate, for the majority of the game. There were a couple of sections that became a slideshow and required a downgrade to Low (one I suspect was a bug and perhaps someone accidentally duplicated a model a thousand times or so, as there was nothing visually exceptional in the area. The other was a massive opponent), but otherwise it ran great. The FX5200 would do that much better. The hardware complaints are generally people who think that they have some constitutional right to crank every visual setting to the top and achieve smooth gameplay on any rig
• The comments about the flashlight are completely misguided, and are the result of people with their brightness turned down too far, or who played the game in a bright environment (which results in your own eyes having a vastly decreased ability to perceive the subtle darkness changes). Follow the instructions on the box and play in a darkened room and you'll have no problem apart from one or two short scenes that truly are dark. The idea that people used a patch because they can't read is baffling. If id is at fault, it's that they didn't supply a THX style visual diagnostic screen for people to adjust to, and that they don't put the "Are you in a dark room?" as a confirmation when you launch the game

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[TheScorpion420]

BS I run Doom3 on a Athlon 2700 @ 2.33GHz, 1 Gig pc2700, with a PNY 5200 ultra, with the setting on high @ 800x600 and it runs fine, its really pretty and at about 30-35 fps. A 5200 is enough.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Matt2k]

I played the entire game on a 4200/64MB, however I have an Athlon 2000. The gameplay, while not silky smooth, was more than acceptable. I even turned up the resolution and options a bit.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Chandon Seldon]

Using the version of DirectX to refer to video card capibilities isn't nessisarily the best plan, but it's pretty common. More useful would probably be to refer to the pixel shader verson..

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Chandon Seldon]

Actually, you probably saw better performance with your Ti 4400 than someone with an FX 5200 would see.

First, the Ti 4400 just doesn't support some of the slower stuff that the game is trying to do - you miss out on stuff like heat effects, while the FX 5200 will try to do all of that.

Second, I'm pretty sure the 4400 actually has more render pipes on it than the 5200, which means it's slightly faster overall.

Between those two effects, I wouldn't be supprised if there was a 10-15 FPS difference between the two cards, in favor of the 4400.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Gilgaron]

Yeah, but the 4200 seems to be better at Doom.

It is a little heftier in general, and since it doesn't support DX9, it isn't trying to generate some of the special effects the 5200 is trying to makeon less raw horsepower. If you look around on some forums, the Geforce4 TI line seems to give people a much more enjoyable experience than the low end FX cards. It is analogous to how a GeForce3 TI can outperform a GeForce4MX, while perhaps not being able to make all the eye candy.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[roadrunnerro]

Actually the POS geForce4 MX (440 was the most common one) is just above a GF2MX (and usually below a GF2TI). Also while the GF3TI has some older versions of pixel shader the GF4MX has none. This is Slashdot - the anal factor is off the scale...

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Midnight Thunder]

You might find that in certain cases that some people have upped their graphics card without upping the rest of the system. Although the graphics card helps a lot, if the system is not up to spec then you will have a card that is only being used at less than full output, since the CPU can't transfer enough data or calculate the phyics effectively.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Midnight Thunder]

So Doom 3 used OpenGL and Direct-X for th rest, including sound. Could anyone tell me how OpenAL compares to DirectSound and DirectSound X? Would the game have lost anything by using this API?

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Anonymous Coward]

OpenAL isn't a bad API, but you interface with it differently than DirectSound (which is similar to all the other directwhatevers). I've heard that it rivals DirectSound3D when it comes to 3D sound, but I haven't fully explored 3D sound yet, so take this with a grain of salt. I can only testify to it's non-3D sound capabilities, and it is on par with DirectSound.

Also, OpenAL has difficulty working on some machines.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Anonymous Coward]

The FX5200 would do that much better
No, it won't. Go read reviews comparing the GF4TI series and the FX5200 boards. The GF4TI's are far superior in most aspects.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[arodland]

On the first part -- really, people just like to whine. I know from experience that the thing runs on a GF2 MX400. Sure, it runs at 640x480 "low", but even that looks damn good. I mean, it could look like counterstrike! ;)

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Magic5Ball]

ATI Radeon 7000/32 on an Athlon 2500/512 gives me 1.3 (one point three) frames per second with one monster/NPC on screen. The communications tech guy and his friend almost killed me before I started shooting. With just walls, it feels more like 8 fps.

I guess it's time to break out UT...

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried it (just for the heck of it) on my Athlon 1Ghz, with a MX4400 crappy card.

try to do the following on this setup:

1. set noclip (and probably godmode, so you won't get killed doing this)
2. look down
3. press the back button so you get out of the map and see it all.

when you have all the map in view, make room, cause your computer will just explode.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[athanis]

Well, actually, I have a fx5200 and can play the game at a reasonable fps. Without monsters, it reachers 60fps... I don't recall the fps for tight situations with lots of aliens, coz I'm usually too busy pissing my pants.... LOL =] But it hasn't reached being 'unplayable' at all... I have a P-4 2.4GHz and 1.5GB RAM at DDR-400.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Monsters don't tax the GPU, they tax the CPU. Do some testing. FX5200 (just like any other card) will give consistent framerates, it's the 1GHz CPU that is a bottleneck.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[BayBlade]

To a point.

The problem being the shader is just as much a reflection of the DX version or subrevision. Even more meaning gets lost in refenece to the fact its OpenGL-driven which lacks shader revisions entirely.

To simply state the DX version that matches the one on the graphics card packaging, Joe user understands he can run it or he can't.

Re:Getting your hopes up.

[Provocateur]

Sure, as soon as monsters appear and the action starts the fps will drop down

That's not a bug. We call it the, er, bullet time effect. Yeah, that's it.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Oh great...

[floridagators1]

If I even run this thing, the video card (or lack thereof) on my laptop would probably liquidate..

Short review of the game

[Reducer2001]

Bought it, played it, didn't like it. It tries to be too much like Doom2, but doesn't make it....at all.

I played Doom 1 & 2 for many hours when they came out, both solo, co-op and deathmatch. I played Doom 3 through once and had no desire to play it again.

Once you realized that when you picked up that 'too good to be true' item, you'd be blitzed by ten monsters suddenly spawning, it got old REAL quick. And yes, it does look pretty. But so did Matrix Revolutions.

Re:Short review of the game

[IntlHarvester]

Did you really play Doom3? I can't remember any time when you get "blitzed by 10 monsters" --usually they come at you 1 and 2 at a time (probably to keep framerates up).

The game is great if you like fighting demons jumping out at you in a dark space station. If you'd rather play online war games, you won't like it. My only real complaint is that it was too long -- beginning and end are good. The middle was trudging through a dozen identical levels fighting the same guys over and over.

Re:Short review of the game

[EpsCylonB]

I was dissapointed as well, fanboys will tell you that you have no right to criticise as this is "the original Doom updated, you knew exactly what you were going to get".

That just isn't true, there was more variation between the different levels in the original game than in Doom 3. The dark corridors do their job, this is an incredibly scary game, but gameplay wise it becomes boring and repetitive very quickly.

Graphically it is astounding and no doubt some great games will be made with the engine. But ID is now just a tech house if the lack of gameplay innovation in Doom 3 is anything to go by. We have all laughed at Romero's failings since leaving ID but they need more really creative people like him.

Doom3 isn't a awful game, just not a trailblazer like Doom and Quake were.

Re:Short review of the game

[Osmosis_Garett]

So in other words, you had preconceptions about this game which weren't met and therefor you set it aside. Personally, I found the element of surprise to be the main attraction. This is a horror game, along the lines of the original Resident Evil games and the like. Doom and Doom2 were full on FPS games with no 'terror moments', but Doom3 is full of them. The spawning monsters are anything but surprising; the teleportation process takes a second or 2 and by then you should be in a good vantage point to mow them down with whatever weapon you choose. The real fear comes from the creatures that are already there, lurking in shadows and not making BAMPH noises when they attack.

Try playing it when you're in the mood, and with a bit of effort put into getting absorbed in the game such as a darkened room, headphones, etc. Also, try not to make broad generalizations such as saying "when you pick up that 'too good to be true' item you get blitzed by 10 monsters". This game is anything but a one trick pony and if that is all you saw I really wonder if you spent any time at all examining the game. Doom3 is rich with backstory, interwoven into the game System Shock2 style with logfiles and email communications, not to mention the videos explaining the whole purpose of the lab installation.

Its too bad you couldn't look at the game carefully enough to notice these things. Doom3 is a work of art.

Re:Short review of the game

[Zorilla]

Once you realized that when you picked up that 'too good to be true' item, you'd be blitzed by ten monsters suddenly spawning, it got old REAL quick.

I didn't really witness too much of that. If you want to see a real pain in the ass, try Serious Sam. A mere +2 health vial will cause about 300 monsters to spawn and attack you.

As for trying to be too much like Doom 2, I wish it actually was more like Doom 1 or 2, but instead you get closed, dark areas, overly difficult monsters, and few scenery changes.

Re:Short review of the game

[nomadic]

I've never understood people's awe over Id. They don't make very good games. I mean, Doom was very, very good, but every game they've made so far has been a retread of it. And before anyone starts whining about how they make great engines, and let other people use them to make great games, shut the hell up. They made the game, they marketed it, they released it, they sure as hell can be judged on it.

Re:Short review of the game

[EpsCylonB]

Both Doom and Quake 1 had fantastic level design that really broke new ground. ID also are responsible for basically creating the online multiplayer FPS genre (usually credited to Quake 2, it was present earlier but Q2 was the breakthrough).

But creatively they haven't done anything interesting since Quake 1.

Re:Short review of the game

[Rew190]

I agree with parent poster (I don't remember encountering ten baddies at once, though?). The game never really feels like the original Doom games if not just because it's very rare to get more than 5 monsters thrown at you. D3 is really just a simple shooter with awesome graphics.

I would have to add that Doom 3 just isn't about innovative gameplay. If that's what you want, look elsewhere (HL 2?). This game is just a straight-up FPS game, nothing more, besides the awesome engine.

Re:Short review of the game

[jchap]

Yep. Too much spawning pretty soon feels like a delaying tactic and gets tedious.

The trouble is that D^3 is just too much like DOOM2. Having replayed the latter and various old WADs in anticipation of No.3 I realised that lots of levels in D2 were tedious in the same way too.

The joy of the orginal DOOM was that they actually bothered to hide the monsters in the walls - two imps appearing from a secret room is far more exciting than creature after creature appearing from nowhere.

D^3 does have some really nicely placed zombies but these can often feel like set pieces - once you've seen the trick you're never fooled by it again. DOOM1 managed on occasion to present variations to the game play whether it be the unexpected reappearance round a corner of a monster you'd missed before or finding yourself getting really bogged down in a section that you're previously breezed through.

I won't replay D^3 for a while because I expect it'll be exactly the same game the second time around.

Re:Short review of the game

[DrXym]

I'm not sure what all the hype is about. I own Doom 3 and I also own Far Cry. I've completed both too. Far Cry, is a much, much, much better game.

It is better for a multitude of technical reasons, but I'll first mention why Doom is worse - the whole thing is flashlights, scripts and triggers. It might have been acceptable to use triggers in the original, but not in this day and age.

Progress through the game consists of a Quick Save, edge forward with the flashlight, Quick Save, step on trigger, look for baddies, fumble for gun, shoot baddies. If successfull repeat. It's just boring and shows little imagination. The baddies simply appear for the most part from nowhere so there is no anticipation, planning or strategy - just step on the trigger and shoot. There is little AI to speak of except for zombie troopers who at least duck behind cover. It's a shame because some of the levels are fantastically designed.

Now compare to Far Cry. First off this has outdoor zones that are truly massive, leading to some interesting play (e.g. you can snipe, attack in a vehicle, from the sea etc.) It also has drivable vehicles. It has a great physics model. The baddies are also fairly intelligent (they do some dumb things but they not are not completely stupid). There is a lot of randomness to the play so the game plays differently each time. Finally, the level design is better again than Doom. It also got there first with the "evil doctor" plot.

On the bad side, Far Cry has few save points but there is a console command to work around that. It also has much higher system requirements but looks gorgeous if you turn the quality up the full way.

Neither has much in the way of network play (capture the flag etc.) but at least Far Cry sets you up with a server list making it easy to join a game.

To me Doom feels a year out of date. And for my money Doom was something of a let down. If you haven't bought it already, play the demo and make up your own minds, but my advice would be to skip it.

I never played the original Half Life, so I'm keen to see what the fuss is about for the sequel, but that would the one I am interested in a demo for.

Re:Short review of the game

[Plugh]

That just isn't true, there was more variation between the different levels in the original game than in Doom 3.
Agreed 100%. At this point, I'm counting on people making their own levels to save this game. Ahh, if only I had the kind of time I used to have in High School and College.

Contrast Doom 3 levels with the level designs in Quake 2. I'll never forget the alien scientists doing Mengele-style operations on the Marines, while they cried out "Make it Stop!"... now THAT was FUCKING SCARY.

The dark corridors do their job, this is an incredibly scary game
Sorry, I disagree. Yes, even after setting the Brightness control to a pretty high value, I am still left asking: why the fuck did I shell out the cash for a Radeon9800 Pro, just to see a fucking 90% BLACK SCREEN?

Re:Short review of the game

[civik]

Doom3 is a work of art.

Art in the way that "Dogs Playing Poker" is art. I would go further than others in this thread, and say that Doom 3 could potentially be the biggest gaming let down in years. The game has NO original traits. Everything you tout about the game has been done, and done better in other products. The story is a re-hash of Halflife, the scenery tedious. The audio files do nothing for the game, other than having to listen to some guy ramble about medical files for 3 minuts just so you can deduce a locker code with a medikit in it. The videos that tell a story through the game was lamely lifted from Max Payne.

You want to play a FUN FPS, get yourself a copy of FarCry.

Re:Short review of the game

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, I disagree. Yes, even after setting the Brightness control to a pretty high value, I am still left asking: why the fuck did I shell out the cash for a Radeon9800 Pro, just to see a fucking 90% BLACK SCREEN?

The game was meant to be dark, they lost large amounts of power. Obviously you don't quite grasp the concept of a flashlight. You could always get a small mod to "duct-tape" the flashlight to a couple of the guns.

Re:Short review of the game

[SillyNickName4me]

Take a peek at Enemy Territory maybe? (yeah, I know, content mostly made by Splash Damage and not ID)

ID is mostly an engine builder.. but they do have a few very good games out there as well beyond Doom (or actually, the original Wolfenstein)

Re:Short review of the game

[drinkypoo]

id started out making great games with great engines, ever since quake 2 (including it mind you) they've been making great game engines and crappy games. Quake 2 actually played pretty well but it looked like shit, everything was washed out. I still feel that Quake is the pinnacle of id so far. You could play it pretty smoothly over a decent modem connection and it was truly a breakthrough in graphics.

Re:Short review of the game

[iMaple]

I never played the original Half Life,
Wow you must be from Mars , yeah, that explians u playing Doom 3 and not Half Life. But seriously, HL was the best FPS ever when it was released, and I think it would be a lot of fun even if u play it now. But then on other hand u shouldnt listen to what I say, I liked Doom 3 too ,(Not as much as the original two, but definitly worth buying ... and no I dont own ID games)

Re:Short review of the game

[ergo98]

...but gameplay wise it becomes boring and repetitive very quickly...

Out of curiousity, how long of gaming sessions did you play? I found that I lost an appreciation for the game when I played more than two hours or so -- at that point I simply wanted to see the next unique area, and each new imp represented a nuisance waste of time. That was a sign that it was time to hit F5 and quit it for the night, and the next time I started it up it was fun again.

Re:Short review of the game

[ergo98]

The joy of the orginal DOOM was that they actually bothered to hide the monsters in the walls - two imps appearing from a secret room is far more exciting than creature after creature appearing from nowhere.

There's quite a lot of that in Doom 3 as well - backtrack a bit and you'll find a small recess in a wall, or a slightly deeper recess, usually with some token amount of ammo in it, where the imp came from.

Re:Short review of the game

[BathTub]

I am sure Romero will be able to make a great version of Hyperspace Delivery Boy with this engine.

Re:Short review of the game

[Chandon Seldon]

I had been playing through the origional half-life for the last couple weeks, and after it just forgot about my quicksave I just gave up. It's got some pretty nice concepts, and the areas are awesome, but there's nothing really new in it, and they use some cheesy tricks to make it hard.

Re:Short review of the game

[Soul-Burn666]

I didn't really witness too much of that. If you want to see a real pain in the ass, try Serious Sam. A mere +2 health vial will cause about 300 monsters to spawn and attack you.

Just to nitpick, this was done on purpose. The designers wanted you to not be greedy. Heck, on one side there are 3 big healths, on the other single +2 health vial. Isn't that a big suspicious?

Also SeriousSam and Doom3 are completely different in style. SSam was created based on the ORIGINAL Doom gameplay, big rooms with lotsa monsters. And imho, did an excellent job and was underrated.

Re:Short review of the game

[Anonymous Coward]

Once you realized that when you picked up that 'too good to be true' item, you'd be blitzed by ten monsters

That's true in every one of these games. Every time you get a powerful new weapon or a ton of ammo, it's because you're going to need it soon.

Re:Short review of the game

[Elminst]

but there's nothing really new in [HL],

Of course there isn't!! The game is 6 years old!
You can't compare it to every thing that has come out since. That's like comparing a model-T to a Camaro- "I drove a model-t yesterday, it's got wheels and runs, but it's nothing new." DUH!

Compare HL to anything that was out 6 years ago, and you'll start to understand why it won every possible award there was.

Re:Short review of the game

[kryptkpr]

Turn the brightness back down to normal, it's not brightness you want to tweak.

Press Ctrl+Alt+~ to open the console, then type r_gamma 2

~ again closes the console.

Re:Short review of the game

[satoshi1]

Doom has a server list too, you know.

Far Cry has higher sys requirements??? I'm able to run Far Cry at 1024x768 with the settings up high on my machine (Athlon XP 3200+, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600XT) and still get good framerate. Doom, however, I have to run it at 800x600 on medium settings (the options are low, medium, high, and ultra for those that don't know) and I STILL dip below 20FPS everynow and then. To me, it seems like Doom requires more.

Far Cry has vehicles, yes, but vehicles don't make or break an FPS.. Doom 3 is a classic run and gun shooter. Maybe a little less of the running 'cause it's so dark, but it's not trying to be Far Cry in terms of what you can do. It's just Doom deep down inside.

Re:Short review of the game

[kannibal_klown]

The story is a re-hash of Halflife, the scenery tedious.

LOL. Are you serious?

You realize Half-Life's story is pretty much a rehash of DOOM's, right? The only difference was they chose to use an alien dimension instead of a hellish one.

The story was well known back in the DOOM days. Scientists play with portal technology on Mars. Things get out of hand. Bad guys enter our dimension and infect the personel/soldiers. It's up to you to stop it.

The game was alright, but not AMAZING like some people make it out to be.

The big thing is the games that will follow, using its engine. However, the engine was pretty resource-hungry, and I can see FarCry's or Half-Life 2's engine being more popular.

Re:Short review of the game

[desenz]

I must agree with this. Serious Sam was really anything but serious. It was bright, cartoony, and a blast to play as long as you knew that you weren't going to get anything too stimulating. IMO, It would be nice if more developers would make easy to play(though not necessarily easy) games that don't take themselves too seriously.

Re:Short review of the game

[Soul-Burn666]

Not too stimulating?!?!

I don't know about you, but when I fight no less than 200 enemies in the same damn place, I certainly get stimulated.

It was shown that when people play computer games, different parts of the brain work, and people are somewhat different in their perception of the world. Moreover, the andrenaline rush can be huge.

Re:Short review of the game

[bani]

Compare HL to anything that was out 6 years ago, and you'll start to understand why it won every possible award there was.

ok, now explain why counterstrike is still the #1 mp online game. and it isnt because its a good game.

Re:Short review of the game

[tonyphilip]

Was fun for the first few levels but got old and repetitive. Maybe I'm getting over the 3d shooters. Need something new, something completely different, like when we saw Descent. Anything but the same shoot shoot, dodge, shoot, shoot, crap.

Re:Short review of the game

[Reducer2001]

Okay, I exagerrated the part about being blitzed by 10 bad guys. Sorry about that, I think I was in a foul mood when I wrote that. :(

After some reflection, I think I'm just jaded by the lack of GREAT games. Sure, we've had lots of GOOD games recently. But what the last GREAT game that you just had to play? I remember when I was younger, (like 10 years ago, yikes!) I had the choice between X-Wing, Doom 2, Duke Nukem' and Warcraft II. Now? Hmmm.... GTA3 is fun for a while, I enjoyed Baldur's Gate II (I admit I haven't tried Planescape:Torment), but these games are both several years old. I'm over my FPS on-line shoot-out phase (I think I OD'd on Counterstrike right around version 1.1). The last GREAT game was, what? Half-Life? Final Fantasy VII? Civ III was really good, but suffered the same fate as other 4X games. You figure out the CivIII formula (intentionally or not) and it's not longer a challenge.

Or not.

Re:Short review of the game

[Psyrg]

It also got there first with the "evil doctor" plot.

Apart from maybe Sin...

Re:Short review of the game

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi Toby,

I've arranged for a team to come around to your house, cut off your genitals, and shove them in your mouth. Your family will be tied down and forced to watch while this happens. Ironically, they will all be anally raped with flashlights at the same time. Hope you enjoyed the game! Please continue your insightful analysis of our work and other people's comments...we love reading them here at id!

Cheers,

John Carmack.

Re:Short review of the game

[DrXym]

Far Cry barely runs on my aging 1.8 Ghz box unless I turn down everything to its lowest settings. Doom 3 runs just fine on medium quality. That's what I'm referring to here.

Re:Short review of the game

[26199]

I've also played both, and would tend to disagree.

IMHO, Far Cry wins on one thing and one thing only; the fact that you can choose several different approaches means I'll probably play it more times.

Doom 3 wins on plot... it was much more believable than Far Cry. Sure, it got samey after a while, but unless you completed it all in one sitting, that wasn't a problem... Far Cry also starts to feel a bit repetitive towards the end.

Incidentally, I think that if you cheated to save in Far Cry you missed out... the tension that came from not having saved recently was a big part of the playing experience for me. (It got frustrating once or twice, but was well worth it in the end).

Basically, I think both are awesome :-)

Re:Short review of the game

[Gentlewhisper]

"Sorry, I disagree. Yes, even after setting the Brightness control to a pretty high value, I am still left asking: why the fuck did I shell out the cash for a Radeon9800 Pro, just to see a fucking 90% BLACK SCREEN?"

Same here, they should make some of the weapons give out more light, like flickering lights or something.

Hell, having fired real weapons before, I'm sure some of the heavy iron in the game give out way too little barrel flare than in reality!

Re:Short review of the game

[Rew190]

I totally agree with you there. Oh man, X-Wing... those were the days... Tie Fighter though...

Memories...

Re:Short review of the game

[Plugh]

I dunno who was the AC that wrote this, but it's hilarious. Thanks!

Re:Short review of the game

[Slime-dogg]

I see your point on the creativity issue. Doom 3 is nice, but it does seem to rehash the previous Doom versions. What I eagerly await, however, is Quake 4. id is the king of multi-player, what with Quake, Quake 2, and Quake 3. The third is purely multi-player.

UT and all of it's descendants came after the Quakes, and IMO pale in comparison. I just don't like them as much, mostly due to the weapons, the feel, etc. Quake 4 should be awesome, and that's what I rely on id to do.

Leave it to Raven to come up with an inventive single player game. They always seem to do a good job.

Re:Short review of the game

[civik]

Ok, I'll give you that, but IMO there was really no 'story' playing out in Doom 1,2. There was some text scroll that told you what was going on, and that was about it. In HL you leared what was going on by playing the game, not by reading the text between levels.

Re:Short review of the game

[Anonymous Coward]

Just finished Half-Life about a year ago. It's about twice as long as Doom 3. You can crank your graphics settings to the sky with full 8x anti aliasing and still get excellent frame rates on a new machine. The story line's solid and it is really interesting to see what ideas got repeated in newer games(i.e. Head crabs=the flood in Halo, The tram rides and humorous P.A. announcements in Doom 3 and Red Faction...etc etc). I agree if Doom 3 had been released before Far Cry, people would be much happier with it. Miss the Old Doom? Give "Serious Sam" a shot, excellent game.

Re:Short review of the game

[TheLink]

I believe that the "medium settings" don't have dynamic lighting for weapons.

Look at your doom3 config. Change a few settings and you will get some light when you shoot.

I'll leave it as an exercise for you which settings to change. Make a backup of the config first.

Re:Short review of the game

[TheLink]

There's practically zero AI in DOOM3.

Plus if you shine the flashlight beam at any of the monsters they don't ever notice it. They don't get alerted or anything.

If id software had allowed monsters to sometimes change their behaviour when they notice the light beam or general increase in illumination, the game play would change dramatically. If the monsters actually notice your flashlight and then prepared themselves to jump/attack you when you entered, the game would be a lot more scary eh?

The "duct tape and flashlight" people may start wondering whether to have their lights always on.

But no. ID stuck to boring trigger points and dumb AI. I can shine that stupid light everywhere, just so long as I don't step on a trigger point or shoot a monster.

Re:Short review of the game

[anethema]

I agree here. Half-life is still the best single player game i've played on the pc. VERY immersive storyline. Amazing AI specially for the time.

It gets a little less fun IMO when you enter the alien world (i wont spoil anymore) but still overall the best single player game ever ;)

Re:Short review of the game

[Doppler00]

Why is Quake 2 so significant? The multiplayer Quake 1 community was quite active for sometime and many mods kept it going. Quake 2 was just another evolutionary step.

Re:Short review of the game

[qopax]

ahh, I remember when I couldn't get enough of Diablo, and then Diablo 2...

Re:Short review of the game

[toriver]

I dunno who was the AC that wrote this

Well, DUH! Wouldn't be "anonymous" if you knew, now would it?

Re:Short review of the game

[jardun]

Let me make a quick guess (Assuming U.S. here, apologies if I'm wrong). You were in middle or high school when you played all these great games, maybe early college. Now you're 25-30 with a job and not as much time on your hands. Nothing compares to all the great games you miss and love from days gone by. If that's correct, I'm in the same boat. I don't think it's that the games were so much better or original (to a point, obviously there were THE originals (Mario, Zelda, etc. as far as I know). I think it is mostly nostalgia from the time in our lives. I don't know about you, but I get all kinds of warm and cozy feelings thinking about those games. It completely clouds my judgement when comparing them. =) For the people out there who haven't seen it all before, I'd bet these new fangled games are incredible. Of course if you want the best game around, try nethack.

Re:Short review of the game

[Plugh]

Thanks for the tip. I tried that, and yeah, it makes the semi-lit places REALLY bright. But it doesn't seem to affect the many corners, floors, etc., that are still TOTALLY DARK. It's just unrealistic... look, you can see, at least vaguely, objects in the corner of a semi-dark room or just underneath a desk in such a room, right? In DOOM 3, such spaces are treated like black holes unless you have a flashlight. Bah.

Re:Short review of the game

[danila]

Doom 3 doesn't have ambient light for most levels. And it doesn't have atmosphere light scattering or secondary reflections. That means any pixel, which is not lit by some light source directly, is 100% black. This is totally unrealistic, of course. This is also a shortcoming of the Doom 3 engine, because any other game that uses lightmaps can have truly realistic lighting (though not dynamic).

Re:Short review of the game

[Tassach]

Half-life is still the best single player game i've played on the pc

Try Thief I and II. Now those are some kick-ass single-player games.

so hey guys?...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Will there be a GNU/Linux version of the demo out?

This isn't gonna increase sales

[goneutt]

If you put out a preview that lets people discover their computer doesn't have the power to keep up they deffinatly don't buy the box.(I know, thats what those software nutrition labels are for, but they can get vague.)
Those that buy the software, install and discover their computer needs $300+ worth of upgrades are stuck with the software due to the no open returns policies. Thus hype sells more games if you don't put out a preview.

Re:This isn't gonna increase sales

[KDR_11k]

If you have a reasonable CPU (if you haven't you'd have noticed with games much older than Doom 3) you can get a graphics card that can play the game for 60-80 bucks (Radeon 9550, I played it on a 8500 without much of a problem), which isn't much more than you pay for a game.
Seriously, Doom 3 isn't that demanding, a system that cannot keep up with Doom 3 likely has problems with other current games as well.

Re:This isn't gonna increase sales

[martinde]

Agreed, it won't increase their sales but it might decrease the number of people who buy it, can't play it, and then try to return the game...

Re:This isn't gonna increase sales

[Deraj DeZine]

Who said it was going to increase sales? They didn't release the demo before the game for this very reason.

Quote^2

[Amorpheus_MMS]

Time to see what my FX5200 can do...

"Get used to disappointment." ;)

Although I have to say that so much of the game is black, one could almost expect it to run on a RivaTNT.

Re:Quote^2

[kevn]

I have a fx 5200 (and with a p4 2.8ghz) it runs fine. Sure it is not at the highest detail etc.. but it is still impressive and fast. kevin

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

demo after release

[Paralizer]

I suspect they are doing this so that those who are/were skeptical about the performance of the game on their machines will have a chance to test it out before purchasing the full version.

Re:demo after release

[Anonymous Coward]

GEE, YOU THINK?!?!?

Re:demo after release

[William Baric]

And how about people who are skeptical about the game itself? I know my computer can run Doom 3 but from what I read not everybody likes it... and since its price is ridiculously high I want to be sure I like it before buying it.

Playable on GeForce4

[CharAznable]

Looks decent, although it gets a bit choppy when there are a lot of monsters on the same scene. Now on to my ATI Rage tests...

Re:Playable on GeForce4

[Dave2 Wickham]

It's also playable on a GeForce 2MX, and running through WINE. For certain definitions of playable, though.

This is where being crap a games helps...

[Tony Hoyle]

I've never actually completed the first level of any of these so downloading the demo is as good as buying it, but cheaper!

All the servers are slashdotted at the moment though (Torrent is no use as I'm behind NAT). Need to wait a few days.

Re:This is where being crap a games helps...

[KDR_11k]

Well, the first level of Doom 3 consists of running around and talking with people, the first monster appears somehwhere in the second level...

Re:This is where being crap a games helps...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just forward the proper ports to the machine running BitTorrent, and it'll work just fine. I run BitTorrent on my BeOS Box, and it's behind a nat/firewall machine. Easy as can be.

Re:This is where being crap a games helps...

[cgadd]

You can still leech the file behind nat. Others won't be able to download from you directly, but if you are downloading a chunk from someone, they can download a chunk from you too....

Re:This is where being crap a games helps...

[JTunny]

Torrent is no use as I'm behind NAT

I'm guessing that you don't have access to change these NAT settings ?

If you have got access you can port forward incoming connections (google turns up loads on this). If you use azureus then all incoming connections come in on a single port which can be useful.

Apologies if I'm being patronising ... that means talk down to you by the way ;)

Re:This is where being crap a games helps...

[Tony Hoyle]

If I really want a torrent I download onto my virtual server which is sitting on a 10MB line... don't see the point of putzing with the NAT settings every time I want do download something (this laptop is on DHCP so its IP changes occasionally... Yes I could tell the DHCP server to dish out the same address but I'm just too lazy to sort that at the moment).

My upstream is only 256K (2048 down) anyway so BT would murder it - best to download remotely then ftp it over.

Re:The real 'demo'

[Anonymous Coward]

STFU man. Good god. Act like you have some sense.

Linux?

[isNaN]

But where are the linux binaries? Aren't ID supposed to be the big linux supporters?

When they release them I will probably buy the game just for supporting them back but are they comming anytime soon??

Re:Linux?

[colmore]

I don't think the linux binaries they put out for Quake 3 ever made enough to recoup the expense of doing the port. Expect them to take their time on this...

Re:Linux?

[kerrle]

Actually, it's not the economics. It's been mentioned by Carmack that it's basically driver issues that are holding back the release. NVidia's are fine, but ATI's drivers have no chance in hell of running Doom III under linux right now. Similarly, the OSX port is basically done, but the performance just isn't good on most macs.

Re:Linux?

[lphuberdeau]

I think they should just release the demo for linux anyway and mention that it won't work with nVidia. And they should place a link to complain to ATI for they lack of Linux support.

Anyone running Linux with an ATI card knows that their drivers are worthless. I heard they were getting better but I still havn't heard of anyone satisfied.

Re:Linux?

[thrift24]

I say screw id if they are gonna wait this long for Linux binarys. I think most people got the idea the Linux binarys were going to be out very soon after the game actually came out. I had all the money I needed to go and buy the game when the game was released, but no Linux client. I'm not going to wait around for them like I did with bioware for neverwinter nights(that only took a freaking year after purchasing the game and then was a shoddy install at best). Waited 1 week for id to come out with linux binarys, they didn't so I got winex cedega up and running and fired up bittorrent and grabbed myself a copy of doom3. Got it up and running and beat within 48 hours and now I'm not going to buy it when they do come out with a Linux a client. So ID and any other company out there, RELEASE YOUR LINUX AND MAC CLIENT WITH THE WINDOWS CLIENT, I'm not going to pay for a version of a game for another operating system, and I have no moral issue with pirating your games if you treat me like a second class customer. I'm sure many other people have done the same thing and I think that's exactly what any company deserves who waits months after the release to finally get the client out there and to people on other operating systems they said they would have a release for.

Re:Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean will work with nVidia, as the above poster said it's ATI's drivers to blame.

Re:Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear id, I am so angry that I will never pirate your software again.
-- thrift24

Re:Linux?

[thrift24]

acutally it was more like, I am so angry I played your game and gave your ass no money. OTOH if it came out with a Linux binary day of release it would have been more like, I respect you guys for not being jack asses, so I'm gonna buy the game wether or not everyone says it's worth $55.

Re:Linux?

[bogie]

Really? Why? ATI has always had shit Linux drivers and that hasn't stopped ID from releasing Linux binaries in the past. Is this some sort of annoying marketing agreement?

Re:Linux?

[antdude]

Yeah, and Unreal Tournament 2004 is doing well with their MacOS X and Linux binaries. The PC version has Linux binary included from its box!

id Software needs to get moving. UT2004 impressed me more!

Re:Linux?

[kerrle]

Indeed, I run a 9600XT and there have been no real improvements - sure a memory leak fixed here, a minor change to this or that, but when your drivers are at 10% of where they should be, moving to 10.5 doesn't impress me.

Re:Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't quote me on this, but I believe they said linux binaries will be out after the demo, and a Mac version some time after that.

Re:Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats great! Funny how you think ID not releasing the game for your platform of choice entitles you to thievery. I own a Mac, but I'm not going to resort to simple piracy because its not released yet.... Way to go!

Re:Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

While I agree with your point, the poster did not engage in theft.

actually with a 5200

[imr]

It's possible to have a much better framerate if you decompress the whole paks file and remove the shadows option. You wont be able to join multiplayer games with that, but anyway the mp mode isnt worth much.
And I'm talking a X2 improvement here, from ~15 to ~30 on my machine.
Try to find all the other available tips that are on every d3 forum and put them in a separate cfg file. Some of them DO work.

All in all, i found i got much more for the same money with ut2004 (2 dvds, a great editor, mapping and modeling video tutorials, mods, mods and mods) but still, d3 is a very good and very intense solo game. They did manage to keep the stress level up. Usually it really slows down after a few levels, here it keeps on being tense.

Re:actually with a 5200

[Doppler00]

Decompressing the pak files? How exactly will that help? If you already have 1GB or so of RAM, most of the level data will be cached anyway.

You need to run timedemo's to verify that unpacking actually helps.

The question is, which is faster: the files unpacked, using the OS's file system; or Doom 3 handling the unpacking of resources? My guess is id probably did a good job and had a good reason for packing the files.

Re:actually with a 5200

[cymen]

Or you could just go into options and disable shadows there.

Re:actually with a 5200

[imr]

I just read this and noticed it wasnt clear that you wont be able to join mp AT ALL with decompressed pak because of anti cheating protection.
If you want to join mp games, you can, just put back the paks you kept in a separate folder and put elsewhere the decompressed files and folder.

Re:actually with a 5200

[Whyrph]

The question is, which is faster: the files unpacked, using the OS's file system; or Doom 3 handling the unpacking of resources? My guess is id probably did a good job and had a good reason for packing the files.

Uh, yeah, they had a good reason: to save disk space! That and to make it a little harder for people (who don't know what they're doing) to modify things, perhaps. But mainly to save disk space. It's quite possible that D3 doesn't load quite everything from the zip that it needs before it starts running, to save on startup time. Although I agree that it will probably be all cached.

Re:actually with a 5200

[imr]

That's what i meant.
Decompressing the paks gave a boost, and removing the shadows from the options>/i> helped also.
I presume that the decompression of the pak can only help for slow system, like mine which has a little slow memory and a 5000rpm hard drive. But I also presume that systems with a geforce5200 are quite low ended.

Re:actually with a 5200

[Anonymous Coward]

UT2004 was the most disappointing game I've ever played. It felt like a complete waste of time and was more frustrating than fun (frustrating because the bots were so stupid).

Re:actually with a 5200

[Roguelazer]

Of course, once you turn off shadows, the whole game is pointless and the engine worthless because the focus of it -is- the shadows...

Re:actually with a 5200

[DeadScreenSky]

Unfortunately the timedemo won't really help test the impact of unpacking. You need to run the timedemo once anyway before doing any real testing, and that essentially caches it all for the real tests. The timedemo really isn't testing anything but raw graphical performance, whereas the unpacking is supposed to help remove those annoying stalls you can get when going into a new area.

I personally found it smoothed things out a little - I simply don't get those brief staggers that I see on a lot of people's computers (and that I would see from time to time before I unpacked).

Re:actually with a 5200

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. As one of the id programmers commented in his .plan, the .pak files are only accessed during level load. They do nothing to your framerates.

Re:actually with a 5200

[imr]

The focus of the engine may be shadows, but the focus of any game is fun.
With 15fps, i can assure you there is no fun. Just add some smoke effects (a fps killer on my system, even without shadows) and it drops to ~5fps.
If you can reach 30fps without shadows, I can also assure you you gain more fun than you lose.
Besides, there still are plenty of shadows in the game, it doesnt turn the game into the same kind of overlighted cartoon that you could turn q2 or Q3 into, just no dynamics ones.

Where is the Linux version

[Izaak]

I am not buying Doom III until the Linux version is available for download. That was originally promised about a week after the Windows release... but I still don't see it. Any word from ID on this?

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Paralizer]

I don't remember them promising the port with a date set on it. I do remember them talking about it in an interview, they have one guy working on the port, and they are hoping to "get it done soon".

Re:Where is the Linux version

[phreakv6]

They'll release them in a few weaks, and although DooM 3 uses OpenGL alot, some things are hard to port, like the heat wave which uses DX9, that'll take some time. Meanwhile, I'm just as anxious as you are, so I'm playing it with Cedega.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[rpdillon]

I agree, but I have to say that id never "promises" dates. Hell, they hardly ever even mention dates. I've been waiting for the Linux port and tracking it very closely for some time. Dates were never mentioned, much less promises.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Jahf]

Wow, I'm having a flashback to Neverwinter Nights ...

Re:Where is the Linux version

[kerrle]

They are not using DX9. That's absurd. The "heat wave" and other distortion effects can be done with shaders in Open GL, and that's what they're doing.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[homeobocks]

They are using DX9. They use it for things like DirectSound, DirectMusic, etc. DX9 includes DirectDraw and Direct3D, which iD replaces with OpenGL. DirectX has much more than just Direct3D, which iD does not use. iD uses other, smaller, aspects of DX9, though.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

the heat waves use the shader extension in opengl.... that's why they work in cedega... duh

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

obviously we're discussing the graphics render path here, since that seemed to go over your head.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Tellarite]

I check www.doom3linux.com on a daily basis. They are sure to know as soon as it is released.

The iD page doesn't seem to get updated very frequently, as evidenced by the fact that the first place to see the Demo is not iD's page. I suspect the first place to see Linux binaries will not be the iD page.

TuxGames seems to think that it will be out October 1, as that is when they start selling it.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

Can someone moderate parent "-1 missinformative"?, for anyone that has a clue about 3D graphics knows that mixing D3D and OpenGL makes absolutely nonsense. You can be quite sure that _all_ graphics in Doom3 are done with OpenGL.

As for the other DirectX APIs someone else mentions, it might be, but I doubt they depend on them, they have been releasing cross platforms games for a long time without problems, I don't see why Doom3 should be any different in this respect. (Note: except the editor, that apparently for historical reasons has a lot of windoze-only code, but then you can use GtkRadiant which is very well supported on all platforms)

And I don't like "me too" posts, but I'm also eagerly awaiting the Linux version! And the release of the Quake3 source, thanks John! you rock, and good luck with Armadillo!

Re:Where is the Linux version

[KarmaMB84]

They probably used DirectSound and DirectInput. No reason not to use the simpler solution to get the cash-cow Windows port out on store shelves THEN work on the devil that is porting to Linux.

Playing sounds is A LOT simpler than graphics. That's why the DirectX SDK is FULL of graphics examples and documentation while audio has only a few that cover nearly everything one would need to know to get sounds playing with positional effects and whatnot.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn it, it's "id", id. All lowercase. Got it? Just go to their friggin website and see how they spell their own name.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[AnotherScratchMonkey]

Doom3 for Linux forums, status, IRC

If you join the web channel and PM the webmaster with your email address, he'll add you to a list that will get notified when the Linux binaries hit the FTP site. He has a script monitoring Id's FTP server for the binaries that will email the list when they're detected.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you capitalize it "iD"?

It is clearly written "id" everywhere. If you capitalized it like a normal proper noun, as "Id", that would be fine, too. Seeing as most people misprounce the name of the company as "eye-dee" instead of just "id", I can even understand writing it "ID", as in short for Identification. But for the life of me, I cannot see the logical thought process that went into concluding it should be written "iD", unless you have been left thoroughly confused by Apple brand names.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[kerrle]

Sorry; I was referring only to Direct3D. My apologies.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Deraj DeZine]

Best post I've read to day. Lurk less.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Trejkaz]

Damnit, if only they'd used SDL, the Linux and Mac ports might have been out already!

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

Or they could just use SDL, at which point a port is stupidly simple.

But "I Am Not a Game Programmer" so, I don't know shitzor.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Trogre]

I believe they do use Direct3D for some effects, such as the heat shimmer.

Now that OpenGL 2.0 is out, such features should be available soon in OGL implementations.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[HAKdragon]

Can you mix 3D APIs? I was under the impresion that you could have a D3D renderer, an OGL render, a renderer, but you couldn't mix them.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

... And the Windows version would have drawn its first frame. What's your point?

Compile once, wait everywhere, you say?

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Cyclone66]

I don't think they use Direct3d at all. I think what they meant by "DX9 effects such as heat shimmer" is that it is a DX9 level effect requiring a fully DX9 compatible card. That doesn't mean it actually uses Direct3d.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

You've never played Commander Keen, have you?

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Trejkaz]

That's bullshit, the Windows version would have been developed just as quickly.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Anonymous Coward]

Doom3 drags enough using native gfx interfaces and optimized drivers. A nice big thunking layer like SDL can't be good for the already low framerate, hence it run, but more choppy than necessary, on all platforms instead of being playable on one.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Molt]

..and with the speed hit simply stupid.

Re:Where is the Linux version

[Trejkaz]

Pfft... I don't see SDL causing any massive performance hits on Neverwinter Nights. The Linux version (which is based on SDL) runs just as fast as the Windows version (which is not based on SDL, oddly.)

So what makes Doom 3 so special that a performance hit would actually take place, and do you really think id are going to use raw X calls to get the keyboard input and such?

Re:Where is the Linux version

[HFXPro]

Didn't have to wait for OpenGL 2.0. It was already available in at least 1.5 as ARB extensions.

Demo later than release -- seems normal to me

[IronChefMorimoto]

Releasing the demo nowadays AFTER the release seems, to me, like a great way to find out if you want to buy the game, without the majority of bugs that might plague a BETA-quality demo.

In my mind, a game software manufacturer will release a demo POST-release to entice those who haven't decided yet to purchase the game. Someone who downloads, say, the Doom3 demo, can decide if the software will work on his/her machine without some of the pre-release bugs that might plague the product. ATI vs. Nvidia compatibility immediately comes to mind.

On the other hand, if you're releasing something that's entirely new (in terms of a game/concept), then you could potentially risk lack of interest by releasing the demo AFTER the game itself. A new product can benefit greatly from a demo, I think, and in this regard, it would be wise to release it with some bugs.

In the case of Doom3, I must admit, though, that making people wait another month or two for a demo for a game that took 4-5 years to develop is a little dumb. Reviewers and gamers alike have been mediocre about the game -- for it being more of a technology demo (the Carmack engine -- hehehehe) than a good game with a good story. This sort of reviews, I think, would make a buyer think twice about getting the game at initial release prices.

If the demo had been out beforehand, perhaps potential buyers would not have pre-conceived notions of what to expect of the game overall because they would only play a small portion of it in the demo. The graphics would ooh and ahh and really get the idea of buying such a terrific looking game in the minds of potential buyers. It would be a buyer's remorse thing (after iD has pocketed the sale) if the buyer then decided that, "Yeah, the graphics rock, but it was kind of bland and the story was OK."

I am one who read the Doom3 reviews, waited until a friend bought a copy and got tired of trying to finish the bland story, and played it for him. I enjoyed the experience, but given my expectations after reading reviews, I am still glad my friend shelled out the $55 for the game. He has the discs back now, and I will most likely wait until the game drops to $30 or something to buy it. There are other things to play right now.

My two cents.

IronChefMorimoto

Re:Demo later than release -- seems normal to me

[IntergalacticWalrus]

Yeah, in a perfect world, releasing a polished demo after the game instead of some unfinished product is a great idea, unfortunately in reality this practice hurts even more, because it encourages more people to pirate the game so they can get their "demo" early. And then a good part of those people might not buy the game, and therefore have just pirated it.

Re:Demo later than release -- seems normal to me

[Justus]

If my game received an average review score of 88.6%, I'd be pretty satisfied with that level of mediocrity!

Re:The real 'demo'

[Eric(b0mb)Dennis]

Eh? I have plenty of sense.

I'm just glad i'm not one of the poor saps who shelled out $50 for the game when I thought it would be good.

Now that I know it's crap, who cares?

Carmack, stick with rockets!

Hmm...

[nightgrave]

Now maybe when the Linux client is released, it will increase the sales.

Mac version

[thedogcow]

I really wish they should give more specifics on a mac version. They used a mac to demo Doom 3 way back when for E3, they acknowledged they had a mac version a couple weeks ago that runs... what is the big deal?
I really want to see how Doom 3 performs on my new DP 2.5GHz G5, particularly when I get my Nvidia 6800 Ultra DDL card.

Re:Mac version

[Anonymous Coward]

If you've got enough money for that Apple combo, you might as well just buy Id instead ;)

(I kid, I kid! I'm a proud owner of a G4 iBook :)

Buying the demo

[SimonShine]

Assuming the question is not rhetorical, the demo can tell people if they're at all impressed with the next generation 3D engines that Doom 3 is claimed to be one of and whether their hardware can even pull it at a decent quality rendering. I borrowed the CDs from a friend and will definitely buy the game! id is one of the few companies that I've supported for a very long time; somehow I don't feel alone. :) Have /.ers begun map editing yet? The Radiant editor is as always a kick!

Re:The real 'demo'

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, this is for the *non*-criminals. Nothing for you to see here.

Time to see what my FX5200 can do...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure Doom III won't have been your first disappointment.

Re:The real 'demo'

[rpdillon]

Mod parent up. There is really no point in posting comments in a "demo released" thread about how l33t you are because you warezed a game...

I can tell you what happens:

[KDR_11k]

Nothing. Doom 3 requires a card that supports the "Pure device" option, you only get that with a GeForce 2 or better.

Re:I can tell you what happens:

[Kanon]

Whoosh.

Straight overhead with the birdies.

Re:I can tell you what happens:

[KDR_11k]

What, just because it's a joke I'm not allowed to answer seriously?

Re:Linux Version

[Izaak]

Grumble. My Doom3 box is sitting on my shelf until the Linux binaries come out. As much as I love ID I feel ripped off right now.

I won't buy Doom III until the Linux version is available for download. I am looking forward to seeing how it runs on my 2.8Ghz hyperthreaded P4 system with 1GB RAM, GeForce FX 5200 video, and high end Audigy sound card. I'm getting tired of Tux Racer. :)

A faster Doom 3 download...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just turn off your monitor and move your mouse around frantically. That pretty much will capture the essence of Doom 3 and saves yourself the download. ;)

Re:A faster Doom 3 download...

[Anonymous Coward]

This way you'll lose out on the best bit; the sound! - Luckily you can get around that by poping any of the evil dead dvds on and cranking up that surround :)

weird !!

[phreakv6]

been there... done that... finito with tha game.. and guess wat ???... they now gotta demo of the game available for download... isnt that grrrrrrrr8 ?

Anyone tried it...

[Trikenstein]

With a Radeon 8500?
All the reviews I've seen are running it on pretty current hardware.
Radeon 9800 pros and newer.
And the nVidia equivalents.

Re:Anyone tried it...

[BeeRockxs]

I'm running it on a Radeon 8500 LE with 128MB Video ram, an Athlon XP 2000+ and 512 MB DDR RAM.
It's playable at 640x480 with all details, no AA and no AF.

Re:Anyone tried it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes I have. Runs fine when you turn down the details.ocasionally a bit chuppy.

Running in
Amd 64 3200+
1 GB
1024 *786 (medium quality)

Re:Anyone tried it...

[gl4ss]

yeah, finished it with a 8500 le with 64mb..

be sure to turn off the dynamic shadows though.. made the whole thing much more playable.

Re:Anyone tried it...

[Trikenstein]

how do you turn off dynamic shadows?
Don't see an option for that...

Also it defaults to a refresh rate of 60 hz.
And I can't seem to get my vid card to over ride.

Re:Anyone tried it...

[KarmaMB84]

r_displayRefresh 75 should get you 75 Hz. The shadow option is in the advanced video section. Turning them off and on does not require a vid_restart either. I have shadows on and shadows off on hot keys for areas that REALLY need shadows off (some boss fights especially the last) and play with them on the rest of the game. :)

Re:Anyone tried it...

[Wtcher]

I have a Radeon 8500LE and a 1.2GHz Thunderbird. The Radeon doesn't seem any slower at 1024x as compared to 640x... I'm pretty sure my system is CPU-bound. I get around 20+FPS most of the time, unless I'm in a particularly busy area (at which time it can drop to single numbers).

Turn off the dynamic lighting and turn on the bump-mapping. :)

Re:Anyone tried it...

[YetAnotherDave]

I needed lowest-quality settings with a radeon 9200 on a 2.8GHz pc, and even then it got pretty awful framerate when lotsa stuff was going on (esp the guardian/watchers fight).

Anything less, forget it. Sorry.

Re:Anyone tried it...

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried it on an MSI GeForce 4 Ti4800SE. It ran OK (32 FPS Avg. on demo1) at 800x600, Medium Quality, no AA/AF.

Upgraded to a BFG GeForce 6800GT. I got 45 FPS Avg. at 1280x1024, Ultra Quality, 4xAA/8xAF. It looks much better on this card.

Mac version???

[Cybrex]

[and please don't buy an iMac for the purpose of playing Doom 3 acceptably - the 'Ultra' tacked onto the end doesn't change much].

Huh? Doom 3 isn't available for the Mac. Surely you're not implying that he'd run it in Virtual PC!

That's really my only complaint about Doom 3. Outside of work I use Macs almost exclusively, and Doom 3 forced me to dust off my PC (and buy a new video card). It's worth it, 'cause the game totally rocks, but I do wish that more game manufacturers would follow the example of games like UT 2004.

-Cybrex

Re:Mac version???

[hunterx11]

Doom 3 is coming out for Mac, though there is no word on when.

Re:Mac version???

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a Mac G4/350 with a kick-ass GeForce3 card that Steve Jobs and John Carmack said at an Apple Expo was the perfect environment for Doom3. It's been a long wait since I bought this system to play it, I can't wait!!!

Re:Mac version???

[hunterx11]

You know it's funny, when the G3 Yosemite came out, one of the advertisements for it featured Halo (which was a Mac native game at the time). You'd be lucky to get even a double digit framerate in Halo on a G3, though.

Re:Linux Version

[Anonymous Coward]

why would you stick such a crappy video card into an otherwise decent box?

Yay?

[St. Arbirix]

I use linux.

Wake me when it's out in a form I can use.

Re:Yay?

[Anonymous Coward]

That and the rest of the gaming industry right?

Keep dreaming.....

Re:Yay?

[nrc]

Me too. D3 runs great on Cedega. Glad I didn't wait for the "real soon now" Linux binaries.

Re:Yay?

[SillyNickName4me]

Almost all ID games are available for Linux, unlike those of many other publishers.

Seeing how ID is also sayign themselves that a Linux version is comming, it is quite reasonable to ask when it will come and to wait for it to be there before buying their games...

Re:Yay?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wake me when it's out in a form I can use.

It won't be packaged into a dildo, sorry.

Re:Yay?

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably never, as I don't think it comes in a "tedious cunt" mode.

Re:Linux Version

[The Wannabe King]

Try Enemy Territory while you wait, certainly better than Tux Racer.

post demo

[AssProphet]

One thing good about a post demo, is that you don't have a demo ruining the mysterious anticipation of the full game. Personally I enjoyed turning it on and runing it for the first time, having no idea what it was going to be like.

I also don't like watching trailers for movies, I'd rather just read reviews on rottentomatoes.com

Re:Linux Version

[Vengeance]

May I recommend a couple of things?

First, if you haven't used a joystick with Tux racer, you're missing out.

Next, check out Unreal Tournament 2004. The Linux binaries are included on the game DVD (or CDs, if you prefer), and the feel of the Unreal games has improved dramatically (in this ID fanboi's opinion). There is classic deathmatch available, but there are also a whole host of other game types, some including vehicles.

Finally, check out freely downloadable 'Enemy Territory', which is based on Return to Castle Wolfenstein. But this one is strictly multiplayer.

Oh, and of course, I played around with Cedega/Doom3 already, and found it to be a less than satisfactory experience on the one machine where I got the game binary to function, that being a 1.5 Ghz P4. For some reason I haven't yet gotten my Athlon 3000+ XP to give me anything other than an 'Error 21' when launching the game. This despite running a vanilla kernel on this box, but a Fedora Core 2 kernel on the P4. *shrug*

I have a TNT2

[sahonen]

Nto realyl being a hardcore gamer and all that. It'll be interesting to see how well it runs. Deus Ex 2 ran okay when I cranked the detail levels down.

Re:I have a TNT2

[BenjyD]

I hope you're joking - you did read the "minimum graphics card Geforce 3" requirement, right?

Re:I have a TNT2

[FyRE666]

It won't run. At all. Don't waste your bandwidth, seriously.

In contrast to a lot of others here, I really enjoyed the game, both the graphics and level design. My Windows machine is hardly cutting edge (Athlon 2000XP, 1GB DDR400, FX5700, Abit nforce2) but I could play at 1024x768, medium quality at between 40-60fps for the majority of the time. It looks amazing, really, and is scary as hell if played in the dark with headphones. I'm going to be slotting an XP3200 in the mb this week to see how much difference it makes.

Re:I have a TNT2

[sahonen]

Oops. Oh well, someone I live with has a mid-range gaming rig that should be up to the task, maybe I can "borrow" it a bit.

Re:Linux Version

[Neophytus]

Only on an OS with few supporting 3D games (ie: not windows) would one not notice the atrocity that is the GFFX 5200.

at least

[waspleg]

if weren't drawing all the polygons you can't see with your crap-light, seriously there isn't a light switch? anywhere? i see computers and handhelds but no nightvision? this is what halflife was supposed to look like, it will be interesting to see how badly d3 gets stomped

and its too bad too cause they may well take the "piracy fukced us"

i for exmaple pay for the games i pirate if they're any good (like neverwinter nights, which i played all the way through before i ever bought it and which subsequently also sold me on the two expansions all of which i own)

most of what comes out is cookie cutter shit these days, same as the RIAA puts out, anywhere there is mass manufacture of anything the resulting quality suffers. I'm guessing that carmack doesn't give a fuck, the money is in the licensing of the engine anyway, the rest is basically just to demo the engine and get it a little credence, so yes the game sucks butlooking pretty is all they ever cared about; its about investors not gamers ;P

Re:at least

[los furtive]

While I agree that in the future you'd expect nightvision or at least some sort of lighting system on they shoulders/helmet to be standard fare, I think it would have taken some of the fun/fear away. Remember those pitch black rooms where the aliens were being shipped about in those eerily glowing glass containers...that was pretty damn cool and would have not been the same using NVGs.

Re:at least

[Deraj DeZine]

they may well take the "piracy fukced us"
i for exmaple pay for the games i pirate if they're any good

So you pirate games and then don't pay for them if you don't like them? Whereas if you couldn't pirate them, you'd buy them and then just be upset that you wasted money? Sounds like you're demonstrating that piracy eats into sales.

Re:at least

[waspleg]

no i just wouldn't buy the games, same as always

and when was there ever a time the games weren't available? i've been getting free software since i was 5, it was called sharing then and even my school sponsored people coming and putting software on the computer lab compouters to copy and take home.

you just wait for someone else to get it and see if its any good, i never bought any game i didn't heavily research or hear something good about first (assuming i couldn't play it)

Remember all the news about D3 P2P "theft"?

[Zooka]

I wonder how much difference a demo would have made in the number of pirated copies being traded via P2P, had it been available before or at the time of the game's release?

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[Seoulstriker]

There is actually a legal demo of Doom 3 on bit torrent.

Re:Uh...the game is out

[Anonymous Coward]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=redundant

Exceeding what is necessary or natural; superfluous.

old news

[Anonymous Coward]

The demo has been available for ages here for ages...

It's a much better version too - the only thing you can't do is multiplayer (key required).

Why would you want to test it without pirating it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:The real 'demo'

[nrc]

And I'm glad I was one of the poor saps who shelled out $50 bucks for the game and then enjoyed the hell out of it.

So you think it's crap, who cares?

ti4200

[Rev Saxon]

It runs very well on my 1900+ (stock speeds), with a half gig of cheap ram, and a Ti4200. Sure, it lags out at anything over medium settings, but its amazingly playable at medium settings.

dont buy doom

[Anonymous Coward]

doom 3 is a really nice LOOKING game.
but to spend money on? no way! save your cash!

All in all doom3 is a real nice engine demo. And thats it.

Wait for some good games to be put on it and buy those instead.

Re:dont buy doom

[KarmaMB84]

I found it to be a welcome change from the usual "blow away waves of monsters" fps games. Ofc, I like be startled by screaming imps ;p

quick review of Doom3

[Whammy666]

Doom3 really doesn't offer anything new, other than some high-end graphic effects. It's eye-candy with little substance. If you've played Doom1/2, or Quake1/2, then you've already played Doom3.

Here's the game in a nutshell: Land on planet, end up being (nearly) the sole human survivor, go into room, get ambushed, open door, get ambushed, find keycards to unlock doors, get ambushed, etc.. Then fight the boss at the end.

Even though the gameplay is stale, the graphics are excellent. But I did notice that the GeForce4 series of cards have trouble keeping up when the action gets heavy.

My recommendation is that you would be better off waiting for Doom3 to hit the discount shelves rather than paying full price. Graphics aside, Doom3 gameplay just doesn't merit the $55.00 asking price.

Re:quick review of Doom3

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though the gameplay is stale, the graphics are excellent. But I did notice that the GeForce4 series of cards have trouble keeping up when the action gets heavy.

If you have a Gf4, overclock it. Also, download the Omega nVidia drivers from www.omegadrivers.net These drivers are excellent, and provide much better performance for older cards than the official nVidia drivers.

I have a Gf4 Ti4200 128mb overclocked to 300clock/575 mem, with the latest Omegas. Doom 3 runs flawlessly on it.

Re:quick review of Doom3

[Anonymous Coward]

If you've played Doom1/2

Doom 1/2? Is that like after Wolfenstein 3D but before Doom 1?

the size (matters?)

[tyroney]

For those that care, (I'm usually modem, so I defer downloads when they get too big,) the file is reportedly 483,603,646 bytes large.

I know what I'll be doing at work on Monday.

Yes, but what about...

[ioslipstream]

... the linux installers?

At least UT2004 shipped with linux support out of the box.

I have that nice shiny Doom3 box sitting on my shelf, purchased with the assurance from id that support for linux would be following closely on the heels of the retail release. :(

Re:Uh...the game is out

[Davak]

Benchmarking is still easy...

timedemo demoname - run a demo for a benchmark

Here's the list of common cheats and here's the list of all the console commands for you uberdoom guys out there.

Great...

[xeon4life]

Now that it's announced on slashdot, it's going to take another month just to download it...

Minimum System Requirements

[evolve75]

ID's official minimum system requirements can be found here. The article discusses experiences with min-spec systems as well.
Looks like my ATI 9200 *might* cut it :-)

Re:Minimum System Requirements

[spacemky]

We have a P4 3GHz box at work (for our arcade system) with an ATI 9200, and DOOM3 is barely playable - I'm talking like 15-20 FPS, and even that dropping down to 0 sometimes. Pacman and Street Fighter II turbo no problem, but for Doom3 we need to upgrade.

Re:Minimum System Requirements

[arodland]

It's "sort of" playable on a Radeon Mobility 9000, if you set the quality option in the ATI driver all the way to performance. It looks like about 320x200 resolution, mind you, but it pulls enough FPS for single play.

Re:Yay

[Anonymous Coward]

Redundant! Even other losery slashdot readers don't want to hear about your pathetic, cheap-ass computer.

The Joy of Bit Torrent

[Code Dark]

A Slashdotted .torrent... does life get any sweeter?

Running on GeForce 3 Ti200

[CliffH]

Believe it or not, at 800x600, medium quality all around my little GeForce 3 plays this just fine. My system isn't the fastest thing around either (P4 1.8 oc'd to 2.4, 1GB RAM, fast WD SE Hard drives) so even with modest hardware the game is still very playable. One of these days I'll do some actual benchmarks (maybe today) and see what kind of framerates I'm getting. In any event it is very playable and very enjoyable.

Cliff

Re:Running on GeForce 3 Ti200

[Koil]

I am running almost the same rig, P4 2Ghz, 1Gb DDR2100 and GForce3 Ti500 (32Mb) and I found that the game played really damn well...I can count only a few times where I started to lose FPS because of 5+ baddies on the screen. Never had a problem...weird.

I would also like to point out to the flashlight whiners that I think you're missing the point...its not the fact that they never thought of the fact that holding the flashlight and the gun at the same time would be easier...

Same thing for the gamma cheaters...yeah, you crank the gamma you can see, but you're taking away the whole fear factor...no wonder you're bored. There are MANY good scenes in this game that I got me pretty good (some even got me a 2nd or third time if I had to reload a save point)

Overall - 3.5 Stars I'd say...great graphics, great fear factor in many areas...could have used more models and different baddies, and a little more depth to the levels...but other than that..i was happy.

Re:Running on GeForce 3 Ti200

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah I had a Duron 900 (@1000) with 512 PC133 and a geforce3ti200 (@200/458 - the equivalent of a regular Geforce3) and it ran resaonably well on medium quality, 800x600, with shadows and high quality special effects disabled.

I now have a Athlon XP 2600 Barton (@2012) with 512MB PC3200@350, and the same geforce3ti200. It runs very well on high detail 800x600 with all advanced options enabled, running at 1024x768 causes small freezes when I move between rooms, because the paltry 64mb of video memory cant handle moving the data.

What I want to know is: Why bother putting out the demo AFTER the game is already out? Sales not too good?

doom 3 isn't really scary either

[n_are_q]

D3's scare factor comes almost entirely from the surprise element. It just doesn't get inside your head like a good horror flick does. After watching a horror movie you're still afraid after it's over. Suddenly the light's on in the wholse house through the night :). In D3 this doesn't happen at all, you just get startled every couple of mins when you open the door and some crap leaps out at you just as your frames drop to 0.5 so you can't shoot or dodge it. It startles you at first, but gets old in a hurry. I would recommend everyone to go through the hell level though. It is amazing from the art point of view. The coolest level in a 3D game i've ever seen.

Re:doom 3 isn't really scary either

[joethehumanity]

it gave me the jibblies, that's for sure. although due to my laptop being minimum spec there would be a slight pause before anything jumped out at me which gave me a chance to steady my tattered nerves. I think that the lapses in action were the most unnerving. like when the power goes out in the room in the first level and it's completely dark and silent, or when you hear someone whisper 'please help me' from the shadows.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[wed128]

this kind of annoys me. The fact that people refer to BitTorrent as their means for software/music/movie piracy, when in fact Suprnova and other sites are at fault. You people are tarnishing the name of an otherwise brilliant protocall.

sorry for the rant, but my college just firewalled off the use of BT because of piracy, rendering the entire protocall useless for legit purposes. 1 million times better than FTP, and yet i have to wait for linux ISO downloads...tsktsk

Re:The real 'demo'

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just glad i'm not one of the poor saps who shelled out $50 for the game when I thought it would be good.

... I'm even more glad I'm not one of the poor saps who can't afford $50...

Totally Agree.

[guidryp]

One of my friends downloaded to see what the hype was about. If there had been a demo, he would have DL that instead.

I can't even play FPS games, becaue of the motion sickness they cause me, and I still thought of DL the real version. But I decided to wait for the Demo to slake my curiousity.

But really if there were a demo first some who bought the game, might have just DL the demo to see what is up instead and it would have been lower sales. So this is really not in Id's best interest.

Certainly if there were a demo on the same day vast amounts of the "piracy" would have disappeared as well. But I am not sure this would be in Id's best interest either. This gives the the BSA and thier ilk more ammo.

Re:Totally Agree.

[TheLink]

Is id software a member of the BSA?

I know some shops who don't deal with BSA software. They stick to "distributing" other software. That keeps their overheads down.

another fast mirror

[zr-rifle]

here

Re:another fast mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

you can also try trustworthy http://www.fileplanet.com/ have fun

5200 actually plays well

[GweeDo]

I have a 5200 128MB on an Athlon XP 2600+ with 1GB of RAM (gaming isn't my big thing on my pc) and it runs well @ 800x600 medium quality. I did a few tweaks like unpacking the compressed files and such. So all you fools saying the 5200 won't play it well would do well to shut up and get informed.

Re:5200 actually plays well

[swatoa]

That does little to convince me. For all I know, 10 fps would constitute as 'good performance' for somebody. What kinds of numbers are you getting in timedemo?

For me, it was ~7.7 fps in 1024 res. on low quality (bump maps and shadows on during tests), ~10 or so in 800x600, and ~14 fps in 640x480. I have a 1.3GHz athlon, geforce2 pro box. These numbers prove the game is absolutely not worth playing.

Re:5200 actually plays well

[KarmaMB84]

You do realize that a gf2 pro is quite a bit below minimum spec, right? :P

Re:5200 actually plays well

[swatoa]

Haha, yes, I realize this. I was surprised the game would even load - I guess I took 'system requirements' literally, as in 'you need at least X hardware to run the game, otherwise it won't load'

I haven't d/led demo, but are the plasma rifle and BFG left out, just like in Doom 1 shareware?

Re:5200 actually plays well

[Roguelazer]

Yep. The demo is just the first three levels. The Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, BFG9000 and Chainsaw aren't in them. I don't even know if the Chaingun is in them.

Re:5200 actually plays well

[Lisandro]

Ditto. The game it's completely playable on my 5200FX, 640x480 medium resolution. Given, that might be "low" resolution for most of you, but the game still looks better than most other games on higher resolutions.

One thing to notice it's that on current generation hardware, Doom3 is as CPU-bound as it's GPU-bound; going from an AthlonXP 2000 to a 2600 made a noticeable difference for me.

Re:Yay

[bhtooefr]

I can ALMOST play Unreal Tournament GOTY via Wine (I found out I could actually get it running natively without the second CD, though). ~10FPS at 320x200...

Doom 3 would be, what, 60 seconds per frame?

"Time to see what my FX5200 can do..."

[SQLz]

"Time to see what my FX5200 can do..."

...or not.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes I have a problem believing BT is better than FTP.

What is the point of using BT, when you are getting less than 10kB/s download speeds with over 50kB/sec upload when the FTP server is giving 25+ kB/sec download without taking virtually any of my upload?

One BIG demo

[xot]

That one big mofo of a demo! 480MB approx! Its gonna be a while till the whole thing downloads on my connection.
I just wanna see if it runs on my Athlon 2800+, 320M ATI card(64mb). Im hoping it will work with loww(est) details. Any of you guys tried it on a 64mb card?? Besides how many levels are there in the demo?

Re:One BIG demo

[digitalgimpus]

I doubt it will play. It wasn't even usable on my P4 1.8GHz with a ATI Radeon 7500M

Was my post informative? Help me get a free flat screen by completing 1 silly little offer. I need one to go with my free iPod.

Re:One BIG demo

[Anonymous Coward]

it ran fairly decent on my amd athlon 1800 and ati radeon 9200se card. Of course I couldn't run it over 800x600 with all the fancy settings..but neverless, it did run. I think people who say it won't run on lesser hardware are either picky bitches,don't have the game or have really shitty ass hardware.

Re:One BIG demo

[CavemanKiwi]

Well I have an Athlon 1800XP , 768 meg ram with Geforce ti4200 64meg and it just runs. It slows down every now and then mainly when bad guys are firing machine guns at me. But still passes as been playable but certainly not the best experience to be had. This is all with the Low detail settings at 640*480. A friend of mine has a P4 2.5ghz with a ti4600 128 meg video card and his seems to run the game much better than my rig

Re:One BIG demo

[Drawsalot]

Nvidia 440MX 64MB, P3 1.4G barely playable (not survivable) with all tweaks. AMD 2000+, FX5200 128MB, 1 GB RAM, playable at lowest settings.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[psi]

Ever tried chaning the incomming ports? They can firewall off the default ports, but just find ones that are open and change the ports in your client. bittornado allows you to do so, generally keep it withen 10 port range, say somewhere around 65000. This will also increase your overall throughput from the tracker and your other peers. If they block that, keep changeing that port. Eventually they will have to port block everything, and people will complain enmasse. Remember, even as a student.. you get the IT people to piss off the wrong people, things change. (Hint, find what programs your professor uses, and mimic those port numbers provided you are all on the same network.)

Cross Platform Game Development

[Izaak]

Mixing OpenGL and DX9 in the same game seems like it would be counter-productive. Combining OpenGL for 3D graphics with SDL for cross-platform support of game controllers, soumd, threading, etc seems like a much more productive way to go. I've been doing that in my own game development (look for a realease in late October) and it has made it amazingly easy to compile a single code base to Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[sp0rk173]

It's a tool for downloading things. People will use it for what they want to use it for. Get over it.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[Anonymous Coward]

downloading off FTP means you know someone that will share with you. Whereas bttorrent its easy, just click a link start the download. For people with faster connection like me I can get 400 kbs easy with bittorrent (around 30-40gigs in a weekend if I wanted), I'd have a hard time getting that content off an ftp server.

Re:Linux Version

[Izaak]

why would you stick such a crappy video card into an otherwise decent box?

Because I wasn't thinking about video games when I built the system, so I just slapped the first Linux compatible video card on hand into the system. I've another system with a slower processer but a higher end Radeon video card. Perhaps I should swap the cards around.

Regardless, the current configuration has been providing reasonable frame rates for my own OpenGL programming projects, so I haven't had a compelling reason to make the switch. Using a lower end video card could actually be considered a good thing during game development; it forces the programmer to write efficient code and not lean on the hardware too much, making the game accessible to more people and allowing it to play even better on higher end systems.

Most recent linux client status update...

[kikensei]

Was on August 22nd. Linuxgames.com interviewed Timothee Besset, id's linux client guy. The interview is here: http://www.linuxgames.com/?dataloc=articles/ttimo/ Botton line, as of the 22nd, he said the linuc client was a few weeks away. It was already working, with "surprisingly good performance compared to the windows version", but he doesn't want to release until it's well polished.

Speaking of Half-Life

[kendric]

Back when Valve released its Half Life demo it was a stand alone game. The engine was the same as the normal game, but they made a new story that was far shorter and still a great deal of fun. I am hoping that the new Half Life 2 will also have a demo that will be unique and seperate from the real game.

I am wondering what this demo is like; will it be Doom 3 but only the first 10 minutes of game time or is it too a complete different game with different maps and story.

...and it's very very very dark...

[Snaller]

... but apparently that's not a bug but a feature - it seems black is easier to render on the fly ;-)

Fast http download, no wait

[Jukashi]

Doom 3 Underground has it in their download section. No wait, 10mbit pipe!

Re:The real 'demo'

[Anonymous Coward]

> then enjoyed the hell out of it.

Enjoyed it? I've talked to 11 people that I can recall that have bought it, and not a one is able to play it. Even on my 3GHz Pentium 4 it looks like a slide-show. It's horrible. I'll reinstall it the next time I upgrade my system in about 18 months. If the demo came-out before the game, I would have waited until then to buy the game. Instead, I, like everyone else I know that bought it, feel like I got ripped-off.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[wed128]

i'm not mad that people pirate IP on it, i just don't like that they refer to it as their source for pirated materials. When you download something from a site, and someone asks you where you got it, you don't say "FTP" or "HTTP", you say the name of the site. when asked for a source of IP, people say BitTorrent, not Suprnova etc.
This is wrongfully incriminating.

Re:Linux Version

[Deraj DeZine]

UT2004 is a complete waste of time. If you liked Unreal Tournament (the original) enough to play it again with slightly updated graphics, then go ahead and waste your money (or just download the demo that has just as much gameplay diversity as the entire game). It runs well under Linux.

But that game has no depth and I feel sorry for my friend who paid cash money for that 5 CD sleeve of crushed hopes.

Also, Chromium BSU is a fun game.

It's id.

[ayeco]

The company says that their name is "id", not iD, not ID, not even Id, it's freaking "id"!

id
n.
In Freudian theory, the division of the psyche that is totally unconscious and serves as the source of instinctual impulses and demands for immediate satisfaction of primitive needs.

Re:It's id.

[LPetrazickis]

In other news, id is Latin for it.;)

Re:Linux Version

[asdfghjklqwertyuiop]

UT2004 is a complete waste of time. If you liked Unreal Tournament (the original) enough to play it again with slightly updated graphics, then go ahead and waste your money (or just download the demo that has just as much gameplay diversity as the entire game). It runs well under Linux.

But that game has no depth and I feel sorry for my friend who paid cash money for that 5 CD sleeve of crushed hopes.

Well I have no idea what you're talking about. I spent many hours playing UT2004 and it is quite fun. Gameplay is very good. The onslaught mode involves a nice amount of strategy and is fun. Not to mention vehicles. UT2004 is everything the original was and more.

The AlienSwarm mod is also very good and is a totally different type of game.

Anyone with a complete download do an md5

[digitalgimpus]

With all these unofficial mirrors, would love to verify what I'm downloading.

So any valid MD5's done yet? Anyone care to share the magic hash?

Was my post informative? Help me get a free flat screen by completing 1 silly little offer. I need one to go with my free iPod.

Re:Anyone with a complete download do an md5

[bot24]

5172537e1ea114ec857766f6af06a211 *d3demo.exe

Re:Anyone with a complete download do an md5

[TheLink]

And who should you trust here?

Re:Anyone with a complete download do an md5

[Anonymous Coward]

How about you stop being a dick and put your spam into a real sig instead of pasting it directly into your post...and then ask for help.

Duct tape

[Trejkaz]

Duct tape really is the hardest thing to find on Mars. If there were any in the entire station (crazy, I know), you could have duct taped the flashlight to the shotgun.

But you know, over on Mars, they use other things to keep ducts sealed, like dark magicks. Why the fuck else did the devil come through? Because idiots didn't have duct tape and were using dark magicks to summon demons to deal the ducts.

For fucks' sake, guys... please, next time just use the damn duct tape. It will be better for everyone's sake.

Re:Duct tape

[niteice]

One reason: bad suppliers. If the people supposed to ship jackhammers shipped chainsaws instead, do you think they can handle duct tape?

Re:Duct tape

[Trejkaz]

True. But you'd also think that Martian Buddy would be more competent than those other idiots, and should be sending promotional MB Duct Tape to the facility. :-/

Re:Duct tape

[ZorinLynx]

They should have turned this into an even funnier joke by saying that they were expecting shipments of duct tape but got chainsaws instead.

What an awesome opportunity to make the player go "NO WONDER!!" and laugh out loud, but they didn't think of it. }:)

-Z

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[Anonymous Coward]

You fucknut, BitTorrent helped you about as must as HTTP let you know about this demo. Yeah, I went down to the store and bought a copy. Thanks, car.

I bet you call up your plumber when it's time to pay the water bill, too.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes I have a problem believing BT is better than FTP.

It's better for whoever's serving the file, and from a security perspective as well. In this case, I dunno.

What is the point of using BT, when you are getting less than 10kB/s download speeds with over 50kB/sec upload when the FTP server is giving 25+ kB/sec download without taking virtually any of my upload?

How often does that exact scenario come about? If you've got more demand than the server can cope with, bittorrent will keep going, but ftp will die. Id certainly has enough money to keep ftp running though.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[j3110]

I feel for your plight, I do, but I also have sympathy for your parent.

How else are we supposed to know if something is worth it's price tag to us? Our only legal recourse for bad software was taken away years ago. We can't return it even if it doesn't work on our computer. A demo and/or piracy will probably be more likely to get your game bought if it works. You have to encourage them to buy it with extra functionality for actually buying a game, or else once they go through the trouble to pirate it, they aren't likely to go through the trouble of buying it.

That said, I'm so disgusted with the state of computer gaming that I'm about to make a switch to consoles. I used to be the biggest fan of computer gaming, but now consoles offer about the same level of enjoyment for less. You spend about 80-200$ of the system, then about 50$/game, and you are done. Now you have to spend 300+$ on hardware upgrades and 100-200$ on software upgrades every year or two to play computer games. They mostly don't support my operating system of choice, and require a lot of tweaking when they do. I just put a disk or cartridge in a slot on a console and play, sometimes instantly (ie no booting).

(OT) EA copy protection

[GuyWithLag]

I had a similar problem with Sim City 4 - it requires a CD-ROM drive to run off. Guess what, I have a DVD-ROM and a CD-burner, ant it refuses to run from both of them. WTF, who buys CD-ROM drives these days? Oh, and The Sims 2? It's 60 friggin euros here in Greece!

Re:Linux Version

[Deraj DeZine]

I was just trying to highlight the fact that UT2004 is not a good game for everyone. Someone who likes to spend their time shooting people on the same maps over and over would love UT2004.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from UT2004 looking back on it, but I disliked the game even though I enjoy Quake III: Arena.

Some people really like UT2004, I found it to be a chore/waste of time.

Torrent is slow

[Gonoff]

I thought BT was supposed to get better when it receives the /. effect?
Thank goodness for broadband! I hate to think what it would be like if I was on 56k... I suppose I would get a friend to get it. That's what people do to me...

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[Anonymous Coward]

People used to get their MP3s from "FTP"

Defect rate

[tepples]

I tried to take the game back but of course, they refused because I opened it.

Exchange it, and exchange the copy they give you. Repeat until the store finally runs out of copies and gives you a $50 gift card. Retailers watch products' return rates; an abnormally high rate of exchanges for a given title will raise suspicion of a real defect in the title.

Re:Defect rate

[mrgreen4242]

I always wondered about that... Most store won't take back a CD/game/DVD that has been opened, but will exchange it. So, when you exchange it for a new one, it's sealed, right? So whats to stop you from returning it to a different store for (presumably) some instore credit? (Most places will give you credit if you don't have a reciept).

Re:Defect rate

[tepples]

So, when you exchange it for a new one, it's sealed, right? So whats to stop you from returning it to a different store for (presumably) some instore credit?

Some store chains have (been forced by publisher associations to adopt) a policy of opening any exchange copy of a copyrighted work. I know Toys "R" Us did this back in the early 1990s.

emule / edonkey link for d3demo.exe

[Anonymous Coward]

ed2k://|file|D3Demo.exe|483603646|10034FD8332E52 1FF1E6DC1345904F5C|/

all one line of course

Re:emule / edonkey link for d3demo.exe

[Anonymous Coward]

ed2k://|file|D3Demo.exe|483603646|10034FD8332E521F F1E6DC1345904F5C|/

no space between the F and the F, no spaces at all

Who cares

[p51d007]

Doom3 is 99% just like any FPS. You run around killing everything in sight, collect things, open doors, secret panels, go to the next level and do it all over again. The AI isn't very good on most of these games. Get killed, and the bad guy is in the same place he was the last time. Other than eye candy, they are going to have to turn up the heat to make FPS any better than what came out 6 years ago.

Doom 3 sucks

[hudsong]

According to one of a person on a forum, Doom 3 is not a very good game: "Played it pre-release date cause of my affiliation with a certain computer magazine... Wasn't impressed at all. The graphics, whilst good, don't warrant the kind of hardware this game needs to run at decent res/speed. Its just down to poor coding. Look at FarCry... great graphics, but doesnt need anywhere near the kind of spec Doom 3 does... The engine is just miles better. Also, the sound design was inconsistent... While mostly solid, I got to half way through the game and got used to running around a corner and then checking behind me for a zombie which would magically spawn with no warning and no audible way of telling it was there before the red slashes came across the screen to tell you that you'd been hit. The thing that I was least keen on though is the fact that Id basically decided to leave most of the multiplayer up to the players who are in to modding... Out of the box the multiplayer is far from great, and Id have openly said that they expect game modders to add much to it... Basically Id just got pressed for time after pushing back the release so much and thought "f**k it we'll just put it out as it is, it will do." The fact that the game just feels so unrefined and unpolished just gets me... Had they taken the time to properly refine the engine, and make sure through playtesting that the sound was consistent the simgle player would have ben ok... Despite the fact that it's still just a re-hash of the original story (ugh...). I think I'll wait for HL2 instead, rather than being one of the sheep that creams themselves over an ultimately not-as-good-as-it-should-have-been game. And before anyone says it, just because it was pre-release doesnt mean the verion i played wasn't final code... It was. Done and dusted final, so called "finished" game, so I'm not ranting about it from the perspective of playing a preview release tongue.gif Sorry guys, but it used to be my job to pick up on these things... It just doesn't come naturally to just say "yeah, awesome" and move on. "

OS Requirements

[Anonymous Coward]

I read the requirements for processor, RAM, GFX card, Direct3D, but somehow I missed the OS requirements: Windows 2000/XP. I wonder just what essential features XP and 2000 posses that Win98, Win98SE, and WinME do not. Could ID be taking money from Microsoft to enforce this requirement?

And, yes, it really is a requirement; after spending 2 hours downloading it, and over an hour installing it (apparently, my computer doesn't like 400+ MB executables), I found out that it is linked to a missing export in Kernel32.dll. I was really excited about this game, but I don't know if I'm eager enough to upgrade from ME to XP.

Re:OS Requirements

[Stephonovich]

"I wonder just what essential features XP and 2000 posses that Win98, Win98SE, and WinME do not."

Usability.

Re:OS Requirements

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be retarded if you still run windows ME at this point in time. It sucks... Not for games. XP and 2000 run on a completely newer kernel than the 95/98/ME. Why should they support a dieing OS just cause your too lazy/stupid to upgrade.

Re:Linux Version

[asdfghjklqwertyuiop]

Someone who likes to spend their time shooting people on the same maps over and over would love UT2004.

Sounds like you didn't try all the different modes, particularly ball mode and Onslaught. Lots of strategy and teamwork required. It is more than your regular first person shooter. And UT04 does of course have a plain old deathmatch mode if you're into that.

game first demo last.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Its all about money!!! there some people play the multiplayer demos for months and years and never even bother to buy the full game. Have you ever been in a gaming clan before? sometimes the clan only plays on one map. and then you have people who take the demo and modify it to their liking...they can add maps and other mods to it...kinda like having the full version of the game. Doom3 has been wanted by many people for such a long time and ID wanted to get people sucked into buying it right away.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[Frogbert]

Better yet, just use a port that realplayer requires. You'll never actualy use it anyway.

I beleive you have got the title of the game wrong

[AbRASiON]

As someone who has completed this game I beleive it should be actually reffered to as "Imp 3" not Doom 3.

Imp 3, knee deep in the imps.
Imp 3, thy imp consumed.

HEY GUYS DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THE SECTION WHERE YOU OPEN THE DOOR AND GET ATTACKED BY AN IMP?

It's right after the section where an imp spawns behind you.
You know - on the level where there's that imp behind the boxes,... and the other one under the stairs - also I beleive there may have been a FUCKING IMP on the level somewhere too.

BIG.FUCKING.SIGH

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Your computer is broken.

[Anonymous Coward]

It works fine in my DVD-ROM/CDRW drive.

Try buying a new computer.

man I feel ripped now...

[tabby]

Free demo? Huh, I bought the demo months ago for $100AU. Oh you mean that was supposed to be a game?

Whoopie

[ae-valkyre]

I bought the game the day it came out. Ran fine on my system. All settings maxed out except for the detail which was set at "high", just below the ultra setting. Ran it at 1280x1024 resolution. No lag in performance at all, got between 40-60FPS.

Re:Whoopie

[Anonymous Coward]

Well that's useless information without the processor, memory and video card details.

It just scared me.

[Mustang Matt]

I grabbed the demo and was playing a bit in the dark. I finished the first section and I was in the section when some new guy popped out at me. No big deal my machine gun like weapon tore him up. But then I pop out the flashlight and was examing his face and at that moment another baddie comes bursting in the room. I about fell out of my chair I jumped back so fast. hahaha.

Me too.

[Anonymous Coward]

I just wanted a peek.

Typically, I play pirated games for under 2 hours. I have never played a pirated game through to the end. I prefer demos when they're available, because they're usually smaller downloads and easier to install.

workaround:

[LousyPhreak]

its rather easy to work around this problem:

just create a new user account and play from there... no need to uninstall clonecd or whatnot, you just need to switch user profiles for playing...

or you can still simply download a crack

Re:workaround:

[nolife]

I will try that but isn't CloneCD present for all users? The fact that I had to uninstall it for it to work in my login and the fact that all users on the machine (my 2 kids and me) can use the virtual drive I think it would be. I could create that gaming account and limit access and privs but according to the Sims2 FAQ, you need admin access for the game (how's that for security). I actually tried to run Sims2 from one of my kids logins (power users) and I get an "unknown error" dialog box, yes very informative indeed. I will read more and browse around the cracks and copy sites. I'm sure someone will figure out a solution eventually. I actually do not play the game at all but my kids do. I bought it as a reward for help they gave me over the weekend and now I wish I would have just did all the work myself ;).

At the suggestion of a different poster, I tried Daemon tools, it can coexist with Sims2 under my login. I guess that slipped under EAs radar.

Re:workaround:

[LousyPhreak]

you can still give another user admin access...

also funnily enough it works if clonecd is installed for all users, even if the virtual drive is up and running... they might be checking for the registry key of the user only, i know its strange but it worked for me :)

hopefully once there will be enough people who are pissed off with such crap and stop buying products of those companies, they almost start to act like good ole riaa

Same with Doom3 (for me)

[Tomcat666]

FUCK ACTIVISION (at least for today)

Re:Yay

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope you're TNT2 doesn't expload like mine! ;-)

Annoying monster triggers...

[GoLLuM.no]

I played Doom 3 and was impressed by the graphics, but the monsters AI was poor (compared with Half-Life that came in like 1998 or something), and there were obvious triggers to make the monsters pop out, if you like avoided to step in a certain place in a room then no monsters would pop up, that was lame.

Believable?

[raygundan]

I'm not suggesting that the plot of either of these games is plausible by any stretch of the imagination-- but do you *really* think that a megacorp opening a portal to hell on mars is the more realistic of the two? And that hell is full of heads wearing jetpacks?

Oh well-- I don't have much time for games right now anyway. I have to finish up this head-sized jetpack I've been working on for the last two years, and get it down to the boys in the Portal Research Group who asked for it.

Obligatory Post:

[DrHogie]

Now to see if this demo will run on my 1 GHz Athlon TBird w/ Radeon 9600/128MB & 512MB RAM. I doubt it, but hey -- here's hoping :)

protocall?

[hashashin]

Let me try to clear up some confusion here. :)

protocol:

5. Computer Science. A standard procedure for regulating data transmission between computers.

port o' call:

A port where ships dock in the course of voyages to load or unload cargo, obtain supplies, or undergo repairs.

Re:Linux Version

[Deraj DeZine]

Strategy and teamwork don't automatically make a game fun. I tried all the different modes and played a few LAN games on them. Don't get me wrong, UT2004 is a decent game and I initially had some fun playing it with my friends.

That being said, UT2004 is not the ground-breaking title that every reviewer seemed to think it was. The game has been overhyped to the point that it bothers me when people point to it as the best shooter ever created.

Wow now I can ditch Sandra

[Fallen Andy]

Not that I want to (she's kinda cute) but let's
face it John Carmarcks creations have always been
a great way of testing a new machine.
Gosh. I just happen to have one now (points at that
machine which is going to be our server). So guess
who's splendid code is going to burn it's sorry ass.
It would have been climateprediction.net or even seti@home, but sorry guys

Your's regrettfully..

Andy Allen

(One day you owe me a beer my friend)
(I don't want to ride your armadillo. No sir.)

Eh? There is something here...

[Fallen Andy]

and it's this. John wants perfection. Believe
me he *wants* perfection. God damn it. He's written
code that most of us only dream of writing.

But, he has EPIC (aka Unreal) biting his ass and his former CEO working for them.

Heck. This guy loves games. If he wants to stop
programming and do something else we will *still*
love him. Hey, he's got a kid now. Go for it.

Coding is for kiddies. Come back and surprise us.
We really think this. OK? But try not to embaress
us all with this spaceship shit because your first
name really isn't Burt ok? We don't want to pick
the burning embers out of the desert.

We'd like you to embaress that dumb f**ker in Redmond ok.
Please listen. OK I know he doesn't.

How does this explain the absence of a demo
(the real answer is that doom 3 *is* the demo).
Sorry. That's a fact. If John had had his way
we would have seen this game around the same time
as DNF. Say what? I mean Duke Nukem Forever.

I for one know I won't live that long.

Re:Pretty Crappy Demo

[Anonymous Coward]

"I found it on gopher".
"Archie it--you'll find it on FTP".
"I got it in the mail".

You were saying?

Runs pretty decent on my FX 5200

[MasterRyu]

Actually, it performs surprisingly decent at 640x480 and medium detail with AA and V-Sync disabled, and looks much better than many other recent FPSs at that resolution and detail. It can get choppy on occasion on my 5200, but it's relatively rare, for a budget card, this card has done alright.