Doom III was playable. The demo shown inside the booth was actual in-game footage, not a tech demo. I know that id let either GameSpy staff and/or IDSA staff (the people who give out the E3 awards) sit down at a computer in the back of the booth and actually play the game, to show that it was the game itself, in playable form, and not a tech demo. I believe that's why Doom III was eligible for the award in the first place.
I share Kenny's opinion regarding the popularity of Quake, Quake II, and Quake III (the base games themselves - mods not included). I'll admit I didn't play Quake I much, but at that point I hadn't gotten into gaming much, period.
However, with Quake II, I played it quite frequently in my Computer Science class. All of us would hook up together and play Q2 DM the entire period, and through lunch. Sure, we played a few games of Q2 CTF (by Threewave) as well, but everyone preferred Q2 DM. Then when I got home, I would sit down and play Q2 single player.
When I got Q3, all I had was dialup, so I couldn't play online very well. So I went through Q3's "single player" mode (I use the term loosely) on increasing levels of difficulty. Even once I got DSL, it took over 6 months for me to discover the mod scene, and even after I joined a clan playing WFA, I still went back to vanilla Q3 time and again. Hell, even now, I play vanilla Q3.
Another point I agree with is calling Half-Life "the best". I have played Half-Life very little, and have never purchased the game. After spending a few hours playing it on a friend's computer, I quickly got bored with it and returned to my id games. I'm not going to say Q2 is the best, I'm not going to say Half-Life is the best game, or that any mod is the best. I like Q2, Q3, and many mods for Q3. I also think I'll enjoy Doom III. If you like Half-Life the most, you're entitled to that opinion, and you're free to play it. Just don't apply an objective title to a subjective classification.
I'm not sure I'd grab a Parhelia. While I think it will do well with current games, Matrox refused to send a Parhelia to [H]ard|OCP for review. Their reason was (and I quote, from the [H]orse's mouth): "Matrox stated that due to the nature of our testing that they were not "comfortable" with sending us a Parhelia card. They seemed to think that we would be a bit too rough on the Parhelia and possibly show some issues that the "enthusiast" might identify as weaknesses."
Those "issues" Matrox is afraid of [H]ard|OCP revealing might be something like lack of vertex and/or pixel shaders... which are currently the only efficient way to do bumpmapping.
However, this is only speculation, since, after all, no one has seen a Parhelia for themselves though and gotten a chance to play with it extensively. Who knows? The Parhelia could be a GF4Ti-killer (not likely, but it's nice to hope;])
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Doom III was playable. The demo shown inside the booth was actual in-game footage, not a tech demo. I know that id let either GameSpy staff and/or IDSA staff (the people who give out the E3 awards) sit down at a computer in the back of the booth and actually play the game, to show that it was the game itself, in playable form, and not a tech demo. I believe that's why Doom III was eligible for the award in the first place.
I share Kenny's opinion regarding the popularity of Quake, Quake II, and Quake III (the base games themselves - mods not included). I'll admit I didn't play Quake I much, but at that point I hadn't gotten into gaming much, period.
However, with Quake II, I played it quite frequently in my Computer Science class. All of us would hook up together and play Q2 DM the entire period, and through lunch. Sure, we played a few games of Q2 CTF (by Threewave) as well, but everyone preferred Q2 DM. Then when I got home, I would sit down and play Q2 single player.
When I got Q3, all I had was dialup, so I couldn't play online very well. So I went through Q3's "single player" mode (I use the term loosely) on increasing levels of difficulty. Even once I got DSL, it took over 6 months for me to discover the mod scene, and even after I joined a clan playing WFA, I still went back to vanilla Q3 time and again. Hell, even now, I play vanilla Q3.
Another point I agree with is calling Half-Life "the best". I have played Half-Life very little, and have never purchased the game. After spending a few hours playing it on a friend's computer, I quickly got bored with it and returned to my id games. I'm not going to say Q2 is the best, I'm not going to say Half-Life is the best game, or that any mod is the best. I like Q2, Q3, and many mods for Q3. I also think I'll enjoy Doom III. If you like Half-Life the most, you're entitled to that opinion, and you're free to play it. Just don't apply an objective title to a subjective classification.
I'm not sure I'd grab a Parhelia. While I think it will do well with current games, Matrox refused to send a Parhelia to [H]ard|OCP for review. Their reason was (and I quote, from the [H]orse's mouth): "Matrox stated that due to the nature of our testing that they were not "comfortable" with sending us a Parhelia card. They seemed to think that we would be a bit too rough on the Parhelia and possibly show some issues that the "enthusiast" might identify as weaknesses."
;])
Those "issues" Matrox is afraid of [H]ard|OCP revealing might be something like lack of vertex and/or pixel shaders... which are currently the only efficient way to do bumpmapping.
However, this is only speculation, since, after all, no one has seen a Parhelia for themselves though and gotten a chance to play with it extensively. Who knows? The Parhelia could be a GF4Ti-killer (not likely, but it's nice to hope