Doom 3 Review

Well, we can pretty much put to rest all of the rumours about Doom 3
being done. PC Gamer have reviewed, and that says to me it is
definately done. Here are some scans of the cover of the magazine (this is all perfectly legal btw):




Here is the transcribed review:

[quote]

THE WORLD-EXCLUSIVE FIRST REVIEW

You've waited years. Now the wait is over. PC Gamer was the only
publication in the world to review Doom 3 a split-second after id
declared it "Done." We thought we were ready...

Turn out the lights. Get the surround-sound speakers in place. And say
goodbye to sanity for the next 20-odd hours. The guys at id Software
are famous for delivering a game "when it's done" - and we're here to
tell you that Doom 3 is not only done, it's mind-blowing.

X The game opens up with your arrival at Mars Research Facility of the
massive United Aerospace Corporation. It's the year 2145, and you're a
Marine newly assigned to the facility's security detail. For the first
15 minutes,you're not even issued a weapon - the action unfolds in a
pace reminiscent of the opening of Half-Life, as you get oriented
around the security building and watch some video primers on your new
job and new home. In this opening act, you're familiarized with your
Personal Digital Assistant, wich will be your invaluable interface
throughtout the rest of the game. Using this handy gadget, you can
download info from other people's PDAs as you come across them, adding
codes, access keys, and emails that contain crucial information you'll
need to progress through the 28 maps to follow. Here's what you really
spen those first 15 minutes doing: gawking. This is your chance to
absorb the full shock of magnificant graphics engine put to stunning
use. The enviroments are huge-scale and packed with detail. The base is
a convincing Mars Station - less a far-future design than a
depressingly postmodern corporate park. It feels lived-in, too - from
the skin mags scattered on the kitchenette tables to the nastiest in
the public rest-room toilet bowls.

But no sooner do you get oriented with your gear - and with the very
cool physics model that lets you rearrange just about any object in the
place - then all hell breaks loose. Literally.

The base is hammered by a shockwave of satanic force, and immediatly
discover that almost evryone around you has turned into a flesh eating
zombie - with a mindless devotion to snacking on you. Worse yet, the
base has been invaded by a horde of nightmarish demons. Cut off from
your fellow Marines (and stalked by some of their well armed zombie
versions!), you've got only a comm link with your still human Sarge to
steer you to safety

DOOM AND THEN SOME

For those expecting a "classic" run and gun Doom gameplay, the biggest
surprise may be just how substanial this game is. If you try to blaze
through any of these 28 missions you WILL be humiliated. Instead the
only route to access is a slow and steady one, sticking to shadows,
searching every nook and crany for health, ammo, and access keys, and
generally advancing as methodicaly as you can.

You've also got to figure out whats happening. As you make your way
through the different levels of the base, the pilot is revealed via the
PDAs you pick up, and in breif conversations with the few NPCs who
werent "turned" by the satanic attack. To make your way through the
inevitably sealed-off access doors between levels, you'll have to read
through email that progressively reveals a conspiracy of apocalypse
proportions - the nefarious scheme of phsycotic Dr. Betruger, UACs
cheif scientist, who's perverted a teleportion to open up a portal into
hell-like demension. (Oh and if you didnt notice Dr. betruger is also
keen on transporting his hellion army to earth.)

Gear is an absolute premium. All the old Doom weapons are back, but
preciously rationed, and with an ever windling supply of ammo for each.
The shotgun is your basic in close sledge hammer, while the assault
rifle is your best down hallway exchanges with armed zombie marines.
The chaingun provides a heavy punch for those hectic occasions when you
need to yell "LETS ROCKKKK!" The plasma rifle was my personal fav,
dealin streams of fiery blue death, although it runs out of ammo
quickly. The rocket launcher scores devastating hits at a distance,
while the stock pistol is suitable for minor enemies and desperate last
stands. (And as for the BFG 9000 - you'll have to wait a bit before you
get to arm it, but the wait is well worth it.)

But theres no need to worry that Doom 3 is as slow as spliner cell -
hardly a minute goes by without a furious exchange of hostiles with
some manner demonic beastie, imps, Hellknights, and Archviles are all
back to shock and awe you with viscerally jarring attacks, and the
endless stream of zombies and scuttling nasties gives you plenty to
chew on (and chew up). The gallery of grotesquerie is the product of
almost limitless imagination for horors - spiders that make your flesh
crawl, infant "cherubs" mutated with fly wings, and other unamable
terrors that blight the corridors of the possessed base

TO LAUNCH A THOUSAND PC PURCHASES

Early in the game, you're tasked with sprinting outside the mars
Facility ( with rapidly depleting air canisters) in search of the next
airlock. It
was here that i really started to notice what I was seeing was graphics
superiorty that not even current hot tech showcases like Far Cry could
match. Dust blew around the martian surface and the dull
brown/red hue of the sand and the twisted metal of shredded structures
all semed so perfectly plausible.

Each girder, door, and window adds tangible substance to each scene,
and even th e effect of your flashlight shinging into a drakened
corner looks ridiculosly real - as the light floods through a room ,
swinging back andforth, shadows are cast perfectly; dust particles
gently drift into the cone of the flash light , eerily visible. And
these are just the basics of the enviroment: just wait until you enter
the depths of hell, and dive into some of the later mass melees,. Doom
3, with all due awareness of hyperbole, is the best looking game you've
ever seen.

Not surprising you'll need a monster system to render these monsters in
all their intracetly textured glory. But the ability to play Doom 3
with all its visual magic maxed out is really a good excuse to trade
up. A P4 3GHzwith a Georce 5950- class card will see u through okay.
One of our test systems had a geforce 6800 ultra and ran flawlessly at
1024x 768 with high detail. (A higher level of quality and resolution
is available , but the PC to run it well isnt)nning with a geforce4 MX
card and 512 Mb RAM, the texture detail was great, although the game
was choppier in spots.

Bottom line: If Far Cry didnt convince you, then Doom 3 should - the
time to upgrade to a next generation 3D chip , or even an all new rig,
is now.

SOUND, FURY...AND SCARES

While I was expecting amazing graphics, it was the sound effects and
sound design that had me reeling. Footsteps echo spookily down halls;
monsters issue bloodcurling shrieks; every hallway has an audible drip
of menace and dread. Doom 3 is the reason to own surround sound
speakers. The collective impact of sound design on the whole
expierience cant be overstated, adding to the urge to switch out ll th
lights, close the curtains, crank up the voulume, and let yourself be
scared s***less.

And you will be jolted right out of your seat. I'm not going to spoil
any of the socks here, but there were at least four occasions where i
lunged back in y chair. Lead designer Tim wiltis is inside your head
like a phycologist - and just when hes let you think you can lower your
guard, he sticks the psychic shiv right into your nervous system.

Even when the scares arent heart stopping , theres a constant,
simmering anxiety at each and every step. You basically subjecting
yourself to a 20 hour cariac episode. At times, death brought sweet,
momentery respite from the fear drenched mayhem.

The zombie plagued space station is creepy enough , but about mid way
through the game you make a teleporteraided detour to hell. The whole
feel of the game changes utterly - if you thought you were in desperate
straits before, you now find yourself in a balls shriveling nightmare
netherworld. (With no weapons!)

It's all leading up to a knees knocking climatic spelunk into the
archealogical ruins beneath mars base where you enter a final showdown
against evildoers amid the remnants of a fallen martian civilization.
As the massive fright lifter descends so agonizingly slowly into the
darkness, you may find yourself as I did, cursing out loud at the grim
hold this game has on you.

Does Doom 3 have any missteps maybe just one; its attemps at humor feel
way out of place. there are a few lame running gagas: PDA spam and an
uber-nerdy string of emails between members of a roleplaying club. (The
spam gag actually becomes a puzzle that requires you jump out of the
game and use you web browser to find a code. Huh?) In one appalling
instance, you even even become privy in a tounge-in-cheek directive by
arcvillian Dr. Betruger, advising hellions on the proper way to prepare
virgin sacrifices. These limp jokes server only to dump me out of the
games carefully calibrated dread machine.

But no matter: The rest is all dynamite. Doom 3 took me 23 hours to
complete on the medium difficulty setting. (For all those who rumored
that the game would be over in a few hours- you couldnt be more wrong.)
And for those 23 hours, you will never expirience a dull moment. Or
even a less than mesmerizing one. Doom 3 is a masterpiece of art form -
staying true to the frantic l

What a terribly written review (ignoring the superficial copying errors)- you wouldn't have thought he'd actually played it if it wasn't for one or two plot giveaways, for a start. But hooray all the same! :biggrin:

23 hours sounds a little small for all the hype this game has generated... (probably around 30~35 hours after accounting for the reviewer showing off). And there's no news of the multiplayer side... Why exactly should I buy this if I'm not going to get more than a week's play out of it? This is why multiplayer is important IMO.

Anyway, it should be good to play just for the DOOM-iness of it (especially since it runs on the GF4MX :razz: )

Alls I pray for is that when I play DOOMIII and fire that shotgun, I yell "HOLY SON OF #&#*@ LOOK AT THOSE BODIES DROP!" SiNcE DoOm WaS tHe GaMe ThAt MaDe Me A hArDcOrE sHoTgUn LoVeR :razz:

WHHEEEEEE *Listens to the Original INTERMISION FROM DOOM* :razz:

If I wrote this review, I would prefer people bought my magazine than read it in a forum. But that doesn't stop me reading this so wth :smile:

Top 3 ways to see if you're hardcore DOOM fanatic:

3. Constantly listening to slightly remixed DOOM music.

2. Naming all your in-game saves (and going around saying) 3AT J00R d00m!

1. Installing DOOM, DOOMII, FINAL DOOM, and ULTIMATE DOOM on windows XP, realising they won't work properly, then copying and pasting all the DOOM wads into the FINAL DOOM folder so they do, and playing DOOM on 640x480 res, on fortress of mystery, on Ultra violence :razz:

:razz:

How is 23 hours short???? I mean, I understand (but don't necessarily agree with) the complaints that 'all' games are too short (in the 8-12 hour range), but even that seems plenty long.

Why do people buy movies for $20 a piece (about 2 hours of entertainment), or CDs for practically that price (for sometimes as little as a half-hour), but complain about paying $40-50 (twice the price) for 3-4 times the entertainment time of a movie with the ability to step in and take control, no less?

Some of the best games I've played recently are supposedly 'short' games, but they still have about 8 times the depth and content of most other games on the market. Is it really too much to ask that games be judged on the content within them rather than raw numbers of how long it takes? I'd take an excellent, immersive, and involving 8 hour game over even a good 20+ hour game.

Sorry, fraggard, I'm not trying to tear you to shreds or anything, but it's really tiring to see any game under (or over, now :razz: ) 15-20 hours being declared 'too short.'

Game developers really cater to the most bratty whiny batch of the bunch (to pass a few generalizations directed at no one in particular here). Gamers want endless gameplay, and they want it now. No questions asked. And then they wonder why they get crappy, repetitive, rushed products. :wink:

Wow. Sounds excellent. I'de heard of the August release date, but reading that hardware guide was a bit depressing, as it seems that to run sufficientley, you need a top end PC, which is kinda ennoying :sad:

I couldn't agree more Andrew. I get so annoyed by people saying games
are too short these days, as it simply isn't true. By saying "these
days" they are suggesting that in the past, the lifespan of games was
better - but they couldn't be more wrong. Play Sonic or Street of Rage,
and you can complete them in a couple of hours. The only reason people
could ever say their lifespan is better, is because typically you
couldn't save, meaning you had to restart from the beginning each time
and often wouldn't see the end of the game until you had played many
attempts.

I'm exceedingly glad for instance, that Ico has a wonderfully developed
and immersive 6-10 hours of gameplay, rather than stretching it out to
20 hours or so and diluting the experience. Sure some games push the
lifespan boundary to extremes (typically 50+ hours in RPGs), but it
needn't be true of every game.

I also agree that this wasn't a particularly great review Lep - some
paragraphs are written as if following on from the previous one, yet it
makes next to no sense (eg. "But there is no need to worry it is as
slow as splinter cell" after just listing and describing your powerful
arsenal of weapons!).

Regardless, the game sounds fun, but its HL2 I'm really waiting for.
The trailers of Doom 3 really haven't impressed me too much, reminded
me more of Unreal 2 than anything else.

I just don't play SP games much at all anymore. It seems to me that companies outght to focus on a good solid 10 hour SP episode but include some kickass MP action to keep interest up in the long term.

I personaly hate games that are endless (diablo, baulders gate, NWN). those are all fun titles but they make me feel like I am doggy paddeling across the pacific ocean.

I don't think I'll be getting DOOM III. I don't think I could run it anyway.

[size=40]GOLD!!!![/size]

+ release date. :razz:

The hell? No mention of monster AI at all? Way to go PC Gamer, no wonder I stopped subscribing.

Yak_Fighter said:
The hell? No mention of monster AI at all? Way to go PC Gamer, no wonder I stopped subscribing.

Well... DOOMIII ai can't be any more intelligent than the oriinal DOOM::

Player runs through a room full of monsters

Monsters think: Find player. Kill player. Find player. Kill player.

Honestly, it couldn't be DOOM if you didn't run through a level (say, MT Erubus? ) and didn't see about 500 cacodemons floating your way.

That's unfortunate then, considering AI is arguably the most important aspect of any modern FPS. Just because it's a sequel to a game from 1994 doesn't mean it has to be the same. By that logic having mouselook takes away from the Doom experience.

The AI is fairly decent, as far as I could see.

Its much more then just Doom 1s AI.
I think more realistically is that certain enemies act a certain way (Zombies just walk linearly towards you) and other such things. There are enemies that hunt you down though.

But I imagine it'll have aspects like most other id games. (The flaming ghost heads)

The only complaint I can think of is the distance between load zones ... not very far.

By the way, don't anyone get in a huff ... I deleted it months ago, and pre-ordered the game :smile:

I thought it was coming out on the 14th ...

Yak_Fighter said:
That's unfortunate then, considering AI is arguably the most important aspect of any modern FPS. Just because it's a sequel to a game from 1994 doesn't mean it has to be the same. By that logic having mouselook takes away from the Doom experience.

Unfortunately you didn't know that there were DOOM players that thought that QUAKE was a DIS improvement simply because you could look on your Y axis :razz:

Anyways, my remark was kind of a joke :razz: :razz:

yeah ... that whole addition of vertical play pissed me off :rolleyes:

Don't get me wrong, 2d 1^st person games WERE bad ass ... but, their fun was limiting, I wouldn't trade the complexity in plot, team work, and evironments in today's games for anything we had previously.

The main character dose look a bit like "The Rock" so it'd be cool if they made the DOOM MOVIE. the game sounds cool over-all the only thing I disprove of is the part of saying "If you try to blaze through any of these 28 missions you WILL be humiliated. Instead the only route to access is a slow and steady one, sticking to shadows, searching every nook and crany for health, ammo, and access keys, and generally advancing as methodicaly as you can." That isn't the doom way at all. I really hope it's not like those crappy games were its all realistic and if you take 10 shots you die. which makes you have to save after each killing.

The main character dose look a bit like "The Rock" so it'd be cool if they made the DOOM MOVIE. the game sounds cool over-all the only thing I disprove of is the part of saying "If you try to blaze through any of these 28 missions you WILL be humiliated. Instead the only route to access is a slow and steady one, sticking to shadows, searching every nook and crany for health, ammo, and access keys, and generally advancing as methodicaly as you can." That isn't the doom way at all. I really hope it's not like those crappy games were its all realistic and if you take 10 shots you die. which makes you have to save after each killing.

I think the reviewer is just trying to say that's it a lot more slow and suspensful, rather than the hectic mindf**k Doom was.

Crono said:
yeah ... that whole addition of vertical play pissed me off :rolleyes:

Don't get me wrong, 2d 1<SUP>st</SUP> person games WERE bad ass ... but, their fun was limiting, I wouldn't trade the complexity in plot, team work, and evironments in today's games for anything we had previously.

Really! I'm not joking! :razz: :razz: :razz: There ARE/WERE DOOM players out there who couldn't stand quake simply because it had a Y axis! :razz: :razz:

They seem to have dealt with it.

H.D. ... if you think TEN shots killing someone is realistic, I've got some bad news for you. 1 shot can kill you, as long as its in a vital area. If its on your torso, unless you patch it up, you'll probably bleed to death.

But, ten shots in your leg or something as such could send you into shock ... hell, 1 shot in your leg could do that.

Ten shots is no where near realistic. The only beef I have with games like that, is that they have no way of making everything else realistic. Such as movement, dodging, or depth perception. Those realistic games usually turn out to be incredibly rediculous (Rogue Spear 1, get shot in to foot and die!!!)

But, I know what you mean. By the way, most people don't have guns in Doom 3 ... they're from hell ... they don't need guns.

Crono said:
(Rogue Spear 1, get shot in to foot and die!!!)

Yuh well.... you probably wear light armor :razz:

Dude, I barely remember Rogue Spear, but I remember getting shot in the foot kills you. Even if you had no armor on this would NOT kill you in most sitautions; at least not in short amounts of time.

Even if you had no shoes on, that wouldn't KILL you.

And who wears armor on their feet?
Think about this, seriously, a lot of developers decisions don't make much sense. Or they didn't realize what thier implimentation would entail when they begun (usually you find you have to impliment better things to get other things working the way you want ... like hit boxs and crap).

It may not kill you, but I'm certain it would hurt like hell, and if it was a big enough gun it could break your ankle or blow off your foot, which would then leave you rather unable to move around. You could be incapacitated, and while realism is big nobody wants to play as a guy moaning in pain on the ground while his buds move on, so you die instead.

This is similar to the old AWP one shot, one kill complaint. If a magnum bullet ripped off your arm, you'd be rather dead, or wished it so anyways. Just think of it as any incapacitating shot is made into a death shot for gameplay purposes. :biggrin:

No, I understand ... Its just there are other ways to deal with that. Because the problem with most FPSers that are trying to be realistic is that They're way too unfair. Because things do act as they would in real life, but you are unable to deal with the obstacles because you're not really there.

Possibly, if there were more games like arcades the realism factor could be bumped up (You know, if you had depth perception, and physical movement).

I don't know the name of the game, since it was in Korean, but you were a Japanese Cop and it was an arcade FPS (So you physically held a gun and such). But the really cool aspect of the game was that it dodged where you moved ... like you had to crouch and crap to duck and move to the left to doge left and other such things, it would move on in the game once you killed all the guys in that particular area (like Time Crisis and other such crap).
But the physical movement part was incredibly innovative, I think something like that would have to be implemented for them to boost realism with weapon interaction and things like that.

But then ... there are some people who like RS and such ... crazies ...

Crono said:
Dude, I barely remember Rogue Spear, but I remember getting shot in the foot kills you. Even if you had no armor on this would NOT kill you in most sitautions; at least not in short amounts of time.

Even if you had no shoes on, that wouldn't KILL you.

And who wears armor on their feet?
Think about this, seriously, a lot of developers decisions don't make much sense. Or they didn't realize what thier implimentation would entail when they begun (usually you find you have to impliment better things to get other things working the way you want ... like hit boxs and crap).

Dude, all's what I'm saying is is that I've played rouge spear a thousand times and I can have tangos rittle me full of AK bullets, and I don't die very easy, probably because I go around wearing the PUFFIEST armor I can get. The only R6 game that behaves like what you are saying (and it does) is R Six 3 :smile:

KungFuSquirrel said:
How is 23 hours short???? I mean, I understand (but don't necessarily agree with) the complaints that 'all' games are too short (in the 8-12 hour range), but even that seems plenty long.

Why do people buy movies for $20 a piece (about 2 hours of entertainment), or CDs for practically that price (for sometimes as little as a half-hour), but complain about paying $40-50 (twice the price) for 3-4 times the entertainment time of a movie with the ability to step in and take control, no less?

Maybe my understanding is skewed then, because I remember quite a lot of games, which I considered really good, to be quite long... The length adds to the immersion IMO, because you really feel you're part of something bigger, something a whole lot larger than the few maps you're running around in.

Besides, like I already said, the hype made me think it's going to be a lot larger, overall, than 23 hours. I didn't realize Carmack and team were spending most of their time on the pretty-plasticy-graphics (and the hype), instead of on the levels. Of course, I'm probably wrong again.

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 width="95%" align=center bgColor=black>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; COLOR: gold">? posted by KungFuSquirrel</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD bgColor=#151515>Some of the best games I've played recently are supposedly 'short' games, but they still have about 8 times the depth and content of most other games on the market. Is it really too much to ask that games be judged on the content within them rather than raw numbers of how long it takes? I'd take an excellent, immersive, and involving 8 hour game over even a good 20+ hour game. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Suppose the developer could put the same quality and work into something longer, more detailed, larger overall, wouldn't the game be better?

KungFuSquirrel said:
Game developers really cater to the most bratty whiny batch of the bunch (to pass a few generalizations directed at no one in particular here). Gamers want endless gameplay, and they want it now. No questions asked. And then they wonder why they get crappy, repetitive, rushed products. :wink:

I've never heard of whiny customers making a product worse . More demanding audiences generally make a product better, I thought. Then again, maybe these "godlike" developers (not id software, i'm talking about other companies) are just in it for the money... that would explain the crappy products better. (the tomb raider series anyone?)

fraggard said:
developers (not id software, i'm talking about other companies) are just in it for the money... that would explain the crappy products better. (the tomb raider series anyone?)

I can't help but laugh when anybody says something like this.

Reality check: the entire purpose of any for-profit company is to MAKE MONEY, and there is nothing wrong with that!

Carmack and Co. spending most of the time on an engine with the game as a secondary priority? Who would have thought that? (Quake3 anyone?)

And KFS, you've been officially in the biz for what, a month? You're already pushing the typical developer line. :razz: You're supposed to challenge convention, bring fresh new ideas to the table, and revolutionize Raven Software (and the gaming industry in the process)!!

[EDIT] One funny thing I noticed was about the comment that you can't run and gun in D3 and that you'll get humiliated. How so? I always felt that charging in guns blazing was the only way to do well in HL, as if you hesitated the AI would kick your ass. I doubt the D3 enemies are smart enough to say, lure you into a trap and then flank you for your trouble... interesting.

Tracer Bullet said:
Reality check: the entire purpose of any for-profit company is to MAKE MONEY

...the best way to do that is how? Yes. MAKE A BETTER GAME. I never said there was anything wrong with making money, just that why should I support someone elses need to make money? I want a better game. (I=end user)

Hey, I've had these feelings for long before I started at Raven. :smile: As for fresh ideas... well, I've got a few ideas in my head that maybe I can sneak into production in a couple years :razz:

Anyway, audiences with reasonable demands are good. A community behind a game series every step of the way can bring immense improvement (that is, if the developer is willing to listen - which many are; Raven has, for example, had roundtable discussions at QuakeCon and such with the players about Quake 4). But the current demands of the gaming community aren't quite reasonable. Gamers want big huge games with no development time.

Don't forget that content now takes far longer and far more people to create, so the logistics of creating a game on a large scale is much more difficult. It used to be you could make large-spanning games in a year or so with about 10 people. Now to make a decent production it takes 3-4 years, 30+ people, and a huge budget - and that's huge just to pay 30 people and license a decent engine, because who wants to wait years for a new engine unless you're id or Epic?. Just to pay 30 employees a meager 25k a year (many starting-level positions are at or higher than this) for 3 years and license a 500k engine (Quake 3 or Doom3 or something, depending on what current prices are) is 2.75 million dollars alone.

However, publishers and gamers are used to waiting much less, and so as things take longer and longer, there are more and more cries of vaporware and 'it must be crap' and such. Why do you think Valve kept quiet on HL2 so long? And then when it's delayed for all of a year (not even, at this point), suddenly everyone wants to boycott Valve, burn their office down, and to keep making lame jokes about Gabe Newell's weight. Who remembers that Half-Life was delayed a year as well? And then there was Gabe's "if we have to wait until 2005..." comment, which then sent people into a tizzy thinking "OMFG 2005? LAME FAT GUY, I BURNZOR YOUR OFFICES!!!!11!!" But all that said was that Valve will take the time and effort to make the best game they can possibly make, no matter how long it may take - an effort to be applauded, and an effort much easier when you have a publisher by the balls. :wink:

Doing the same thing over and over again for 57 hours or something like that can get extremely repetitive. Designing a game to last that long is an incredible undertaking and requires even greater variety in locales and characters, meaning even more art content and such. Feature creep/bloat is a big problem in games, and making an FPS last this long is no small undertaking without heavily increasing the odds for making it too much of the same, at which people then complain about it being too long. And who knows how many extra years of content creation you'll end up taking in the process. And then you end up like DNF or TF2.

As for why there's 80000 sequels and few innovative new titles? Well, there are innovative new titles, but they drop under the radar because in the general market, people want to play what they know. They try to trick you, because they'll complain about all their current games being old and tired and whatnot, but then when the innovative games get to market they don't know how to play them and give up, immediately returning to battlefield sims 8, or something like that. Hence Tomb Raider, in your example. Familiar territory is what gamers buy, and therefore the safest market venture for publishers and developers alike.

As for why you should support someone else's need to make money? Game development is a business. Business is sustained by money. People have to get paid for this, and they're still being underpaid for it. Developers will work months in crunch (up to 12-16 hours a day) often with no overtime and, in some studios, not even any bonuses. Even then, many studios can't meet publisher deadlines (which sometimes can be incredibly tight). Many upstart studios fail because their titles can barely make a dent on shelves filled with the same sequels and franchise titles that everyone keeps buying, if they even get to shelves at all. Talented people are constantly losing their jobs, getting re-hired, losing their jobs, etc. in the lower rungs of the industry, and it's not just held back to there. Ritual, after shipping Elite Force 2 and losing CZ (which I still think is one of the worst decisions in the history of game development), had to lay off 30 of the most talented people in the industry because they could no longer afford another development team in the studio.

It's a two-way street. Developers are fully capable of making great games, but due to increasingly unreasonable expectations from publishers and gamers alike, it doesn't happen as often as it could. Gamers can help this, by being more patient and accepting that they may have to wait an extra year or two to get what they want. Developers, even many of the ones you don't like, aren't (for the most part) talentless hacks. If the outside the box titles can start putting a dent in shelves, then it will be financially feasible to fund them, and if gamers put their wallets where there mouths are and start taking the effort to expand their horizons, then we could see some even more incredible stuff.

Well said. This is precisely the reason why I refuse to use pirate copies of games. Having worked for a small company myself, I know the costs involved and the implications of piracy etc.

Either way though, someone somewhere is getting very rich while the people who actually build the games get paid a much small fraction of this. Our CEO at Bits Studios did absolutely bugger all (and didn't know jack s**t about games), yet he was the one with all the money and the fancy car. Go figure!

Oh, and Doom 3 looks cool - apart from the fact i'm going to need to upgrade pretty damn quick in time for it :sad:

KungFuSquirrel said:
~edited for length :razz: ~

Well... uh... kinda hard to add a comment on that, sense that kinda sums up all my thoughts :biggrin:

However though, I always feel that the ONE thing that can royaly fek up a great game, is by throwing in new elements, like in a sequel --

Like in Driver 3. Driver 1, 2 (and Stuntman for the matter :biggrin: ) were excellent. Even when Driver 2 threw in the get-out-of-your-car-thing, Reflections didn't abuse that feature. Heck, all it's purpose was in the first place was for solving some rather complex puzzles, and finding secret cars.

But in Driver3, I read that 70% of the game is in a car, the 30% is on foot. Yea... well... it kinda feel like 30% of the game is in a car, the other 70% is on foot. Reflections took the get-out-your-car-and-shoot-people thing way to far. I don't want to shoot people in Driver -- I wanna drive fast cars, and WRECK fast cars, while being chased by the policed. And to be honest, I rarely ever see a cop chasing me in Driver 3. When a new element is thrown in into a game sequel, it should always be used in moderation --- make it one of those things where the player goes "WOOT! A run'n gun level!" or, "Hell no, not one of these!" Used in moderation, the player can etheir love it, or despise it, and the new element won't get in the way.

I'm not entirly sure on most teams development process. But, usually if something happens that disrupts how a game plays (Because honestly, the developers are going to be the most critical of their game and know when it blows and when its fun) they either a) ran out of time and have to seal everything up b) lost the contract and all their s**t went to another development team or c) that 'feature' wasn't thought up until later.

All of those things happen ... quite often actually. I believe if they took it slow it would be better, but if you noticed (like KFS said) people demand games to come out like they used to, every year or so. And Driver is coming out about every 2 years or so, right?

The thing I don't understand is how games are staying at $50 a pop. Since, back when they took no time (relative to now) to develop they were selling for about $70 - $80 (late years of the SNES).

Driver 1 and 2 were probably about 2 years apart, but Driver 3 is only
just out and the second one was released more like 4+ years ago.

OK is this a joke or is DOOM 3 truly complete and on the shelves? Also I am curious about working as a profesional mapper on a title as great as Quake4? KungFuSquirrel??? You being a succes story tell us what companies look for when hiring and the experience of being in the business?

Please...

OK is this a joke or is DOOM 3 truly complete and on the shelves?

Dude, it went gold. I posted it a page or two back, and it's coming out in like 3 weeks. Pay attention! :razz:

hey the offical Doom 3 site is up and its all flash >> DOOM3.com

and the union astrospace corp. site is also up though it wont do anything, but still. >>ua-corp.com

just thought it'd be cool. :smile:

Haha, some people started a petition against doom? (I think it's a joke, though.):

More can be read here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?kull1522

To: U.S. Congress

STOP THE UNHOLY RELEASE OF DOOM 3

Doom 3 will contain satanistic sympols witch our precious youth
will see! Some claims that they look more forward to doom 3 than the
second coming of Jesus Christ. The madness and violence must stop NOW!
Don't let ID Software ever release doom 3 or it won't be long before
we'll have a youth full of devil woreshippers and another columbine
highschool situation.

<span style="font-style: italic;"></span>

For crying out loud! I pray to god that's a joke. I can't imagine anyone could be so stupid as to believe that.

scary_jeff said:
If I wrote this review, I would prefer people bought my magazine than read it in a forum. But that doesn't stop me reading this so wth :smile:

after last months edition of pcgamer, and it's front page claim that they were revealing HL2's multi-player strategy, i forked out the 5 or 6 quid. anyone that seen the deapth and detail of the article will understand why the only opportunity i will ever have again, to read another of pcgamers articles, will be in a forum. :/

and as for turning the next generation into a horde of devil-worshippers,... harry potters the man for that.

ROFL!

View Signatures : 1387 1337 1287

interesting coincidence there...