Duck and Cover

Excellent Retlaw.
I'll have to try that out.

I got that little gem from the Doom 3 tweak guide at http://www.tweakguides.com/Doom3_1.html so I can't really take credit. There's a lot of other CVAR strings to stick in AutoExec there used to gain performance enhancements, or turn on special options that are kind of cool.

One of the more interesting things that can be done is that you can turn off the weapon's model. I get an extra 10 frames a second doing that (I'm currently running it at 20 fps), but I don't do it because it takes a lot away from the game.

EDIT: I just found an interesting string called "set g_dragEntity 1". When you target something and hit the fire key, it lets you drag it around the screen. Type it in again using "0" in place of "1" to turn it off.

I was kinda suprised there wasn't a thread on this earlier. I just kinda figured it died or something and I missed it. Also, this could be considered a review by me....I used to do them proffesionally in Stars and Strips...so its definetly nice and long (On the plus side though, I can attempt to be funnier and use more flamboyent language then I could in the paper).

One thing that suprises me is the amount of people who don't know it even came out. I think it's kinda because it just seemed like its been in development for forever that most people just don't check on it. I get the feeling Half life 2's release will be similar.

Before I get asked or seem like I hate it in my post, Doom 3 is a good game. If you don't own it, buy it now. I don't care what anyone says, it's mandatory to own. You are less of a man if you don't. Now then, onto what everyone wants. Bashing the game, because I don't needlessly need to point out WHY the game is great. There are ID ass lickers who can fufill that job.

Doom 3 is a dark game. For atleast 1/3 of the game you might as well play it with the screen off, cause thats how it looks like if you don't have the flashlight on. Sure, this adds atmosphere, it definetly makes the game alot more thrilling, but its not fun to shoot in the dark. I would have kinda liked it if they made the game so your eyes adapted to the dark if you were in it long enough. Not enough so you can see REALLY detailed or anything, but enough so when I'm shooting at shit I can actually hit something.

One of the biggest and most obvious complaints from everyone (Except Super H) is the fucking flashlight. The game might have been better titled or atleast more honest if it was "Doom 3: The Ultimate Flashlight to Weapon Juggling Simulation" or "Sim Flashlight." Some people say it adds alot of tension or whatever, but maybe I just don't see WHY you can't hold your flashlight and your handgun at the same time ATLEAST. The other weapons I can understand allitle more, I imagine while firing a machine gun you need both hands, but its pretty mandatory to be taught how to handle a handgun and a flashlight in each hand and still be accurate.

Ofcourse this only leads into the argument "What the hell is wrong with your marine if he can't figure out that he can't see without the flashlight." I mean the flashlight is about the size of your average policeman or civilian flashlight, it only takes one hand, so what the hell? The simple answer is, your marine is a retard as well as nameless. Perhaps one explains the other?

Another thing I don't like is the enemies that appear from nowhere. Certain things make sense, such as when imps are climbing on the roof and such, but sometimes its just ridiculous. A Bull monster suddenly comes out from WHERE you just came from? What the hell? Did I miss something while I was walking in the corridors that were about 2 feet wide? Some of it is the "Sliding doors that go down and reveal a hidden room" which would be ok if not for the fact that Doom 3 tries to present itself as having some semblence or realism. This is supposed to be a proffesional facility, not the deep dark ever changing rubix cube puzzle labyrinth that only comes in shades of dark and zombie.

Weapons are good enough. They're really basic and lack a secondary fire, but why reinvent the wheel when they get the job done? Although I DO kinda wonder why a Mars military facility would need such a large amount of weapons. I mean the military's cheap as it is, I doubt they'd just dump plasma rifles and big fucking guns on a planet where obviousily no immediate threat was planned.

Probably one of the worst things about the game is the fact that its so claustrophibic and narrow. 80% of the time your heading down corridors and such or are in a pretty small room being attacked with scripted events that generally involve the lights going out requiring you to turn on your flashlight in time to get your face gnawed off by some zombies.

Another thing thats abit dissapointing and kinda against the way doom original played is the fact that the enemy count is abit low in comparison. I remember playing Doom (Edit: My bad) and cutting down ALOT of enemies who were in a single room. Generally here you get 3 or 4 enemies at a time. 9 or 10 max. Ofcourse THERE IS good reasoning behind that. The great graphics. I doubt ANY computer at the moment could handle 20 or 30 enemies of that high detail. I suppose the same can be said about how small the environment is. But still, I wouldn't have minded more enemies + bigger and wider environments.

Speaking of which, for a game of this detail, it actually runs pretty well if you have atleast a mediocre system. I use a Geforce 4 MX 440 and even though I keep it at minimum settings it runs pretty well. No real slowdown or anything. So thats always a plus. Then again, I can run Farcry on almost max settings and I encounter about the same if not better quality.

Another thing that kinda gripes me is that you spend most of the game chasing down a squad of marines and you never get to fight with them really. Theres afew AI people, but they are few and far inbetween and they do (for the most part) absolutely nothing. There was ONE neat sequence where one of the NPC's guided you in the dark and held a flashlight for you. Too bad there weren't more segments like that. It DEFINETLY would have helped eleviate the problems with the Flashlight.

Theres more things to nitpick, but probably the BIGGEST complaint I have is that it makes no fucking sense. This wouldn't be SO bad if it was just normal Doom where there was nothing to really say "Hey, we're presenting this as something that could happen" but Doom 3 wants you to believe that this is a realistic situation.

Think of it this way. There are like what, enough marines to fight a war on mars. You go through hundreds of evil marines alone. Why would you need that many? A security detail could be understandable (Which is why they're supposed to be there from what I can tell) but that many marines on such a small (Well maybe not so small) base just makes no sense. And even so, presuming they're as good as your character since they know the layout and everything, why can't they put up a better fight?

Also, the base is apperantly littered with those drones, which often times, are better at killing things then you are. So how can the base be overrun, especially with both the machines and the marines coupled together. The lighting situation is abit more fair thanks to the plot, but theres still that mother fucking flashlight. WHY isn't my marine equipped with Night Vision Goggles. You can't expect me to believe that on a base where they have miniguns, bfgs, plasma rifles, and rocket launchers that NO night vision goggles were even ACCIDENTLY shipped for the marines, especially to a facility thats apperantly reputed to be so dark. As for breaking up the tension, you could always have it how AvP 2 had it. Put the NVG to a limited battery. If anything that could add more tension cause lets put it this way, things could get kinda frantic if you're in the middle of a fight and your goggles give out.

Ok, so lets scrap the idea of NVG for whatever reason. Why can't your weapons have a flashlight mount? Just about EVERY weapon in todays marines have that, even civilian weapons have it. So you can't tell me in 2170 (or whenever it takes place) that they don't have the same if not better.

Ofcourse theres more, but for the fact that I don't wish to scare anyone off from the game, I'll stop here. Like I said, its STILL a good game. You should still buy it to atleast get an idea of what the graphics and such can do as well as for later on when the mod community starts pumping out good stuff. Hope that helped someone or something.

Also, for those who are wondering. The reason I haven't reviewed FOBOS yet is simply because it's so shitty that I can't begin to describe it. Gameplay wise, its not horrible unplayable or anything, but its just so mediocre that it just defies any need for a review. Maybe if I have spare time or something I'll crank it up and actually beat the damn thing, but its just so BORING that I can't bring myself to play past the ghoul city.

Good review, Walt. I have a couple points that might be able to sweep some of the unbelievability aside, though.

With the secret compartments, the four Doom novels they made attempt to explain that. There are two primary reasons for it: the first is that the people who designed the facility that researched the teleporters expected crap to go down, so they put weapons stockpiles in hidden rooms. The second factor is that the demonic forces seem to have the ability to change the UAC facilities however they please.



*possible spoiler*

















As for the seemingly billions of Marines, some things in the game talk about human teams going into hell via the teleporters to collect "specimens". I don't think its unreasonable that the government and UAC could send a battalion or so worth of Marines in there and get rewarded with a passel of undead turncoats as a result.

Spoilers again. Shut off your screen.

Maybe I just didn't pay enough attention to the story, but I was pretty sure most of the marines were out of the loop on the whole transporation to hell experiments. Also, wouldn't the Doom novels only apply to Doom and Doom 2? I kinda figured that the rules of the game were rewritten for Doom 3. Especially if you consider that Kreiger's (That was his name? Or am I thinking of the crazy doctor from Farcry?) experiment was pretty much UNSANCTIONED from what I can tell.

As for the designers part, once again. This was Kreigers idea and all for teleporting hell into the facility. I don't remember reading ANYWHERE that he designed the facility.....although he is old enough to be. But even so, what sense does it make to have weapons if they're hidden from everyone?

As for hell redesign the facility, well thats great, but maybe I'm missing how everything looks like its INTENTIALLY designed that way, IE with computer moniters, lighting, etc instead of it being hellicious (TM).

I was just applying what has been the historical "logic" for Doom games.

As for the experiments being sanctioned: there's one very official looking video in the game, narrated by the PR guy, that covers what I put in my spoiler. I believe its called "demon museum" or something to that effect. Even though its PRish, it seems like it was made for high clearance officials.

I guess that makes allitle more sense, but it still seemed like every marine was pretty much in the dark and especially "Unprepared" which, lets face it, seems kinda out of the ordinary in itself. Marines, despite some peoples complaints, and the military in general is pretty prepared for "Worst case scenarios" in my opinion, especially for ones that seem pretty obvious like whats presented in Doom 3 if what you say is true.

But its not only the marines, but EVERYONE you see or hear seems out of the loop. But like I said, I didn't pay the MOST attention to the plot, I was busy shooting shit deader then it was.

Oi, Kreiger => Betruger

Blah, I knew it was some german scientist name. Just a matter of which.

Betrüger {m} cheater
Betrüger {m}; Betrügerin {f} double-dealer
Betrüger {m} deceiver
Betrüger {m} diddler
Betrüger {m}; Schwindler {m} swindler
Betrügerei {f} underhandedness
Betrügerei {f} victimization
Betrug {m} bamboozlement
Betrug {m} confidence trick
Betrug {m}; Beschiss {m} scam
Betrug {m} delusiveness

That's quite awesome, Silver. I guess we know why they named him that now.

I've made the command decision (after beating the game twice, easy and hard) to start modding.

First step, the obligatory remake of E1M1. There's one out there already, but it sucks, they haven't even really bothered changing the architecture. I'ma fix that :-!

I'm considering making a mod changing the shotgun firing and cocking noises back to those found in the original Doom. The original Doom shotgun owned.

There are a bunch already that do it. If you find the page that has the current remake of e1m1 they link to a badassed weapon mod that fixes the pistol and shotgun (at least) to make them more like the originals.

Well, I guess that saves me some work.

Hey I heard that there was talk about a Doom movie in the works with Arnold Schwarzenegger helmed to be the hero in it. Anyways if its gonna happen when do ya'll think it will come out if it does ever?

That movie has been in the works since like 93. Also, I last heard it was The Rock that was going to be ze hero.

Really the rock that would be kind of cool. I wish they would get Michael Biehn as the lead instead because he has always been a good actor. Talks have been in the works since 93 I just heard about as of 2002. So damn it might never happen which sucks because I wanna see some demon killing on the big screen. I hope they don't follow those shitty doom novel released back in 96 thought they sucked balls. Dafid Ab Hugh can go suck it hard.

No, you don't want the movie because not only will they have the Rock in it (incredibly stupid idea) but they're going to make it pg-13 (even stupider) so yeah.

SuperH wrote:they're going to make it pg-13

What the fuck.