Doom3 first impressions

CivilServant

Very atmospheric. Haven't played much with it since I had to work right after I installed it. One annoying thing is, it sets the refresh rate at 60 and doesn't change it. I heard it was capped at 60fps. Hope someone will find a workaround soon because it's causing some tearing as the screen updates itself.... anyways...

Some of the textures are great, the closer you get the better they stay. The computer screens in particular are very good. Whereas some of the wall textures get real blocky when you get up close and personal.

1600x1200 2xAA + 8AF plays fairly smooth and the character models look fantastic. Really detailed. Don't know if they're using a high polygon count or normal mapping or whatever, but it looks great.

The game is really dark, shadows and lack of light play a huge role. Noises going off in the distance and around you create an atmosphere of unease and dread. Cool!

Gonna give this game my undivided attention 2moro/later 2day.

kensutz

graphics are really good and gameplay and atmosphere is good so far

Orion

CivilServant wrote:

Very atmospheric. Haven't played much with it since I had to work right after I installed it.

Where'd you get it - I thought it wasn't out til next week?

Spacedog

How does it compare with the alpha? is the engine much more refined or were they just waiting the extra year until technology caught up with their target frame rate?

Ciaran500

Macros42 look at the thread "Doom3 already leaked..."

I found this mini review on another website

Here's my personal experiences with Doom III following about 8 hours of play/tinkering. Before any haters pleasure us with their pearls of wisdom, I do have the game on preorder. Fact is: so long as iD get my pennies I'll have their product any way I choose. So here's the game as it is for me, hope it's of use.

The Graphics

The main issue for most, I'd imagine. The problems I had here were entirely down to my 19 inch TFT and its curious treatment of gamma and contrast. I'm not using a DVI cable, so it took several restarts and tinkerings with my catalyst drivers to get things looking right. The game seems immune to Powerstrip and generally hates background processes; best idea is to give it your machine's undivided attention.

One major issue I discovered very quickly was that Doom III really takes it to your graphics card. Within minutes of play my 9800 Pro was running so hot that I had speckles all over the game's characters. No, I don't overclock or anything of the sort - I run a quiet PC with only moderate cooling, and that aint something Doom III appreciates. Once I was at medium settings, everything was peachy.

My TFT means I have to run at the single native resolution of 1280x1024. At this res the game runs incredibly smoothly on Medium settings, so-so on High. The peculiar thing with Doom is that, whatever the LOD, the game looks awesome. The attention to detail is on a different level to anything offered by any game ever - fact. Individual texture resolution is the main variant between presets; the difference, however, isn't nearly as bad as it is with most other games. At Medium the game is jawdropping - that's enough for me. Just make sure you have all the advanced effects turned on because they make a helluva lot of difference.

Whatever you do, give Doom III application preference in your driver settings. The effects when I tried to force lower anisotropic filtering levels were unpleasant to say the least.

Doom III doesn't feature a wealth of new special effects and doesn't exploit convenient technical gimmicks. What it achieves is far more impressive - depth and atmosphere. I've been particularly wowed by the integration of video screens, keypads and VDUs into the game world. Whereas in most games you intereact with these items in a separate popup, in Doom III they're fully rendered in their natural context. Moreover, the operation of these items is seamlessly integrated into your general navigation of the environment - you move the mouse over a screen or keypad and the crosshair becomes a cursor. It's best seen in action, but trust me - it's consistently impressive stuff.

In most cutting-edge FPS games (Far Cry, for one) you expect a performance hit when you encounter a special effect. Nothing major, perhaps, but you concede that there's a small price to pay for eye-candy. Doom III excels by almost entirely removing this drop in FPS. The framerate is remarkably consistent for a high-end PC title.

As predicted, Doom III is the greatest looking video game ever. Some may say otherwise because they value statistics and quantitative technical proficiency; there is more to this game than that - there is genuine artistic and creative genius at work.

Sound

My personal experience with the sound in Doom III has been impressive but not without issues. The 5.1 sound is awesome; this is the first game where you can precisely locate enemies entirely through their position in a 3D soundscape. Voice acting is superb and the general soundtrack is both effective and inspiring.

I'd even go as far as to say that if you don't have a 5.1/Dolby Digital setup for your PC then don't play Doom III. The experience is that much worse without it.

The issue I had was that, through my system, the centre channel sounded unusually tinny and prone to distortion. It's a barely perceptible problem, though, and doesn't distract from the otherwise great experience. What was more annoying, however, was that on occasion the sound would cut out entirely. A simply return to the settings screen was enough to restore it, but it's a notable problem. Whether the game's issue was with my Nvidia Soundstorm chipset or my redist DX9c installation, I couldn't say.

The Game

Doom fans should know to expect little from the series in terms of puzzles and complexity; this outing is no exception. The game is brutally simple and achieves its depth almost entirely from atmosphere and aesthetics. There is a Half-Life style opening and there are innumerable log entries and email messages to pad out the story, but this is a good-looking, straightforward shooter and little else.

In terms of fear, Doom III is (after about 6 hours of play) surprisingly tame. There is little suspense beyond the first 'level' and very few jumpy moments. Though many enemies dwell in the shadows and leap out at you, the game is so relentlessly dark that you become desensitised to its brand of terror within a matter of minutes. What the game excels at more is science fiction - there are plenty of nods to various movies (Total Recall, especially) and the production design of the whole experience is incredible.

Things may well change as the game progresses, but my current opinion is that this is a jawdropping experience that's nonetheless a very simple one. Doom III also embraces quick-saves to a disappointing degree; there's barely enough incentive to repeat from a distant checkpoint, so the game becomes yet another stop-start exercise in trial and error. I wouldn't personally say that I prefer Far Cry as a visual experience; at this point, however, it's certainly proving a superior game.

---

Here's the specs I'm running Doom III on, btw. I'm not including fraps scores or anything because, as far as I'm concerned, framerate whores are better off **** over 3DMark than playing video games. The game runs fine - end of story.

AthlonXP 3200+
1 gig dual channel DDR
Radeon 9800 Pro w/ 128mb
120 Samsung 7200RPM drive w/ 8mb cache for OS
WD 10000RPM Raptor drive for swapfile and games
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo with 5.1 Soundstorm AC97 sound

the_syco

My machine is 2Ghz, Gefore4 TI4200, and 394MB RDRAM, and the demo runs ok.

Can't wait till I can buy the game. Me wants to play this online

Found this pic somewhere online. The level is called test/testaimp.map

The greenish glow is the aftermath of a BFG shot. The gun being held is a BFG 9000.

"If you shoot an oncoming BFG pulse with a normal gun, it'll disrupt the shot, and allow you to stop the oncoming blast..."

CombatCow

Spacedog wrote:

How does it compare with the alpha? is the engine much more refined or were they just waiting the extra year until technology caught up with their target frame rate?

Omg, it nothing like the alpha whatsoever,as CivilServant says it looks great at 1600x1200 with high settings, tiz capped at 60fps :rolleyes: It's a really challenging game on the highest difficulty but very enjoyable,there were some genuinely scary moments aswell,the weapons are nice and beefy...especially the grenades, they kick ass


CC

Stephen

review guy wrote:

Here's the specs I'm running Doom III on, btw. I'm not including fraps scores or anything because, as far as I'm concerned, framerate whores are better off **** over 3DMark than playing video games. The game runs fine - end of story.

Best part of the review

Praetorian

My first impressions (I've only played it for 30 minutes).

Physics engine is far inferior to havok. The first few guns sound very weedy. Rocket launcher is very nice. Plasma guns looks the business, sounds okay. Guys dropping dead don't look 100% right. Flash light is amazing, although the actualy physical object looks too basic.

The game is very atmospheric, I'm glad I waited until tonight to play it. The "heat" effect isn't quite as nice as far crys (don't ask me to explain why). It runs very smoothly at 1200x1024 on my p4 3ghz, X800pro, 1 gig ram at high detail, I haven't tried uber high detail yet. Proper lip syncing would have been nice.

That is all for the moment. I think the xbox is going to struggle!

mayordenis

Praetorian wrote:

Physics engine is far inferior to havok. The first few guns sound very weedy. sounds okay. Guys dropping dead don't look 100% right. although the actualy physical object looks too basic.
The "heat" effect isn't quite as nice as far crys Proper lip syncing would have been nice.

all this from 30 mins, the game must be really rubbish. . . wait i meant your some mosdy michael.

Phil_321

What's the gameplay like, I've read that it gets boring after about 5 hours.

The Brigadier

I've been playing it now for about 12 hours...I am just entering the Delta Labs for anyone else who has played it..

I think it has atmosphere in spades, but deep down within it the the Same Doom but with nicer graphics. I am getting a kick out of seeing each monster realised in the new engine...

Shame I have to sleep now before work in the morning....

l3rian

sounds like just another eyecandy one player fps

i got bored of farcry, thief, painkiller, manhunt very quickly, because of the dumb computer ai, and repeatitive gameplay

but after thousands of hours of online gaming playing cs and unreal04 im still enjoying every moment, it must be the immediate competition, voice chat and funny moments

Here's the specs I'm running Doom III on, btw. I'm not including fraps scores or anything because, as far as I'm concerned, framerate whores are better off **** over 3DMark than playing video games. The game runs fine - end of story.

thats so true, just lie and say you have a monster computer if that sort of thing matters to you, no one here really cares, and noone will ever find out, btw i get 13k in 3dmark03 hahaha :cool:

zekiel

I've been playing it like a junkie all day... about 12 hours now and have just stopped for a break.
Its damn addictive and unbelievably difficult :eek:

I've thrown in two screens of one of the movie scenes during the game in which this big chap smashes his way out of a large pipe and has a go at killing me... thankfully he failed!.

So far I give it a thumbs up! Doom 3 rocks. :cool:

mayordenis

he looks fair tough, but ill get my big brother after him wwaaaah

tuxy

CombatCow wrote:

tiz capped at 60fps

CC

you have a win xp refresh rate fix installed right?
if so im sure there is a console command to change it

SantaHoe

tuxy wrote:

you have a win xp refresh rate fix installed right?
if so im sure there is a console command to change it

Hmmm, I think it's just supposed to be locked at 60.
There was some article I was reading before that said they capped the actual game "tics" to 60 to avoid changes in movement ability like that of Quake3, and locked the FPS to 60... although I can't see the harm in just interpolating frames to smooth things furter :rolleyes:

RE*AC*TOR

First impressions.... scary as f*ck. Playing 1152 - high details. 9700pro 2800+ 1GB Ram. Staying over 30fps - so I'm happy. As others have mentioned the physics aren't like Far Cry - but then again the Far Cry physics were OVER-physics - they weren't exactly real.
Doom definetly has the best use of light (and dark) I've ever seen in a game. Only time will tell if its as good as Far Cry - but first impressions v.good.

po0k

SantaHoe wrote:

Hmmm, I think it's just supposed to be locked at 60.
There was some article I was reading before that said they capped the actual game "tics" to 60 to avoid changes in movement ability like that of Quake3, and locked the FPS to 60... although I can't see the harm in just interpolating frames to smooth things furter :rolleyes:

I've a horrible feeling this is linked to the NTSC XBox market version.

I really don't see any technological barrier to having variable frame-rates, and 60fps is far too low (85fps @85Hz monitor minimum) for extended periods of play.

I'm looking forward to multiplayer Doom3. Should bring a bit of fun back into Deathmatch again, along with some interesting Compo possibilities.

BKtje

you have a win xp refresh rate fix installed right?
if so im sure there is a console command to change it

I believe i read that there is a way to increase the max fps but i aint actually tried it as imo 60fps is fine. My average is only 40 anyway with some places hitting 60. I prefer a smaller jump between max fps and lowest fps so 60 is fine with me. Not having any problems.

Game itself is, as has been said, very atmospheric (ruined slightly by constanly crashing which has now been fixed tho). Ive just come accross the bleedin mini spiders and they look evil as fook. About 20jumped out at me in a confied space and with them all jumping up at me biting it wasnt pleasent (veteran btw).

Overall use of lights and shadows is exellent. Also the fact that using anythign in the game fits in seemelessly. Using the pda, computer terminals etc (tis hard to explain). When u look at a terminal your gun goes down and u get a mouse cursor to click on it. No loading the erminal or anything. Tis very good (same wih pda).

Anyways back i go!

The Brigadier

One thing that really impressed me is the lack of Ammo...

You (well I was certainly) allways just about out of ammo which really gives an air of heightened tension. I have had to bash a few guys with my flashlight as well....

The monorail sequence looks fantastic as well, the graphics are on a par with rendered cut scenes of just a couple of years ago, and when you see them being rendered in real time - wow!! Oh, I can't wait to see the DeathKnights and the spider thingy!!(the big one with the guns)

TwoShedsJackson

The Brigadier wrote:

One thing that really impressed me is the lack of Ammo...

You (well I was certainly) allways just about out of ammo which really gives an air of heightened tension. I have had to bash a few guys with my flashlight as well....

I'd agree with that - I'm still in Alpha Labs and you constantly have just enough ammo for the shotgun (and you have to get right in an imp's face to kill him in one shot, just to preserve ammo ) - gets a good sense of worrying going.

Now, for anyone who's past the 'Lantern' bit

after that scientist guides you through the refinery type place you go up a ladder and come to Storage Locker 039 - then you head on into a room which is v dark and has no apparent exit - it's pitch dark and the torch isn't working properly due to the 'emp' or whatever

- where do you go from there?

BKtje

After the scientest is killed just head up the ladder?

Im not having too much problems with amm0 at this stage(veteran). Im towards the end (i believe) of alpha labs and my shotgun is half full, so is my machinegun. Pistol and chaingun are empty tho

TwoShedsJackson

B-K-DzR wrote:

After the scientest is killed just head up the ladder?

Yeah I've done that, it's the next room you come to that's the problem.

Stephen

Now I wish I had downloaded this the other day

/me waits for preorder to arrive

cosgrove80

Now, I'm sure it creates atmosphere and tension etc. but any screenshots I saw looked very dark, almost too dark. The flashlight seems to be a big part of the gameplay but I was just wondering is it so dark that it gets annoying?

Control panels etc look cool though

BKtje

afraid i dont remember the next room. sorry

I however need some help now

Im in the EFR reporcessing plant (ya know with the big thing swinging aroudn between the platforms). Well i decided not to extend the drawbridge and now i dunno what to do. Any ideas anyone?

shinzon

Im mightily impressed with this game, but one annoying or maybe its me thats missing something, is there a lack of a save feature in this game, all i have is the first autosave and when i try and save a game at another stage it says it cant overiwrite the autosave , and i cant see any other save slots on there

Shin

BKtje

no problems saving here at all

KdjaCL

Doom 3 benchmakring


kdjac

PcP

shinzon wrote:

Im mightily impressed with this game, but one annoying or maybe its me thats missing something, is there a lack of a save feature in this game, all i have is the first autosave and when i try and save a game at another stage it says it cant overiwrite the autosave , and i cant see any other save slots on there

Shin

You sure your not trying to save with the same filename instead of typing in somethin different?