Who is buying DOOM 3?

[ComicKaze]

You got reeled in by Nvidia marketing. Almost the entire FX line is crap. The FX5200 is worse than a GeForce 4. That said, Nvidia has redeemed itself with the 6800GT. Only $499 but it soundly beats ATi's $599 X800 XT-PE.

But of course, ATi was the overall obvious champion of the previous two generation cycles of videocards, with the 9700s and 9800s soundly beating the GF4 and FX lines. We'll see what happens next round.

It's funny contrasting the suggestions on this board to the ones on [H]ardOCP where most people are complaining their ATi Radeon 9800 Pros aren't running the game fast enough.

To see how this game runs in comparison to your setup or what you might need, the most helpful guides are here:

The best guide for overall hardware to show you what kind of gameplay you can expect on your machine

http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0

CPU Guide for Doom 3

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2149

Graphics Guide for Doom 3

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2146

[do not disturb]

I'm getting it... dunno about this whole "buying" thing... maybe if its good.

same here.

i really want to play but not for $60.

[Terpfen]

Also, I've been hearing that the ATI 4.7 drivers don't work well at all, and in order to fix/get Doom 3 to work with a Radeon card, you need the 4.9 betas... Sloppy...

I'm running the Catalyst 4.7 drivers on a Radeon 9800 Pro, 128 MB version. They work FINE for me. From what I've heard, the 4.9 betas only give a small performance boost, and even then the boost is only worth it on the X800 series. If you want to try them, you can, but I prefer stable, final drivers, especially since I'm getting in the range of 30-45 FPS with 1024x768 set at high quality.

People complaining about the $55 price tag... one, Circuit City is selling it for $45: two, since Doom 3 is selling so well at a slightly higher price point, expect other high-profile games to vend for this much in the future: three, get a job.

[Hurin]

Going to bite my tongue about the whole: "There's nothing wrong with not paying for a game" thing.

Just here to point out two Doom3 tweaking articles that might help some of you squeeze a few more FPS from your rigs:

here and here.

Played through the first few levels last night. This game is scary as hell. Performance is great. But then again, I spend way too much money on my computer.

H

[ZorClone]

I "obtained" a copy of Doom3 on Monday... when it finished downloading and I've been playing it since. So far, I'm pretty hooked.

I'm of the same opinion about the games AI--it's pretty basic (dumb) sometimes. The storyline is nothing special so far, and the way it's playing out is exactly like System Shock 2, but SS2 was an awesome game, so that's ok.

The graphics are mindblowing. I love'em! The atmosphere in the game is creepy as all hell, especially with the top notch audio. The hellish and demonic sequences are scary in a fun way too.

The weapons are all very familiar, but the only real deciding factor of what to use is based on thier rates of fire and ammo capacity. The type of damage dealt is of no consequence. This makes for some pretty easy kills on some beasts that you would think would be a lot harder. It's almost like shotgun > all.

I love the interface in the game, as well as the interactive screens and terminals your character uses in-game. They all run on an integrated Flash engine in the game, so that's why they're all crisp and easy to read even at the smallest scale. Brilliant!

The few things that bug me so far:

AI.. the guys with guns just sit there shooting at you even when you're clearly outof view. They should have displacement routines that tell them to reposition and reaquire targets. However, once, I had two zombie-marines running into view from behind a few pillars, and I started to fire in the spot they were headed for.. and the one first in line dove and then rolled across the floor to dodge most of my fire, then immediately returned fire at me. That was pretty impressive. The monsters I've faught so far just rush and claw/bite etc, so they die quick. Imps are the meanest of these. They are FAST as crap, and their fireballs can totally throw off your view because of the excellent smoke effects.

THE DARKNESS. This game is too damn dark in some places, lol. It's just not good for anyone. To add to that, why the heck can't you hold your flashlight AND a gun at the same time!? Or even better, tape the damn flashlight to your shotgun? grrrr Oh well, it makes for some tense moments when you're quickly switching between the flashlight just so you can see what's growling at you and then back to your weapon to silence the foe.

Character models: The human characters in this game look silly. They're all too bulky, too bald, too grey and all carbon copies of each other. The only ones that look normal are the marines in armor. The hand models are fugly too.

Lastly, the physics suck. They're not special at all since so many other games have come out recently with ragdoll effects. It really only works right with the characters/enemies anyways. Half-Life 2 totally destroys any other game in this department anyways, so.. pff

Guess that's it for the annoying stuff. Fact is, I'm hooked on this game. It is a lot of fun, and especially so since I'm experiencing it with 3 other friends from my TFC clan while we all talk on Ventrilo while playing. I can't wait to see what else comes from this engine. All in all, it's greatly increased my expectations and anticipation for Half-Life 2.

Edited August 5, 2004 by ZorClone

[Kin]

downloaded it bittorrent... pretty fast connection!

This is bumpmapping galore! Although my system runs optimal at 640x480 it's still playable with many loads of detailed objects. Glass blur effects..

However, i'm disapointed with the sound of the firearms... in doom 2 it was really kicking but in doom 3 it's sounds like gunsounds from a cheap speaker in the game itself...:S:S... hope they come with a mod very soon!.

I like playing with my searchlight but it kinda gets annoying if you can't hold the flashlight and gun at the same time.

But the game is really cool, despite the low detail settings

I'm having trouble with antialias.. i can't get it set.

Edited August 5, 2004 by Kin

[VF-19]

Update to my situation:

Long and the short of it: Using Catalyst 4.7 for me resulted in Doom 3 not working at all. I'd be able to load the game, but after starting a new mission, the game crashed right back to the desktop. Upgrading to DirectX 9.0c didn't do squat, as I had the same problem. I took the plunge and installed the 4.9 betas, and lo and behold, the game actually worked! I'm a little peeved that I needed to go to beta drivers just to get the damn thing to work, but I'm running Windows XP, so if anything goes wrong, I can roll back to 4.7.

Doom 3 is fun fun fun. Not really scary (System Shock 2 was better at this), but man does it ever put out some nice eye candy.

I really really want to get my new CPU and RAM... Sigh... Where's cash when you need it...

[ogami]

The game is great. I will give 9/10 .

HOWEVER, there are 2 things that bug me a lot.

First, the flashlight! It is the twenty something centry and Marines still use flashlight (and holding in his hand) as a source of light/way to see in dark ?!?

50% of the game is switching weapon and the flashlight - see something, press F key, switch to weapon mode and shoot whatever coming toward you in the dark... however shooting in the dark blindly is not a smart thing to do.

The flashlight should mounted somewhere on his body, not in his hand...

Second, there is no secondary weapon option. I know it is not UT but I really think that secondary weapon option can make the game more interesting.

Edited August 6, 2004 by ogami

[wolfx]

I got Doom 3 to run on my ex-PC which is now my bro's. w00ts!!! This is the same PC that lagged to unplable levels on AVP 2. Goes to show the lithtech engine sucks.

I think i am jaded. Doom 3 wasn't scary for me.....i didn't feel the anxiousness and the paranoia of what's lurking in every corner like I did with AVP. No doubt the atmosphere was cool and everything....but i dunno.....maybe one Silent Hill too many has jaded me. It would take more than monsters coming out of dark corners and lights suddenly turned off to freak me out. Maybe my graphics card just sucks.

Gameplay wise, Doom 3 doesn't have any ground breaking "oooohs and ahhhs". If anything, Doom 3 is an excellent "confined spaces" graphics engine. So far everything's in corridors so I'm not sure about large open spaces. The AI is pretty crap if you ask me. Example, zombie gunners try to shoot me from outisde a room and continue blasting at the walls. Another example, if the chaingun brute accidentally hits the Revenant while trying to shoot you, the Revenant will change its target to the brute and start rocketting and slashing it. The zombie ignores the revenant and continues trying to shoot you. Heh.

I'd say Doom 3 is Half-Life 1 on steroids. Overall, pretty good graphics, physics etc, but quite disappointed with the storyline, story progression, AI and lack of intuitive play.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Got it today, just got home, installed it and played the first few rounds.

Damn.

That is about all I can say.

The game looks how I wanted Doom 1 to look but plays like any old run of the mill shooter. Not much in the advancement of the genre but a massive step forward in the graphics department.

As for the game itself, the constant creepy crawlies walking out of the dark corners is spooky but not frightening. The only thing that bugs me so far is the Flashlight, Gun, Flashlight, Gun, Flashlight, Gun play mechanics and the fact that when the facility goes "to hell" there is so much radio chatter, ambient noise and otherwise tacked on sounds going on that it is near impossible to hear that zombie or imp creeping up on you. The game is so noisy that my wife came into the computer room to see just what I was playing and even she was sucked in by the looks and the sound of the game.

Oh well, wanted to post my initial thoughts like everyone else. Back to the game... except my wife has "next".

[Hurin]

Well, I thought I had been pretty desensitized to violence. . . but I've been pretty scared sh*tless in a couple of places. There's one room where the lights go out and you're in the middle of one large squarish room with only one dim light over the door. . .

You bring up your flashlight. . . and see quickly scan around to see several zombies limping/dragging their way towards you. So you bring up the shotgun (and of course, it goes dark again). . . and you nail one just as it comes into the dim overhead light.

You bring up the flashlight again. . . and they're all a bit closer. . . but you don't know which one to take out first. . . Crap! Spin around. . . there's one behind you! Bring up shotgun. . . blam!

Wait. . .where are others. . . flashlight. . . OH CRAP! THEY'RE ALL OVER ME!

Maybe it's that I'm playing the level right below nightmare or maybe it's that these zombies look damn f'ing freaky at 1600x1200. . . but this game has given more jumps and starts than any other game I've played.

In fact, I can't remember the last time a "horror" game actually got me at all worked up. I think the last time that happened was when big white spiders attacked me after I fell into their pit in "Ultima Underworld". . . and that was 15 years ago.

H

[Sam]

I chuckle cuz its true.

so many times I hvae been in a hurry toggling the torch that I toggle back onto the torch instead of the gun, and start flailing around with the butt of it!! its amazing how little damage it does to the bad guys, specially while they are meatballing ur face with claws...

trying to buy a 6800GT card, damn well none in australia till the 15 of this month to buy. all sold out.

Guess how much it costs. even for a cheap brand ? $709AUD, or $799AUD mostly. Thats the standard GT, the ultra is $975+ mostly..

hurry up 15th August!

[myk]

I'm overjoyed that my lowly, Athlon 2400/FX 5700 Ultra setup is running the game with no glitches at all. Actually, I was hoping that it wouldn't be able to do so as I've been looking for an excuse to upgrade.

AvP2 meets Resident Evil is my preliminary take on the game, although I'm still trying to decide which game has frightened me the most (Avp or Doom). After all, the fright factor is the only thing that could put an FPS title above the rest. As others in this thread have mentioned, there is nothing new or revoloutionary in the game.

On another note, I love how the guys at EB ranted about how the game was sold out EVERYWHERE and that fools such as myself who neglected to pre-order were going to have to be left out. I had agreed with them until I walked into Wal-Mart and found their own DOOM3 display with about 50 copies in it....

I'm enjoying DOOM, but I still find myself reaching for Black Hawk Down in its place sometimes...

[Ladic]

The Last Time I remember a Video Game being Sold out was Super Mario Bros 3 when it first came out, I remember seeing them go on a few small stores in Manhattan for $150 and at the time the Nintendo only went for $100.

[ZorClone]

well, I've sorta gotten over the monsters in the game scaring me or giving me the creeps.. it's now focused on all the dang Exorcist moments they've put in there. Those freak me out, for serious.

tip: when in total darkness and surrounded by zombies/monsters, the chaingun is your best friend. Visibility or not, you're gonna saw some meat in half with that thing if you hold the trigger down long enough.

oh and I forgot to mention my system specs:

AMD Athlon 2600+

Gigabyte GA7n400 Pro2 motherboard (using onboard Nforce2 sound hardware)

1gb PC2700 DDR memory

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb (catalyst 4.7 drivers)

primary HDD WD 120gb 7200rpm 8mb cache

(secondary drive is identical)

I ran the game, the first time, at 1600x1200 @ High Quality setting, and it ran very smooth except for when an Imp launched a fireball at me, or I walked into a room with a bunch of stuff that needed to load. Even in those cases, it would only lag a little bit, and only for a second or two.. still very playable. But, in the end, I knocked it down one step to 1280x1024, and it runs perfect.

[Hurin]

Duct Tape Mod

This mod allows you to "duct tape" your flashlight to your machine gun. Haven't tried it. But it seems to be what everyone is asking for. . .

H

[Max Jenius]

Still not running... hopefully I can get it to run for more than 5 minutes tonight. Gonna try some command line options.

First impressions-

Man that theme song is rockin... maybe there will be a nice E1M1 remix in there? *crosses fingers*

The beginning reminds of of System Shock 2... a LOT... Already I was imagining what it would be like to fight annelids in this engine... or play AVP....

Hopefully I'll be able to get deeper into it tonight though, after I rip out my old drivers and go from there. Last night I didn't want to take the time, so I just played COH.

[Wumzi]

Is it just me, or is the game very, very, green? I'm seeing green hues all over the place. My first guess is that it's due to my radeon 9000 not being directx 9 compatible. But did anyone else encounter a similar problem?

EDIT: Added a pic... most of the game looks like this

Edited August 7, 2004 by Wumzi

[JsARCLIGHT]

Yikes that is toooooo green. My game does not run that green.

[Wumzi]

Yeah, I feel like I'm playing in puke-o-rama or something.

My setup in case anyone asks is:

P4 1.8Ghz

256MB ram (yeah yeah, i know it's below the min specs, but it's still working)

Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB

[JsARCLIGHT]

It might have something to do with the lights in the game... aren't the lights all "real time" and not baked like they are in most games? (I don't know, just grasping at straws here)

... and for most people this is old news but the dead enemies burning away is one of the neatest tricks I have seen in a while... well that and when the zombies explode into goo, bone and bits.

[Akilae]

Alright, I haven't bought the game yet (still waiting it to be released over here... and I refuse to d/l it!).

But the thought of duct taping the flashlight somehow bought up rather hilarious images.... Hero walks down corridor with spiffy flashlight taped to shotgun. Hero encounters mobs. Hero decides machine gun is better option. Hero proceeds to rip off flashlight, drop shotgun, haul out machine gun, tape flashlight to machine gun, and fire away. Of course, all this is assuming that he can calmly redo all the taping while under fire.

Anybody got the BFG or plasma rifle yet? How do they compare to the originals?

[Kin]

I really hope theydo something about the gunsounds... they just sound too soft.

I want better gunsounds with lots of kick in it!

[wolfx]

Anybody got the BFG or plasma rifle yet? How do they compare to the originals?

BFG is awesome. Big green ball flies out. As it is travelling throught the air, anything not in its path will get damaged by green energy coming out of the big ball. When it hits a wall, big blast radius kills anything in it. Pretty useful for those flame ressurecting guys....which its name I forgot. Oh I cheated in getting the BFG.

Apparently I missed a PDA in the level before it and don't have the access codes to the guy's room. Phooey. So asked my friend for the access code and voila. BFG for me, baby!

[RangerKarl]

So the BFG9K works like the BFG10K from Quake 2, interesting. Does it damage the user in CQB, like normal explosives, or does it just hurt bad guys, like in Doom 1?

[Radd]

Wow, DOOM3 looks gorgeous on my GeForce3 set at next to minimum settings. Umm..I'm gonna go play s'more. Bye.

[zeo-mare]

got mine, awesome game but for me it is running alittle choppy i can really only play on the lower graphics settings, i need to update my drivers ,my computer should be powerful enough ,but it is still awesome none the less.

[Jawjaw]

I started playing D3 last night and it scared the hell out of me. I know there is going to be monsters around every corner but it still spooks me. They did an awesome job with the lighting in the game. Oh, and the graphics are just killer.

It's running pretty good on my machine: P4 2.5, ATI 9800 pro, 1 gig memory. If I used the auto configure option, it wants to dump all the settings pretty low. I don't know why because it runs okay at 1280X1024.

Max- Yeah, I actually waited a little while before starting the game for the first time to listen to that rockin intro.

[Hurin]

Still not running... hopefully I can get it to run for more than 5 minutes tonight. Gonna try some command line options.

Max, are you using ATI video card?

I've also heard that ATI Radeon users who get crashing to the desktop should Disable Fast Writes and set their AGP speed down from 8x to 4x

Got that from evilavatar.com

[JsARCLIGHT]

I'm running an ATI card like a few others on here (ATI Raedon 9800 Pro) and have yet to encounter one problem. A few of the gamers in my office got their copies on Friday and we set up a network game then... we only had one computer have trouble running the game and that was with an nVidia card.

I think just like all games some people have systems that just have one small thing different in them somewhere, buried in their OS or their hardware configuration that the game just freaks on. The system at our office that is malfunctioning and crashing when playing the game has ideal hardware according to the system requirements... but the geeks told us all it takes is one little thing like a comm port at the wrong address or an out of date driver to send the whole house of cards down on you.

... oh and Doom3 on a LAN is the SHIZ-NITE.

[dedalus001]

yeah i just got doom 3 and, to be honest, it scares the hell out of me. it woulnd't be scary if the dynamic lighting wasn't used. but it is, and i'm scared.

for those who are having choppy framerates, try going to c:/progamfiles/doom3/base/doomconfig.cfg and go down to a line saying "

seta image_cacheMegs "number of megs"

i run a p4.17ghz 512 mb sdram and a radeon 9600 and i ran the game at medium settings, where it wasn't laggy unless too much got on the screen (those damn demons which walk all over the walls with the fireballs) then i just went to the config and upped the cached memory to run the game. though, be careful with how much you dedicate to the game. i was originally at 20 megs to cache and i brought it up to 384. i am happy now.

[Kin]

I got an AMD 1600XP with 512mb ram and an Ati radeon 9600pro.

Not a supercomputer but the game runs smoothly in 640x480 medium mode.

I have no problems with lagging demons at all... I'm currently at the doubleheaded demons and I accidentally blow myself away in a highly flammable area

Sometimes lag may occur shortly by entering a level... or after watchin some video messages, but that seldom happens

The most scary part i've envountered till now was the mirror scene

that's something I didn't expected at all

Edited August 7, 2004 by Kin

[Terpfen]

I really hope theydo something about the gunsounds... they just sound too soft.

I want better gunsounds with lots of kick in it!

You're fighting against the hordes of Hell. The weapons were designed so that they aren't exactly overpowering--it takes upwards of six bullets to kill a simple zombie--but that you somehow got the job done anyway. So, despite your dinky weapons, you still kick Hell's ass.

The point is to create a sense of accomplishment, and it works.

[Kin]

I really hope theydo something about the gunsounds... they just sound too soft.

I want better gunsounds with lots of kick  in it!

You're fighting against the hordes of Hell. The weapons were designed so that they aren't exactly overpowering--it takes upwards of six bullets to kill a simple zombie--but that you somehow got the job done anyway. So, despite your dinky weapons, you still kick Hell's ass.

The point is to create a sense of accomplishment, and it works.

lol no i'm not talking about the power of the gun... i'm talking the soundeffects of a gun... i'd rather had the doom2 shotgun sound because it sounds heavier and more convincing.

[Terpfen]

You missed my point. If a gun sounds powerful, then in all likelyhood it should be powerful. Basic logic dictates that. If you make the guns sound weak, then the guns will likely be weak. The point of Doom 3 is that you're some isolated, feeble Marine up against the forces of Hell. Everyone else in the base is dead--yet somehow, with these dinky weapons, you keep living.

Accomplishment.