DOOM 3 Shown on Xbox Hardware at E3!

That id Software\'s Doom III would come to Xbox, few gamers really doubted. That it would look as good as it evidently does, however, was probably considered a longer shot. The trailer debuted at this evening\'s Xbox press conference showed off some mighty mean graphics from the upcoming classic revival, and all powered by that wimpy little GeForce 3.
We kid, of course, when it comes to the reckoning of the Xbox\'s hardware potential. It would be hard to deny such after seeing this demo. The Xbox trailer featured equal or better graphics compared to what we\'ve seen from the PC version recently, with near-perfect modeling and lighting from its grisly monsters and run-down underground environments, and more importantly, it showed far more different areas, creatures, and gameplay scenes than we\'ve spotted in the promotion of the PC version so far.[/color]

The setup for the game is obvious, but mercifully short. Experiments of some sort are underway at a secret lab on Mars, and...something goes wrong (you were just waiting to hear that, right?). As a consequence, our lone hero has to go in and, most likely, just wind up another snack for a bunch of half-demon, half-machine monsters.

Most of the clips that make up the short Xbox trailer follow the same pattern: big ugly monster makes surprising appearance, hero desperately opens fire, cut to next big ugly monster. There were at least eight of these by our admittedly clouded-by-excitement count, and all very impressive. One spindly beast came up through a floor vent, tossing the vent cover to the ground with a realistic bounce and clatter before rushing in with its claws. Another demon, the big cyborg buffalo we saw in last year\'s PC demo, smashed its way in through a wall. Yet another creation, a partially human sucker seemingly halfway through some grim modification process, appeared in a lab, suddenly moving in the support vat where he stood plugged full of tubes and wires.

The game\'s pace seems to have picked up since the slower playable demos of the PC version shown a while back. That makes sense, given that it looks like Doom III\'s central gameplay mechanic will be running away at high speed. The weapons on offer -- an automatic rifle, the trusty shotgun, and what looks like a big-bore energy or flare pistol -- cranked out fire at a pretty impressive rate while our doomed hero skipped back pretty quickly. Not that it looked to do the poor fellow any good, of course.

It\'s almost pointless to try and describe Doom III\'s graphics. You\'ve seen it, after all, and just consider the fact that recent demos have looked a bit better than what debuted last year. It\'s ridiculously crisp and smooth, with seemingly perfect distribution of light and shadow about its character models and environments. Indeed, when any graphical feature reminiscent of a game intrudes, like the slashing-claw overlays that appear as rushing demons carve into you, are even more jarring then they might be intended to be, just because of the way they break the illusion of reality.

It\'s not clear when id will be bringing out the Xbox version of Doom III. Likely, the old "when it\'s done" rule applies. It seems pretty far along, though, particularly considering that last year\'s exceptionally rough PC demo was accompanies by an ambitious 2003 release date. It will not, however, be exclusive to Xbox, as recent rumors may have suggested -- Microsoft made no mention of such a deal at today\'s event, and we\'re sure that if they managed to land the game for Xbox and Xbox alone, we would have had to sit through no end of triumphant crowing.

But that\'s no problem. It would be too bad if the number of players who could get into this game were deliberately limited. Both Xbox fans and PC fans will get what they want from id, it seems -- a good-looking version unencumbered by technical complications for the one, and a powerful engine for modification by the other. And all, of course, will be doomed happily ever after.

:eek: :eek: :eek:


http://gamers.com/news/1374483

GameSpy.com

"Microsoft is becoming the console for action gamers. Doom 3 was so beautiful that I had a hard time believing that it was running on an Xbox."

http://www.gamespy.com/e32003/feature/gba/1001983/

:eek:

If it measures up to the insanely high bar that Halo 2 and Project Gotham have put up in terms of graphics...yippee!!

Xbox is clearly the place to be when it comes to FPS...

Halo 2
Doom III
Perfect Dark Zero
Half Life 2
Quake IV (rumored, but come on)

Too bad they are all so far away...sigh.

will be doomed happily ever after.

That\'s sig material if you ask me:)

doom 3 on xbox?

says "second class" to me

The Xbox trailer featured equal or better graphics compared to what we\'ve seen from the PC version recently, with near-perfect modeling and lighting from its grisly monsters and run-down underground environments, and more importantly, it showed far more different areas, creatures, and gameplay scenes than we\'ve spotted in the promotion of the PC version so far.

This seems to say otherwise, mm.

I guess all we can do is wait and see...