Xbox D00M 3 Updates!

ETA: 10/1/04


New Xbox screens!





Some new info!

http://xbox.gamezone.com/gzreviews/p15609_02.htm

The game features 30-40 hours of gameplay, and there are five multiplayer maps for the Xbox Live experience. The game sports puzzles and mazes, and the weapon swap-out is typical of FPS titles. But this title prey on players with psychological terror. There are moments when hell takes over parts of the base. The scenes are akin to macabre nightmares of flayed bodies, living tentacles embracing whole rooms and ceilings, creepy crawlies and drop in from above, and zombies that pop out and try to do more than simply say boo.

Pre-E3 2004: DOOM 3
We\'ve seen the Xbox version. It\'s real and it\'s real good.

May 04, 2004 - DOOM 3, expected to ship sometime this year for both Xbox and PC, is not a sequel to DOOM II. Instead, it\'s a retelling of the original. "What if DOOM were made today, with today\'s technology and with everything learned about gaming in the past decade?" That\'s the underpinning to one of the most anticipated titles of the year. Just because DOOM 3 is a retelling of the original doesn\'t mean the look or feel is particularly reminiscent of the classic PC title. The atmosphere is dark, the pacing of the demo somewhat slow, and every aspect more fitting of a survival horror game than a run and gun shooter. That\'s not a bad thing at all, in fact, it makes for a more intriguing title. Point being, this ain\'t yo daddy\'s DOOM, this is a whole new ballgame.

The hard part for fans is going to be looking past expectations of what a DOOM game should be and embracing what DOOM 3 is -- a gritty take on the horrors of a demon infestation at a military base on Mars. There will be shooting aplenty, don\'t worry, and in the 10-minute demo there was quite a good deal of it, but none of it is at, say, the pace of Halo. Atmosphere is clearly being emphasized with heavy use of shadow and minimal lighting, plus six-channel Surround Sound with random ethereal voices crying for help and cackling voices from the shadows. It\'s creepy, it\'s moody, but when the action hits, DOOM 3 quickly kicks into high gear, slowing once more once all the corpses have dissipated.

In DOOM 3 you play as a marine detached to a Union Aerospace Corporation facility on Mars. While away from base, a horde of demons overrun the facility. You return to find nearly everyone dead, with just a handful of combat-ineffective marines left alive. The demons have one goal -- to travel from Mars to Earth and take over the big blue ball, putting an end to shopping malls and cable television. Obviously, they must be stopped.

The Game in Motion
So much has been made of DOOM 3\'s graphics that we might as well get those out of the way right off the bat. The Xbox and not the PC version was shown at Activision\'s pre-E3 editors\' day, which is why this preview is so Xbox-centric. While the PC version has been seen in motion, very little of the Xbox DOOM 3 had been seen, save some tasty screenshots. Vicarious Vision has done an admirable job bringing DOOM 3 to Xbox, but in motion, this game does not look nearly as drop-dead gorgeous as the PC version. For an Xbox game, it looks fantastic, but it\'s hard not to compare the two versions, which isn\'t fair considering the difference in hardware. Don\'t expect the same visual depth as the PC DOOM 3, but have no fear, the Xbox build looks quite nice.

Expected to be locked in at a solid 30 frames per second, DOOM 3 features bump-mapping, real-time lighting, cinematics using the in-game engine (shown in the 3rd-person perspective), and a few jaggies here and there. The good news is, there\'s no tearing, so the annoying break lines found in graphic-intensive Xbox titles like Splinter Cell aren\'t anywhere to be found in the E3 demo of DOOM 3. The environment looks impressive and the lighting is on par with the above-mentioned Splinter Cell, judging from the 10 minutes of gameplay we saw. There\'s plenty of particles to go around as well, with some grainy smoke effects from explosions, and brilliant fire that looks hot enough to scold. With 480p widescreen support on Xbox, this one should look pretty good when all is said and done.

3 pages long.
http://xbox.ign.com/articles/510/510917p1.html

pstwo I\'m guessing you don\'t have a fast computer

Here\'s my 3rd (?) post to the same effect..

I love my Xbox, but Doom III is a PC game.

Originally posted by THX
pstwo I\'m guessing you don\'t have a fast computer

hehe! Only 933MHz using 56K.


NEW GameSpy preview!

We take our first frightening look at the Xbox version of id Software\'s highly anticipated shooter at an Activision Pre-E3 event.

Our first question -- how would the game look on the Xbox? -- was answered within seconds of the demo starting. We\'d wondered if the Xbox version would have to be scaled back to handle the amazing graphics engine created by John Carmack and co. for the PC version, but that doesn\'t appear to be the case. On the Xbox, DOOM 3 shares the PC game\'s unique look, as well as all the little hooks that we\'ve been raving about: super detailed models, dynamic lighting, and the new physics system. Shoot a hanging light, and shadows dance around as the light swings back and forth. Most of the areas we saw in the UAC facility contained the same industrial look we\'ve seen in the PC previews, with lots of dark, creepy corridors and detailed metallic textures covering the floors.

   
The controls for the Xbox version of DOOM 3 should be fairly simple. Like many console shooters these days, the game uses a Halo-like system, using the left analog stick to move and the right to aim. The right trigger lets you fire our weapon, while the left trigger allows you to go into a sprint. The D-Pad is used to change weapons, and the black button allows you to pull up your PDA, which will contain your current objectives as well as emails from other characters that help propel the story along. There\'s some auto-aiming planned for the Xbox version, with the goal being to "make it challenging but not frustrating."

The first part of our demo took place in an area called "Alpha Labs," set early in the game. DOOM 3\'s deliberate pace of the game could be seen in full effect here, as our space marine made his way through a series of hallways, with lots of ambient sounds setting the mood. The game will support 6-channel Dolby surround sound, and it looks like DOOM 3 will take full advantage of it -- the sound was arguably the most impressive thing about the demo, with lots of punchy sound effects for the weapons and totally creepy sound effects and strange voices filling the background while not in combat.

2 pages long.
http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/doom-3/512537p1.html?fromint=1

GameSpot:  Doom 3 E3 2004 Preshow Impressions

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/doom3/preview_6095270.html
 

Activision showed Doom 3 running on the Xbox for the first time publicly at its pre-E3 event in Santa Monica, California, earlier this month. And for those of us who didn\'t think it was possible, it appears that id and Vicarious Visions have managed to bring the game to the Xbox with no compromises from the visually impressive PC version.

Despite its name, Doom 3 is not a sequel but rather a retelling of the original Doom. You once again play as a space marine, tasked to guard the Union Aerospace Corporation\'s facility on Mars, when something goes wrong and demonic creatures take over the base. You\'ll have to survive and try to rally any survivors as you attempt to seal the dimensional rift at the heart of the infestation, and the deeper you delve into the base, the more hellish the environment becomes.

Activision demonstrated an early level in the game; you have to fight your way to the base\'s Alpha Labs in order to get a warning signal to a nearby fleet of warships. From the get-go, the graphical immersion is superb. Doom 3 is, without a doubt, one of the best-looking console games we\'ve seen. There are a lot of curved surfaces and bump-mapping to give the base\'s interior a very realistic and amazing look, but at the heart of the graphic\'s engine is the powerful lighting and shadowing system. As we watched, the marine entered a large room, when the lights sudden went out. In the pitch dark, the only way to detect attacking zombies is by sound, and perhaps by catching the silhouette of one against a distant light. But the tension and creepiness are definitely there.

The marine has access to a flashlight that can cut through the darkness, but the caveat is that you have to lower your weapon to switch to the flashlight, so you can\'t shoot and use the flashlight at the same time. This is bound to cause plenty of frantic moments when you encounter something terrifying in the darkness and have to switch back to your weapon in a hurry.

Like the PC version, the Xbox version incorporates a powerful physics engine, and it\'s quite impressive to hit an overhead light, causing it to swing, and then watch as the shadows in the room react to the swinging light. Doom 3 also incorporates a powerful physics engine that will ensure that objects behave realistically when in motion; we were shown boxes tumbling down a corridor into the face of the enemy. In addition, the elaborate skeletal animation system in combination with the physics engine means that creatures move in a very lifelike manner.

Hollenshead said that their goal is to make your living room the scariest room of your house, and to help accomplish that, Doom 3 for the Xbox will support surround sound. Like everything else in the game, the sound effects are top-notch, from the deep rumbling of the base\'s machinery to the sound of zombies shambling about. Demons also have a nasty habit of leaping out at you, and the sudden shriek can pierce the relative calm and cause you to jump out of your seat.

During the demonstration, the marine used several weapons, including the shotgun, machine gun, chaingun, pistol, hand grenades, and fists (yes, you can try punching zombies). Monsters encountered included the fat zombies, who are zombified security guards, demonlike imps that hurl energy balls at you, and dual-headed demon maggots that crawl on walls and the ceiling like spiders. The marine also entered portions of the base where the demonic infestation was literally taking the environment, and the walls were covered with an organic, pulsating tumor.

The Xbox version will be the only version of the game to support cooperative play, and the game will support up to two players over Xbox Live or a system link. There will be no split-screen multiplayer, because Hollenshead says that the Xbox is already being pushed to its limits to render a single screen. The game will support up to four players in multiplay over Xbox Live and system link, and the game will ship with five multiplayer maps. Hollenshead says they\'re not trying to break any new ground, but he did promise something fun and uniquely Doom.

The PC and Xbox versions will share the same story and gameplay, though the Xbox\'s smaller memory footprint will affect level size; as a result, some levels on the Xbox will be modified to flow better. Hollenshead said that the Xbox is the only console capable of running Doom 3 as programmer John Carmack envisioned it, and they\'re not going to port the game to the PlayStation 2 or GameCube.

The Xbox version is being developed by Vicarious Visions, contemporaneously with the PC version under development at id. However, Hollenshead said that the Xbox version will ship after the PC version, and the PC version will ship when it\'s done. He wouldn\'t commit to a date; however, he did say that id will not show the PC version at E3 because the team is locked in "completion phase" at the company\'s Mesquite, Texas, offices. Activision will show the Xbox version at the show, and from what we saw, it\'s a safe bet that Doom 3 for the Xbox is going to be one of the major games of E3.

Originally posted by pstwo
hehe! Only 933MHz using 56K.

Damn. I feel for you man. I got out of that hole myself not to long ago

Here are the other Xbox shots.

nice blurring

looks like shit and runs at 30 fps

:rolleyes:

Those screenshots are blown-up. How stupid.

We\'ve seen these screens 50 million times already.

looks like shit and runs at 30 fps

I don\'t think it\'s that much of an issue for XBOX owners. Remember DOOM 3 is a very slow game, therefore fps is not as important as the faster/high pace FPS.

Besides anyone whom plans to play DOOM for all it\'s worth isn\'t gonna touch the XBOX version. Xbox owners of this game will be very, very pleased.

Originally posted by NVIDIA256
I don\'t think it\'s that much of an issue for XBOX owners. Remember DOOM 3 is a very slow game, therefore fps is not as important as the faster/high pace FPS.

Not only that, but if I remember correctly, the PC version cannot go any farther than 60fps. Which, is, of course, better than 30, but I hope people weren\'t expecting to bump this game up to 100\'s of frames per second.

... Even with that said, I\'m still buying the PC version first. LIVE Co-op is nice, but it can wait.

I\'m failing to see the draw of a Doom game.  I hope they make me eat my words but I\'d rather play the original probably.

I never got into the Doom series, but I know id Software can design one helluuva game engine.  They are arguably the best on the planet at it (PC FPS-wise).

They are arguably the best on the planet

At designing Engines, not games.

You don\'t need over 60fps, but obviously the higher the framerate (in benchmarks) the better because it reduces the chances of framerate inconsistency. If you average 60fps with an unlocked framerate.. you\'re getting some choppiness going from as low as 20fps to as high as 90+fps..