Thread
So who's gonna buy Doom 3 in August?
Quote:
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Originally posted by sideus: I'll buy it, but it won't be in August as it is the PC version that is being released, not the Mac version. |
OK. Found some specs on the web:
From September's PC Gamer issue, they have the system requirements as:
PC Gamer recommends:
2Ghz CPU
512 MB ram
Radeon 9800
5-channel audio
Lowest supported GPU is a Geforce 4 MX (worse than Geforce 3)
Supported cards:
GF 4 MX
GF 3
GF 4
GF FX (and higher)
ATI 8500s, 9000s and higher
From September's PC Gamer issue, they have the system requirements as:
PC Gamer recommends:
2Ghz CPU
512 MB ram
Radeon 9800
5-channel audio
Lowest supported GPU is a Geforce 4 MX (worse than Geforce 3)
Supported cards:
GF 4 MX
GF 3
GF 4
GF FX (and higher)
ATI 8500s, 9000s and higher
Here's a GREAT review!
DOOM 3
THE WORLD-EXCLUSIVE FIRST REVIEW
You've waited years. Now the wait is over. PC Gamer was the only publication in the world to review Doom 3 a split-second after id declared it "Done." We thought we were ready...
Turn out the lights. Get the surround-sound speakers in place. And say goodbye to sanity for the next 20-odd hours. The guys at id Software are famous for delivering a game "when it's done" - and we're here to tell you that Doom 3 is not only done, it's mind-blowing.
X The game opens up with your arrival at Mars Research Facility of the massive United Aerospace Corporation. It's the year 2145, and you're a Marine newly assigned to the facility's security detail. For the first 15 minutes,you're not even issued a weapon - the action unfolds in a pace reminiscent of the opening of Half-Life, as you get oriented around the security building and watch some video primers on your new job and new home. In this opening act, you're familiarized with your Personal Digital Assistant, wich will be your invaluable interface throughtout the rest of the game. Using this handy gadget, you can download info from other people's PDAs as you come across them, adding codes, access keys, and emails that contain crucial information you'll need to progress through the 28 maps to follow. Here's what you really spen those first 15 minutes doing: gawking. This is your chance to absorb the full shock of magnificant graphics engine put to stunning use. The enviroments are huge-scale and packed with detail. The base is a convincing Mars Station - less a far-future design than a depressingly postmodern corporate park. It feels lived-in, too - from the skin mags scattered on the kitchenette tables to the nastiest in the public rest-room toilet bowls.
But no sooner do you get oriented with your gear - and with the very cool physics model that lets you rearrange just about any object in the place - then all hell breaks loose. Literally.
The base is hammered by a shockwave of satanic force, and immediatly discover that almost evryone around you has turned into a flesh eating zombie - with a mindless devotion to snacking on you. Worse yet, the base has been invaded by a horde of nightmarish demons. Cut off from your fellow Marines (and stalked by some of their well armed zombie versions!), you've got only a comm link with your still human Sarge to steer you to safety
DOOM AND THEN SOME
For those expecting a "classic" run and gun Doom gameplay, the biggest surprise may be just how substanial this game is. If you try to blaze through any of these 28 missions you WILL be humiliated. Instead the only route to access is a slow and steady one, sticking to shadows, searching every nook and crany for health, ammo, and access keys, and generally advancing as methodicaly as you can.
You've also got to figure out whats happening. As you make your way through the different levels of the base, the pilot is revealed via the PDAs you pick up, and in breif conversations with the few NPCs who werent "turned" by the satanic attack. To make your way through the inevitably sealed-off access doors between levels, you'll have to read through email that progressively reveals a conspiracy of apocalypse proportions - the nefarious scheme of phsycotic Dr. Betruger, UACs cheif scientist, who's perverted a teleportion to open up a portal into hell-like demension. (Oh and if you didnt notice Dr. betruger is also keen on transporting his hellion army to earth.)
Gear is an absolute premium. All the old Doom weapons are back, but preciously rationed, and with an ever windling supply of ammo for each. The shotgun is your basic in close sledge hammer, while the assault rifle is your best down hallway exchanges with armed zombie marines. The chaingun provides a heavy punch for those hectic occasions when you need to yell "LETS ROCKKKK!" The plasma rifle was my personal fav, dealin streams of fiery blue death, although it runs out of ammo quickly. The rocket launcher scores devastating hits at a distance, while the stock pistol is suitable for minor enemies and desperate last stands. (And as for the BFG 9000 - you'll have to wait a bit before you get to arm it, but the wait is well worth it.)
But theres no need to worry that Doom 3 is as slow as spliner cell - hardly a minute goes by without a furious exchange of hostiles with some manner demonic beastie, imps, Hellknights, and Archviles are all back to shock and awe you with viscerally jarring attacks, and the endless stream of zombies and scuttling nasties gives you plenty to chew on (and chew up). The gallery of grotesquerie is the product of almost limitless imagination for horors - spiders that make your flesh crawl, infant "cherubs" mutated with fly wings, and other unamable terrors that blight the corridors of the possessed base
TO LAUNCH A THOUSAND PC PURCHASES
Early in the game, you're tasked with sprinting outside the mars Facility ( with rapidly depleting air canisters) in search of the next airlock. It was here that i really started to notice what I was seeing was graphics superiorty that not even current hot tech showcases like Far Cry could match. Dust blew around the martian surface and the dull brown/red hue of the sand and the twisted metal of shredded structures all semed so perfectly plausible.
Each girder, door, and window adds tangible substance to each scene, and even th \e effect of your flashlight shinging into a drakened corner looks ridiculosly real - as the light floods through a room , swinging back andforth, shadows are cast perfectly; dust particles gently drift into the cone of the flash light , eerily visible. And these are just the basics of the enviroment: just wait until you enter the depths of hell, and dive into some of the later mass melees,\. Doom 3, with all due awareness of hyperbole, is the best looking game you've ever seen.
Not surprising you'll need a monster system to render these monsters in all their intracetly textured glory. But the ability to play Doom 3 with all its visual magic maxed out is really a good excuse to trade up. A P4 3GHzwith a Georce 5950- class card will see u through okay. One of our test systems had a geforce 6800 ultra and ran flawlessly at 1024x 768 with high detail. (A higher level of quality and resolution is available , but the PC to run it well isnt)nning with a geforce4 MX card and 512 Mb RAM, the texture detail was great, although the game was choppier in spots.
Bottom line: If Far Cry didnt convince you, then Doom 3 should - the time to upgrade to a next generation 3D chip , or even an all new rig, is now.
SOUND, FURY...AND SCARES
While I was expecting amazing graphics, it was the sound effects and sound design that had me reeling. Footsteps echo spookily down halls; monsters issue bloodcurling shrieks; every hallway has an audible drip of menace and dread. Doom 3 is the reason to own surround sound speakers. The collective impact of sound design on the whole expierience cant be overstated, adding to the urge to switch out ll th lights, close the curtains, crank up the voulume, and let yourself be scared s***less.
And you will be jolted right out of your seat. I'm not going to spoil any of the socks here, but there were at least four occasions where i lunged back in y chair. Lead designer Tim wiltis is inside your head like a phycologist - and just when hes let you think you can lower your guard, he sticks the psychic shiv right into your nervous system.
Even when the scares arent heart stopping , theres a constant, simmering anxiety at each and every step. You basically subjecting yourself to a 20 hour cariac episode. At times, death brought sweet, momentery respite from the fear drenched mayhem.
The zombie plagued space station is creepy enough , but about mid way through the game you make a teleporteraided detour to hell. The whole feel of the game changes utterly - if you thought you were in desperate straits before, you now find yourself in a balls shriveling nightmare netherworld. (With no weapons!)
It's all leading up to a knees knocking climatic spelunk into the archealogical ruins beneath mars base where you enter a final showdown against evildoers amid the remnants of a fallen martian civilization. As the massive fright lifter descends so agonizingly slowly into the darkness, you may find yourself as I did, cursing out loud at the grim hold this game has on you.
Does Doom 3 have any missteps maybe just one; its attemps at humor feel way out of place. there are a few lame running gagas: PDA spam and an uber-nerdy string of emails between members of a roleplaying club. (The spam gag actually becomes a puzzle that requires you jump out of the game and use you web browser to find a code. Huh?) In one appalling instance, you even even become privy in a tounge-in-cheek directive by arcvillian Dr. Betruger, advising hellions on the proper way to prepare virgin sacrifices. These limp jokes server only to dump me out of the games carefully calibrated dread machine.
But no matter: The rest is all dynamite. Doom 3 took me 23 hours to complete on the medium difficulty setting. (For all those who rumored that the game would be over in a few hours- you couldnt be more wrong.) And for those 23 hours, you will never expirience a dull moment. Or even a less than mesmerizing one. Doom 3 is a masterpiece of art form - staying true to the frantic legacy of the Doom series, while ambitiously reaching new hieghts and bashing down the doors of the next generation of PC shooter. The bar is raised. Lets see someone else climb over it- Dan Morris
OMG my fingers are going to fall off well anyways there you go E-N-J-O-Y
DOOM 3
THE WORLD-EXCLUSIVE FIRST REVIEW
You've waited years. Now the wait is over. PC Gamer was the only publication in the world to review Doom 3 a split-second after id declared it "Done." We thought we were ready...
Turn out the lights. Get the surround-sound speakers in place. And say goodbye to sanity for the next 20-odd hours. The guys at id Software are famous for delivering a game "when it's done" - and we're here to tell you that Doom 3 is not only done, it's mind-blowing.
X The game opens up with your arrival at Mars Research Facility of the massive United Aerospace Corporation. It's the year 2145, and you're a Marine newly assigned to the facility's security detail. For the first 15 minutes,you're not even issued a weapon - the action unfolds in a pace reminiscent of the opening of Half-Life, as you get oriented around the security building and watch some video primers on your new job and new home. In this opening act, you're familiarized with your Personal Digital Assistant, wich will be your invaluable interface throughtout the rest of the game. Using this handy gadget, you can download info from other people's PDAs as you come across them, adding codes, access keys, and emails that contain crucial information you'll need to progress through the 28 maps to follow. Here's what you really spen those first 15 minutes doing: gawking. This is your chance to absorb the full shock of magnificant graphics engine put to stunning use. The enviroments are huge-scale and packed with detail. The base is a convincing Mars Station - less a far-future design than a depressingly postmodern corporate park. It feels lived-in, too - from the skin mags scattered on the kitchenette tables to the nastiest in the public rest-room toilet bowls.
But no sooner do you get oriented with your gear - and with the very cool physics model that lets you rearrange just about any object in the place - then all hell breaks loose. Literally.
The base is hammered by a shockwave of satanic force, and immediatly discover that almost evryone around you has turned into a flesh eating zombie - with a mindless devotion to snacking on you. Worse yet, the base has been invaded by a horde of nightmarish demons. Cut off from your fellow Marines (and stalked by some of their well armed zombie versions!), you've got only a comm link with your still human Sarge to steer you to safety
DOOM AND THEN SOME
For those expecting a "classic" run and gun Doom gameplay, the biggest surprise may be just how substanial this game is. If you try to blaze through any of these 28 missions you WILL be humiliated. Instead the only route to access is a slow and steady one, sticking to shadows, searching every nook and crany for health, ammo, and access keys, and generally advancing as methodicaly as you can.
You've also got to figure out whats happening. As you make your way through the different levels of the base, the pilot is revealed via the PDAs you pick up, and in breif conversations with the few NPCs who werent "turned" by the satanic attack. To make your way through the inevitably sealed-off access doors between levels, you'll have to read through email that progressively reveals a conspiracy of apocalypse proportions - the nefarious scheme of phsycotic Dr. Betruger, UACs cheif scientist, who's perverted a teleportion to open up a portal into hell-like demension. (Oh and if you didnt notice Dr. betruger is also keen on transporting his hellion army to earth.)
Gear is an absolute premium. All the old Doom weapons are back, but preciously rationed, and with an ever windling supply of ammo for each. The shotgun is your basic in close sledge hammer, while the assault rifle is your best down hallway exchanges with armed zombie marines. The chaingun provides a heavy punch for those hectic occasions when you need to yell "LETS ROCKKKK!" The plasma rifle was my personal fav, dealin streams of fiery blue death, although it runs out of ammo quickly. The rocket launcher scores devastating hits at a distance, while the stock pistol is suitable for minor enemies and desperate last stands. (And as for the BFG 9000 - you'll have to wait a bit before you get to arm it, but the wait is well worth it.)
But theres no need to worry that Doom 3 is as slow as spliner cell - hardly a minute goes by without a furious exchange of hostiles with some manner demonic beastie, imps, Hellknights, and Archviles are all back to shock and awe you with viscerally jarring attacks, and the endless stream of zombies and scuttling nasties gives you plenty to chew on (and chew up). The gallery of grotesquerie is the product of almost limitless imagination for horors - spiders that make your flesh crawl, infant "cherubs" mutated with fly wings, and other unamable terrors that blight the corridors of the possessed base
TO LAUNCH A THOUSAND PC PURCHASES
Early in the game, you're tasked with sprinting outside the mars Facility ( with rapidly depleting air canisters) in search of the next airlock. It was here that i really started to notice what I was seeing was graphics superiorty that not even current hot tech showcases like Far Cry could match. Dust blew around the martian surface and the dull brown/red hue of the sand and the twisted metal of shredded structures all semed so perfectly plausible.
Each girder, door, and window adds tangible substance to each scene, and even th \e effect of your flashlight shinging into a drakened corner looks ridiculosly real - as the light floods through a room , swinging back andforth, shadows are cast perfectly; dust particles gently drift into the cone of the flash light , eerily visible. And these are just the basics of the enviroment: just wait until you enter the depths of hell, and dive into some of the later mass melees,\. Doom 3, with all due awareness of hyperbole, is the best looking game you've ever seen.
Not surprising you'll need a monster system to render these monsters in all their intracetly textured glory. But the ability to play Doom 3 with all its visual magic maxed out is really a good excuse to trade up. A P4 3GHzwith a Georce 5950- class card will see u through okay. One of our test systems had a geforce 6800 ultra and ran flawlessly at 1024x 768 with high detail. (A higher level of quality and resolution is available , but the PC to run it well isnt)nning with a geforce4 MX card and 512 Mb RAM, the texture detail was great, although the game was choppier in spots.
Bottom line: If Far Cry didnt convince you, then Doom 3 should - the time to upgrade to a next generation 3D chip , or even an all new rig, is now.
SOUND, FURY...AND SCARES
While I was expecting amazing graphics, it was the sound effects and sound design that had me reeling. Footsteps echo spookily down halls; monsters issue bloodcurling shrieks; every hallway has an audible drip of menace and dread. Doom 3 is the reason to own surround sound speakers. The collective impact of sound design on the whole expierience cant be overstated, adding to the urge to switch out ll th lights, close the curtains, crank up the voulume, and let yourself be scared s***less.
And you will be jolted right out of your seat. I'm not going to spoil any of the socks here, but there were at least four occasions where i lunged back in y chair. Lead designer Tim wiltis is inside your head like a phycologist - and just when hes let you think you can lower your guard, he sticks the psychic shiv right into your nervous system.
Even when the scares arent heart stopping , theres a constant, simmering anxiety at each and every step. You basically subjecting yourself to a 20 hour cariac episode. At times, death brought sweet, momentery respite from the fear drenched mayhem.
The zombie plagued space station is creepy enough , but about mid way through the game you make a teleporteraided detour to hell. The whole feel of the game changes utterly - if you thought you were in desperate straits before, you now find yourself in a balls shriveling nightmare netherworld. (With no weapons!)
It's all leading up to a knees knocking climatic spelunk into the archealogical ruins beneath mars base where you enter a final showdown against evildoers amid the remnants of a fallen martian civilization. As the massive fright lifter descends so agonizingly slowly into the darkness, you may find yourself as I did, cursing out loud at the grim hold this game has on you.
Does Doom 3 have any missteps maybe just one; its attemps at humor feel way out of place. there are a few lame running gagas: PDA spam and an uber-nerdy string of emails between members of a roleplaying club. (The spam gag actually becomes a puzzle that requires you jump out of the game and use you web browser to find a code. Huh?) In one appalling instance, you even even become privy in a tounge-in-cheek directive by arcvillian Dr. Betruger, advising hellions on the proper way to prepare virgin sacrifices. These limp jokes server only to dump me out of the games carefully calibrated dread machine.
But no matter: The rest is all dynamite. Doom 3 took me 23 hours to complete on the medium difficulty setting. (For all those who rumored that the game would be over in a few hours- you couldnt be more wrong.) And for those 23 hours, you will never expirience a dull moment. Or even a less than mesmerizing one. Doom 3 is a masterpiece of art form - staying true to the frantic legacy of the Doom series, while ambitiously reaching new hieghts and bashing down the doors of the next generation of PC shooter. The bar is raised. Lets see someone else climb over it- Dan Morris
OMG my fingers are going to fall off well anyways there you go E-N-J-O-Y
The only problem with id requiring such ridiculous hardware requirements is the units they will sell will be drastically diminished by the people alienated by the insane power needed. Given, I dont personally care, and whatnot, it would just seem they would want to have a wider purchasing audience.
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Originally posted by djohnson: Yes it should... It might not be perfect, but it will still look good. I guess I need to u/g the video system in our pc for this. ati 9000 wont work too well! 
|
Uh, no.
I have a 2.53 Ghz P4 and an ATI Radeo 9700. If THAT doesn't run it well, the AMD 2.0 GHz sure as hell won't.
You said yourself "it might not be perfect". Well, he said smooth. Smooth == perfect. !Smooth == !perfect.
Mike
Quote:
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Originally posted by SafariX: The only problem with id requiring such ridiculous hardware requirements is the units they will sell will be drastically diminished by the people alienated by the insane power needed. Given, I dont personally care, and whatnot, it would just seem they would want to have a wider purchasing audience. |
Huh? Since when is a GeForce 4 MX with a GHz processor a ridiculous requirement? Don't listen to all the people screaming about how bad it will run on current hardware - they're talking out of their asses. Judging by the old alpha leak, it should be playable on any half-decent computer by now. You don't need to have ALL whiz-bang features enabled to have fun.
OS X Version Confirmed
Whoo.
I'll buy it when I can afford a G5�or if my friend gets it for his PC. It may run with pretty much no effects, geometry lowest at 640x480�basically polygons and textures, and that's it�on my dual 800 with Radeon 9000, but I don't want to spoil the experience.
Quote:
| Mac and Linux: Unfortunately I don't have dates for either of these. However, Linux binaries will be available very soon after the PC game hits store shelves. There are no plans for boxed Linux games. More remains to be done for the OSX version of DOOM 3 and that will take some time. We won't release the OSX version until it's just as polished as the PC version. The date for OSX DOOM 3 remains "when it's done", but I can confirm that it's definitely coming. |
Whoo.
I'll buy it when I can afford a G5�or if my friend gets it for his PC. It may run with pretty much no effects, geometry lowest at 640x480�basically polygons and textures, and that's it�on my dual 800 with Radeon 9000, but I don't want to spoil the experience.Quote:
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Originally posted by entrox: Huh? Since when is a GeForce 4 MX with a GHz processor a ridiculous requirement? Don't listen to all the people screaming about how bad it will run on current hardware - they're talking out of their asses. Judging by the old alpha leak, it should be playable on any half-decent computer by now. You don't need to have ALL whiz-bang features enabled to have fun. |
Uh, yeah, you do. Have you seen the min. requirements?
2GHz CPU or equiv Athlon
512MB of RAM
Radeon 9800/GeForce FX 5600 and up
5 channel sound card with speakers (Sound Blaster Audigy 2)
Those are MINIMUM.
Mike
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Originally posted by starman: Uh, yeah, you do. Have you seen the min. requirements? 2GHz CPU or equiv Athlon 512MB of RAM Radeon 9800/GeForce FX 5600 and up 5 channel sound card with speakers (Sound Blaster Audigy 2) Those are MINIMUM. Mike |
No, those are not minimum, those are recommended.
1. A 1.5GHz CPU is minimum.
2. The lowest supported GPU is the NV17 (GF4MX).
3. The minimum amount of RAM is 384MiB, 512+ is strongly recommended.
4. All 3D sound processing is done on the CPU, no sound card required.
Of course you can crank all sliders up until even the fastest PC begins to choke, but that's beside the point. Doom 3 has been designed with older hardware in mind. Why else would Carmack maintain completely independent rendering paths for older hardware?
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Originally posted by entrox: No, those are not minimum, those are recommended. 1. A 1.5GHz CPU is minimum. 2. The lowest supported GPU is the NV17 (GF4MX). 3. The minimum amount of RAM is 384MiB, 512+ is strongly recommended. 4. All 3D sound processing is done on the CPU, no sound card required. Of course you can crank all sliders up until even the fastest PC begins to choke, but that's beside the point. Doom 3 has been designed with older hardware in mind. Why else would Carmack maintain completely independent rendering paths for older hardware? |
EDIT:
From PC Gamer:
1. 6800 is a tad faster than X800 cards. Both run it in full glory
2. The game has four render paths: NV10, NV20, R200, and ARB2. All paths look awesome, even down to a g4mx, but the ARB2 path is the "full package," and is used for the R300+ and Geforce FX+ cards. It does all it's fancy **** in one pass.
3. PCI Express enhances NOTHING.
4. The difference between a 128mb and 256mb card is that the former uses compressed textures whereas the latter only compresses diffuse and specualr maps. In another words, no big deal. However, a 500mb card is needed to run the game in Ultra Quality mode.
5. 512MB is the ideal system total memory. 384 is required, 1GB is nice, but the difference is negligible.
6. Nothing special is included for a 64-bit OS.
7. A 1.5 Ghz processor is the least recommended, but a 2Ghz and above will help since...
8...The sound engine is entirely CPU dependant. Therefore a crappy soundcard works flawlessly. Not to worry, the enfine only uses a "small percentage of cycles, much less than if the engine relied on a soundcard.
9. The only reccommendation regarding faster framerates is to disable to "advanced special effects option." In other words, upgrade if you have problems.
10. They tie it up by providing three levels of "Doom lovin' PC's"
Low-End:
1.5GhzP4 or equivalent
512MB Ram
Geforce4 Ti 4800 or Radeon 9500
Mid-Range:
2.4GhzP4 or equivalent
1GB RAM
Geforce5950 or Radeon 9800 Pro/XT
High_End: Aka Hardware that doesn't exist, but best guess anyway
3.4GhzP4 or AMD equivalent
2GB RAM
GeForce 6800 Ultra or Radeon X800 XT PE.
In conclusion, the game will run well on a variety of hardware, and Rob Duffy, the lead programmer, says that the game looks real good no matter what, and that it will continue to look better as hardware improves. Like all previous id engines, we'll be playing games based on D3 for another five years down the road.
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Originally posted by Shinigami: I'd get it, but I can't see it running to well on my 700 MHz, 640 MB SDRAM PowerPC G4 :/ |
Ummm, no. I would not be surprised if Quake 3-based games like Call of Duty would have trouble on your hardware.
I think Halo may actually be a reasonable guess as to the speed of DOOM 3. They both use pixel shaders and multi-pass rendering. I suspect D3 will LOOK a lot better, but if you can't run Halo well, D3 will be problematic for you as well.
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Originally posted by djohnson: Well lets see... Since a 2Ghz xp > 2Ghz p4 I dont think it will have a problem. I just want to see the source code
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I wouldn't run it on anything less than a 3GHz system. I paid a lot extra for my 2.53 GHz P4 over 2 years ago. Well worth the money since I got a LOT of mileage out of it, instead of doing "little increments" here and there.
Mike
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Originally posted by ajprice: Nah, get Hal-Life 2 instead! |
I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave.
Ahem. Anyway, I think I'll pass on this. Sure, it's got good graphics and sound, but in the end it's another FPS. The conspiracy plot sounds interesting, but where's the innovation?
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Originally posted by starman: I wouldn't run it on anything less than a 3GHz system. I paid a lot extra for my 2.53 GHz P4 over 2 years ago. Well worth the money since I got a LOT of mileage out of it, instead of doing "little increments" here and there. Mike |
Well I just oc'ed our 2500 Barton to a 3200. It runs great and with a new video card it will run Doom 3 just fine. It may not work perfectly, but then not many people have machine that can run it perfectly...