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Well, now that I have it in my hands, I am wondering what everyone's opinion of the game is so far. If you run the game in lower settings the graphics/engine looks average at best, but when you crank it up, it becomes obscene. Better shadowing/shading than Far Cry with that "Quake-like" feel to it. I'll add more after I play some tonight.

I'll finally have a game that challenges my PC. I'm surprised that these forums haven't shown much interest.

I'm jamming out to Wham "Everything She Wants," while typing about Doom on an Everquest message board. I'm so hardcore.

I think Doom 3 will be most excellent. Admittedly, I haven’t bought it yet, because I’ve just been to lazy to hit the software store. I have been checking it out and I must say it does seem to have a Half Life look to it. Maybe it was just the screen shots I saw.

If any of you follow the evolution of the first person shooter you’ll know that Wolfenstein and Doom are, more or less, the father and mother of the modern first person shooter. Because of this, it’s only logical that any true to heart FPS fan should check out Doom 3…

I have been reading rumors that Raven software will begin work, in collaboration with iD software, on Quake IV. According to the reports they will be using the technology of Doom 3 (which only makes sense). So, it seems that Doom 3 will be a good litmus test for what we can expect from Quake 4, once it’s released.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that most, if not all, of modern PC games can give thanks for the technologies developed from the Quake family. Hell, it was because of the innovations from Quake II (released in ’97) that we have transparent water, 16-bit textures in Open GL, and colored lighting.

I’ve always been an iD fan, and had never really gotten into UT, or Half Life… I can remember when the first Half Life came out and we would spend more time trying to get the damn thing working over our network than actually gaming (LAN parties). But, in time it grew and became a lot more stable and playable – but again even so, I never got “hooked.” I did play some UT and actually still do… but only the UT Tourny game of the Year edition, but life HL it wasn’t something that I ever got completely hooked on.

I still think, today, that one of the best games ever was good ole Team Fortress for Quake I. 2 fort 5 was the best map ever. Damn those were the days…

Anyway, I will most certainly be checking out Doom 3, if for nothing more than to see what Q4 will be like (technology wise).way

I'm going to hit Best Buy this afternoon and nab me a copy.

I'm hoping my Radeon 9700 Pro isn't completely overwhelmed.

I have a 9800pro, but it's highly-highly overclocked and I doubt any of the newer generation cards can touch it on stock speeds. If I start seeing benchmarks that trash my card all over, I'll likely upgrade and then overclock that to hell and back.

vonkaar wrote:I have a 9800pro, but it's highly-highly overclocked and I doubt any of the newer generation cards can touch it on stock speeds. If I start seeing benchmarks that trash my card all over, I'll likely upgrade and then overclock that to hell and back.

The new NVIDIA cards seem pretty damn fast, Vonk.

My 9700 Pro is not overclocked, but has run everything I've owned extremely well. My PC is not killer, as its a 2.6 P4 with a Gig of RAM, but has been great for everything. I wouldn't think a 3.4 would be THAT much faster, but I don't keep up on hardware like I used to.

I'd like to prolong an upgrade for as long as possible.

Well... I'll likely go 64-bit in the next month or so... so... even though my PC is near the upper limits of what can possibly be reached on a Barton system, everything will change soon.

As it is... the CPU is an AMD Barton 2500 (1833Mhz) running at 2756 Mhz (923 Mhz overclock) The RAM is running 414Mhz... HDD is Raid0 SATA 10k rpm... umm... the video card is clocked at core-488(stock is 380) / memory-380 (stock is 340). Basically... there is no computer you can buy straight off the shelf that will get higher 3dmarks, alienware... dell xps... whatever. AMD's 3000 runs at 2.1Ghz, so... 2756 would be like an AMD 4200 or something crazy. My cooling system should probably allow for 24,000 3dmark2001 with a 64-bit mb/cpu upgrade... which I'll likely do for HL2.

Hey nerds this is about Doom 3!

Taxx wrote:Hey nerds this is about Doom 3!

Quit fucking with the Epeen hardware discussions, unless you care to break out a ruler and get into this 3D Mark Discussion.

Vonk, is 64bit actually faster for games? I've read its actually slower in some cases.

I'm looking at EQ2 for when I upgrade to a new monster machine. I tend to go with the 3-4 CPU versions cheaper than the latest, and the best Video Card I can get when I get new rigs.

I'm crossing my fingers Doom3 will run well on my current setup.

Well, I played it for about 4 hours last night and let me say........WOW! Kinda slow at first but once it gets started, it gets REALLY nuts! Graphically, it really shines a bit into the game, where you start seeing the newer monsters, and creepy environments.

FYI, I can run FARCRY at max settings with absolutely no hiccups at all. The best I can do with DOOM 3 is high setting (it goes to ultra high) at 1024x768, Any higher and you start seeing hiccups. The game is very dark, and it is best to play it that way, keeping your brightness down. Helps bring out the intended environment of the game.

I'm running it on this:
P4 2.53 - 500fsb
1GB DDR Ram running in "dual channel"
Radeon 9700 Pro 128mb
Soundblaster Audigy X-Gamer

Game will also only run on Win XP/2000. And as far as multiplayer, it is intended for 4 players max per map. While you can go higher than that, it really begins to lag with too many people on the map. But, most servers I played on last night were probably running off "home" PC's, and not true servers.

Quite honestly I can say, it's a LOT like the first DOOM. Walk, point, and shoot. NONSTOP. But I'm a die hard fan of FPS's, and I have to say...this is probably the best I've ever seen by far. No other game environment come CLOSE to Doom 3. I even knocked my coffee off my desk once, and nearly did it a second time, when some character would pop out of a dark corner or from behind a crate. And when the "evil" arrives, it gets just that.....evil. Lot of sounds and images from the original Dooms, pop up here and there. It's definately a must have for anyone that remotely enjoys FPS games.

Lyion wrote:Vonk, is 64bit actually faster for games? I've read its actually slower in some cases.

I'm not sure... I took a break from the overclocker community a few months ago when my life got stressful. I know that the top benchmarks are all being done by people with 64-bit chips. 3dMark is usually a good guage at gaming performance... and the first person to break 30k 3dmark2001 was using an AMD FX chip (64-bit). Of course, his cooling system wouldn't fit underneath my desk... but... he did it. I'm sure that machine would run Doom3 on max settings without a hiccup. If, after a bit of research, I find that there is no actual 'gaming' boost from going to 64, I'll be pretty happy... I can go buy the new Nvidia 6800, overclock the hell out of it... and stay confident in the upper echelons of 'high-end' PCs.

vonkaar wrote:

Lyion wrote:Vonk, is 64bit actually faster for games? I've read its actually slower in some cases.

I'm not sure... I took a break from the overclocker community a few months ago when my life got stressful. I know that the top benchmarks are all being done by people with 64-bit chips. 3dMark is usually a good guage at gaming performance... and the first person to break 30k 3dmark2001 was using an AMD FX chip (64-bit). Of course, his cooling system wouldn't fit underneath my desk... but... he did it. I'm sure that machine would run Doom3 on max settings without a hiccup. If, after a bit of research, I find that there is no actual 'gaming' boost from going to 64, I'll be pretty happy... I can go buy the new Nvidia 6800, overclock the hell out of it... and stay confident in the upper echelons of 'high-end' PCs.

Hmm, I wonder if I keep my 2.6 and get a 6800 if it'd hold me over for another year or two...

Good lord, 24000 on 3Dmark2001. I was pleased with my 14000 ><

Probably not 'two' years Lyion... but at least a year, yeah. The more I read about the 6800, the more I'm impressed. I'm probably going to sell my 9800 no OC for $150 or so... and then buy a 6800 when I find it on sale. I'll probably have to get another waterblock for the GPU though... doubt I can make a fit =/.

Kalec, what is the multi-player experience like?

Pure deathmatch with small compact maps. Some have certain quirks like the lights cutting out and complete darkness at certain points etc.. All in all it's very fast paced and fun, but you really need to knock down all the graphics for the multiplayer to be enjoyable due to the lag.

Apparantly, they are pushing for mods pretty quick in multiplayer. The game menu is set up to load mods from the first load up screen, and I'm sure the community will soon have some cool additions to multiplayer.

For single player I definately give it a 10/10 so far, and for multiplayer a 6-7/10. But I'm sure after the mods hit and the multiplayer expands out, it will be much better.

Only managed to try it out for an hour. Darkness is an understatement. Got a few jolts with some of the monsters rushing..but after awhile it seemed predictable. The sounds are incredible though. Wish I had some surround sound speakers to really experience it's full potential.

Do you think their netcode is optimised? Not doubing id here, but I've been getting some majorly shitty pings. Hope it was my ISP's fault. :/

Looking forward for somebody to make a Rocket Arena'esque Doom. That would be awesome.

Doom3 rocks. I played for an hour or so last night. Took me a while to get it to run with a decent frame rate but now it's running pretty well considering the craptastic hardware I have. Looks like it's time for me to ditch my 1700 and drop that 400MHZ Barton 3200 in my board. I imagine that would offer my best performance boost for the money. The 3200's are getting close to $100 now. I usually wait until a chip is $100 before I buy it... rarely have I ever paid more for one.

Put a mobile barton 2500 in it, pop a $50 heatsink on top... OC it to 3600 / 3800'ish levels. Cheaper and faster.

vonkaar wrote:Put a mobile barton 2500 in it, pop a $50 heatsink on top... OC it to 3600 / 3800'ish levels. Cheaper and faster.

The 3200's can't be OC'd like that?

They can... but you are spending more initially. They are the exact same chip, well... not the mobile, but an unlocked 2500 is the exact same as an unlocked 3200... one was just 'verified' to run at 2.2ghz instead of 1.8ghz. If you assume that both can be cranked up to 2.3 with decent air-cooling... why spend $150 on a 3200 instead of $75 on a 2500?

vonkaar wrote:They can... but you are spending more initially. They are the exact same chip, well... not the mobile, but an unlocked 2500 is the exact same as an unlocked 3200... one was just 'verified' to run at 2.2ghz instead of 1.8ghz. If you assume that both can be cranked up to 2.3 with decent air-cooling... why spend $150 on a 3200 instead of $75 on a 2500?

The 3200 can run at 400MHZ FSB and is about $117 with shipping. Can the 2500 run at 400? Is it worth the extra money for the faster bus speed? I have not paid attention to the OC scene since I bought my smoking hot Celeron 300A and ran it at a screaming 450!

I'm loving it so far. I picked it up last night and installed it, but before I did that I installed the ATI calalyst 4.7 drivers (craaaaap). I reverted back to the 4.6's and all is good.

The game defaults me into 1024x768 in high mode. I kicked it up to 4AA manually. It runs very solid and pretty smooth for the most part. There are a few jerks but mostly when going into a large room with lots of stuff happening.

So far one of my favorite parts is when walking into this room and it's all dark (haha like every room in D3) then this guy pops out from behind a huge crate and starts talking to me, I jumped and yelped. Lots of little things like that throughout the game so far LOL.

It's just like all the other Quake and Doom series except alot scarier, it's almost like a totally new revamped version of System Shock 2. If you like a good jump and want to get your blood rushing, great game to pick up.

My 2500 is running at 424.

Hey look, I can see myself in the mirroHMYGODWHATTHEHELLISHAPPENING!

Enjoying the game thus far.

vonkaar wrote:My 2500 is running at 424.

Geek.