Category Archives: Doom

Quake II: Lost Marine Released

Doom, Gaming

Quake II: Lost Marine screenshotAs production for Doom 3 was well underway, someone asked the id Software mastermind John Carmack what directions they were hoping to take their newly-developed gaming engine. Carmack mentioned that he would very much like to revisit some of id’s earlier games, such as Quake II, and give them a full makeover with the modern engine and everything. But, he conceded, it would be too large an investment in time and resources for a company that has always had to rely on pushing forward.

That is where the story of Quake II: Lost Marine begins. Heading up a team of several talented people, Thearrel “Kiltron” McKinney, who is by far one of the community’s most talented level designers, set out to flesh out the idea of what Quake II might look in the Doom 3 engine.

Today, August 10, 2005, is when the community has a first glance at the fruit of their efforts. Releasing a special Quakecon 2005 version of the mod to the public, gamers get a small glimpse at what is an impressive attempt at recreating one of the genre’s key games.

So how does it play? I decided to take it for a little spin.

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Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil

Doom, Gaming

I think I am part of a small minority that actually enjoyed Doom 3. The cool thing to do, as typical Internet message board discussion suggests, is to bash it for what it obviously was not. The developers had many important decisions to make during development, and because it returns in many ways to “classic” Doom gameplay, it turned many people off, who insist that it wasn’t nearly innovative enough to be a 21st century game.

I disagree, and found Doom 3 to be a great deal of fun. It was a truly creepy experience my first time through. It wasn’t perfect, but I had a good time and submit that it had a bigger influence than we perhaps realize.

But enough about Doom 3. That isn’t the reason I am writing this. A few days ago, I picked up a copy of Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil. I promised myself I would check it out and was therefore pretty excited at the chance to finally play it. What follows is a short (and I mean short) account of what I thought of Nerve‘s heralded expansion pack.

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Doom 3 Review

Doom

Well I finished Doom 3 this weekend. Color me impressed. Without a doubt it’s the scariest game I’ve ever played. I had to force myself to move down those dark corridors 😉

I’m not really going to write a review because I don’t want to take the time, but I will say this. Those people who complained about the gameplay not being “innovative” enough need to go back and play the original Doom and remember what made that game great. I think Doom 3 is an excellent homage to the original vision that John Carmack and co. had over a decade ago. They set out and made the game exactly the way they had pictured doing it, and they deserve mad props for accomplishing that.

The game didn’t run spectacularly on my 64 MB Geforce 4 440 MX, but I still had an enjoyable experience. I had to turn most of the goodies off like shadows and bump maps, but will definitely be playing through it again when my PNY Geforce 6800 GT arrives later this month.

I’ve played a fair number of FPSs, but nothing like this game. It far exceeded my hopes and expectations for a conclusion to the Doom saga.

Score: A

DOOMSDAY

Doom

Well, today is the day we’ve been waiting four long years for. My copy should be arriving any time now. I’m pretty psyched about this game, except I hear it will be quite the scary experience. I’ve never been really freaked out by a game before (I was a little bit in Return to Castle Wolfenstein and, of course, Half-Life), so this ought to be quite the memorable gaming experience.

Now if only that FedEx truck would get here… 🙂

Update: They promised delivery by 3 pm, and it got here at 2:53. Well done, FedEx! Playing now, too busy to write…