Here’s a crazy little game for anyone who ever wondered what it would be like if the universes of Duck Hunt and Doom were to collide.

Featured in Duck Doom are several Doom sounds and weapons, which the player can sequentially unlock at certain levels throughout the game. The style of play is naturally very similar to the NES counterpart.

The download checks out at around seven megabytes, which isn’t surprising given the fact that every Doom weapon is represented here. It’s a great way to kill a few minutes, but the novelty wears off fast.

As 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.

Continue reading Quake II: Lost Marine Released →

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.

Continue reading Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil →