The offical ENWorld Doom 3 reaction thread.

[Chaos Drake]

Man this is addictive and creepy. Last game that gave me the shivers like this was Fatal Frame. But it's nice to know you can blast the opponents in Doom 3 to pieces.

 

[KenM]

Anyone else having trouble with the system scan option in the video options? When I first tried it, none of my settings changed. I could still change them manually. I know my system is not so bad that it would stay on lowest settings.

Also check out this article,funny. http://www.g4techtv.com/feature.aspx?article_key=47784

 

[Calico_Jack73]

One other tweek that would have been nice...

In the original Doom and Doom 2 the Shotgun tended to be the most used weapon in the game. The single barrel shotgun reloaded fast enough to make it worthwhile to use at all stages of the game and the double barrel shotgun traded off firepower for loading speed but was still fast enough.

Now my gripe is the shotgun in Doom 3. Does anyone think that it is just a little too slow when it comes to firing? It also doesn't seem (to me at least) that it packs enough punch. When I walk up to a zombie and stick it in his gut I want to blow the SOB in half but sometimes it takes two shots. Ever since I got the machine gun I've quit using the shotgun except to take out a zombie or two when I've got plenty of time and room to move.

By the way, that tweek over at PlanetDoom worked great. Here is the URL again if you missed it. Since I am running with a Gig of RAM I cranked the value up to 256 and the game is running as smooth as silk.

Doom 3 Tweek

 

[ShadowX]

The shotgun sucks, for the reasons mentioned above. I only use it when I am low on ammo which is actually quite frequently, one of the better aspects of the game. Then again I never open storage lockers because you have to listen to those stupid audio tapes.

 

[Dark Jezter]

The shotgun dosen't suck, really. You just need to remember that to use it efficently you need to get very close to your target (close enough to hug them, basically). I've can kill imps with a single shotgun blast about a quarter of the time, and two shotgun blasts every other time.

Also, whenever I kill a monster with the chainsaw, I find myself muttering "Groovy" or "Shop smart, shop S-Mart."

 

[KenM]

I have not found the chainsaw yet. I'm in Alpha labs 4. Did I miss it?

 

[Dark Jezter]

I can't remember exactly where Alpha Labs 4 is in relation to the chainsaw, but the chainsaw is fairly hard to miss. Even if you manage to miss the first time, you can just pick another one up from the chainsaw-wielding zombies you'll meet later on.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

The shotgun dosen't suck, really. You just need to remember that to use it efficently you need to get very close to your target (close enough to hug them, basically). I've can kill imps with a single shotgun blast about a quarter of the time, and two shotgun blasts every other time.

I'm just comparing it to the Shotgun in Doom 1 & Doom 2 because Doom 3 is supposed to be a retelling of the story of Doom 1. If they really wanted it to be Doom 1 all over again I think the Shotgun should be as effective in this game as it was in earlier games. The only time I DIDN'T use the shotgun in the first games was when I faced down boss characters... I'd whip out the chaingun, rocket launcher, or BFG for them.

Incidently, I'm only on Alpha 2. Life keeps getting in the way of any real quality time.

 

[Tsyr]

Shotgun is *too* short range, is my gripe. This has been getting worse in ID software games every since the days of DOOM. The shotgun has darn near become an ammo-limited melee weapon at this point.

That said, nothing takes out an imp like the shotgun.

 

[Tsyr]

Regarding that tweak. I think there may be some variance depending on your system... I suspect the better your system can run doom without tweeking, the less it will actually effect you.

For me, my system specs are:

Intel P4 3.0 ghz
1 gig corsair XMS DDR400 RAM
GeForce FX 5900 ULTRA 256 meg
SATA HD

Running on ultra-high detail mode, 1024x768 resolution

Scores generated from running "timedemo demo1" from the console:

Stock: 28.6 frames per second
Tweaked(changed from 20 to 256): 27.9 frames per second

So I actually show a slight loss in performance. However, I will say, it was generaly a smoother, more consistant performance.