I love looking at things, especially entertainment (games, TV, movies) and seeing what ideas I could generate to make it "better". Having said that: it seems to me that there are a few little niceties that pop up, now again, in some games but then seem to disappear from the mainstream after that.

Take, for example, guns akimbo - a gun in each hand, in a first-person shooter. You could do it in Red Faction 2, and before that in Blood, but I can't recall any other games that have this feature (feel free to comment with other titles that have this as standard, e.g. not a mod). How does that apply to Doom 3, you may ask? Well - how about the option to hold the flashlight and the pistol at the same time? It wouldn't upset the combat balance that much - have you tried taking out anything tougher than a zombie with the pistol? - and it add just a smidgeon of realism to the experience. Since the shotgun, SMG, chaingun, etc. need both hands to hold and aim properly, you wouldn't be able to use the flashlight with those weapons (without Duct Tape, the handy-marine's secret weapon).

Another awesome idea - how about having a 'kick' action on top of your current weapon-in-hand? Remember Duke 3D? IIRC, you could kick with a specially-bound key, without having to change weapons. Having this in Doom 3 would be excellent - if an imp, pinkie, or zombie gets too close while you're switching weapons or reloading, give them a boot to push them back, just out of clawing/biting range, until you can get your shit together. Maybe not cause much, if any, damage, but make the monsters reel slightly.

How about a secondary-fire option, where you can swing your current weapon as a blugeon - great for when your current gun runs out of ammo and you've almost destroyed that Maggot but don't want to reload, for fear of getting clawed/bitten. Give 'im a swat and be done with it!

I'm sure there are lots of ways to improve D3, but these are just my suggestions. Feel free to agree, disagree, or play it your own way.

Well.... One week has come and gone since I got my copy of Doom 3 (well, as of about 5:30 tonight, but close enough).

I've laughed, I've cried (not really, but I have emitted a few high-pitched screams), and I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience so far. My anxiety level as I progress through the game is dropping, although I do get the odd creepy-crawly feeling when certain events happen (random or spooky sound effects, lights dropping out of nowhere, ceiling panels crashing down at random). I've played a bit every day since I picked it up, something quite rare for me. Based on some walkthroughs I've seen (but not read - I hate ruining the surprises), I'm a little over a third of the way through the single-player portion of the game. At this rate, I expect to finish the game in about 2 weeks.

I've learned how to better use my weapons, and find that I use the shotgun and SMG almost exclusively; a shotgun blast or two will finish anything off at close range, and the SMG is pretty decent at hurting at medium range. Anything more extreme than that, and I wait for them to get closer while I find cover or an escape route, just in case.

I just finished Alpha Labs 4 last night, and I got the plasma gun. [Side note - when the voices tell you to follow them, it's a good idea. So far, I've gained valuable items in doing so.] I don't want to spoil a surprise, but I'll just warn you to make sure you've picked up as much ammo, health and armour as you can find in AL4 before going into the room with the rocks in it. You'll see what I mean.

Insofar as different input devices to play the game with goes, I was a little disappointed. You see, because I switch frequently between my PS2, GC, N64, and PC for games, I prefer using a game pad (Logitech Wingman Rumblepad USB) for FPS/TPS. I was recently broken of that habit by Knights of the Old Republic (yes, I know, it's an RPG, but it plays much like a TPS), so I was hoping to get back in the habit of using it in D3. Maybe it's me, and I haven't looked hard enough, but I can't find any joystick support in D3. That being said, I am getting used to the keyboard-and-mouse method that other gamers swear by. It'll take some getting used to, but I'm actually not minding it that much. As I've discovered, the default keyboard mappings are OK; but I found that, during a sneak attack by an imp or some Marine zombies, I would get caught holding my flashlight and fumbling for the 'F' key; also, I would run low on ammo during an extended fight, to find myself desperately reaching for the 'R' key to reload, often to no avail (before I got killed or badly hurt). So I changed a couple of things around; the mouse wheel button (pressing down on the wheel, that is) has a default mapping to the Zoom function, which I found about as useful as tits on a bull. I changed this button to toggle the flashlight off and on. The right mouse button was originally bound to the Jump action, but since by left thumb was resting on the space bar while all my left fingers were poised over the WSAD movement keys, I re-bound the right mouse button to reload. I now find that I can handle surprises much better than before.

Late into the weekend, I ran across a walkthough on IGN that contained some info as to how to improve your installation's performance. I followed a few of the suggestions:
- defrag the hard drive; I had been putting this off for a long time anyway.
- unpack the pak files; use WinRAR to open the 5 pak files in the \Doom 3\base\ directory, and extract *all* files, using relative pathnames. This will chew up a lot of disk space - I didn't tally it all but it looks like another 2-3GB, on top of the rest of the installation. Don't delete the paks; move them to another spot on your drive, apparently multiplayer needs to use the paks and won't run without them.
- there are a few settings in the config file that you can update; set 'image_useCache' to '1', then play with 'image_cacheMegs' and 'image_cacheMinK'. There is a formula to set the last two, but I just left cacheMegs to the default (20) and set cacheMinK to 2056. I might play with it more tonight.
I also fiddled with the OpenGL and DirectX settings for my vid card in the Advanced Properties of the Display control panel applet; nothing major, just some things that I thought could boost performance without sacrificing quality.

After waiting about 35 minutes for the paks to unpack, I fired up D3 and loaded my last saved game. This first thing I noticed was that my load times were longer - I didn't time them before, or since, but I'm guesstimating that level load times have doubled. It was annoying before, but it's agonizing now. But it was worth it; as I played through the rest of AL4, not once did I have a slowdown or stutter. I wasn't looking too closely, but I don't think I saw any texture tearing, and everything looked just as sweet as before. In retrospect, I should have checked framerates before and after making the changes, but hell - I'm happy. I just wanted a smooth display for the game, and I have it.

So, your milage may vary, but try some of the tips out. Just remember to save your savedgames directory, our you may end up unhappy. :)

Enjoy.

Well... Last night, I had an opportunity to play D3 again, for about 2 hours.

The first thing that I noticed when I loaded my last saved game and got to the place where I died the night before, was that I wasn't quite so jumpy. Sure, I was still whipping around with the flashlight to make sure that the groaning noise I heard behind me wasn't a zombie trying to mash my head like a boiled potato, but when imps jump from around corners and hissed at me, I wasn't creeped out quite as much.

That being said, there were a few spots where I almost screamed: for example, there's this one particular door that you have to go through on the way back to Marine HQ, and as soon as you open it - before you even get a chance to look into the room - an imp, who had been crouching on the other side, waiting for you - slamms into you, knocking you backwards. Very disorienting, rather frighteneing due to its' suddenness and brutality in the closed quarters. But a GREAT effect - you get the feeling like you're being hunted.

I noticed a few other things, too - zombies (and I would imagine, other monsters, too) that are hiding behind a pillar can see your flashlight beam and start moving towards you. Very cool touch.

One further observation: when I tried multiplayer the first day, I saw my own shadow (and there was 6 more weeks of winter); but when I was in the single player mode, whenever I walked in front of a relatively strong light source, I didn't see my shadow cast out from the source. Maybe a bug? Can someone playing on High Quality or (you UQB) Ultra Quality post a comment, indicating if you see this as well, or if it's just my setup/quality settings?

While thinking about the game experience so far, I came up with what I think would be a really cool evolution in gameplay: have a microphone set up to work with the game, so whan Sgt. Kelly asks where everyone is, you (the *real* you, not just the character in the game - who never seems to speak, like Gordon Freeman) reply through the mike that you're on your way, or that you're pinned down and need support. Then the game can adapt and send reinforcements, or open checkpoints for you on the way back.

Thanks to thrash242 for posting a few comments on my first-day story. He's right, the incorporation of the PDA functionality into D3 is very DX-like (although I only played the PS2 version, but I get the analogy).

Also, thrash242 mentions in his comments that the experience is much better with 5.1 speakers. From what I've read online and in print, this is probably true, and given the choice and resources, I'd be there in a heartbeat. I have a few roadblocks between me and surround sound Doom 3, though (please forgive me if it seems like I'm ranting, far from it):
- Old Sound Card. I am (still) running sound out of my rig's onboard SB128. I know, shame on me; I have a Vortex2 laying around somewhere, but I wanted to leave my last remaining slot space clear in order to give my Radeon some breathing space.
- Time. I'm hoping to get an Audigy ZS with the AudigyDrive for Xmas this year, if I can clear out one more PCI slot; failing that, I may have to look at one of the USB-powered external sound solutions. Anyone comment on performance/quality?
- Funding. As in, I have none. I am the sole income for my family, with myself, my wife, two kids, moderate credit card bedt, and a car lease. I commute 3 to 4 hours per day, so that's a lot of gas per week, and right now, gas ain't cheap.
- Space. As in, I have none. All of my PCs are in my corner desk in the master bedroom of my apartment; on the desk, I have two 17" CRTs, three keyboards and three mice, plus 4 towers underneath, as well as an old Cambridge Soundworks subwoofer on the floor, hooked into two Yamaha desktop speakers. If I got a 5.1 speaker system, I'd have no place to put the centre speaker or the two rear speakers. I could put them on stands so that they are in position, but like I said, I have two kids, and they would be constantly knocking them over.

So, barring a dedicated room/closet for PC gaming, I think I'm screwed for surround sound in D3. Thank you very much for the suggestion, though, thrash242.

Since it's Friday, and I don't usually post from home (to be honest - I'd rather spend my time gaming than posting ) I won't post another entry until Monday morning. I should have a good 10 hours' Dooming time in over the weekend.

Cheers.

For me, yesterday was DOOMsday: I picked up my copy of Doom 3 from EB on the way home from work.

I have to admit, I wasn't sure how I felt about the game at first; sure, I loved most of id's other original games (Doom/Doom II/Quake/Quake II), but I knew my rig wasn't going to be considered a "recommended" specs system (1.5GHz P4, 512MB RDRAM, SB128, 128MB Radeon 9600XT AGP), so I was concerned about performance and IQ.

I love my games, to be sure, but I like a very specific type of game - and the horror/scare-'em-up types never appealed to me, I get too edgy watching a creepy movie, never mind a game where I'm in control. So reading about how long-time gamers were getting creeped out and screamed like little girls in the reviews/previews of D3 online yesterday made me a little more concerned about how long I'd actually play the game for before I'd have to stop, because I'd wake my wife up with my thrashing and screaming nightmares. Yes, I am a wuss, get over it.

Well, I went ahead and got it anyway. When I got home, I started making supper, rushing between the kitchen and my PC to swap CDs in order to complete the install in the meantime. After eating supper and getting the kids to bed, I turned the lights off, turned the speakers up, and loaded the game.

Before entering the game proper, I fiddled with settings for a few minutes, to see what was available and what the software had auto-selected. For those who didn't yet know: Doom 3 will, upon first starting the game, autodetect your hardware and decide which graphics quality would best suit your system. Based on my specs (see above), D3 picked Medium Quality, which I was OK with; I'd be a little insulted if it picked Low, and I knew I wasn't going to touch Ultra, so it was between Medium or High, which I doubted I would get on account of my mid-range Radeon and minimum-speed CPU. All advanced options were turned on for me, except Vsync (no big whoop) and Antialiasing, which I've read you sound't really need - more on that in a minute. It also selected a default resolution of 640x480, which I scoffed at; I jacked it up to 1024x768, which looked moderately better, but I noticed some vid chop, so I dropped the res to 800x600 and the chop disappeared, and the detail and quality difference from the higher resolution was not noticeable at all.

Regarding Antialiasing: I've read that AA should *not* be turned on, because it will hurt performance of the game on anything less than a system capable of Ultra Quality. Because a lot of the scenery is dark of dimly-lit, you supposedly shouldn't notice many aliased edges. I took this advice and left the setting turned off, and I agree with this analysis; I looked around a fair bit on my journey from Marine HQ to the Communications room, and didn't notice any major alised edges on objects. I did see one glaring example though: In the front lobby, just after you get your bioscan at the beginning, if you look at the shadows cast by the chairs, you can see some pretty jagged edges. But you know what? It's a game. A game that you're supposed to immerse yourself in, to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the overall experience. If you can do that, you won't worry about a few alised lines here and there; besides, you'll spend far too much time in the dark with your flashlight on, praying that the noise you just heard was a machine, and not the door behind you opening to let in a zombie that wants your brains for supper.

So... I took the plunge and started a new game on Marine difficulty (medium - like I said, I'm a wuss) and enjoyed the intro sequence. Now, I'm not sure if the cutscenes are rendered within the engine or not, but the details and motion are SWEET. Talking to characters is very realistic, with the lip movements almost perfectly synchronized to the voice audio, and you can see details on NPCs' skin that is just incredible. I spent the first 20 minutes slack-jawed as I progressed through the first playable bit of the game.

Now, I don't want to spoil the experience for those who have not yet picked up a copy, but suffice it to say that if a game has *ever* made you jump when it throws something unexpected at you - prepared to be scared. As the teleport opens and demons start pouring into Mars City, the tone of the background music changes; the environment sound effects change subtly; and the most creepy part that I found was whenever you get a radio transmission from other marines, you can hear them screaming as they're attacked by demons, and can hear the growls of the monsters themselves. Couple all that with your first encounter with an imp, and you will get creeped out. I spent a lot of time whipping my flashlight around, searching every crevice - even overhead - upon hearing a strange noise. At one point, my wife came up behind my chair and tapped me on the shoulder, and I almost leaped out of my skin.

Eventually, after getting lambasted by a zombie and an imp, I had to stop playing after about an hour and a half, because my heart was racing and I was getting too jumpy.

I can't wait to play some more.