here a report from http://www.doom3.de
man.. if only the half of the stuff is true, this game gonna be hell o_O
ROBERT DUFFY MUST DIE. Ill let him finish working on Doom 3 first, but his day is coming. The programmer is tap-dancing around my rocket fire...and when Im just about to get the drop on him, the lights go out. How did I come to be so owned, you ask? After three years of development with minimal press information (and hundreds of stories for every gib-sized morsel of information), Id promised CGW a behind-the-scenes peek at the latest progress on Doom 3, no holds barred. In a single day, theyd show everything: All the big questions would be answered, all the weapons would be revealed, and previously unseen levels would be explored. Welcome, gentle readers, to your Doom.
HELLFIRE, TEXAS
In the same building that houses the office of the mayor of Mesquite, Texas, sits the unassuming headquarters of Id Software. Once inside, its obvious these offices arent for selling insurance. Theres a 6.1 THX-certified conference room equipped with a plasma monitor and a Falcon Northwest PC with Doom 3 emblazoned in neon lights on the side. Our demo driver for today is lead designer Tim Willits. He fires up the single-player game, talking about how he wants to scare the shit out of people. Since the only thing scary about the original Doom for me was the multiplayer competition, I take Willits warning with a grain of salt.
Do we really need to go into the proprietary physics, shadows, and A.I. being poured into the Doom 3 engine? Its been praised, it looks good, and everyone has said their two cents. Seeing it firsthand however, makes me feel like Im on the set of Aliens. The slow pacing, claustrophobic environments, and use of shadows all add a great deal to the games palpable tension.
The pacing is intentionally slow, says Willits. After all, we put all this work into [the environments] and we want to give people the opportunity to explore them. Otherwise, whats the point? He says this while unloading buckshot into a zombie commando. A whip-like tentacle snakes out from its right arm and lashes at the screen.
There are plenty of other details in the carnage, including a bloody handprint on the wall and a disemboweled body hunched over a table. Wait. Was that the sound of a cracked pipe hissing...or something else?
Willits opens his in-game PDA for the next mission objective. The PDA contains maps, goals, e-mails retrieved from bodies, and so on. It's a cool little window into the world, but if you read some information carefully, you'll find hints to secret areas, inside jokes, and other minutia. For example, at one point you read an email that you've downloaded to your PDA from a supervisor. In it, you're asked to fix the loose floor panels in the Alpha Labs before someone falls through and is injured. If you read the e-mail, you'll know where to find the broken floor panels, which lead to a secret underground passage. You can then sneak up behind a number of demons and zombies and kill them before they can ambush you.
Back in the game, a stray shot at a window suddenly breaches the base's atmosphere. Oxygen is getting sucked out to the Martian surface. You'll die from suffocation if you're not careful, but the developers, unfortunately, had to kill the visual effect of getting sucked out along with the air. "The calculations for physics of shattering glass are bad enough, but trying to factor in [getting sucked out a window] is just too much," says Willits.
Now, we're walking in the dark and escorting the NPC Ed through some corridors. Lit only by Ed's lantern, imps pop out from the shadows, and I jump back for a second, laughing. These aren't come pixilated little buggers. They are detailed and coming right at you. It feels like a movie.
You start the game as a marine walking through a research outpost on Mars. " you don't jump into the action right away. As soon as you want to begin, you report for duty and go out on patrol," Willits says. Before long, a gateway to hell opens, leaving you as one of the few survivors. Ah, but seeing as how you played the original Doom, you already knew that. But did you know that there's an ancient civilization buried deep in the heart of Mars? Did you know that this had also happened centuries ago and the demons were beaten back with some ultimate weapon?
While the folks at Id didn't have any artwork to show of this nifty bit of alien gear, we can give you a hint: the new weapon, called the soul cube, has nothing to do with hell raiser. This contraption, though, was powerful enough to beat back the demonic hordes once. Realizing its power, the hordes grabbed it and brought it back to hell to make sure it couldnt be used again-which means youre going to have to go down into the bowels of the underworld, where this super weapon is being guarded, retrieve it, and stop the inevitable invasion of Earth.
HOT POCKETS
Deep in the caverns of Mars, at an excavation site, we start seeing signs of a previous culture. A huge temple with writings on the wall means more secrets for you to uncover. Little pockets of hell are busting through the walls. Normal areas meld with brimstone, and pentagrams appear on the ground. But theres no time to see the sights, as a couple of revenants start launching plasma balls and a demon floats overhead. Next come waves of zombie security guards armed with shotguns. A couple shots connect, sending you reeling.
This is one part of the game that surprised me-the visceral feel of each blow. Whether you get slashed by a zombie or take a shotgun blast to the grill, your head snaps away, making it tough to focus and aim properly for a few seconds. And, thanks to the per-poly hit detection, the strength of that shot and the subsequent blow varies. Some bits hit your armor, but the strays that actually connect with flesh are going to do more damageand every projectile is precisely calculated with the physics engine, whether youre taking potshots or just knocking out the glass from a window.
Some creature/boss spoilers ahead!