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Todd Hollenshead defends Doom III News
PC Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 News by Tom Bramwell
Id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead has defended Doom III's reputation, pointing out that the four-year-old first-person shooter is "the most successful game in id's history".
Asked by Kikizo whether there were any 'weaknesses in Doom III that need to be corrected' for upcoming multiformat racing/shooting hybrid Rage, Hollenshead rejected the premise completely.
"I think there are three people on the internet that keep making these posts that Doom 3 was 'bad', and they get no credibility from any other people... there's some mass-misperception out there," he said.
"I get this occasionally - why don't I think Doom III was successful? We sold over three million units! It's the most successful game in id's history."
Released in August 2004 on PC (and later on Xbox), Doom III took players on a spooky tour of a dark and distorted Mars research base where naughty experiments had opened a gateway to Hell.
The game was highly rated at the time, even collecting a 9/10 rating from our own Kristan Reed, but it did come under fire for its repetitive environments, single-minded focus and the fact you couldn't hold the torch at the same time as your gun.
Doom's developer is currently working on various projects including a fourth game in the series based on id's current engine, id Tech 5.
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Sir_TimAlot
08/07/08 @ 14:33
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Don't worry Todd, i liked it......
that should put his mind at ease
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most recently on 08/07/08 @ 15:33
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alimokrane
08/07/08 @ 14:33
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Doom III, in my books, is one of the best FPSs ever. GREAT GREAT atmosphere
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Actually what was most wrong with Doom 3 was the 'zombie in a cupboard' syndrome that it suffered from so badly. Walk into a new area, pick up some armour, 3 hidden doors open revealing tiny little rooms full of monsters and/or some monsters just teleport in for the hell of it. Repeat. And again. And then some more.
Still, it was a good game on the whole despite its flaws. |
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ChthonicEcho
08/07/08 @ 14:35
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I love insecure and ignorant people. They're always a source of great entertainment.
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Have to agree. Doom 3 was great fun, mainly off the back of the fantastic atmosphere the game built up. With the possible exception of some sections in FEAR, no other game has made me creep round levels in case an enemy pops out from behind the next door I open. The torch / gun thing might have been unrealistic, but it was clearly a gameplay mechanism and in that sense, it worked really well.
Surely if people want to lay into any id game, then it should be Quake 4. (Okay that was Raven, but still...)
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Artemis_Matsas
08/07/08 @ 15:00
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Great game, Great graphics, Great atmosphere. I can't believe that people are complaining about it!
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daz_john_smith
08/07/08 @ 15:04
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I must be one of the 3 people who didn't like it that much, but I've never started a thread on the interweb to voice my dislike. It just made me want to play Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 again.
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I think that the biggest con people have against it is the "I grab this weapon and predictably there will be monsters spawning around me" gameplay. But what do they expect? This is exactly how doom games work. It's the doom formula.
Besides, it made my mate so scared that he hasn't finished the game to this day. Comedy gold. \0/ |
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Stupid_Fat_Hobbit
08/07/08 @ 15:09
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Doom 3 was a perfectly decent game. I think it got more criticism than it deserved because it came out within a few months of Half-Life 2, and frankly, a lot of games look bad in comparison to HL2.
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TSYNDMonkfish
08/07/08 @ 15:23
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Doom3 did look great, plus it had a nice & dark atmosphere, but once the novelty wore off it was just to repetitive for my tastes. I guess I'm not a great fan on linear shooters as I got bored with Bioshock also.
Id still buy Doom4 when it comes out though. |
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DanWhitehead
08/07/08 @ 15:31
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As far as unimaginatively designed, heavily scripted, AI-free, on-rails haunted house rides go, Doom 3 is definitely in the Top 10.
Well, Top 20, at least. |
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the simple fact (in my opinion) is that DOOM III did have its flaws but they were all based around keeping it a DOOM game (repetitive gameplay, heavy scripting etc.) it's what gave it that oldschool feel and why many people loved it so much.
As for the flashlight thing, I can see why people disliked it but I thought it was genious, it really made you feel vunerable and kept you on edge ready to quickly switch to your gun if something jumped out. |
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asphaltcowboy
08/07/08 @ 15:51
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"I love doom III, only complain was the flash light thing, but it is good for a laugh."
The flashlight thing was awesome - only complete muppets complain about the flashlight switch! |
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subtlesnake
08/07/08 @ 15:51
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I thought it was a very good game, and deserving of 'AAA' status, but it was not without its faults. The beginning was pretty tense, and embodied a strong survival horror vibe, but this soon gave way to the familiar arcadish action, and as a player I never felt particularly threatened. On the other hand, I thought the game picked up towards the end, climaxing in the trip to hell, which was suitably intense.
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Mentalist(air)
08/07/08 @ 15:58
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"I think there are three people on the internet that keep making these posts that Doom 3 was 'bad'
Doom 3 was bad. |
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Dark, monotonous corridors with monster closets aplenty and enemies spawning behind you in cleared out rooms. Doom 3 was a revolution alright, a revolution in insipid game design and bland monotony. We'd grown out of Doom 3 before it was released. We're even more grown out of it now.
If there are only three people badmouthing Doom 3 on the internet, I'd like to meet them. They certainly have more of an idea of good game design than the cretin currently driving iD down the hoary road of complacency and franchise milking. |
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Uncle_Fishboy
08/07/08 @ 16:02
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Why do people blither on about how great HL2 is? I played through it (and the extra episodes) for the first time on the 360 recently. I was glad when it was over. Boring. Crap graphics. Load of old toss. Go away HL2 - you are the shit of devils.
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illusiondance
08/07/08 @ 16:37
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mr.rowsdower has summarized the faults of the game perfectly.
while im aware some people seriously love the simplicity of the game and find the graphical effects exciting, i personally found the bankruptcy of design ideas pretty appalling - to the extent that it was really hard to stop ignoring the shortcuts and lazy decisions taken by the id staff. this hollenshed man must be expressing a guilty conscience through a pretence of incredulity. silly |
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Well, I was bored and frustrated by it. It had a few good genuinely scary and disturbing moments, but, basically, a horror game in a futuristic setting with a protagonist with a plasma rifle doesn't work. And the multiplayer wasn't remotely as good as Q3. No network co-op either!
Also, Serious Sam made a far better sequel to Doom than Doom 3 did.
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kingdumpalot
08/07/08 @ 17:27
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Doom 3 was bad. the graphics were meant to be groundbreaking, but they ended up being let down by the textures IMO. Also, many of the weapons lacked punch, which is quite important for FPSs. There wasn't very much variation between the enemies (though I will grudgingly admit it was a bit better than HL2 in this respect). I didn't get far enough to get to the "hell" bits, but after a very good intro, the game got boring a bit too quickly.
They got the scares right, for the most part, but I would consider that to be the bare minimum for a Doom game. |
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Der_tolle_Emil
08/07/08 @ 17:32
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I guess I would have enjoyed the game more if I didn't expect something like Doom and Doom 2. The games have pretty much nothing in common (looking at the gameplay) which was very disappointing. Yet another linear FPS that didn't know how to create suspense other than by teleporting a monster right behind you. Ok for a few times but not if every single level is based on that.
Gone are the mazes and the action packed battles in rooms full of monsters. Of course Doom 3 wasn't all that bad but in my book it simply didn't deserve to be called Doom. |
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One complaint about Doom 3 that always annoys me is the "Lots of monotonous corridors" - It's an underfunded and understaffed research facility on Mars which is run by a shady military corporation. What were you expecting? Wide open vistas of verdant green foliage with white-capped mountains in the distance and blue sky overhead? Google pictures of military bunker/ ISS/space shuttle interiors and the corridors of Doom 3 look quite nice and comfortable in comparison.
Now that I've vented my spleen, I do agree about the irritation of monster closets and the inability of a fully trained marine to hold a gun and a torch at the same time. On a related note, not only do I quite like Doom 3, but I also quite like Half Life 2. Does this make me odd? |
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DanWhitehead
08/07/08 @ 17:50
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One complaint about Doom 3 that always annoys me is the "Lots of monotonous corridors" - It's an underfunded and understaffed research facility on Mars which is run by a shady military corporation. What were you expecting?
Well, it's not like it's a documentary. Obviously dark works better for Doom, but they could've set it anywhere, or at least varied the environments within the facility. |
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The problem I had with Doom3 was it just looked to plasticy when compared to Half Life 2. HL2 was inovative where as Doom 3 struck me as being a tech demo for the latest graphic cards.
The game mechanic was tired and to be honest if you are going for shock value the first AVP game when you play as a Marine was a far more satisfying experience. Multiplayer was also bloody awful. I know Q4 is for the multiplayers but that wasn't particularly great either. I am sure there are still more people playing Q2 and Doom2 than play Doom3. |
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@ Dan Whitehead:
I'm not arguing against more level variation. Although that would have Doom 3 a better game, darkened corridors seem more logical to me and fit better within the Doom universe. Despite Doom 3 being set 137 years in the future, all the weapons (bar the plasma rifle, BFG and soul cube) have modern equivalents. The PDAs are blackberry ripoffs. Most of the buildings and architecture would be possible with current day technology and the more advanced sci-fi technology, for example, faster than light travel, doesn't seem to exist in the Doom universe. The only really fantastical element in Doom 3 is the demon infestation. With all the emphasis on current day technology, I don't see why the environments of Doom 3 shouldn't all be poorly-lit, barren corridors. After working in several hospital and university biology labs, I can tell you it's a disturbingly accurate portrayal of the real thing. |
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creepylizard
08/07/08 @ 18:37
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my problem with doom 3 was when the fecking enemies just appeared in front of, or behind, you and you had no chance of avoiding being shot....
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I enjoyed Doom III. It was never meant to go beyond the traits that made its predecessors so much, braindead, fun: search bigass weapons, find demons along the way, smash demons. I'm also glad there was no yellow-red-blue key backtracking malarchey but rather a focus on the story of a lonely marine stranded in a dark, desolate, slowly decrepifying environment, all odds against him, yet oddly managing to get by. Oh, and let's not forget it is the source of inspiration for Portal's Weighted Companion Cube.
As for the flashlight thing, if it is troublesome, I believe there's an elegant patch around where the Marine's mental capacities become just high enough to realise the wonders of taping the flashlight to the guns he finds. |
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