Doom 3 impressions

Even though I'm no real fan of the twitchy variety of first person shooters which accounts for most every game in id history (the Quake series, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Doom 1 and 2) I just had to grab Doom 3.

Doom 3 is a superb horror game with an insane amount of detail. The graphics and sound effects are top notch and the story moves along nicely. Although the weapons are pretty standard fare, they all have a good feel and they look fantastic. I'm only about halfway through the game and I already feel I've gotten my money's worth.

After playing Half-Life mods (a Quake II engine game) and Quake III powered games like "Call of Duty" for the last few years I'm excited to see what games id's new technology will help produce.

Doom 3 isn't all roses... I know the focus of Doom 3 is the excellent single player game, but I can honestly say the multiplayer gameplay hasn't advanced much since the original Doom. I'm sure Quake IV will be the big multiplayer powerhouse for id - I just wish Doom 3 multiplayer had something to offer beyond 1995 era gaming.

One other minor speed bump... Even with the newest video card drivers installed and having a system that far exceeds the minimum hardware specs, I did have quite a few game crashes and actually lost a couple of quick saves. I understand these types of problems are fairly common for cutting edge games like Doom 3 - it just would have been nice if the bugs weren't there.