Doom 3
(Activision for the PC)
by Eric Johnson
Doom 3 is finally here, having titillated the video game press since 1999. The next great visual leap forward has arrived, putting PC owners on notice that some of their most beloved rigs reside on the endangered species list. It was developed by Id, corporate matriarch of the first-person shooter, and a reliable studio with an impressive resume. While Doom 3‘s hyper-realistic lighting effects, unprecedented detail, noirish shadows, and undeniably mind-blowing graphics should come as a shock to no one, the fact that the game is good enough to evade the ominous tech demo cliché just might be.
This doesn’t mean I’d recommend blindly dropping $50 without doing your homework. Unless you own a great computer, look at the technical requirements first, and then take a calculated risk. For those of us with more humble computers, a few hours of futzing around with settings should result in a satisfying experience. My own rig, with its 64 meg GeForce 4 video card gets a chunky but acceptable frame rate with the graphics set on medium quality. Yeah, I need a new card to see this baby sizzle as it was meant to. It’s a sobering reminder that PC gamers always walk a fine line between the cutting edge, the affordable, and the antique. Those who can’t take the pressure usually resort to console systems, and for the hardware challenged, wait three months for the X-Box version.
(www.activision.com, www.doom3.com)