Half Life 2 vs Doom 3

Doom 3 got an 8.5 from GameSpot, just a FYI. Probably the most reliable review site out there (my opinion, of course). Mag reviews (which is pretty much all I've seen) always seem to be way off the mark for my tastes.
 
I don't know how GameSpot can be the most reliable, since their reviews are written by several different people. Same goes for all the other review sites. I tend to just ignore them and play it for myself.
 
I have mixed feelings about GameSpot reviews and reviews in general. I used to have a lot of respect for GameSpot but they've done several terrible reviews over the years and often come across as extremely arrogant. I tend to read reviews from several sites, hope to play a demo, then make a reasonably educated purchase.

I'm about 6 hours into the Doom3 single player campaign. The game is defnitely a techincal achievement with insane graphics and remarkably smooth gameplay considering the graphics (from the perspective of someone playing it on an AMD 3000+, 1g RAM, ATI Radeon Pro 9800).

I've read that the SP campaign is only about 20 hours long, which is pretty standard these days IF the campaign is of high quality. I think so far the campaign is of high quality but I seriously doubt I'd want to play through it a second time - at least not for a long time. The campaign is highly immersive and scary as hell (I've had chills and/or a racing heart many times so far) but it's also extremely linear, has some (well done) scripted scenes, is pretty much repetitive corridor/room/indoor fighting, and has some annoyances (well covered in the GameSpot review) like the flashlight and trivial plot elements via the PDA). Unless you're a hardcore Doom person I think it'd be somewhat tedious to play through Doom3 more than once - compared to other somewhat similar titles like Halflife, FarCry, or Call of Duty.

I kind of don't like how Doom3 maintains suspense by what I consider cheesy mechanisms (like darkness and shadow), stealth undead, critters continually materializing behind you, and the fact that somehow this base is littered with a ridiculous amount of secret compartments perfectly sized to contain minions of hell. Oh gee, I'm in a room. Oh gee...the lights just suddenly went out and two huge secret compartments opened up unleashing demons from hell. I wonder who designed THIS starbase. Normally you'd think an expensive Mars base would be efficiently designed to conserve materials and space - which wouldn't likely involve lots of extra secret compartments just in case all hell breaks loose and zombies and demons need somewhere to chill while waiting for the hero to pass by. Seriously - some of these zombies were recently base personnel and now they're "hiding" in secret compartments?

Anyways....

I kind of prefer the terror that FarCry inspires where the damage model is more realistic, the enemies use the same weapons as you, and the enemies scare you in broad daylight because they have decent AI and if you make the slightest mistake you're in serious trouble - compared to Doom3 where you can take surreal amounts of damage and terror is maintained through a lot of very fantastic means.

Another thing that bothers me about Doom3 is the jacked up price tag. Yeah, it's only $5 more than your average premium game and yeah, it has insane graphics - but is it really worthy of the extra money, especially if this starts a bad trend in everyone jacking up game prices?

Anyways, due to what I see as limited replayablity, the jacked up price, and the elements of ridiculousness that detract from anotherwise solid gameplay experience I'd have a hard time rating Doom3 really high. Doom3 is technically brilliant and graphically amazing and is highly immersive but I think if you judge the entire package you have to consider its negative elements too.

Ultimately no matter how I'd rate Doom3 I think it's worth playing if you can afford it and have a machine that will run it. Even if you can't replay it that much and even if it does have some cheese factors it's definitely worth playing for the graphics, for the carnage and gore, and for the simple fact that this game will immerse you and scare the crap out of you.

Paul
 
I remember when games were designed to last 100 hours, now they all only last about 20. I think they spend so much on graphics and sound that they forget about the game play or length because they run out of money.

Personally i would rather have another few levels in MaxPayne2 then be able to turn on and off taps and flush the toilet.
 
That's why I love RPG games. They are made to be much longer than those FPS story. My brother finished Metroïd (Gamecube) in a week (2 or 3 hours per night) and he finished a LOT of game in a really short time... the only reason he was doing them over was to have a 100% completion rate... otherwise... it has finished it.

A game that is not really RPG and not really FPS that I think really rules... is GTA Vice City. I give that game to my younger brother and they got hassles everytime on who is the turn to play. Not really possible to do that on a FPS (not even a RPG). But for my own pleasure... I love RPG game which require some brain to play. They got some enigma that are worth breaking through them.

But I must admit I like to fire so butt high in the sky with game like Far Cry, Half Life and a few other :p

Someone ready for a little one on one ? (Hell... I must get back to work... :p)
 
They COULD take 100 hours to complete, but you'd have to really mess around. I completed both of them in under 25 hours, and I completed most (its impossible to complete all of them) quests...
 
VolteFace said:
I don't know how GameSpot can be the most reliable, since their reviews are written by several different people. Same goes for all the other review sites. I tend to just ignore them and play it for myself.
Click to expand...

As I said, my opinion. It's just that 99% of the reviews I read from their site, I tend to agree with. Over the last 5 years or so I've learned to trust their opinions... they all seem to be in the same ballpark as my own. Sure, there are those rare occassions (1%) where I think they're a bit off the mark, but that's not unexpected.

I'm sure other people have similar experiences with other review sites.
 
I think most reviews these days are very corrupted by advertisers and publishers, online and in magazines. Its a shame how bad Pc Gamer is, yet its the best gaming magazine out there available in the US. PC Zone used to be awesome back in the mid 90's, but is really hard to find now.

Its well known that most reviewers get to review a game 'exclusively' if they (for example) give a rating of at least 80%.

Not to mention the fact that the industry is currently flooded with unoriginal games. All we really see is new graphics and the occasional improvement over a stale genre (GTA3 is a major exception to this rule, but then look at how many gta3 clones there are now!!!)

Bring back the 90's when we had the originals Civ, UFO Xcom, Synicate, eye of the beholder 2, Doom/Wolf 3d, and of course Kings Quest, Space Quest, and Quest for Glory.
 
The 90s brought the sort of power that allowed game designers to come up with new and inventive ideas that was not previously possible.

Now we've had that power for approximately 10 years or so, all the idea's have all ready been thought up and used. Now again we get something new like GTA3, but on a whole all the idea's have already been used. I mean look at C&C, how many times can u repackage the same game???

The 90s were wicked though, i especially loved Dune2 (evolved into C&C), Civ2 and Doom :) I stil play Civ2 quite alot, i have Civ3, but it doesnt seem to have the gameplay - to many options and different ways to win - also the corruption is so stupidly high, it makes it pointless.
 
They are already working on Civ4, and they have commented that they going to remove that method of corruption alltogether, as i agree its stupidly high. What I do is generate a map in the map generator and then create a custom scenerio with low corruption.

As for corrupt reviews, I can't find the exact article on Slashdot, but this is a related article: http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/05/25/178228.shtml?tid=127&tid=186&tid=98&tid=99
 
>What I do is generate a map in the map generator and then create a custom scenerio with low corruption

How can i do this please? I can create maps easily enough, didnt u know u could change the corruption rate or anything!
 
I'm at work, so I don't have it in front of me, but in your start menu goto to then civilization 3 menu. There should be a map editor or scenerio creator or something like that folder where you can find a scenerio creator.

inside this app you can generate maps, and then there is something like scenerio editor or properties, there are like 30 tabs here to control the gameplay, and one of them controls corruption, its game options, or difficultly or something, I can't remember sorry, you'll just have to look.

Sorry to be so vague but I haven't done it in a couple of monthes either...
 
I have made maps b4. But never came across the corruption - will have to have a look 2nite - might install some life into the game!

Was thinking about digging out Civ2 lately, perhaps may make do with Civ3 then!

Where did u find out about Civ4? Dont u think they are just milking it now? I personally think they should leave it another 5 years or so. Every 2/3 years is to soon for the same game (yes it always will be the same) to be released. When the next step of evolutional graphics comes along - then would be a good time.
 
LMAO!!!!! In doom3 there's like a cabinet which says "type in your password for your free gift" - so I look through various emails.. and I see one which says something about "We're devlivering a cabinet with free stuff to your room, visit www.martianbuddy.com to find out the code"... THAT SITE EXISTS!! LMAO that's SO leet!!
 
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Bet Civ4 will be crap though. Ruin the serious, the 4th of everything always is - pretty much like the 3rd really :(

Christ i am a grumpy old git arent i?
 
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