QuakeCon 2012: Doom 3: BFG Edition

Hands-on Preview

by Nicholas Laborde

©2012 Nicholas Laborde

Rarely do you find a franchise more influential than Doom.

The king of video game violence controversy and one of the first modern first person shooters, Doom blew the doors off of what we thought was possible in a video game.

Nearly a decade later, Doom is back in the ultimate package: Doom 3: BFG Edition.

Featuring Doom, Doom 2, Doom 3, and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, BFG looks to be the ultimate Doom experience.

Big freaking game?

I had an opportunity to spend thirty minutes with Doom 3 during QuakeCon 2012, and it’s just the way you remember it… except with much-improved visuals and far smoother gameplay.

The standard game clocks at approximately 60 FPS when in standard mode, but during my demonstration, I sampled the 3D mode.

Now, I’m not the strongest proponent of 3D. It hurts my eyes after a while, and don’t even get me started on how my eyes react to it when my glasses are even a little bit dirty.

I was thoroughly impressed with the 3D offerings in the BFG Edition, although I personally won’t be using it at home.

The biggest and most central complaint I always hear in regards to 3D gaming is trouble with depth. We’re in a three dimensional environment, but bringing that in to “3D” display can cause things to not appear as our eyes believe they should.

As far as I could tell, Doom 3 looked better than ever in 3D.

The package doesn’t feature any sort of co-op (except in the original title) because it’s a straight port of the PC version.

The only real thing to complain about here is the textures. They’re nowhere near as nice as what 343 Industries did with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, especially since BFG Edition is being proclaimed as a remake.

I would like to imagine that being a PC port would entail better textures, but unfortunately, they look 2005-06 era at best.

That’s not a bad thing, but I expected a little bit more.

The other major addition to the game is that of the flashlight. For the longest time, it was joked that the most necessary item to be implemented in Doom 4 was a roll of duct tape… to tape your flashlight to your gun.

Now, the simple press of a button turns on your fancy new armor-mounted flashlight.

In addition to streamlining this, one of the more interesting choices was the lack of a crosshair (especially since this is geared toward a console market).

Instead, we have the utmost of sacrilege: auto-aim in a Doom game.

I found myself chuckling when discovering that even the BFG was automatically going toward my targets.

A wild October

Doom 3: BFG Edition releases on October 16th in America and Europe on the 19th.

If you’ve been living under a rock and have yet to play one or all of the Doom titles, now’s a perfect chance to relive them.

While the lack of co-op and better quality visuals is a little unnerving, it’s still going to be a great deal for a great price.

©2012 Nicholas Laborde

Filed under: Console gaming, Demo impressions, Game Impressions, New Game Information, New PS3 Games, New Xbox 360 Games, PS3 Game Previews, PS3 News, QuakeCon 2012, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Game Previews, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | "First Person Shooter", BFG Edition, Doom, Doom 3, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, Doom 4, Doom BFG, Doom BFG Edition, Doom BFG Preview, quakecon