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Doom 3<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;"></td></tr>
Developer(s)	id Software <tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Activision</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Engine</th><td>Doom 3 engine</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Latest version</th><td>1.3</td></tr>
Release date(s)	August 3, 2004 (Windows) October 4, 2004 (Linux) March 14, 2005 (Mac) April 4, 2005 (Xbox)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer <tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>BBFC: 18 ESRB: M (Mature) OFLC: MA15+ PEGI: 18+ (violence)</td></tr>
Platform(s)	Mac, Linux, Windows, Xbox <tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media</th><td>Win/Lin: CD (3); Mac/Xbox: DVD (1)</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">System requirements</th><td>1.5 GHz CPU or better, 384 MB RAM (512MB RAM for Mac), 64 MB video card, 2 GB drive space, 8x CD-ROM drive.</td></tr>

Doom 3 is a sci-fi horror first-person shooter computer game developed by id Software and published by Activision.

Set in 2145 in the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) research center on Mars, it is a reimagining of the original Doom, with a completely new game engine and graphics.

The game was developed for Windows and ported to Linux in 2004; five months later, it was also released for Mac OS X (ported by Aspyr) and Xbox (co-developed by Vicarious Visions). The Xbox version is graphically similar to (although less detailed than) the original and features an additional two-player online co-operation mode. An expansion, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, developed by Nerve Software and co-developed by id Software, was released on April 4, 2005. A Doom movie, loosely based on the franchise, was released roughly six months later on October 21, 2005.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Weapons 1.2 Lighting 1.3 Multiplayer 2 Story 2.1 Premise 2.2 Presentation 2.3 Plot 3 Development 3.1 Software patent controversy 3.2 Web integration 3.3 E3 3.4 Linux 3.5 Development team 4 Reception 4.1 Criticism 4.2 Rebuttals 5 Versions 6 Trivia 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Gameplay

According to John Carmack, the lead graphics engine developer at id, the "tripod of features" in Doom 3 technology is:

• Unified lighting and shadowing
• Complex animations and scripting that show off real-time, fully dynamic per-pixel lighting and stencil shadowing.
• GUI surfaces that add extra interactivity to the game

The key advance of the Doom 3 graphics engine is the unified lighting and shadowing. Rather than computing or rendering lightmaps during map creation and saving that information in the map data, most light sources are computed on the fly. This allows lights to cast shadows even on non-static objects such as monsters or machinery, which was impossible with static lightmaps. A shortcoming of this approach is the engine's inability to render soft shadows and global illumination.

To create a more movie-like atmosphere, id interspersed the gameplay with many in-game animated sequences of monsters ambushing the player or just lurking around.

To increase the interactivity with the game-world, id designed hundreds of high-resolution animated screens for in-game computers. Rather than using a simple "use key", the crosshair acts as a mouse cursor over the screens allowing the player to use a computer in the game world. This allowed an in-game computer terminal to perform more than one function, such as a readily apparent door-unlocking button, combined with a more obscure function allowing an astute player to unlock a nearby weapons locker.

Other important features of Doom 3 engine are normal mapping and specular highlighting of textures, realistic handling of object physics, dynamic, ambient soundtrack and multi-channel sound.

[edit] Weapons

Doom 3 inherits a number of weapons from its predecessors Doom and Doom II, while adding several new weapons and modifying several of the old standbys. The iconic chainsaw and BFG 9000 return, as do the pistol, shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher, and plasma gun. New additions include the flashlight, vital as a mêlée weapon and light source, grenades, a machine gun, and an alien artifact known as the Soul Cube.

[edit] Lighting

An important element in the gameplay and action of Doom 3 is light. Most levels in the game have a variety of moody lighting effects and are quite dark overall. This design choice is not only meant to foster feelings of apprehension and fear within the player, but also to create a more threatening game environment, as the player is much less likely to see attacking enemies.

This aspect is further enhanced by the fact that the player can only either wield a weapon, or the flashlight, and not both simultaneously. This forces the player to choose between wielding his or her light or weapon upon entering a room, which consequently leads to a more cautious and gradual pace for the player more conducive to a horror game.

A frequent design element found throughout Doom 3, and one which has been greatly criticized by many, is the so-called "Monster Closet". This is where after a certain trigger (in most cases when the player picks up a box of ammunition or health), a formally unseen enemy springs out to startle and attack the player. These Monster Closets take a variety of forms within the game, including doors disguised as wall pannels, corpses "playing dead" before suddenly springing to life and attacking when the player draws near, or monsters simply teleporting in directly in front of or behind the player.

[edit] Multiplayer

[edit] Story

[edit] Premise

Similar to the story of the original Doom, the game focuses on an anonymous marine who is transferred to an extraterrestrial base on a routine mission. Following the unexpected arrival of demons through experimental teleportation gates, the marine is forced to fight his way through a variety of demonic monsters to reach safety. Also in both cases the protagonist visits Hell, though in the original Doom, it is the third episode Inferno (Ultimate Doom adds a fourth, Thy Flesh Consumed, which also takes place in Hell), whereas in Doom 3 it is only one level.

Though Doom 3 retains the rather basic premise of the first game, it also makes a number of changes, most notably a much more detailed plot which adds an alien aspect into the story. Other differences include the game taking place on the planet Mars itself, rather than its moons Phobos and Deimos, and the environment of Doom 3 being much more realistic (where the original Doom gives the two moonlets Earthlike gravity and breathable atmospheres, Doom 3 takes place in the weaker gravity of Mars, with its atmosphere depicted accurately as unbreathable).

[edit] Presentation

For Doom 3 id Software employed professional science fiction writer Matthew Castello to write the script and assist in story-boarding the entire game. id focused on retelling the story and creating a tense horror atmosphere. The game's events and atmosphere show a great deal of influence from George Romero's Living Dead series and James Cameron's Aliens, as well as Valve Software's Half-Life.^{[citation needed]}

Unlike in previous id games, there are now cut scenes that give purpose and context for the player's actions and introduction to new enemies. Similar to other science fiction action/horror games such as System Shock, System Shock 2, and Aliens versus Predator 2, hundreds of text, voice, and video messages are scattered throughout the base. These messages are represented as internal e-mails and audio reports sent between lab workers, administrators, maintenance staff, and security personnel at the Mars base. The messages help to explain the background story to the player, show the feelings and concern of the people on the Mars base to build atmosphere, and reveal information related to plot and gameplay. Augmenting these are video booths and televisions which give planetary news, corporate propaganda, visitor information and technical data about the base.

Ken Levine, lead designer of System Shock 2, though a pioneer of this story-telling method, criticized how it was implemented in Doom 3: "It amazed me when I played Doom 3 that they didn't mix their recordings into the ambient space of the world. The people sound like they're in a recording booth."<ref>"The Vault: System Shock 2". PC PowerPlay (January 2006), pp.108.</ref>

Doom 3 also utilizes a number of other classic horror elements, the most prominent of which is darkness. The great majority of the levels in the game have little or even no strong lighting. Also, power outages are occasionally simulated (especially in earlier levels) which bathe the player in near-complete darkness. These aesthetics are explained by the game as resulting from the immense amount of power being diverted to the mysterious Delta Labs for the costly teleportation experiments being conducted there.

Frequent radio transmissions through the player's communications device also add to the atmosphere, by broadcasting certain sounds and messages from non-player characters meant to unsettle the player. This is extended to the gameworld through ambient sounds such as hissing pipes, footsteps, and occasional jarringly loud noises from machinery or other sources.

The emergence of stronger enemies (bosses) are backed up by new lighting effects and cutscenes, which often happens in a dark or darkening room.

[edit] Plot

The story of Doom 3 surrounds the discovery of ancient ruins underneath Martian soil. Tablets found at these sites record how an ancient Martian race developed a form of teleporter technology. They realized an important fact all too late, however; the route the teleporter took passed through Hell. Quickly invaded by demons, this alien race created and sacrificed themselves to a weapon known as the Soul Cube. This cube, powered by the souls of almost every being of this alien race, was used by their strongest warrior to defeat and contain the demons in Hell.

Having done so, the remainder of the alien race constructed warnings to any who visited Mars, warning them not to recreate this technology; to avoid opening another gate to Hell. They then teleported to an unknown location, fleeing Mars; there are hints that at least some of them fled to Earth, and that humans are descended from them. It is also stated that the demons once inhabited Earth in an unknown context, but lost possession of it due to an unknown cause. Consequently, the demons want to reclaim Earth.

The UAC, discovering the Soul Cube and the warnings, used them to invent the same teleporter technology. Discovering that they opened a gate to Hell, scientists decided to explore further (encouraged by the head scientist, Malcolm Betruger), sending teams in and even capturing living specimens from the realm at great loss of life. The portal experiments also had strange and disturbing effects on the Mars City research facility where the experiments were conducted. Scientists and workers, unaware of the nature of the work being performed by Dr. Betruger and his team, frequently reported strange phenomena and unlikely industrial accidents. A general sense of paranoia and fear spread throughout the facility, leading many workers to request a greater marine presence and/or weaponry accessible by themselves.

In response to numerous industrial accidents, complaints, and requests for transfers off Mars, the UAC on Earth sends Counselor Elliot Swann to investigate these problems. Accompanying Swann are his personal bodyguard Jack Campbell (with attaché case) and a single marine (the player). Upon checking in, the marine is called to Marine HQ to meet Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly, the marine commander of the facility. He sends the marine to track down a missing member of the science team. On the way, he overhears a tense meeting between Swann and Betruger.

The marine finds the scientist in a decommissioned communications facility, preparing to send out a warning message about Betruger's extreme portal experiments. The message warns that Betruger's tests are threatening to overload the portal's containment fields, which would create a catastrophic scenario. The scientist was unable to finish and send his message before the next portal experiment.

As soon as the portal opens, Betruger takes the Soul Cube into Hell and apparently made an unknown kind of deal with the creatures there. Under his direction, the demons again invade Mars, confident that the only key to their defeat lay safe in their hands. The marine and scientist watch on the monitors and radio as chaos erupts throughout the base. The marine watches as a fellow marine in the Delta Labs is possessed by a demon, as another flies through the screen to possess the scientist. Under Sergeant Kelly's orders to all units, the marine returns to Marine HQ. Along the way, the marine overhears radio chatter as various teams attempt to coordinate their efforts or give their last screams for help.

Returning to Marine HQ, the marine is sent by Kelly to assist Bravo Team (one of the few surviving squads) in reaching the Communications Tower to send a distress signal to the fleet. Bravo Team is carrying a military transmission card which contains the encoded message. The path to the tower leads through the Alpha Labs and Energy Production plant, both of which are heavily infested with demons. The attack has left most of the Mars base population either dead or as zombified slaves. Most marines who had survived the first attack were wiped out by the demons and the undead Mars security forces in a matter of minutes.

After entering the Administration sector, the marine overhears another conversation between Swann and Betruger. Insisting on taking over command of the situation, Swann is rebuffed by Betruger, announcing that he will handle things personally from the Delta Labs. Swann realizes he must take matters into his own hands, and Campbell opens his case to commence "Plan B."

As the marine enters the EnPro facility, Bravo Team is ambushed at the nearby motor pool. Before the marine can reach them, he learns that Swann is also heading for the communcations tower. However, Swann wishes to prevent the transmission to the fleet. Unable to find Bravo Team's communications card, he and Campbell grab a vehicle and drive to the tower. The marine later obtains the card from the last member of Bravo Team, who was hiding from Swann. The marine is catching up, but was not able to get to the tower's control room before Campbell destroys the computers with his BFG9000.

Believing they have succeeded in stopping the transmission, they head off towards the Delta Labs, where the main portal (and source of the invasion) is located. However, the marine is able to find a way into the satellite control room and access the transmitter directly. The transmission calls for a full ground engagement with no orbital bombardment. Swann contacts the marine and tells him to abort the trasmission, arguing that until they understand what they are up against, the base must remain cut off from the outside world. Kelly presses the marine to send it. The marine must make a choice.

After leaving the communications tower, the skyway to the monorail station is crushed by an invisible power, forcing the marine to find an alternate route through the waste treatment plant. In the plant, he learns that Betruger plans to wipe out the reinforcements that are on their way, and then use their ships to take the demons to Earth in order to conquer it. If the marine aborted the transmission at the tower, Betruger announces that he will send the distress signal himself. Betruger then attempts to trap the marine in the plant, which is filling up with toxic gas.

Surviving the attack and fighting his way out of the plant and through the monorail station, the marine ultimately reaches the Delta Labs, where the main portal is located. The marine also learns of the Soul Cube and the portal to Hell where it is held.

The marine, pursuing the Soul Cube, is sent into Hell by Betruger via the main portal in the Delta Labs. After losing all his weapons during the teleportation, he rigorously picks up the scattered weapons while fighting his way through the demons. Finally reaching the Soul Cube which calls out to the marine, "Save us," he is confronted by the The Guardian of Hell — a gigantic, near-blind demon who uses smaller creatures, named Seekers, to "see." With the Guardian of Hell defeated, the marine takes the Soul Cube back through the teleporter to Mars, where he learns that his actions have made Betruger unable to use the teleporter technology.

Resurfacing at the Delta Complex, the marine must again find his weapons, and battle the remaining demons in the base. Betruger, upset by his loss of the teleporter and the Soul Cube, vengefully tells the marine of a natural portal to Hell which could transport millions of his minions from Hell. On the way to the new portal, the marine encounters Counselor Swann, who is found wounded and unable to move. Swann, who is unwilling to allow the invasion of Earth, grants his PDA to the marine, and directs him to go through Central Processing and then to the caverns, where the portal is located. Swann warns that Sarge is no longer human and that Campbell has gone after him.

In Central Processing, Campbell is found dying on the floor without a weapon. As he dies, a demonic voice begins to taunt the marine, who is approaching the mortifying monster. Once the arena is treaded on, the BFG-wielding Sabaoth reveals himself as a mutated hybrid of Sarge and a military tank. After the battle is over, the spoils — the BFG9000 — is seized by the marine as he advances to Site 3 and transfers to the caverns.

At the Primary Excavation site of the caverns, the portal to Hell has been opened at the site of the alien ruins. There, the marine uses the Soul Cube to defeat "Hell's mightiest warrior", the horrific Cyberdemon, and seal the portal. The ending scene shows the marine (revealed in Doom 3's expansion pack, Resurrection of Evil, to be the only survivor) being rescued by the fleet, and Betruger reincarnated as a dragon-like demon called the Maledict.

[edit] Development

In June 2000, John Carmack posted a plan <ref name=".plan">Carmack, John (6/1/00). 6/1/00 .plan document for Doom 3. GameFinger. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.</ref> announcing the start to a remake of Doom using next generation technology. This plan revealed controversy had been brewing within id over the decision.

Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack, two of id Software's owners, were always strongly opposed to remaking Doom. They thought that id was going back to the same old formulas and properties too often. However, after the warm reception of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the latest improvements in rendering technology, most of the employees agreed that a remake was the right idea and confronted Kevin and Adrian with an ultimatum: "Allow us to remake Doom or fire us" (including John Carmack). After the reasonably painless confrontation (although artist Paul Steed, one of the instigators, was fired in retaliation),<ref name=".plan"/> the agreement to work on Doom 3 was made.

The game was in development for 4 years. In 2001, it was first shown to the public at Macworld Conference & Expo in Tokyo <ref name="geek.com">MacWorld Tokyo: iMac, GeForce3, price cuts. Geek.com (2001-02-22). Retrieved on 2006-09-03.</ref> and was later demonstrated at E3 in 2002, where a 15-minute gameplay demo was shown in a small theater. It won five awards at E3 that year.

Some speculated that id software was targeting the 2002 holiday season, although others believed a 2003 release date would be more realistic. After E3, there was no further press release from id Software regarding the project; the company's website only had Return to Castle Wolfenstein as the latest game. Late in 2002, a couple of employees at ATI Technologies leaked a development version of Doom 3 onto the Internet.<ref name="Inquirer">Hales, Paul (2002-11-04). Doom III leak sparks witch hunt for mole. The Inquirer. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.</ref>

Next year, a new trailer was shown at E3 2003 and soon afterwards the id software homepage was updated to showcase Doom 3 as an upcoming project but it was also announced that Doom 3 would not be ready for the 2003 holiday season. According to some comments by John Carmack, the development took longer than expected. ', in Christmas 2003. Doom 3, and Halo 2 were considered among the most anticipated games since their announcements in 2001/2002, though all three of them would not make the planned 2003 holiday season.

Doom 3 achieved gold status on July 14, 2004, and a Mac OS X release was confirmed the next day on July 15, 2004. Doom 3 was released in the U.S. on August 3, 2004. Additionally, a Linux version was released on October 4, 2004. Due to high demand, the game was made available at select outlets at midnight on the date of release. The game was released to the rest of the world on August 13, 2004 (except for Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, where official localisation was delayed and caused the game to be released about four months later, on December 10, 2004).

Two days before its official release, Doom 3 was released by pirate groups onto the Internet. As the game's focus is its single player mode, the need for a valid retail serial number for online multiplayer gaming was a weak deterrent against piracy.

[edit] Software patent controversy

A week before the game's release, it became known that an agreement to include EAX audio technology in Doom 3 reached by id Software and Creative Labs was heavily influenced by a software patent owned by the latter company. The patent dealt with a technique for rendering shadows called Carmack's Reverse, which was developed independently by both John Carmack and programmers at Creative Labs. id Software would have been putting themselves under legal liability if they used the technique in the finished game, so to defuse the issue, id Software agreed to license Creative Labs sound technologies in exchange for indemnification against lawsuits. <ref name="Gibson">Gibson, Steve (2004-07-28). Creative Labs Patent & DOOM 3. Shacknews.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.</ref>

[edit] Web integration

Shortly following the announcement of Doom 3's development, a promotional website(www.ua-corp.com) was released that serves as the homepage of the fictional corporation operating on Mars in the game. Until the announcement of gold status, the site served as a teaser; later a countdown to the release date was added. The website for Martian Buddy, a fictional corporation prominently featured in the game, was also revealed before the game launch.

Some other developers have also created websites for in-game companies in the past. For example, Rockstar Games created sites for most companies mentioned in commercials on the in-game radio in Grand Theft Auto.

[edit] E3

Doom 3 was announced at E3 2001, and the gameplay demo was shown in both E3 2001, Quakecon 2002, and E3 2002. At E3 2002 and Quakecon id showed an interactive demo. This version, known as the alpha version, was leaked on the Internet; speculation indicated that it may have been leaked by ATI.<ref name="Inquirer"/> id Software developers were extremely concerned by the quality of the leaked product, as it was still a bug-ridden, experimental stage of the product's evolution. Despite fears of poorer sales, the game went on to sell well.

[edit] Linux

Doom 3 continued id's long track record of creating games that were Linux compatible. This was primarily a result of id's decision to use the OpenGL standard for the graphics engine as opposed to Microsoft's proprietary Direct3D API which is only available for the Windows line of operating systems. The executable for the Linux version can be found on id's FTP [1] or BitTorrent server. It can also be downloaded from Doom Wad Station. TTimo also has a Wiki with information regarding the Linux version [2].

[edit] Development team

• John Carmack — Co-owner, Technical Director
• Timothee 'TTimo' Besset — Network code, GtkRadiant, Linux conversions (formerly a contractee hailing from Paris, now part of the team in Texas)
• Graeme Devine — Sound engine
• Seneca Menard — 3D modelling (formerly of DreamWorks)
• Kenneth Scott — Lead artist
• Fred Nilsson (worked on Antz and Shrek at DreamWorks as an animator) — Animation
• Jim Dose — AI and scripted scenes
• Robert Duffy — Lead programmer
• Jan Paul van Waveren — Game engine (physics)
• Tim Willits — Co-owner, Lead designer (according to the Doom 3 manual, he released a series of maps for the original Doom for free distribution on the Internet. id liked his work and hired him as a designer in 1995).
• Adrian Carmack — Artist
• Patrick Duffy — GUI designer
• Paul Jaquays — Level designer
• Jerry Keehan — Level designer
• Steve Rescoe - Level designer
• Malvern Blackwell — Level designer
• Christian Antkow — Level designer
• Kevin Cloud — Co-owner, Artist
• Todd Hollenshead — Co-owner, CEO

Some work was done by outside specialists:

• Chris Vrenna — (one of the first members of Nine Inch Nails who wrote the music for Quake) — Music (Note: Trent Reznor left part-way through development and no longer has sound or music in Doom 3)
• Ed Lima — (Contract sound designer brought on after Reznor's departure)
• Matthew Castello (a science fiction writer who worked on the famous games The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour) — (non-id) — Game script
• Splash Damage, Ltd. — The company that co-developed Doom 3 multiplayer maps

[edit] Reception

Few games have polarized gaming as much as Doom 3 has[3], causing the two group's reactions to the game to be wildly different.

[edit] Criticism

Some commonly named shortcomings of the game are:

• Reliance on traditionally overused horror techniques such as pitch black darkness, limited use of the flashlight and stock horror movie clichés, which may make the game frustrating to play rather than scary or atmospheric[4]
• Repetitive gameplay, similar linear levels during parts of the game[5][6]
• Slow movement unlike the faster play speed of Doom, Doom 2 and the Quake series
• Unlike contemporary first-person shooters, movement is simple; the player can move, jump, crouch and sprint, but can't go prone or lean around corners[7]
• No ability to use the flashlight and the weapon at the same time (known as "No duct tape on Mars" problem[8])[9], whereas today many real-life weapons have hands-free light attachments (however, many light-mods on the internet add a flashlight to the guns. However, id has explained this feature as a technique to provide fear for the player, having to not rely on the flashlight when in dark areas.
• Somewhat stale storytelling techniques, forcing the player to read or listen to messages by hiding access codes in them, and a shortage of cut-scenes providing story exposition, with one reviewer saying that adding clumsy storytelling to the game ending up weakened the experience [10]
• Poor monster AI, over-reliance on scripted sequences[11][12]
• Somewhat limited use of physics (improved significantly in the expansion[13])
• All weapons are direct-fire, point-and-shoot weapons with no alternate firing modes without any variation or innovation [14]
• Slow ammo reload times that too often caused ranged fights to become blind button-mashing melees
• The shotgun is absurdly inaccurate, forcing the player to fire at point-blank range in order to hit the target with all of the pellets and ensure a one-shot kill.
• A small multiplayer deathmatch mode of only a few people, stemming from Doom 3's focus on the single player experience.[15]
• No official cooperative gameplay in the PC version whereas the original Doom contained a cooperative mode.

Some critical reviewers consider that the technological level of Doom 3 is similar to that of other games of 2004, and that features such as bump mapping had already become industry standard.^{[citation needed]} For example, an often mentioned feature of Doom 3, per-pixel lighting and stencil shadowing, had already been implemented in many games released in 2003, even a budget title from Activision Value called Secret Service: Security Breach.

[edit] Rebuttals

Many gamers argue the apparent shortcomings are not shortcomings at all, but are integral to the gameplay id determined to display for Doom 3.

Since Doom 3 is a remake of the original Doom - a game which did not have high-end concepts common in today's more complex games - remaking Doom with too much complexity would remove a key component that made Doom popular in the first place[16].

The flashlight is a key element of Doom 3's gameplay: the player must balance between seeing the enemy, and defeating it. In the default game (without any modifications added), almost every monster has glowing eyes, or some aspect of bioluminescence which offers a target for the player. Modifying the weapons to project light, results in the mystery of "the unknown" to be less potent and frightening. Additionally, muzzle flashes can be enabled for marginally better visibility while firing.

Another rebuttal concerns the story of Doom 3, which is done through the use of audio and video logs. The use of logs in this way is similar to the use of logs in System Shock 2. Ken Levine, lead designer of System Shock 2 said of the logs in Doom 3 "It amazed me when I played Doom 3 that they didn't mix their recordings into the ambient space of the world. The people sound like they're in a recording booth."<ref>"The Vault: System Shock 2". PC PowerPlay (January 2006), pp.108.</ref>

A few of these criticisms of Doom 3 are based on expectations for other types of FPS games. During development, it was often compared with the equally anticipated Half-Life 2. Some have argued that since Doom 3 was released before Half-Life 2, many have come to expect things from it that they previously had expected from Half-Life 2.^{[citation needed]}

With regards to a minimal multiplayer mode, the designers intended that Doom 3 would be played and remembered primarily for its single-player story experience, as opposed to id Software's previous titles which were known far better for multiplayer deathmatch. (The follow-up Quake 4 would have a return to multiplayer focus using Doom 3's engine.)

The Xbox port of Doom 3 did implement co-op mode, which was engineered to work with single-player levels augmented with multi-player spawn-points (to accommodate both players); but, in the end, new co-op levels were created anyway.

Despite its apparent flaws, the game was still a commercial success for id Software, with the planned total revenue estimated by Activision at $20 million.^{[citation needed]} The financial success was bolstered by the near-record number of pre-orders placed for the game. id Software also typically benefits from licensing the engine to other developers. Several games have already been developed using a modified Doom 3 engine, including Quake 4, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Castle Wolfenstein (tentative title) and Prey.

As of August 23, 2006 Doom 3 has garnered an average review score of 87%, according to 97 media outlets on GameRankings.com. By the same source, it is in the top 10 PC games of 2004.

E3 2002 Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best PC Game, Best Action Game, Special Commendation for Sound, Special Commendation for Graphics

[edit] Versions

A Limited Collector's Edition has been released for the Xbox version of the game. It includes

• Tin/metal packaging

• Fully playable, emulated versions of The Ultimate Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth

• G4 making-of documentary "Icons"

• Developer interviews with id Software

• Concept art galleries

[edit] Trivia

• When the player first receives the PDA at the beginning of the game, the man at the desk who handles the marine's transfer is typing the marine's information into the computer. In the 'additional notes' section of the text on the screen that the marine transfer is very rude for standing behind his shoulder to see what he's typing and even types "Stop it." If the player can see what he is typing, he or she must in fact be standing immediately behind the man at the desk.
• According to the Doom 3 manual, the Gui designer Robert Duffy wrote over 500,000 lines of script code, and generated more than 25,000 image files to create all of the graphical interfaces, computer screens, and displays throughout Doom 3.
• There is a hidden id Software PDA before the final fight. If the player turns left at the very end before the bricks open up, there is a little branch-off hallway with the id logo on a brick at the end. By selecting it as one would a computer in the game, a wall opens up, and on a table in the room is a PDA with congratulations and personal messages from the id developers.
• The Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 arcade game is in the kitchen on Mars City (the switch is on the back). Upon attaining a score of 25,000 points or more the player receives a special email on his or her PDA.
• Steve Blum, a popular American voice actor who is best known for voicing Spike Spiegel in the dub of the anime series Cowboy Bebop and Orochimaru from Naruto, appears in Doom 3 playing various marines, technicians and zombies. Most of the Id Software staff also do voice overs. One of the most popular is John Carmack on the marines radio addressing Sgt. Kelly. Sargent Kelly responds with "stay sharp marine."
• In one of the PDA's, there is a message from an uncle's nephew who claims his new "quake 43 game blows his mind" and is better than Super Turbo Turkey Puncher.
• There is a reference to the British sit-com The Office in the game. One of the PDAs contains a message addressed to "Finchy" from "Brent" wherein they discuss tactics for an upcoming quiz night, with a recommendation that they brush up on their Shakespeare to avoid being beaten by a team from administration for a second time. In a first season episode of The Office, Brent and Finchy's team lost to Tim and Ricky on a Shakespeare-related tie-breaker.
• There is a reference to "Weird Al" Yankovic in the email of Jack Smith. The email 'Buddy System?!' states "Tell me how a buddy system would have prevented Joe 'Torsoboy' Moss from having his arms and legs hacked off by the Albuquerck Capacitor?". Al mentions 'Torsoboy' in the song "Albuquerque" on the Running with Scissors album.
• The first ever Doom 3 multiplayer competition was held at the Assembly demo party, only a few days after the game's release.
• In Site 3 of the Artifact Research area, the last of the four tablets has a picture of the mighty warrior using the Soul Cube. The picture is identical to the original cover of Doom, save that the warrior is holding the Soul Cube and a portion of the Tablet is broken, so his head is not visible.
• In one of the Alpha Labs, on the desk where the player can view the security cameras, to the left of the computer is a magazine with a red stapler on it. It reads "Who took gary's stapler?" The taking of the red Swingline stapler was an integral part of the popular movie Office Space.
• The Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 arcade game cabinet marquee is similar to the marquee of Street Fighter Alpha 3, and the Nabcon logo uses the same style the Capcom logo uses.
• The demonic runes that appear in blood or glow in cutscenes or teleportation strongly resemble a sloppy version of the Neptunian alphabet that appears in Futurama.
• In the Common Area, near the Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 cabinet, the IPN newscaster on the television is voiced by Cam Clarke, an extremely talented voice actor known for providing the voices to (among others) Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Die Fledermaus from the original cartoon version of The Tick, and Liquid Snake.
• The websites Something Awful and Fark can be seen in the background of one of the game's computer monitors.
• At the introduction of the game, a 'ghost' can be seen quickly, twice. This is possibly a reason to 'scare' the person into playing the game. A link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Bpdin7fTo

[edit] References

<references/>

[edit] External links

• Official Doom 3 website
• Doom 3 at the Internet Movie Database
• Doom 3 World Doom 3 technology knowledge database

• Doom 3 at Mobygames.com
• Doom 3 cheat codes
• PlanetDOOM

Mods

• idDevNet Official MOD support website for the Doom 3 engine
• modwiki.net — Doom 3 engine reference material
• Doom 3 Cooperative Modification "Last Man Standing Coop" — Co-op support for the PC Version
• Classic Doom for Doom 3 The first episode of the original Doom, remade with the Doom 3 engine
• DungeonDoom — Roguelike single player total Conversion
• Doom Wad Station — Maps, reviews, Total conversions and more for Doom3

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