You remember many things, doesn't make them true.
I firmly stand by what I said to.
I don't believe that Half-Life 2 is worth the hype, and I feel that Doom 3 is a very stunning game.
The problem with both games is really getting them to play on even half-reasonable computers. Doom 3 for example needs a more powerful Graphics Cards, where-as Half-Life 2 requires a more powerful Processor.
In both cases neither game runs on thier so-called Minimum Specifications, not at a speeed I'd consider reasonable anyways.
Hell, Half-Life 2 runs at only just a reasonable speed on a P4 2.5GHz / 512MB / GeForce 5200 (35fps).. if the action gets pretty thick though your looking at that FPS crashing quicker sugar addict.
Doom 3 again on the same machine barely scratches the surface of reasonable FPS (well unless you kick it down into GF3/4 mode then you get a very healthy 60fps).
As far as the Doom single-player goes, I find it absolutely crap hearing 'there was no zone targeting available'. That is total BS!
Doom 3 has a map for each character so that you can define which areas take more damage. What's more you do more damage directly based on the physics of the bullets your firing.
You shoot a Zombie in the chest with a shotgun your looking at 2-3hits, in the heat it's a 1-hit Kill. That isn't true everytime though, because you've got to be pretty close. This is something people forget about weapons like this. A pistol has an effective stopping range of what 250m? In Doom it's the same deal, you've got an effective stopping range of a few hundred meters and when your outside of that range bullets do much much less Damage.
It should take 3-5 Pistol shots to kill a Zombie in the Head. If you go for the chest or gut then your looking at unloading an entire clip and they might even still keep comming.
While yes Doom 3 has scripted triggers to let some creatures out, this wasn't always the case. id Software have *always* used Triggered events, this is just something that isn't going to change. That said you can't claim that Half-Life 2 wasn't full of these very same scripted events.
The same goes for the AI itself. Yes many of the Hell Demons just run at you in Doom 3, but the Zombie Marines will quite often work in groups against you; on occasions I even saw them using parts of the scenary against you. Some threw barrels hoping to shoot them with a pot shot, others kicked moveable objects in order to create cover.
When again we put this against the Half-Life 2 AI, I don't ever remember ANY of the Combine working as a team. Quite often they'd just run at you, or stay behind thier cover. They didn't even have the same intelligence as the Marines in HL1 where they would run off if they got injured.
In my eyes both games AI was a HUGE let-down compared to what could've been. Yet while Half-Life 2 is praised for it's solution, Doom 3 isn't? ... But they have almost identical AI Systems, so how does that make sense?
The way I see it, people with Doom simply focused on the fact that it was pitch black throughout the game. As far as so many people seem to be conserned,
not being able to see what your doing + slow gameplay = bad game.
While no doubt many will disagree with me instantly on this, the fact kinda is that this is true for most people. They didn't see the point in constantly flicking between the flashlight and gun.
Although yes it is weird how they didn't have then attached to the guns, the fact is that the darker style of the game really ment you walked around defenseless and see what was comming... or try to shoot at the glowing dots rapidly comming towards you (only to find out it was computer console)
Personally I loved both games, as they're both true to the older games they're based on. Doom3 might seem slower paced, but run it on a computer that can happily handle it at 60-70fps and everything moves so damn quick it's terrifying in it's own right.
Half-Life 2 had a nice story, but unlike Doom 3 once you've played it once... it doesn't feel like there's anything left.
And driving for half the sodding game is what I would called P-A-D-D-I-N-G.
Sorry but while some sections were nice to have the vehicles, they were just woefully overused.
In my opinion, I don't see why Doom 3 was given such bad reviews or disliked by so many people.
'I don't like how creatures were unintelligent in Doom 3!' Bullcrap, creatures worked in teams often especially in later sections which made it extremely difficult and actually YES there were some areas where you were frantically fighting off a good 10-25 enemies at once. I remember on area in particular that had several lost souls, an archvile, a few imps, a Cacodemon, and 2 Revenants. When you come across a scene like that your thinking only 1 thing. 'Should I go change my trousers now?'
In my mind while everyone does keep harping on about Half-Life 2. Fact is that most people I know only play Counter-Strike, and never replayed the actual Half-Life 2 game.
I know that I completed it within 12hours on the day I bought it and while I've replayed a few scenes, I don't really feel like replaying the entire game again. I also didn't come away from the game thinking 'wow that section in the Prison with the Combine comming from every-side was a masterpiece.' no in-fact in my mind very little of the game stood out. Sure you can say 'well that's because the whole game was good.' .. I think it's more down to the game as a whole was very meh.
It was good, but not overly so. Where-as in Doom 3 I can remember several moments that truely had me spooked, some awesome cut-scene, bits where there were some really interesting Monster setups. So much of Doom 3 left me thinking about it after the gameplay.
The problem with games being known afterwards is really with the Modifications and online Play.
This is where Doom 3 just sucks. Because all of the Modifications games appear to be extending the Doom 3 universe, which isn't a bad thing as such.. but personally I'd like to see some 'Goldeneye' and 'Time Splitters' type mods being released. This is something that Half-Life 2 seems to be getting right now. This is something that made the original FPS crown go from id in the first place.
Quake 3 was good, as was UT but they were BOTH overshadowed by Half-Life's Mod community. There is no denying that really id's reign as top-dog ended with Quake 2. While new games will be built up to a point where people are expecting Carmack to walk on water... fact is that they have far much more to live up to.
So many people I know actually don't like the HL2 Single Player much, they'll rave at how good the game is; but then you'll find out that they didn't even complete SP and instead play CS all day.
I think this is why HL2 is currently consider the naggers of the FPS communty. Simply because they have Counter-Strike. Until id Software get something similar (ETQW) then it's not likely the crown will ever return to it's rightful place.
Personally I see Doom3 as finally id Software returning to what they do best. Senseless Atmospheric Single Player.
