Doom 3 finally gets released on Xbox this monday. After all of the waiting and the promising, it finally comes out. Thankfully, thanks to our expanded ninja budget after their success with the PSP, I've managed to get a hold of a copy of the game already.
Now I know PC fanboys are going to swear up and down that the Xbox version can't even come close to running Doom 3 as well as a PC. Well, they're half-right. Obviously, the game can't look nearly as good as it does on a high-end PC. However, I really have to give Vicarious Visions credit for the port, because if I didn't know any better and I never played the PC version of Doom 3, I'd be hard-pressed to say that the game still didn't look amazing. Vicarious Visions really outdid themselves with this one. The lighting is just as good as the PC version, and the textures are good as well, but not nearly as good as the PC version. The framerate is a solid 30-fps for the most part, but it will chop a little bit if you get 4 or more enemies on-screen at once, depending on what your surroundings look like.
The story and the gameplay remain the same as the PC counterpart for all intents and purposes as well, save for a few chops here and there, that don't really detract from the game as they do speed up the pacing of the game. Yes, that means that Xbox people don't get the "full" Doom 3 experience, but I think the placement of the "cuts" that I've seen so far is completely justifiable, and helps to get the gamer into the action sooner than in the PC version. The sound in the game is also just as good as the PC version, and dare I say, maybe even a little bit better with the 5.1 dolby digital separation.
Unfortunately, I have not gotten a chance to try out the Xbox Live Co-op or the Xbox Live Deathmatch because no one else has the game yet. You can definitely expect some multiplayer impressions on the game later in the week though.
Now I have to say that the coolest part of Doom 3 is the extras that are packed in with the Collector's Edition. You get some fluff, like a G4 featurette, concept art, trailers, and the like; but the real meat is the inclusion of both Ultimate Doom and Doom 2. Old-skoolers rejoice, they are perfect PC ports, and they both work incredibly well with the Xbox controller, and the fast, frenetic gameplay of these two classics holds up very well even after 10 years. In all honesty, I've actually spent more time playing Doom 1 and 2 than I have Doom 3.
A really cool little inclusion that you get with those two games is the ability to play splitscreen co-op with a buddy on both games, and you can also do 4-player splitscreen deathmatch as well on them. So if you've got buddies coming over that are huge PC gamers, or just old-skool gamers, you can definitely fire up the Doom 3 CE and have a blast for a while reliving some of your earlier days on your 486.
Is it worth the $10 extra for the collector's edition of Doom 3? If you're a fan of old-skool Doom, hell yes. If not, it's up to your discretion, but I highly recommend it.
-Jack
