Ordered Doom 3 (PC)

Yesterday I ordered Doom 3 (PC) from Best Buy, along with V for Vendetta. I debated long and hard over this, the biggest issue being that I own the Xbox version of the game and have played through it 4 times, however seeing as how I really love the Doom franchise and have done so since the mid-90's, I know I'll enjoy the PC version and probably play through it a few times.

Due to both hardware limitations and a different audience, the Xbox version of Doom 3 had a lot of its levels redesigned and streamlined for faster paced gameplay. One thing that I'll find very interesting is seeing what was changed and what wasn't. Based on the Demo, the UAC facility starts off with more NPC interaction, and more exploration, both gameplay elements that I like.

Graphically, of course, the PC version will feature much higher quality visuals, and it'll be darker; which'll add to the scary atmosphere. I was able to play the demo on Extra High Detail for great image quality, and the demo also showed more windows (with a slight distortion effect) looking out at both other areas of the UAC facility and Mars itself than was featured on Xbox.

I also found that the Demo was harder on Veteran (Hard), with enemies being more accurate and doing more damage, as well as being harder to hit than on the Xbox version. Since a lot of the opening level design was different, I was caught by surprise by several Zombies and Z-Sec Zombies, so the game should still feature enough classic horror style "boo" moments to make me jump.

Actually, it'll be kind of like playing through an "extended director's cut," seeing as how about 2 hours more gameplay is in the PC version, and the PC levels were split about midway to minimize Xbox loading time. Since they are different versions, however I'll need to see if the changes are great enough or not to warrant keeping the Xbox version, or if I should sell it.

I have a few extra days off this coming long weekend, and I figure I'll be spending a lot of that time alone in the dark, killing demons.