MaximumPC 2004 10

OCTOBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC 63

on the fly using small sound shaders.

We’ve heard id uses sound shaders to cre-

ate even more variation in the frequently

repeated sound effects.

The result is that playing Doom 3 with

an above-average .1 speaker rig is truly

a religious experience. You hear the world

come alive all around you. We frequently

heard audio cues in the game that gave

us advance warning of some hellspawn’s

ambush, and the creepy-crawly tip-tip-tap

of the spider demons still gives us chills. ■

The spider produced by
the DX7-level card—a
GeForce4 MX—is not a
pretty sight. His shadow
is very simple, and the
shadows don’t interact.
Note that there are no
shades of gray in his
shadow—the floor is
either entirely black or
its normal color.

Doom 3 Tweaking Tips

Maximum PC presents 7 quick tips

for maximum performance

➤ Enable triple buffering in the OpenGL control

panel of your videocard’s display properties. This

will give you better visual quality with no loss of

frame rate.

➤ Fix the game’s nasty visual tearing and corrup-

tion by enabling VSync in the “advanced” video

options. Even if you have it enabled in your video-

card settings, the game can overrule this setting,

so it must be set in-game.

➤ If you are running dual displays, killing the sec-

ond monitor when firing up Doom 3 will drastically

increase your frame rates.

➤ Download the latest drivers for your videocard.

As an example, Lab testing has shown frame rate

improvements ranging from 10 to 20 percent using

the beta 4.9 Catalyst drivers.

➤ Open the console (CTRL+ALT+~) and type “r_

gamma 1.3” This cranks up the gamma a smidge,

making the game appear crisper and a touch

brighter, but still keeps it dark enough to remain

consistent with how it’s supposed to look.

➤ To run the included Doom 3 benchmark, open

the console and type “timedemo demo1” and be

sure to run it twice, ignoring the first score.

➤ To enable the frame counter open the console

and type “com_showfps 1”.

Doom 3: The Maximum

PC Verdict

Our take: A huge leap for 3D

engines is just a small leap for

the FPS genre

One week prior to Doom 3’s release, it

felt like the night before Christmas at

the Maximum PC oflce. We all upgraded

our rigs with beeler processors and

next-generation videocards. And with

everything benchmarked and thoroughly

broken in, we went to sleep each night

with visions of imps and cacodemons

dancing in our heads.

Once the game arrived and we began

playing, we were overwhelmed by

mixed emotions. Indeed, Doom 3 looks

absolutely amazing, and we’re pleased

to see a game actually justify the

immense amount of time we’ve spent

upgrading our systems. On the other

hand, while it’s extremely scary at times,

the gameplay follows a basic formula

that consists of wandering through dark

hallways while enemies teleport into

the room when you trigger invisible

switches. This pattern repeats itself

throughout the game’s 0-odd hours

of gameplay, and because the enemies

use the same attack methods, the only

thing that really changes is the teleport

locations. This “surprise!” formula goes

from surprising to annoying real quick.

Despite its repetitive nature, combat still

feels satisfying and, like the game itself, is

easily the most intense action we’ve

experienced on a PC in a long time. The

sensation of the weapons combined with

almost-nonstop action and .1 surround

sound put you right in the middle of a

scarily realistic environment. And although

you lght the same enemies over and over,

the tension persists as baddies leap out at

you from behind closed doors, claw at

your face, and scream and writhe as you

send them back to hell.

There’s a story in the game, but

unfortunately you’re forced to read about

it in e-mails you lnd on dead bodies,

which consequently brings the game’s

frantic pace to a crashing halt. While it’s

nice to see an id game with a story, we

can’t help but deem this a pretty lazy way

to drive a plot.

Multiplayer is also included, but out of

the box, it’s a half-baked affair. Matches

are limited to four players per map, and

only lve maps are included. As of this

writing, we’ve encountered several bugs

in the process of joining online servers.

But when we could connect, we had a

blast. The action feels as fast, furious, and

nail-biting as it did back in the old-school

days of original Doom.

And yet, despite all its maws, we

simply could not stop playing the

single-player campaign. If it weren’t for

our sore necks and frazzled nerves, we

would have lnished it in our lrst sitting.

Doom 3 is clearly the best single-player

game id has ever made. It’s just too bad

the game doesn’t bring as many new

ideas to the &PS genre as it does to the

world of 3D rendering.

—JOSH NOREM

MA XIMUMPCVERDICT 8

Unfortunately, Doom 3’s AI is pretty basic—monsters use the same attack

methods every time you encounter them.

DOOM

GLOOM

Incredible graphics, intense action and fun weapons.

Gameplay is repetitive and feels dated, very basic

multiplayer, and plot revealed through e-mails.

$55, http://www. doom3.com