"To gain a better understanding of DOOM 3's image quality modes, you'll want to read id programmer Robert Duffy's July 26 .plan update. Duffy explains the differences between the Medium and High Quality modes we used for testing and why things look the way they do. Perhaps the most important thing to take away from that .plan update is that DOOM 3's High Quality mode uses 8X anisotropic filtering.

One more thing: although I've managed to include 17 different graphics cards in this comparison, this is by no means a complete collection of low-end, mid-range, and former high-end graphics cards. I'm limited by the stock in the Benchmarking Sweatshop, so if you don't see a specific card tested, it's because I don't have one on hand. I do have a couple of DeltaChrome cards in-house, but S3's current drivers don't work with DOOM 3, so I couldn't include the S8 and S4 Pro in the comparison, either."

"There is no question this is the most evil game I have ever played and I feel incredibly slimed after playing through the game. The main enemy is constantly telling you every half hour that ¿your soul is mine¿. The later levels are by far the worst with upside down crosses with people nailed to them you can¿t get much worse. Dimly lit candles that surround a sacrifice are the norm towards the end of the game. You just wonder if these are things that id actually sat there for over five years creating you can really understand how much of an influence the satanic cult has been on that organization."

"What about the DOOM Movie?

Hollenshead fielded this one, saying that the fate of the DOOM movie rests in Universal's hands. Here's where it is right now: Some preproduction has begun in Eastern Europe. The script is very nearly finalized (the id Software crew read it and gave it the thumbs up), and casting will begin shortly. Rumors are that The Rock is really interested in playing a role in the film, and Hollenshead hinted that if he is signed on that he'll probably portray the Marine Commander. CAN YOU SMELL WHAT THE SPACE MARINES GOT COOKING? (Sorry.)"

"Carmack, filmed while sitting in front of a telescope and a myriad of electronics, kicked off his talk by speaking about where DOOM 3 stands today. He pointed out that cutting-edge game developers frequently have to try to predict where the consumer hardware technology will be at four or more years in advance -- after all, DOOM 3 took four years to create. Most of the early decisions he made turned out to be the right ones, so overall DOOM 3 is hitting the market with the right technology at the right time."

"This real time rendering is a goal for the new engine not only for sound but also for graphics rendering engine. Carmack wants the designers to have as close to real time manipulation of the engine as is possible. An example he cited was vis times for Quake 3 would be around 30 minutes, but in the Doom 3 engine it is real time."

"In the Q&A session, id CEO Todd Hollenshead said that the Doom movie script, while not final, is a "killer script" and that Universal is now working on pre-production and casting. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has expressed interest in playing in the Doom movie but if he is indeed cast he may not play the "Doom guy" but rather the Sarge character."

"What will you find at QuakeCon? For starters, you've got a LAN party that'll boggle the mind, with thousands of gamers participating in massive 256-player tournaments or open gaming. Running parallel to the gaming you've got workshops, where id Software and others will talk about modifying the DOOM 3 engine, building the perfect game ... as well as their next "big thing."

"GameSpy: How much would you say the technology influenced the design of the game from the ground up, and then how much did the game evolve over the course of developing it from what you originally envisioned it to be?

Todd Hollenshead: The game ended up very close to what we originally set out to create. John had been working on the technology before we actually started in earnest on the game design, because John actually started on the technology after Quake 3, and the rest of the team, from a content standpoint, was working on Team Arena through most of 2000. So when we started working on the game, John already had an idea about "Hey, look, the technology's strong points are going to be emphasizing these elements." The interaction of light and darkness, being able to hide things in shadows, being able to make people uncomfortable because they can't see what's in there because it's too dark, sort of having not only the trepidation of going through an area that's kind of foreboding with stuff that can get you to the "boo!" or scare effect, too.

Horror movies have used those same techniques. There's multiple ways in which you sort of make a scary experience: you do it through building tension, you do it through surprise, you do it through stuff that looks really scary, and then you try to make it very atmospheric. With DOOM 3, the idea of making it very cinematic was one that was there at the very start. There was just sort of congruence of what John was doing, where the visual impact was from the technology side, and then what DOOM 3 as a scary action-horror game could be. John saw that very early on, and pitched everybody and said "hey, this is the type of game I'd like to make" and then we created the design from that. That was just the kernel."

"Doom 3 plays out on the UAC Mars installation, where all kinds of reports are coming through about workers dissappearing and security guards being harrassed by tentacles. You are dropped off at the front door by a spacecraft and begin a series of missions that start off fairly mundane but evolve further into the game, becoming far more chaotic and Hell inspired."

"Actual combat isn¿t that much better than the scare tactics, and while initially compelling, the game quickly becomes a corridor shooter in the truest sense of the word. Other than taking cover when fighting gun-toting zombies there is very little tactics involved in DOOM 3¿s combat, which on one hand could be a throwback to the fact that it¿s a DOOM game, and on the other hand the genre has advanced way beyond that style of play. Indeed, much of the game can be completed by simply walking up to creature, taking whatever hits you must, and blasting it point-blank in the torso or head with the shotgun. With the exception of a couple of the later creatures, even on the initially hardest difficulty setting, fighting monsters becomes a fairly easy and bland matter of getting close and blasting them, assuming they don¿t get the drop on you somehow via one of the aforementioned predictable means."

"Four years worth of refinement have gone into this game, giving it that level of polish you rarely see in a product at launch. Most game designers will tell you that they had to scrap several details from their game because it would have taken too long to implement. This wasn¿t really a problem for id Software, as you may assume. Besides the obvious triumphs like the lighting and physics engines, there are a number of little elements that just help complete the immersive feel. For instance, when you walk up to a computer screen in the game, your crosshair turns into a mouse cursor on that screen, allowing you to control the interface. Typically in a game, when you walk up to a screen or control panel its interface suddenly fills the screen or else you wouldn¿t be able to read the text. Not so, here. Nice touch."

"Although Hollenshead doesn¿t expect any of the current work to make it into their new project, he did confirm that the team might try to do something different then the typical Sci-Fi/Horror theme."

"It's still up in the air," said Hollenshead. "It could happen, but that's not our focus right now. Our focus is on the gameplay. ... 'Doom 3' is a game that on the PC is very finely tuned. There was a lot of play balancing. The stuff that was supposed to be tense resulted in a lot of tension for players. The stuff that was supposed to be scary makes people crap their pants. We want the Xbox version to be just as good."