Looking at: Bethesda E3 2015

For their first year at the show, I think it's safe to say Bethesda killed it. plenty of announcements, gameplay for most of their upcoming projects, and just enough details to keep me hooked. They did their research and it payed off perfectly. Let's brake it down. 

Doom

While I wish they would change the name back to Doom 4, what's clear is that the gamplay is definitely a return to form for the shooter franchise. It was fast, brutal as hell, and looked fucking awesome. It's a bit to early to tell how the actual game will look in comparison to this demo, but nothing shown looks out of the scope of possibility for Id Tech, whos previous games were Rage and the Wolfenstien games. 

It's all about the gameplay with the Doom games, and this was Doom at it's finest. Between the two levels shown, we got to see the absolutely brutal melee finishers, tonnes of demons, the new Chainsaw, and honest to god power-ups. The game looked great, and if it just plays like a modern version of Brutal Doom I'll be totally down. 

Then there's the extras, in this case a full multiplayer suite and the SnapMap function, allowing you to crate game mods and maps with ease. I always appreciate anything that lengthens a game's shelf life, and Bethesda is acutely aware of the power of a modding community. 

They also announced something called Bethesda.net, which just sounds like a third part system for Bethesda games. There weren't any details about it, so here's hoping it's not another GFWL or U-Play. 

Battlecry

I wasn't really all that interested in Battlecry before the show, and I still don't really have that much interest. At best, it kinda looked like every other multiplayer arena game available, like Chivalry or TF2. I didn't manage to grab any screenshots of this one. 

Dishonored 2

It's unfortunate that this was a pre-rendered trailer, so details are sketchy. What is confirmed is that it's a direct sequel, the Outsider will play some part, and Emily Caldwin is now a playable character. While he wasn't shown in the trailer, Corvo is returning as well, and they'll each have different abilities. I loved the hell out of the first game, so I'm very excited for this one. 

There was also an announcement for Dishonored: HD for the next-gen consoles, but no footage shown. 

Elder Scrolls online

ESO is coming to the consoles, and to celebrate that it's also getting some hefty new content. ESO has been struggling to find a foothold on PC, so this might be it's last hope. 

First up is a return to the Imperial City of Oblivion, and oblivion seems apt, as it looked filled with monsters and terrible things. 

There was also the reveal of the Orsinuim, a completely new location never before seen in one of the 3d games. Orsinium is the home of the Orcs in Tamriel, so it's likely to be a fairly barbaric place to hang out. 

Elder Scrolls legends

World of Warcraft has it's own card game, so why shouldn't ESO?

Fallout Shelter

I don't often play mobile games, but I might have to get this when it hits Android. It looks very similar to This War of Mine, and I like Todd Howard's own admission that it's not pay-to-win. I should have some thoughts on this soon, since it's literally available right now for IOS. Release a game during your show? That's how you win over the crowd. 

It should be noted, there's no way in hell Fallout Shelter can be considered cannon. Here's why.

Fallout 4

The reason the show was even put on, and the reason so many people were watching. Todd Howard is the fucking man when it comes to talking about his own games, and it shows. There's so many things that I'm excited about, I'm just going to go through my notes:

Character Creation - few things here, like the confirmation of playable female characters, despite rumors to the contrary. The new face-gen system looks more intuitive then the old games, and I can't wait to play around with it to generate a monstrosity. The SPECIAL system is also confirmed, although the skills and leveling were not shown. 

Story - early rumors did say Fallout 4 was going to be largely story based, and it shows. The Fallout games always have had a stronger focus on story, and this one seems to be going whole hog. The main PC now speaks, adding a new level of depth, although I'm not sure I like the limited dialogue options, I do like how dialogue is much more dynamic, and less creepy staring at each other. 

Audio and Visual - the trailer released a week ago did the game no justice, Fallout 4 looks amazing. I really liked the dynamic lighting, and the texture work was awesome. Audio wise the game sounded great too, from the blowing wind, to the voice work. I especially appreciate that the Robot used the character's real name, and I'm interested to see how far that goes. 

Weapons and Combat - I'll talk about the new crafting systems in a second, but combat itself looked much more refined. It looks as though Fallout 4 is leaning harder towards shooter, and that's probably not a bad thing. Shooting looks tighter, and more responsive, and the dozens of weapons shown off looked brutal as hell. VATS is also returning, although it no longer pauses time, instead opting for a slow-down. 

Crafting - Holy shit, this might be the coolest feature shown off. I'll start small, with the item crafting system. Apparently you can break down any item to it's base components and use those to create new items, something I like the idea of. Weapons can be modded to hell, turning a pistol into a carbine, or a laser rifle into a shotgun, and there's a proposed 700 combinations, outclassing all the previous Fallout games combined several times over. It's unclear how deep this system goes, but what was shown was pretty expansive. Finally, you can craft your own settlement, including a power infrastructure and attract citizens to live with you, while defending against raider attacks. I always appreciate dynamic side content like this, and the idea has been present in mods for Fallout 3 and New Vegas already. 

Power armor and Vertibird - The power armor seems like it's much more... power-ey then before, with it's own HUD and upgrade options. Jetpacks make an appearance at one point, and it's unknown how deep this goes. There's also the option to call in a vertibird, although the context isn't yet known. 

Pipboy - Not only does the in-game pip-boy look awesome, like a real pip-boy, but now there is a real pip-boy, with a companion app. If there really is an app that lets me manage my inventory from my phone instead of in-game I might finally have to praise a companion app. There's also a arm mount for your phone to let you feel like you're really wearing a pip-boy, but that's a little to nerdy for me. 

Release date - probably the most exciting thing is the release date, mostly because it means the final game will probably look very similar to what was show. November isn't that far off, and the game has been in development since 2009, meaning it's probably very close to being done. 

That's all for Bethesda. Tune in tomorrow for my reviews of Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and Sony. 

Looking at: Doom 3

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Dark at the End of the Tunnel

Witness the wonders of science, until it tries to kill you.

I've mentioned how much I love the Doom games. To me they're the epitome of perfect shooters and, albeit with some modification, still a lot of fun today. But the Doom games didn't stop at two. Back before it was popular, and way before publishers fucked up naming conventions ID software decided to reboot Doom and give the original Xbox one hell of a send-off. This was, in a lot of ways, what the original Doom games were meant to be, even if we didn't realize it at the time.


Welcome to Mars City

The classic Imp, in it's natural environment.

Like the original games, Doom 3 takes place in and around Mars City, a research station located on, where else, Mars. Unlike the originals, and much to some people's dismay, Doom 3 actually has a plot to give your actions context.

You are a new marine arriving on Mars to replace part of the existing guard detail. After a short introduction you're given your PDA, a flashlight, and a mission to find a missing scientist. You find the good doctor as he's trying to send out a message, only to accidentally avoid the opening of a portal to hell. For some reason you're not immediately zombified so you, being of sound ass-kicking mind, decide to kill some demon spawn and get off station.

As you progress the story never really changes, it mostly just a barely connected string of events to lead you through Mars. You'll need to re-link radio relays, check in with the few survivors, and find security badges and audio logs, all while killing a shitload of demons. The story never goes anywhere, and there's no real twist. You know the bad guy is evil literally the first second you see him, and none of the characters ever change.

That's fine though, because if you're playing a Doom game for the plot you're doing it wrong. We're here for the sweet satisfaction of blowing apart hellspawn and, sure enough, that's here in spades.

Bloody Brilliant

Your flashlight is great for illuminating your impending demise.

Being a 2005 shooter and not a 1998 shooter, Doom 3 was rather evolved from it's predecessors. Most notably was the full 3d aiming, something the previous games sorely lacked. Not that it matters much, since most of the time you'll be spitting out lead like it was going out of business, but it is an overall smoother experience the the originals. Also, there's jumping and crouching, which are also a series first.

All of this just facilitates the shooting, which is great. Each of the guns has a distinctive and weighty feel to them that gels well with the overall experience. Particularly the shotgun, which sounds as nasty as a shotgun should, and solidifies why ID are the kings of great gaming shotguns. Not to say the other weapons don't feel great, like the vicious chainsaw, the rapid-fire machine gun, the ominous minigun, or the hilariously overpowered BFG. Best of all you can carry all of these at the same time and switch out at your leisure, something most modern FPS games have annoyingly done away with.

Of course, what good are guns if there's nothing to shoot them at. The entire roster of classic doom enemies are here, from the lowly zombie and zombified soldier, to the terrifying Cacodemon or the rocket slinging Revenant, or the towering Hell Baron. All of them rendered in horrifyingly glorious 3D and with full lighting.

All of this is thanks to the Id Tech 4 engine which, at the time, was revolutionary. It's still not a bad looking engine, especially when properly applied, and it does a great job of creating the atmosphere in Doom 3. Even better, on the PC version there's the Sikkmod, as shown in all of the screenshots here, that make Doom 3 look great.

Doomed from the Start

Try not to loose your head in the madness of Mars City.

I love Doom 3, and I loved it when it came out in '05. Strangely though, there are people that call it the worst Doom game of the bunch, save bizarre Doom .Wads. I think these people are wrong, and also kind of missing the point of Doom 3.

See, Doom 3 leans more towards horror then it's predecessors. Like I said, the game is shrouded in shadow, and you'll need to rely on your flashlight to get through. There's also jump-scares a-plenty and hidden ambushes throughout. All of this seems in contrast to the original Dooms, which had you whizzing around at the speed of light killing hordes of monsters with reckless abandon.

Except that, in their own way, the original Dooms were also horror titles. There's no denying the scary visage put on by the demons, and the feeling of dread that the sight of a zombie, let alone a Spider demon or Cyber Demon can conjure up. And the original Doom's had jump scares to, or the closest approximation to jump-scares that Doom could render. Go back and play Doom 1&2 and try counting how many times the game spawns enemies behind you after you flip a switch, you'll probably loose track.

Doom 3 isn't as good as the original Dooms, and that's fine because on it's own it's an incredibly enjoyable game. The shooting is tight, the graphics were top notch, and it's all very fun to play. It had an expansion pack that added co-op and brought back the double-shotgun, as well as a less then stellar remake a little while ago. There was also the movie, but we don't talk about that.

Doom 3 is a great game, fun to play and challenging in a way that's not found in many shooters now a days. It's a throwback to a bygone era, and forges it's own path while doing so. A remake and a sequel, and an all around fun time.

Looking at: Brutal DOOM

http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/20/19741/Brutal_Doom_Cover.png

Holy shit what a terrible week I've had. I didn't write anything yesterday, and I've been down this whole week because of car troubles. I need a release, I need something simple, something requiring no mental stress. I need something... BRUTAL.


Temple of DOOM

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DoomGuy, showing why he's The strongest videogame character of all time.

Doom. DOOM.  Everyone knows Doom. Even if you don't play video games you probably know what Doom is. Its the daddy to every modern shooter, singlehandedly solidified the first person shooter genre, and the reason that when ID software talks you better listen.

 Its a simple game with a simple premise. You play as a nameless marine trapped in a research station on Mars when demons from hell start showing up. Being the sole survivor and complete badass you pick up your trusty shotgun and chainsaw and start going to town on the demons, eventually blasting your way in, and out of, hell itself.

It's fun to play, just mindless waves of enemies in expertly crafted levels. The only problem with Doom and it's sequel is time itself. By today's standards Doom is problematic, with only rudimentary mouse controls, no actual aiming abilities, and none of the traits of modern gaming. Take that for what it is, some people prefer that, but it's hard to play in the face of more modern shooters like Far Cry, Call of Duty, or Half Life. The greatest shooters of all time needed an overhaul, and there was no better way then to crank everything up to 11.


Huge Guts

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Pure catharsis.

Beginning development in 2010, Brutal Doom is the game that Doom always wanted to be, the game Doom was meant to be. It was a blood soaked, swear filled, adrenaline fest and it's fun as hell. The basic gameplay is much the same, you progress through levels filled with enemies, hunt for keys or switches, and progress ever forward leaving a trail of bodies behind you. Where the "brutal" of Brutal Doom comes in is it's presentation and balancing. All of the guns handle more like modern shooters, including full 3D mouse aiming. You now have to actually aim at your target to hit, rather then the game just auto aiming for you. Movement has been re-mapped to WSAD and are customizable to your choice, and the game now features jumping and crouching. Occasionally these last two additions can break the game, particularly jumping which the original Doom didn't feature, but it's a minor complaint.

Besides, you'll likely need all the help you can get. Brutal Doom is certainly brutal. Its not Dark Souls hard, but enemies are smarter, they have better aim, and do more damage, even on the lower difficulties. You'll need to blast your way through them and make liberal use of the quicksave button to get through.

The new difficulty is balanced out, kind of, by the new weapons. Almost all of the vanilla Doom weapons have been changed, at least somewhat, and rebalanced. Your pitiful pistol is now an incredibly effective assault rifle, complete with iron sight. The shotgun now requires reloading, and can be aimed with the iron sights. The super shotgun of Doom 2 can now be fired twice with individual barrels, or can blast both barrels at once. The rocket launcher now requires a reload, as does the plasma rifle, which also sports a new flame-thrower mode. There's also a host of new weapons, courtesy of your fallen foes in the form of the flame shot and seeker rockets.  The only weapon untouched is the infamous BFG, which still obliterates everything its blast touches.

Rip and Tear

http://www.gamingmomentum.com/wp-content/uploads/brutal-doom-v19.jpg

Show those demons you mean business.

The other reason Brtual Doom earns it's name is through its... well, brutality. When Doom originally came out, parenting groups were shocked at the level of violence on display. Those people would shit bricks if they saw Brutal Doom. Enemies now explode into a bloody mess when you shoot them, often in different ways. Use the shotgun to blow off an imp's head? Watch as his body crumples into a bloody heap. Take of an enemies legs and watch as they crawl away, screaming in agony. Enemies will beg for forgiveness, only to meet the business end of your boot as you go all Edward Norton in American History X on them. The walls will be plastered by blood and guts after every firefight, and you'll wipe the mess from your face as you press on. It's bloody, it's gory, and it's awesome.

Rather then try and explain everything, I'm just going to post a few videos of the mod in action below.

From Brutal Doom's official youtube (NSFW):

A montage of best moments (NSFW):

   

And 16 minutes of things dying in various ways (Do I even need to say it?):

Doom 2 is one of my all time favorite shooters. It's simple, its fun, and there's an undeniable level of skill put into everything about it. But sometimes the best things just need to be a little better, and Brutal Doom is a great example of fans making games even better, and why every game should allow modding. Brutal Doom is the absolute best Doom related thing since the Doom Comic, and I love the hell out of it.