Seeing the change in level design philosophy between Doom and Quake, and the corresponding abandonment of the minimap is very interesting.

Yeah, it is. Nevermind doom4's weapon wheel and glory kills, the occasional long periods of searching for secrets/door/switches really breaks the momentum of classic doom's core gameplay.

Since doom is nothing but combat there is no story or aesthetic to make those times more interesting. Then again, it would be difficult to fall back on story and atmosphere with a tempo and player speed as fast as doom. 

the occasional long periods of searching for secrets/door/switches really breaks the momentum of classic doom's core gameplay.

The thing that really surprised me is just how much time I spend in the map screen (it's a lot), and how often I find myself just backtracking over the whole level whilst staying within the map screen.

Quite often, the critical path is hidden behind a secret wall and you only figure out where you need to UNF UNF UNF by looking at the map. 

I played the multiplayer on a weekend where I could have played *all weekend* and I uninstalled after 2 hours of utter hate.

I really hope the singleplayer delivers because I was really unimpressed with the 'watered-down halo' experience. 

The thing that really surprised me is just how much time I spend in the map screen (it's a lot), and how often I find myself just backtracking over the whole level whilst staying within the map screen.

I'm on a bit of a doom binge myself and noticed excessive time in the minimap. Of course, if I could just remember all the secrets this wouldn't be an issue :P

I'm curious to see how doom4 is going to incentivize exploration and secrets. Since you just have to glory kill enemies to get extra health I suppose they'll just fall back on primarily weapons/ammo. I doubt secrets will be very rewarding/impactful as I'm sure they don't want to compromise gameplay for non-explorers.

Doom's exploration and minimap isn't perfect and can be frustrating, but many times simply finding the secret is rewarding in and of itself... so much so that one will sit and look at a minimap for 5 minutes just to find it. 

With IDDT I even used to kill stuff in the map. Let alone wandering all around. 

A map system similar to the one in Metroid Prime would be pretty cool. I'm not sure how much it would make the game feel more like the classics, though. 

Descent was 3D and had a 3D map, but the level design was still very much from the "here's a maze full of keys, get lost sucker" school of thought.

http://www.dosgamers.com/uploads/images/original/descent1f.jpg 

Ok so the silly pinata drops come from executions etc, maybe could be seen as a demonic reward for brutal and evile actions, that's a concept that can be worked with for some better immersion in the setting.

So without debating the wrongness of the whole health/armor dropped by monster thing could they of maybe not used those stupid q4a like techy symbols for the drops ?

Something more fitting could be a glowing floating orb of blood or a suspended mist of sorts, I dunno, something that at least ties in "magic" with the stupid concept to pass the pill. Anything better than "here is a floating glowing easy enough for a 3rd grader to understand" symbol. 

I have the impression the game is being made for 3rd graders, thats the target-audience with the most money to spent, and the least "taste" in that regard.
In my impression. 

A third grader understands that red cross = health, does that make the original Doom stupid too?

Everybody hated UT3's utterly hamfisted explanations of CTF and respawning and Doom 4 not doing that is a good decision. 

A third grader knows that it's "could they have", not "could they of". 

A third grader feels that correcting people's spelling mistakes in a petty way is worth their while. 

A third grader nitpicks grammar and misses the point of the message. 

I'm not sorry for calling bits of UT3 bad. 

Don't work there anymore, don't care... 

Done by the players hud, I assumed.

Video looks fine. 

Colored orbs are not too hard to understand either you know, pick it up once and you know what it is for the rest of the game.

Its just the complete out of context abstract sci-fi ness of an already out of context feature.
What justifies sleek fucking 3D glowing desktop icons jumping out of abused and torn up demon flesh ?
As I said floating orbs of pulsating/glowing gelatinous dripping blood would make waaaaay more sense and at least feel only half as cheap. 

Yeah, I didn't like the "kill the monster in a fancy way and it'll drop more health" thing. Doesn't really fit. 

Last time I played it is pretty explicitly a thing that is done by the player's helmet's visor. First time you put it on it does like a bootup sequence and enables highlighting stuff.
The actual objects that drop are like little canisters or something. 

Great, can I not put the helmet on please?
Id rather walk around with a soft squishable head for the demons benefit than see that crap :D

Anyways, biggest gripe of all : I do so wish they had made it moddable and properly mappable.

For fucks sake it is the life blood of immortality for Doom... 

What CZG said. Kinda obvious. 

Hey guyz I hear some of the demons have techy bits sticking out of them and stuff. Aesthetically Doom has always been an inconsistent and nonsensical mess, so it really doesn't bother me if it turns out there's not a well-thought-out backstory for why monsters drop pickups. 

Oh, I don't want or care about a thought out backstory, just some level of consistency that my brain can get it's teeth into. The original Doom, for all it's weirdness, had that. The universe seemed consistent with itself and I could accept whatever I was seeing.

Monsters dropping more or less health based on how flashy the space marine makes their death ... eehhhh.... I dunno. 

Kinn I find there is this possible degree of consistence of theme within inconsistent fantastical stuff, even in a hodge-podge like Doom.

These things can and should follow some sort of logic within the fantasy.

Simply put it helps with the willing suspension of disbelief, or the immersion so to speak.

Here in this case when the items drop from the monsters it just screams, amongst other things "competitive multiplayer FPS a la q4a" and that takes me right out of the mood/vibe going on there in SP.

I mean all that effort in the hell environment and the beasts and then *that* pops out after their goreporn execution. It is seriously what the fuck, really why ? It boggles the mind, such a small thing to do right, but whatever.

So that bothers, it is sort of minor...or not. And if it doesn't bother you well good for you I guess :P 

There Warren said it better above. Wouldn't of bothered had I seen it.