...to play Doom3, but my ordered Athlon64 PC doesn't arrive until late August :(

I'll be making a Doom3 SP map-pack or two for this game, that's about 100% certain.

Much of it reminds me of an upgraded version of Quake 1, and can't wait to get my teeth sunk into it. 

The game is still pop around a corner, put a load of ammo into the nearest baddie, duck into cover, and repeat. But it's still fun after all this time, and the graphics are gorgeous. The story is VERY driving, I played a 5 hour stretch last night, causing me to sleep through my first class of the day today, just to get to the ending.

The DM is standard ID fare though, which may or may not be good, depends on your opinion. 

DM standard!?

Respawning explosive barrels, traps, beserk pack (!), weapons are well balenced, run speed is great, switchable lights... Doom3 Deathmatch is awesome... all it needs is better maps as the id ones are pretty much shit. 

out of all the previous id games, which is closest to Doom3 DM? 

I'd have to say DooM3 DM is excellent, I just had a run through on a ded server and it was great. 

Kinn: Mix between Doom1/2 DM and Quake DM 

it's kinda a mix all of the Quake DMs and is quite good from what I've played of it. 

surely all the shadows result in everyone camping.

Respawning explosive barrels are cool though. 

nitin: it's just part of the fun now. hiding in the dark is a valid tactic, but really affords a first shot, and none of the weapons beside the bfg and beserk pack punch are one shot kills (btw... i've not seen a bfg on any of the stock id maps? could it be they decided it was far too powerful for standard dm?) 

The lack of dynamic light on weapons fire is notably absent and really hurts this game. Whilst I understand it must have been excluded for performance reasons, I feel they should have sacrificed something else and kept dynamic lights from weapons.

As for the deathmatch, it reminded me mostly of Quake2 DM, ie physics feel pretty bad, the game is pretty slow, etc. 

you know, you can enable muzzle flashes, they're just turned off by default due to performance reasons like you said.

Add (or change the values) these to your doom3 config

seta g_decals "1"
seta g_projectileLights "1"
seta g_doubleVision "1"
seta g_muzzleFlash "1" 

You are the man. :D

I just figured the option to turn it on did not exist, since it wasn't in the menu (like every other game).

Thanks, I'll try changing those variables! 

yay! got to play a bit at a friends... wow, this game is amazing -- they can have movies for textures! :o
and holy shit this game is tense. :D
reminds me of a updated system shock 2 kind of. 

That makes such a huge difference. I'm a bit puzzled as to why those options aren't in the menu. I'm also wondering why I had those options turned off when it reckons the default is ON. Probably just because I'm running on medium quality instead of high.

I can live without decals, but I do want muzzleflash and projectilelights on... what does doublevision do though? Is that the blur effect when you get hit? 

http://www.doom3world.org/index.php?milkme=list_cvar 

Must be a "quality setting thing" it was all there by default for me. (high).

I started to think, hey ,whats he on about, I was getting all that stuff, then I thought I might be loosing it, I have been seeing all sorts of things in the shadows lately. 

Aren't even pre-rendered movies, from the looks of it...they're multilayered, realtime-generated movies. Even more impressive.

Anyone else's jaw drop when, at the one security station, you could turn the camera on to the one right behind the desk you were standing at, and lo and behold, you showed up on the screen? I was incredibly impressed. 

'you can have movies for textures! :o '

Check out the extension file that comes with Dark Places; you can do the same there as well. 

Mess wit me. 

If anyone here with a Radeon 9800 pro has a problem with red and white pixels all over the place then you're not alone. ATI is apparently aware of the problem and installing the full 4.9b drivers do help the situation quite a bit. 

4-5 hours probably. It thought it was intially fantastic but the more you play, the more predictable and boring it becomes. I think this review is exactly how I feel about doom, though I havent finished it like the reviewer has.

http://www.firingsquad.com/games/doom_3_review/

And I hate the monster intro movies, if they had been scripted in-game events, that would have been more involving and cool (espically the pinky demon's door busting intro). 

the art design and level design is fantastic though. 

pushplay, fantastic, I wondered what the fuck was going on with that (I've got a 9800XT) 

And I hate the monster intro movies

I agree that that was one really annoying aspect, and they did the monster gets really close to you as you watch helplessly cutscene trick too too many times. 

...are all whore (those who have the game already)

that is until i get back from vacation and am able to pick up my copy. I traded 3 crap old console games for it.