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Doom III hits the streets

Posted by Lance Powers

Well if you do not know what Doom, iD software, or who the master John Carmack is, this article may not be very entertaining. Doom 3 is the latest installment from iD software, who yes brought us the original Doom back in 1988, as well as the Quake series of games in the 90's. They literally invented the first person shooter genre that inspired so many young teenagers to go on murder sprees and commit other random video game induced violence. Seriously though I knew on Aug 3rd that this sucker was pirated and available online, but at 3 CD's I knew my crappy ADSL line would be chugging for days trying to get this motha down. Panthip Plaza to the rescue!

Like any good software developer I rely on pirated software to gain inspiration and sample applications I may actually be interested in purchasing. I was cracking games myself in the mid eighties and posting them on BBS chat boards across North America, and I have followed the scene since then to some degree. When I first came to Asia I was mesmerized by the fact that this 'we don't give a f*ck' attitude towards piracy was so open here. I instantly fell in love with the place and decided one day I would surely make it my home.

My contact called me on Aug 5th and said that Doom 3 was in stock and ready for me to pick up. There are still skid marks on my condo floor. Doom 3 is hella fun and spooky and like most games it held my attention for a full 30 minutes. It is basically a showcase for the new technology that so many game makers will be licensing in the coming months and years. As a testament to that, even on my well stocked P4 2.5Ghz w/Geforce 5700 FX and 1GB ram, it fully chugs! No worries readers - turn down some of the graphic settings and make some tweaks and it is very playable on most modern systems (try: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=tweak+doom+3). If I was about 10 years younger I could see myself being glued to this game for many sleepless twitchy pot induced weeks. Luckily I live in fun city and iD software has not found a way to build virtual Thai girls yet.

As a side note - Micheal Moore's excellent propaganda piece Fahrenheit 9/11 has indeed hit the usual places in DVD9 form. Be warned however that this copy is not exactly master quality but is certainly more watchable than the DVD5 copy that hit a couple of weeks ago. I would also recommend 'The Fog of War' to any other documentary fans. It details the life and career of Robert Macnamara, quite possibly the most famous of America's Defense Secretaries. Good stuff and the DVD9 master is available.

Posted Aug 08, 2004 at 01:08 PM | Permalink |