Doom 3 - BFG Edition PlayStation 3

Released on 19-Oct-2012

• Editor's Choice - Doom 3 BFG Edition (Preview)

  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  The grandaddy is back; no, not the one with a bag of Werther's Originals and a pair of dog-eared slippers but the hip one packing shotguns, tentacles and demons instead. Enter Hell all over again then with this compilation of the genre-defining first-person-shooter series courtesy of Doom 3: BFG Edition for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3....

  The premise is all so familiar; gung-ho scientists in 2145 have been dabbling with teleportation technologies and have gone and ripped a hole in the very fabric of the universe (did they learn nothing from Gordon Freeman?), creating a gateway to Hell. Oops. BFOops in fact.

  From out of it spew Mancubuses (no, not a bunch of Northerners stuffed into a National Express coach), Hell Knights and more evil than you shake a set of rosary beads at. That's where you step in, creeping down the dark corridors of a Mars military base and hunting down the foul foe that now infest the place; thankfully, all cannon fodder for your epic range of weaponry including the infamous BFG.

  

  For this special edition, the graphics have been remastered and are now in terrifying 3D, meaning that even the likes of Persil will struggle to remove those stubborn underpants stains that have been the curse of many a Doom player over the years. Aiming to add a fresh slew of skidmarks is the inclusion of expansion pack Resurrection of Evil plus a set of seven brand demon-spanking new levels, 'The Lost Mission'. Perhaps the most important addition for Doom 3 veterans though is that those bouts of terrifying finger origami while operating the in-game flashlight of the original have been banished by fitting the previously handheld torch to your armour instead.

  For completists (or for young Modern Warfare fanatics wondering what there was to fight before terrorist insurgents), the original Doom and Doom 2 are also included, further underlying why the Doom series was and remains and always will be so damn special. And not a Rock or a Dexter Fletcher in sight!

  Published: 18/10/2012

• Doom 3 BFG Achievements favour single player modes

  Classic first-person shooter Doom 3 gets a fresh lick of paint this week as its re-released in a special "BFG" high def edition for consoles. Ahead of its release, the Achievements for the Xbox 360 version have made their way online and reveal a lot about what you'll be expected to do.

  The BFG edition contains no less than three games in one, with the original Doom 3 joined by expansion pack Resurrection of Evil and all-new bonus game The Lost Mission, which fills in the story of the ill-fated marines you're trying to find in the main game.

  Completing each of the three campaigns on various difficulty settings accounts for twelve of the game's fifty Achievements, with those playing on the easiest Recruit setting getting just five Gamerscore for their effort. More points are on offer for defeating the various boss enemies throughout the three storylines, and for completing tasks such as collecting PDAs, video logs and storage lockers. Finding the various easter eggs and secret rooms hidden throughout the game will net you a few points as well.

  There are plenty of other Achievements along the way, however, including one for defeating an enemy when you only have one health unit remaining. Kills with shotguns and other weapons are also on the list.

  Only six of the Achievements are connected with the online modes, with 65 Gamerscore on offer for multiplayer excellence.

  Doom 3 BFG Edition is out this week for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

  Published: 15/10/2012

• How iD reworked a classic for Doom 3 BFG

  
  

  It's not unusual these days to find a studio re-releasing a classic from the vaults, reworked for the HD era. What is unusual for a studio to dig deep into the guts of such a game and give it a complete overhaul, tightening the gameplay, tweaking the engine and adding even more levels.

  That's what iD has done for the upcoming Doom 3 BFG edition, which sees the eye-catching 2004 shooter given a comprehensive makeover.

  "We went through every single level of the original and things that were really frustrating or not fun, we made them more enjoyable," iD's Tim Willits explained. "So it is really kind of cool for us - especially as we all love the Doom franchise - to go back and rework the game in such a way."

  As well as small changes throughout the game, there will also be an eight level expansion called Lost Mission. This casts you as the sole surviving member of Bravo Team, a marine squad that you spend much of the main game trying to locate. These new levels add another three hours to the game and have been designed by the same team that worked on the original game. According to Willits, "you blast your way into hell and fight a big boss at the end" which sounds perfectly in keeping with the Doom name to us.

  "Instead of a slower horror game with action elements, it's now more of a faster action game with horror elements", concludes Willits.

  Published: 06/09/2012

• The Rise of Multiplayer Gaming

  
  

  It's hard to image there was ever a time when we couldn't assume our grimmest war-face, fire up our consoles and do battle with a global army of enemy combatants from the comfort of our armchairs. We're certainly come a long way from sitting hunched over our Commodores, battling as much for keyboard space with our siblings as we were on-screen! But where did it all start?

  Things really started to evolve in the 90s though when LAN parties were the in-thing for the hardcore gaming hobbyist. If the prospect of the violently seductive Doom wasn't enough to keep you up into the early hours by itself, there was no better way to bring the competitive minds of a whole generation of gamers together than by syncing up a few PCs and spending hours, even days, doing battle in the flesh.

  

  The blossoming Korean e-sports scene took the concept even further, and now commands a staggering national audience for televised championships. Blizzard's outstanding StarCraft series rules the roost in this domain, and not even the awesome sequel released in 2010 has put a dent in players' enthusiasm for the best-selling original. The competitive scene for StarCraft II is still buzzing in the West, and it's never too late to get stuck into a game that'll be around for years to come and still has two explosive expansions in the works.

  

  Then there's World of Warcraft, the game that really did change everything. Released in 2004, it arrived just at the right time as the mass uptake of increasingly fast broadband connections became the norm, unleashing a greedy clamour for the world of Azeroth - one so extreme that it saw Blizzard pull the game from store shelves at one point, their servers unable to keep up with the snowballing demand. It now enjoys a seven-figure subscriber count, and with three award-winning expansions under it's belt, there's more content for you to get stuck into than you'll know what to do with!

  

  While consoles such as the sadly-undersold Dreamcast teased gently around the potential for global gameplay, it was arguably Microsoft who broke new ground for console gaming with the launch of the Xbox LIVE service, putting a whole new world of gaming at player's feet - and long before PCs became a breeze to hook up for the living-room lounger!

  So while PC gaming might have dominated the early days of competitive multiplayer, it was titles like Halo 2 that brought the idea of mass gaming to the forefront of game design. While the single-player components of the Halo games continue to blow us away, the passion for Halo 2 was so extreme that players left their Xbox 360s running for days at a time to prevent the eventual switch-off of multiplayer support for all original Xbox games in April 2010.

  

  These days it's show-stopping blockbuster titles like Call of Duty that continue to change the way gaming is viewed and played online by the console crowd. For many, it's the only game they need to buy each year, and services like Call of Duty Elite are doing even more to add greater depth to the experience, allowing gamers to track, log and show off their finest moments on the battlefield.

  

  No-one can guess what the next evolution in multiplayer might be, but we're already seeing some extraordinary innovation in the likes of Nintendo's StreetPass, allowing gamers-on-the-go to make new friends without ever saying hello, and the awesome potential of the augmented reality features in the upcoming PlayStation Vita. One thing's clear, multiplayer is here to stay and the future can only bring us even closer together.

  Published: 25/01/2012

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