BFG or DooM 3?

Hey guys, old school DooM player here who never played DooM 3. I know I'm posting in the wrong forum, but I want to get some responses ASAP and the last post in the DooM 3 forum was on the 24th.

Steam currently has a sale for just DooM 3 + x-pack for under $8. Meanwhile, Newegg is selling the BFG edition for $18. I'm not sure what to get. I have a 24" 1920 x 1080 native screen and I read the original DooM 3 does not support HD and wide screen resolutions. I also read that the BFG edition actually has worse sound and visual quality. BFG does have some bonus content and better controls and lighting, though.

The steam sale ends in less than 24 hours. The reviews at Newegg are interesting, as well. I'm just interested in what people's opinions are. Here are the links.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/425/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832136029

I'd say get the BFG edition. It's geared towards introducing new players into the Doom and Doom 3 universe, and sounds like it should be right up your alley.

Only gameplay difference is the fact that in regular Doom 3 you can't hold a weapon and shine with your flashlight at the same time. Take it or leave it, the game was designed that way for a reason. In BFG edition, the flash light is instead mounted on your suit, for a more Half-Lifey feel.

I prefer the former, for survival/horror reasons, but overall it's not a big thing. BFG edition is faster and more action packed, the regular version is slower and more horror based. But seeing as the game is really only creepy in the first 15 minutes or so, until you get used to the base and monsters, the BFG edition probably did the right thing upping the action.

Also it'd suck if you played it and loved the game, only to find out you won't be able to access the Lost Missions, which are BFG edition exclusive.

if you have original flavor Doom 3 on Steam, you get a 33% discount on BFG Edition. Which is also discounted by 25% on Steam right now. So you could get both. Given that the low price of Doom 3 is basically equal to the discount it gives you on buying D3BFG, if you buy it first and then buy D3BFG, it is basically a freebie.

But if you buy D3BFG, you don't get the original version of Doom 3 and ROE as a freebie.

Edit: apparently the two discounts don't stack so you only get the 25% discount from the fall sales.

Don't listen to EvilNed01. The BFG Edition is a watered down Doom 3 and Doom 2, with missing features and dumbed down gameplay. I'd suggest you try out Doom 3 Original, it plays just like it was designed.

The original version of Doom 3 (and consequently Resurrection of Evil) does support HD and widescreen resolutions. It only requires a bit of config editing. The BFG Edition allows you to select widescreen HD resolutions without additional steps, but by default, you're limited to the very constrained FOV of 65. You can adjust this through a console setting, but the console is disabled by default in the BFG Edition and requires you to jump through a bunch of hoops just to bring it back. The original Doom 3 is just less of a hassle all around.

If you're looking for the best visual quality, the original Doom 3 also wins out. The BFG Edition includes fewer shadows and lower quality textures as you're forced to use compressed settings while the original allows you to select the uncompressed "Ultra" setting. Gameplay-wise, the original Doom 3 also triumphs as the BFG Edition has been heavily dumbed down, over-saturating the levels with far too much health and ammo and even going as far as to remove the hazmat suit entirely in Resurrection of Evil, one of the unique sections in this expansion. "The Lost Missions" is nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick and actually largely consists of re-used maps from the main Doom 3 campaign.

And finally, as far as price goes, the original Doom 3 package is still a better buy. You're missing out on the classic Dooms, but thanks to Steam Autumn Sale, you can add Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, and heck, even Final Doom (not included in the BFG Edition) to your cart and the combined price would still be cheaper than that Newegg offer. Of course, none of that's necessary if you're just interested in Doom 3 and RoE alone. If that's the case, the original Doom 3 Pack deal on Steam blows the BFG Edition out of the water.

Rock Lobstah said:

I know I'm posting in the wrong forum, but I want to get some responses ASAP and the last post in the DooM 3 forum was on the 24th.

Don't do this. People will see new posts in whatever forum they are. Moved.

Revenant100 said:

The BFG Edition includes fewer shadows and lower quality textures as you're forced to use compressed settings while the original allows you to select the uncompressed "Ultra" setting.

In the original Doom3, Ultra just meant uncompressed, nothing more. In BFG, the texture format changed so Ultra couldn't even exist.
Also, fewer shadows? How did you even come to this conclusion? The shadow count is not an internal static limit.

Revenant100 said:

you're limited to the very constrained FOV of 65. You can adjust this through a console setting ...

That screenshot clearly says 80, not 65. And you can indeed change it from the menu.

Revenant100 said:

... but the console is disabled by default in the BFG Edition and requires you to jump through a bunch of hoops just to bring it back.

Since when has the launch command "+set com_allowconsole 1" been such a burden to put in?

Edward850 said:
In the original Doom3, Ultra just meant uncompressed, nothing more. In BFG, the texture format changed so Ultra couldn't even exist.

The textures in the BFG Edition are compressed and the artifacts are indeed visible whereas there are none in the original's "Ultra" quality. Behold the screenshot comparison:
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/5576/80479517.jpg
http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/2600/bfgg.jpg

Also, fewer shadows? How did you even come to this conclusion?

It's not a conclusion, it's a fact! Projectiles (such as the imp's fireball) in the original Doom 3 cast shadows while they did not in the BFG Edition. The BFG Edition's flashlight also does not cast shadows. However, as if to answer my post, id just pushed out a BFG Edition patch today that restores projectile shadows, confirming the fact that they weren't there before.

That screenshot clearly says 80, not 65. And you can indeed change it from the menu.

Indeed, I know the image says 80 as that is my image. What you should know is that FOV is measured differently in the BFG Edition. The BFG's default g_fov value of "80" is actually equivalent to the original Doom 3's g_fov of 65 as evidenced in this screenshot:
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8466/d3origfov65.jpg

And yes, thanks to today's patch, you can now adjust the FOV from the menu. Unfortunately, the menu setting only goes up to 100. I play in a 16:9 aspect ratio resolution, so in order to make the BFG Edition's FOV match my properly calculated FOV, I need to set it to 106. Anyone playing with an equal or (especially) higher widescreen aspect ratio will need to kick out the console regardless.

I played through the entire game, in widescreen, at default FOV, without any problems.

But there are valid concerns about the BFG edition here. For instance the textures,

printz said:

The BFG Edition is a watered down Doom 3 and Doom 2, with missing features and dumbed down gameplay.

Why drag the "dumbed down" Doom 2 issue into this? The specifics have been discussed to death already and make me want to reach through the internet and throttle people, but the inclusion of Doom and Doom 2 (new chapter notwithstanding) in the BFG Edition are no more than little bonuses.

That said, as tedious as I find Doom 3 I agree that the vanilla version of the game is the better version. That's mainly based on personal preferences though, and if you have no ambitions of making Doom 3 maps and mods then the loss of the editor(s) in the BFG Edition is purely incidental. The Lost Mission is another nice little addition, but it's pretty forgettable.

If you simply don't care about either take on the flashlight mechanic, or the minor differences in brightness throughout the game, or the really anal discrepancies in texture quality, and you just want to play some Doom 3, then either version is going to work for you.

Don't most mods only work with vanilla Doom 3 atm?

krait said:

Don't most mods only work with vanilla Doom 3 atm?

Yes. The BFG edition uses a completely different resource format. It's like if classic Doom had been rereleased, but instead of using IWADs it uses a new archive system, and the WAD loading code has been removed.