It's Official Now

Well, the world already knows after Carmack's .plan update a few days ago but id Software has made it official by releasing this press release on the new Doom game. Here it is in full:

MESQUITE, Texas - June 1, 2000 - id Software(TM), an independent developer of entertainmentsoftware, has started work on the next incarnation of DOOM(TM), one of the most popular computer games of all time. Employing an entirely new 3-D graphics engine, the still untitled project will showcase id Software's legendary ability to create an over-the-top, story-based single-player experience.

"id Software forever changed computer games with the DOOM franchise, and only id can carry on the cultural and technical tradition of the original masterpiece," Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software, said.

Hollenshead offered few other details.

"We expect to once again dramatically advance first-person gaming both technically and artistically with this title," Hollenshead added. "Other than that, id does not plan on issuing additional comments until the game is ready to speak for itself."

The original DOOM was released to critical acclaim in 1993 as shareware and has since been recognized as one of the most downloaded pieces of software of all time. id later released DOOM and its sequels at retail, where combined they have sold more than 4 million copies, generating sales topping $100 million.

About id Software id - Freud's primal part of the human psyche and one of the hottest game shops on Earth - has been rocking the gaming world from Mesquite, Texas since 1991. As a renowned leader in the industry, id Software forged such frenetic titles as Wolfenstein 3-DTM, DOOM(TM), DOOM II(TM), QUAKE and QUAKE II. With intense graphics and mind-blowing adventure, id's games continually break retail and shareware sales records. And, in keeping with tradition, id Software has amplified the world of adrenaline pumping 3-D gaming with the release of their latest action title, QUAKE III Arena. id's advanced QUAKE III Arena engine is leading the next revolution in 3-D interactive games with both single and multiplayer technology. Check out more about id Software at www.idsoftware.com.

©2000 Id Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. QUAKE® is a registered trademark of Id Software, Inc. QUAKE III Arena , QUAKE II and the Id Software name are trademarks of Id Software, Inc All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

Do note this sentence: "Employing an entirely new 3-D graphics engine, the still untitled project will showcase id Software's legendary ability to create an over-the-top, story-based single-player experience". O yeah baby.

Over the top single-player experience eh?
Let's look at their track record:

Wolf (good)
Doom (great)
Doom2 (ok)
Quake (bad)
Quake2 (shitty)
Quake3 (nonexistent)

So far id is only 2:3:1 for good/bad/ok...doesn't look good for the home team folks...

I think people in the Doom community need to realise that they and the UT obsessed are the only ones who don't like Q2 and Q3... their sales figures and the amount of people playing the two games on-line more than make that clear. Oh, and not everyone in the Doom community hates the Quake series either, far from it.

Nick, whoever made that first post was only talking about id games single-player experience. I hope you agree that Q3A's single-player experience was basically non-existant.

Well, guess thats it, eventually many people will be adding the next doom box to their shelves. Seems there are many mixed emotions being revealed about this announcement. Still, the most we can do is wait for it to come out and then say its a piece of crap or that its the greatest game ever. Until then its all guesswork as to the next doom games quality. So, screaming that it MUST suck now is stupid.

BTW that was my post below.

Doh! But good single player in FPS games isn't exactly common. In fact, I can only think of three games that pretty much everyone agrees has good sp: the Doom series (obviously), Half-life, and System Shock 2 (and that was an FPS/RPG hybrid anyway). I personally like Sin as well, but that's just me... :)

It hasn't been mentioned in this thread so far, but the fact that storylines generally suck in FPS games has a good reason... Imagine that you really ARE a marine on Stroggos, in hell, in some research base that has been invaded or whatever, cut off from your superiors (and therefore orders). Would you really have time or the wish to get really involved what was going on? No, your priorities would just be to figure out the basics of what the heck is going on, find a solution, and do it, killing anything that isn't friendly along the way.

nintendo doom64 engine with 3d look a double detail, and dooom64 wad with new monsters ? talk about a great new version ... but i just caught myself dreaming, that would make a great doom 3, but instead they're going to produce a commercial crap worthy of tomb raider 3. ethh

What the fuck are you talking about?

"... but i just caught myself dreaming"

Hmm... more like realized you were toasted? LOL

BTW, no matter how bad a new Doom-based game would turn out, you can rule out that it would not come anywhere near the pieces of crap that the later Tomb Raider sequels turned out to be. Huge expectations for this game? Yes. Disappointment among fans? Bound to be. Utter crap for a game? Don't think so. Let's see how well this game does turn out, considering the legacy of Doom, expecations, the people who have worked on Doom in the past, and those who will be working on Doom now, and in the future.

thers only one bad parnt about the new Doom we have to wait for it :(

"you can rule out that it would not come anywhere near"

That should've read "would come anywhere near". Ba, anyways, more importantly...

What I think is a record between posts (here): One whole second between Grunt's, and my post. :-)

i hope this new game kicks ass what do you think the name would be? doom3? (final doom)+1?

Wolf good, doom great, doom2 ok- fine up to here. Quake shitty. Quake 2 was MUCH better than Quake for SP and its not fair to mention Quake3 at all since it wasnt a single player game.

lots of people are being pretty pessimistic about this game. i think one thing to be pessimistic of is old school doomers clashing with new school doomers. all the people that shift from game to game and don't really know what they're doing but yell at people about it anyway will be around "us". but anyway, it's wrong to judge the game now. id is finally going back to the game style our favorite game is based on, single-player, and people are saying there's no way the story will be right, etc. we have to wait and see, but it'll probably be better than anything with the big Q slapped on it. i'm being incoherent and stuff, so i'm going to leave now.

OK, the new Doom comes. But I want to keep my Doom as know it. I am afraid, that the new to come Doom will wipe away the differences in quality between our beloved shooter and those Quake-crap (sorry, but this is my opinion). I dislike the vision, that people who are new in games, will speak "Doom" and "Quake3" with one breath.

i like the way they said "over the top" i hate these ultra-realistic games where you take two bullets and you're dead, or these ones where you have to sneak about and if you actually fire your gun you loose the entire level, i like running about like a maniac randomly shooting any old ejit that heads my way (not in real life of course, that sort of caper would land you dead or in jail)

I'd just like to say my first impression of the .plan file is boding true - that id was planning on breaking new ground by having an all new game engine - mark my words, people, this is going to be universally heralded as id's best work yet - and best FSP for that matter. Obviously just MHO, but that is what I genuinely think. I don't have much to back up this prediction, (not that there's any merit in it anyhow) just the fact that it's creation will be inspired by DOOM and I just can't imagine that it's going to fall short of *my* (if I said our, that wounldn't be saying much) expectations. I can't see how id could screw this up.

In reply to dvs01 - I think it's going to be called DOOM 3 with the 3 overlapping the DOOM and slighlty bigger than the letters.

Why does everyone think this is going to be a commercial piece of crap?! Yeah, id's like, "let's bank off of our success of DOOM, let's whoop together DOOM 3 - easy money!" What do you guys take id for? I'm sorry, id is doing this because they *want* to, like all their projects. Naturally they look to what the market wants, but they also do what they want to do. Why do you think there was such termoil?

Ok... id could completly screw up the new Doom, and could make it worse then that horrible piece of crap for the N64 (like many of the games for that thing) and it would still sell 4 million units... :) I love Doom, i started mapping with the Doom engine, and frankly the only true 3d game i REALLY like is Quake 1, because it has the mad dashing and shooting that Doom had, Quake 2 sucked cause it was 'wholsome' and there were aliens not anything scary...

Why do people think that just because only three of the original ID team are left that Doom 3 will be crap? Lets face it, the only good levels in the two games were those by Romero and McGee. Shawn Green's levels weren't that great, and as for Sandy "The Chasm" Peterson, I think he must be colour blind or something :) That fact there are thousands of add-on levels that are MUCH better than the originals goes to show that ID are certainly not gods. Also, Tom Hall didn't really do much for the actual finished Doom games; sure, he made the design specs/bible, and a huge amount of cool ideas in general, but most of it was ignored in the end anyway. So what does that leave? Programming and art... err, same guys as before, plus some new faces. So, this whole argument over the team is pretty much void IMHO.

The post about the ID team that is.

I am really hopeful that id does justice to the original. To achieve that, the weapon balance, level design, and multiplayer ability should be concentrated on more so than on their Quake versions. The single player experience is intriguing the first time through the game, however the mutiplayer experience will give the game life.

Of course ID can do it! all there games have been great... even Quake III has some exciting features but I disagree with the person all the way at the bottom so he can stfu! anyway all the Quakes have been fantastic with single player and Quake III was meant for Multyplayer and for Mplayer it's awesome, All the Quakes have scared the shit out of me rather it was the rail dude in Quake II or The shambler in Quake I.. Anyway I just hope they dont make the game too dark like Doom 64 thats the only part thats not cool.. Anyway I hope they have some multyplayer and co-op features on it so we can have all time Doom Mplayer as well.

***MESQUITE, Texas - June 1, 2000 - id Software(TM), an independent developer of entertainmentsoftware, has started work on the next incarnation of DOOM(TM), one of the most popular computer games of all time. Employing an entirely new 3-D graphics engine, the still untitled project will showcase id Software's legendary ability to create an over-the-top, story-based single-player experience.***

Wait, what "legendary" single-player experiences are you talking about here? DOOM's was too long ago and not enough to let you claim your sp experience was legendary. Quake 1 and 2's SP sucked, and Q3 doesn't even have one (unless you count the bots, which also suck ass).

***"id Software forever changed computer games with the DOOM franchise, and only id can carry on the cultural and technical tradition of the original masterpiece," Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software, said.***

What's a cultural and technical tradition? This is confusing PR bullsh**, typical of Todd Holesinhead...err...Hollenshead.

***Hollenshead offered few other details. "We expect to once again dramatically advance first-person gaming both technically and artistically with this title," Hollenshead added. "Other than that, id does not plan on issuing additional comments until the game is ready to speak for itself."***

I don't give a damn about your technical and artistic advancements...I want some gameplay. You DO remember what gameplay is, don't you id?

***The original DOOM was released to critical acclaim in 1993 as shareware and has since been recognized as one of the most downloaded pieces of software of all time. id later released DOOM and its sequels at retail, where combined they have sold more than 4 million copies, generating sales topping $100 million.***

Summary: DOOM's made a crapload of money...and Carmack wants another ferrari.

***About id Software id - Freud's primal part of the human psyche and one of the hottest game shops on Earth - has been rocking the gaming world from Mesquite, Texas since 1991. As a renowned leader in the industry, id Software forged such frenetic titles as Wolfenstein 3-DTM, DOOM(TM), DOOM II(TM), QUAKE and QUAKE II. With intense graphics and mind-blowing adventure, id's games continually break retail and shareware sales records. And, in keeping with tradition, id Software has amplified the world of adrenaline pumping 3-D gaming with the release of their latest action title, QUAKE III Arena. id's advanced QUAKE III Arena engine is leading the next revolution in 3-D interactive games with both single and multiplayer technology. Check out more about id Software at www.idsoftware.com.***

Quake 3 leading the next revolution? More like a de-evolution...how can a game that basically takes weapons and gampelay from the two previous games be revolutionary? Oh, are you referring to curved surfaces? Big f***ing deal.

I'm just trying to remember exactly when I lost faith in id...was it before or after Quake 2? I'm thinking after.

I'd suggest they stay out of this story-based thing (not that they will, it seems). Game designers aren't writers, and the "story" can only be good if it's something that comes up through the player's imagination when he's inspired by what the game "tells" when you play it. I could never buy any of the cheap SF and pseudo-horror (or fantasy) stories that come with games (FPS, RPG, whatever). Maybe it doesn't matter, as you can try to ignore it, but the more they try to force a "story," some kind of linear narrative into the game, the more rigid and stale the game gets. Luckily, they might even change their minds. It happens often: we are lucky all the proposed cinematics never made it to the original DOOM, IMO. Lets hope they don't make up stupid names and stuff, like stroggos and Tei Tenga or the like (I would call this something like pulp-realism). Look instead at "Phobos" and "Deimos," hardly a story there, but the two names, and the environment given to the places speak for themselves. Also, lets hope that they keep the distracting eye-candy in the background where it belongs, or we wont even notice the monsters amid all the ambient sounds, "cool" mechanisms and gadgets, as it often happens in maps that exist mainly to show off technical possibilities. What matters most is not WHAT you use, but HOW you use it.

Those same 3 guys can't even agree on anything. And the rest of id Software sucks as well. At least they finally had the smarts to get rid of that asshole Steed.

I agree with Dagger's 2nd-last post, there. "Technical and artistic advancements", "cultural and technical tradition".. This is the classic art of combining two adjectives with a conjuncture and adding a noun to create the illusion of technical signifigance, while increasing stock value. It really works. You ought to read more Dilbert™ comics. :-b