I bought DOOM 3 Collector's Edition for XBox -- thoughts inside

[Mogul]

Let me get right down to it.

To answer your question -- no, it's not worth $60. The packaging is quite nice -- maybe the coolest I've ever seen. Aside from that, no, it's not worth it.

The extra stuff that adds the extra $10 to the price is worth... about a dime.

The id interviews they've got on there are the ones that are in the movie DOOM: The Legacy, which you can get for free on the internet. Or, you can just go to doom3.com and watch them there. Lame.

The concept art: Most of it is already available (when I say "most," I mean 90% or so) for free on the internet. Also, it's not in a gallery style where you can take your time to look at them. It plays as a movie that you can't pause or rewind. I will concede that a couple of the concept pieces are very cool looking, anyway.

The G4 Icons episode is also available on the internet for free, and to be honest, the quality isn't unbearably worse in the free internet version.

Let's see, what else... Oh! Perhaps the greatest failure of all of the special features. The inclusion of the first two games.

The graphics were much better on the PSX version. The music is somehow emulated, and it's not tight. For instance, load up Map01 in DOOM II and you'll find that the syncopated rhythm that you're probably used to in the pc version slows down ever so slightly and speeds up again -- the instruments are not 100% in sync with other in the XBox version. Incredibly lame.

Furthermore BFG trick is gone.

Oh, and don't even start to wonder if the multiplayer on the old games is any good. It's split screen, yes, we knew that -- but it's ANNOYING split screen. Instead of cutting the view in half horizontally, they put two very small-sized screens side by side. It looks horrible, even on a larger tv.

OK, so pretty much all of the extra stuff was a total sham. The quality of the extra features is quite bad, and I'm quite disapointed in it.

Now, on to the game:

Question: Is the co-op any good? I wouldn't know, yet. :) I haven't gotten a chance to play it with a friend. It shows promise though.

I did get to run through the first few levels of the single player game. I have to say I'm pretty impressed with how well some of the stuff translated to the XBox. I think players who didn't get a good graphical feast in the PC version because of hardware are going to appreciate this.

However, I do have a problem with the cuts they made to the game. I thought it was going to be much more subtle than it actually is. What they ended up cutting out was about half the gameplay. Entire rooms are missing. Scenes that you controlled your character in are now merely cutscenes -- that, in my opinion, don't even flow very naturally because of the cut/paste strategies they used to create them out of the PC's actual gameplay.

Furthermore, because of the amount of content that's actually missing from the game, the horror effect is pretty much gone completely, in my opinion. Maybe if this is the only version of the game you've played, it will still be scary, but for a veteran of the pc version (who's been through it three times), you'll find that all the time you spend building anticipation up, all of that is gone.

Now it's almost all action.

I shudder at the thought of how the XBox version is going to completely rape the Delta Labs map that the PC version did so well. You know, the one that's all red and though it's completely abandoned, you're going through it extremely cautiously, full of anticipation and fear. That is the greatest emotional effect I've ever seen used in a game -- that map. I think it's first map of Delta. Anyway, in the XBox version, at the rate I'm seeing things cut out so far, it's going to be like, one room's worth of anticipation, and then the computer room where you complete the first objective or whatever it is. Quite, quite lame.

I won't even get into how much easier to the game is on XBox, but trust me -- the fear of your enemies is completely gone. Taking 1 hp damage from an imp when you only have 65 armor is pathetic.

So there it is so far. I don't plan on trying deathmatch. I'd only do that in the PC version. I will definitely report back with my thoughts on co-op, though.

Anyone have anything to add?

Postlude: Good grief, $60 for this thing. :(

[sethsez]

Eh, I like it. It plays different enough that I don't regret buying it, anyway. I could go on a long tirade about the differences and such, but I'd rather just sum it up with "PC version is a superior horror game, Xbox version is a superior action game."

[Xgthug]

Hell, I'm just glad it's even on Xbox,
with all the delays they did with the shipping.
Since my computer can't handle the PC version,
I'm just happy to see it on Xbox at all.
I'll admit the game wasn't as scary as I thought it would be,
but it's still better than Half-Life 2 in my opinion.
You're complaining about the splitscreen in the Classic Doom?
You're lucky they added splitscreen at all,
since Doom 3 doesn't have splitscreen, only system link and Live.
I'd pay $20 dollars for the original Doom games on Xbox alone,
and me and my friend weren't complaining when we played through
the entire first Doom game on co-op.
Doom 3 for Xbox, although dumbed down, was worth every penny in my pocket. I'm sorry to see you're dissapointed in it.

[Intel17]

I'm glad the PC version is superior to the Xbox version!

At least Id isn't going console first and PC second...

[Vegeta]

Okey, but why did you bought the xbox versions if you already have the pc one, wich is known to be better? You didn't even tested it before buying it. It's a natural fact that that kind of things are a useles waste of money. I know about the collector value, but IMO that is for old stuff, to buy new (useless, in a conventional way) stuff like this is to be a mere void mind consumer that buys what the idol has to offer. id surely made a lot of money from these kind of sales.

[Mogul]

Vegeta said:

Okey, but why did you bought the xbox versions if you already have the pc one, wich is known to be better?

By all reports, the XBox version played better. I wasn't expecting them to cut out everything that made the PC version as amazing as it is.

And I was hoping that the classic games in the collector's edition wouldn't look SNES quality (which isn't too far from how bad they actually look).

And for co-op, of course. I have faith that co-op is going to be good, because I already know exactly what to expect from it.

[Technician]

Mogul you fool. The DOOM games on the xbox version are the exact same quality as the original executables were. Same pixels textures and pillowed music as always.

And there was allot more conceped art that wasn't even available in that joke Making of DOOM 3 book. And I was pleased with this. I paid 60 bucks and feel good. The Xbox version of Doom 3 run extremely smooth. I can't really think of any major FPS drops. The graphics are a little compressed. Still look better then what I can get to work on my pc.

And in retro spec what else were you expecting fro this collection? I paid the money only expecting DOOM 3, Ultimate DOOM, and DOOM II.

[Revenant100]

Are you saying that Doom 1 and 2 are played in their original 320x240 resolution? Or is it a higher resolution?

[sethsez]

Vegeta said:

Okey, but why did you bought the xbox versions if you already have the pc one, wich is known to be better?

I can't speak for him, but I bought the Xbox version because I heard the levels had been significantly altered to allow for much faster gameplay, and that turned out to be the case. In the future, when I feel like playing Doom 3 I'll be loading up the Xbox version even though I have a PC more than capable of running it just because I vastly prefer the quicker pace. I always felt that the PC version felt more like Quake than Doom, and the Xbox fixes this for me.

Obviously, if someone plays the game for the atmosphere or the graphics, the PC version will be superior. It definitely has more pronounced shadows, and the added stretches of nothing do make it creepier (in the beginning, anyway). But if you're looking for an action game, the Xbox has a quicker pace, the brightness has been turned up a bit (which means less switching to and from the flashlight, assuming you don't use a mod for it on the PC), and although I can't confirm it yet, it does feel like there are a few more enemies here and there as well. To me, it feels more like Doom should feel.

Edit: Oh, and Doom and Doom II look exactly like they always have on the PC, resolution and all. I don't get the SNES comparison... they look far, far better than that port. The only issue is a bizarre bug in Ultimate Doom that only shows the first sky for every episode, which admittedly kills a lot of the atmosphere of Inferno for me. This issue doesn't seem to show up in Doom II, though, and for me they're the best playing console ports of these games yet. It's not worth $10 if you already own them in some form (like I'd hope everyone here already does) but for people who don't it's a great bonus.

[DoomDan]

Yeah The Xbox version definitly has more enemies in it.I noticed that after you kill Vagary in the Xbox version you have to fight about 10 trites, don't remember that happening in the PC version.

[Technician]

Yah. I remember they put like only one maint zombie in DOOM 3 pc (My fav zombie) And in the xbox version there are like 10 so far. And I believe there are more pinkys. id did some re-adjusting to monsters before release I guess. Visions didn't bother to change it. And load times are so short.

[Coopersville]

The only thing I was mildly disappointed in was playing co-op through system link. Being more geared for action, there aren't any puzzles to get in the way. It's fun, but that also makes the levels seem much shorter; it takes seven minutes tops to beat any of the twenty levels it has. A couple are done as quickly as one minute or less. I was expecting to spend a whole day doing co-op, but my friend and I blew through it in about two hours.

[baronofhell]

What I thought was added as a little treat for the xbox was the few imps I ran into that crawled liked vulgars. They crawled, got up extremely fast to throw their balls at you, and then got back on all fours again. It was a little tricky depositing my slugs in their ugly heads.

[Mogul]

Technician said:

Mogul you fool.

Err OK.

The DOOM games on the xbox version are the exact same quality as the original executables were. Same pixels textures and pillowed music as always.

Not true. They may run at the same resolution (320) but it's quite clear the PC version looks better with the classic DOOM games. At any rate, my main complaint with the classic games is screen size.

And there was allot more conceped art that wasn't even available in that joke Making of DOOM 3 book. And I was pleased with this.

"Conceped." Heh. Anyway, there were maybe three pieces that aren't available somewhere on the internet. They were OK, but the fact that you can't see them in still pictures, maybe with a zoom capability -- the features that every other game with this kind of gallery has -- is quite the let down. I was looking forward to seeing the concept art, but this presentation is a complete joke.

And in retro spec what else were you expecting fro this collection? I paid the money only expecting DOOM 3, Ultimate DOOM, and DOOM II.

I've already mentioned the other things I was expecting.

[Technician]

Ok the concept (Spelled it right for you) was pretty shitty. (Although better then "Making of DOOM 3, and thats bad!)

And you are right about one thing. The Delta labs have been raped. Alhough when I first played this and found it to be brighter and monster packed. I liked it :)

One thing that sucks. Since the whole "beginning base" has been totally riped apart. Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3. Has been deleted with this. The bathroom mirror thing has been moved to another bathroom however.

Although rumors were wrong ROE was not included. I couldn't see them having it anyway. Could the DVD hold both DOOM 3 and ROE together? I think so.

[DoomDan]

Is it just me, or is the Chain Gun and Plasma Gun slower in the Xbox version??

[Technician]

I didn;t notice the plasma fifle but I think the chaingun might be. Different sounds too I believe. Oh well the plasma gun from the pc used like a public domain lazer gun sound that I hated.

[Jasoco]

I think it was well worth it. I waited years for a console to get a DOOM port that didn't suck AND controlled well. The PSX was close, but you can't beat two sticks (One to strafe, one to turn) for controlling FPS'. (Not counting keyboards. But that';s another story as I PREFER a controller over a keyboard AND mouse in FPS games.)

Also, the PSX levels were STILL edited. The D3 ports are practically the same thing I've seen on my PC for years, including some of the bugs.

Sure, the music may seem off once in a while and some sounds seem higher sometimes.

Though, for some reason in Episode 2, the Tower of Babel didn't build itself from level to level like it's supposed to. Not a big deal though.

As a Doom fan, I found it quite refreshing. I do not own a PC or a Mac capable of even TOUCHING the game, and even if I did, I prefer consoles. D3 was no let down at all. Halo 2 was a let down. D3 was not. I loved it and that is all. (BTW, I just beat it earlier, on Easy of course, but hell, it took forever, and I don't care if it was Easy mode.)

All in all, well worth the wait for me.

Things I didn't like though was the lack of many more extras. The Icons was cool, but lacked a "Play All" button. (WTF?) and the interviews were nice, but I wanted more. At least Halo 2 came with a full DVD full of extras, and that game sucked!

I can't say how happy I am with the Doom 1+2 ports. I really am. The only problem I have with those is the damn "cheats" are activated by the L trigger, which I use ALL THE TIME, so I am constantly turning on the inverted white "Invulnerability" sphere. Grrr. Why not just a Cheat Menu?

BTW, anyone found any cheats for the Xbox version of D3 yet?

[Doomsoldier]

Dammit, I almost baught Doom3 Limited Collectors Edition for X-Box yesterday, but the time got too damn late and I ran out of time.

I'll try buying it this weekend.

Who has Doom3 Limited Collectors Edition?

[Lizardcommando]

I got the Doom 3 limited edition. It's pretty cool, but my goddamned x-box keeps fucking up on me, so I haven't been able to play much. But so far, the game is cool. I like it.

I did play Doom and Doom 2 on the X-box. It's alright, but I hate the sounds although the pistol/chaingun sound were ok, but the chainsaw sounds really bad. I also hate how splitscreen multiplayer is set up for doom and doom 2. (namely 2 player, which had been discussed earlier)

I kinda didn't like how the concept art was shown though. I don't think it should have been shown as a slide show. You should have just been able to go through a menu and pick whatever picture you want to see.

I honestly thought it was worth my money. Now if only my suX-box wouldn't freeze on me all the time!!! >:(

[Haloless0320]

I liked it...Actually i play Doom and Doom 2 more than i do doom 3.I was dissappointed in the way the Screen split Vertically and not Horizontally...Especially on my little ass TV.

Co-op on classic doom is still fun.Wishing that they would have ran it through a source port then Put it on Xbox...that would have been sweet.

[Mogul]

Technically it is a source port. Xbox doesn't run on DOS, silly rabbit.

:(

[Haloless0320]

Well i mean give it mouse look(or freelook),enhanced graphics...etc.

[DoomDan]

You could still play Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 in Doom 3. Just get behind the machine and turn it on