Should I get the Doom 3: BFG Edition?

[Herzon]

Well, I was recently thinking about getting an XBOX One because of alot of different titles on the system that looked fun. One of the games that seemed cool we're the Doom 3: BFG Edition. I am a big fan of Split Screen Doom sourceports. And seeing that the Doom 3: BFG Edition had support for the XBOX One and had split screen all across the Doom series, it seemed like a great buy. But then there was people bad mouthing the game for having problems and Doom 3 being nothing like a Doom game, and then there was people saying it was a great game for what it was and the BFG Edition is a good way to play the game. But I was confused on who to listen to. So I went to Doomworld! The most trustworthy place of all time. (not really) So, should I get it? Tell me your thoughts! I really wanna hear them.

[seed]

My 2 cents, if Xbox One supports it and you want to play Doom 3 on it, then it probably is worth the investment, I think.

 

As about problems, I'm not so sure about them (or at least, in the literal sense of the word), but it should be noted that the BFG Edition does change some mechanics (the flashlight for instance, which is no longer a separate weapon) as well as some areas in different levels.

 

The eternal "not a Doom game" debate is honestly pointless and has no real conclusion anyway. It it typically perceived as such by some people due to the drastic change in style and tone, the first 2 games being action oriented with horror elements, whereas Doom 3 focuses on the horror much more and it basically wants to be one, but at the core it ultimate it still very much is a Doom game. I would advise against listening to these people, or simply to hear their point and reach your own conclusions.

 

You might also find this topic of some use overall as various aspects of the BFG edition are debated, along some differences between it and Doom 3: 

 

[Doommarine_maxi]

For console?, yes you should.

[PizzaGuy]

Absolutely , it's a great little package.

[Cacodemon345]

If you want to play The Lost Mission, buy it.

[Tetzlaff]

I bought it for PC when it was cheap, mainly to play The Lost Mission.

[Cant delete my DW account]

Just do it!

It's great,but don't expect it to be as fun as the classic or as brutal as the reboot.

Expect it to be...spooky.

[Blastfrog]

For console, yes, absolutely. For PC, just play vanilla (optionally with any mods of your choice).

 

For BFG edition movement speed, use the console to set the movement speeds to 125% of their default. If you want the zoomed in/flattened look of the BFG edition, set your FOV to 64 instead of 90, and the first person weapon X position to 3 (or maybe it was -3, can't remember, in any case it is more distant from the camera by 3 units in BFG edition).

 

Set the brightness multiplier to 3 instead of the default 2. Alternately set it to 4 if you want it to look like the launch version of BFG edition, they pulled it back in a patch after complaints that everything became too washed out. On that note, I wonder how Doom 3 would look in HDR with the original brightness scaled to the display's max capacity. Probably pretty damn good, I imagine.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Blastfrog

[Cacodemon345]

1 hour ago, Blastfrog said:

For console, yes, absolutely.

Better to not play Doom 3 BFG on console. If the OP has a PC only, it wouldn't look good.

[Blastfrog]

11 hours ago, Cacodemon345 said:

Better to not play Doom 3 BFG on console. If the OP has a PC only, it wouldn't look good.

I appear to have lost myself and wrote a wall of text. Have fun sifting through it (or don't). TL;DR to OP, yes, get BFG on Xbox, very much worth it. Also consider an Xbox One X rather than the original, more expensive, yes, but a sensible investment because I suspect that games are going to start defacto requiring the X over time (I give it 3-4 years at most) with perhaps paltry "just to have the tick on the box" compatibility with the base model, with terrible performance and/or visuals, possibly reduced featureset, etc. Besides, you'll get to enjoy better visuals right off the bat.

 

Okay, but what relevance does that have in this thread? The OP stated that he was interested in possibly grabbing an Xbox One for more general reasons, and thought perhaps BFG Edition is worth picking up to have something Doomy in his library for his new machine. I know the console versions of Doom 2016 let you change the FOV, but I am not certain if BFG does or not on console (PC version does at least).

 

Even for PC, I actually do think it's worth picking up. Yeah, they made the game somewhat easier, but honestly it's a hell of a lot more fun with the speedier player and the sensible flashlight. And if you wanna get into whether Doom 3 is a real Doom game, I honestly think most of the changes in the 2012 version (they fucked up the expansion though) emphasize the parts that really make it Doom at its core (even if it is a very different take on it). They actually did a lot sound reworking, I love the new sounds. Health isn't just recycled from Quake 3 (though perhaps it is a bit corny, but I like it), player footsteps sound like they have heft and weight with jangling military gear, I'm sure there's a lot else but I haven't taken too close of a look.

 

You may even want to get it on PC, if you want to play Lost Mission or see the changes to the base campaign on it rather than a console (don't even bother with Doom 1 and 2 in BFG on PC for obvious reasons). I think it's a good product (if not without its flaws) and that the heavy critics of it are missing the point and don't seem to appreciate the careful attention to detail as they combed over the game with tweaks (setting nostalgia or conservatism aside, the changes really do make the game much more fun without really taking away from the experience, unless you really think unfun gameplay elements for the "atmopshere" were really worth keeping).

 

^{Tangent that I wrote but don't feel like deleting so whatever:}

Carmack may be a good coder, but I don't think he has a very good game design sense and seems to think that technology always comes first, he's made some really poor tech decisions over the years IMO. Forcing the Saturn port of Doom to use software rendering and being a watered down version of the PSX port, requiring the flashlight in Doom 3 lower your weapon, Rage's total reliance on static texture pages, etc.

 

Honestly, Wolf and Doom worked because they made compromises to perform well on the hardware of the time, and they ran with the limitations rather than being hindered by them. His later engines and the decisions he forced on the game design show that he may have lost his touch with what needs to be made, rather than forcing his fun new trick of week on everything because that's all he wants to spend time on I would guess. He used to balance new methods (that were also of practical use to designers, rather than requiring absurd man hours and a render farm just to texture the map) by elegantly pairing them with established methods. 

 

He didn't even want the flashlight originally, so they should've brightened the environment slightly! Perhaps they should have mixed some baked ambient light in as very dark lightmaps. I know the art direction was going for dramatic contrast (which I like), but literal RGB 0,0,0 making up most of the negative space looks really dated and excessively cartoony. Some very soft, very subtle ambient light could've really helped the game's aesthetic, perhaps they could've used a few less realtime lights to boost performance as well.

 

My thoughts on Rage are similar. Should've mixed traditional texturing (even psuedo-texture pages like painting terrain meshes in Unreal perhaps) with texture pages where it would be most beneficial. Save memory, make the game not look like hairy old JPEG ass, but that ship has long since sailed. Look at the prerelease shots (not sure about footage, but maybe) and then look at the released game, they significantly reduced resolution (dead city looks great in prerelease, buildings look like melted plastic as seen through foggy glasses in final).

[Lila Feuer]

Only for a legal copy of NERVE.wad if you're a PC user otherwise if you already have D3 on PC then skip it. It makes sense for the consoles, looking and running better than the original XBOX version, with more content to boot, but it's otherwise largely pointless on PC.

[CARRiON]

For PC it's a pointless cash-grab re-release of an ultimately boring and uninspired experience reminiscent of Quake 2 and 4 in all its flaws (for me). Only worth it on sale for a legal copy of NERVE.wad. Otherwise if you're a fan of the game you'd do better to stick with your original moddable version.

 

For console I imagine it has more value. If you've never played DOOM 3 and you own a console perhaps it's the best way to experience it nowadays.

[Cacodemon345]

Note: The console version doesn't has HDR. A Doom 3 BFG engine fork adds mod and HDR support.

The real value of the PC version is when you play it on HTPC. The console version is less of a cash-grab, but it will be the same experience as playing Doom 3 non-BFG on PC.

Buying a console just to play it won't help that much unless you played original Xbox Doom 3. It will be a waste of money unless you badly want visual improvements.

[Doommarine_maxi]

 

On 16/1/2018 at 6:30 PM, Doommarine_maxi said:

For console?, yes you should.

AND FOR PC!!, I recently discovered RBDoom 3 BFG and it allows you to play a lot of mods/custom maps designed for the original Doom 3.

EX: Tested V7.1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxQyhVYmZKU

[hardcore_gamer]

On 1/16/2018 at 8:35 PM, Herzon said:

I am a big fan of Split Screen Doom sourceports. And seeing that the Doom 3: BFG Edition had support for the XBOX One and had split screen all across the Doom series, it seemed like a great buy.

 

Perhaps my memory is lying but I think the splitscreen in the bfg edition is terrible. I have it for the ps3 and the splitscreen doesn't even use the whole screen. Even in 2 player I think each player window only uses like 1/4th of the screen and the rest is just black. Probably the only reason it runs at all.

[Don_Faparotti]

13 hours ago, hardcore_gamer said:

 

Perhaps my memory is lying but I think the splitscreen in the bfg edition is terrible. I have it for the ps3 and the splitscreen doesn't even use the whole screen. Even in 2 player I think each player window only uses like 1/4th of the screen and the rest is just black. Probably the only reason it runs at all.

That's because the PS3 cell processor architecture was a nightmare for developers to optimize. This is the reason why cross-platform games were terrible on the PS3. You should be fine with the Xbox. Regardless, I'd never recommend the BFG Edition to anyone. It's the big F**** garbage edition. 

[Reaper8888]

Since BFG edition was originally released for previous-gen consoles, I ended up playing it on the 360 and not Xbox One, but it was a good buy for a 360 game at least. One of my favorites actually.