Fun with Doom 3

[Czechmate]

As some of you know, I went and covered the Doom 3 for Xbox release tonight at a Game Rush (the game store thing in some Blockbuster stores). Id is based here in Dallas and so am I, so that was easy enough. (The midnight on a Sunday release time sucked, but oh well.)

So why even bring this up? There were some fun moments. I've been doing the whole writing for game magazines/websites thing for six years now, and I know all the guys at id. I wore my Doom 3 shirt (the official id version, not the NVIDIA knockoff they gave away at CPL last year :P), which was a good move. I also wore my Call of Duty hat. Oops. Yes, it uses the Quake 3 core engine, but still. I may as well have worn a Half-Life 2 shirt and a UT2K4 hat. However, Tim Willits, Lead Designer at id, is a nice guy. He signed my Call of Duty hat. lol

They were strict about not letting you leave the store until midnight with the game, but I knew I'd get a few free copies of it. I got those around 11pm (along with the pictured poster and even more t-shirts). I went outside with a PR chick and as soon as the door closed behind us, I shouted, "Doom 3 here! $80! Get it first!" I was joking of course and she laughed, but I don't know how many inroads I made with that stunt.

More importantly, Tim told me a nice little piece of information: Quake 4 multiplayer will be playable at this year's QuakeCon (about a month after CPL and in the same hotel). Hoozah! Then Todd (CEO of id) told me that John (Carmack) is already working on a new engine (!) and while he can't publicly discuss it, there may be some details he can discuss there as well. Additionally, Call of Duty 2 should be playable at QuakeCon this year. YAY!

The article about all of this (if you're interested) will be somewhere on Gamespot today (4/4). I think it'll be the lead news story, but I'm not positive as I've not written for them before.

~Czech

[BuddhaMan]

So no Q4 or CoD2 at summer CPL. Booooo!

That would be sweet if they had BF2 there though...

[Czechmate]

Quake 4 will obviously be a QuakeCon exclusive. Raven Software (the people making Q4) will be there as well. As for COD2, since the CPL doesn't use COD in any official capacity, I sort of doubt Activision or Infinity Ward will bother with it. It also helps that Activision is id Software's publisher. At the last QuakeCon, they had COD: UO there fully playable a month or so before it released, so it makes sense that COD2 (due out this fall) would make a similar appearance.

In five years of coverage, I've never seen EA sponsor either CPL or QuakeCon, so if BF2 shows up, it'll be as a graphics demo somewhere. I think that's developed at an internal EA studio as well, so as for BF2's appearance (or lack of) at either, I'm fairly sure it would be in an unofficial capacity. Of course, we did see UT2K4 way before it was released at one of the CPLs (Summer 2003 I think), so who knows.

~Czech

[Czechmate]

The article:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04/04/news_6121591.html

~Czech

[BuddhaMan]

I know it's wishfull thinking that they'd give the scoop to the convention just week before their own. I can dream can't I!? (Since I'm not coming down for QuakeCon)

Also, it looks like BF2 is overdue and *should* be on the streets before July. As long as Ronin and I can play it by then it's all good.

[Artis]

ditto on the bf2 before july thing. bf: vietnam was pretty disappointing. also, cod:uo was the best part of quakecon, EXTREMELY fun in the little tent they had setup with speakers cranked. besides the B.O. in the closed space it was sweet.