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Geek Culture / Doom 3 Alpha better than Retail

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Nomad Soul
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18
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Joined: 9th Jan 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 22nd Aug 2010 20:24
I've been watching some Doom 3 videos recently and came across a video of an alpha which I think was used for an E3 show demo.

Personally I think the alpha looks better than what was delivered in the final retail version. If the retail game had been more like the alpha I think that would have been amazing even compared with todays standards given it was released in 2004.

Check out the video link below and let me know what you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtDCYGbYdSA

I'm a big ID fan but I think they missed something here. I hope they really nail it with Rage and more importantly Doom 4.

CoffeeGrunt
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Joined: 5th Oct 2007
Location: England
Posted: 22nd Aug 2010 21:22
Have you seen the E3 videos for Halo 2, it looked miles better than the final product...

This is probably for the same reason. Halo 2 hit a block with the engine, maybe ID did too...

Image All
19
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Joined: 30th Dec 2005
Location: Home
Posted: 22nd Aug 2010 21:47 Edited at: 22nd Aug 2010 21:50
yeah it does have some things that the retail doom 3 was missing. for one thing, heavier use of the hell knight would have been appreciated. better gore (as in the bathroom scene). bodies not disappearing. environment is better too, with more dynamics such as swinging lights. even though lighting is dynamic in doom 3, it really lost all of its usefulness in the fact that they really didn't do anything dynamic with it. and of course, the sound is better.

but on the other hand, most of the animations improved with the retail version, along with weapon design changes and effects. the imps' fireballs look better in retail and the teleportation effect too.

now i wish i had a doom 3 mod that put the alpha sounds back, kept the bodies, and made death more like what is seen at the end of that video (to the extent that you see your arms and legs, and like doom 1 and 2, monsters still move around. going to a game over screen is lame)


Remember those old guys? They made epic renders, I think one of them was called DaVinci, and all they used was MS Paint. Sometimes it's just skill....
Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 22nd Aug 2010 23:51
I think the retail version was heavily optimised, as I remember the alpha running like a bag of crap (I think a mate gave me a dodgy leaked copy or something, back in the day). So they probably had to remove all those goodies you've mentioned to get it to run properly.

Insert piccy sig here. Eh? Why didn't that work?!?! Must ring help-a-noob. What was the number again? .... where am I?
JLMoondog
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Location: Paradox
Posted: 23rd Aug 2010 02:02
Hmm, maybe it's the video quality but the retail version looked a heck of a lot better then the alpha. I was able to play on the highest settings(mind you PC not Xbox, there is a difference in quality) so that might be a factor.

So I'll have to disagree with you.

BearCDP
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Location: NYC
Posted: 23rd Aug 2010 19:04
Can't watch the video right now (at work), but I wouldn't be surprised if it looked better, especially if the person running the alpha had a beefy machine. The game had high enough requirements on release, so it wouldn't have made business sense to keep it only playable on the most extreme gaming systems.

I know there's the quality scale settings, but there's only so much you can do with those. They might have had to face the choice of lowering the overall quality, or including two entirely different sets of assets for high end vs low-mid end players. And then the game would have been ridiculously massive.

Check out this WIP flash game from the Global Game Jam!
Aaagreen
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Joined: 4th Sep 2007
Location: City 17
Posted: 23rd Aug 2010 23:51
I'm sure Half-Life 2 would have been an epic game had they kept the original 2003-era storyline.

But whatever changes any game developer makes will be based on the opinion of many, many beta testers, so just assume it was done for the best and you recieved the better product.


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
Metal Devil123
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Joined: 13th Jul 2008
Location: Suomi, Finland
Posted: 24th Aug 2010 19:59
Quote: "Doom 3 Alpha better than Retail"

Well, maby graphics wise, but wich one would you buy? The smaller Alpha one, or the large, completed Retail one?


My old YouTube account got deleted. My new account is called MetalFPSC. thanks for your time!
Inspire
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Joined: 23rd Dec 2006
Location: Rochester, NY
Posted: 25th Aug 2010 07:43
Quote: "original 2003-era storyline."


What was it?

CoffeeGrunt
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Joined: 5th Oct 2007
Location: England
Posted: 25th Aug 2010 15:25
ummm, you got into City 17, and instead of Nova Prospekt you blow up a gas exchange that's slowly poisoning the world but making it combine habitable...

Eli dies on the convoy there when it comes under fire from gunships, and Alyx dies at some point later. It's all in their book "Raising the Bar" I'd reccomend it, it's really interesting if you're as big a Half Life fanboy as me...

Metal Devil123
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Joined: 13th Jul 2008
Location: Suomi, Finland
Posted: 25th Aug 2010 18:19
Quote: "It's all in their book "Raising the Bar" I'd reccomend it, it's really interesting if you're as big a Half Life fanboy as me..."

So Raising the Bar, here I come!

Thank god they didn't die... Eli itself was a big loss, and I should watch Alyx die too? That would have been depressing...


My old YouTube account got deleted. My new account is called MetalFPSC. thanks for your time!

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