- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Reaper, I think he meant that Doom was and has been (and still is) credited as THE first-person-shooter. It wasn't the first, it was the second, and with it's engine, if not it's content, it brought a whole new age to gaming for years upon years to come. Halo along with every other FPS out there is justifiably indebted to Doom if not Wolfenstein 3D (the first FPS ever, made by id Software as well). That's not to say someone would have never come along had it not been for id introducing FPS, but they were the first and it's undeniable that it sparked what is probably the most fanatical video-game 'genre' today (if not RPGs, I guess).
Graphics are another thing. Bungie did say that the graphics shown at E3 were off an older build and would have minor to major differences in the final product depending on what you're looking at. Doom III certainly has my attention, it looks fun, very atmospheric and scary and a nice twist on the old concept. I trust in what Carmack is making as he hasn't failed us yet with Doom or Quake (J. Romero is another case... well, he sort of helped to make Ion Storm, that is he allowed them to rise from some ashes... and they made DX). I've played the Alpha leak as well, which, mind you, is v0.1-- if you handed me Halo 2 v0.1 I don't think it'd look as good as Halo 2 v1. We'll tell what it will be like in time, I don't know why there's a chip on people's shoulders about the graphics not being good. I certainly don't know why the graphics in D3 are being called 'unoriginal', if that's the case then the same could be said for H2 as well if not moreover (you certainly can't forget about the classic movie by J. Cameron called 'Aliens' can you?). D3 is id's take on the future using all their ideas old and new; that includes the skeleton with the rocket launchers on his shoulders-- an old staple of Doom II; the Revenant (and if Planet Doom is indeed correct, then all the old baddies will be back, some revamped, some not, like the Revenant).
I like Halo, and I like Doom, and I think Halo 2 is going to beat the snot out of Doom III as far as gameplay goes, I'm just not hearing very justifiable claims here. As for HL2-- well, it can do whatever it wants to do. I'll make sure to play it just to play it, but I'm not near as excited as everyone else is about it. My cup of tea is the one that Halo fills quite nicely, as well as games like Doom, Painkiller, etc. While I'm also akin to FPS like DX and the like, HL2 just doesn't look like it's going to be as much fun to me as it will be to everyone else. Good looking for sure, but I prefer to keep my games' gameplay a lot simpler (a philosophy that Miyamoto and Carmack both seem to agree well on, and possibly from the looks of Marathon and Halo-- J. Jones) and refrain from having to remember a variety of buttons. To me, the ideal FPS is indeed Halo.