Doom III gets CO-OP but for XboX only

[Didou]

The port of Doom III to the XboX is being handled by Vicarious Visions & they decided to implement co-op play. Here's a quote :

GP: Any Xbox specific features that we can expect to see? Any innovations that Vicarious has added to the project?

KB: Our biggest addition for the Xbox is the ability to play the single player game with a friend in co-op mode. We’re also modifying and balancing combat and demon behaviours to present challenging, but not frustrating encounters while still maintaining the action, intensity and terror of Doom 3. There’s a ton of work going into the balance and pacing of the game as well as the control mechanisms -– the player needs to feel connected with the game and a part of the environment in order to suspend their disbelief and really draw them into the atmosphere and terror of the game. We also draw players in with true Dolby 5.1 surround sound support -– there’s nothing scarier than hearing a Demon sneaking up from behind you.

I guess those who were hoping for more co-op games on the PC platform will be disappointed.

Full interview @ gamepro

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

I thought Doom 3 is an OpenGL only game? Now being ported to X-Box, to D3D?

 

[acidosmosis]

ID Software would have to be a complete *****. The greatest morons of them all, to not implement co-op in this game. Do they not realize how many more sales they would get out of the game by doing that? If ID Software is that stupid then those guys need to find a job at McDonalds.

 

[Didou]

Well ID always insisted that they wanted to concentrate on creating an immersive single player experience.

They added a sort of deathmatch mode ( the last minute lack of attention put on it is very evident ) only because of the uproar of the Quake fans. The game is really meant for deathmatch because of too much shadow & light effects which is completely useless for a fast paced deathmatch.

On the other hand co-op would've been nice but maybe they didn't want to re-organise the scripts for more then one player. They're allready pretty late on the schedule, I take it, they didn't want to push back the release once again.

It'll be interesting to see how the co-op mode comes out on the XboX. Anyways, nothing will prevent people from eventually hacking it & creating a co-op module, just like they released a multiplayer mode for GTA3.

 

[agissi]

How do you have co-op on PC? Network 2 PCs and play? you both cant use the same keyboard really.. plus you need a mouse. They probably didnt put this in the PC V. because the PC Ver. will have online.

 

[acidosmosis]

Well Doom 1 and 2 both had a cooperative mode. You just dialed up and connected to your friend and played. It was nothing short of awesome. You could do the same online. Other games have also had co-op that were played online. Half Life even had a "co-op" mod created but you didn't get to play the original HL maps as in single player. You just basically fought against a bunch of enemys on a map. That too me isn't fun at all, but playing a game such as Doom or Half Life in co-op mode in the same maps as the single player game is very fun.

I can see not wanting to push the release back further but they could at least create a patch later on. I believe a lot of people that don't buy the game would be tempted to if a patch like that was released.

 

[Didou]

Agissi, co-operative mode is when the human players play together whether it be on the same machine or different machines.

It would be like playing Baldur's Gate where earch member of the party is controlled by a different human ( BG does have co-op & it's really nice btw, just a bit long... ). Quake actually had a co-op mode also & so did Hexen II, Heretic II, Nolf II, System Shock II ( alot of sequels... ).

One of the last great games in co-op was Serious Sam ( 1 & 2 ). You just have to experience that once in your life. the amount of enemies depends on the amount of human players. It just goes crazy at times. You could have 5x more enemies on screen the during the single player game ( yes it is possible ).

I might be going to a LAN in Easter & Serious Sam will definitly be played.:grinthumb

 

[lowman]

I think it's a big mistake...all the planning, and that option got overlooked?

 

[Didou]

I think it comes down to decisions you have to take before starting the development process. After Quake3, it was decided amongst the developpers at iD that they would concentrate on single player experience on this next project. With most games that come out nowadays ( Ut, PlanetSide, etc ), it is a bit going against the flow but with the recent cheating waves, script kiddies & general bad attitude not everyone wants to play online ( might be a good move on iD's part ).

The Deathmatch mode was added very quickly & I think it was limited to 4 players at first ( not sure what's the status now ). Deathmatch is a bit easier to add then co-op because there's no scripting involved.

In co-op mode, you have to change the scripts to take account for the different players. For example, when an in-game movie is triggered by one player, do all the players see the movie or is the game paused for them ? If a door is to slam shut after a player has went through it, must you wait for all the players to pass the door before shutting it ? etc. It's not very easy & it's a shame it wasn't added in the design guidelines from the beginning.