DOOM 4 Announced!

by Peaking Legoman

id have finally announced a sequel for the franchise that introduced the FPS genre to the masses: DOOM. The original DOOM game was launched in 1993 and quickly became one of the most successful games of all time - while also proving at the time that ‘Shareware’ was a viable distribution method. The concept of playing a game from the 1st-person perspective was so new at the time that although it was immensely popular - it also left many people feeling ill from motion sickness - and reaching for the vomit bucket.

Fast forward to 2004 and the release of DOOM 3 - a remake of the original DOOM, only this time the game looked, sounded, and played according to the original vision of the developers. Thanks to much more advanced 3D rendering tech in home PC’s id were able to create a game that - at the time - was one of the most visually impressive virtual worlds ever realised. However once the initial excitement of a brand new DOOM game died down and gamers actually started playing it, it became apparent that DOOM 3 was little more than a traditional monster-closet shooter - albeit with the best graphics and presentation ever seen in a videogame.

So after almost 4 years of silence regarding the franchise id have finally announced plans to create DOOM 4. The company has been busy over the last 4 years developing a new engine (Tech 5) and a new game to use the engine - RAGE. So it seems likely that the new DOOM game will also use this engine - especially since its supposed to be extremely flexible with regard to multi-platform development. Here’s what lead artist Kevin Cloud told Shacknews.com:

“You don’t even have to worry about how it’s going to look on PS3 or 360. Right now we’ve got it running cross-platform running 60 hertz, and it looks really good,” said Cloud. “In terms of what artists are available to achieve–it’s something you have to see for yourself. I can say this, but you still won’t get it until you see it.”

Click here for the full DOOM 4 announcement fro Shacknews.

So there you have it. A brand new DOOM game is in the works - hopefully this time it wont take 4 years to develop. It’s also good news to see that it will likely land on all three platforms(360, PC, PS3) so no one will be left out in the cold.

~ by garethb on May 8, 2008.