Entrevista y pantallas de DOOM 3 (PC)

DOOM 3: ID SPEAKS OUT, NEW SCREENS!

Hell in space? The most arresting depiction of intergalactic carnage we've ever seen, exposed!

0:01 Cagey old id. While Valve sets the hearts of FPS aficionados racing with the imminent release of Half-Life 2 (imminent until it says differently, anyway), the Doom-meister has finally let us go large with info on its long awaited Doom 3.

It's been so long since we saw the game in action - it was before id unveiled the multiplayer level at Quakecon - that our memory of the visuals are a little hazy, but suffice to say, it looked good. Good isn't sufficient at all actually - it looked godlike, but how did it play? id CEO Todd Hollenshead was on hand to give us the straight dope, along with Tim Willits, lead designer on the title...

We were shown a real-time demonstration of the game in action by Willits - taken from an early level in the game, the action was indeed intense as the marine, separated from his fellow squad members, advanced through the dimly lit spacestation in order to send for help because clearly, you are hopelessly outnumbered.

The marine happened upon bloody corpses of spacestation workers, and various unpleasant creatures, like zombie commandoes and imps. But one gobsmackingly detailed creature deserves a special mention - a complete reimagining of the "Pinkie" of the original games, it's harder to imagine a more wondrously detailed, wonderfully hideous creature this side of Half-Life 2 (and one that's surely deserving of a less effeminate name than "Pinkie").

We watched as the marine was trapped in a small room while the Pinkie smashed into the door, visibly buckling it and finally breaking through, and friends, it looked pre-tty good.

We also saw more evidence of the torch/gun dilemma, as the marine moved through an area of pitch dark with the assistance of his flashlight - the downside was that while using this, he couldn't carry a gun, and thus couldn't protect himself very well. Luckily, there's another guy with you who can carry a torch to guide you through the area - as long as you can keep him alive...

id clearly didn't want to give too much away, but what we've seen so far left us desperate to play for ourselves. Here's more, straight from the horse's mouth.

Can you give us some background for anybody who's new to Doom 3?

Hollenshead: Doom 3 is a retelling of the original Doom; we're sort of pretending that Doom and Doom II didn't happen, so we have a new iteration of the story if you like.

What we're trying to give to the player is a really intense, terrifying horror experience where you're alone in the dark, playing at night, and you're so scared you don't even want to turn off the light.

The background on the story is that you play a marine who is sent on a security detail to assist with a union aerospace research facility which is based on Mars.

As soon as you arrive on the facility, literally all hell breaks lose; you're faced with a battle, trying to prevent the minions of hell from taking over the research facility which they want to use as a springboard to coming to Earth, so you've literally got the weight of the world on your shoulders.

To achieve the intensive experience that we have in Doom 3, we're using the brand new Doom 3 technology. So John Carmack and the team of programmers at id have created all new dynamics, dynamic lighting, shadowing, the bump-map surfaces, we've advanced our artificial intelligence system, together with a new animation scripting system - also we have our own proprietary physics engine - and all those big words and packages are wrapped with the big bow of real-time six channel audio.

How much of what we've seen was AI, and how much was scripted?

Hollenshead: The guys jumping round corners, that's AI; we do have random moments, but more or less the game is a linear experience.

What about multiplayer, which you unveiled at Quakecon?

Hollenshead: The main idea with Doom 3 is to make an intense, frightening single-player game. We're not looking to be revolutionary with the multiplayer mode.

However, there's definitely going to be a unique multiplayer Doom 3 feel that people will enjoy - you can use the dynamic lighting system so you can turn the lights on and off.

You can go in a room, turn off the lights, then wait in the corner for the next unsuspecting guy to walk in the room. He turns on the light, you know where the switch is - boom, he's dead.

There's the physics engine too, items can be moved around, obstacles placed so as to hinder other players - there's a lot of scope there.

Are there going to be more open environments as well as the claustrophobic corridor ones we've seen so far?

Hollenshead: We have a few open areas, when you move from one complex to another complex, but we're going for that scary thing and it works better within enclosed spaces.

Doom 3 is all about those dramatic lighting effects. When you go outdoors in Mars, you have a single light source which is a giant sun - so the dramatic and interesting and unique things that you can do in interior locations stand out less. It doesn't really make that much sense to go running around on Mars that much.

Is the Doom 3 technology going to appear in any other games you can tell us about?

Hollenshead: We're using the Doom 3 technology for Quake IV. There is other stuff going on with other licensees, but we haven't officially made those announcements yet.

How about the Xbox version?

Hollenshead: We're literally in the early stages of getting the technology up and running on the Xbox. The Xbox is completely within the specs of what the target for Doom III technology is.

You'll be seeing a lot of unique textures that literally make the world just the way you might imagine if Hell really had erupted on a spacestation.

What about a PS2 version?

Hollenshead: Frankly, the PS2 couldn't do the math calculations for the geometry acceleration, real time shadows and light. GameCube is the same thing, no version planned.

And can you tell us more about the physics engine?

Hollenshead: Everything reacts properly, bodies, guns, the glass reacts properly, you get teleported into the laboratory and the shockwave from the teleporter knocks out the windows in the lab. The Doom system is really a unified rendering system of casting all surfaces and lights with the same render.

When are you hoping to have the game out?

Hollenshead: [laughs] The official release date is: "When it's done." We're not actually working towards any specific date, we just want to get towards the experience we're aiming for, then we'll worry about dates once we've done that.

We do not anticipate that we're going to be done this year, but we're working to get the game finished as soon as we can. As soon as we know the release date, trust us, we'll let you know...