Displaying items by tag: id Software

The next version of Doom will be picking up some new talent to work on it in the form of Crytek Lead R&D Graphics Engineer, Tiago Sousa. In a tweet made over the weekend Sousa says that he will be moving to id Software to work on the new Doom’s game engine idTech 6.

Unless you have been under a rock you have probably heard all about the Doom 4 teaser that was shown off at E3 2014. We saw it a couple of days ago, but at the time really did not think it was all that news worthy (ducks as people throw things). However, this morning as I watched it again I noted a couple of things that must have slipped by me during my first viewing.

Despite many claims that touch is the next way we will interact with our devices there are those that think (quite rightly) that this is not actually the case. The problem with touch interaction is that they are not very accurate and also tend to block your field of view (nothing like having your finer over your target). Because of this touch is not really suited for continued usage and is best as an intermediary input form. Now before someone points out that touchpads have accuracy down to 1mm we will clarify what we are saying here, touch screens are not suited for most computing and with the exception of a certain vertical are terrible for gaming.

For a very long time the gaming industry has struggled with finding a way to bring the gamer deeper into the gaming world. The problem has been that most of the push behind this has involved graphics. This particular gaming war started when we had multiple players in the game like Matrox, S3, nVidia, Diamond, and of course 3dfx. These companies all fought to bring the visual elements in our games to life. Unfortunately, there were casualties of this war and not just the companies that did not make it to the present. These casualties include audio, story line, AI, and other less recognizable items that all go to make up the games we play.

Within the last few years more and more developers have been turning to digital sales as a means to sell their games. In fact, many companies can base nearly their entire success on digital sales. Companies such as Steam and Origin are some of the first that come to mind when consumers think of buying games online. Major companies such as EA and Activision Blizzard are expecting digital sales to exceed physical media sales within the next few years.

Remember how we told you that Microsoft was going to pull out all of the PR and marketing tricks they can muster to try and convince people that Windows 8 is a good thing? Well now they are trying to counter the effects of the recent comments by top names in gaming; most notably Gabe Newell of Valve and John Carmack of id. If you do not remember what these two said we will boil it down here. Gabe Newell stated that Windows 8 was a “catastrophe” which John Carmack stated there was “no reason to upgrade”.

Ah the sweet sounds of DOOM. The classic first person shooter that, when combined with Castle Wolfenstein, kicked off a completely new genre of gaming, the First Person Shooter. In Doom you take on the role of a Space Marine on Mars (sent there because you hit your CO). Mars is a terribly boring place until some of the secret experiments go horribly wrong and demons begin pouring out of the artificial gates that were created. After heading to Phobos to investigate the goings on there you are left as the only person still alive (or not possessed) and must fight your way through the invading hordes.