Might be useful here too:

You can pick apart any game. There's people out there that don't like HL too :rolleyes:

I enjoy this game for what it does. Make me very nervous.

Hi,
I played this game yesterday and got about halfway through the game. I must say that it is one of the few games that has made me scared and that I have actually jumped from. Some of the times when an imp jumps out from the dark, behind some stairs, or behind a door that I just opened, it can really scare the shit out've me!

Not to mention the terror when you're being swarmed and you're swinging around trying to find where all the monsters are coming from. This game is beautiful.
Thanks,
Manga

P.S. I was playing at night with the lights off, loud sound, and door closed. :(.

Haven't been scared once. I don't see how they can call this the "Scariest Game of All Time!" It's so adolescent..

The little card included with the game, recommending playing alone in the dark at night with the sound up and the door locked, is more than a suggestion, it is a necessity.

I re-played a level in the middle of the day with the curtains wide open, with two other people here eating talking and watching, to show it off. Some scenes maintained a basic tension.. but it loses ALL scare factor.

The game is a different beast when you follow the instructions to become immersed. The Silent Hill games are the same. They use techniques that attack the human psyche at a very primal level.... that feeling of being helpless, desparate, and alone. Not gonna work if you're watching TV at the same time.

As one review that I read commented on... if you aren't shaken up at least a bit along the way.. if you dont jump up at least once, then you're not human.

played it on my dad's new Radeon 9800 Pro (helped pick it and install it) this weekend - Incredible game.

My major complaint, no idea if this is isolated to just his system or something else - I was forced to use the godd--n awkward A/S/W/D setup or the numeric keypad, which really pissed me off. Every time I attempted to use the much more natural arrow keys on the right side it failed to recognise the left and right keys, preferring to call them 'shift'.
Not comfortable having both hands that close together but I adapted adequately after some time.

WASD is on the left side... Mouse is on the right? I dont see how that puts your hands too close together. The reason youre not supposed to use the arrow keys is because reaching other keys can be uncomfortable.

wasd is the best, the arrow keys suck so bad...

any ways.

the game is great i just beat it last night, 16 hours to compleat, my only complaint is the boss is easy.

for the record, the shot gun is the best gun ever.

WASD is just as ungainly to us lefties as the arrow keys are to you righties. :) Anyway, you can change any of the key mappings in options, that's what I did.

I'm a lefty, but I use my mouse right handed (not to mention it's ergonomic and its damn near impossible to use it lefthanded) and it makes life soooo much easier.

I think Speed_gibson's problem has something to do with the keyboard.

I don't see how people are beating this game so fast. "Played it yesterday and am halfway through?" Incredible! I thought I was flying through the game, and I've been playing it for a while now. I'm in Delta Labs section 2. I only play about two hours a day, but I mean damn. :)

heh, I started yesterday around noon, went to bed around 3, and finished it up in an hour or so today

I agree somewhat, but there is too much darkness, its overdone, and more annoying for the most part rather than enhancing the "creepyness" factor. If you want a dark atmosphere done right, check out any of the Silent Hill games, & Thief: Deadly Shadows.

The game isn't even scary, even with all the lights turned off and the sound (and subwoofer) cranked way up.

I really wish I could learn to use my mouse right-handed. I'd love to use one of the mouses with the extra buttons where your thumb goes. Why don't they make those for lefties?

Anyway, back on topic. Are there any TFP members working on mods?

mouse on the left side, never have used the mouse on the right side for more than five minutes my entire life.

Oh, Thief has it done *right*. The Cradle mission is the scariest damn thing I have ever seen in my life.

I do think this game is, if not scary, creepy. There have definitely been "boo" kind of moments--most of them cheap, but some of them pretty good. Its really about the tension. The isolation, the claustrophobic environment... The darkness just adds to that.

I think it was something with that system, but I have no clue and do not really care as that system is normally 400 miles from me and not a consideration in any event.
I would love to buy to try some of fancier mice I have seen out there, but most of them are made for the wrong hand.

anyways getting back more ontopic, this game actually put thoughts of upgrading my video card in my head. Fortunately reason and finances quickly overwhelmed that and I realised that my current card will be good for some time still (until it truly dies and forces me to replace it). It would be interesting to see som .MOD file style things involving Barney, The Teletubbies, or any of the other kid's show characters that deserve a shotgun or plasma gun blast in the face.

(OT)

I'm left handed, I could NEVER see myself using a left handed mouse.

Likewise w/ a guitar. I play guitar/bass right handed. I could never play it the left handed way :P

For me, this moment came when I met Piggsy in Manhunt. I have yet to see anything in Doom3 that is quite as scary. It has its moments, but its not the same. Doom, from the get-go, has been trying to scare the crap out of me every few steps. I catch on pretty quickly, and find myself, more or less, expecting every monster that is thrown at me.

With Piggsy, they threw him in right at the end of the game, so I had a good long while to become accustomed to "normal" and what to expect before I fought him. I believe the scariest things in real life are those you don't understand fully, or haven't experienced often. This carries over into games where, no matter how terrorfying an imp, or a zombie may seem at first, by the time you mow down the 100th one, its not really scary anymore.

Question about Doom3, I've entered the cheat "give doom95" and it says something to the extent of "unknown item given to player inventory" or something like that.. Has anyone acutally gotten this cheat to work? I would like to play the old version of doom :?

Just finished it, awesome fucking AAA title.

So far PC game of the year to me, and I don't see that changing before December.

I definitely agree that the fear factor, at least in terms of the monsters, diminishes quickly. But the feeling of isolation, the creepiness, continues, despite your expecting the monsters.

Thats part of the beauty of the Cradle mission in Thief 3. Its great because they get you on edge, making you expect attacks left and right, and none come. It grates on the nerves *hard*, which, combined with some incredible sound work and level design makes for a prolonged fear fest. Wonderful.

Back on topic, I beat the Hell level last night. That was incredible.

It's creeping me right the hell out, but I do agree with those who say the thrill diminishes when you can spot what's going to happen. There was a section down a dark and narrow hallway with a chaingun at the end, and I looked at it knowing as soon as I grabbed it all the walls were going to open and spill monsters at me. That said, the spider swarms are very effective at making me panic. Blasting three or four, running away from the remaining few while reloading across the narrow area and into another three, then turning to see a further handful clambering up onto the platform is horrifying. I agree with the flashlight issue, and I was extremely disappointed that mirrors don't reflect the flashlight correctly (i.e., light what's behind you) and there's lag in the reflection, and I can't see my feet, but that's all niggling shit. The game rocks me.

I tried that as well, with no luck

I think both suck equally as bad. I have "move forward" set as mouse 2.

Move backward as "D", strafe left "A" strafe right "S".

Couldn't be a more perfect setup, IMO :D

I'm just going to reiterate what many people have said. You just don't get the right effect unless you play at midnight or later with EVERY light off. The flashlight seems more realistic during these conditions and I just can't bring myself to play during the day.

Also, you have to WANT to be scared. If you spend the entire time thinking "this game had better scare me. Wow, that imp didn't scare me at all," then most likely you won't be scared. You have to immerse yourself in the environment.

I'm with the folk who dont find this game scary at all. While some of it may be creepy, or sudden things give ya a quick jump, but scary? Come on folks, I figured you to be more desensitized then that.

Hi,
I kind agree that they could have upped the scare factor if they had thrown in some rooms that looked to be obviously monster-infested- a long, dark corridor with many nooks and crevices or a room that fades to black and is full of pillars, but nothing happens when you enter them. A huge dark room, with plenty of areas for monsters to spawn, and nothing is there. I think that would have made it much more unnerving.
Thanks,
Manga

The only things that really creep me out are the times when the screen takes on a red haze and supernatural shit starts going down. The ghostly laughter, the "Over here", the torsos elevating off the ground, the invisible force that pushes you back. I hate it because it takes control away from you and you are helpless. Even though it isn't going to hurt me, I hate not being able to respond.

Is there anyone who thinks this game flat out sucks?

Single player to me, isn't scary. Doesn't make me nervous, or even flinch. I didn't buy the game for single player. It's ID Software people, they've pride themselves on online play, and it is absolutley terrible online. The game runs very smooth, but the overall gameplay is very slow, the weapons suck - it's just general trash.

I was hoping quick, haste, smooth,slick, hastey type movement Quake 3 has, instead it's even slower gameplay then CS is.

Dissapointment to me, I think the game sucks.

Then I suppose you should have read some reviews before buying. No one made any secret out of the fact that the multiplayer is very old-school.

Wait for the mods to start coming out--I suspect there will lots of good stuff for it soon enough.

Spectacular game. I'm on vacation at the moment so I could only play a few minutes (or I'd play it constantly). Everything is simple amazing. Can't wait to get back to my computer!

...and as far as this not scaring people, I'm not so sure about that! :D

If anyone is desensitized by pretty much everything, it's me. I'll browse rotten.com, watch beheading videos, and watch horror movies almost every day of my life. Not one movie has ever scared me; not even remotely. The Ring? Pshh, a child's movie. The Exorcist? Booooringgg...

But Doom 3? Scary. Silent Hill 2? Scary (Toluca Prison, anyone?).

It is much different if you play it with various distractions, like other people in the room, or even in the same house as you. I was showing someone how scary the game was, but it wasn't the same with them there. You're not as drawn in as if you played this in the dead of night w/ your sound cranked up.

My girlfriend is away till the end of August, so I have my house all to myself. When she comes back, I'd imagine the experience won't be as terrifying.

Hell, I might even move my stuff into the basement (so dark your eyes will never adjust to the darkness) to kick the horror up a notch ;)

Woooo! I just beat it today. What an incredible gaming experience!

I've only played Doom 3 once, but that one time had me wanting to play more. I need to buy this damn game.

Well, you all must be tougher than I am, because it's scared me quite a few times. I must be a baby.

One thing that I can't figure out is...

How do the multiplayer server know if a CD Key is valid or not?

If you can put in a generated key and trick the actual game itself into thinking it's valid... then how does the same not apply for the servers? They must've stored each and every CD Key that they actually generated on their end or something, can't see any other way :P

An algorithm's an algorithm, correct?

Ah well, no biggie.

dont most games that you generate a fake cd key for work for single player, but not multiplayer?

With Blizzard, since everything goes through their network a key can only be in use once. What Stompy is asking is, since D3 is distributed servers, the odds of two keys on the same server seems unlikely. However, is there a master server that ever generated internet server sends a connection to, in order to generate that list? And can't all those servers send all the keys in use to the master server, which can then check you when you connect for multi? A text string is not much info.

Anyone have any comments about the ATI Catalyst v4.9(beta) drivers that are optimized for Doom3? I have a 9800 Pro, and it runs pretty well already... not sure if its worth the beta update.