Recently, a family member won an Xbox 360, and to help update his system, I took it home with me (just to borrow, of course) to update the firmware to the “New Xbox Experience” (NXE) and to download some demos for his kids too.
Well, one of the demos that I downloaded was a quaint, not so famous game that I’m sure hardly any of you knows, Doom.
Ok, so I lied. It’s more than just quaint, and not so famous. Anybody who’s been into gaming for the last 15 or so years will recognize this classic game on the PC. Well, I got the game downloaded, and unfortunately, they only had one level for the demo, but that one level brought back so many memories of play through the original PC game. The growl of the imps, or the blast of the shotgun, the pixelated gore and gibs Ah yes, the carnage.
This made me wish I could lay down a few bucks and buy the whole game. I would love that. But the problem is, it’s not my Xbox. Even though I’m sure it would be alright with the owner of the system to do that, I don’t think I would truely want to go through with the purchase and download because of that simple idea, it’s not my system. Oh, and kids use that same system too.
Not to say they would go and play the game, because they are luckily respectful enough to not play a particular game that you tell them not to play. Besides, it probably wouldn’t be very fun for them anyway considering they have other games that they would want to play on the 360 anyway.
Now, I know anybody with a 360 would just say, hey there buddy, suck it up and buy your own 360 and then you’re problem is solved. Well, I could, yes. But sadly, no. I have no intention of buying a 360. I already bought a PS3 and I plan on working on my PS3 collection for now. Not saying I wouldn’t EVER buy a 360 in the future, but who knows.
I was thinking though, it would be cool if there was a PS3 version of the original Doom as well. I really loved the idea of a psudo-updated version of the game.
What I mean is this. The game is pretty much unchanged from it’s original form, and that’s what makes it great. Don’t change it that much, lest you lose what made Doom, well, Doom.
Giving the game an online option (Don’t blast me on this though, I know it had online in the PC game) and offline splitscreen as well, which is even cooler. To expand a bit more on the online part, I know the PC version had online, but it was, in a sense, limited. WIth this version, and with the PC versio alike, they both had a max of four players you could play with. But on the PC version, of memory serves correctly, you had to know one to three people to hook up with via a modem or LAN connection. But with the 360 version, you can have more freedom with the connectivity of it. You don’t have to know the people you are playing with to play with them. Just hook up with them and that’s it. No need to find three friends and three computers and hook up in your friend’s basement to have a Doom LAN party.
Also, I loved the idea of having “updated” graphics in the game, even though the graphics are the same. Confusing? Well, I would be too if I read that sentence. To elaborate, the graphics are indeed the same, but you can tell that the graphics are more HD, more high resolution, even though they use the same sprites from the original. After playing the 360 version, I popped in the old PC version I had and played it and was surprised by the difference. It wasn’t like comparing graphics between, say, Super Mario Brothers on the NES and Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, but there was a noticable difference between the two versions. When I would look at a soldier in the distance on the PC Doom, he was really pixelly. Heck, even up close, the detail, or lack there of, was pixellated. On the 360 version, even though he wouldn’t win any awards for having the sharpest details, I could see a bit more detail on him.
It was nice seeing a console verison of the original Doom, and I wish I could have plunked a few bucks down on the tile, but like I said before, it’s not my machine, and I don’t want to buy a downloadable game for a system I don’t own. I guess it’s a bit different for a game that you can physcally pick up on store shelf and take home with you. At least then, even if you don’t own the system, you can take it over to another friend’s place and play it there. With a downloaded game, it’s on that system you downloaded it for. I guess there’s a way to transfer it I believe, but that sounds more like a pain in the ass to me.
At this point, I can just say “ah well” and leave it at that and just be happy with the trial version of the game on the 360. I wish they would release it for the PS3 with the same types of options found on the 360 version. That would rock my socks as a retro gamer. I’ve already downloaded such old titles as Gauntlet II and Mortal Kombat 2. Too bad I can’t do the same with Doom without having to spend a ton of money to get a new system jsut to play a game worth 400 points. Shame on you id for not bringing it out to the masses of PS3 owners who’d die to buy and play a slice of Doom heaven.
Anyway folks, I’m all typed out and my brain has been fried. I’ll check in on all ya later on!
Later!
Daquine
