I dug out Doom 3 : Collector's Edition today from my backlog and plopped it in my aging Xbox, mainly out of boredom and a strong lack of other means of getting rid of that boredom. What can you say - sometimes you just need a few zombies to shoot in the face.

you see, Doom 3 is actually quite an unremarkable game. At first glance, it looks like the opposite, though - even on the Xbox, and, yep, even on my crappy TV that is smaller than my computer's monitor, the game has sultry graphics with a dull, drab, metallic look that really brings out the lack of personality that you'll get by running around the Martian installation that the game is set in. Also, the sound is of great quality - voices and narratives done in the game are pretty well done, and the sound of marines pleading for help in the distance amidst radio interference is just as classic as you'll find in any game that's similar to this one.

So, yeah, production values are high in Doom 3, and that makes the game pretty nice to look at and a great treat for the audio freaks out there too. But, on both formats that the game is available on (the other one is of course PC...) the actual core gameplay and mechanics are a bit worn. You see, there are countless other shooters that get the bread and butter right, and then adds some nice beef in the middle of the sandwich. (gotta love beef.)

 (ABOVE: this particular incarnation is very very p***ed off. He needs breakfast, I think ... better feed him ... anybody care to throw some pork scratchings? nah, lets just shoot the living hell out of him.)

The problem with Doom 3 is that there is no beef. The game gets the bread and butter right, but nothing else. Think of it as an empty sandwich, whereas superior shooters such as Half-Life 2 and Halo have a tasty filling too. (i love food, hence the food-related metaphors.)

I may well bring a gameplay video of Doom 3 onto this here Gamespot, but the problem is, my camera is a little bit rubbish when it comes to recording screen details. Would you like to watch a mediocre-quality vid? The only up to the video is that my headset is pretty great and, although I have quite a boring voice, I could probably provide quite a great narration, even if it is for the most part "you f***ing zombie b***ards! DON'T YOU F***ING JUMP THE F*** OUT AT ME LIKE THAT! *sounds of shotguns*". Oh well, I guess I'm in a dilemma on that front, but oh well, you can at least look forward to some sort of Doom 3 gameplay video in the future.

This time, I'll get to the end of Doom 3. Last time, I got just over halfway, and then abandoned the game because I got Unreal Tournament 2004. This time I'll finish the game, and better, I'll review it. (complete with food-related metaphors.)

See ya guys, off to destroy some hellspawn. (in Doom 3, not Diablo II.)

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 EDIT: I'm also in the process of designing a new profile ... I absolutely love my banner, but I think its time to change. And I have an inspiration ( note: image to copy here... :P ) for the profile. You'll see how it turns out. Most likely rubbish. ;)