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I picked up Doom 3 and Half Life 2 for the OG XBOX

fart town usa

Gold Member
Last weekend I picked up Doom 3 and Half Life 2 at a retro shop for the OG XBOX, been wanting to play these for a while to see how they translate to console and what they look like on a CRT.

I've put a few hours into Doom 3 and it's an awesome port. I love having the original flashlight mechanic, really adds nuance to the gameplay and is an awesome gameplay mechanic. I love the lighting effect when you attack an enemy with the flashlight, cause as the light moves away from the enemy with your attack, things get really dark and the enemy isn't visible. Really clever and helps to make things feel frantic.

I only played a few minutes of Half Life 2 but the framerate seems worse than Doom 3, it wasn't terrible though.

I've played probably half of each game via the Orange Box and BFG edition but didn't beat either. I'm thinking the XBOX versions are going to be the ones I actually complete.

One thing I'd really like to do is get system link with my brother and play through Doom 3's coop campaign, just seems like it'd be insanely fun.

So what say you Gaf? Did you get these games back in the day and play the shit out of them? Were you a PC warrior who looked down on these inferior ports?
 

Tschumi

Member
I LOVE that you've got an OG with a CRT.

Neither of those games are particularly good on xbox 1, but Doom 3 will be better.

BLACK is probably the most subsequent-gen game. Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, too.

Hugely recommend Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Spartan: Total Warrior. And old game Yaeger had awesome graphics and fun gameplay. Oh Crimson Skies = flawless gameplay.

One extra fun co-op game that isn't Halo is Delta Force: Blackhawk Down.
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
I LOVE that you've got an OG with a CRT.

Neither of those games are any good on xbox 1, but Doom 3 will be the better.

BLACK is probably the most subsequent-gen game. Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, too.

Hugely recommend Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Spartan: Total Warrior.
Yea, I picked it up in probably 2010 specifically for Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding. I never owned an XBOX back when they were fresh but played it at my buddies all the time. It's a cool system, I feel like it has one of the most obscure/interesting software libraries out of any console.
 

Tschumi

Member
Yea, I picked it up in probably 2010 specifically for Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding. I never owned an XBOX back when they were fresh but played it at my buddies all the time. It's a cool system, I feel like it has one of the most obscure/interesting software libraries out of any console.
I would get one on the wave of buzz you've given me lol, but finding a PAL/NTSC/chipped one in Japan with English language games would be, simply put, impossible. Yay. At least I can get heaps of those little drums for my WiiU lol...
 

Danknugz

Member
i remember appreciating the xbox port of doom3 because it was fairly optimized and felt good to play. i also agree with the original flashlight mechanic. it made the game harder and a lot of people hated it but i loved it as a gameplay mechanic and felt it added to the survival horror aspect.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Doom 3 on Xbox was an excellent port, and the co-op was a ton of fun! Good gets man!

I think I legit forgot that HL2 dropped on Xbox. 👀
Yea, and even stranger is that the original Half Life is on the PS2. I knew it was supposed to release on DC but was cancelled, it was only last year or so when I learned that it did release on PS2. I'd really like to try that out to see how it translates to console/crt,
 
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Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
good boi OP

Golden Retriever Love GIF
 
I never did finish Doom 3 on the OG, you've given me the urge to get the thing dusted off and wired up. I remember enjoying it at the time, although I probably played the original Doom/Doom 2 more that was bundled with it (unless I'm imagining things). Was thinking a while ago about grabbing some more games for it, then I realise I flogged my UK OG years ago and I've only got an Australian one. Would love to gran Amped again, however the region code buggery kind of puts pay to that :/
 

Skifi28

Member
Looking at the games now, they're full of issues but back then they were considered impossible ports and just playing those two on a console was the shit. Doom 3 was the better of the two no doubt, HL2 was a bit too compromised and the framerate could get really, really ugly.
 

Toots

Gold Member
the-20-most-stylish-men-of-the-90s-5-1556695168-6cC2-column-width-inline.jpg

I think i'm gonna ditch my afternoon classes to come play with you.
Your mom is at work right?
Cause i'm gonna bring some weed i scored from my cousin's friend
I'll bring Jessica and Ashley, and maybe that douche Tyler if we can't evade him.

(man i wish i was 16 again :messenger_grinning_sweat: )
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
I never did finish Doom 3 on the OG, you've given me the urge to get the thing dusted off and wired up. I remember enjoying it at the time, although I probably played the original Doom/Doom 2 more that was bundled with it (unless I'm imagining things). Was thinking a while ago about grabbing some more games for it, then I realise I flogged my UK OG years ago and I've only got an Australian one. Would love to gran Amped again, however the region code buggery kind of puts pay to that :/
The limited edition Doom 3 on XBOX had Ultimate Doom and Doom 2, as well as developer videos and whatnot. I only know that from reading up on it recently, my copy is just the standard edition.

Amped is amazing, for me it's just pure gaming bliss. Has an awesome soundtrack, the gameplay is buttery smooth and super relaxing. One of those games like Skate in which there's really no urgency. It's pretty easy to unlock all the levels and you can just play at your leisure. Playing it always takes me back to 11th grade, being in my buddies basement playing xbox, raiding his parents liquor cabinet, chatting on AIM with random girls from states away. DAMN GOOD TIMES, lol.
 

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
I LOVE that you've got an OG with a CRT.

Neither of those games are particularly good on xbox 1, but Doom 3 will be better.

BLACK is probably the most subsequent-gen game. Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, too.

Hugely recommend Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Spartan: Total Warrior. And old game Yaeger had awesome graphics and fun gameplay. Oh Crimson Skies = flawless gameplay.

One extra fun co-op game that isn't Halo is Delta Force: Blackhawk Down.
Dude... escape from Butcher Bay is so much better than it has any right to be. Those normal maps blew my mind as a young teenager.
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
the-20-most-stylish-men-of-the-90s-5-1556695168-6cC2-column-width-inline.jpg

I think i'm gonna ditch my afternoon classes to come play with you.
Your mom is at work right?
Cause i'm gonna bring some weed i scored from my cousin's friend
I'll bring Jessica and Ashley, and maybe that douche Tyler if we can't evade him.

(man i wish i was 16 again :messenger_grinning_sweat: )
I'm down dude, back door is open, don't mind the dogs, they bark at everyone. Got the CRT fired up and ready to go!
 

Tschumi

Member
Dude... escape from Butcher Bay is so much better than it has any right to be. Blew my mind as a young teenager.
totally, one of those games that felt like it was reinventing gaming... didn't turn out that way but it felt like it, some new level, new flavour of immersion and grit

I'm down dude, back door is open, don't mind the dogs, they bark at everyone. Got the CRT fired up and ready to go!
+ Toots Toots i dunno if u guys know each other IRL but this has been beautiful

...I was friends with an australian boy when i was like 13, we were great friends who loved playing xbox coop together, during summer holidays we would visit each others' houses for 2 days.... and by the end of the 2 days we invariably fucking detested each other. The guy insisted I escort him like 1km to an s-bahn station on foot-pedal scooters even when we were basically telling each other, straight-faced, that we want to kill the other. We would say "yeah.. fuck you" at the station for goodbyes...

Then like a few days later "hey mate wanna come play xbox?" "shit yeah!"
 
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makaveli60

Member
These games were 2 of the main reasons I regretted not getting an Xbox instead of a PS2 but GTA SA hype killed me back in 2004 so I had to get a PS2 for that game alone
 
The limited edition Doom 3 on XBOX had Ultimate Doom and Doom 2, as well as developer videos and whatnot. I only know that from reading up on it recently, my copy is just the standard edition.

Amped is amazing, for me it's just pure gaming bliss. Has an awesome soundtrack, the gameplay is buttery smooth and super relaxing. One of those games like Skate in which there's really no urgency. It's pretty easy to unlock all the levels and you can just play at your leisure. Playing it always takes me back to 11th grade, being in my buddies basement playing xbox, raiding his parents liquor cabinet, chatting on AIM with random girls from states away. DAMN GOOD TIMES, lol.
Oh I see - always wondered why it came in a silver box, never considered it was a special ed. And Amped was one of the first games I bought for the OG - I loved the idea of ripping your own soundtrack onto the hardrive to play in game, quite the novelty at the time. Such a good peice of kit when it came out - felt like a decent step up from the PS2, certainly in terms of capabilities. Just found a copy of Amped on Ebay Oz - 10 bucks, maybe I'll give it a pop and get it get a mate to send it over....
 

Romulus

Member
That Half life 2 version is one of the most insane ports ever. The framerate chugs in places but they went for it. The physics system at that time was unrivaled and the scale of some of the levels is just crazy for an fps.
I think the xbox had like 1/4 of the minimum cpu and RAM requirements on PC. Maybe less.

Agree about Riddick too, that game was a glimpse into next generation of games. Doom 3 is a great port, but it's less interesting to me.
 
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cireza

Banned
I tried them recently but the framerate is too low for me, can't enjoy them anymore, even on a CRT. My favorite FPS on OG Xbox is Unreal Championship, but it also suffers quite a lot in the framerate department. I would have loved to see this game released via BC on Xbox One/Series, but they picked up the second one, which I don't like at all (changed the formula too much).

I still rock my OG very often. I play Psyvariar 2, Shikigami no Shiro 2, SVC Chaos, Outrun 2 and Crazy Taxi 3 pretty often. Recently completed Curse of Darkness, it was awesome.
 
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Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
People who hate on the Half-Life 2 port have a poor memory of how nice it was for a lower income person in 2005 to play the game on their $200 xbox as opposed to the NASA computer the game required. It is a perfectly playable port. XBOX was a beast.
 

makaveli60

Member
That Half life 2 version is one of the most insane ports ever. The framerate chugs in places but they went for it. The physics system at that time was unrivaled and the scale of some of the levels is just crazy for an fps.
I think the xbox had like 1/4 of the minimum cpu and RAM requirements on PC. Maybe less.

Agree about Riddick too, that game was a glimpse into next generation of games. Doom 3 is a great port, but it's less interesting to me.
Yeah, these were much more interesting, literally cutting edge games on consoles that made the impossible happen on them. What do we get nowadays? Cultists bitching if there is one from drop from their precious 60 fps
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
OP, you should also get this:

p6mvgcH.jpg
They had multiple copies of that too but held off on it. I'm sure it'll be there next time I'm in the area.

The store I was at is called Disc Replay, they're only in the mid-west. Really cool store, it's essentially a pawn shop filled to the brim with retro gaming stuff, dvds and blu rays too. Prices are totally fair and they do a good job of keeping the boxes clean and whatnot. Even if a game doesn't have the actual box, they make an effort to print out the cover art. Much better than what Game Stop does with their used games that don't have the original box.
 
Played both back in the day. Have really found memories of og xbox thanks to games like Doom 3 and Half Life 2.

Tried to play both on PC before buying xbox versions. PC wasn't up to the task back in the day.
 

intbal

Member
They had multiple copies of that too but held off on it. I'm sure it'll be there next time I'm in the area.

The store I was at is called Disc Replay, they're only in the mid-west. Really cool store, it's essentially a pawn shop filled to the brim with retro gaming stuff, dvds and blu rays too. Prices are totally fair and they do a good job of keeping the boxes clean and whatnot. Even if a game doesn't have the actual box, they make an effort to print out the cover art. Much better than what Game Stop does with their used games that don't have the original box.
I looked at their website.
They should open an Ebay store.
 

Romulus

Member
People who hate on the Half-Life 2 port have a poor memory of how nice it was for a lower income person in 2005 to play the game on their $200 xbox as opposed to the NASA computer the game required. It is a perfectly playable port. XBOX was a beast.


Even alot PC gamers had framerate issues with it at that time, and their rigs were magnitudes more powerful than Xbox.
 

Havoc2049

Member
Doom 3 on the OG Xbox was great. Don't forget to check out Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War. IMO, it's the third best FPS on the OG Xbox behind Halo and Halo 2. RtCW also has the best campaign out of all the Wolfenstein games and the multiplayer was legendary.
 

intbal

Member
Doom 3 on the OG Xbox was great. Don't forget to check out Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War. IMO, it's the third best FPS on the OG Xbox behind Halo and Halo 2. RtCW also has the best campaign out of all the Wolfenstein games and the multiplayer was legendary.

It's a good port. I didn't care for the prologue missions, though.
I played the PC version of RTCW first. Didn't get the Xbox version until many years later, but it definitely works really well on the Xbox.
 

Kupfer

Member
Some OffTopic
I feel like it has one of the most obscure/interesting software libraries out of any console.
This made me think about me and my buddy playing the demo of Blood Wake for nights back in the days when the Xbox released. Such a weird but fun game.
v7YlR2C.jpg

"High-speed Gunboat Warfare" should be a genre by itself
 
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Cryio

Member
I tried Doom 3 like 3 times in the past and it always seemed boring, tedious and annoying.

I attempted to play Doom 3 for a 4th time this year, looked up online on fixes, modified the correct parameters in the INI and wouldn't you know, the UI can be natively made to look HD AF, like if it was released today. The textures can actually be HD (for 2004 anyway), not the broken mess of a default texture streaming option the game has by default (game will almost never stream in the high quality textures if you don't tweak the INI).

And the lighting. My god, the lighting. I guess it took a couple of years where fully dynamic lighting was NOT a thing in late 6th gen consoles, it was mostly never a thing in 7th gen consoles, IT STILL is mostly never a thing on 8th gen consoles. We now have PBR and Global Illumination and ray tracing and day/night cycles sure, but the dramatic shadowing present in Doom 3 ... doesn't exist in any other game, bar somewhat close implementations in Chronicles of Riddick: EfBB and Thief Deadly Shadows.

Now with the proper settings and proper visuals (and I was not using ANY mods, just proper and necessary ini tweaks), I can easily say I love Doom 3 and it's an all around amazing game.
 
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carlosrox

Banned
Both great games in their own right but honestly overall I give it to Doom 3.

It "aged" (I generally hate that notion of a game "aging" badly) better than HL2 did, the visuals are still gorgeous, the sound design and atmosphere is second to none, and the gameplay is also better.

Doom 3 is a masterpiece, I was just playing it a few days ago. Never gets old.
 

Tschumi

Member
I tried Doom 3 like 3 times in the past and it always seemed boring, tedious and annoying.

I attempted to play Doom 3 for a 4th time this year, looked up online on fixes, modified the correct parameters in the INI and wouldn't you know, the UI can be natively made to look HD AF, like if it was released today. The textures can actually be HD (for 2004 anyway), not the broken mess of a default texture streaming option the game has by default (game will almost never stream in the high quality textures if you don't tweak the INI).

And the lighting. My god, the lighting. I guess it took a couple of years where fully dynamic lighting was NOT a thing in late 6th gen consoles, it was mostly never a thing in 7th gen consoles, IT STILL is mostly never a thing on 8th gen consoles. We now have PBR and Global Illumination and ray tracing and day/night cycles sure, but the dramatic shadowing present in Doom 3 ... doesn't exist in any other game, bar somewhat close implementations in Chronicles of Riddick: EfBB and Thief Deadly Shadows.

Now with the proper settings and proper visuals (and I was not using ANY mods, just proper and necessary ini tweaks), I can easily say I love Doom 3 and it's an all around amazing game.
That's fantastic information, really appreciate it

Am i wrong in thinking fear 1 also had those shadows? Or am i mistaken.. or are you talking about that gen

To this day i think garret looks awesome in deadly shadows
 

makaveli60

Member
Doom 3 on the OG Xbox was great. Don't forget to check out Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War. IMO, it's the third best FPS on the OG Xbox behind Halo and Halo 2. RtCW also has the best campaign out of all the Wolfenstein games and the multiplayer was legendary.

Agreed, best Wolfenstein ever. I loved this game.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Doom 3 on the OG Xbox was great. Don't forget to check out Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War. IMO, it's the third best FPS on the OG Xbox behind Halo and Halo 2. RtCW also has the best campaign out of all the Wolfenstein games and the multiplayer was legendary.

Good call. I need to get that game, one of the titles for XBOX that's on my radar but forgot about it until you mentioned it.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
I played a bit of Half Life 2 last night but I think it was bugging out. In the trainyard area when you're making your escape after failing to teleport to Alyx, it wouldn't let me climb up the train car ladder.

I had to stack a bunch of boxes all haggard like to access the roof of the train car. I continued on but the game was acting weird after that. Kinda funny, the game itself seemed to glitch but the physics engine is so good that I was able to just bypass it for the time being, lol.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I went to EB Games and bought both of these games. It was my first full time job at a factory. I remember spending my entire first paycheck at EB. I remember the chopper attacking you, the explosions, and the gun effects were all awesome at the time. Both games had great atmospheres to explore.
 
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