The Flashlight of Doom

I first saw Doom 3 back in 2006 when Vorlynx was playing it.  I saw him get as far as shortly after the lights went off and the infamous choice between flashlight or gun was the ultimate question.  I myself played Doom 3 back in 2010 knowing full well what I was getting into, knowing that the choice between seeing an enemy and not seeing potentially a dozen denizens of Hell was the choice to be made.

By this time I already knew of the duct tape mod but I knew that the game had been created with the idea that the game could be played without a constant light source.  I could not believe that that would be an oversight by both id and the game testers.  The game could be played and completed with the game played as is, without the duct tape mod, designed as is.  So, that is the way I played the game.

Granted, I did require Vorlynx's help, but I have previously talked about that and it happened in a very well lit portion of Hell, so it had nothing to do with the lack of light.

I will hipsterize myself and say that I am proud of the fact that I could go from beginning to end without the use of the flashlight mod.  Although not using the flashlight did not leave Duke completely in the dark as the area would be illuminated by the muzzle flash, which I felt was more terrifying as creatures lumbered towards you and you filled them with bullets upon bullets upon plasma blast upon everything else in your arsenal.

When Bethesda released the BFG edition of Doom 3, the duct tape mod came pre-attached and I personally am glad that I bought the Doom pack on Steam before the revamped edition.  I however, do not know if the now soldered mod is able to be turned off, but I would imagine that is should be.

This was a similar issue with the first Dementium: The Ward game from Renegade Kid.  In the sequel, Dementium II, the ability to hold a flashlight and a single handed weapon became available.  Again, for single handed weapons only.  If you wanted to hold a shotgun/assault rifle/flame thrower you were unable to hold or attach the flashlight since, as obviously both hands were occupied with your death dealing boomsticks.  This adaptation from the first game I was perfectly fine with as it was created and implemented by the creators.

But now here is where the potential hypocritical view comes into play.  Why would I be fine with the flashlight in one game and not with a similar modification in another game?  I think it really comes down to the audience reaction being "I'm going to make this game better/playable because you didn't when you made the game."  The difference I find is that Dementium could not be modded so the change to Dementium II was made by the developers, but only to a certain extent that made sense within the game.  

Now, if Doom 4 were to have the option of having a flashlight mount on two handed guns, I think I would be fine with that mainly because the game would be made with that in mind as opposed to the afterthought that the Duct Tape Mod was.  

Basically Doom 3 was designed without the Duct Tape Mod in mind as opposed to Dementium II which was designed with a modified flashlight.  If Doom 4 follows suit, I will be perfectly happy.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Noooooooooooo!

One Thing Leading To Another

I had an interesting experience the last two of the three nights and no, it doesn't end like that, whatever that is.  On Friday night, because I sooo extroverted, I started playing Dead Space, a game that I've wanted to play for quite some time, only recently purchased and having finished Penumbra: Overture, I wanted another horroresque game to start up, which is what I did.  I've only played the first 35 minutes, which means that shit just went downhill and Isaac is separated from his superiors.  So only 35 minutes into the game (really only 30 minutes as I spent about five tweaking the the video and control settings: always have to invert the y-axis!!) I began thinking about Doom 3, Alien and Event Horizon.  

This thought wandering had nothing to do with the quality of the game and I wasn't losing interest, I was having a lot of fun, at least as much fun as one can have defending oneself with a space-nailgun against horrific looking creatures then stomping their limbs off.  I was thinking about other space horrors where I had experienced "fun" because I was having fun stomping the limbs off of (hopefully) dead creatures.  I also quickly thought that if I was ever offered a job on a interstellar mining vessel, I would turn that job down in a heartbeat!  Okay, I probably wouldn't.  It's space after all.  But yes, Event Horizon won out in the thinking process, so I turned off Dead Space and watched what I still feel is one of the best science fiction, space, horror movies around.  Yes, I know that Paul Anderson directed it, but I don't care.  It's an awesome movie that still gives me chills.  And it has Sam Fucking Neil in it.

The next night I decided to watch Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome because I'd never seen it (!?!?! I know right, considering my penchant for post-apocalyptic anything) and I wanted to get the disc back to Netflix, which I obviously have yet to do.  So within the first 20 minutes of Thunderdome, I began to feel that I wanted to play Fallout.  One of the characters even says "What's a little fallout, huh?"  The rest of the movie I was comparing what was going on in Thunderdome to the design and feel of the first Fallout game, which is the only one in that series that I've so far played.  I did not however start playing Fallout again after finishing the movie as it was around 3:30am.  

Instead I ended up putting on Skyrim as a conversation I'd had with Conklederp earlier provoked me to create a new character.  The character is a Khajiit, the feline (furry inspired??) race.  And yes, I created this Khajiit to be somewhat, visually based off of our cat, whose name in life as in game, is Joey Mjölnir Explosion.  So now, on this, the eve of Chirstmas, I present to you, the Internet, Joey Mjölnir Explosion in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Not Really a Crazy Cat Man

P.S.  Merry Christmas!