Not much moving, not much shaking in last week’s top ten best-sellers, as the after-effects of the Steam sale are still felt and, without many major new releases or breakout hits, there’s that creeping sense of PC games in 2016 returning to business as usual. HERE COMETH THE BRANDS. We do get one new entry though, and it’s a pretty one. … [visit site to read more]
A new Doom [official site] update has launched today, adding support for using the Vulkan API on supporting graphics cards. In short, Doom’s guts are now crammed full of the new hotness in goingfastness and the game should run better on most computers, letting you either bask in the glorious frames or crank up the prettiness.
The new Doom certainly seems to have a touch of Brutal Doom [official site] in it, what with all the ripping and tearing and whatnot, so it’s only fair that in return Brutal Doom should get a bit of D44m [thousands of letters from Doom enthusiasts have flooded into the RPS treehouse demanding we call the new game that -ed.]>. Out now and recently updated is a Brutal Doom add-on boshing D44m’s weapons into the ultraviolent mod for ye olde Doom. Yes, of course you can dual-wield super shotguns. And heck yes you can transform into demons. Have a look at this in action:
The Doom reboot released last month to rapturous praise from critics and players alike, and it probably made a few bucks for Bethesda as well. So what better way to spend those bucks than to bring one of the game's iconic weapons the BFG to life? Well, there are plenty of better ways to spend money, but they did this anyway, and good on them I guess.
The full scale 3D printed BFG is the work of MyMiniFactory, who used documentation provided by the weapon's designers at id Software. As you can see in the video above, it's a very large weapon, and it seems unlikely that Doomguy could ever carry this effectively in combat. But he has to anyway, and that's why Doomguy is always so angry.
No new indie millionaries this week: we’re still looking at the consequences of the Steam Summer Sale, so the weekly list of best-sellers is entirely devoid of new releases. Hordes of people who’d sat on the fence about 2015’s big games jumped on the discounts, and that means many familiar names. Of course, you discerning bunch went and bought all the games we recommended instead, didn’t you?
Doom has survived, and indeed thrived, by always returning to its fullbore embrace of excess. This a series that goes big on everything: action, gore, and the signature demonic production design. As with both the 1993 original and this year s reboot, when we want more of something, we usually get it. James aptly wrote in his review: Hell is my home now. He didn t sound unhappy about it.Doom draws on a variety of themes that work to draw players into being comfortable in its devilish grip. The game s use of the space marine trope is basically perfect for what that character, and the player, is asked to accomplish kill or be killed. Then there s Mars itself. The Red Planet has always worked so well as a stage for horror because, of its relative similarity to Earth. The dusty landscape feels both somehow familiar, but alien enough to stage the awful things that happen. In this edition of If you like, we take a look at military science fiction, interstellar horror, and a modern sci-fi classic. It s also clear we are still waiting for a good Doom film. What would that film look like? Feel free to pitch us in the comments.
I can t think of a recent film that captures the gameplay loop of a shooter like Doom more perfectly than Edge of Tomorrow. Based on the Japanese novel All You Need is Kill, Tom Cruise plays a military officer who s more comfortable in front of a camera than on the front lines during an alien invasion. And when Cruise s character finds himself having the worst kind of Groundhog Day you could imagine, he has to find a way to learn how to fight, no matter how long it takes.With spectacular effects and a killer performance from Emily Blunt as a hard-bitten fellow soldier, Edge of Tomorrow borrows a lot from the space marine aesthetic familar from games like Doom and movies like James Cameron s Aliens. When horrific aliens want to shred you, grab some power armor and a shotgun because this we know: Talking to the monsters never works.
One of the best examples of the expanded universe that appeared in the wake of the first two Alien films, this graphic novel gets to the essential core of Doom s premise you re alone, off Earth, just survive somehow. In Nightmare Asylum we join Sergeant Wilks and a woman named Billie on board a ship that s fleeing an Alien infestation back home. We get all the classic Aliens themes that were themselves so obviously influential on games like Doom claustrophobic corridors, morally-questionable government projects, and of course the unstoppable beasts themselves.If you haven t revisited the Alien universe in a while, this book is a great excuse to dive back in.
Despite its excellent production values and stellar cast, 2013 s The Last Days on Mars didn t quite get the reception it perhaps deserved. The movie s plot is a familiar one: A research team is nearing the end of their mission when an unexpected discovery changes everything. Despite some derivative story beats, there s an entertaining and atmospheric Mars horror film hidden inside the otherwise standard issue setup. Most of this is down to the the incredible cast of actors they secured for the project. Liev Schreiber, Olivia Williams, and Elias Koteas bring talent and gravitas to the script and let you dwell, if only for a little while, in their horror story.The impact of Doom s expertly-crafted action set pieces and alien encounters is often punctuated by the quieter moments between these engagements. The Last Days on Mars works on this level as well, where the fear of Mars s hellish and inhospitable environment create a tension that can t be resolved by an obvious, direct path. In a perfect world, if we could mashup the best parts of this film, Cameron s Aliens, and 2012 s excellent action-gorefest Dredd, we d have the perfect Doom movie.
For decades now one of the finest writers working in the subgenre of military science fiction, David Drake s Redliners might be one of his best and most personal works. A Vietnam veteran himself, Drake s usual talent for sharp and intelligent dialogue, well-crafted action scenes and solid characterization are on display in this novel. It s story deals with a unit of battle-weary soldiers who have maybe done and seen too much to be reintegrated into civilian life. Instead, these hardened personalities are deployed to protect a group of colonists on a new deep space outpost in alien territory. What they find there, and what it will take to survive, will require all of their resolve as soldiers, as well human beings.
Patrick currently works as web editor for Hinterland Studios, which is making The Long Dark. For more installments of If you like... , check out the other games he's covered in this series below: