Doom 3, Charley

I got Doom 3 installed and played for an hour and a half last night. I pretty much go along with what many reviews say, a very visually impressive game that is lacking in the gameplay department. Doom 3 is scary, the plot is scary, the environment is immersive and the character acting puts you right in the middle of it. The actual combat is startling but frustrating. Guys pop out of nowhere and many times it is so dark you can’t see them without your flashlight, which requires you to put away your gun to use. The enemies are repetitive and somewhat boring to battle. The weapons I found so far, the handgun, shotgun and machine gun all lack much power unless the baddy is point blank in front of you. But even though the gameplay so far is less than thrilling I will continue to play it largely because it is just filled with eye candy. The graphics while dark are incredibly detailed even with me running the game on mild graphic detail settings. With my headphones on and the lights dim it truly is a disturbing experience. If I had a pulse monitor on I’m sure it would show my heart rate escalating as I am playing this game. If I paid 60 bucks for it I would probably be more than a little disappointed, since I didn’t I am enjoying playing in a virtual world of terror even if it has a bunch of little warts.

Tropical storm Charley has the potential to hit the SW Florida area. Naples has not had a direct hit from a hurricane in over 35 years so you would think we are due. If it would happen to hit us it isn’t predicted to be very strong. Granted, winds approaching 100 mph are nothing to sneeze at but our house is far enough inland that what we would see would be greatly diminished. However at work we are doing some prep work just in case things go really bad. At home I figure we have enough non-perishable goods to get by for awhile. My mom’s place is within a couple of blocks of the beach so I am a bit concerned for her and I am offering her to come stay with us if the predictions get worse. It could be an interesting couple of days coming up or it could be yet another false alarm. Hopefully it will be the latter. I am not the panicking type so I will hope for the best.