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"Doomed to Success-It all began with doom!"

There's so much to say about Doom,that it's difficult to know where to start.Wrapped in controversy,the bloody battles of a nameless space marine against an invading alien horde were chronicled in what can be considered one of the greatest,if not the greatest PC action game ever.To put it simply,Doom changed the way computer games are played and designed.The premise is simple:Shoot everything that moves.As a space marine stranded alone,it's up to you to wade through the freshly killed corpses of invading aliens as you mow down even more horrid and evil creatures to save mankind.Along the way, you have to dodge hot lava,search for hidden key cards,flip countless switches—and,above all,stay alive.Looking back now,it's almost laughable to think that you couldn't even jump,per se,in Doom.Still,Doom's gameplay has spawned many derivative games(mostly poor imitations)and a host of sequels,as well as provided the basis for modern classics like Unreal Tournament.In addition,the variety of weapons—from the lowly pistol to the rocket launcher—are all established as standards in first-person shooters these days.And don't forget the chainsaw!Adding a chainsaw to your arsenal of weapons was simply a stroke of tongue-in-cheek genius.While Doom wasn't the first game to feature a chainsaw(The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the Atari 2600 had you slice and dice with a gas-guzzling saw),there hasn't been a game since to feature one.Too bad,because wielding a chainsaw in Doom was almost too fun to be legal.Aside from what were then cutting-edge graphics and frenetic gameplay,Doom featured an incredible MIDI soundtrack that was perfectly matched to the pace of the game.The eerie and haunting music alternated with a driving panicked beat,melding into an unforgettable audio experience.The Doom soundtrack was a milestone and composer Robert Prince's magnum opus.Of course,a game that featured so much blood inevitably drew controversy.Not that a game that ran at 640x480 could be considered "realistic violence" really.Blocky red pixels of blood and green goo are hardly worth getting excited over.But still,the lumps of guts left over after each kill were particularly gruesome,even by today's standards.And who could forget the bunny head on a stake at the end of the game?Doom also started the multiplayer online craze and is almost single-handedly responsible for coining the term "deathmatch."Playing a multiplayer game of Doom with your buddies or even anonymous folks from all over the country was relatively simple.Now multiplayer is a standard feature.But Doom's multiplayer games showed some technical prowess,too:Even on a 14.4 modem,Doom was fast and nimble,and there was hardly anything as bad as the slowdown encountered in today's online multiplayer games.Doom-heads working in companies the world over loved to gather together for a quick lunch break game,and,because Doom polled every computer on the network almost constantly to see if it was running Doom,one game could bring a corporate network to its knees.Doom became the scourge of IT Directors,and many banned it completely.In any case,Doom continued to survive and even flourish,spawning even better deathmatch play in Doom II and the 3D sequel,Quake.So,in retrospect,Doom was the begginning of shoot em' ups(or decent ones anyway).

I've written 2 reviews this morning and now this.Lord(and oh mighty Tony)please send a Gameaday to my house.I'm trying to write more reviews and interesting posts now.More coming later(if I don't get hand cramps).

[email protected] I thought I gave it to you before.I think I have urs soomewhere in my inbox!

wots ya address? (:)

True,True

Its alright most of the time though.

yeh!

Yeah!

I like MSN, but it can be a little silly sometimes when no messages come up then suddenly about 20 shoot up the screen.

nutn but we can have a 3 way convo wit quazi! (:)

What do ya wanna tell me?

cmon! (:)