This Christmas, don’t ask Santa for Doom 3.

The Xbox version of “Doom 3,” the long-awaited PC video game recently released to wide acclaim, is not likely to be released in 2004 dealing a blow to enthusiastic game players who are anxiously awaiting it.

The PC version of this game has been getting mixed reviews. With my limited playing time since purchasing the game on opening day, I still haven’t beaten this game.

I think it would be a blast playing Halo on the big screen in a movie theater. MSNBC:

“Tonight blew our minds,” theater co-owner Calvin Timothy said afterward. “We’re definitely going to keep doing this.” The game Friday night: “Halo” — a first-person shoot-em-up game in which four people can play on a team against four others. The evening was set up in a tournament format where 16 teams battled each other until the wee hours of Saturday morning to find out who the kings of gaming are in the valley.

Perhaps this could be a safe, late night activity for teens — no drugs, alcohol, etc. — I see lots of marketing possibilities here.

The BDA (sounds sort of like a sinister wing of the FDA) has approved the first full version of the read only Blue-ray Disc format. This format will compete with the next DVD format: HD-DVD.

BD-ROM players are set to ship late next year, the BDA said, with content coming through in the same timeframe. At this stage, the only major content provider to have publicly confirmed its willingness to off BD-ROM discs is Sony, which has said its Sony Pictures Entertainment will offer BD-ROM high-definition movies in Japan. The company’s disc manufacturing wing is, however, promoting BD-ROM to studios in the US.

Sony has said they will equip the Playstation 3 with a BD-ROM player.

This would be a B-grade horror flick plot … if it wasn’t true. indystar:

Investigators struggling to find a motive for the killings believe the victims were slain over the theft of clothes and an Xbox game system owned by Victorino, the sheriff’s office said. All four suspects were armed with aluminum bats when Victorino kicked in the locked front door, according to arrest records. They wore black clothes and scarves on their faces, grabbed knives inside and attacked victims in different rooms of the house, authorities said. The victims, some of whom were sleeping, did not put up a fight or try to escape, Johnson said. All had been stabbed, but autopsies determined the cause of death was the beating injuries.

One of the most anticipated PC games ever is out: Doom 3 and my son and I played it for a little bit this evening. Here’s some very early thoughts and overviews after playing the first few levels:

- graphics are fantasic. IE. boss monsters are well drawn and really scary looking
- shredding already dead monsters with shotgun is a blast, pun intended
- ladders are a pain in the ass to climb
- I want to go outside Mars exploring! (don’t know if this is possible in later levels). I hope they give me never-ending oxygen supply and let me go exploring.
- the pistol is practially as useless as pummeling enemies with bare hands - the storyline is engaging and sucks you in, though in the first level you do start to wonder when you can start blowing some creatures away. I won’t spoil when it happens, but it is a bit of a surprise.
- learn to quick save (F5) often when your health is not too low
- the whole PDA with video and audio files is very cool. You have to listen to audio files to catch secret 3-digit codes to use.
- punch the chicken is the bomb! (in the first level go to the food area and play the game in the corner, and rack up your score). After the first level you can no longer play.
- lighting is easier this time around than Doom 2 — you can actually see! The flashlight option makes it even nicer (”f” for flashlight)
- a Pentium 4 is not required; it will run just fine on a lower end e-Machine Celeron with 512 MB DDR RAM and an NVidia GeForce FX card ($99 USD from Best Buy after rebate)

It’s still early yet, but so far I’d say this game was worth the wait! Great job, ID Software and Activision.

Kirsten Dunst apparently is one female leading lady who doesn’t want a big rack. The story goes that during the approval of the Spiderman 2 video game Dunst took exception to the video portrayal of her breast size. Timesofindia:

“I got to approve the game, and I was like ‘Tone down the boobs, please,” The News Of The World quoted Kirsten as saying.

MSN links up a Halo 2 exclusive trailer arguably this is the most anticipated console video game ever, a full year behind schedule. At least the most anticipated XBox game. Circle November 9 on your calendar, gamers!

Todd Hollenshead, ID’s chief executive, said Doom 3 will require:

- A 1.5-gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 1500.
- 384 megabytes of memory. 
- Two gigabytes of hard drive space. 
- An nVidia GeForce 3 graphics card or better; or an ATI Technologies 8500 or better.

Took them about a year and a half to do it, but XBox has hit the magic one million subscriber base.

Microsoft announced on Thursday that it now has more than a million subscribers for Xbox Live, the online gaming service for the company’s video game console. Microsoft launched Xbox Live in late 2002 as a high-stakes bid to reshape the game industry and to distinguish its console.

Now if only they’d get off their butts and release Halo 2!

Bet this would is killer for gaming: the Actius RD3D