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As I was going through some of my old stuff, I stumbled across my old and really busted copy of the limited collector's edition of Doom 3 (LCE now from here on out) for the OG Xbox (still perfectly compatible with the 360 by the way). And just like Skyrim: Legendary Edition for the Xbox 360, I was about to smile a little at the memories I had from it and then toss it in the garbage or give it away in favor of the BFG Edition, also for the 360. But then I paused. Again. I remembered that the LCE had a fair amount of bonus content even over the PC version. And I knew that the BFG Edition had some as well, but then, which one was the superior version for the console? Which brought me down a somewhat long rabbit hole of research which led to a pretty clear but still surprising and interesting conclusion. The Doom 3: LCE is still definitely the better version over the BFG Edition. For quite a few reasons.
Let's start with how the LCE has...
1. The Original Doom 3 Game Design
Love it or hate it, Doom 3's levels, enemies, and set-pieces were built with the specific assumption that the player would have to choose between having a flashlight out and having a gun out. Taking that away in the BFG Edition makes things just too easy. And Doom 3 was already a kinda easy game all said and done. But wait, it gets even worse. BFG Edition also showers the player with ammo. Again, vanilla Doom 3 already gave the player a lot of ammo as long as they were looking around. Both these things buff the player too much and the original difficulty takes a dump as a result. The LCE on the other hand goes the other way from vanilla Doom 3. There are less ammo pickups which require you to use your weapons even more carefully than the original.
2. Skippable Cutscenes
Do I even have to add anything here?
3. Full Save System
BFG Edition, for some dumbass reason, only has a very limited number of save slots you can use. That are shared between games (except for classic Doom). In the LCE, while it doesn't have an auto-save outside of reaching new levels, it does allow you to manually save whenever you want however much you want.
4. More Polish
The BFG Edition has these small little bugs (no, besides the trites and ticks) in it mostly related to enemy AI. Sometimes they get stuck. Sometimes they won't respond. Sometimes their animations will weirdly reset. And there's also the small effect of how muzzle flashes from weapons don't light up the environment.
5. Video and Art Extras
LCE included a 4-part video special by G4 right on the disc along with a Making Of video, and finally, concept art. BFG Edition has none of these extras.
6. Local Multiplayer (sort of)
LCE has the original Doom 3 multiplayer, should you ever want to play it, and it also features full co-op support for Doom 3. The problem with these two is that due to technical limitations of the OG Xbox hardware, there was no way in hell it would be able to support splitscreen. Nevertheless, system link is still an option which can be utilized by services like XLink Kai, and there's also an effort currently underway to restore the original Xbox Live service too. And also, another major feature the LCE had that I found wasn't mentioned anywhere is that the Ultimate Doom and Doom II versions bundled with the LCE come with full multiplayer options for splitscreen including PvP modes and co-op. BFG Edition only supports the single-player portions of Ultimate Doom and Doom II.
7. OG Wolfenstein Levels/OG Medkits in Classic Doom
In the BFG Edition, in order to be politically correct, the Wolfenstein 3D levels in Doom II were neutered and now only feature regular zombie soldiers instead of the Nazi enemies in the original levels. Further, they changed medkits to have a pill icon instead of the usual red cross icon on them. The latter is slightly annoying but I could live with it. The former though is incredibly annoying and actively harms the design of the levels.
8. Original Manual
When Doom 3 first came out for the PC, it had this actually kinda dope manual that had these nice little tips and even some Doom and id trivia in it. All this was preserved in the LCE manual. The BFG Edition completely butchered the manual though and it's now this incredibly terse and utterly boring bordering-on-useless 6 page affair.
9. A Beautiful Metal Case with Slipcover
The BFG Edition comes in a very generic Xbox 360 case and nothing more. The LCE though has a see-through plastic slipcover and a metal case just like the Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition complete with very nicely done and appropriate art on the front and back of the case. It just feels a whole lot more premium.
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Alright, that's all the reasons, but before I end here, I should detail the downsides of the LCE here too, because they are definitely there and the first one especially is hard to ignore.
1. Doom 3 Levels are Cut Down
Once again, due to the technical limitations of the original Xbox, it just was not possible to fit the entirety of Doom 3 into the Xbox port, so some levels had to be cut down or even downright sacrificed in order to fit all of it onto the disc and keep it running at a playable framerate. I'm sure Vicarious Visions tried their hardest to preserve the original game as much as they could, but it was inevitable that there was going to be cuts, and some big ones at that. This is the biggest issue with the LCE by far. Now, some have said that these cuts are actually advantageous as Doom 3 was an overly long game and needed tightening up anyway. I don't know about that though. I'll let you be the judge.
2. Doom 3 Runs at 30 FPS
Doesn't apply to the classic Doom games on the disc. But yeah, another casualty of the Xbox port was the framerate. The good news though is that although it is 30 FPS, it is a locked 30 FPS, so it is a smooth experience at least.
3. No Resurrection of Evil (sort of)/Lost Mission/No Rest for the Living
Now, if you so desire it, RoE was actually ported to the original Xbox also, so you could just buy RoE, slap that into your LCE case, and be done with it, keeping in mind that all the cuts that had to be made to Doom 3 to get it running on the original Xbox also apply to RoE. Beyond that though, the Lost Mission level pack for Doom 3 along with No Rest for the Living for Doom II is not available in any capacity for the original Xbox and is only in the BFG Edition or the XBLA titles. As to whether you're actually gonna care about those latter two mission packs is entirely up for you to decide. The Lost Mission is just moar Doom 3 and has literally nothing new to it besides the new levels. No Rest for the Living has more of a point to it, but again, it has no new music, enemies, weapons, or even textures, so there's still not much content there in my arrogant opinion.
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So... After that kind of autistic breakdown of Doom 3 console ports, I decided firmly on getting a new copy of the LCE. The cut down levels suck, but then again, it depends on how you look at it, and in the noble words of Farquaad, they are a sacrifice I am willing to make.
Let's start with how the LCE has...
1. The Original Doom 3 Game Design
Love it or hate it, Doom 3's levels, enemies, and set-pieces were built with the specific assumption that the player would have to choose between having a flashlight out and having a gun out. Taking that away in the BFG Edition makes things just too easy. And Doom 3 was already a kinda easy game all said and done. But wait, it gets even worse. BFG Edition also showers the player with ammo. Again, vanilla Doom 3 already gave the player a lot of ammo as long as they were looking around. Both these things buff the player too much and the original difficulty takes a dump as a result. The LCE on the other hand goes the other way from vanilla Doom 3. There are less ammo pickups which require you to use your weapons even more carefully than the original.
2. Skippable Cutscenes
Do I even have to add anything here?
3. Full Save System
BFG Edition, for some dumbass reason, only has a very limited number of save slots you can use. That are shared between games (except for classic Doom). In the LCE, while it doesn't have an auto-save outside of reaching new levels, it does allow you to manually save whenever you want however much you want.
4. More Polish
The BFG Edition has these small little bugs (no, besides the trites and ticks) in it mostly related to enemy AI. Sometimes they get stuck. Sometimes they won't respond. Sometimes their animations will weirdly reset. And there's also the small effect of how muzzle flashes from weapons don't light up the environment.
5. Video and Art Extras
LCE included a 4-part video special by G4 right on the disc along with a Making Of video, and finally, concept art. BFG Edition has none of these extras.
6. Local Multiplayer (sort of)
LCE has the original Doom 3 multiplayer, should you ever want to play it, and it also features full co-op support for Doom 3. The problem with these two is that due to technical limitations of the OG Xbox hardware, there was no way in hell it would be able to support splitscreen. Nevertheless, system link is still an option which can be utilized by services like XLink Kai, and there's also an effort currently underway to restore the original Xbox Live service too. And also, another major feature the LCE had that I found wasn't mentioned anywhere is that the Ultimate Doom and Doom II versions bundled with the LCE come with full multiplayer options for splitscreen including PvP modes and co-op. BFG Edition only supports the single-player portions of Ultimate Doom and Doom II.
7. OG Wolfenstein Levels/OG Medkits in Classic Doom
In the BFG Edition, in order to be politically correct, the Wolfenstein 3D levels in Doom II were neutered and now only feature regular zombie soldiers instead of the Nazi enemies in the original levels. Further, they changed medkits to have a pill icon instead of the usual red cross icon on them. The latter is slightly annoying but I could live with it. The former though is incredibly annoying and actively harms the design of the levels.
8. Original Manual
When Doom 3 first came out for the PC, it had this actually kinda dope manual that had these nice little tips and even some Doom and id trivia in it. All this was preserved in the LCE manual. The BFG Edition completely butchered the manual though and it's now this incredibly terse and utterly boring bordering-on-useless 6 page affair.
9. A Beautiful Metal Case with Slipcover
The BFG Edition comes in a very generic Xbox 360 case and nothing more. The LCE though has a see-through plastic slipcover and a metal case just like the Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition complete with very nicely done and appropriate art on the front and back of the case. It just feels a whole lot more premium.
-
Alright, that's all the reasons, but before I end here, I should detail the downsides of the LCE here too, because they are definitely there and the first one especially is hard to ignore.
1. Doom 3 Levels are Cut Down
Once again, due to the technical limitations of the original Xbox, it just was not possible to fit the entirety of Doom 3 into the Xbox port, so some levels had to be cut down or even downright sacrificed in order to fit all of it onto the disc and keep it running at a playable framerate. I'm sure Vicarious Visions tried their hardest to preserve the original game as much as they could, but it was inevitable that there was going to be cuts, and some big ones at that. This is the biggest issue with the LCE by far. Now, some have said that these cuts are actually advantageous as Doom 3 was an overly long game and needed tightening up anyway. I don't know about that though. I'll let you be the judge.
2. Doom 3 Runs at 30 FPS
Doesn't apply to the classic Doom games on the disc. But yeah, another casualty of the Xbox port was the framerate. The good news though is that although it is 30 FPS, it is a locked 30 FPS, so it is a smooth experience at least.
3. No Resurrection of Evil (sort of)/Lost Mission/No Rest for the Living
Now, if you so desire it, RoE was actually ported to the original Xbox also, so you could just buy RoE, slap that into your LCE case, and be done with it, keeping in mind that all the cuts that had to be made to Doom 3 to get it running on the original Xbox also apply to RoE. Beyond that though, the Lost Mission level pack for Doom 3 along with No Rest for the Living for Doom II is not available in any capacity for the original Xbox and is only in the BFG Edition or the XBLA titles. As to whether you're actually gonna care about those latter two mission packs is entirely up for you to decide. The Lost Mission is just moar Doom 3 and has literally nothing new to it besides the new levels. No Rest for the Living has more of a point to it, but again, it has no new music, enemies, weapons, or even textures, so there's still not much content there in my arrogant opinion.
-
So... After that kind of autistic breakdown of Doom 3 console ports, I decided firmly on getting a new copy of the LCE. The cut down levels suck, but then again, it depends on how you look at it, and in the noble words of Farquaad, they are a sacrifice I am willing to make.