Both were captured at 1024x768, with a slight downscale to 960x720 before being processed into this 720p comparison video. 'id Software has introduced dramatic changes to Doom 3 in this new BFG Edition, seemingly designed to make the game more comfortable to play on an HDTV - but where does this leave PC gamers?' Doom 3 old and new - the original 2004 release compared to the BFG Edition, both at max settings. On the flipside, more care could have been put into the revised lighting: in some scenes, detail appears to disappear into white crush, bleached out by the cranked up illumination. Bolder, brighter, more colourful some might say that the atmosphere of the original game has been compromised to better appeal to the console audience, but having played both back to back, there's definitely a sense that the older version was simply too dark in places. Next up, id has significantly cranked up the brightness - something we suspect was implemented to better suit living room conditions. Coming from a console background, you may not appreciate the importance of being able to adjust this element - it's typically locked on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles - but the head-to-head video and the comparison screenshots on this page demonstrate what a fundamental difference it makes, especially in PC gaming where many different aspect ratios need to be taken into account. Switch to a 16:9 resolution and you get the sense that the field of view is much improved, but, as the shots at the foot of the page demonstrate, it's still significantly narrower. During gameplay, the original simply feels less confined and easier to play. Run the BFG Edition in a 4:3 or 5:4 resolution and the worldview is much narrower than it is in the original game, to the extent that, when placed side by side with the 2004 release, the overall impression is that you're running about with the zoom button engaged. The most immediately impactful differences are all about adjusting Doom 3 to better suit 16:9 HDTVs, and most dramatic of all is an enormous shift in the field of view. We decided to put the original game and the new BFG Edition head to head to get a better idea of the changes id Software has wrought. But it would be churlish to ignore some of the improvements and refinements made to the overall package. Some might even describe the new release as a downgrade in many respects compared to the 2004 code - a port from current-gen console remixed from the PC original. No advanced graphics settings, no field-of-view adjustments, no out of the box support for mods - on first loading up Doom 3: BFG Edition, it's difficult to avoid the impression that id Software has turned its back on the PC fanbase that supported it for so many years.

Doom 3 pc console