hi, yeah, i have to agree with you there. Ive played doom3 till around 3/4 of the way through, its not as much of a chore as i thought, in fact im quite enjoying it, i just wish it looked a load better than it does(xbox port i think). The alpha of stalker looked amazing with ace lighting and very realistic colours and terrain, not to mention all that lovely fauna and flora. This hopefully will be the same quality as half life 2. Im sure HL2 is gunna be incredible.

You never played the original dooms at night with all lights turned off, right (actually I believe you dont do it with doom 3 either)? I remember very well playing doom 1 and 2 all day long, after I came out of school. at daylight it wasnt very scary, it was a simple shooter. but there were still moments when I almost fell out of my chair. but at night I didnt even dare to play it, especially maps I didnt know completely or which had those "lights out" effect. Of course if youre some smartass who just recently played doom 1 & 2 for the first time on an 3D emulator or similar, its not scary of course... duh. and btw I just saw a gameplay video of stalker today. I surely hope its still in early alpha phase because the AI was dumb as hell and the controls and gameplay even more simple than painkiller. not to mention the idiotic looks of the models and the over-made fantasy features. the scenery does look sweet tho. still I am pretty sure operation flashpoint 2 will blow it away lefthanded. 2.5 km² isnt that big. operation flashpoint 1 has a max. visibility range that is double as much.

the annoying thing about doom3 is the flashlight, i hope in the future we have better weapsies and can at least hold a handgun and torch at the same time(without the hack)