Revamped version of 2004 gore-fest

Game makers Aspyr have re-released Doom 3, now in a version designed for modern Intel Macs. The game, first released on OS X in 2004, sports a rare (for the Mac platform) "M" rating for its nightmarish setting, violence and gore. The new version runs only on Intel Core2Duo or later chips under Snow Leopard or Lion, and does not work with the pre-Intel 3000HD integrated graphics chipsets. The engine for Doom 3 was released under the GPL last month.

The game is essentially unchanged from its previous versions apart from the enhancements to resolution and gameplay that come from the use of modern discrete video cards. Aspyr notes that the game requires at least the ATI Radeon x1600 or NVidia Geforce 7300 (cards with 128MB video RAM) or later (with the exception of the Intel 3000HD) for satisfactory gaming performance. The Intel chipsets used in 2006-2008 Intel Mac portables such as the GMA X3100 or GMA 950 are explicitly not supported.

The game casts players as an anonymous space marine sent to fight a takeover of a UAC station on Mars in the year 2145 by a horde of demons and other monsters spawned from the very depths of hell itself. The object of the game is to prevent the creatures from reaching Earth. The app is multiplayer-compatible, but Aspyr notes that the game will not work on Mac volumes that are formatted as being case-sensitive.

In addition to being available via the Mac App Store, the game is also now available directly from Aspyr's GameAgent store and outlets such as the Mac Game Store.

by MacNN Staff