I just picked up DOOM 3 yesterday and no forum friendly words can describe how frightening this game really is!
You play the role of a marine who is shipped to mars as a replacement on a scientific and geological facility where not much happens. But ever since a mad scientist obsessed with the paranormal has begun his own secret expiraments spooky things have been happening.
The intro movie and first level do little to explain the story line but hell is quick to break loose in level one... literally. This game is filled with dark corners, flickering lights, and spooky noises. The levels are similar to the levels found in aliens versus predator only much more detailed and interactive. The mag light style flash light is critical to exploring each dark level, and i am yet to find a weapon with a light attached to it so switching back and forth between your light and your weapon are a must. The beam the flash light generates is very realistic, and looks much like the real beam of a flash light. Therefore shadows appear to move and when you double take there is nothing there. This game IS as scary as it claims at least in my opinion... if i had a dollar for every time i exclaimed "OH SH*T!!" during play i could go buy another copy or maybe even two copies!
The visuals on this game are stunning even on medium settings. and the game runs great on my machine. The general requirments can be taxing on even high end machines however because the detail is so high. Minimum system requirments are as follows:
100% DirectX 9 compatible 64MB Video Card (Latest Drivers)
Windows 2000 or XP
Pentium 1.5 GHz processor
384 MB ram
8X CD ROM
2.2 Gig of hard space
100% DirectX 9 compatible 16 bit sound card
My system:
Radeon 9800
Windows XP
Pentium 4 2.8 GHz
1 Gig Ram
120 Gig Hard drive
5.1 Dolby surround
If you want the crap scared out of you or just love a good SciFi first person shooter... Doom 3 will satisfy either need.