These CODE guys are holding the last Slayers club live stream before the much-needed three-week break; the players, if you ask me, are highly charged and almost frustrated. At 6 pm ET, the stream will feature some artwork from fan artist Xous and then dive into a discussion of Hugo Martin’s Game Director Playthrough for DOOM: The Dark Ages. While some big players are delighted, more and more lately have been spitting some grievances about bugs, achievements, and… well, the music, really.
There is hype surrounding the event. The official DOOM Twitter announced the stream, linking videos of HD footage in preparation for the deep dive into Chapter Three of The Dark Ages. Fan artist Xous was given a personal shoutout from Hugo Martin, who commented: “If we’re making a game, your art’s gonna be in it.” I would say a very heavy compliment for any creator; hence, the audience soaked it in. Xous then hinted that one of their other pieces is actually a secret in the game, setting players off on a mini-treasure hunt.
Upside down, the atmosphere is no good. The reactions are a mixture of love, frustration, and downright anger. One player called the game “repetitive” due to “terrible attention to detail” and-“shiiity music”. Others backed it: “It’s fucking cool, just with some filler missions,” they said. The two-faced nature of gamers, man.
Now, talk about the Berserker achievement. There is pure rage because it is bugged and, more importantly, won’t be getting fixed.”Fix the damn Berserker achievement!! It’s pathetic that it hasn’t been fixed by now honestly,” one player said. “Berserker achievement is broken fix it cmon,” another said just as bluntly. The controversy goes deep, and with the devs going on a hiatus soon, the players are fearing that it shall remain broken for weeks and weeks.
Performance issues are also plaguing some individuals. According to one, even with the finest rigs (40-50 Series GPUs and i9 13900k-14900k CPUs, to even begin with), people faced a mix of crashes, freezes, and bugsplat error messages. “A lot of people can’t even play the game or launch the game,” they said. Yikes!
And now for some lighter-weight wish lists for future game updates: One player states, “Parry/melee slowdown removal option, unique cosmetics, platform crucible sword,” and DOOM 2016-style multiplayer. Another wants “actual skins” instead of recolors, calling out the 2016 Praetor suit specifically.
And thus, the beginning of the music debate. One player praises the soundtrack; the next one tears it down. The classic DOOM fanbase split.
So, this stream is going to be fun, but the chaos will run rampant. Will the devs really fix these problems? Will Hugo Martin throw out some juicy tidbits? Or will players keep bellowing about the Berserker achievement? Tune in, maybe we get some answers before the team takes a three-week break.
Meanwhile, the DOOM community remains as heated (and divided) as ever. Whether you love or hate the game, one thing’s for sure: Nobody’s ignoring it. Probably that’s the point, right? Rip and tear-or rip and meme-till it’s done.
