1 Damn, dumbass... you been fucking around with that box for weeks... puttin it together in the dark or something... FREAK!

2 Vindicated! Stupid game designers... Such an obvious flaw it should have been picked up during the R&D stage IF the game design had been finished then... Might not be your memory that's the problem - sometimes it is how some video cards handle T&L - make sure you have the latest drivers for your card from the manufacturer. What card is it?

3 GEforce FX 5700LE w/256 on the card. Hmmm... [Googles] Guess my driver wasn't the latest version. I'll have to poke at this.

4 Definitely will need the latest driver. Best bet is to get it directly from nVidia. Making the flashlight and weapons mutually exclusive was clearly a deliberate design decision. I would imagine it was to heighten the sense of apprehension in the game. Not only do you have to worry about some imp or other nasty jumping out at you but you have to worry about switching back to your weapon and then trying to shoot him before he gets you, sometimes with only your muzzle flash to provide light. Not that I agree it was a good decision. I personally wouldn't have done it that way.

5 Looks like the driver was the problem. I got in half an hour without crashes. Further testing is obviously in order :-) RR - I'll agree that they did it on purpose, but, having played with my flashlight duct-taped to my weapon, I'll say that it's just as damn scary THAT way, too. Even when I can see what the hell I'm shooting at, it's still unnerving seeing that zombie lurching around in that tiny, wavering circle of light. Believe me, I'm soaking up PLENTY of ambience :-)

6 During the process of games designs the norm is that at various stages the game is sent to testers for pre-release feedback. Normally this is done every couple of weeks or so once the engine is up and running and the level designers are able to put together coherent sections (as is the case with Doom 3 they would have been waiting a long time as the game is not portal based but level based - textures and levels are loaded fully at the end of each section rather than on the fly). However in some cases this is not done but rather the game is tested by the designers and level designers instead, or sometimes the programmers and inherent flaws creep in because the people who design the game are too close to their design to see what is potentially wrong (as it probably was in this case). I know for a fact that Activision have testers and Beta testers in house but not many people in the way of design or coding staff due to the fact they buy all their content and I would imagine that in the case of ID being such a huge name in the business they will have "special dispensation" from Activision. None of this changes the fact that people like their games different to their friends and that whether it was intentional or not it should never have gotten past Alpha with this particular design aspect in it as it doesn't add to the ambience but rather irritates the player and detracts from the experience. This is a professional opinion and I have consulted other people who still work in the industry and they agree (as well as the technincal aspects of much hype but no substance).

7 Alex - I have to agree. The "no light on the weapon" decision is second in stupidity only to the designers of Star Wars - Dark Forces deciding NOT to include a way to save games. I say D3 is second, since at least there's a mod to fix that problem. Dark Forces... could've been a GREAT game, but the lack of a "save" feature made it merely good.