The year was 1993, the world was gripped by gauge, Kurk Cobain was still alive, Green Day was on the rise, and I wasn’t even born. Now that I’ve depressed a few of the older readers and confused the younger ones, let’s talk Doom. No, not that cloud that stands above us making us assume the world is about to implode in on us, I mean the video games from the gods known only as Carmack, Romero, and the lesser-known Petersen. There’s a new one coming, not made by those venerable gods, but by Bethesda. Not that anyone has much trust in them after recent works.

The 1993 original, however, still has a big place in many people’s hearts, mine included. It was the reason so many of us like shooters, along with the now “classic” Wolfenstein, it showed that 3D shooters could be fun without complex morals or anything getting in the way. Yes, I’m taking a large swing at the constant influx of shooters that are either race-baiting nonsense for armchair generals to expel their gentleman liquid over, or useless cover-shooting games with action set pieces and that one emotional “am I good” dilemma before gunning down another horde of foreigners. 

Centered weapon option in DOOM Eternal confirmed. pic.twitter.com/r4wM7y14Xo

— DOOM (@DOOM) December 13, 2019

It is nice to see, of all developers, Bethesda looking back and making things fun, light, and a-moral, with updates to those “classic” feeling designs. One of the many games I’m excited for this coming year is Bethesda and id’s Doom Eternal, a game that’s entirely banking on nostalgia and I don’t mind it. As you can see above and in the title, you will be able to center your weapon of choice from the game’s launch.

For the benefit of the young ones in the back, this was the commonplace before crosshairs or mouse aiming in video games. Many of the games of the time, including Quake and Doom, didn’t feature mouse support for the most part. Instead, we used things like the number pad, arrow keys, the entire keyboard, and it was horrid. These were crude ways around the design of the time, and I’m sure it seems stupid in retrospective. Not to mention those armchair generals I insulted a few minutes ago mentioning that it is “unrealistic.” In the last game, Doom (2016), you were killing hell demons on Mars as Helen Mirren explained the plot.

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