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Comment by cloogshicer | Hacker News Reader

Something Doom 3 handled amazingly is how computers are controlled in first person.

As your crosshair approaches the screen, it turns into a mouse cursor, and you can control the computer as you would a regular desktop PC. It just feels so natural.

I'm surprised that this wasn't copied more by other games. Probably because it doesn't work as well on consoles with a controller.

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Kind of like real life as well. I always lower my weapon or item whenever I approach a terminal or a touchscreen in an elevator.

Me? I am old school and just clip right through some surfaces.

Strange, I always shoot the computer first - only if it is invulnerable to bullets do I know it’s actually important.

Same approach I take with NPCs.

With this character's death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created.

If I understand your description right, I think Prey (the Arkane one) does the same thing. It does feel pretty awesome and natural; really helps you feel like you're in a corporate world with touchscreens everywhere.

The new(-ish) Prey comes close, but if I remember correctly, it still sometimes locks on to the screen you're controlling, taking you out of the action.

In Doom 3, you're still in control of your first person character, which is awesome.

Try it in the demo linked above, if you skip the cutscenes you can find a screen within the first minute of gameplay or so.

The Duke Nukem Forever 2001 leak handles in-game display interactions in a functionally identical way. Not discounting parallel discovery (or even that it was first) but id software and Apogee/3D Realms had a relationship.

They did something similar in Prey 2017.

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