You No Longer Need A Bethesda Account To Play DOOM And DOOM II On Switch

Still freezes after it’s been in Sleep mode for awhile, which is more important IMO since that can ruin your run if you haven’t saved in awhile

Well... At least it's over with

It's hard to believe that this was an accident. With all the work it takes to undo it it must have taken plenty of work to do it in the first place.

Meanwhile with these kind of issues - a physical copy of the game would be permanently useless in the future when servers go offline as the ‘patch’ would also no longer be available.

Make the game. Test the game. Release the game. The developers these days are really starting to grind my gears. But it’s ok because.... there’s probably a patch for that.

@FTL You know they tested this game and they knew there was a forced login. I can't believe that the game media is letting them off the hook for lying.

I read that the music suffered from the same weird issue on the Xbox 360 and was never fixed, so I'm not very optimistic they are going to fix it or the image being stretched. Funny how the various source ports of Doom on PC can run the game in widescreen with no problem, but this official release for consoles cannot.. sigh

Hopefully the music gets patched! I’m thrilled! Now I can actually play the game, as the login locked me out of playing entirely. Yay!!!!!

@Wavey84 I have some doubts they'll fix the audio thing. It's working as intended (playing at full recorded speed etc), issue stems from the way they sourced that audio in the first place.

I already purchased Doom 3 a couple weeks ago, but I vowed that I would wait until the Bethesda.net login requirement was patched out to buy Doom & Doom II. Now that the patch is here I've gone ahead and bought both =)

Maybe they shouldn'tve done such a dumb thing in the first place? -_-

Interesting note, even after the patch the game tags itself as using an active online connection. Halting other downloads while you play.

I'm still not paying them a cent.

This is good to hear.

Music fix please. Thank you.

@nkarafo what was wrong with the audio?

Only took me about 30 seconds to make the account. I was really surprised when I saw how angry people were about it. I don't really care either way.

FINALLY!
I downloaded Doom 2 on a lark and was frustrated to find I couldn't play the thing! I've finally been able to play it and as someone who doesn't play first person shooters, I'm surprised how natural it feels. Still, can't help but wonder what took them so long. How do you lock an entire game behind a login and take SEVERAL WEEKS to remove it? I'm not a programmer, but still...

Hey! Any programmers in the house? How do you think this happened?

Don't really care if they sell it at 99p.

@WeirdoOfWierdos

It was no accident. Simple fact.

@DarkLloyd Please see here:
https://youtu.be/UYTomYMAzYE?t=304
and you will understand. This issue was not supposed to exist in the first place at all !

Too much comotion for nothing.
(internet 2019)

Now I wish they were playable with directional buttons (and a button to strafe) rather than with both analog sticks.

@RootsGenoa Well that's an interesting preference, never thought I would see someone say that about an FPS in 2019.

It’s simple, they want email addresses to send all their marketing crap to and with a login requirement they have the ability to also prevent access to the game in the future. The idea this was all a terrible mistake is complete rubbish and they should have been honest from the beginning. At least it’s rectified now.

Noticed there was an update last night, assumed it was for this. Surprised just how much I’m enjoying Classic DOOM, don’t know about 2 but I think I will definitely check out DOOM 3 soon.

This wasn't a mistake at all, it was planned from the get go. Shame on Bethesda and shame on anyone believing their lame excuse.

@JayJ Well, in my defence, Doom I & II are not exactly from 2019... They were mostly keyboard-only games at the time, since you couldn't (and still can't) look up and down. I think Dark Forces was one of the first FPSs to do this - with page up and down... ^^ I couldn't 'mount' a mouse anyway since I needed the extra RAM to run the game. -_-

Already finished both classic Doom games and Doom 3.

I downloaded it when it came out, haven’t even touched it yet, this article just reminded me to get on it!

@RootsGenoa Okay but we moved on from that kind of control scheme for a good reason. I have never been nostalgic for old fashioned FPS controls.

You can now play with flight mode enabled

Bethesda is going to have to have a string of awesome wins in order for me to buy anything from them again. The way they have been treating their customers is horrible. There is way too many other great games to play and not enough time so I feel I can skip them and be ok.

No excuse for this in the first place. The QA must have been non-existent because aside from the annoyance of a forced sign-in, the Switch is meant to be portable - so forcing an internet connection breaks the entire game.

Agree with comment 1 too - I've had to restart numerous sessions due to the game hanging after leaving it "too long". I am not impressed by Bethesda trying to force onto me how long I am allowed to pause my game for.

I've been really happy with Bethesda's commitment and support for Switch, but I'm sorry, this is nothing short of incompetence to the highest degree.

An old port, brought to a new platform, why would that need us to spend any money on QA? Hrmmm perhaps because it's an entirely new platform with an entirely new way to play? Foolish and incompetent. I really hope they get a proper patch in place soon.

It's really annoying. If I can download a game it means I paid for it! So I should not be forced to login to be able to play a game! Offline gaming is still a winner if they like it or not. Forced online and logons... please stop with that nonsense

I’m not sure I can forgive the initial slip up. Buying at this point is rewarding them for doing the bare minimum. Plus, what’s to stop them patching it back in (tin foil hat is on, sure). I really do want a decent FPS for my Switch that isn’t a poor man’s version of something made for more powerful hardware.

The music is more important to me really. I’ll login if you fix the music.

I used to like and respect bethesda but as of lately they’ve been pissing me off with the dumb shyt

It took way too long to fix this...

Per Digital Foundry, there are many more issues.

Have zero confidence that graphics, sound, and music will be fixed.

I still don't understand what the big issue was. So you had to sign into an account, just about everything requires that now a days it's not anything new. I don't know maybe it's just me.

This article is missing the part where they said why this was in the game to begin with:

"The login option is included for the Slayers Club, to reward members for playing the classic DOOM games... more on that in the near future!"

The disconnect notification couldn't have been done on purpose and there are other indicators that show that these are rushed ports (aspect ratio, sound glitches, refresh rate) so I believe it was a side effect. They rushed the ports which is ironic since the first game is 26 years old and there are better older ports.

There are still other issues that remain, but this is a step in the right direction.

Hmm, now I can finally play my download. Still it’s not enough. Why no permanent fix?

Was never a big deal. I've already finished the first two, and working on 3. Crybabies are gonna cry, however...

Well that's some good news for a change

Well I'm glad that's over with.

Now if they could fix the music, that would be great.

And it still doesn't run as well as it did on a 486...

LOL@Bethesda.

So they're keeping it in? Give us a reason to sign up chumps.

The login is now optional? Great! Only 20 more patches until everything is in order.

Personally I can live with the slower music (though wouldnt be against a fix) but I would much rather them fix several other gameplay issues. Berserk fist cant even be reselected when you have the chainsaw for example. Ive experienced and recorded a few instances where shotgun shots go right through enemies too. Id much rather those be addressed.

That said, I somehow dont think much thought or effort will be put into any bug fixes.

@RootsGenoa Play the excellent GBA version

@DarkScythe13 if I recall, that was a problem in the original game, due to both the Chainsaw and Fist being mapped to the ‘1’ key. I believe ,if you hit it twice, you could get back to the fist again (this was true in Heretic, too, when switching back to the wooden staff), but seeing as how the console ports have to use the shoulder buttons to switch weapons linearly, well you can see how that wouldn’t work.

@SoObsolete Because these are iconic classics that never needed such ridiculous DRM practices. As a matter of fact, 1/3 of the game was absolutely free and encouraged to be shared.

@RootsGenoa Heretic beat both Dark Forces and Rise of the Triad to the table with look up / down. It’s an absolutely excellent series in its own right; I would love to see Heretic/Hexen rereleased for Switch, but there’s probably licensing complications between Id, GT Interactive and Raven software.

@Antraxx777 i am unsure whether the original had ‘next and previous weapon’ keys or whether the behaviour was the same with that function as with this version or not. But nevertheless (to my knowledge) its the only port that doesnt allow the berserk fist. All things considered i am in agreement with past comments that they should restore the dpad short cut for weapons.

Id like to say that cause Nerve did the original 360 port, that they would include all the features of XBLA Doom II. Yet from what i hear this was ported to a different engine, though unsure of the technical side of it (certain there are differences in behaviour of physics,). I think this release really needs a proper bug fix update, but given the lack of fixes for the previous versions of the game (outside of patching out Red Crosses and changing the opening credits) i feel this version will be negelected also,

@DarkScythe13 They should at least let us remap the controller.

@Heavyarms55 Same here. I bought Doom (1993) the day it came out and immediately made a login. Took less than thirty seconds like you said. I don't get the fuss either.

@Antraxx777 not trying to start nothing but no I get that but is it really a big deal. I mean if it's for DRM purposes why should we be angry if they are trying to protect their IP. I don't know I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I signed in for Doom then didn't have too for Doom II cause it did it automatically. I just don't understand why get upset over something so simple. Heck I was born at the end of the 70's and lived through early days of gaming and the insane install processes so signing into an account is not a big deal. Lol

@SoObsolete It was especially a bad thing for people wanting to play the games handheld while at, say a restaurant. In my experience, though I already was signed into a Bethesda account, and the game said so, I still got a message constantly popping up that I needed to sign in, about every 10 seconds and that some features would not be available. It was absolutely unplayable in that state. I don’t know if it was something with their servers, or what, but that would have never happened were that stupid message not there in the first place. Bottom line is it broke the game in that situation because that sign in is a pain in the ass on repeat.

I have since learned to turn on Airplane mode so that the server can’t recheck like that.

@Antraxx777 I had it a long time ago (well, Doom II I think), but at that time, I didn't have a lot of money and sold several GBA games including this one.

@Antraxx777 ya I didn't run into those issue. So maybe way it didn't seem like a big issue. I usually play docked. I rarely play in handheld and if I do I always have a connection. But hey it's good that they removed it so if there was any issues that should fix them.

Something important not mentioned is that this patch does not provide any option to skip, disable or remove your bnet account from the game. If you created an account or used an existing account pre-patch, the game still auto logs you into Bethesda.net. There is no option to disable this.

@Antraxx777 It wasn't for DRM. They've stated it's for Slayers Club rewards tied to these games, which you are gonna need to login to get. Which in turn is why it's supposed to be optional for those who aren't part of the Slayers Club.

That's a start. The audio needs fixed as well though, the slowdown on the playback is hard on the ears for Doom vets.

I'm waiting until the entire login option is eradicated! No hint, no trace, no nothing. For those whinging it's only a login, many of us detest these things and it's about the principle of able to play a game without this intrusive feature. What might be fine for the goose, doesn't automatically make it fine for the gander!

If you have had the game pre-patch, it still attempts to log you in (which can take 30 seconds or so!) and while providing NOTHING to the player (the game doesn't support online multiplayer, or even local wireless multiplayer for that matter). Why couldn't the damn game, if it had to log in, do so discreetly in the background instead of forcing us to wait until the software connects to the dead snail paced servers?!

I don't care about whatever the hell this "Slayers Club" is. I just want to play the damned game as it ought to be played.

Login shouldn’t be on there in the first place.