Editor’s take: Bethesda has no obligation or expectation to update a game that is nearly 27 years old, yet they do so anyway. That sort of commitment says a lot about their appreciation for the loyal community that has supported the franchise from the very beginning.
Doom just won’t die, and that’s a good thing for retro gamers. After spicing up the original and Doom II earlier this year with support for community-created content and higher frame rates, Bethesda is at it again with a new update that introduces additional modern touches.
As outlined in its recent announcement, Bethesda has modified the original Doom renderer to support native 16:9 rendering without any letterboxing for the first time. Now, you can play with a larger field of view that doesn’t cut off the top and bottom of the image.
Bethesda has also tweaked its engine to run DeHackEd, a popular editor created by Greg Lewis that allows players to fine-tune the game in a variety of ways for different gameplay experiences. With it, you’ll be able to introduce new weapons, change enemy behavior and more with ease.
Other changes include the ability to add a crosshair, a new millisecond accurate timer on the minimap for those interested in speedruns, the addition of a notification when entering a secret area for the first time and new touch controls and controller support on iOS, just to name a few.
You can check out Bethesda’s post for a full rundown of the new additions and bug fixes. The update is available now across all platforms, we’re told.