Double dose of Doom due in early April

Doom 3 is finally rearing its ugly--and highly anticipated--head on the Xbox. Activision and id Software today announced that both the Xbox version of the popular PC game and the first expansion for the PC, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, will be released the week of April 4, as widely speculated earlier this week. This is the second firm release date for Doom 3's appearance on the Xbox. It was previously thought that the game would be released March 1.

After multiple delays, Xbox owners will finally see id's take on hell previously available only to PC owners, with a few tweaks for the console version. As reported last month from CES by GameSpot, Doom 3 for the Xbox, developed by Vicarious Visions, will run in widescreen, support 480p displays, and blare in 5.1 Dolby Digital sound.

In addition to being re-created for the Xbox, the game will feature a console eclusive--the inclusion of cooperative play via system link or Xbox Live. Four-player deathmatches featuring multiplayer maps from the PC version will be playable over Xbox Live. A limited edition of the game will also feature full versions of Ultimate Doom and Doom 2, a making-of featurette, and story art.

Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil was developed by Nerve under close supervision from id and is the first expansion for the top-selling PC game. Though the expansion comes only eight months after Doom 3, the story takes place two years later on a remote Union Aerospace Corporation facility on Mars. Gamers will play as a new unnamed space marine, and all hell breaks loose once again in the form of demons and zombies.

Features for the expansion include new weapons such as the "grabber gun," a relic that endows the player with powers such as invulnerability, and new enemies such as the double-barreled bruiser. Multiplayer also gets updated with new maps, a new capture-the-flag mode from ThreeWave Software, and an upped multiplayer limit of eight fraggers.

Both games are rated M for Mature. Doom 3 for the Xbox will retail for $49.99, and the limited edition will retail for $59.99. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil will retail for $34.99. For more information on Doom 3 for the Xbox and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, check out their respective previous coverage and GameSpot's full review of Doom 3 for the PC.