Highly anticipated: As Bethesda and id Software start the final hype cycle before the launch of Doom: The Dark Ages on May 15, the official PC system requirements reveal that ray tracing, a once-optional feature that dramatically reduces frame rates, is increasingly becoming mandatory in major game releases. Notably, the game also requires an NVMe SSD. Doom: The Dark Ages, the upcoming prequel to id Software's 2016 revival of the classic FPS franchise, is now available for pre-order and is set to launch on May 15 on Steam, the Microsoft Store, Game Pass, Xbox series consoles, and PlayStation 5. Customers who pre-purchase the premium edition can begin playing on May 12.The system requirements confirm that the game requires a GPU capable of hardware-assisted ray tracing, even at the lowest graphics settings. Other examples of this trend include Star Wars Outlaws, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows.Gameplay at 1080p and 60fps with low settings requires an Nvidia RTX 20 series, AMD Radeon RX 6000 series, or newer graphics card with at least 8 GB of VRAM. For higher graphics settings at 1440p, 32GB of RAM and 10GB of VRAM are recommended, while maxed-out 4K gameplay increases the VRAM requirement to 16GB.After showcasing the game at this week's Xbox Developer Direct, id Software also confirmed that Doom: The Dark Ages supports path tracing. Titles like Indiana Jones, Alan Wake 2, and Cyberpunk 2077 have used path tracing, also known as full ray tracing, to render extremely comprehensive lighting and shadows, albeit with a substantial performance cost. Further details on Doom's implementation of the feature are forthcoming.Click to enlargeAnother new mandate that might concern users with older PCs is 100GB of NVMe storage. High-end games now commonly require SSDs but typically also support SATA drives, and many will still launch on hard disk drives. // Related StoriesIn a roughly 10-minute demonstration (watch below), id showcased new weapons and other features from Doom: The Dark Ages. The chainsaw appears to have been replaced with a mace, flail, electrified gauntlet, and a throwable shield. New guns include a rail spike launcher, skull chipper, and a double-barreled plasma cannon. Additionally, the new entry boasts the largest and most densely populated levels in the franchise's history.Doom: The Dark Ages also gives players more granular control over the difficulty settings than prior titles. The options menu includes sliders for player damage, enemy damage, the parry window, overall game speed, and more.