Quake IV Demo: Finally Released

[Farid]

It hasn't exactly bombed.

There's more people playing Jedi Academy.
There's twice as many players on the PS2 version of BF, I mean, if that alone doesn't scream BOMB AWAY, I don't know what could.

 

[trinibwoy]

Pretty short. I haven't played an FPS in a while but I thought the texture quality and art design was very bleh. Is that just because it's a demo?

 

[Farid]

Pretty short. I haven't played an FPS in a while but I thought the texture quality and art design was very bleh. Is that just because it's a demo?

Doom 3 Engine. That's why.

 

[Sxotty]

When were those stats updated?

And btw they are usually horribly off, and have little to do with real numbers.

That said it still bombed, you don't need that many people though, but 2000 is about the minimum to make it nice I think...

 

[totaljerkface]

i too thought the textures looked pretty bad. doom 3 had nicer textures, especially during the brief outdoors scenes. is it better in the full game with ultra quality?

 

[Quitch]

Well I think Q4 feels a LOT like Quake 2. A whole lot. Same sterile gameplay, similar enviros, same bad guys, same weapons, same stupid AI, etc. Quake 4 is also equally as mind-numbingly linear. So much so I can't imagine wasting my time playing thru the game. You get an autopiloted squad now though. Yay. And I did make pretty significant progress into the SP.

I don't and didn't like Quake 2 much, although I have tried to get into it as recently as a year ago, and several times before that over the years.

Seriously Quake 2 is the same game as games that came before it. It didn't reinvent/invent shit for SP. If there's anything redeeming about it, it's its MP which apparently SOME people REALLY liked. I dunno. I was into Doom and Doom2 MP, and then played Unreal MP. With a little bit of Duke3D thrown in, but not significantly. I skipped Q1 & Q2 entirely during their peak years. Quake 3 was somewhat of a phenomenon, but at my college we played Unreal and UT way more.

Personally IMO Quake 3 is the only reason most people know Quake exists. I have never personally run into a Quake 2 or Quake/QW fan, although I always hear on forums how great it was. Quake 3 was and is big for many. I think the Quake 2 love is nostalgia honestly.

Quake should be well known for kick starting online gaming with Quake World. Quake II sold graphics cards (and was linear, boring, and all those things you listed... and enemies ducked ), Quake III showed that id have little to no imagination and we all played Unreal Tournament instead.

I haven't tried Quake IV yet. If it's anything like the Elite Force games Raven have made, then it'll be nothing amazing, yet good solid fun... but Elite Force had good characterisation, where as a bunch of hard ass marines doesn't strike me as brilliant material to work with.

 

[swaaye]

Quake IV is probably Raven's least impressive work in years I think. There's just not much good about it IMO. Especially the terrible vehicle levels LOL (they are so easy and look pretty bad). It does have a good feel though, probably thanks to the engine. It's just very boring. Initially it you'll be impressed with the atmosphere, but it gets stale pretty quickly IMO. It definitely has Quake's thrilling palette of brown, grey, and black.

Remember too though that they only made Elite Force 1 and its expansion. EF2 was made by Ritual. I haven't played either in years now so don't really have much of an opinion, other than that they were, as usual, average games.

 

[Gabrobot]

same stupid AI

http://www.pcgamemods.com/mod/17010.html

It's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. (Though the level design in Quake 4 rarely lets the AI do much, plus only the tactical Strogg are smart)

Doom 3 Engine. That's why.

Quake 4 was developed by Raven Software, not by Doom 3 Engine.

 

[Quitch]

Quake IV is probably Raven's least impressive work in years I think. There's just not much good about it IMO. Especially the terrible vehicle levels LOL (they are so easy and look pretty bad). It does have a good feel though, probably thanks to the engine. It's just very boring. Initially it you'll be impressed with the atmosphere, but it gets stale pretty quickly IMO. It definitely has Quake's thrilling palette of brown, grey, and black.

Remember too though that they only made Elite Force 1 and its expansion. EF2 was made by Ritual. I haven't played either in years now so don't really have much of an opinion, other than that they were, as usual, average games.

The first one was the superior game. Some stupid AI errors and a tad less interaction, but the story made for a better game, and your squad felt more involved.

 

[Sxotty]

Well all the people I have spoken with in real life who played it gushed over how cool and nifty it was. Perhaps that is why it is selling fine anyway. I still haven't even bothered playing the demo yet, I am contemplating waiting till they get one with multiplayer support out.

 

[Wang]

Oy!!

Quake should be well known for kick starting online gaming with Quake World. Quake II sold graphics cards (and was linear, boring, and all those things you listed... and enemies ducked ), Quake III showed that id have little to no imagination and we all played Unreal Tournament instead.
<snip>

Posts like this make me feel old! ha well kinda...
I never played Quakeworld 'cuzz i hated the prediction engine that would make Quake2 so accepted to the world! I loved CTF Vquake with the Rendition card then GLQuake with the Voodoo1. It's almost sureal now... testing software quake's netcode with Zoid on his CTF1 servers in Ottawa back in 96-97? dial-up days ! weeeee !!!!!!
Sorry for the ramble... jus brought a tear to me eye it did!

P.S. Quake sold alot of video cards too.. for 3D... mostly Rendition V1000s and Voodoo1's tho.

Wang aka [VP]...sP0rB

 

[Skrying]

Its Quake..... but better. Lets be honest here, the Quake series has been about MP since Quake World. Quake II's MP was great, or maybe it was the fact that I fell into a great mod (LMCTF) and was hooked, literally with a off hand grapple hook! Quake III was a rather boring game and was simply just a solid MP game for those looking for lots of quick action. UT was far better.

Quake IV has the best SP in the series, that's not saying much though. The SP game is entertaining and is mildly above average. It'll keep you going through, or at least it did for me. The MP is lacking, but lack all of the other Quakes, give it a bit and a good mod comes out then it'll be great, with little community though.

Raven made my favorite MP game of all time: Soldier of Fortune 2. The MP was nothing shy of amazing. It really is awesome with a bunch of skilled friends, it really allows you to show off your skill, its fast, but not like lighting, the damage was just right, and everything was amazingly smooth, and above all the game simply had the best multiplayer maps in the history of any game I've ever played. So freaking well balanced, yet very varied. Simply amazingly map design in that game.

Sadly, this is not one of Raven's best efforts, not even close. I dont know who to blame, maybe Raven is not the same as the old SoF2 Raven, maybe its the fact that id had them by their balls. Who knowns. I just know that anything coming from id, or a id series is nothing more than an engine showcase these days.

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

This game has been out for less than 2 months and it has already come down in price by $20. I played the demo and I liked it (I liked quake II a lot better than Quake III

 

[Quitch]

Posts like this make me feel old! ha well kinda...
I never played Quakeworld 'cuzz i hated the prediction engine that would make Quake2 so accepted to the world! I loved CTF Vquake with the Rendition card then GLQuake with the Voodoo1. It's almost sureal now... testing software quake's netcode with Zoid on his CTF1 servers in Ottawa back in 96-97? dial-up days ! weeeee !!!!!!
Sorry for the ramble... jus brought a tear to me eye it did!

P.S. Quake sold alot of video cards too.. for 3D... mostly Rendition V1000s and Voodoo1's tho.

Wang aka [VP]...sP0rB

That was GLQuake, not Quake. The original didn't use 3D acceleration.

 

[karlotta]

This game has been out for less than 2 months and it has already come down in price by $20. I played the demo and I liked it (I liked quake II a lot better than Quake III

For deathmatch? or CTF.. nah... Q3 was a great DM game. Q2 was a good SP. Tho i still play Q1(fuhquake, equake) and not much of the others...Q4 was... fun but not a Q game... ah nevermind...

 

[Quitch]

What did people enjoy in Quake II SP? It didn't have the hordes of Doom. It didn't have the atmopshere or level design of Unreal (which, I admit, came out a few months later), it was like a slightly more refined version of the tedious Quake experience, albeit with enemies who ducked for no reason.

Why does it get rated now as something worthwhile? It was average city.

 

[CMAN]

I really enjoyed how the war was happening all around you. I wish more games were like that. I want Call of Duty, except with 1000 soldier from each side. We are now getting multicore processors that can do this type of processing (see XBox360 or PS3). And I'm not talking scripted. I just want tons of guys going at it and you have to make your way through the battle alive to a certain point. You can get killed by friendlies too so it wouldn't be smart to run in front of them while they are firing at the enemies. I want it.

 

[wireframe]

And I'm not talking scripted. I just want tons of guys going at it and you have to make your way through the battle alive to a certain point. You can get killed by friendlies too so it wouldn't be smart to run in front of them while they are firing at the enemies. I want it.

At some level it must be scripted or it would run out of control and stop being a game. Removing scripting would increase the demands on AI a million-fold. If you use "the game of life" as a thinking tool for this, consider the possibility that the entire battle might move off the battlefield that is of interest. Even the real world is scripted so why shouldn't games be?

 

[Quitch]

The more people, the less scripting, the less you matter... then again, this is the sort of thing Space Sim fans WANT (e.g. Space Rangers II, you can sit on a planet and the entire game will carry on without you) so I suspect the market is there.

 

[swaaye]

There are a few different groups of gamers. What we have here are those who want a tight interactive movie and those who want a open virtual living world. I am in the middle I think.

The problem with the virtual world is the level of difficulty in making something like that. Creating independently thinking AI isn't exactly something we have figured out. Let alone creating an AI that can react as though it is within the restrictions and reality of our real-world, or the game's sci-fi world.

The biggest example of the two types would be, for space games, Freespace 2/TIE Fighter vs. the X series. Or in RPGs, KOTOR vs. Fable.

I for one am a bit tired of the scripted, one-route-thru games that we've been getting since the beginning of time. But I think the games industry is pretty much incapable of making a virtual world, unless it's a MMORPG. Problem with MMORPG games is that you get stuck with so many idiot humans....like Guild Wars is loaded with now days. People who don't play for the story or world, but just to rank up as quickly as possible without care for anyone else's experience.

I think Oblivion is the next big attempt at a virtual world. So we'll see how that goes.