The War Begins Today!

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:23 pm

Quake 4 !
So who’s getting it on today’s launch date?

THE WAR BEGINS TODAY!
QUAKE 4 PC DEPLOYED TO STORES NATIONWIDE!

http://www.q4euro.com/comments.php?blog ... bf95435892

I beat Quake 1 in 1996 on my old 486 DX4 100MHZ, but didn’t find it as enjoyable as Doom. Quake 2 bored the hell out of me half way through, but I still completed it because I simply had nothing better to do back then (1998)
University life!

So, I don’t know if I should bother with Quake 4 all together, but I have a feeling that it will be a hell of a better game than its predecessors where, especially since Raven is behind it.
I can’t imagine how the creators of Heretic & Hexen series, could go wrong with this?
I don’t think the kick-ass atmosphere & movie-like story line, will be as cool as Doom 3 though. Let’s hope it has the same, old-school gameplay as Doom3.

[Spoilers Start]

I hate the fact that they revealed so many wow factors from the story-line; you get stroggified at some point but you’re saved by your buddies just before they implant the mind control chip into your skull & the final Boss is named Nexus, the source of the Strogg forces...

[Spoilers End]

Why do all the Gaming News sites spoil it every time.

TalkingOctopus · Post by **TalkingOctopus** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:28 pm

PC Gamer gave it a 70%. Sadly, I don't think it will be anything special. I loved quake 1 and 2 for multiplayer, but q3 was not the greatest.

mrMagenta · Post by **mrMagenta** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:41 pm

mmmm hexen was cool. quake4 looks really dull though. the setting and artwork feel uninspired.. the oily coating-look on the normalmapped monsters pisses me off, especially on things that are meant to look gritty. Nothing of the quake 1 brownish gloomfactor either.. but reading about it in Edge makes me a bit curious about the gameplay.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:46 pm

TalkingOctopus wrote:PC Gamer gave it a 70%. Sadly, I don't think it will be anything special. I loved quake 1 and 2 for multiplayer, but q3 was not the greatest.

Not surprising. When I used to read PC Gamer (about 4 years ago) they were really stuck on the idea of game play innovation. Doom 3 was and Quake 4 will be a throwback game, most definitely.

Of course, then they go and do shit like give Red Alert 2 an editor's choice. Go figure.

Stormowl · Post by **Stormowl** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:09 pm

the fact that Raven developed it pretty much sealed the deal with me. i can't wait to give this a spin.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:22 pm

Last week I was playing Cyclone, an old DOS FPS, done by Raven in 1994, only a few months before Heretic.

It's a pretty cool game & very enjoyable even for today's standards.

http://www.raven-games.com/games.php?i=cyclones

http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/cyclones.htm

Best thing present in most Raven Games, is the solid gameplay & cool scripted storylines.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:46 pm

Quake 2 is the only one I played, and didn't play it online that much. Tempted to pick this up for nostalgic reasons, but that's about it. Does it even have a single-player mode?

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:56 pm

Primarily Quake 2 has a very strong 1Player Story mode.

I've never played Quake 2 online.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:55 pm

ST Dragon wrote:Last week I was playing Cyclone, an old DOS FPS, done by Raven in 1994, only a few months before Heretic.

It's a pretty cool game & very enjoyable even for today's standards.

Best thing present in most Raven Games, is the solid gameplay & cool scripted storylines.

Cyclones was pretty cool. I don't remember the story being all that great, but I enjoyed playing through it all the same. Then again, I also liked Operation Bodycount at the time, so you shouldn't take my word for it entirely.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 10:02 am

Aren’t the gameplay, story line & in-game music cool like most other FPS made by Raven in the past?
Is the music epic like Heretic & Hexen or is it using that annoying Thrash-Metal soundtrack from Quake 2?
Or even worse, the bizarre disordering music from Quake 1?

Is Quake 4 Long like Unreal 1 & Quake 2?

What about the flow in the levels? Is it completely restrictive and linear like in some modern FPS, or is it complex and nicely convoluted like in Quake2 & Unreal 1, with some backtracking here and some sidetracking there? And are there secrets?

Also How´s the verticality in the levels? Is it mainly flat, or is there plenty of multi-level combat

These are the most important factors in my book rather than graphics.

How well will it play on medium to high details & 640x480, on a system like this?

P4 2.4GHZ FSB 400MHZ
768MB RDRAM (Rambus) 400MHZ
GFTi4200 128MB AGP 8X

Doom3 & ROE played at 45-60FPS with the above settings.

So what should I expect from Quake 4?

Wow, one more thing...
How many CDs does the game consist of?

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:21 am

I've been playing Quake IV for a few days now and I really like it. It is a rather generic and somewhat linear FPS, but I really like the "war" atmosphere in the game. It's totally diferent to Doom 3.
The Strogg are suitably nasty enemies and all look very impressive. Instead of the slow drip feed of enemies that Doom 3 gave you, Quake IV throw the Stogg at you in numbers.
The music is a bit similar to Quake II, which is dissapointing as i'm a fan of Trent Reznors ambient soundtrack from the original Quake.
In fact I still think the original Quake was the best and yearn for an update on that. I like the gothic Lovecraftian feel of the original more than any of the others in the series.
The MP is fast and good fun, and I look forward to what mods are coming out for it. I have spent more time on the SP however.
Quake IV is a bit more demanding than Doom 3 (outdoor enviroments, multiple NPC etc), but I can run the game with all the settings on high with 2xAA @ 1024x768, with constant 40-50fps
My computer
Athlon xp 2400+ @ 2.05GHz
1 GB RAM
ATI X800Pro 256mb

Between this F.E.A.R. and Serious Sam 2, it's been Quake IV that's been getting the most attention. F.E.A.R. is rapidly becoming very dull, with perhaps the most bland enviroments that I've seen in a good while. The A.I. and the gunfights are good, but it's a one trick pony.
Serious Sam 2 is great fun, but only really good in half hour sessions.
I'll get Call Of Duty 2 next month and then that's it. I'll be all First Person Shootered out!

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:11 pm

The IGN review of Quake 4 said you should be able to complete the game in about 10 hours!
Doom 3 was about 24hours long & ROE was half that much.

I playing Teranigma on my SNES at the moment & I have accumulated a total of 15Hours of play time & I'm not even half way through yet!

If that's true, then it's quite a short game.

Also I've read that the game comes in two flavors:

A DVD version which includes Quake 2 & a 4CD version which needs 2-CD Drives to operate.

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:24 pm

ST Dragon wrote:Last week I was playing Cyclone, an old DOS FPS, done by Raven in 1994, only a few months before Heretic.

It's a pretty cool game & very enjoyable even for today's standards.

Best thing present in most Raven Games, is the solid gameplay & cool scripted storylines.

Ehm. I got that game with my first pc, some sort of "gift" from the dealer. And while it has nice features for its time, it's really the worst fps I've ever played. As I recall, the story is basically nonexistant except for some really bad videos.

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:39 pm

ST Dragon wrote:The IGN review of Quake 4 said you should be able to complete the game in about 10 hours!
Doom 3 was about 24hours long & ROE was half that much.

I playing Teranigma on my SNES at the moment & I have accumulated a total of 15Hours of play time & I'm not even half way through yet!

If that's true, then it's quite a short game.

Also I've read that the game comes in two flavors:

A DVD version which includes Quake 2 & a 4CD version which needs 2-CD Drives to operate.

Well I thought Doom 3 was far too long. In my opinion RPG games like Teranigma benefit from long immersive play time. Games like Doom and Quake can get stale pretty quickly, and Doom 3 was a prime example of this.
Yes Quake IV is quite short (10 hours), but I would rather have 10 entertaining hours than 24 ho hum hours. And then there is the multiplayer. Quake III still has a strong community after 6 or so years. Plenty of life span for me.
Like I said before, i'm really enjoying Quake IV. It's nothing revolutionary and it's certainly not Half Life 2, but it's great fun.
I'm from the UK and the only formats Quake IV come in is the standard vanilla DVD version or the Special Collectors DVD edition. No cd versions here mate.
Am I right in thinking that Far Cry and Unreal Tournament 2004 came out in 5 cd's in the States?

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 1:05 pm

Well, I know a few long FPS that didn't get stale after some time.

Doom 1, Heretic & the RPG driven Hexen 1 & 2 were pretty long games, but awesome none the less.

As for Unreal 1, well that consisted of 38 huge levels & its expansion was another 17!
That's what a call value for money rather than these 5-10 hour long modern FPS games.

Only a fan would pay for Quake 4 if its that short.