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Quake III Arena (Linux)
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As in its dozens of first-person shooter ancestors, id Software and Activision's Quake 3: Arena transports players into a violent, virtual world filled with deadly weapons, impressive power-ups and intense combat. Players compete on 26 maps in either death match (free-for-all or team play), with goals to rack up as many kills as possible; or capture the flag, a team-oriented game with scoring based on the number of enemy flag captures. Though presenting the best death-match experience around, Quake 3's two game types lack the variation and originality of a similar game, Epic's Unreal Tournament. Although you'll need the latest video card and computer hardware, it's impossible to dispute the sheer beauty of Quake 3's 3-D engine. The 26 maps are filled with exquisite architecture and impressive special effects; further, Quake 3 provides dozens of highly detailed player models to choose from. If you've played other id Software first-person shooters, the weapons should all look familiar: machine gun, shotgun, plasma gun, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, lightning gun, railgun and the BFG 10K. Though impressively rendered and balanced, you've likely used them before in id's Doom, Quake or any number of other first-person action games. Hopping online and competing against other Quake 3: Arena players worldwide requires only a 56K or better Internet connection and a few mouse clicks. Quake 3 offers an infinitely replayable multiplayer experience (and a violent one--not for youngsters), but an unsatisfying solo game. Its single-player tournament mode--a series of death matches against computer AI bots--serves simply as a massive training exercise for multiplay. --Doug Radcliffe Pros:- Cutting-edge graphics
- Near-perfect death-match multiplay
- Detailed player models
- Beautiful level architecture
Cons: - Uninspired single-player experience
- Lack of game variations
- Unoriginal weapons
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4/5 |
pretty good.
(October 19, 2001) |
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this game has its goods and bads its goods are the graphics are very good and the game play is wikid its bads are that on single player there are not enough levels but the multi player is suburb but there should be more guns these are some of them BFG 10k,rocket laucher,shotgun,ect |
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5/5 |
How can you fault this...?
(July 03, 2001) |
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Reading the above review I became somewhat dismayed at the review and description. The con's: what con's? There are none aside from the high system specs. Many have said that Q3A doesn't have an adequate single player experience; since this is a multiplayer game and the single player mode is meant only for practice, I find myself wondering how they can insult a mode of play which the game doesn't even try to achieve. Another thing which I found nothing less than baffling was the comment about the lack of game variations. Where were these people when the MODs (modifications) were realeased for Q3A? Take Quake3Fortress for instance: I play this MOD regularly and never get tired of it since it is online and there are an endless number of things that can happen in a match, thus never making a match like another, or dull. Unoriginal weapons? Hrmph! OK, the weapons may not be original and there may not be that many of them, but that doesn't matter when you are playing the game, trust me. When you are running around an arena trying to frag all your opponents, having less weapons is an advantage to you and actually makes the game more enjoyable. Q3A refines the Death-Match style of play to an art-form, whilst providing the most advanced graphics engine available so people can make MODs for Quake therefore increasing the style of play, enjoyment, etc... To be honest, I would not recommend this game if you are just going to play offline since it really shines in the multiplayer arena. In fact I think I would go as far as to say that if you had a 56k connection, it would be worth upgrading to something a little faster just for this game (yes...you read that right) since 56k modems tend to be too slow when it comes to online gaming. (Of course there are those few who know how to optimise sertain 56k'ers, but they are few and far between). Accross the world, upon its release, Quake3Arena was heralded as having the most advanced graphics engine ever for any game, and I would follow on to say that this statement still holds true today. The graphics are simply glorious, especially when run on a beast of a machine with the latest graphics card, etc... I realise that not everyone (including myself) is lucky enough to have one of these, but Q3A still runs as smooth as silk on my 600mhz Athlon, 128RAM, RIVA TNT2 32mb, computer. There are meny games that try to include everything in the hope that they will achieve something great, I find it quite ironic, then, that ID software has done the exact opposite to achieve the same goal. They have stripped out everything that is not essential to gameplay and left the perfect deathmatching game available to this day. Don't be fooled however into thinking that this is all its good at, with the addition of the new point releases (patches for Quake), CTF play has been increased and is now a major part of the online Quaking community. Of course there are CTF based MODs such as Team Arena, Weapons Factory, (and my personal favorite :) ) Quake 3 Fortress that really bring CTF to new levels. All in all, new Death Match games released even today are still eclipsed by Quake3Arena; those at ID software responsible, I salute thee... David Lane |
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4/5 |
Blood & Guts
(September 07, 2000) |
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ID's latest offering provides everything you'd expect from a first person shooter. Quake 3 is a big improvement over it's predecessors, and it's always nice to see games released on multiple-platforms. Mac and Linux users being taken seriously by Software Publishing Houses, now there's a change for the better. The Graphics are excellent. I'm running it on a Blue&White 400MHz G3 with the Standard ATI128 Graphics Card and this copes admirably. Be warned though, this game really only comes into it's own for on-line play, the single player option is fun for a while but soon becomes samey. There's already a whole load of modifications available over the net to alter the game playing experience, but you can't install stright out of the box and go on-line. Like all software, you'll have to check the official website for the latest patch (the most recent weighs in at about 9Mb). The only real criticism I have is the lag and connection interruptions suffered using a 56K modem (Ping 999!). This can prove frustrating, but if you're lucky enough to have Cable or ADSL internet access then there's no reason at all not to buy and get on-line and start fragging! |
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5/5 |
Awesome!
(August 25, 2000) |
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This game should speak for itself...but if you're seceptical like I was (loved q2 on the net) its a great sequal, BRILLIANT! |
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4/5 |
Perfect port of a reasonable game
(July 29, 2000) |
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Loki Software's port of Q3 to the linux platform looks superb. The performance is excellent and the look and feel of the game perfect. As a single-player game Q3 is very dull but as a multi-player game it really comes into it's own. If you like chasing and shooting people you know, or even people you don't then it will make you happy. Personally I can't wait for the expansion packs to add strategy games to this excellent 3D first person game engine. |
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