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old.TC
Guest
I've been a fan of ID's products since playing Wolfenstein on a 386! ID have consistently produced ground breaking games and haved rightly stayed at the peak of the FPS market. Each game released has been either a completely new concept or a significant development in gameplay over the previous titles (with the exception of the later versions of the DOOM trilogy).
This is where Q3 Arena has left me feeling a bit uneasy about the future of ID.
Firstly let me say that the graphics on Q3 are SUPERB, OK it needs a fairly high powered PC to appreciate them but that sort of PC will no doubt be regarded as "entry level" in 9 months time. No, what troubles me is that this is the first "major" release from ID that looks back rather then forward in gamplaying terms. I have played Q2 regularly since it's release, back in Dec '97 (or thereabouts) and have enjoyed it immensely, though perhaps I have been less than enamoured with ome of the clans/players attitudes and tactics recently. It did, however become a little dull, not helped by the over-reliance on DM's 1 to 7.
In Q3 I was looking forward to another ID quantum leap to take FPS forward to another level. Unfortunately Q3 is not the game I had hoped for. The game, whilst being technically superb, is a bit of a rehash of elements of Q1 and Q2 once you get past the stunning eye candy. This has been reflected in the comments about the new game, which have centred around minor points like the effectiveness of the RG and splash damage on the RL and air physics etc. This leads me to the worrying conclusion that the creative force has left ID with some of the departing staff and they (ID) do not know where to go with Quake. The development of Quake appears to have been left with the Mod developers and we can, no doubt, expect a multiplicity of Mods appearing soon which is all well and too the good, but the fact remains that the basic format of the game will not have developed in the past 4 years and are not likely to for the next couple of years either. Though you can argue that Q2 was a significant development of Q1, the same cannot be said of Q3 over Q2, it is more of the same, but prettier. I feel that a lot of the hardcore gamers will move to UT, which has a far greater range of weapons and alternative modes (hence tactics)and Q3 will move to the centre ground, the "Tony Blair" of online gaming!
I shall wait and see when we get the final version, but I don't feel at the moment that different maps are the answer. ID need the creative urge back that got them to the top of the gaming scene, and in the rapidly changing and fickle genre that is the gaming scene, they need to keep them there.
This is where Q3 Arena has left me feeling a bit uneasy about the future of ID.
Firstly let me say that the graphics on Q3 are SUPERB, OK it needs a fairly high powered PC to appreciate them but that sort of PC will no doubt be regarded as "entry level" in 9 months time. No, what troubles me is that this is the first "major" release from ID that looks back rather then forward in gamplaying terms. I have played Q2 regularly since it's release, back in Dec '97 (or thereabouts) and have enjoyed it immensely, though perhaps I have been less than enamoured with ome of the clans/players attitudes and tactics recently. It did, however become a little dull, not helped by the over-reliance on DM's 1 to 7.
In Q3 I was looking forward to another ID quantum leap to take FPS forward to another level. Unfortunately Q3 is not the game I had hoped for. The game, whilst being technically superb, is a bit of a rehash of elements of Q1 and Q2 once you get past the stunning eye candy. This has been reflected in the comments about the new game, which have centred around minor points like the effectiveness of the RG and splash damage on the RL and air physics etc. This leads me to the worrying conclusion that the creative force has left ID with some of the departing staff and they (ID) do not know where to go with Quake. The development of Quake appears to have been left with the Mod developers and we can, no doubt, expect a multiplicity of Mods appearing soon which is all well and too the good, but the fact remains that the basic format of the game will not have developed in the past 4 years and are not likely to for the next couple of years either. Though you can argue that Q2 was a significant development of Q1, the same cannot be said of Q3 over Q2, it is more of the same, but prettier. I feel that a lot of the hardcore gamers will move to UT, which has a far greater range of weapons and alternative modes (hence tactics)and Q3 will move to the centre ground, the "Tony Blair" of online gaming!
I shall wait and see when we get the final version, but I don't feel at the moment that different maps are the answer. ID need the creative urge back that got them to the top of the gaming scene, and in the rapidly changing and fickle genre that is the gaming scene, they need to keep them there.