Quake 4's upcoming 1.3 release brings some major changes, which I think is a very good thing. Nobody is playing this game except people who are interested in competing in the CPL, and it's sad when a desire to compete at a game is fueled by a desire for competitive gaming in general instead of a desire to play the game in particular.
Quake 3 has more players than Quake 4. Quake World (i.e., Quake 1) even has more players than Quake 4.
Why? Well, I won't claim to know exactly why, but I have some very strong suspicions.
But it looks like this new 1.3 patch just might fix Q4 multiplayer. They're toning down the graphical-slowdown-fest that is Doom3 engine lighting, tweaking movement physics, adding a new weapon (not specified) and rebalancing the ones they have, and adding a bunch of features for the competitive side of the game since the DM community's prospects for a replacement competition game are pretty much 0% until UT2007 comes out next year. They're adding an entirely new gametype (again unspecified), as well as some new maps for the existing ones (CTF and DM).
Id Software's official article on it is on their front page. I'm pretty hopeful that this will give me more bang for my $50. Sure, the single player was pretty good (better, gameplay-wise, than HL2, though HL2 is the clear winner in storyline), but I've gotten over a thousand hours of gameplay out of UT2004, and at least a hundred out of Quake 3. I should at least get 30 or 40 out of Quake 4!
Quake 3 has more players than Quake 4. Quake World (i.e., Quake 1) even has more players than Quake 4.
Why? Well, I won't claim to know exactly why, but I have some very strong suspicions.
- It's very hardware intensive
- The physics take elements from Q2 and Q3 physics, but don't do either one as solidly
- Weapon balance does not match Q3's perfection (railgun/nailgun/lightning are all overpowered, hyperblaster is underpowered, machine gun zoom "feature" is practically worthless)
- The maps that shipped with the game were not very good due to lack of consideration that people in Quake actually like to strafe-jump.
- People just don't like deathmatch games anymore (I shed many tears over this one)
- Crouch-sliding is really just bizarre and inconsistent, trickjumps require more luck than anything else
But it looks like this new 1.3 patch just might fix Q4 multiplayer. They're toning down the graphical-slowdown-fest that is Doom3 engine lighting, tweaking movement physics, adding a new weapon (not specified) and rebalancing the ones they have, and adding a bunch of features for the competitive side of the game since the DM community's prospects for a replacement competition game are pretty much 0% until UT2007 comes out next year. They're adding an entirely new gametype (again unspecified), as well as some new maps for the existing ones (CTF and DM).
Id Software's official article on it is on their front page. I'm pretty hopeful that this will give me more bang for my $50. Sure, the single player was pretty good (better, gameplay-wise, than HL2, though HL2 is the clear winner in storyline), but I've gotten over a thousand hours of gameplay out of UT2004, and at least a hundred out of Quake 3. I should at least get 30 or 40 out of Quake 4!
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