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Quake 4 Announced

Warrior-GS writes: "This just in from QuakeCon in Texas: Id Software and Raven Software will be joing forces on Quake 4. Id and Nerve Software are also going to working on some unspecified game. Carmack is giving his talk right now. GameSpyDaily has all the details."

310 comments

  1. sweet by Thaidog · · Score: 0

    I can't wait.. Try as I might, I can't get the OS X Q3 update to work on my rig.

    --

    ||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.

  2. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just a small point: Half-Life is basically one part Quake 1, a pinch of Quake 2, and the rest is Valve's own recipe. Email Valve if you don't believe this.

  3. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by purplemonkeydan · · Score: 1
    I agree. Serious Sam is fantastic.

    Imagine hundreds of screaming, headless kamakaze's running towards you, followed by a few big robots, and thousands of annoying little frogs.

    A typical Serious Sam level.

  4. missing the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The beuty of all the ID software games is the unprecedented mod capability.. id always beats everyone in the engine arena and they do it quicker.. They realized the success behind the original quake.. put a solid engine out there and let the community produce the really great mods and addons to ultimately take the gameplay to the limits of all YOUR imaginations.. i personally dont look forward to single player games anymore unless they are REALLY REALLY great (there arent many), I look forward to a great engine with mods that kick ass. I mean really, how many ppl after quake1 bought the game for the single player experience... So no.. quake is not repetive to me.. its another revolution in modding capabilites and 3d game engine technology, making mods much more enjoyable

  5. Re:Carmack had issues with locker-room showers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >What's with this obsession with demonic nonsense, anyway?

    Would you rather shoot at robots?

  6. Re:Yawn... by Fembot · · Score: 1

    what you all seem to fail to notice is the many thousands of spin offs from id engines we have seen along the way, with half-life, voyager and sin being the more recent and memorable ones... none of these games would have been nearly so good or even existed with out id throwing out plot free games

  7. Re:anyone know? by eXtro · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Most Open Source software is developed to the point where its no longer fun to develop it. This means that the final bit of scripting to ease installation is left by the developers.

    But, as a point of reference I noticed that FreeCiv was one of the installed packages on my system. I've never played it, I've never even looked at it. I started up the server, typed "start". It responded that more players were needed, so I started up the client. Again I typed "start" in the server window. Bingo, I'm playing.

    I'm not entirely sure where the hours of set up are involved. Perhaps people on the short bus type really really slowly.

  8. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by TobyWong · · Score: 1

    It's all what you're used to. I started out playing Q1 in 320x240 software mode and even when I got a voodoo card I still played in software mode. Why? Because GLQuake felt the tiniest bit different and threw off my timing a little bit. At that time I was playing enough ( read: day and night) that I would notice even the slightest difference.

    When Q2 came out I *HATED* it (still do in fact). It just feels all wrong.

    So like I said, it's all what you're used to.

    --
    - Toby
  9. Re:Yay... more id Junk. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only reason you cannot find q3 servers is because your cracked copy won't let you use the legit ones.

  10. Re:Full name.. by famillionaire · · Score: 1

    I'm hoping it'll be more along the lines of "Quake IV: A New Hope."

  11. Re:Single-Player by FooManChuYouMoo · · Score: 1

    Alien vs Predator. Scariest game I've ever played.

  12. Re:Who DIDN'T see Q4 coming? by Phroggy · · Score: 1

    I didn't see it coming. I expected (hoped?) that after Doom 3, Carmack would finally do something more interesting than another FPS.

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  13. Re:I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

    Have you tried this mod?

    http://www.planetunreal.com/u4e/

    awesome...

    Jaysyn

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
  14. Re:the logo... by MatriXOracle · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Probably not, because it seems to be following a roman numeral pattern. 4 in roman numerals is not IIII, it's IV. How that's going to be integrated into the logo, I have no idea.

  15. Re:Yawn... by grammar+nazi · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Here is a list of many of Q3's substantial innovations over Q1, Q2, and pretty much every other game to date:

    Volumetric fog. This was not done in a video game before Q3

    Delta packets - Q3 was designed from the ground up to be a networked game and innovations such as delta packets resulted from this.

    Ballistic parametrics - Instead of bullet positions being relayed over a network, Q3 relays position, velocity, acceleration. Remember physics? This is enough to describe the entire trajectory, making for a large bandwidth saver.

    Linux (thank you Loki) - It took a *long* time for Q1 and Q2 to be playable in Linux. Loki accomplished this quickly

    What else did I miss?

    --

    Keeping /. free of grammatical errors for ~5 years.
  16. Hmm... Quake 4? by Faust7 · · Score: 1
    *yawn*

    *goes back to Galaxian on his Apple II+*

  17. Re:Not so good for we who suck... by reverius · · Score: 1

    Nothing like a good look at Stef to cheer you up, huh? :)

  18. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by modecx · · Score: 1

    No, actually, HaLFlife was based on the quake 2 engine, heavily modified. (not the grandparent)
    <br><br>
    --</i>cheers</i>

    --
    Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
  19. Re:Phew! by Maserati · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't mind seeing Crouching Tiger style effects.

    --
    Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
  20. OOOhhh RavenSoft has not put out by Archfeld · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    a bad game EVER that I can recall. Maybe there is HOPE for the Quake series. Q3 was a poor 2nd place to UT in almost every facet. Hopefully they won't depend entirely on BOTs :)

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
    1. Re:OOOhhh RavenSoft has not put out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hexen II is a bad game. Heretic II may be (I never bought it once I found out it was 3rd-person).

  21. Re:Oh WOW! by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 1
    - built in model skinning!

    I don't believe you. I don't see anywhere near enough skin, on models or anyone else. (Except myself, but that ceased to be interesting a couple of decades ago.)

    --
    And the brethren went away edified.
  22. Do what he wants. by DarkHelmet · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Everyone has always complained that the Quake games seriously lack the gameplay in order to make it worth playing over and over. In that light, here is what I think id should do:
    1. Make a bunch of maps using the doom engine.
    2. Add in one more weapon to the Doom2 engine (How about a triple shotgun, to go on that 1-2-3 punch?)
    3. Make a couple of monsters out of sprites, and make their AI crummy.
    4. Instead of midi covers of Alice in Chains, do FM synth versions of "Baby One More Time" and "Genie in a Bottle"
    5. Include a picture of Carmack in the game box, with a shirt that says, "Shag off: I can do what I like."

    Call this game Quake 4 just to screw with people's heads. Then come out with this Über-engine called Doom 3, and sell it to everyone.

    HAH!

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    1. Re:Do what he wants. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That IS what they're planning to do. Read the aritcle for goddsake!

  23. Re:Every id game is worth it by SlippyToad · · Score: 1

    Well maybe that's it. Multiplayer just doesn't thrill my nads either. I've participated in maybe a dozen multiplayer deathmatches and they just utterly fail to get my rocks off. It's the repetitiveness of it all. Also, in 1996, getting multiplayer games to work at all was more work than the game itself. Even quake, which I used to do with my brother all the time, had some serious problems. All told I'll play banjo-kazooie before I play another FPS. Half life was really good. It was almost like a movie. Duke Nukem Never, when it never comes out, will be interesting. If never it does.

    --
    One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
  24. Re:Carmack had issues with locker-room showers. by HighSea · · Score: 1

    That's one way of looking at Id software :)

  25. So much angst by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok, yes I know this is slashdot and people feel the need to bitch non-stop here, but seriously, what is all the complaining about? Sure the Quake series hasn't really seen innovation in gameplay, but that's because iD has been busy making kick-ass engines. Engines which get picked up by developers that can spend more time making kick-ass games because they don't have to spend time writing their own graphics engine. I personally love Q3, but I admit it can get repetitive. But you can go out and pick up some of the fancy mods and play with those if the pure game is too basic. Why can't iD just be thought of as an engine developer rather than a game developer? Of course a game that tries going on graphics alone isn't going to be as fun as one with addicting gameplay, but on the other hand, that eye-candy that all of you seem to be trashing has really pushed hardware limits, which has applications *gasp* outside of gaming. And this could be a good trend we're seeing. The engine designers separate from the game developers, and we get better products from both ends, which merge to make spectacular games. Think of the most fun and addicting game you've ever played, and now think of it using the most realistic and amazing graphics you can imagine; that's what we could be moving toward.
    I'd rather see people like iD focus on what they're good at (game engines that push hardware limits) and have others focus on coming up with innovative new game ideas that can use those engines.

    Still waiting for slashdot to give me a password.

  26. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That you're an idiot?

    There are real game programmers who read Slashdot bitch.

  27. Re:All I really want... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, so gay.

  28. Re:Fire up the ol' 2600... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or, I could do what I've always done, and play games that I enjoy playing. Maybe I like shooting anything that moves. If done well, it can be exciting. I don't give a rat's ass about gameplay, I only care about how much fun I have. I refuse to subscribe to the elitist attitude that if a game affects me only on the basest levels, it is below me. If I have fun shooting things, good. I will continue to shoot things.

  29. Re:details? by isorox · · Score: 1

    thats not really a lot of details
    thats not realy a big post!

    For those interested:
    http://www.shackes.com and http://www.linuxgames.com have more information.

  30. Yawn... by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 2, Flamebait

    Hasn't this genre been played out yet?

    Where's the innovation?

    Dancin Santa

    1. Re:Yawn... by nomadic · · Score: 1

      You state it like a fact. Not so - that's a completely subjective thing.

      The context of an online forum implies that its an opinion. I never said it wasn't.

    2. Re:Yawn... by rendler · · Score: 0

      TF for quake2? I'm sorry but that was called WeaponsFactor, TF was originally made for QuakeWorld (Q1), and Quake1 had the ability to write mods as well through it's own language QuakeC. There is also a boat load of old QuakeWorld mods still floating around and here in Australian QWTF is still going strong with servers still full of people, not as much as say CS, but it's one of those classic games that may never die.

      --

      *shrug*
    3. Re:Yawn... by Microlith · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Sure, Q3's innovative.

      In every way except gameplay. It's identical to the first two, except now it's just run-jump-kill, never mind the key finding part.

      The last truly innovative games I have played were Battlezone, Descent 3, and Half-Life. All 3 took the FPS genre and extended it (Descent just improved on that which did true 3D before Quake did).

      Battlezone was great, because it reduced you to a soldier on the battlefield of an RTS game, and (the first one, mind you) had a wonderful UI. More fun and panic-inducing than any other game I've played.

      Halflife took FPS and made it an adventure story, truly scary at parts (suprise headcrab!), vicious enemies, and required more than just run and shoot skills.

      Descent was always fun in my book, simply because it was a true 3D FPS, and with each release it got better (unfortunately due to Interplay's ineptness, Descent 4 was rumored but will likely never see the light of day).

      Quake 3 was nothing special.

      And for all intents and purposes, Quake 4 will be nothing other than a "ooh look what I can do after you spend $1K+ upgrading your machine!" unless someone pulls id's heads out of their collecitve asses and hires some writers and directors who have some authority OVER John Carmack to decide where glitter ends and where an actual STORY, with maybe a PLOT or a POINT at the very least, begins.

    4. Re:Yawn... by TheKey · · Score: 1

      Planetside looks to me like an innovation. Some might say it's a whole new genre, I say it's the next step. So wait for that.

      --
      My Journal - 1,337 fans and countin
    5. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      read between the lines: id are "outsourcing" the quake franchise to raven. id is working on doom3, not quake4.

    6. Re:Yawn... by nomadic · · Score: 1

      What else did I miss?

      Anything remotely dealing with gameplay. Nobody's criticizing the graphics or physics engine or detail. It's just it wasn't a particularly fun game.

    7. Re:Yawn... by interiot · · Score: 2

      Counterstrike seems pretty different from most other FPS's?

    8. Re:Yawn... by TobyWong · · Score: 1

      Descent 3 innovative????? haha that's rich!

      --
      - Toby
    9. Re:Yawn... by Osty · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the ability to write mods (actionquake, ctf, tf) was what made Quake 2 great...

      Actually, the ability to write mods first started with Quake 1, in the form of QuakeC. Some of the most classic game types started out with Quake 1 -- CTF (first implementation written by Zoid), TF (from the TeamFortress software guys, added the game types you see now as Dominion and Assault in UT), the proliferation of weapon packs, Total Conversions (like the Alien Quake TC, which coined the term "Foxed" when they were shut down by Fox), and so on. All Quake 2 had going for it above and beyond Quake 1 was Player-pluggable models, and the usage of dynamically linked libraries in whatever language you wished instead of using QuakeC for the scripting.

    10. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Quake [1] was a totally revolutionary game, that set a whole new standard, freelooks, gaming with mouse, network games to the large masses."

      Totally revolutionary? Hardly. While the fully 3-D engine, mouse look, and networking were big steps forward, they were not revolutionary, they were merely evolutionary. As for the rest of the game, the level design, gameplay, weapons, and overall game concept were not even evolutionary. As for gaming with a mouse, Doom and all its clones had that.

    11. Re:Yawn... by pvera · · Score: 1

      I thought the same a few years ago and then Half Life came out. And UT. And Kingpin :-)

      --
      Pedro
      ----
      The Insomniac Coder
    12. Re:Yawn... by SumDeusExMachina · · Score: 2, Insightful
      You missed a few...

      SMP support

      Full-screen 32-bit color rendering

      Curved 3D surfaces

      That's just about all that I can recall besides what you mentioned.

      --

      Is your company running tools written by ma
    13. Re:Yawn... by biglig2 · · Score: 1

      Yes, the sucess of half-life and the mods for that show that the genre has a lot to give in it yet.

      ID has always been in the position of the best graphical engines imaginable. But their story work has always seemed almost tacked onto the engine afterwards.

      --
      ~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
    14. Re:Yawn... by nakaduct · · Score: 3, Insightful
      it's just run-jump-kill

      That's like describing golf as "swing-swear-walk". Quake or Golf: as a beginner it's chaos with random bouts of unexpected good luck.

      But watch two good players in a rocket duel on a fast, jumpy map... it's as artful as swordplay, or as close as you'll get on a computer. They'll dodge and feint, probing for holes in the opposite's guard, suffering small wounds for better position, and then sacrificing the position to inflict greater injury.

      It's hard to recognize innovation while it's happening. Before Q3, shooters were about aim and item management. Number three introduced technique as an integral game element.

      This guy expresses the same point, better than I can. I put my words first anyway, because he's dead:
      Let me explain in terms of the martial arts. As a beginner you know nothing of stance or sword position, so you have nothing in yourself to dwell on mentally. If someone strikes at you, you just fight, without thinking of anything. Then when you learn various things like stance, how to wield a sword, where to place the attention, and so on, your mind lingers on various points, so you find yourself all tangled up when you try to strike. But if you practise day after day and month after month, eventually stance and swordplay don't hang on your mind any more, and you are like a beginner who knows nothing ... . The cogitating side of your brain will vanish and you will come to rest in a state where there is no concern.
      -- Takuan, 16th Century Japanese Zen teacher, in explaining the shift from unconscious incompetence, through conscious incompetence and conscious competence, to unconscious competence.
    15. Re:Yawn... by bored · · Score: 1
      freelooks,gaming with mouse, network games to the large masses.

      Apparently, you never played much Doom. I rember blasting at my friends a lot during big doom parties (we would assemble with food/drinks and our puters), where the mouse quickly became the controller of choice. I fired it up a few months ago on an old 486 it was still on. Ick, the graphics are nasty, I can't believe I played that game for hours (days?) straight. There is something about the 'fear' factor other people have pointed out though. I quickly found myself enjoying the first few levels again for the 1000th time. Unreal is the only FPS that I enjoyed as much as Doom1 and Heritic.

    16. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is considered the "TCP/IP suite" includes both TCP and UDP. TCP and UDP are of course different things, but both are included in the phrase "TCP/IP".

    17. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      tcp/ip?

    18. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hell no. Quake lives forever!

    19. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Actually, most speech is always considered opinionative, which is why you don't have to say I think, or in my opinion after everything you say. The only times you should state that it is your opinion is if it is possible that people may assume that you are stating fact. For example, if you are an expert on a certain subject, people less experienced in that subject might tend to take your opinion as fact. The vast majority of times though, speech is assumed opinionative."

      That's just your opinion. :)

    20. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wolf 3d wasn't even 3d. There was no Z axis.

    21. Re:Yawn... by tarkin · · Score: 1

      >I just hope Quake4 brings something more then just a bunch of new colors

      Quake2 and Quake 3 bringing in new colors ? You actually think that going from Quake1 to Quake3 has brought us more colors ?
      Check again , more color depth - I agree.
      But why do they have all the shitty brown levels since quake ??!
      And talk about lack of weapon innovation puleeze...

      They all were fun, but think how much more fun Q2 and Q3 could have been if they didn't stick to the brown pallet in photoshop and didn't stick to the IDsoftware Armory Closet For Dried Up Game Designers !

      Just a random thought...

      --
      blaah !
    22. Re:Yawn... by iamblades · · Score: 1

      Actually, most speech is always considered opinionative, which is why you don't have to say I think, or in my opinion after everything you say. The only times you should state that it is your opinion is if it is possible that people may assume that you are stating fact. For example, if you are an expert on a certain subject, people less experienced in that subject might tend to take your opinion as fact.

      The vast majority of times though, speech is assumed opinionative.

      --
      Shit adds up at the bottom...
    23. Re:Yawn... by Microlith · · Score: 1

      I never said that Descent 3 itself was innovative. I said it was an extension on Descent, which WAS innovative at its time.

      Hell, for all it's flaws Descent 3 has a better story than ANY of the Quake games. Better gameplay as well.

      Quake (from 2 onward) with an actual POINT?? haha that's rich!

    24. Re:Yawn... by DrSkwid · · Score: 1

      are you a total dork?

      did you not download the demo?
      did you not read anything before buying the game?
      what were yuo expecting, an interactive frikkin movie?

      jeesh

      --
      There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    25. Re:Yawn... by Dwonis · · Score: 2
      Well, maybe some people think of it that way, but I prefer not to confuse non-technical people with pointless inconsistency.

      "TCP/IP" is notated like fractions are notated. It means "TCP over IP". If you're using UDP over IP, you shouldn't say "TCP over IP". Calling everything "TCP/IP" just confuses people. I once had a tech support rep ask me if you can "ping a certain port", which indicated confusion between TCP/IP and ICMP/IP.

      In correct terms, it's not the "TCP/IP suite", but the "Internet Protocol suite".

    26. Re:Yawn... by pvera · · Score: 1

      That is not innovation. That is eye candy.

      Who the hell has time to stop and look at the pretty lights and the neat fog effects with all the shooting going on? Pleeeze!

      The only advantage you get out of a fast graphics card is that the game runs much smoother. The rest is eye candy.

      --
      Pedro
      ----
      The Insomniac Coder
    27. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FYI: Descent 4 ==> Red Faction

      From someone who knows...

    28. Re:Yawn... by GroovBird · · Score: 1

      Unreal had volumetric fog. It came out way before Quake3.

    29. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh? And what's your idea of innovation? Javascript popups?

    30. Re:Yawn... by linzeal · · Score: 1

      Serious Sam rocks. I had the same experience with the bad guys. Those crazies that run up to you and blow up on the more difficult settings can inspire sheer terror in me...

    31. Re:Yawn... by Tet · · Score: 2
      Quake [1] was a totally revolutionary game, that set a whole new standard

      Yep. It ws the start of the end for FPS games. It emphasised graphics and the technological prowess of the engine over and above gameplay. And the rest of the industry followed suit. It wasn't until what, 5 or 6 years later, that gameplay became important again. UT was an immensely playable game, and although Q3A surpassed it in some areas, overall, I think most people agree that UT is the better game. But the real winner is Serious Sam. It's the first game I've played since Doom that really gets your heart racing due to the sheer quantity of bad guys all out to get you all at once. It's just a shame it took so long to get there after Quake came along...

      --
      "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
    32. Re:Yawn... by Grahf666 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps, but if I wanted unmatched 1 on 1 play, give me QuakeWorld and Headshot's Dead Bodies Everywhere anyday. Maybe CPM. Before Q3, shooters were about aim and item management. Number three introduced technique as an integral game element. I think that's a nice way of saying that Quake 3 is way slower than Quake 1. Pertaining to the actual topic of this article (Quake 4), well, forgive me as I stifle a laugh. I don't think there is any new ground left to cover to in the Quake series. I expect that, unlike DooM 3, this Quake 4 will be just fast enough to deathmatch with, to throw the pro players a bone.

    33. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must have attended the Microsoft Language Institute to think that any of those things are innovations.

    34. Re:Yawn... by Aphelion · · Score: 4, Informative

      Delta packets have been around since Q1. See console command "cl_nodelta".

      Ballistic parametrics have been employed in large-scale multiplayer since Subspace in 1996.

      Q1 was playable in Linux using an anonymous binary named squake, presumably from leaked source code (before the source code was stolen from cracked crack.com servers.) It worked flawlessly, and far better than the official ports.

      So yeah, volumetric fog was a pretty big thing. I think they used it to cover up some bad floor textures.

    35. Re:Yawn... by grammar+fascist · · Score: 1

      It's just it wasn't a particularly fun game.

      You state it like a fact. Not so - that's a completely subjective thing.

      --
      I got my Linux laptop at System76.
    36. Re:Yawn... by boaworm · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Hasn't this genre been played out yet? Where's the innovation?

      I fully agree with you. Quake [1] was a totally revolutionary game, that set a whole new standard, freelooks, gaming with mouse, network games to the large masses. Quake 2 followed up the success with a more advanced 3d engine, and some new features. Perhaps the ability to write mods (actionquake, ctf, tf) was what made Quake 2 great...

      But Quake 3 ?.. what's that but just Quake2 in 32bit color with jumppads instead of ladders ?
      Dont get me wrong here, i admire what johnc does, and no game has executed so many bogomips on my cpu's as Quake2. I just hope Quake4 brings something more then just a bunch of new colors. I really would like Quake to be my first game of choice again :-)

      --
      Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
      Aristotele
    37. Re:Yawn... by drsoran · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Not to mention that's basically the extent of the game as well. Run, jump, shoot, kill, die, respawn, repeat process. I played Quake 3 for about 15 minutes before I was regretting wasting the money on it and wishing I could return it to the store. On the other hand, Half-Life was the best money I have ever spent on any game and I've played it and the modifications of it for almost 2 years now. Quake 3 is eye candy and the models look like cheap cartoon character tough guys. Screw that. Give me Counter-Strike ANY day over the lame ass deathmatch Quake 3.

    38. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Compare Quake I with Quake II and then Quake III Arena. Each is a distinctly different game. No innovation my ass.

    39. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Have gun, will travel" pretty much summarizes every game in that genre. Aside from the obvious advancements in graphics programming, the games themselves are just logical extensions of the one that came before.

      Tell me again the innovation in gaming Quake offers over Wolfenstein 3d?

      D.S.

    40. Re:Yawn... by iamblades · · Score: 2, Informative

      The graphics are the main innovation. FPS games are usually the graphical leaders of computer games. Another attraction is the sheer fun value, which is immeasurable. Basically it's like how people still like tetris. Even if it might be played out, there will always be people that enjoy certain types of games...

      --
      Shit adds up at the bottom...
    41. Re:Yawn... by Auckerman · · Score: 2

      I find it interesting that the "innovations" you list have NOTHING to do with game play. I like modern games, when they contribute to innovative game play. I also still play Tetris, sometimes even choosing to play it over The Sims, which btw is very innovative. Quite frankly, as pretty as Q3 is, compared to Q2, it's not innovative in any way gameplay wise.

      --

      Burn Hollywood Burn
    42. Re:Yawn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think someone from id once explained the "brownness" of quake. With only 256 colors youve got to keep the levels dark and gloomy to "hide" the lack of colors. The 8 bit palette offers more gloomy colors than bright ones, or something...

    43. Re:Yawn... by 11223 · · Score: 2
      Yeah, it was innovative. It showed how a 3D FPS (I mean real 3D, not this pansy stuck-to-the floor stuff) can have good level design, good netplay, and a kickass story. Better than find the key and blow up the reactor.

      D3 still rocks. Where, O Where, is D4?

    44. Re:Yawn... by Dwonis · · Score: 2

      No Quake has ever used TCP/IP. UDP/IP yes. TCP/IP no. (Shudders at the thought of playing Quake over TCP...)

  31. Re:Finally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    finger johnc@idsoftware.com for the details

    Eww, no thanks. Romero on the other hand...

  32. Re:Finally... by FrostedChaos · · Score: 1
    Don't be so serious about fun, man. I think the advance of graphics technology is admirable in its own right. It will ultimately expand the possibilities for game designers.

    --
    "Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental." -Slashdot
  33. Re:Every id game is worth it (for kids) by wheelgun · · Score: 1

    I can get tired of it very quick. I have every version of Quake yet published. But the day after I installed Counter Strike, the Quake games went into my recycle folder. Quake was great fun when I was a kid but I'm getting older and the realism (relatively speaking) of CS is just what the doctor ordered.

    Counterstrike is what the new FPS games have to beat. I hope the software publishers realise that- otherwise they'll have an unpleasant year.

    Galland
  34. Fools.. by Dr.+Fred · · Score: 1, Informative

    I can't believe how ignorant some of you are. If you had read closely, you would probably know by now that Quake 4 is to be developped by Raven Software and merely supervised by id Software, pretty much like Return to Castle Wolfenstein was done with whatever company is developping it.

    Raven Software is not only a great games company, but it's also very good at making single player games. Remember Hexen, Soldier of Fortune, Elite Force? Raven are probably one of the best companies out there, and I'm pretty sure Quake 4 will rock, seeing as with id's (well, mostly johnc's) talent in making impressive game engines, and Raven's talent in making impressive and well-designed single player games. Q4 will most certainly be much more than just a 3d card benchmark, or an engine demo.

    The fools here who hastily read the announcement and only bothered to think "Oh yay another benchmark, id suxxx ass l0l" should be shot. id Software is good at making engines, as some of you pointed out, but not very good at making single player games. They seem to have realised this, and both Wolfenstein and Quake 4 are a good example of this. The new Doom project is a big question mark at the moment, but Quake 4 (and Wolfenstein, for that matter), certainly aren't.

    1. Re:Fools.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "id has story boards for the game so they are serious about this single player stuff :)" qouted from <a href=http://www.stomped.com/shared/nsystem/comment s/20406_1_page_1.php>stomped.com</a>

      so they are working on the single player side of DOOM 3 :D

  35. you mean something like this? by option8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    you mean something like this?

    i dunno.. doesn't work for me

    1. Re:you mean something like this? by linzeal · · Score: 1

      mod this up I blew cheap red wine through my nose on this one and it is burning oaky and shit

    2. Re:you mean something like this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe if you had the I and the V overlap.

    3. Re:you mean something like this? by artemis67 · · Score: 1

      That looks like the logo for a LongHorn Steakhouse or something... ;-)

  36. Re:Carmack had issues with locker-room showers. by Grahf666 · · Score: 1

    Well, for one, Quake 4 is gonna be on Stroggos again, which means no medieval/demonic stuff.

    Just industrial/demonic stuff instead. -_^

    There are plenty of people who find the pristine labratories of Half Life utterly boring, and revel in Quake's other-dimensional weirdness. Thankfully, the world is big enough for both types of games. So come on down, join the Morlocks, we're running the show in the end!

  37. Re:I miss Ivan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Neither?
    I don't give a rat's ass who uses a particular piece of software.

  38. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Maditude · · Score: 1

    I gotta agree with the "Q3 player control was too 'soft and squishy'" comment. I really enjoyed Q1 and Q2 (*especially* Q2) though. The other thing that sucked about Q3 was that just about every server I got a good ping to seemed to be infested with complete dorks with no sense of respect for anyone else playing (not that online dorks were id's fault [hmmm, though the player-kick bug that could be foiled by rapid name changing certainly DID contribute]).

  39. Re:Quake 4: Attack of the Clones by istartedi · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe they should call it Automatics for the People and get REM to do the sounds this time.

    When the world is a monster... blast it to bits.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  40. No by crisco · · Score: 4, Informative
    No

    Take a look at id software's corporateQuake engine licensing page. Second paragraph under 'The GPL'd Quake Engine'.

    Remember this engine is the foundation for what Valve did with Half-Life, and the software and OpenGL rendering is still as fast as it ever was.
    For some reason this is a common misconception, maybe because Half-Life came out after Quake II.

    It is an important point because Counterstrike, a mod of a game based on a five year old engine, is the most popular online 3D shooter (based on number of servers).

    --

    Bleh!

    1. Re:No by sheetsda · · Score: 2
      It is an important point because Counterstrike, a mod of a game based on a five year old engine, is the most popular online 3D shooter (based on number of servers).

      And according to GameSpy stats, number of players aswell. Even if you assume only a tenth of Half-Life's players are playing CS (which I know isn't nearly as high as the actual number).

  41. Re:I miss Ivan by itarget · · Score: 1

    You didn't point out flaws, you made a blanket statement and claimed that any open source application must be "dicked around" with for hours before it's functional.

    I have a computer illiterate grandmother using Mandrake 8 that would disagree with you. Well, actually she wouldn't know what the hell you were talking about with software coding and interfaces... but she thinks the mozilla lizard is cute.

    Some examples for future reference-

    Here's a flaw in closed source software:
    IIS has had several security vulnerabilities in the recent past, and with no way to audit it, we'll never know where the next one will crop up until it's too late.

    Here's a flaw in open source software:
    Desktop environments like KDE and Gnome consume a tremendous amount more resources than simple window managers.

    ...and here is an unfounded statement that constitutes a troll:
    jchristopher smells like ass.

    --

    "Where shall the word be found, where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence." -T.S. Eliot
  42. Re:I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by Phroggy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part, because they dropped the ball on Quake III. It's been all Unreal Tournament for me for the last 18 months.

    Agreed. Really unfortunate, because Q3 has a MUCH better quality engine. With UT I keep seeing miscellaneous display glitches.

    Example: on the CTF map with the two big towers and just a couple paths between them, you can go up on the top and grab a sniper rifle. Go up there are zoom in on the top of the enemy's tower - if someone's up there, and they start walking around, it won't display correctly. Looks like they're walking in the middle of the wall or something.

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  43. Re:Can you imagine... by famillionaire · · Score: 1

    That's why Carmack is rich: He can imagine beowulf clusters of things that, before him, no one would ever have thought clusterable.

  44. Re:Oh WOW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    at your local liquor store.

  45. Re:Single-Player by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I always thought Half-Life was a freaky game to play in the dark. Especially when the areas you were in had either very few humans around or just slaughtered scientists. You knew you were heading into some bad territory then. I still beleive Half-Life has some of the best designed maps and "natural-threats" (I forget the term) around - nothing like running down a shaking hall and getting smashed by a falling mainframe :)

    Let's not even mention the incredible storyline that Half-Life had that put you right in the middle of the entire conflict.

  46. Re:Yay... more id Junk. by tswinzig · · Score: 2

    Seriously, though... id Software makes great game ENGINES... they do NOT, however, make great games.

    You are correct ... they don't make great games, just the most popular games. Oops...

    --

    "And like that ... he's gone."
  47. Re:Yay... more id Junk. by Jester998 · · Score: 0, Troll

    "the quake 3 mod scene is far superior to the half life mods"
    Really? Are you including Counter-Strike? Last I checked, CS players outnumbered the players of any other mod for Half-Life OR Quake by at least 5:1 (that number comes from a poll I saw somewhere... I forget where it was though.)
    Also, I play both CS and TFC and I've NEVER had a problem finding a lag-free server to play on that had a full room for either mod. Maybe you're just too picky with your filter settings. ;)
    As you say though, it *does* come down to personal preference. I guess some people just like the kind of mindless shooting associated with Quake and its mods, while more thoughtful, strategy-type people like HL and its mods.

  48. I hope they get rid of the stupid jump button by tyrannical666 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'm tired of fragging frigging jack rabits that have the jump button on auto-fire. Hell, I think I liked DOOM better, no jumping, no ducking, and auto aim. It was simple.

  49. Whoopdeedoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whoopdedai! Jesus, Carmack was once pretty orignal but I'm guessing that F50 has gone to his head and eaten all the original ideas up! You know, I still say it was Abrash's innovation that made Quake, and NOT Carmack. The guy is all washed up! All that money, all those resources and what do we get folks???! QUAKE 4. HAR HAR HAR

    1. Re:Whoopdeedoo by Imperial+Tacohead · · Score: 1

      That's funny, idiot, because Abrash claims the contrary. I read a series of articles by him where he expressed nothing but awe and admiration for the wonders that Carmack accomplished on Quake. (Sorry for the lack of a link...I believe they was on Dr. Dobb's or something.)

      Wait, did I just feed a troll? Dammit, I needed that billy goat for dinner tonight!

  50. DOOM? by lhaeh · · Score: 1

    What happened to DOOM3?

    1. Re:DOOM? by The+Step+Child · · Score: 1

      Nothing happened to it. Quake 4 might even use DOOM3's engine.

  51. he OBVIOUSLY had issues... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you ever seen what he looks like? Woody Allen could kick his ass, and Woody Allen is pushing 70!

  52. Re:Every id game is worth it by eggnet · · Score: 1

    Quake was and isn't about single player.

  53. Re:Quake4 + Mac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's not a big surprise. He was always a big fan of NeXT, which was his primary development platform for years.

  54. Re:Full name.. by acm · · Score: 1

    Quake 4: Attack of the Clones

  55. Re:OT: Slavery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stupid people are funny. Yes, I'm talking about you. Thanks for providing me with a cheap belly laugh at your expense...

  56. Re:Full name.. by necrognome · · Score: 1

    will there be whales?

    --


    Let's get drunk and delete production data!
  57. Single-Player by germinatoras · · Score: 1

    I'm really looking forward to this. The trip back to the Strogg universe is a good thing for people like me to enjoyed Quake II + Expansion Packs. While I love Quake III, I really do enjoy the single-player "one-many-army" games, a la Half-Life.

    Better yet would be a trip back to the types of levels we saw in the original Quake - the kind of medival architecture and enemies that made me afraid to play the game alone at night. :)

    1. Re:Single-Player by Omerna · · Score: 3, Informative

      Try playing it when you're 5 or 6. My cousin gave it to me and it absolutely scared the shit out of me. I couldn't get past the first level or two. To a little kid Doom was monsters under the bed brought to life.

      --


      No sig for you.
    2. Re:Single-Player by Cheetah86 · · Score: 1

      I think you must be thinking of doom.

      The first level of quake two scared me... that weird doglike thing that hops out of its hole and starts drilling into you...then I respawned because it killed me. But that was definetly the first time a video game did that to me. I didn't even see it coming...

    3. Re:Single-Player by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 3, Interesting

      enemies that made me afraid to play the game alone at night. :)

      I think you must be thinking of doom. That game had some enemies that would make me afraid to play with the lights off. Even after I stopped playing I could still hear the snarlling crackle of an imp right behind me. I haven't had the same reaction to any other fps I've ever played, doom was just a classic. I sure hope doom3 returns to the origional doom style in terms of gameplay and setting, and isn't too quakeish.

    4. Re:Single-Player by mimbleton · · Score: 1

      Hell yeah.
      Seeing one of these gorilla-like monsters coming out of dark corner was truly terrifying.
      It was a classic.

    5. Re:Single-Player by Rimbo · · Score: 2

      "Better yet would be a trip back to the types of levels we saw in the original Quake - ..."

      I agree it had great moods (enhanced considerably by Trent Reznor's soundtrack), but its contemporary, Duke Nukem 3D, was much more fun in single-player. If you're talking about level design I partially agree, but in general, I (and, I think, most people) didn't find Quake's single-player to be all that much fun.

    6. Re:Single-Player by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then it sounds like you'd be more interested in the next version of DOOM than in Quake 4.

    7. Re:Single-Player by rikkards · · Score: 1

      I have to agree with AVP but what scared the crap out of me even before that was the Alien Total Conversion for Doom. I couldn't wait for the Quake one but then it got "Foxed".

  58. Can you imagine... by Nastard · · Score: 1

    ...a beowulf cluster of these? Carmack obviously can.

  59. Re:I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    Swooooosh!

    [That's the sound of a comment going over your head]

  60. Re:Finally... by feces_tossin_primate · · Score: 1

    All your quake are belong to us...

  61. Re:Who DIDN'T see Q4 coming? by Fat+Casper · · Score: 1, Troll
    Well, we didn't have a presidential election the last time we were supposed to. We did have Quake 3.

    --
    I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
  62. Re:The true question is... by BlowCat · · Score: 1
    Actually, after III comes IV, not IIII.
    Not true for Pentiums. After III comes 4. Quake just follows the steps of Intel.
  63. Now, don't get mean about Halo... by dalangalma · · Score: 1

    Bungie has never specified a release date for Halo - I used to go to the local Babbage's and ask when it would be out, then mail that date to the Bungie guys so they could have a good laugh. Bungie has always had a policy of "It'll be done Soon(tm)". After they were acquired by M$, this changed. Now it'll be done Nov. 8, to coincide with the XBox release date (Halo will be a release title). Check out http://halo.bungie.org for more info. BTW, the PC version should be 4-6 months after the XBox vers., but that's no guarantee. They plan on sleeping for a month after launch!

  64. Re:I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Indeed... let us share a hearty laugh at his expense...

  65. Cool enough for me... by DreamSynthesis · · Score: 1


    It may come as a surprise to the /. crowd as a whole, but I just now got around to installing Q3 Arena on one of my Red Hat boxes. It's just got a cheap Voodoo Banshee vid card in it, but here's the fun part: even with the most optimized drivers and OpenGL subsystem for Win2K (dual-booted on the same box), it still plays faster and better on Linux :).

    Yeah, it may be kinda off-topic I suppose, but my point is this: it's good to see linux games starting to take off. :) x 10

  66. You know what this means? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This means that there's another version of Quake that'll be out that I'll have no desire in owning. Oh wow, another first person shooter. The whole idea of this type of game was tired after Wolfenstein 3D. "Press the painting... oh look, a secret area." Oh, for the days when games concentrated on GAME PLAY and not graphics.

  67. Why they teamed with Nerve Software by Hobobo · · Score: 1

    They teamed with Nerve company in anticipation of people demanding to know why they have the nerve to milk their cash cow some more.

  68. ok by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Ok at this point they are just cashing in on the name.

    Stop while the name Quake still has some dignity.

  69. Re:Who DIDN'T see Q4 coming? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Thats like saying we are going to have a presidential election in 2004.

    I'm not so sure we had one in 2000. I did see a really funny circus. But election? That would imply that something was decided.

  70. Those alien bastards keep shooting up my ride... by ubugly2 · · Score: 1

    I just hope DUKE NUKEM "takin' forever" comes out before quake 8 hits the holoscreens....

  71. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 2

    Imagine, a game that has the fear factor of Doom, the physics of Q2, and the eye candy of Q3. I can hope, can't I?

    You aren't the only one hoping buddy. If they could create a game like that, it would be the first fps I've bought since Doom2. I've played Quake2 and it was fun, but not enough for me to actually go out and buy it. Fun to play every now and then at a friends house, but not enough to actually buy.

    The fear factor of Doom is what made me love it, and the quake series just hasn't had that. Doom is the only game that can make me jump 5 feet out of my chair and cause me physically look around.

  72. Re:The true question is... by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2

    So Quake 5 will be IIII with a slash through it (how do you do that in one line of ascii, anyway?)

  73. Re:I miss Ivan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I REMEMBER Ivan :)
    He's on Kuro5hin now - or at least someone posing as him - the person DOES have an extremely abrasive on-line personality though, so maybe....

    Kevin Christie
    crispiewm@hotmail.com

  74. OT: your sig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ouch ouch ouch! I've taken 5 years of Latin, and your sig practically burned my eyes. Errors everywhere.

    It should read: "Si hoc legere scis, nimium eruditionis habes".

  75. A new shipment of the purest. by Black+Dragon · · Score: 1

    For those of us hooked on the digital crack that is Quake II & (especially) III, this is good news indeed. Oh, yes. Also to be looked forward to: Unreal 2. The screenshots of that bad boy make me drool.

    --

  76. squake's author by blach · · Score: 1

    squake was coded up by a friend of mine [who still doesn't his name to be mentioned], a teenager at the time. He hacked it in like 1 or 2 nights after recieving the leaked source from someone, and then passed it [the hacked source] on (fearfully, even) to Carmack who was mighty displeased but... well, the rest is history.

    A shame that he can't take credit for his work :(

  77. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by dj28 · · Score: 1

    I quote from the link: "Quake 4, which will take a trip back to the Quake 2 Strogg universe. It will be using the latest id technology -- namely the Doom engine -- as well." It will indeed be more Q2ish.

  78. Re:Full name.. by Yahiko · · Score: 1

    Quake 4: All your bas... Bah not worth the effort. --Yahiko

    --


    Everything I say is a lie.
    Except that. And that. And that. And that.
  79. Re:Finally... by fobbman · · Score: 2

    I am SICK of people clammoring for all this eye candy shit. And getting all orgasmic about a game that's big promise is to drop your top-of-the-line $300 video card to it's knees so you have to throw it out in favor of ANOTHER more EXPENSIVE video card is wrong on so many levels.

    Half-Life, Counter Strike, and the latest update Blue-whatever are based on the Quake I engine, and they kick ass because they are fun to play. And the best games of all time are considered great because of their playability, not because of their eye candy.

    It wouldn't surprise me in the least bit if Carmack had heavy investments in nVidia stock. Hopefully when another "gee whiz it looks great but it plays like a dead dog" major release bombs we might get back to what games are best at: being fun.

  80. time to... by mickeyreznor · · Score: 1

    change the logo. unless they want to keep on squeezing in 'I's between the q-halves. probably wouldn't look to good IMO.

  81. Leaked screenshots! by cbr372 · · Score: 2, Funny

    These graphics really do look superb

    --
    Cedric Balthazar Rotherwood
    Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform +
    System Admin. for Solaris
  82. Re:who needs 70fps anyway? by Jubedgy · · Score: 1

    no it's not a fact...starcraft? halflife SP? etc...besides, how different is, say, Quake 3 from the twitch games of yester-year...pong, tetris, pacman, etc... (except in quake 3 you play against more people)??

    I guess the problem is you grew up and decided sitting around playing space invaders for 10 hours wasn't fun.

    --
    Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis hebes
  83. Re:Full name.. by JBowz15 · · Score: 2

    I think in Quake IV you should have to fight that big Soviet guy who killed Apollo.

    Finally, the Rock has come back to Slashdot.

  84. Re:Who DIDN'T see Q4 coming? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Q4 is NOT id's next project!! Raven is going to do it in paralell with doom3. What id does after doom3 is still unknown.

  85. Still can't be the coolness of Quake I by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I doubt they will ever be able to beat the absolute coolness of Quake I. I was hooked on that game from the word go, the whole demon angle, with the Trent Reznor soundtrack, the perfect ambience and the #1 absolute coolest thing... ...NIN gun. C'mon, you started out on Quake II with a laser gun??? Not even.

  86. Re:The true question is... by iamklerck · · Score: 1

    Actually, both ways are acceptable. The older Roman way was to add another I to make 4. Later on it was realized that IV would be a lot easier to write than IIII.

  87. Re:Yay... more id Junk. by iamblades · · Score: 1

    Counterstrike is a good mod, i must admit. TFC is ok, but Q3F is much better... I was refering mainly to the small mod makers, including my personal favorite mod, instagib..

    --
    Shit adds up at the bottom...
  88. Re:Quake4 + Mac by Phroggy · · Score: 1

    It will almost certainly use Cocoa, not Carbon - it's VERY possible that Quake 4 will not run on classic Mac OS at all. Carmack has said that the only reason he has supported classic Mac OS so far is to support Apple until OSX is ready - he hates classic Mac OS as a dev environment (and really, who can blame him?).

    Cocoa rules. :-)

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  89. Zing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Big Rodney D. would be proud

  90. Re:Quake4 + Mac by XBL · · Score: 1
    Actually Carmack has been hyper about MacOS X. I know that he has been at the recent Apple conferences and stuff.

    Oh, and he said that OS X is going to be his new development platform. No lie. Wish I had a link for ya :-(

  91. Re:Finally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Quote "Half-Life, Counter Strike, and the latest update Blue-whatever are based on the Quake I engine, and they kick ass because they are fun to play." Umm.. Actually they're based on the Q2 engine.

  92. Quake 4... Sweet! by ManDude · · Score: 1
    I will now be saving up for the upgrades!

    Let the video card war begin!

    Let the Great House of NVidia and the Great House ATI show me what you are made of!

  93. Quake 4: Attack of the Clones by crisco · · Score: 2, Redundant
    Or wait, wasn't it "The New Hope"?

    I'm all confused...

    --

    Bleh!

    1. Re:Quake 4: Attack of the Clones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's hilarious, I wish I had mod points.

  94. Re:anyone know? by jchristopher · · Score: 2

    The Windows binary I tried required starting a server app in the GUI, starting the client app in the GUI, then configuring the game on a command line, then starting the game on the command line. If it's preinstalled, obviously, that's different.

  95. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by bigbadwlf · · Score: 1

    "The fear factor of Doom"

    I dunno... UT scared the hell outta me the other night.
    Someone made a custom CTF map (Project-X is the name) with a 'skaarjlord' lurking about in it.
    I turned around to see what was hitting me from behind and all I saw was an outline and these glowing red eyes. My reaction was literally, "OMG WTF is that!!!"
    Then it wasted me.

    Last thing I expected in a CTF map.
    I think we need more things we don't expect.

  96. Re:Quake IV on CNN's Web site by dnaumov · · Score: 1

    Haha, nice one :D

  97. Re:More yawns are heard. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hello! Half-Life would not exist in its current form without the Quake engine! Yes, id's strengths are primarily, perhaps entirely, in the technological AND "eye candy" domains. What you have to be thinking is: what will Valve/whomever be able to accomplish with the doom3 engine?

  98. All I really want... by DuranDuran · · Score: 1

    Just as long as id doesn't forget about those of us who dig good, fun, singleplayer gameplay, as opposed to ho hum multiplayer. Don't tease me with release date shenanigans or release yesterday's product without doing something interesting to it.

    Oh, and I ain't suckin' nothing down, neither.

    DD

    --
    "You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
  99. Re:attention spans by p_trinli · · Score: 1

    No kidding. What ever happened to *story lines* like Doom, Duke Nukem, Unreal (the original first person version) and Half Life? Hell, even Quake 2 had some atmosphere, unlike Quake 3.

  100. Re:LORD above... by p_trinli · · Score: 1

    Have you seen some of the Unreal 2 screenshots? They depict full landscapes with rolling hills, trees, etc. I can see 3D card makers scrambling to keep up.

  101. Re:Yay... more id Junk. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Easier to find Quake 3 servers? Where the fuck are you from? CounterStrike outnumbers Quake 3 of any type by at least 10:1, and easily 100:1.

  102. BASTARDS!!! by Sj0 · · Score: 1

    ID, you bastards! Finish one game before starting two others! WE WANT DOOM 3 ALREADY!!! :)

    Seriously, have you seen the screenshots for doom 3? I'm not a gfx whore or anything, but what I've seen is almost TV quality animation.
    ...And am I the only one afraid that Quake 4 will be even more generic than Quake 3? The singleplay in Quake 1 and 2 may not have been the best, but it was still fun to blast through the levels in co-op! This one will be just Doom style deathmatch. No skins, just differnt colors that you aren't allowed to choose. 2.5d levels! Groovy!
    I picked up UT for ten bucks anyway, but I don't think I'd get q3 when it's not too much different from either UT or Quake II......and Q2 has plenty of mods!

    --
    It's been a long time.
  103. Re:Finally... by spectral · · Score: 0

    Uhm. Half-Life is a seperate engine completely from Quake 1. Counter Strike and Blue Shift are mods for the half-life engine. The half-life engine is lightyears beyond quake 1.

  104. I miss Ivan by On+Lawn · · Score: 1

    Where's Ivan Tchekov when you need him?

    Where your troll of saying software should be easy to configure to slashdotters is as unimagionative as pointing out plot holes in a Star Wars Forum; Ivan used to troll on the opposite point. They were so inspired that they would get a lot of responces.

    He said that computers should be difficult so as to weed out the evolutionary chaff. Then people would really learn how to use computers. Then they would be truely powerful, and not spoonfed imbiciles demanding "Convenience or Death!"

    Now, lets raise the bar a bit and see if you can do something more imaginative next time.

    Now, if we could only bring back meeeept. Oh well, his day is probably gone, Slashdot is too diverse to focus in on a mindset to pick on.

    .

    1. Re:I miss Ivan by On+Lawn · · Score: 1

      I know, "give me convenience or give me death!" Next week your ticked when gumball machines require quarters.

      Two problems with your post that make it not-credible and only good for the minor troll value it is ascribed.

      1) I've played Freeciv. No where did I run scripts, configure files, use command lines, etc. And this was a year ago. So you ascribing that to Freeciv makes you either incompetant or trolling with a straw man.

      2) They want to play the game. The last 99% of software development is making it fool proof, and in the end you wind up just lobotomizing the interface so the user can't hurt themself. I can see where you would need this, but they don't.

      In any case, its not for political reasons you are marked as a troll. Its just your lack of understanding that makes you act that way. We actually really do understand and want to help...

    2. Re:I miss Ivan by jchristopher · · Score: 2
      Sorry, I forgot that pointing out flaws in open-source software is "trolling", whereas pointing out flaws in closed source software is "a good way to get modded up.

      Get a life. You think because you have a low user ID, it's okay for the interface to suck? I guess if it's easy enough for you, it should be easy enough for the peons, right? If they can't understand it what's their problem.

      Program the interface well on a good piece of software and everyone will use it. Program the interface poorly on a good piece of software, and the only people that will use it are other programmers. Which of those sounds better to you?

  105. YEAH!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I cant wait, Quake 2 is the best game of all time! Absolutely nothing even comes close, I knew they'd base it on Quake 2. They know its better than Quake 3. Thanks id!!!!

  106. Ah Hah - Caught you! by Monkey-Man · · Score: 1

    Damn astroturfers. . .

  107. (just kidding) by ryandlugosz · · Score: 1

    it's been a long day

  108. Who DIDN'T see Q4 coming? by Cheesy_Poof_Man · · Score: 1

    Thats like saying we are going to have a presidential election in 2004. Its GOING to happen.

  109. That's lame by Pope · · Score: 2

    it looks *way* too much like the Van Halen logo. :)

    --
    It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
  110. Maybe something else... by stikves · · Score: 1
    I could not see any mention on gamespy that Q4 will be a FPS.

    Does anyone remember the DOOM 3 demo movie? It was more like "Resident Evil" style game than a FPS.

    (Please do not get me wrong. I really would like to see RE4 on DOOM3 engine).

  111. Re:Fire up the ol' 2600... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    whats wrong with being up all night and drinking red bull? you'd be amazed how many non-13-year-olds are playing q3... ps..neither of those descriptions apply to me ;)

  112. Re:q4@raven... by JDooty1234 · · Score: 1

    Uhh.. to all those who say that Quake 2 Single doesn't work, I just beat the game in Hard mode in about 3 weeks. I LOVE Quake 2. Especially on a Riva TNT2 w/ 32MB of memory.

  113. More yawns are heard. by eddy · · Score: 2

    You really believe delta-compression was invented with Q3, don't you? :-\

    Sorry, but this is getting boring. Technically the engines are great, but... Wolfenstein, Doom, Doom 2, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3/Quake 3:TA, "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", Doom 3, Quake 4... it's getting a little bit repetitive.

    The Looking Glass people did it right with Thief. Red Storm built Rainbow Six around good gameplay, but a crap engine and the worst netcode I've experienced (well, that's a lie -- I'm not counting Operation Flashpoint since I consider it Beta). Couldn't ID take their tech to the tactical level?

    I've been waiting for ID to whip up a real good CRPG using a state-of-the-art 3d-engine for some time now... I hope those people over at ID can enjoy games from some other genre than just straight action-FPS, or they'll fade away... I'm not seeing myself buying any of their FPS anyhow. <shrug>.

    Ah well, guess we have Bioware and Gas Powered Games to refine and put out some great gameplay for us.

    Chris Taylor and John Carmack teaming up, now that could be interesting. Or maybe Jane Jensen doing another Gabriel Knight using Carmack-o-tech. Anything BUT ANOTHER FPS!

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
    1. Re:More yawns are heard. by rodolfo.borges · · Score: 1

      > Technically the engines are great, but...
      > Wolfenstein, Doom, Doom 2, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3/Quake 3:TA,
      > "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", Doom 3, Quake 4...
      > it's getting a little bit repetitive.

      The real great innovations were:
      - Wolfenstein: first real FPS
      - Doom: multiplayer
      - Quake: programmable (QuakeC)

      After that, there was basically just graphic improvements..

  114. Re:Yay! by Hast · · Score: 1
    This makes the fourth Quake that I won't play!

    [snip]

    Quake just isn't in my past our future. Never touched any of them.

    How nice of you to share this with us all. Your mother must be very proud of you.

    ;-)

  115. Re:Full name.. by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 1

    ...Better than Quake IV: Licensed to Clones

    --
    ± 29 dB
  116. Re:Finally... by billh · · Score: 2

    Something has to push 3D graphics to be faster and better. It might as well be id. I, for one, am happy that I can pick up a GeForce II for $50 at the local computer store. My TNT2 runs Q3 fine, though.

  117. Re:The true question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ancient Romans actually would have used IIII instead of IV -- the second form is actually a modern invention.

  118. Foxed? [OT] by decaying · · Score: 1

    I thought 'foxed' was termed by OLGA (and its mirrors) being shut down (ok... attempting to be shut down) by Harry Fox?

    --
    ----- One piece short of Legoland
    1. Re:Foxed? [OT] by Osty · · Score: 1

      The Aliens Quake TC was Foxed before OLGA was shut down, so by prior art, Aliens Quake can claim the "Foxed" term.

  119. Re:Finally... by agrafe · · Score: 1

    While I agree with you that the current trend of graphics over gameplay is destroying gameplay, you should get your facts straight. Half-Life is on a modified Quake 2 engine... not Quake.

  120. Quake IV: The battle against Sir Cam by Sk3lt · · Score: 1

    yep .. imagine the storyline about how the Sir Cam virus infected the strogg planet and cause all of the robots and machines to mal function.. I would love that :P But anyway I loved all 3 Quake games .. well actually Quake was a bit well... not as good as Duke Nukem 3D. When Quake II came out I was in heaven.. the character animations for deaths and everything where really good... good gameplay too. Now Quake III ... wow! Beautiful graphics, fast gameplay and tons and tons of gibs. I reckon Quake IV should take Quake III's fast action and add even more eye candy whilst using Quake II's storyline and just make it more interactive.. similar to Half Life. I will just sit back and wait .. twiddling my thumbs with anticipation

  121. wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if it runs linux

    1. Re:wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if it doesn't, of course it runs NetBSD!

  122. Re:anyone know? by eXtro · · Score: 1
    then configuring the game on a command line
    Where this mystical configuration procedure which seemed to tax you so was: start.

    Sorry, you're a troll. I agree that some things can be simpler, but even if I had to install it I can find a prepacked RPM or Debian package.

    rpm -ivh freeciv.rpm, or something close.

    I did a bit more exploring on freeciv, it is extremely configurable, which real civilization isn't (they wouldn't make things really configurable since they can make boatloads more money on seperate scenarios). But still, typing "start" will at least get you playing.

  123. Re:Quake4 + Mac by Thaidog · · Score: 0

    I totally agree about cocoa... I need true SMP support for my DP533... and OS X makes such a nice game development rig now that you can run photoshop full speed with OS 9 and all your development on ported unix apps.

    --

    ||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.

  124. Re:attention spans and the changing gaming world by kin_korn_karn · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Oh, but they're designed that way. It's a one-shot consumer product. If there was a game that you never got sick of and played for years, forsaking all other games, how would design houses make money? There are a finite number of people in the world that want a particular game, and they are, for all intents and purposes, an indestructible non-decaying product. You don't typically need to buy multiple copies of the same game, so they have to make multiple games to stay in business.

    The sad part of the game industry is how all the small shops are folding. That's our (the gamers) fault. Our demands for production value are so high these days that the overhead associated with creating even a modest game is staggering. You need artists, $10k/license 3d modeling packages, specialized motion-capture equipment, powerful workstation-class PCs, shop licenses for Visual C++ and the DirectX SDK, kickbacks to hardware mfgs to get reference HW to test your code on, tons of marketing, junkets for reviewers, and so forth just to be competitive in the market, which has grown to the level of having games in the middle of the aisle in Wal-Mart.

    Gaming's become as diversified and complex a business as movies or TV. And like the movies, mainstream gaming is distilling down to a few large publishers (Infogrames, Sierra, MS), and mostly puts out crap. The gems still come from the independent guys who somehow get picked up by a big studio. Bioware/Black Isle and Interplay comes to mind.

  125. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Polo · · Score: 4, Informative
    Imagine, a game that has the fear factor of Doom, the physics of Q2, and the eye candy of Q3. I can hope, can't I?

    You might want to give Serious Sam a shot.

    My first time playing it I found myself chuckling *uncontrollably* while shooting *hordes* of oncoming monsters. Lots of monsters. Some of them hundreds of feet tall. (I was playing a network game cooperatively with a friend). I was rolling on the floor when I first picked up a cannon.

    The only thing that could be improved would be to add some more levels... say 200 or so... Yeah, 200 levels... that's a nice round number...
  126. Re:Phew! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hey, jerk-off, you misspelled "the."

  127. quake was fun.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ..about 5 years ago.
    but now quake has been surpassed by UT, Tribes2 and others.
    i hope they do something original and fun this time.

  128. Quoting id Software map designer by jfedor · · Score: 2

    there will be no Quake 4
    -- Tim Willits

    So, I guess he was wrong, eh? :)

    -jfedor
  129. LORD above... by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    the game that can bring my Geforce3 to 30FPS is staggering. I run UT in full glory at 1280x1024
    32bit color and get 90-100 FPS, note that is WITH dynamic lighting and ALL the eye candy.
    The thought of the amount of data to bring that down to 30 FPS gives me the willies. Is a good time to be a technophile :)

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  130. Quake 3 is boring by mike32 · · Score: 1

    I used to think Quake 3 was good, until i played UT. Bring on Unreal Tournament 2

  131. yeah by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

    its called Q1. That game will give anyone nightmares. Get Reznor back on music and sound effects. Nothing beats Q1 for atmosphere and ambience.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  132. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by modecx · · Score: 1

    bleahgh, stupid extrans.. sorry for the cruft, but I'm too lazy to fix it. I should really change that someday...

    --
    Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
  133. Counterstrike is actually the Quake 1 engine. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Counterstrike is a Half-Life mod, and Half-Life uses the Quake 1 engine. (notice how it still has the mouselook bug when the console is down.)

    Yes, it took that long to release half-life, heh.

  134. Re:great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think they get it!

  135. Re:Finally... by terrymah · · Score: 1

    Wrong, Half-life is built fully on the Q1 engine.

  136. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Osty · · Score: 3, Informative

    Counterstrike, one of the most popular multiplayers games at this time, is based on the q2 engine (heavily modified by Valve), so this says something about the enduring appeal of q2, and its associated engine.

    Actually, Counter-strike is just a modification for Half-Life, which itself was originally based on the Quake 1 engine, but Valve heavily modified it (skeletal animation, scripting, etc) and rolled in some updates from Quake 2 as well. Thus, the Half-Life engine is really an amalgam of Q1 and Q2, with a lot of Valve thrown in as well. Which, btw, would explain why it's also very dated-looking (which doesn't have to be such a bad thing, as long as the games are still fun).

  137. Re:Yay... more id Junk. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i'm really curious as to what you think makes half-life more appealing to players who prefer "thoughtful, strategic players." you do realize the only thing that separates half-life from quake is the story? the gameplay is the exact same: shoot the monster, find the key (or flip the switch, or whatever), shoot the bigger monster, find the door.

  138. Quake IV on CNN's Web site by antdude · · Score: 2

    Screen Shot. However, it is not real :). Saw this on Shacknews.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  139. Unreal had volumetric fog by robson · · Score: 1

    Okay, it's a minor point, but Unreal featured volumetric fog before Quake 3. (And, for that matter, Unreal's volume fog wasn't restricted to ground fog.)

  140. Carmack had issues with locker-room showers. by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1
    Ahem. I shall now ascend the soapbox of toxic opinion. . .

    As far as I'm concerned, single player FPS games got boring after Dark Forces. (Possibly the most amazing FPS ever made.) --Dark Forces was fun was because you got to be in Star Wars, shoot a blaster with Ben Burt sound effects, and take down storm troopers after they bark over their crackly com links, "There he is! Get him!". (Too bad the Star Wars feel got polluted with misplaced James Cameron Terminator stuff. . , but that's another story. The first mission of that game was the coolest damn thing I ever saw! I was thinking, "Oh no! I MUST capture those Death Star plans! The Resistence; heck, super-babe of the entire male X-Gen youth, Princess Leia herself, is counting on me!)

    Damn, that was a good game. And no saves between levels. That's what fun is all about!

    Anyway, Half Life was also sort of neat. Finally somebody did something semi-worthwhile with the whole X-Files bullshit parade. --Although, the game made the entire American military look like a bunch of poorly trained retards. . . "Forget Freeman! That geek boy is just too good for our armor plated super-trained asses! Run for your lives!" But that's just a bit of weak writing; the rest of it was engaging, --Although, I could have done with about 10 fewer levels of endless weird-space or wherever the heck all that boring alien bullshit was taking place.

    But Quake? Hell, ID, in general. . . Is it just me or is Carmack and his team of CRT radiated white & pasty code monkeys members of the Todd McFarlane jar-headed "Cuz, demons are like, fuckin' cool," posse? Give me a break already. What's with this obsession with demonic nonsense, anyway? It isn't frightening, it isn't interesting, and the fabled Quake 'atmosphere' just makes me feel I've got slime on my boots, hands and elbows. Ooh. Fun. Slime. Honestly! Why would anybody want to spend their free gaming time crawling around in drippy torture chamber hallways? I bet even the undead hate their digs, which would explain their foul tempers.

    To ID: Either come up with an aesthetic which isn't loaded down with painfully obvious Freudian highschool washroom references, or go live in the sewers with the rest of the fricking Morlocks.

    Sheesh.

    Lad out.

    Fantastic Lad - The most opinionated Lad of the all!"

  141. Re:Quake4 + Mac by ptbrown · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nonono... Carbon is just a compatibility hack. Real apps should be build with Cocoa, but I'm sure Carmack doesn't need to be told. As we all remember, OpenStep (now Cocoa) was the original development platform for Doom and Quake. So when he says that MOSX is his "new" development platform, he really means "old".

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from Gods.
  142. Dumbentia Called It by bonzoesc · · Score: 3, Funny
    http://www.dumbentia.com/pdflib/quaker.pdf - PDF link

    I'm looking forward to Quake 4: Quaker.

  143. No wonder there's no more good domain names left by Powercntrl · · Score: 1

    It must be hard to come up with new names. Hmm, Pentium IV, Quake IV, Code Red III. While we're at it, has anyone come up with a name for this decade? I propose we call it: Y2K + 1

    Seriously though, this is going to have to stop sometime - I don't want to be playing Quake 69 on my Pentium 69.

    ---

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  144. Dual Weapons! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They had best give the player the chance to wield two weapons at once, a la Unreal Tournament.

    In the meantime, I can't wait for Bid For Power, quite the kickass Q3 mod.

  145. But... by trommaster · · Score: 1
    I thought ID wasn't wanting to release a quake 4 after all the work that went into III.
    And what is happening to Doom 3? Wasn't that being developed as well?

    Oh well.

    -
    whatdoyougetwhenyoumultiplysixbynine

  146. DROOL drool by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    Yes, I've seen some on UnrealEngine.com our host, MAN it looks impressive. Soon we will be playing TV like games :)

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  147. Unreal by robvasquez · · Score: 1

    I'd just like to say Unreal sucks and always has.

    Duke's a flamer too

  148. Re:Every id game is worth it by SlippyToad · · Score: 2
    I can't imagine how anyone can be truly, "tired" of the Quake genre.

    Quake I was pretty boring. After I got over the 360 degree view, I realized that the levels were all demonstrations of "look, we can do full 360 degree views!!!" I could play through the entire first four shareware episodes in under thirty minutes. I finished the full game in under three hours. no, I don't play on nightmare skill level. The interesting part of the game, to me, is not killing the monsters. Adding more of them doesn't make the game more fun. It's figuring out the level. Well in Quake they might as well paint arrows on the walls. I never got stuck in Quake.

    But that's entirely subjective. I have great praise for Quake as a game . . . engine. But as an actual game it seems to lack something. It's not challenging for me to click the joystick trigger hundreds of times. I want my brain to get exercised as well.

    --
    One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
  149. Everything from Quake on has been a step backwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In one important aspect Quake was a step backwards. That aspect was the move from sprites to polygons. Whereas before, bodyparts had rounded curves, starting with Quake everything is jagged edges. It looks artificial and unnatural. It reminds of a wooden puppets -- hunks of wood connected by string. But more importantly than the look of monsters, is that now because of polygons there can only be a few monsters on the screen at a time (I haven't played Serious Sam so I don't know if it is an exception). I still remember the adrenaline rush of opening a door in Doom 2 and finding a whole room full of imps. I miss the chaos and insanity of level 30 of Doom 2. I miss the huge brawls that broke out. I miss the sound of 30+ monsters grunting and screaming in rage and pain. I miss, in the other levels, maneuvering all the monsters into one place and getting a huge fight to break out among them. In that important aspect, it's been all downhill ever since Doom.

  150. Re:I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by cyberbob2010 · · Score: 0

    amen. long live Unreal Tournament. long live dreamcast and long live seganet
    cyberbob

    --
    We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
  151. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    funny, I'm still hooked on quake1 because I thought the physics in quakeworld & quake2 & quake3 sucked.

  152. The lizards in Unreal, Return to Na Pali. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd been playing FPS for 6 or 7 years and no monsters scared me anymore, until the first time I encountered those lizards in Return to Na Pali. Those suckers can run as fast as you (maybe slightly faster). The first time I saw a pack of them I turned and ran off to a safe place to pick them off from a distance. When I turned to fire at them, I was horrified to find that they were already right on top of me gnawing away at me. A shiver literally went down my spine. Having a pack of them come running at me full speed stills gives me a shiver. Until Return to Na Pali, you've always had the advantage of being faster than any monster in the game. Having a monster that can consistently reach you before you can kill it is frightening.

  153. Re:Yay... more id Junk. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess some people just like the kind of mindless shooting associated with Quake and its mods, while more thoughtful, strategy-type people like HL and its mods.

    Yes, mindless shooting seems to be *associated* with Quake all too often. There is just as much thought and strategy going into a good game of Q3 as a good game of Counter-Strike. The difference is that the thinking is happening in a quarter of a second rather than over the span of a minute. Unfortunately, Q3 degenerates into a mindless sea of bullets all too often. The Q3 maps were designed for 4-6 players for a good reason. Pack 20 players in a small area and you get a spamfest; spread 20 players out enough and they dont get involved enough for direct competition. Unfortunately, a lot of servers will set their player limit WAY too high. Try either playing a smaller game or get Rocket Arena, and see if its as mindless as you thought. I dont see how CS and TFC are that awfully strategic anyway...

  154. Too many sequals by Bahamuto · · Score: 1

    Ok first Code Red II and III, and now Quake IV man everybody knows that it just gets worse after the first one...

    Hacked by Microsoft!!!

  155. anyone know? by jchristopher · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Will the new Quake 4 make the user setup, configure, and run the software from a command line like the "FreeCiv" software in the article below?

    Somehow I doubt it. Why? Probably because idSoftware wants people to USE their software, not dick around for hours setting it up. Compare this to the open source model, where the program is frequently only useful to the people who wrote it.

    Wake up! If you can't make your software easier to us, the people who need it the most can't use it!

  156. Yay! by crashnbur · · Score: 1
    I'm so happy!

    I'm so thrilled!

    This makes the fourth Quake that I won't play!

    Not that Quake isn't worth it, but I have to be really selective of my games to fit them into a schedule involving work, school, family obligations, a girlfriend, and other friends... Not to mention my precious baby and my recently acquired Gran Turismo 3.

    Quake just isn't in my past our future. Never touched any of them.

    1. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Geesh, what a little boring life you must have.b

  157. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, it will have the eye-candy of DooM3, not Q3.

  158. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by kin_korn_karn · · Score: 1

    Go buy System Shock 2 and go to theunderdogs.net for System Shock 1 if you want fear in your gaming experience. Both are 1st person games, but are not shooters. Personally, I liked Q2 SP a hell of a lot. It didn't scare me, but the design of nearly everything in the game just clicked with me. The monsters looked so damn cool (like that walker-bot thing with the miniguns) and I loved the heavy colored lighting, too, especially when it was used to create a sunlight-through-windows effect.

  159. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by dnaumov · · Score: 1

    First of all there's a lot of confusion going on around here. Many ppl actually think that ID is working on Doom3, Quake4 and Doom GBA at the same time and that's not correct. ID is working on Doom3, Raven Software is working on Quake4 (a game built around the Quake2 universe and utilizing the Doom3 tech) and some 3rd company is developing the GBA port for Doom. A sequel based around the Quake2 universe is simply easier to do. No doubt, it would've been even better if Raven could've developed a great game based on the Quake universe, but living up to the expectations would be VERY hard. With Quake2, you have a stronger and simpler overall theme of the game and you can build on it. I'll be taking a loan soon (now seems like a good time) and I am gonna wait until GeForce4 or whatever comes out and upgrade my computer to an 1.7 Ghz AMD when those come out.

  160. Re:Quake4 + Mac by Thaidog · · Score: 0

    All I can say is good... OS 9 is fast... and that's about it. It's like gambling is the best way to put it. When it's working, it's solid computing, but when one little thing goes wrong, everything then goes wrong... I'll take minus alittle speed for stabilty anyday.

    --

    ||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.

  161. who needs 70fps anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the time has come to tell developers its no longer about making games pretty anymore.. its a fact that the fun is disappearing..do you still play games as long as you used to play ol skool games? max payne and giants are an exception..great game,nice graphics,good story

  162. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by ywwg · · Score: 1

    I'd still play q2 rocket arena, but the linux support is awful. They don't implement either mouse handling or full-screen mode or sound very well, so it's too much of a pain to bother. q3a for linux is much much cleaner, and although its version of rocket arena doesn't compare to ra2, I play it instead.

  163. Fire up the ol' 2600... by phillymjs · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    ...if you want to play some titles where gameplay matter, not just all them purty pixchers and the "if it moves, shoot it, you twitchy, been-up-all-night, Red Bull swilling, 13 year-old bastard!" mentality.

    I mean really, how much longer will idiots keep buying the same game that DOOM was back in 1993? It was fun for a few weeks in single-player, and a few more weeks after me and some friends cobbled together a few 486/66s and set up a 10Base2 network for deathmatches. After that, yawnsville.

    ~Philly

    1. Re:Fire up the ol' 2600... by Hast · · Score: 1

      Yeah, because shooting big blocks of pixels are a lot more fun than shooting great looking 3d models.

      There were some really good games "back then" but a lot of it was junk. And today even poor games generally have pretty pictures to look at at least. ;-)

    2. Re:Fire up the ol' 2600... by Equinox · · Score: 1

      I work tech support, so I get to deal with people all day long who have no idea how to right click. My point being, I'm constantly thinking up a "strategy" on how to get them to do what they need to do. When I go home and want to have fun, and relax, I don't want to think. I think hard all day long. I want one rule: if it a'int me...make it explode. ymmv

  164. Re:Oh WOW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i agree, quake series is not a game but a benchmark/engine demo, not actually intended for play by the life endowed.

  165. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by ywwg · · Score: 1

    that's amazingly cool, thanks! Now if only my cable got a ping lower than 300 on a consistant basis :(.

  166. yaaaaawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    castle wolf.. doom 3.. quake 4.. YAWN.. where's the innovation id? you guys afraid of doing something new? seems like you're stuck in a rut.

  167. Re:attention spans and the changing gaming world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If there was a game that you never got sick of and played for years... There are lots of games like that. One example: Grand Prix Legends. Its like you've bougth a violin. You'll never stop plaing, never stop learning.

  168. Re:The true question is... by Brian+Stretch · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, after III comes IV, not IIII.

    You wanna argue with the nailgun, you go right ahead...

  169. Title should have been by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Id announces Quake4: More of the Same Boring Shit"

  170. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Counter-strike is based on Half-Life, and if I'm not mistaken, half-life was created with a heavily modified Q1 engine.

  171. Re:The true question is... by mirko · · Score: 2

    maybe this won't use roman but arabic notation, like in this example...

    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
  172. Re:dundant? by option8 · · Score: 2

    how is it i can get modded up for replying to somebody else's redundant post with the above link, and get modded down here for being redundant - i suppose to myself...

    oh well, that's slashdot democracy for you...

  173. Re:The true question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you're the stupidest fuck on the internet

  174. Finally... by kypper · · Score: 1

    a new benchmark for all the new video cards coming out!

    1. Re:Finally... by htmlboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      johnc has noted that he's developing the new engine on a geforce3, and it will probably get around 30 fps on a geforce3 when the game's finally released.

      finger johnc@idsoftware.com for the details.

      it'll be a while before anything's released, though, so it's not unrealistic to use a geforce3 as the baseline card.

    2. Re:Finally... by Milican · · Score: 2

      Or you can click on the finger link provided by PlanetQuake.

      :)

      JOhn

  175. details? by 18buddhas · · Score: 0

    thats not really a lot of details

  176. Full name.. by abischof · · Score: 4, Funny

    I still think they should call it "Quake 4: The Voyage Home".

    --

    Alex Bischoff
    HTML/CSS coder for hire

  177. The sad thing is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "ID Software is good at making engines, as some of you pointed out, but not very good at making single player games."

    The sad thing is that back in the days of Doom they used to be the very best at making single player games.

  178. agggh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ID has really become a very lame company. I remember thinking back in the day after playing Doom that the FPS just couldn't get any better. I guess ID agreed. They still haven't released a better game than Doom. In fact, they're desperately trying to recapture the game by releasing Doom 3.

    Aren't people getting a little sick of "gothic styled mindless FPS's" yet?

  179. I am going to say it.... by The+Ape+With+No+Name · · Score: 1

    I guess it is not Real Soon Now(tm)....

    --
    Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
  180. The true question is... by sheetsda · · Score: 4, Funny

    where are they going to put the fourth nail in the logo?

    1. Re:The true question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps you should start reading /. at -1.

    2. Re:The true question is... by option8 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    3. Re:The true question is... by felipeal · · Score: 1

      Actually, after III comes IV, not IIII.

  181. I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2, Flamebait
    I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part, because they dropped the ball on Quake III. It's been all Unreal Tournament for me for the last 18 months.

    Oh yeah, and they better make it run faster on an the Athlon than the P4, or all the /. armchair CPU architects out there are really going to be pissed :-)

    1. Re:I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by isorox · · Score: 1

      You think an Athlon running slower will get them pissed? Is there any truth to the no-linux version rumour?

    2. Re:I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by htmlboy · · Score: 2

      Oh yeah, and they better make it run faster on an the Athlon than the P4, or all the /. armchair CPU architects out there are really going to be pissed :-)

      That's a difference in compiler optimizations. By the time this is released, id might be using a compiler that allows the P4's deep pipelining to be a good thing.

    3. Re:I hope they put more focus on the "fun" part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In one of the articles I read Carmack said there may not be a boxed Linux version, due to the "low sales" of Quake 3 for Linux. But he did promise that Linux binaries would be released regardless of what happens with the boxed version. Actually I think this was regarding the new Doom 3 and not Quake 4, but I would imagine the same thing would hold true for Quake. If they don't release a Doom box for Linux I don't see any reason they would release a Quake box.

  182. Not so good for we who suck... by floodle · · Score: 1

    Great, now I can get fragged all over the place with a (GASP) new 3d engine!!

    Man, I wish I didn't suck.

  183. Oh WOW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another barebones game engine demo with no plot and crappily designed maps tacked on so millions of no-life geeks will play it 24 hours a day!

    the irony is, people will waste karma modding me down because they feel I've insulted them.

    get... a... LIFE!

    Introducing the new Dual Oculon Game engine!
    - Infinite color depth!
    - Full depth perception!
    - TRUE 3D!!!!
    - Unlimited size and number of textures!
    - True curved surfaces!!!!
    - built in model skinning!

    All this, and more, comming to a human being near you! Thats right folks, this amazing system comes BUILT IN to EVERY HUMAN BEING THERE IS! AMAZING!!!!!!

    blah...

    -mithrandir

  184. Phew! by James+Foster · · Score: 1

    Thank god the "Matrix-style effects" claim was retracted!

  185. Yay... more id Junk. by Jester998 · · Score: 1, Troll

    Oh boy! I can't wait to see all the useless benchmarks that this game will generate!
    Seriously, though... id Software makes great game ENGINES... they do NOT, however, make great games. I'm sorry, but I had to say it. I always hated Quake, from the first time I played it. Love Half-Life though. I STILL go through the single-player game sometimes because it's FUN! Quake has something lacking in gameplay, always has, and likely always will. Just my thoughts.
    */me gets into fire resistant clothing* Quake addicts, feel free to light up the flamethrowers now.


    - Jester

    1. Re:Yay... more id Junk. by iamblades · · Score: 1

      There are reasons Quake is so popular you know? Although I agree that Half-Life is a much better game than quake 3 on it's own right, there is more to quake 3 than the game itself. IMO, the quake 3 mod scene is far superior to the half life mods, and quake 3 servers are much esier to find. And in the end, like everything, it all comes down to opinion...

      --
      Shit adds up at the bottom...
  186. great by nomadic · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Yes, we haven't had enough first person shooters in the past 5 years. And people wonder why Japanese games are more fun.

  187. I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by Jailbrekr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Contrary to many a naysayer who says that 'Quake 1/2/3 is dead', people keep playing, and our q2 game servers are actually enjoying a bit of a resurgance (sp). Why? Because it is still one hell of alot of fun to play. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING can compare to the q2 physics. It had an excellent combination of good graphics, excellent multiplayer code, and physics that allowed to game to be fast paced, but not too fast paced where it seemed too unreal (no pun intended). Counterstrike, one of the most popular multiplayers games at this time, is based on the q2 engine (heavily modified by Valve), so this says something about the enduring appeal of q2, and its associated engine.

    Q3 was cute, and had excellent eye candy, but I found it to be entirely unplayable. I did not enjoy the levels (even thou they were beautiful), nor did I enjoy how my character handled. It was too 'soft and squishy' for my tastes. It was obvious that ID wrote it not to sell it as a game itself, but to sell the engine to mod builders.

    I can only hope that ID learns from its previous games, and can somehow capture the strong points of all their titles.

    Imagine, a game that has the fear factor of Doom, the physics of Q2, and the eye candy of Q3. I can hope, can't I?

    --
    Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
    1. Re:I hope they model it after q2 and not q3. by cobar · · Score: 2

      You want q2hack which gives you full screen mode and DGA mouse input.

      It's available from:
      http://staff.xmms.org/zinx/q2hack/

  188. Good one, but... by Rimbo · · Score: 1

    Good funny, but actually, since it uses the new DOOM engine, I don't think so.

  189. OT: Slavery by NullAndVoid · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Leftist: Force the world into slavery. Liberal: Vote the world into slavery. Libertarian: Let us alone!

    Libertarian: sell the world into slavery

    --


    -- Sigs are for losers
  190. The Single-Player Storyline Returns? by 08thMSTeam · · Score: 2

    Quake 4, which will take a trip back to the Quake 2 Strogg universe.

    Hopefully a sign of the return of the single player game. As much as I love mowing down 13 year olds with a prediliction towards the word "j00", a tripped-out futuristic blast-fest with a decent story sounds great :)

  191. attention spans by British · · Score: 2

    What I've noticed is that all these hot FPS games only hold my(and a few others') attention for several months at a time.

    First it was me playing TFC for a while. Got bored with it.

    Then I played Counterstrike for a while. Got bored with the SAME maps over again. Let's play cs_dust one more time!

    Then I played Firearms. TONS of maps. Got repetetive, and not even the big selection of guns could hold my interest. Too many maps had small choke points where mortars and grenades kept exploding.

    Then I played Tribes 2. It locked up after 10 minutes. Played tribes 2 again. Download weekly patch. Locks up after 10 minutes.

    It'll be an interesting toss-up to see if Castle Wolfenstein or Quake 4 will be the next "Trendy" FPS.

    1. Re:attention spans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually its de_dust, not cs_dust. And you'd be surpised about the number of maps there are out there for CS now.. But seriously, to enjoy CS you have to grab together a couple of your friends and play in a low ping environment.. it never gets boring that way..

  192. Quake4 + Mac by Thaidog · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I hope they have a carbonized version that *works* with OS X.... OK flame away like you're all from San Fran... (no dip to SF though..)

    --

    ||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.

  193. This is a surprise? by nougatmachine · · Score: 2, Troll
    In other news:

    Israel and Palestine continue to have disagreements.
    Bill Gates has officially gone on record saying that open-source "promotes ulcers".
    The stock market had a disappointing week.
    Eric S. Raymond has published his newest essay, "The surprising connections between closed-source software and ingrown toenails".
    Richard Stallman has published the definitive list distinguishing between "free", "inexpensive", "costly-but compatible with free", and "immoral" software licenses.
    ...and finally, a heated argument took place at a college between two students debating the merits of vi and emacs.

  194. Wasn't Q3 supposedly the final? by jstockdale · · Score: 1

    Not to complain, as I personally think the Quake series kick some serious ass, but am I the only one that recalls Id saying that Q3 was going to be the last in the series, and that they were going on to work on Wolfenstein?

    --
    **AA: a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes
  195. q4@raven... by nemof · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think it's great that raven are dev'ing q4. They've built themselves a reputation for fine games over the last couple of years but tbh they've really got their work cut out for them on this one. I'm damned suprised that Q4 follows on from q2 and not q1. I was betting on a continuation of quake1 for a long time; I never felt that Quake2 single player worked. It will be interesting to see what it runs like on a good rig as they stand at the moment, with the news that doom3 will run at about 30fps on a geforce 3 I'm wondering how much Raven will use q3's landscaping features that were introduced with q3ta; Damn, I really wanted a continuation of quake. Ah well can't have everything. as John Carmack said a while ago: "There will be no quake4". laterz

    --
    -nemof
    "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
  196. Unreal Championship = UT2, Unreal 2 = next Unreal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No text.

  197. Graphics, Shamfics... by mjed · · Score: 1

    What I'm looking foward to is the story!

    --
    I'm a repairman in an imperfect world.
  198. *yawn* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like Quake3 wasn't super boring...

    Like Quake2 wasn't boring...
    Quake series doesn't have a monopoly on eye candy anymore...

    so i cease to give a shit.

  199. ID and Raven Software... by dnaumov · · Score: 1

    It has been like that since Quake (yes, the first one) that ID stopped producing quality games and started concentrating on engine technology and Raven Software produced high quality games utilizing the engines from ID.

    Hexen II and Heretic II both utilized engines from ID and kicked some major arse. Now being give the Doom3 tech, they're going to create Quake4 and I think they would do it even better then ID itself. Mainly due to fact that most of the original creative talent from Quake has gone away from ID. John Romero, American McGee, etc.

  200. Every id game is worth it by Un1v4c · · Score: 1

    I can't imagine how anyone can be truly, "tired" of the Quake genre.
    There isn't any id game that wasn't worth its price tag.

    --

    I gave myself to Jesus, but now he never calls
  201. Double Yawn by Augusto · · Score: 1

    None of these features make the game necessarely more fun.

    It's time for ID to come up with something a bit more different, these games are really tired.

    They make great graphic engines, but that's not what games should be about.

    --

    - sigs are for wimps.
  202. I had a cigarette with ken Hoekstra today by TotallyUseless · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I believe that is how his name is spelled. He is one of the major badasses at Raven software. Saw him when we went outside to have a smoke, so he was on the receiving end of our little quiz (as well as picture taking session). At this point, the only thing done for Q4 is the contract, and a few possible ideas. Thats all. They dont know how gameplay will be. They dont have the story fleshed out. They just have a piece of paper with signatures. So, speculate all you want, nothing is decided.

    That being said, i think raven will do a great job with the project, judging from previous and upcoming work. Soldier of fortune 2 looks amazing, and is a lot of fun to play. They added a lot of value to the Q3 engine, and Im sure they will do the same in their own way with Q4. They plan on pretty much finishing up SOF2 before starting heavy duty work on Q4. Part of the reason for this is just to finish SOF2, and another reason is to let the Doom3 tech get a bit more mature before they start tweaking it for their own purposes.

    one more quick thing.. the footage used to show off the work on the doom3 engine... amazing... and chilling. I cant say how Doom3 will turn out in the end, but I can say that it has all the potential that the original did, as far as edge of your seat action goes. Add to that interaction you never dreamed of with the old doom, some nice AI (understatement) and you have a real potential winner again.

    --

    Time for some tasty Shiner Bock!