QuakeCon 2004 or Bust - Including Quake IV?

viperstyx writes "'Pack the car, buy the airline ticket, or get a new pair of walking shoes - just do whatever it takes to be at QuakeCon 2004. The 9th annual QuakeCon video game festival and tournament storms into town August 12-15 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.' Thats right, it's official [and yes, its called Gaylord]. Registration for this year's 3000 persion BYOC (bring your own computer) LAN party (1000 people bigger than last year) opens April 14 at 9pm EST! I wonder if they'll need two BFGs this year?" Also worth noting is the fact that the Raven-developed Quake IV may be showcased this year, according to hints from id's Todd Hollenshead at last year's QuakeCon.

Comments

Quake 4

[elasticwings]

So is Quake 4 coming out before or after Duke Nukem Forever?

Re:Quake 4

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn, how long you going to beat that dead horse? Its dead, Jim! Let it go!

Re:Quake 4

[elasticwings]

Aww, I just wanted to be on top of the list. It was the first thing that came to mind.

Re:Quake 4

[Anonymovs Covvard]

One of my biggest fears is that they when they finally do release Duke Nukem Forever, it will be on April 1st, and we all miss it.

Re:Quake 4

[nazh]

yeah, just like last time when they released duke nukem forver for atari, http://www.3drealms.com/duke4/dnf2600.html. they never should have picked that date, as you said everyone seemed to miss it ;)

The Gaylord..

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

This is the same location as this years Cyberathlete Professional Leauge.

Looks like a great place, some pictures are here

Re:The Gaylord..

[tolan-b]

"
Surrounded by rolling pastureland and overlooking beautiful Lake Grapevine, the magnificent new Gaylord Texan pays tribute to everything Texas as only Texas can: on a grand scale.
"

Does that make it a massive gaylord?

Re:The Gaylord..

[buffer-overflowed]

Well, as we all know, only two things come from Texas...

So, it unless it's a steer, yup.

I wonder...

[Jorkapp]

How many of the people at the LAN party just sit there and browse /. ?

Granularity of topics

[spood]

Does anyone else think these topics are getting too granular? Why isn't just Games good enough for a topic category anymore?

Re:Granularity of topics

[cuiousyellow]

*spood* almost dodged cuiousyellow's rocket.

(still have the everglide I won at qcon2k)

Re:Granularity of topics

[spood]

I see you got a keyboard with a working 'r' key, too.

Weeee

[Wuffle]

Gaylord....teeheeheeheeheee.

Sigh

[saden1]

Few years ago I would have gotten excited but alas I have gotten old and bored with the repetitiveness of it all.

Screenshots.

[irokitt]

Raven Games has some "screenshots" on their website. Makes for interesting viewing.

I'm waiting for some real news concerning Quake IV, especially as to whether it's going to be a tournament game like Quake III or will return to the earlier storylines from Quake I or Quake II. My bet is on a continuation of the Quake II storyline, but maybe it's just wishful thinking.

Re:Screenshots.

[Jorkapp]

In an email I read from John Carmack (paraphrased):

Quake IV will be a Doom3 Engine game with a storyline like that in Quake II.

Aside from that, I've heard little else of Q4.

Re:Screenshots.

[reiggin]

I think what's more hilarious than the link to "screenshots" is that mods have labeled this "Interesting." LMAO!

Re:Screenshots.

[Tuxinatorium]

So is duke nukem forever going to switch engines yet again, to the Doom3 engine (whenever that comes out)?? At least 3Drealms is still solvent, with the Max Payne series and all. So theoretically they'll have to finish DNF sometime this century.

Where have you been?

[Anonymous Coward]

They announced that it would be a continuation of Q2's story about a year ago.

Re:Where have you been?

[UWC]

Quake II had a storyline?

Re:Where have you been?

[Vengeance_au]

Quake II had a storyline?

Boy meets BFG.
Boy loves BFG.
Boy loses BFG.
Boy does rocket jump to prove love for BFG.
Boy and BFG live happily ever after.

And who says sequels arent as good as the original?

Re:Where have you been?

[Pxtl]

Thats disappointing - since they're already making Doom3 their story-driven SP game, I was hoping that Q4 would be a nice sequel to Q3 Arena.

I guess they've given up and let UT2k4 take over the genre.

Re:Where have you been?

[robnauta]

Quake II had a storyline?

It actually had. The story was in a .txt file in the directory where you had installed it. Apart from that, it wasn't in the game or mentioned in the package you got when you bought it.
I bet only a few people actually noticed and read this file ...

Whoa

[PeekabooCaribou]

I did not know such a thing existed. Anyone have any better shots of the "GE Show Power?"

Good luck explaining this to your friends

[MMaestro]

Guy 1 : "Hey guys wanna go to a hugeass LAN party?"
Guy 2 : "Sure, whats the name of the place?"
Guy 1 : "Gaylord."
Guy 2 : "What the hell?!"

You could try it on your siblings, parents or even random gamers you meet online, the possibilities are endless!

Re:Good luck explaining this to your friends

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps hugeass (hole) was better not used in the same sentence as "gaylord".

I'm a gaylord,

[jago25_98]

do I get free tickets?

Doesn't quake just feel... dated?

[Dragoon412]

I remember very fondly playing LAN games of Quake back in high school during my C++ class, while the teacher read to us out of a For Dummies book and sounded confused.

Then Quake 2 came out; it had some cool mods, and better graphics, but Quake 2 fundamentally was Quake. Same weapons, exact same gameplay.

Then Quake 3 came out; it was, well... Quake 2, which was just Quake. Same weapons, exact same gameplay, slightly better graphics.

I don't mean to troll, but is there really even a point to Quake 4? The gameplay experience hasn't changed since the original was released back in, what, 1995? It's been so long since I've even known anyone who's given a rat's ass about Quake that by now, I'd just assumed it was dead, and Id had moved on to the tech demo that is Doom 3.

Re:Doesn't quake just feel... dated?

[Firehawke]

Eh, what the hell.. I'll bite on this one.

Quake 2 DID feel considerably like Quake 1 (with a completely different weapon balance and an actual mission structure), but I can't see Q3 as being anything like the first two. In my estimation, it was a bit more like Doom with the faster pacing and plasma rifle.

Quake 4.. well, we don't know anything about how the game itself will shape up. I can't really say that Quake's dead considering there're still a whole lot of people playing Q3 online. As late as last summer, I decided to hop onto QuakeWorld and see what was going on-- there were still a number of diehards playing Quake 1 on there.

If Q4 takes the best parts of Q2 and Q3, it might actually be pretty good, but I'd expect any announcement on the game to be a huge milestone-- Raven software, I believe, is doing Q4. They're using the Doom 3 engine for it, this much is definitely known. As a result, they're probably going to wait on showing anything until the Doom 3 engine has settled into a reasonably final form. Q4 being unveiled should coincide with settling in the background for D3 as a result.

Re:Doesn't quake just feel... dated?

[Scooter]

Quake(world) was: Brown
Quake II was: Fast moving, slow firing
Quake III is: Slower moving, faster firing

There is a world of difference in the "feel" of the movement in all 3 games, but as with so many things, it depends on how close up you get. Seen from a distance - yep - they're all pretty much the same idea, but then that's no bad thing either - large numbers of Quake fans including me *do* just want the same gameplay with up to date graphics.

I'm not too fussed on the storyline thing, although I did like the atmosphere Quake II had in the single player game, which was largely down to the background sound track. For me, its yet to be bettered.

Qukae II is also top of my list for multiplayer gameplay. I like the speed at which you can move. I feel like I'm trudging about with my pants round my ankles in Quake3, although it's still a hugely playable game (to get some perspective, Half Life = Lead underpants, and shoe laces tied together ). Quake 3's weapon switch speed and faster firing rates compensate though.

Re:Doesn't quake just feel... dated?

[Anonymous Coward]

::Quake III is: Slower moving, faster firing::

Whaa? Q3 is the ultimate "twitch" game! Pure speed in all aspects of gameplay.

Re:Doesn't quake just feel... dated?

[robnauta]

Well the point to the Quake series is to sell the engines. And to have people have some fun with some mindless neverending deathmatching. But Quake gets released to demo the new engine, and to make a few bucks at the same time.

But gamewise anyone must admin the games suck. It's a general problem with ID. Take for instance Return to castle Wolfenstein. Nice game in the beginning but the difficulty ramps up quickly so after walking through the first levels you come to a point where you get stuck. The storyline with those lame zombies was also moronic. A lot of details just felt wrong with this game. It starts right at the beginning. When you escape the cell and walk down the corridor, you notice that the doorknobs on the door are just above eye height. WTF ? Are you playing a midget ?

Now compare this to Medal of Honor, released a month later. That was a great game, balanced, good levels, great multiplayer and a decent storyline.

Internet play has superceded LAN parties

[British]

....IMO.

The prospect of sitting around a bunch of teenage kids who haven't quite mastered the art of deoderant, and having an investment of mine sitting around while I go for a smoke.

Nah, I'd rather sit at home and find a good dedicated Internet server, and play in my underwear. No lugging things aronud, no fighting with a busted ntework config at the party.

Sure, there was the social aspect of LAN parties, but sausagefests I would rather not bother with.

Besides, I lust for more FPSes with games that have more players at a time. Take 64 players in WOlfenstein: ET for example. I can't fit 64 players in my house.

Re:Internet play has superceded LAN parties

[Anonymous Coward]

What you say is true. But Quakecon and the CPL events are more about the tournaments than just the LAN party.

i don't like....

[patrick.whitlock]

the sound of the gaylord texan resort. dosen't seem like it would fit does it?

Re:Don't run Quake IV on WINDOWS

[SphericalCrusher]

Sure, Windows is unstable, with a shitload of holes and vulnerabilities, but what better OS to run it on? Windows actually has all of the driver updates/patches that we need and it's fairly easy to access them. I will probably end up running it on Linux though, but for the rest of the world, I don't see a problem using Windows for gaming.

Just dual-boot. Slackware and Windows XP. :)

Re:Don't run Quake IV on WINDOWS

[Anonymous Coward]

*Pssst*

Newbie...

Yeah, you...

YHBT. DFTFT. HAND.

Guys .. is time to update.

[AzraelKans]

Quake 3 feels like quake 2 and quake1? and quake4 will bt the same? I dont think so.
Guys please, this is a computer experts popular site, saying "doom looks like any fps" does NOT exactly show expertise but exactly the opposite. I mean, have you played? UT 2004? or Call of duty or battlefield? or Tribes 2? or (heaven forbid) halo? FPS have evolved A LOT. Ok, you still look for someone to shot and do so, but Heres a small brief of things you can do in FPS today that werent possible "back when we played in the school lan"

Up to 128 players in a single match.

Up to 8 player team

different classes per player.

Multiple vehicle driving. which includes, pilot, copilot, gunner, bomber. and this include, land, air and sea vehicles (in some cases)

healing and giving items to partners

up to 12 completely different type of games, (is not deathmatch and cTF anymore)

VOICE COMMUNICATION (gosh, how many times I got killed for typing something at q3?)

Team based gaming.

on the fly map design (in some cases).

RTS elements!

"Real life" guns and ammo behaviour (in some cases)

real human like intelligent bots. (ut 2004 has such good bots, you never miss playing against humans!)

Realistic physics! (one thing I loved about halo, was that you cant flip enemy cars with bombs! ;) )

MUCH MUCH better graphics.(yeah I know Im a graphics freak, so what?)
Try to compare any of this features with your favorite ("back in school") game. You think quake 4, (quake in the doom 3 engine) will be the same than quake except for the looks ? maybe you are right, but that doesnt mean the entire genere hasn't changed in 10 years!
And if you havent, and you have the PC to do so, go and pick at least the XMP demo of ut2004, you owe at yourself at least that much.