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Quake Live Public Beta Launches To High Demand
x1n933k writes "For anybody who was sitting on top of Quake Live's website today, clicking refresh and waiting for it to open, you can now browse over and join the fun. Unfortunately you'll have to hold in a queue: 'Here we are all dressed up and nowhere to go. Don't worry, to make sure everyone can enjoy the game we have activated our super secret Queue system, which keeps the server from being overloaded and affecting the website.' I've been waiting 40 minutes and now up to 591, after starting from 9982 but have been playing Quake 3 to kill time."
The queue bounced up over 15,000, and as of this posting, is down to about 7,000. It moves pretty quickly, and there's an explanatory tour to watch while you wait. Reader Rogerpq3 contributes an interview with id's John Carmack and Marty Stratton, in which they discuss the game's technology and server infrastructure, as well as their thoughts on mod support.
I just signed up and was pushed onto a queue of 7200. I wonder what size it'll be in a couple of hours?
I just waited in queue for 5 minutes or so, only to be taken to a 'download plugin' page, which probably isn't compatible with my browser Opera.
I don't get it, this game requires a plugin to play? If you require players to download and run client side non-sandboxed code, why not just have a standalone client rather than playing through your web browser?
It's a .msi installer too, so probably requires admin access. So what's the point of this?
I.O.U One Sig.
There are ranked games and that appeals to me. I like to know how good I am in relation to the general populace. In the old quake, you could be top dog on a server, but still not know how good you are in relation to the world. I waited 3 hours through bugs, crashes and the queue to get it to work. It didn't work on IE6 or Firefox because the mouse wouldn't move, but I did get it to work on IE7. I played the training missions, but I was not able to play live because I was looking through the options to see how I can set weapon priorities. I always find it annoying when I am wielding a rocket launcher for me to switch to a shot gun just because I walk over it. While I was looking through my options and browsing the QuakeLive forums for help, I timed out. I'll wait until tomorrow if someone has an answer how I can set weapon priorities on the forums. It may just be another FPS, but it is a classy enough one that it is worth playing if for no other reason than to enhance your FPS skill.
God spoke to me.
but restricted to XP/Vista. Talk about sham.
XP or Vista only.
Why does this exist? What has this got that a dedicated client doesn't? When I first read about this, I thought they had somehow pulled a ninja using Flash's 3D api (does it have a 3D api?), Now THAT would be cool.
Not to mention from what I can see, its pretty much a repackaged free version of Quake III with new maps. But the lack of Mac support just kills it for me, Im not running emulation just to play a FPS when there are plenty of free and maintained FPS out there of the Quake and UT variety. Interesting concept but crappy execution.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Be aware that the installer leavs a punkbuster (anti-cheat) service running, even while not playing, at least the earlier betas did.
I miss CLOSED beta already. At least then I could get in.
Truth, Just Us, And Hatred For All Mankind!
Mac and Linux support are promised for final release. And yes, it is Q3. It is Q3 for free and in a browser with leaderboards and such.
Truth, Just Us, And Hatred For All Mankind!
I wandered onto the site just as it launched, lucky me. I got 2 matches under my belt. The tutorial is really handy for new players. The game servers seemed stable, everything looked pretty good and polished, even though it looks like a 10 year old game.
I was surprised at how nice the social networking stuff was implemented, it seems really easy to see which friends are online and join their games, and see people you recently played with.
I signed up to get altered by Id when the beta opened up, but have yet to hear anything. Why bother collecting emails of people if you aren't going to bother contacting them about what they signed up for?
the site has been slashqueued.position 12343...damn you slashdoters.. maybe a queue algoritm when folowing a hyperlink isn't such a bad ideea after all..at least the server is up
it looks pretty bleak compared to unity 3d (unity3d.com). i mean if it has to be a plugin...
check out their island demo. i'm pretty impressed.
there are many games poping up that use unity. cartoon network just launched a mmorpg. axe brasil has their "millions" game. check Offroad Veloceraptor safari or rasta monkey or feist to see whats possible
-s
Well apparently its Windows only, would have assumed the website would not keep you waiting for 35 minutes only to have you download a "Windows Only" plugin, would think a simple OS check would return that your platform was not supported and save you the time. Kind of eliminates the benefit of a browser plugin, if that plugin only supports 1 platform.
hit Ctrl + Alt + ~ !! then type com_allowconsole 1 and it should be accessible again by just hitting ~ For those who might be wondering. I was annoyed at first because I thought there was no console, but I found out that I can use my old config file too :)
For some reason /. has a special love for QuakeLive, but no love for instantaction.com which IMO is far superior with better games and graphics, and has been stable and playable long before QuakeLive was even ready. I keep posting about this, but I'm being ignored. There is some sort of conspiracy here.
If you search for instantaction on /. you get 0 stories, and QuakeLive returns four results. And, even recently instantaction has added new 3D games of different varieties, like the "ace of aces" 3D air combat game. The best one on their site is still "Fallen Empire Legions" and "Marble Blast" in my opinion, and "Think Tanks."
Why are these being overlooked? They are more creative, have better graphics, good network code, operate in your browser, etc.
When they blew away the competition, no stories. When they come out with new creative games, no stories. When they ported it to Mac, no stories. When they came out of beta, no stories. And, all my story posts have been ignored. I bet I'm not the only one who has posted. What is going on?
I see it says that the queue bounced over 15000, which is true. I was 11141 the first time I tried and it froze on me. I was 35000+ in the queue after the restart, but I did get in.
I jumped on it just after the announcement on QuakeNet.. struggled through the extreme lag, taking minutes to load anything.. Went through registration, waited 5 mins for the email.. Told me to dowmload a plugin.. ok.. fair enough. Downloaded, installed... and whats that, NO OPERA SUPPORT? This is AFTER I had directly contacted various ID Software staff on irc, and they said "it will work", seemingly unaware that the software explicitly rejects Opera.
Sure, Operas market share has dropped a lot.. but it's still a major part of the "big 5" (Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE). And if they have gone out of their way to support Firefox, they should have supported other browsers too..
I've not decided to boycott ID Software, which isn't that difficult, seeing as all the games they made were pretty crap, nothing special.
Just logged in after being a closed beta player and am now in a queue of approx 26000 seems a bit of a slap in the face to give you instant access as a beta player and then make you stand in line with the rest of the world, a little favouritism would be nice lol
The queue seems to be modeled after a civic licensing bureau... After waiting in a queue of 20k to get the plug-in, I get to line up again in a queue of 30k to login.
Want to play Quake now? From the browser?
No matter what Operating System?
Take a look at Jake2.
http://bytonic.de/html/jake2.html
So where exactly is the innovation here?
I actually signed up right before the rush so I didn't have to wait for the plug-in.
I experienced absolutely no problems with the game, unlike a majority of the people who tried it.