QUAKE 3 ARENA: TEST VERSION 1.08
By Wisdumb

    Alright, I'm sure any computer gamer has heard of the legendary Quake series. The OG Quake was released during the summer of 1996 and even until now, you can find players relishing in the fast-paced action that demands exceptional reflexes and aim. This is the landmark FPS game that allowed players the luxury of aiming vertically and jumping, and one can imagine how deeply FPS gamers fell in love. About two years following, John Carmack and his team of genius programmers brought their brainchild to the next level with Quake II. With the top FPS players dominating every aspect of Quake 1, measures were taken to slow down the rockets and add greater weapon balance. And of course, the graphics were much improved from the muddy colors of Q1-in fact, Q2 marks the beginning of the 3D video card revolution with 3Dfx's Voodoo series. By this time, computers and the internet have exploded into becoming common household privileges, thus drawing in an even greater crowd of players into all the fraggin' fun!

    Now, the dawn of Quake 3 is at hand... Many who have been accustomed to the physics of Q1 have bawled over the slow rockets and cheezy chaingun of Q2. Well, the programmers have had their ears full and have compromised. The rockets in the Q3Test version are now slower than those of Q1 and faster than those of Q2. The chaingun has been tossed and the BFG (AKA Big F*cking Gun) of Q2 has been toned down into a more practical, less devastating weapon. The single player aspect has been totally abolished-the fun comes from the competitive multiplayer matches, not the mindless killing of mindless computer AIs for countless hours with no substance in story or ending. This will allow the makers to focus on details that will definitely make the game flavorful for FPS fans of all tastes.

    Anyway, we really shouldn't compare Q3 to its earlier counterparts, but treat it as a whole different game. I mean, what's the point in wanting it to be like Quake 2? Just play Q2 if that's what you crave. *Wis keeps telling himself that* This is probably because zealous players who have spent more than year practicing and perfecting their killing technique on one game have difficulty switching off to a game where they basically have to start from the first squares again. If you're such a player, I suggest you wise up and move on with the crowd. The pros have done it-they've moved from Q1 to Q2 to Q3 with relative ease, and they're still dominating! So, if you got the skill, you got the skill. Heh heh.

    Back to the review....

    The first thing I noticed when the game popped into the main menu was just.... well, the whole look of it all. The colors are more vibrant than what I'm used to, the text doesn't have that Gothic look of Q1 or the army look of Q2, and you can actually use the mouse to navigate the menu! The whole theme of the game is very futuristic looking... makes you feel like you're a futuristic gladiator in an arena; hence, "Q3 Arena."

    I noticed that you can play LAN, online, or set up your own server-all the proper options for a multiplayer game. Heading quickly into the options menu, I worked in binding my controls. The usual options are there with some very convenient additions. You can now bind your weapons straight from the menu, and can even bind "walking" to a key for use when you don't want to make footstep sounds. What I think is the neatest thing about this menu is that there is an animated player model that acts out the highlighted command. Hee! I had a blast watching it jump, crouch, and run in place! ^_^

    Afterwards, I headed to the player specifications and selected my player model, all of which wear helmets (avoids worry about being racially correct). You can choose either to be red or blue-for team games-and... here's the real catcher... you can choose the color of your rails! The popularity of the all-mighty railgun of Q2 has prompted Carmack and gang to make it a novelty of Q3 by allowing folks to personalize their rail beams. Not only can you choose the color of your rails, you can even adjust the size of the beam from giant cylinder to a thin plasma shot. Did I mention that you can even personalize your name with different colors?! HrMMmm?!??! =]

The Weapons!

    Anyway, enough about all the little features that allow players to gain a sense of individuality... that's what dyed hair is for. Let's move on to the action! The weapons that everyone spawns with are a gauntlet (which looks to me like a combination of a buzz saw and taser) and a machinegun (doesn't hurt too much, but good for annoying folks and finishing off weakened opponents). The heavier artillery comes with a shotgun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, BFG, plasma gun, flame thrower, lightning gun, railgun, and mace. The Q3Test only includes full models of the gauntlet, machinegun, rocket launcher, shotgun, railgun, plasma gun, and lightning gun. If you use the cheat "give all," you'll be able to access the BFG and grenade launcher, but the models for those two aren't complete. The BFG rapidly fires a bunch of white squares, doing lots o' damage, while the grenade launcher shoots out colorful jacks (you know, those things that you try to scoop up after bouncing a little red ball...) with ear-piercing sounds. The rest are beyond our access, but I did hear that the mace is supposed to blind players (haha, how pansy-ish! You were thinkin' the medieval weapon, huh?).

    The rocket launcher, as stated earlier, shoots rockets that are faster than those of Q2, but not quite as speedy as those of Q1. The rate of fire is fairly quick. To compensate for this potential barrage of missiles this could make, the splash damage has been extremely weakened. You can bounce folks around a couple times and they'll still be able to run away and retaliate. However, a direct hit or a very near direct hit will do your aiming justice because it will instantly kill an unarmored player.

    Both Q1 and Q2 have a shotgun, followed by an improved shotgun-double-barreled shotgun and super shotgun, respectively. The Q3Test has abolished the idea of having two different types of shotguns, and decided to stick with just one double-barreled boom stick. This weapon takes a good amount of practice for effective use, but when mastered, can probably be one of the most deadly. It's spraying of bullets doesn't do much for long range attacking, but does wonders for close range battles. A great finishing weapon for weakened players.

    Remember the good ol' rusty, trusty nailgun from the Quake World days? With the Q2 hyper blaster, the nails were replaced by energy pellets that did a whopping damage of 10 health points each. Q3 has taken the hyper blaster and modified it into a plasma gun, replacing the orange energy pellets with purple energy balls and throwing in some splash damage while at it. The splash damage is pretty weak, so it's nothing to be alarmed about, and the energy balls don't do quite as much damage as their orange counterparts. Still an effective weapon nonetheless, but a little hard to aim with.... sort of like trying to hit a runner with a slow stream of water from a hose.

    The lightening gun in Quake 1 is one of the dominating weapons for the game. It shoots out a lightning beam that deals a fast and frightening rate of damage. Those who have mastered the weapon can lock the beam on a player by steadily tracing him with the crosshair. Quake 2's chaingun is a lightning gun that is less focused and more dispersed, which resulted in a greater effectiveness that demanded a tone down. Thus, in Q3, the lightening gun is revived, but the damage rate has been lowered just a notch for the sake of weapon balance.

    So Q1 players have their precious lightning gun back, but are Q2 players going to be left short-changed? Of course not! The weapon of all weapons, the railgun, has been brought back with greater style. Each well-aimed slug still deals 100 health points of damage, and from what I can tell, the firing rate hasn't been adjusted. And let's not forget that you can mess around with the color and size of your rail beam! I personally have gone from blue to green, and have my rail beam width at a nice small setting.

    Oh, I didn't say much about the gauntlet, did I? Well, it's very much like the axe from Q1-it hurts like a biatch! (50 damage, if I recall correctly), but requires direct player-player contact. But the whole concept behind it all is freaky. Whenever I hear the electric crack of someone starting it up, I start drifting towards the defensive. ^_^

Can Someone Say LAGGAGE?!

    Now, all this is great, but this is a multiplayer game and you need other breathing souls to play with. Alot folks don't have the luxury of a high-speed connection, so there's the prospect of lanning. However, all the hustle and bustle necessary in hosting a LAN isn't very practical, and the range of skill and strategy to which you're exposed is cut short to those you invite. So, how well does the Q3Test appeal to HPBs such as a 33.6 generic modem user like myself? Unfortunately, I'm going to have to give it a low mark on this regard. The one thing I love about Q2 is that although low-pingers will always have the advantage, is that with a 200 ping, I can still handle myself decently and avoid getting "owned." At times, I can even come out on top. However, it's a much different story for me on the Q3Test. I've spoken to fellow Quakers, and many agree that low pingers have a much greater advantage with the weapons than they really should. With my connection, I can barely hit anyone with the shotgun. Unfortunately, the network code for the game has it so that the shotgun lags behind more than it does in Q2 when faced with slower connections. I would click, and almost a second would pass before the shot would fire. But that's not the end of it because it would take another quarter of a second for the bullets to actually hit the wall of the area where my opponent was. The shotgun is probably the worst weapon for HPBs, in my opinion. On a good note, however, the railgun lag is much more bearable, and I find myself able to predict and land rail shots even with a spiking connection. Seems that the programmers focused on making the railgun compatible for players of all connections. Anyway, back to the bad stuff! The plasma gun is also a pain in the mother frickin' arse because whenever any player uses it, all the poor HPBs lag like there's no tomorrow. All those glowing purple balls flying across the room at once don't help much for those with limited bandwidth.

    Also, Gamespy fools me into thinking that I would get 170 ping in a server, but when I connect, I end up getting a terrible 300 pinging unstable connection. That's just me and my generic 33.6, but you get the point of how difficult it is for an HPB to play competitively and have a good time. No doubt it's much more fun and didactic for an LPB. You lucky shits, you... ;)

    In any case, I hope that the final version of Quake 3: Arena will be more HPB friendly.

What Kind of Specs Should I Have?

    I'm far from being the knowledgeable computer guy that Rice is, but I can tell you that a P200 won't cut it (too bad for me). Even if you had the fastest, most powerful 3D accelerator installed in your make-believe AGP slot, it won't cut it because your elite video card will be bored to hell waiting for the information to go through your very sucky P200 bus processor. I have an 8 meg Diamond Monster II and 64 megs of SD RAM installed with my P200, and my FPS is beyond pathetic. I swear, the frags I get in servers have to be out of pity. They probably notice how they can run across the room and back faster than I can touch the first wall. Well, after turning off ALL eye candies (such to the point where the weapons appear as icons to me, rather than actual weapons), I've been able to squeeze out a pitiful 23 frames per second. Meanwhile, Rice and his over-clocked Celeron with Ultra-TNT2 gets 3-4 times more. Bastard.

    Anyway, I can't really give you the "ideal" system for playing Q3. Of course, the faster, the better. But I'm sure a medium-speed PII processor, 64 megs of RAM, and a Voodoo2 will get you pass the pity-stage. If that doesn't work, be like me and turn off all the pretty effects, lower the resolution, get on your knees, and pray for a considerable performance boost. ^_^ To check your FPS, press the ~ key to access the console, and type 'timedemo 1.' Then, type in demo q3demo1, and let it play through to calculate how smooth your Q3Test runs.

To Sum It Up...

    From the looks of the Q3Test, Quake 3: Arena looks to be a very promising game. It's got the looks, the style, and is designed specifically for multiplayer fun. So far, it sux to be HPB and it sux to have an obsolete system. However, consumers are expected to have high-powered systems nowadays, and if you're looking for a game that will knock your socks off, you want one that take advantage of the latest in technology, rather than limit itself to the boundaries of Rice's P100 chip. As for the great HPB disadvantage, I'm sure that enough folks are bitching about it that it will be at the top of the "To Fix" list.

    I can honestly imagine Quake 3 being THE game played by all FPS players. A lot of my online acquaintances have said that they won't be converting to Q3, that they will be Q2-ers or Q1-ers for life. I seriously doubt that, and I see some of them already changing their opinions of the game. As the release date for the full version drifts closer, the game will only get better. All of the gripes players have of the test version now will have been heard and worked on, whether it be the lag, the player interface, or the weapon designs. Hopefully, the final product will be as generally appealing to all FPS gamers as much as possible, without compromising any of the innovating features that make the game Quake 3: Arena-not Quake or Quake 2.

P.S.

    By the way, for those of you who live around the vicinity of Arcadia, the Q3 BUS is coming! I shit you not, folks! As Rice's post states, it'll be dropping by the Santa Anita plaza this Saturday from noon to 5 PM! For those of you who don't know what the Q3 BUS is all about, the makers decided that it would be a terrific advertisement ploy to tour around the country, giving people a chance to experience first-hand the multiplayer splendor of the game. The Bus-painted black, covered with endorsements, and customized for the cause-holds 8 fully equipped Athlons for each player's delight. Those who step onto the mobile dream machine will find the place well refrigerated for the sake of the high-powered systems. When playing, you'll be forced to stand. No outside equipment will be allowed (i.e.: mouse, headphones, and those nifty B-movie 3-D glasses), and players will be allowed a 5 minute warm-up during which keys are customized. Anyway, I'm more of a Q2 player myself, but the prospect of real-life competition plus all the hype have caught me. I'm currently downloading the game with hopes that I can squeeze in some productive practice in time for the real thing! I just hope that Rice's T-shirt fever isn't highly contagious...