Quake IV in PC Zone

[Gabez]

Just got my PC Zone and it has an 8 page preview on Quake IV. It looks amazing - if anyone's desperate for a scab I might oblige.

You might already know this, but I'm not sure how much people know about this game so I'll list what the article says anyway. Basically, it has the Doom III engine, a single player game which continues where Quake II left off, a mutltiplayer side which continues where Quake III left off, and a full range of veichles.

"Instead of scaring you, we're going all out to deliver a fast-paced adrenalin rush of combat" - Rick Johnson

[manny_c44]

if anyone's desperate for a scab I might oblige.

I'd like a scan!

[Gabez]

Dude I wrote "scab" not "scan". I'll give you my scab but not a scan.

Well, I might, but I kind of regret typing that now because scanning requires effort and I can't be bothered.

[manny_c44]

Give me a break! You just slap it on and click a few buttons.

Or, send us your scab at:

PO Box 113

Lyons, Colorado

80540

USA

[Roderick]

Wasn't PcGamer to have this absolutely exclusive wolrd scoop on QuakeIV which after reading would send you directly to that place of eternal bliss in the sky?

What, are you suggesting it was all a bunch of LIES!?! Wow I am so disappointed in PcGamer. I'll never buy their mag again.

[Jake]

I suspect PCG has the US "exclusive?"

[Gabez]

Well PC Zone have a "massive exclusive", not a "world exclusive".

Give me a break! You just slap it on and click a few buttons.

Hah, well, I've got nine pages to do including the cover, so it's a bit more than that... but I'll do it anyway, just for you. ;

(edit) Wait, in the article it does say it's the world's first look. I never trust PC Gamer much anyway - remember the Monkey Island 5 rumour? ;

(edit 2) See the scans here:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Sorry for the loq quality, but I didn't want to take up too much space - you'll have to buy the magazine yourself (or wait for PC Gamer) to see it properly.

In the meantime, copy them into your favourite image editing programme and zoom in for the fun!

[Twilo]

Finally someone makes good use of the Scumm Bar's bandwidth.

Give that man a hat.

Also, I am gravely disappointed with these shots.

It looks nothing like quake 2, and must be fixed. It's a glorified Doom 3 mod.

Shame on Raven, hopefully they can maintain their track record and sort things out before the release. It has to stand on its own.

[Jayel]

It looks exactly like Doom 3.

Yay.

[Jake]

I don't think it looks nothing like Quake 2... what would make it look like Q2? Applying a brown filter to the whole thing? That's the real difference.

I am disappointed that the humans look 1000% like the humans in Doom 3. But its nice to see some outdoor areas, and nice to hear that the multiplayer is being approached from a wholly Quake angle.

[Twilo]

Like Quake 2 stylistically.

It already has the doom 3 grey filter on.

Nothing looks like quake 2:

The marines are little rubbish Doom 3 men

The enemies are, as has been said, straight out of any other FPS game you care to mention (none of the gruesome cyborg splendor of Quake 2, low-poly models and all)

The weapons don't look alike at all, and you can't guess the function of any just by looking.

No daytime areas, and indoor areas have morphed from the industrial gritty Strogg plants into the doom 3 mars station.

Also, it needs more LIGHT. Quake was never a dark game.

[Gabez]

Heh, I hope that last line was sarcasm.

But yeah, I'm a little disapointed that Quake IV looks so much like Doom III, but then what do you expect? Maybe I'll grow to like it.

Of course, to really apredciate the graphics you have to see them in the magazine, as the scans just don't do them justice.

The outdoor area here looks cool, but it could do with being lighter and more colourful to make it less Doom like. Doom used to be the bright and colourful one but then it went like Quake, so why should Quake become like the original doom?

Another thing I don't like is the plot - cyborg aliens from another planet? (Snore). Bring back weird cults worshiping the God Quake (that was what it was all about in the first place, remember?) and adventures through time and space.

[Roderick]

Well, it lookes absolutely nothing like Quake indeed, but it's not as if the Quake-look was the be-all-end-all of gamedesign. Even it it won't have the distinct (if existant) "Quake-feel", it still might be a decent shooter.

[Jake]

The weapons don't look alike at all, and you can't guess the function of any just by looking.

That's a good point. I like that the id arsenal is really visually separate gun to gun so you can tell which is which from a mile away.

No daytime areas,

Fortunately Quake 4 itself is presumably longer than an 8 page preview, so don't close the book on that one yet.

[Twilo]

Well the point is that Quake 4 carries on from Quake 2 (remember landing the escape pod and raising that fist to the sky?), so it doesn't really gel that everything suddenly looks so different.

Storywise it would figure that earth is launching a follow-up attack (more live marines, and now tanks) which makes sense because you blew up the Big Gun in Quake 2.

The only real tie to quake 2 I could see was a faint small Stroggos logo (a skull with wings) on one of the doors in one of the shots.

The different weapon designs is ok I guess, as the weapons in Quake 2 (with a few exceptions) were supposed to be Stroggos weapons you salvaged.

Whether you play as Bitterman (as in quake 2) or as someone new remains to be seen. Bitterman was supposedly warped into the Quake 3 arenas, but we'll pretend that never happens. In any case, none of those models look like him.

What the game really needs to stand on its own are big epic-style setpieces, marine squads, tanks and that, storming bases and air strikes and fun. They have time to work on the AI (lacking in doom).

Twilo - Official Quake 2 fanboy

Someone's got to do it.

[Gabez]

I love the way it'll be a sequel to Quake II and Quake III, but I think that if it was a sequel to Quake I storyline wise it would be cooler.

I agree the weapons look very samey (as does everything, now that I think about it), and it looks like they might even have the Doom style flashlight in there. Hmm.

[Simon]

I think Quake II was an enjoyable shooter, and one of id's best. I tend to think they lead the charge with technology a lot, but don't necessarily make the truly awesome games with it. But I remember having fun with Quake II, so if they return to that type of game for the single-player, it could be a good thing.

I like the quote "Instead of scaring you, we're going to deliver a fast-paced adrenalin rush of combat". At least this is going be essentially different from Doom 3 in gameplay and not just feel like a mod - even if it's basically still id recycling old games and not branching out.

In conclusion, I am interested but not overly excited. Also I think the Quake IV info splurge is trying to divert attention from the imminent Half-Life 2, which is probably the standard this game will be compared to once it finally gets released.

[Kolzig]

The preview does look very interesting.

I have never played Q2 more than couple of levels, but I will play it through before Q4 comes out.

[Jake]

Kolzig you know Raven is doing Quake 4, not id, right?*¬

Are Quake 4 and Half Life 2 really in competition? It seems like there are the people who will buy Doom3, HL2, and Q4 (die hards with money), or there are the people who will sort of randomly just pick one or two out of the bunch based on the box art and some screenshots (the few remaining casual PC gamers), and then there are the people who will only look at the id games, or the Valve games, and have mysteriously sworn a life debt to one or the others (the 11 year old fanboys, and their older brothers who forgot to grow up). I'm probably wrong - the Internet is especially good at lying about this sort of thing - but it seems that that second group, the casual folks who are actually going to judge based on who has more magazine space, is the smallest group. I suspect the "buy everything Quake/Doom/HL-branded" group is the larger one at this point... maybe not but whatever. I'm sure I'm totally wrong. Hooray!

[Chris]

Well, there are also the people (like me) who recognize that those are in fact different games and will buy Half-Life 2 just because that's the game they want.

EDIT: There are also the people who will not in fact buy any of them but will play them all.

[Jake]

Oops right that's the other type. Um that was um implied, so thats obviously why I didn't include them in my talk-downey lecturefest. Yes.

Regardless I'm totally right. Or wrong.

[Redwall]

"There must be a mistake here - it's not nearly brown enough to be a Quake game."

Heh.

[Kolzig]

Kolzig you know Raven is doing Quake 4, not id, right?*¬

Yes I do know that...

[JBRAA]

Bah, stop scare us ID. I want a Simpsons game where all are homers and dancing like sissies on green fields. How casual is that? I want some crasy stuff. Like the stuff from Psychonauts. I want a layed back game also where you just don't have to give so much effort to play the game. I'll go play pong in 256 colours. ........

[ptdc]

It looked brown enough to me.