Quake 3

Format : PC

Review by : The Ragin Cajun

Players : 1 - 64

Type : 1st person shooter

Imagine its a very hot day, and you feel like a nice big drink of ice cold milk. You see a big glass on a table, you take it up, drink it..... and its gone off. You'd be pretty disappointed wouldn't you. The Quake 3 experience is very similar to this. This game seems to have been hyped up since the first rumours began circulating. And it really is nothing near what was expected.

The whole idea for Quake 3 was for a death-match only situation. In one-player mode you have you versus computer controlled "bots" , or artificial intelligence players that mimic human players. While this,in true multiplayer mode, was designed to be the future of on-line gaming. It has failed on both counts.

In the interest of fairness I'll take a look at the good points of quake 3 first. Well for starters the graphics are indeed excellent. Even on a P333 computer the characters are very well detailed and full of cool features such as reflective surfaces.

Sound can't be faulted either, each weapon sounds impressive ( well except for the BFG10K, for such a powerful weapon the noise it makes is weedy) but the sounds of combat and the other weapons are spot on, characters scream as you kill them and the sound of the plasma gun still sends shivers down my spine.

Now for the bad news. Seeing as Quake 3 was supposed to be a multi-player game for internet play it stand to reason that the internet would be ready for such a game. Well its not. As anyone who plays on the 'net knows Lag and connection problems are rife and there seems to be no solution in sight. Quake 3 is thusly a victim of this but to top it off the game itself is feels unfinished. The arenas and all have a pre-production feel to them and there is only occasional glimmers of what brilliance was being aimed at, before it is swallowed by the mediocrity that is Quake 3.

The whole one player mode starts off enjoyable enough but quickly descends into boredom as you frag the same CPU opponent for the 50th time. So you wander onto the internet to face some human competition but you face umpteen connection problems and ( in the UK and Ireland) really slow net speeds. Playing Quake 3 on-line is an expensive pursuit and I have yet to encounter a decent game in that past two months I have been playing.

To top it off the "other" play modes are just tacked on with no real thought to them, after the TFC mod for half-life the pitiful capture the flag option in Quake 3 is just unacceptable.

The 'Net IS the future of gaming all right, but not now. Until there is there is a stable service that guarantees a decent connection speed and of course free local calls ( like in the us) this kind of game is domed to be a waste of time. The least Id could have done was given us a decent one player mode , but that option available here is just an annoyance. Quake 3 is best avoided.

Sound         : One of the high points, except for the BFG sound

9/10

Gameplay    : Easy to control, unless you are online

6/10

Difficulty     : Ok challenge but imposibel to get a good net game

5/10

Graphics      : Very good, crisp and impressive

8/10

Overall         : A waste of a good game idea

4/10

Review by : The Ragin Cajun