Why play Quake 4?

[iluvquake4]

I tried the game on a PC for about 6 hours. Other than slightly better graphics (mainly shadows which seems to kill FPS), I don't see how it is better than Quake 3 or a reason to upgrade.

Now this isn't a bash, I'm asking for an intelligent conversation here. Granted I've only played the game for 6 hours (MP) so I'm wondering what I'm missing and what I should look for when I try it again. I'm trying to find the justification to spend $2k on hardware to play it.

Thank you. :icon31:

[iluvquake4]

So it's not worth upgrading for?

[jester!]

I'm with you. I gave the game a solid 30 days and lost interest because MP doesnt hold a candle to Q3 and all the innovations made in that engine over the years. I'm pretty much resigned to this patch being id/activision's last chance for redemption so I hope to hell they're ALL working their asses off on it.

I'm past being disgusted over paying $50+ for a beta-quality product over and over again.

Ive given it many many hours, but saddly the local RA3 scene picked up due to Q4's short comings, and so I have gone back to that. It doesnt help that there seem to be less people playing Q4 nearly daily.

I am still willing to buy a game that is unfinished, shit, I would have LOVED to play the fuck out of the game in a test environment (q4test) and given more feedback then they would have ever used.

What is beyond reason is that there would instead be next to no information given to those who have bought the game and want it to succeed more so then the Devs/Publishers/IP Owners, whoevers fault it is that we have been left high and dry. With beta patches doing absolutly nothing of substance, and mod teams showing how much can actually be done, its honestly laughable. Then again, the hardcore player is as has been said over and over, simply not the target market. Those who compete in ladders, and tournaments, and play hours and hours at a time are not who the devs make the games for. We are aberations who do not give a good enough return to the companies in question. Fine.

However take a look at the community Raven/id/Activision, take a look at who are playing, and who have given up on this thing already and gone back to greener pastures. The game is as of now the premier duelling game, and thats it, only because thats where the money is in the tournaments. Quake 4 is not fun for the casual player, and wont be. The skill level is just to high for your casual pub player to jump on, and enjoy themselves. They dont know where to go to live, cant break the experienced players control, and thats all there is to it, they get owned over and over and over, and quit. So instead of trying to reach out to the lowest common denominator, why not develop the game with the hardcore players in mind?

10 dmg zoomed MG. Why? Because despite the fact that it was complained about in Q3, the devs didnt think that it was fair enough for the new players who where going to be spawning over and over when they get raped. Unless they can point and click that easily abused rail with the giant hitboxs and the fact that the default maps are pitifully short on controllable items, all of which was done to even the playing field by dragging the skill level down to what a casual player can attain..

In the end I play, if I can find people, because Quake 3 will never get back to where it used to be. Because I want Q4 to be as successful as Q3 was, and have a good time. Its close enough to Q3 to be enjoyable, but the mindset of the devs is not supportive imo of the kind of depth that keeps people playing Quake 1 tournaments ffs, and because the community can and already has started to fix the problems in VQ4. Look at what Q3 has done, thats why I play Q4.

Honestly though, I would wait for a patch, and the kind of effort shown will determine if its worth it to upgrade. If its just pathetic, well Quake Wars should be decent, but I will wait several weeks after release to get that one after this disgrace. If the patch is good, and the server population increases, then maybe we will have something that will last longer then painkiller...

//a raged response due to more server kicks from mismatch files...

[iluvquake4]

Are there less animations in the Q4 characters? Everyone in MP looks like they tip-toe'ing and moon-walking (80's style) and the backs look really stiff. Or was it just the machine I was using?

[Foo]

What are you looking at spending most of your time on, online play or the singleplayer experience?

Q4's multiplayer is a clone of Quake 3's, but a poor one. The improvements made upon Q3's gameplay are superficial. This could be fixed in a patch. However, I've never seen an MP game patch which could bring a game up to the level I would personally consider an improvement over Q3.

Q4 is a great singleplayer experience. Top 5 PC singleplayer last year I would say. If that's your bag, you don't need to wait for a patch to make your decision.

Then again, the hardcore player is as has been said over and over, simply not the target market. Those who compete in ladders, and tournaments, and play hours and hours at a time are not who the devs make the games for. We are aberations who do not give a good enough return to the companies in question. Fine.

This point has been up before, and it's a good one. I think you're right that this is the perspective of many in the industry, but it's a shallow view. Essentially my counterpoint is that the hardcore well informed consumer is the one dishing out the free technical advice to the regular customers, promoting the product more naturally than any PR company, setting up websites and creating addon content.

Ignore at your peril. Basically.

[iluvquake4]

If I recall someone modified the Quake 1 engine to render similiar to Doom 3. I wonder, since the Q3 Source is out, if this would be possible with Q3. The idea would be they could stream-line it more and perhaps add more options - i.e. you can disable shadows for objects but keep rendering shadows for players, or vice versa, etc.

[Foo]

It's in the works to a degree already. There are groups working on the Q3 source.

It's possible with any engine really, code can be changed to do whatever you want with enough effort. A peek under the hood of the D3 engine that Quake 4 works on shows a lot of links to the Q3 engine.

[jester!]

BTW.

lol yeah, right, there's a Raven > Community blackout, that's why I post here

Posted 11-11-2005.

lol fucking indeed rgoer. If its not due to Raven, its due to id, if not them Activision. If there is no blackout...

Whats in the Patch?

[iluvquake4]

What's odd is Doom 3's last patch has better netcode than Quake 4 as it is now. The last Doom 3 patch feels like they added 'unlagged' code. I wonder why they skipped out on Quake 4 for this.

[Bueller]

So it's not worth upgrading for?

No, not at this point if you are looking for multiplayer and especially if you expect something better than q3.

[iluvquake4]

I'm still giving it a try.

A feature they did get right -- mute!

At last! You can hit esc, click on a player and choose Mute. Best feature ever. This will save a lot of work for admins when dealing with overly chatty, obnoxious, and rude players -- just mute them. :icon31:

The other thing I notice is this game's FFA is way better if you keep the server at 6 players maximum. Anymore and it becomes a spam-fest. If you play with 4 to 6 players it's fairly strategic and has a "Quake 1 feel". Not only is better gameplay that way, the FPS is smoother too.

:icon31:

[TTK-Bandit]

I think its the best singleplayer FPS game since several years.. hell ya, I'd even say since Quake2.
The only thing missing is a coop mode :icon26:

Multiplayer is like.. uh.. an unfinished attempt to clone Quake3..
anyway, X-Battle and Q4Max are trying their best to finish the game.
I don't like to play vanilla q4 multiplayer, but with the next version of X-Battle I'm developing at the moment, It is definetely fun!

[kleeks]

aye x-battle / q4max brings quake4 to the masses - keep up the good work :icon14:
- i have a friend who cannot play with the paltry 20/40 fps vq4 manages on his machine (mid range machine at that) - the mods offer visual tweaks that enable him to enjoy a good 60 fps. Quake 4 enjoyment seems to improve with a steady fps (smoothness seems to be the requirement) - I'm still shocked that it has required mods to make the game playable for the vast majority of q3'ers out there, why these visual tweaks were omitted in the first place beggars believe.

I tend to play more vq4 though atm, purely on a busier server basis though - i hope in time we'll see the mod servers getting more use, and we'll be getting regular games.

Would you believe that after a good 3 months of q4 playing i have yet to fire up single player at all. Comments within this thread lead me to believe i am in for a treat when i get a spare weekend without the family about.

[D'Artagnan]

I think its the best singleplayer FPS game since several years.. hell ya, I'd even say since Quake2.

Thats youre opinion, but speaking of single player FPS, i would say Soldier of fortune II (double helix) was way better, not to mention, Far Cry, Half life II and F.E.A.R.

I'm a big fan of quake, i start playing quake II, III and now IV...but, the SP of Q4 is OK but nothing to get excited...

[Runningman]

we all know it isnt fun, but yet we all truly want to move on and play it here right? may it be respect for ID, the love of quake, or just loving the new engines potential.
i would be willing to mod it to the way that i think everyone will enjoy, but i just cant do it myself. if i could get ahold of ONE programmer everything is good to go. start reading here....
http://www.overdrivepc.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9678
i havent even touched anything dealing with q4 in at least 2 months. but i would definately pick this up again with ONE programmer. you dont even have to be good lol.

msg me or click one of the instant messenger icons under my avatar on that forum.

[v1l3]

I remember back in the day when you could just buy a game, and pop it in, and play it.
Now you have to spend excessive amounts of money just to update your system so that it will be capable of running the one game you just bought.
Was Q4 made for the players that have been playing Quake from the beginning, or was it made, to make more money for companies that make the equipment to run it on.

Seems pretty sell out to me.

It should cost 50 bucks to play the damn game. Not $Blah amount.

I'll stick with Ultimate Doom and Quake 2 for storyline, and Quake 3 Arena for everything else. Other than that I'll play other games that doesn't cost ridiculous amounts of cash.

[TTK-Bandit]

Thats youre opinion, but speaking of single player FPS, i would say Soldier of fortune II (double helix) was way better, not to mention, Far Cry, Half life II and F.E.A.R.

Yes thats my opinion
soldier of fortune.. I never played it, as I don't like real war scenarios.
far cry.. well real good graphics, and you won't get bored, anyway I would say there is not much creative energie in the story, most of it has been spend creating the levels.
Halflife 2 was good, but I missed some more detail on the story, I'd say it would be right behind Q4.
FEAR was the most dumbest thing I've ever seen.. graphics was good (not very good), but at a high cost of performance.
Story was uh nearly not existant, the whole game was always the same design, office complexes, lifts, .. it was even worse than doom3 when you look how monoton it is (well doom3 at least made fun, and was scary)
I was never shocked in FEAR, nor did I get out of my 10 health packages I could carry.

Quake 4 had a real good story, nice ingame sequences, Big levels, and a Quake-2 like feeling. I was never bored, I had lots of problems killing some monsters. In a whole I'd say they've put much creative energy into everything of the game except the multiplayer part.
I like that old school ego shooter style they fused perfectly with todays technology.

but as you said, its only my opinion.