Quake 3 is 17 Years Old

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Ackmed

Diamond Member
Oct 1, 2003
8,476
523
126
I enjoyed Q3, but Q2 was my favorite of those types of games. Enjoyed UT very much too. So much damn time spent on Kali in those days.

Tribes is still and I bet always will be my favorite game. So fucking fast, ahead of it's time imo.
 

zink77

Member
Jan 16, 2012
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Agree 100%. They didn't call it the "Golden Era" for nothing. A lot of people will say "rose tinted nostalgia" for the Doom/Quake stuff, but it isn't. They simply had "that distinctive feel" that just instantly "clicked" with millions of gamers.

It's because they wouldn't understand gameplay focused games, the newer generations are focused on "cinematic experiences". If it isn't a computer rendered game and made to cater to the lowest common denominator screaming ensues.

Many games from the 90's like Descent/quake/duke 3d/doom subscribed to 'movement as defense' philosophy that made dodging and avoiding incoming fire against enemies exciting.

http://vectorpoem.com/news/?p=74
 

zink77

Member
Jan 16, 2012
98
11
71
Unreal tournament isn't even close to Quake 3 in terms of gameplay.

UT2004 is a good runner up, quake 3 is best skill based game but UT2004 imho surpassed it in so many ways with new modes and vehicles. Onslaught is still one of my fav game modes to this day.
 

zink77

Member
Jan 16, 2012
98
11
71
I respect the early quake games and appreciate their role in the genre, but they didn't have the same impact that UT had on me. I would never have "got into" shooters based solely on Quake. I was much more drawn to UT's environments, music etc. UTs close relationship to Unreal (which I still consider to be the greatest game ever) probably biased me in it's favor too. Gameplay-wise, my favourite arena shooter is UT2003.

Well quake 1/2 were not all that great and Duke nukem 3D and doom 2 were where multiplayer was at over LAN at the time. Internet multiplayer was just coming into its own in the mid 90's. People remember quake 1/2 for bringing internet multiplayer to the masses, UT came later.

Quake 1 - 1996
UT - 1999

A difference of roughly ~2.5-3 years

iD's single player games have always been lackluster outside of doom1/2. Unreal 1 was darn good at the time.

They were all FPS games so it's really just which aesthetics and taste you had the most preference for or which games you happened to play first had a disproportionate impact.
 

XiandreX

Golden Member
Jan 14, 2011
1,172
16
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UT2004 is a good runner up, quake 3 is best skill based game but UT2004 imho surpassed it in so many ways with new modes and vehicles. Onslaught is still one of my fav game modes to this day.

Keep in mind that Q3 was always meant to be classic Deathmatch/CTF and vehicles would take away from the focused gameplay that made it so popular.
 

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
30,854
12,353
136
UT99 is my favourite multiplayer game of all time.

quake 3 was good, but I preferred UT99 mostly for the huge maps, music and overall fun.
 

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
18,408
39
91
I find myself playing Q3a more than Q4. Q3A has this fast paced rawness that isn't captured by Q4.

I initially ran a Gefore2 GTS 256 MB if I recall correctly and later
moved to an ATI 9700 Pro.

heh gf2 gts came in 32MB and 64MB varieties.
Good times.
 

reallyscrued

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2004
2,617
5
81
Q3 4 Eva.

It's the last great deathmatch shooter. There is such a range of skill, huge, from noob players to pro's, shows you how deep the gameplay goes. It's not just a point and shoot kind of counterstrike game. You had to own the arena, time your attacks and retreats, everything had a strategy in order to be played effectively. It was fluid and brilliant. Playing it takes so much thought, you wont be successful if you want to turn your brain off and just shoot around (although there are difficulty levels for that too).

But watching the Pros play 1v1 still gives me goosebumps. The economics of a First person shooter map comes into play.

Just give this video a chance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdkDjsBiO58
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
136
Quake World (Quake 1 with online play) is my favorite online FPS ever. Expert CTF matches were just insanely fun.

Quake 2 multiplayer was a huge let down, and I really disliked it.

Quake 3 was very good, and high level play was a ton of fun to watch and play. The movement mechanics were much deeper than Quake Worlds were, and the movement was better.
 

StinkyPinky

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2002
6,761
777
126
UT99 for me.

I agree though, that multiplayer shooters were best in that era. From the late 90s to mid 00s. Before all this squad based, slow as hell, tactical shooting crap came along. Counter Strike sucks ass.
 

Rakehellion

Lifer
Jan 15, 2013
12,182
35
91
Your GeForce 2 would rekt that game.

Also, everyone threw a hissy fit when the Quake 3 alpha was released for Mac first.
 

WhoBeDaPlaya

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2000
7,414
401
126
I still play both Q3A and UT99 regularly :)
Absolute waste of my main rig's specs, but oh well...
 

XiandreX

Golden Member
Jan 14, 2011
1,172
16
81
I find myself playing Q3a more than Q4. Q3A has this fast paced rawness that isn't captured by Q4.



heh gf2 gts came in 32MB and 64MB varieties.
Good times.

Wow..... it was that low in memory? Sheesh thats going back years. :D
 

XiandreX

Golden Member
Jan 14, 2011
1,172
16
81
Your GeForce 2 would rekt that game.

Also, everyone threw a hissy fit when the Quake 3 alpha was released for Mac first.

The Ati 9700 pro destroyed it. My friends were very envious :sneaky:
I was able to play at 2048 x 1536 without an issue.
1600x1200 was around 200fps if I remember correctly.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
136
Your GeForce 2 would rekt that game.

Also, everyone threw a hissy fit when the Quake 3 alpha was released for Mac first.

Except those of us with Macs :)

I had a Bondi Blue iMac rev/B with a Voodoo2 in it that ran it amazingly well. Later I had a G4 Tower that came with the original 32MB Radeon, such a ground breaking card. Later I had it with a Radeon 9800 Pro, that was a dream card.
 

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
30,854
12,353
136
back in the day I had a Gforce2 GTS with 32mb of ram. it was a decent card at the time.

I used to play UT99 at 1152x864 on my old 20" Dell crt while getting 100+ fps.

Now I have a GTX650 Ti Boost and an I3 4160. FPS is off the chart.
 
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Mar 10, 2006
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This weekend, I need to play through the entire Q3A "SP" campaign on nightmare. Thanks for the reminder, BFG10K (obviously a Q3A fan with this handle...;))
 

KaRLiToS

Golden Member
Jul 30, 2010
1,918
11
81
Quake 3 Arena is my best game of all time, my rig is built using Quake Theme.

I had a Geforce 3 with 3d goggles back in the days.

54eqo8.jpg
 
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BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
126
The Ati 9700 pro destroyed it. My friends were very envious :sneaky:
I was able to play at 2048 x 1536 without an issue.
1600x1200 was around 200fps if I remember correctly.
Speak of the devil, check out this writeup I did back in 2002: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=781076

It contains 1600x1200 Quake 3 benchmarks on my 9700 Pro.

Also CPU scaling benchmarks (including Quake 3) done on a Pentium 4: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=780012
 
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Rakehellion

Lifer
Jan 15, 2013
12,182
35
91
The Ati 9700 pro destroyed it. My friends were very envious :sneaky:
I was able to play at 2048 x 1536 without an issue.
1600x1200 was around 200fps if I remember correctly.

9700 Pro was a few years later. I remember playing that on an ATI Rage 128.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
136
9700 Pro was a few years later. I remember playing that on an ATI Rage 128.

Yeah when Quake 3 launched, the Rage 128 was the best card ATI had out. It played well on my Voodoo 2 though. Later on when I got my Radeon (original) it played great.