Last Updated on January 14th, 2000

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Quake 3: Arena Map Review
Now that Quake 3 has been out for a few weeks, Spookie and I decided to go through every map and see how they were. Knowing that the maps were made for on-line play, we were under the assumption that many of the maps would be designed for Clan matches, some for FFA and the Tourney maps would be for 1on1 matches. How silly of us.

For a complete rundown of all the DM and Tourney maps, head over to my Q3A Map Review page.

QIL 3 Teams Announced
The Quake Invitational League teams have been announced for their upcoming QIL3 tournament. I was on-hand during the IRC announcement and the teams that made the grade were very happy. I will add that there were more than a few angry people from clans that didn't make it into the tournament. The clans were announced by Falc from Clan EG. Falc also announced before reading the names that since last years winners, R3volution were basically inactive, they wouldn't be entering QIL3. I'm not sure what order they were announced in but, here they are in alphabetical order.

All teams have accepted the invitations so, this will be the final Clan roster. Each team will play each other (by conference) three times but, it's not a best of three. All games will be completed so they can determine the winner by total games won and lost.

I spoke with Falc after the announcements so that I could clear up a few questions the many people were asking. Here's what he had to say.

Methos: How were the teams picked?
Falc: Hand picked by the QIL staff.

Methos: How many people decided upon the choices of clans?
Falc: About six or so.

Methos: What criteria was used in choosing the clans?
Falc: It was based on past performance, clan activity, stable roster, and good sportsmanship mostly.

Methos: Are any of the games going to be played on Lan?
Falc: No, QIL3 will be played over the internet. The finals or possibly final four may be played on a LAN

Methos: What is being done about things that happened with Thresh last year, playing for R3V as Burpy?
Falc: Well, there isn't a whole lot we can do about things like that. We do our best to prevent underhanded activities like that but, it was by the rules as neither Thresh or Burpy had played for any other team before that in QIL2.

Methos: Have you put rules in place for this season so that the Clans have to submit their rosters prior to the tournament?
Falc: Each team's rosters are listed on the teamplay page. Only the players on those rosters can play in QIL3. We have a very extensive rules section at http://qil.teamplay.net 

Methos: Thanks Josh
Falc: Anytime man.

Demo O' The Millennium
I guess I should change that from "Demo" to "Demos". On the Quake Demos page, I have posted what I think are the most important Quake demos of the past 1000 years. Go and take a look.

On that note, I was thinking about who was the best Quake player ever. Since we're now into generations of Quake players, it's much too hard to decide who would be considered the best. Here are my choices for Best Quake player, as chosen by year.

• Best Quake Player - 1996: Thresh
• Best Quake Player - 1997: Thresh (Sujoy 2nd)
• Best Quake Player - 1998: Xenon (Lakerman 2nd)
• Best Quake Player - 1999: Lakerman (Kane 2nd)

Let the arguments begin. :)

XSReality Opens
From the "better late than never" category. Sujoy, Hakeem and Xenon (hey, I know those guys) have opened up a new site called Excess Reality. It's a mixed bag of content with everything from gaming news to movie reviews. With Quake players like those three, I'm sure they'll be able to provide us with some extraordinary insight on many aspects of the gaming world. 

To start off with a bang, they have decided to hold a Quake 3: Arena Invitational Tournament. The players that have been invited are as follows. (in alphabetical order)

• DOOMer

• Fatality

• Immortal

• Insane

• Kane

• Lakerman

• Makaveli

• Shub

• Timber

• Vise

• Wombat

• Zibbo

Since half of these guys are from Quake2 fame, it will be very interesting to see how well they do. I suppose that if they have a couple of no-shows, Hakeem and / or Sujoy would fit nicely into that bunch of players. Matter of fact, I don't think they should let the winner go home until he beats Hakeem (who won some little tourney with 10 million players in it).

Methos Site Stuff
Still working on a new site design (these things take ages). I want to take this time to wish everybody a VERY Happy New Year. I also want to wish a Happy Birthday to Cataklysque who turned 16 yesterday and to JeZeBeL who turned err, umm,  30something a couple of days ago.

• Updated Methos .plan page
• Updated the "Demo O' The Millennium" on Methos Quake Demos page
• Posted the Quake 3: Arena Map review, make sure you take a look.

Methos Site Stuff
Just had time to make a brief update on the Methos .plan page

Quake 3: Arena Released
Q3A has been released and people should start seeing it on store shelves in the next day. It will be available worldwide by Sunday, December 5th. sCary has posted some screenshots from every level so, if you want to drool over the pretty pictures, make sure you take a visit.

I have setup a new topic on the messageboard for those of you that want to post your thoughts on the official Q3A release. I realize that most people won't have the game for a few days so, it may not be busy for a while.

Methos On The Mend
Once again, I just wanted to say a big "thanks" to all the people that have sent their get well wishes. I had a rough weekend but, things are getting better now. I'm not sure how long I'll have to wear this huge cast on my arm but, I'm hoping it's not too long.

Quake 3: Arena Goes Gold (Update)
After what I thought was a joke played by Disruptor from id Software, it turns out that Kenneth Scott has also announced that Q3A has gone gold. There is something a bit strange about this. Disruptor announced Q3A going gold at 9:26 p.m., Kenneth Scott made his announcement at 10:08 p.m. At 10:09 p.m., John Carmack (owner and lead programmer) updated his .plan but, he never mentioned a word about Q3A going gold. He only mentioned some of the fixes he worked on yesterday. Does this seem strange to you? I attempted to contact Zoid for his confirmation but, I was unable to get an answer.

Let's look at what this means "if" the reports are true and id Software has officially gone gold with Quake 3: Arena. First off, what happens to all the fixes that need to be done? Let's keep in mind that the engine from the demo-test is not the same as the final game will be. So, all the engine bugs "should" be fixed in the final release. That's the good news. 

Now the bad news. The weapon speed, weapon switch time, weapon damage, weapon design and feel, air control, player movement and all the other gameplay problems will still be in the final release. How do you feel about this?

Are we going to see another Quake2 type of release? No, we won't. The problem with Q2 is that it was released to early with no teamplay, DM maps etc. Q3A is being released "the way id Software wants it to be". The above mentioned concerns with weapons, gameplay etc, are in the game on purpose. After months of testing, id has decided to release the game with a lot of shortcomings. Will Q3A suck? I don't know this answer because I haven't seen the final product. Having said that, do NOT expect any miracles when it's released.

I have created a new thread on the Methos Quake Messageboard. You can go there to post your thoughts on this and see what others are saying.

sCary's Bargain Discounts
No, sCary hasn't turned into a car salesman. However, he is offering a page that will let you order Quake 3: Arena with a $10 (US) discount. The deal he has is to offer a discount off the Gamedealer.com price. He also says that you will have it before most other people (except for the warez guys :) If you're interested in ordering Q3A for $33.95 (US) plus shipping, you should go to this page and order it.

Q3A Close To Release Date?
ID Software's Graeme Devine updated his latest .plan with the following news.

"We're at RC2. Life is good."

Now, when I mentioned a couple of days ago that the DemoTEST was pretty close to what we would see in the final release, I didn't think that it was anywhere near to being a Release Candidate #2. Let's hope that Graeme is using his dry British humor and he's actually telling us that they still have a lot of work to do. If this isn't the case, I will quote XP-Spookie on this and say "Better prepare for another Quake2". For those that don't remember, Quake2 was released at least 3 months too soon. Some people say that it still isn't finished. :)

On the other hand, Christian Antkow (Disruptor) has updated his .plan with the following information.

"Gold!!!! ph34r!!!!!!!!"

Knowing Disruptor, I would say that he is just trying to get some people excited on the internet. As far as the game itself, I'll believe it when I see it.

Q3A Released In Australia!
Yes, it's true, the official full version of Quake 3: Arena has been released in Australia. Aussie Quake player, Morph has sent me proof of the availability. Here is the advertisement from a Western Australia TV Magazine saying that Q3A was available at a store called Abacus in Perth, AU. Gee, you don't think somebody at the Abacus store could've made a booboo?

Australian Advertisement

Morph goes on to state that he phoned the store and he was told "Sorry, we're all sold out but, we'll be getting more stock on Tuesday". He also said that all the people in two different IRC channels called and got the same response. So, there you have it, order your copy today and it'll be in on Tuesday. See, I told you Hoony was GOD in Australia. :)

Hakeem's Q3A Comments Stir Interest
Some of the comments by Hakeem in my last update were posted on what seems like every messageboard in the world. There were tons of comments by other players on what Hakeem had to say. Some people thought that Hakeem was just bitching about everything under the sun, where others thought he made some good points. I've seen comments ranging from "Hakeem knows what he's talking about" to "What the hell does he know?".  

Now, I do think that Hakeem went a bit far when he talked about the "simple item icons" changing but, I asked the question about his likes and dislikes in the latest Q3A Test (or demo or demoTest) and he gave me an honest response. If Hakeem doesn't like the icons, it shouldn't bother anybody else. Hakeem also mentions things that most players should feel need fixing, such as the netcode.

The overall point that Hakeem was trying to make is that there are MANY bugs in the latest Q3A and that most of them need to be addressed. As for the people that said "Who cares what Hakeem says", we should all care what he says. What I mean is that, anytime you have a player that won the biggest LAN tournament ever (Frag3) and also won an Unreal Tournament, plus, was a pretty good QW as well (MadSkillz?), he should be taken seriously. If Thresh or sCary were to post an article saying "this or that needs to be fixed", most people would listen to what they have to say. Hakeem should be offered the same consideration.

You can read and post Q3A DemoTest Comments here.

Demo Of The Millennium
The votes are coming in for the demo of the millennium. On the Methos Quake Messageboard, there are lots of comments which all have some great choices for the best demo ever. There are demos listed from nearly every great demo from the beginning of Quake until present day. Although I agree that all the choices are very good, I just can't help thinking that there are some demo suggestions missing from the choices so far.

My personal favorite was by Chodak who voted for "Hoony Vs Methos" on DM6. He added the comment "You don't see action like THAT anymore". Damn Straight!  :)

You can vote for the Demo Of The Millennium here.

Methos Site Stuff
Still working on a new site design (these things take ages).

• Updated Methos .plan page with news about Campers and Phreaking. Make sure you take a look.

Hakeem's Quake 3: Arena Thoughts
One of the players I was trying to get a response from a couple of days ago was Hakeem. I was finally able to track him down and since he won The Frag3, I thought it would be nice to see what he thought of this latest Q3 venture by id Software. I was a bit surprised by the response he gave me but, he is certainly entitled to his well educated opinion on this Q3 version. Here's what Hakeem had to say.

Hakeem: Basically I think its worse than the old version....just a total bug fest. I've played people in tournament mode and been leading when the time limit comes up only for it to say SUDDEN DEATH. All the sfx...sound awful, the shaft is worse with lag than it was before. Someone seems to have attached a baseball to the end of the shaft. Also, why have they swapped the icons round in simple items mode? Now the rocket packs are what the rl itself used to look like...just gay and no need for it.

Overall, the 'feeling' is a bit better but, I seem to have a huge performance drop on a TNT2 with a P3-600. Xenon gets 20 fps on his P2-450 with V3. As for the bots, what can I say? They are surely the worst bots I've ever seen. I saw 5 bots bungling for the Railgun on test1 platform. They act so dumb...then never miss a shot. It ruins the feeling of an intelligent opponent. I do like the new spawn codes though, rarely do u get spawn raped on tournament now. The removal of some health on tournament is good, but the new spawns totally suck ass. Spawning on the shaft?

As for the new map, dear oh dear. It was sent in by James aged 6 I think. I think the shaft on 30+ ping is pretty much unusable. I haven't tried the teamplay yet, I'll admit. Xenon and I tried some duels. The netcode seems fucked, although I read about that anti-flood thing with the showscores command. I usually press tab pretty rapidly. :) Also, why don't the pings update when tab is held down? You have to repress tab, which triggers the flood protection...nice. I'm getting kinda tired of this 'it will all be fine in the final' business like some kind of miracle is gonna happen.

UT is by far the better game as far as I've seen. Also "demotest", what kind of name is that? When is id gonna stick their neck out and say 'this is our game' instead of 'its only a test!'. Whenever I run a listen server its lagged for 30-40 secs before we can both play. The RL and Shotgun seem much crisper - they feel less lagged. The players seem to bounce a lot more which I also like. It generally feels faster which is good. 

Haven't got much faith in id anymore I'm afraid. It's all been downhill since you know who left :) He knew what made a good DM game, something which I'm not sure id know right now. The only evidence I have is Q2 and Q3 which are pretty good examples of that. :) The levels are perhaps the worst part of Q3. I haven't seen any good maps in Q3 yet, but blind followers say 'the maps will rock in the final' as if they know. 

Hakeem likes to say what's on his mind and I like that very much. For those of you that know me, I am certainly not a "blind follower" of id Software but, I do hope that all the bugs are fixed and the final game will contain some great maps. You can read and post your comments here.

Spookie Returns
After a 3 month layoff, Spookie celebrates his 33rd birthday with a new update. He talks about everything from Quake friends (hmm, doesn't mention me!) to Q3A. Make sure you take a look at his interesting article on "The Spookie Side". You can also send him e-mail at spookie@methosq.com and tell him how old he is.

Demo Of The Millennium?
For the end of the millennium, I'd like to post as the spotlight demo, your choice for the "Demo of the Millennium". I'm sure that there are tons of great demos you can think of, so, make sure you submit your choice. I'm not sure what I would pick but, I can probably guess at a few that might get some votes.

How about Sujoy Vs DaNoLd? Thresh Vs Entropy? How about Lakerman Vs Kane? If all else fails, there's always one of the many Quake Done Quicker demos you can choose from.

Make sure you submit your vote for "The Demo Of The Millennium" here.

Methos Site Stuff
Lots of reaction to the "Quake ReDone Quicker" demo, for those that haven't seen it, you can download it here. It finishes the entire Quake 1 in nightmare mode in 14 minutes, 32 seconds. Make sure you download it as it is an awesome demo.

• Spookie updated "The Spookie Side", make sure you take a look at it.

Quake 3: Arena - Official Demo Released
The shiny new "official" demo of Q3A has been released. This release incorporates all the changes and fixes that id has been working on since the August 8,1999 release of v1.08.  I'm sure that most of you have downloaded the hefty 50 meg file and have been playing it non-stop for the last 18 hours of it's release.

For those of you that haven't downloaded the program, here are a few sites to get it from. 

ftp://ftp.3dgamers.com/../q3demotest.exe
ftp://ftp.avault.com/demos/q3DemoTEST.exe
ftp://ftp.bluesnews.com/../q3DemoTEST.exe
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/../q3DemoTEST.exe
ftp://ftp2.3dgamers.com/../q3demotest.exe
ftp://games.pacific.net.sg/../q3DemoTEST.exe
http://demo.quake3arena.com/QUAKE/win32/q3DemoTEST.exe
http://styx.evilavatar.com/../q3DemoTEST.exe
http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=31820
http://www.gaminggroup.com/downloads/q3/q3DemoTEST.exe
http://www.lightspeed2000.com/q3DemoTEST.exe
http://www.mngamers.com/files/q3demo/q3DemoTEST.exe

Aside from the fact that it's a new version, it is a worthwhile download.

What People Are Saying
I could only get a few responses from people who tried the game at three in the morning (funny that). But, here are a few comments by some of the good folks I was able to contact. While reading this, keep in mind that there are known issues with Voodoo cards and that will help explain most of the "lag" comments. Also, at the time, id's verification server was down so, people couldn't play on-line. It's fixed now.

r3v-Pure: It's ass, its bad, horrible. It lags up and lots of bugs. When you hit tab it will lag up, the mouse is laggy. The netcode is still bad and the shaft with 30+ ping is bad, worse then b4 on the net. I like the new shaft, but only on lan. Its quite a bit more user friendly now like by typing in a command, then going <tab>, it will give you a list of others if u misspelled, etc and it lets you save configs so it wont reset your config every time u load it up. The air control is another thing I don't like about it or maybe that's just my machine lagging.

Izn0: Nice "new" shaft, good that the players don't get stuck in each other all the time. Overall, a welcome improvement over Q3T1.08. Feels as if the RL is stronger in this version also which I like. Only annoying thing is the V3+Vertex bug but, I suppose 3Dfx will sort that out soon.

XP-Spookie: The LG is improved and the bots are cool. The maps look better and the overall feel of the game is improved. Now if only id can do something about the graphics lagging my Celeron 500mhz & Voodoo3. The air control still feels weak.. jumping is fine but, it feels almost non-existent.

Hoony: I lanned it and enjoyed it very much. I thought it was a "Sega-style arcade game" - very well done - quite radical for id Software. I liked a lot of the changes - in fact playing FFA on the new map reminded me of Q1 - lots of gibs, bouncing players, fast movement. There are still things I'd like to change - but overall I think this game is great. I just don't know that it's possible to take it as "seriously" as you could with Quake. I hope so.

D16-Makavelli: I love the new demo, though my only complaint would be that he didn't really go to what the problem with the shaft was. It wasn't the damage, it was the range and the amount of ammo. He shortened the range, which is good but, he lowered the damage a lot. If he would have just lowered the ammo, it would have been fine but, that's minor, because it is still effective. I love the RL but, I wish it still did even more splash.

nB-Fatality: I played against the bots 1on1 on the new map and q3tourney and beat them both times on nightmare 10-1. The LG owns, I really like how it shoots and no more lag with the LG.

a|Method: I think it addresses a lot of the problems in 1.08. Overall it runs a lot better, fixed a lot of the physics and level bugs. Getting used to the smaller player models is sort of a bitch but, I'll eventually get used to that. I like being able to strafe jump around the map without it being capped. The shotgun is a lot more solid, u can actually use it on the net which makes it a pretty useful if not dominating weapon at times. The teamplay stuff is pretty cool, I think it gives everyone a more even playing field. Everyone knows where their teammates are and stuff, not much need for location binds that we used to use. There's a small box in the upper right hand of the screen that has all the names of everyone on your team and it shows their current status, location, health, armor, weapon and ammo. The netcode seems a lot smoother, although I don't think its actually better. He did a good job of masking the lag with prediction. It has a lot of warping sometimes. This version of q3tourney is a lot better and would've made Frag3 better. They actually went in and removed the amount of health in the map and changed a few architectural things that makes it run a little smoother, and I think changed some of the spawns.

There you have it, I'm a bit surprised at the difference in how people see the new version. I suppose if you consider the Voodoo problems causing excess lag, then most of the comments are valid. It is encouraging to see how many people thought it was a good step forward for the game. With this being the demo, it's probably the closest we will get to the real thing. Overall, I agree with Hoony's comments when he says that, it's fun to play, he liked the changes but, he wonders if the game can be taken as seriously as Quake was.

I have setup a new messageboard and I've included the demo release as a topic. So, if you want to comment on the new "official" demo, please post your comments here.

Methos' Q3A Demo Thoughts
I'm sure you've been waiting with abated breath (get a mint for that), wondering what my thoughts were on the "official" demo so, here they are. I must say that when I heard it was available for download, I had a lethargic attitude towards it. I wasn't as excited as I've been with past releases. I expected to see the same thing as previous releases with the changes that Carmack has posted over the last while. I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of changes in regards to gameplay. Here's a list of my thoughts.

• Player Movement: Here's the list of the differences I noticed with the player movement.

• Air Control: The first surprise I received was the new air control. From what was non-existent in previous versions of Q3A and even Q2, there was now lots of air control. Not as much as QW but, around the same as the original Quake. Just the fact that you can now control your rocket jumps (again) was very cool.
• The collision bug has been fixed. No more getting stuck with other players.
• Jumping: You can now jump up stairs which is something that you couldn't do in QW. I'm not sure if you could do this in Quake2.
• More Jumping: The jumping on ramps has been fixed, you don't fly across the level after jumping from an upward slope. This is something that had been present since the original Quake and I will actually miss it.
• Even More Jumping: No limit on bunny-hopping around the level. I don't particularly like this feature but, a lot of people (especially Q2 players) love this. 
• Player Model: Is the player model smaller? It seemed a bit smaller to me. I also have a problem with the player model "twirling" around the level. I'm not sure how this is done but, last time I was in a gun fight, the other guy wasn't doing any pirouettes to avoid my Rocket Launcher. 

• Weapons: The weapon switch time has been changed so that it doesn't take as long to switch, I haven't noticed this at all. Overall, it seemed to me while playing on-line that, it took a lot of shots to kill anybody.

• Gauntlet: Never tried it but, the model looked a lot better and you could see the spinning blade.
• Shotguns: Seemed the same to me.
• Machine Gun: They dropped the damage on this and it is now a very weak weapon. It takes a lot of shells to kill somebody. Having said that, it's still a decent default weapon.
• Plasma Gun: Smaller emission makes this a more useful weapon. It doesn't fill your screen with plasma blasts so, you're able to see your opponent.
• Rocket Launcher: People have said that it has more damage than before. I haven't noticed this. The splash damage seems about the same as before but, the radius is greater. This means that you can damage your opponent the same amount by hitting further away. There is also less of a smoke trail than there was before, which can only be a plus.
• Lightning Gun: The damage and range have been reduced. It now eats ammo like popcorn, if you click on shoot, it uses a minimum of 5 ammo. The bolt has been lessened so that it doesn't cover the screen and you know where you're aiming. On the receiving end, it's easier to avoid.

• Teamplay: It seemed wonderful. The info box that replaces the proxy location use, is great. You know everything about how your team is doing. People have been waiting for this to be incorporated into the game. This will allow most of the normal add-ons to be included with the game. We won't have to download separate patches for duel mods, CTF, etc.
  
• Miscellaneous Stuff: 

• Configs: It allows you to save your config files and also to play using other people's configs. It includes all of the id guys and a few others such as sCary etc.
• Demos: Game demos can be played directly from the menu. I always wondered why this wasn't included a long time ago.
• Selective Mod Mapping: When starting a server, if you choose 1on1, it will only give you a list of 1on1 maps and rotate through those. Same goes for the other types of play.
• System Requirements: As we all knew, the min. req. had been increased. It now takes a P-233 with 64 megs ram and 8 meg 3D video card. This is very steep. For a dedicated server, it use to run on virtually any decent machine, now you need a lot more ram (256 for a decent server).

Those are my thoughts on the demo. If you wish to add yours, just go to the messageboard and feel free to post them. You can post your comments here.

Methos Quake Messageboard
As I mentioned above, with the help of the Barrysworld guys, there is now a Methos Quake Messageboard. You can post all your comments to articles on this page by heading over to the messageboard. I will post all the "hot" topics so that people don't have to enter everything in a general forum. The msgboard just opened so, please be patient with it. Also, unlike other messageboards, you don't have to register to reply to any postings. Enjoy!

Quake Redone Quicker
[AK]Nagasaki sent along word that he has compiled another version of the infamous Quake Done Quicker. This time, it's called Quake Redone Quicker. It is the complete Quake done in Nightmare skill level. He completes this task over 2 minutes faster than in QDQ.

It's great to watch, you can download the file here. Make sure you get it. Just a hint, when uncompressing it, make sure you put the files in \quake\qrdq\ and then use the batch file provided which does everything for you.

Methos Site Stuff
I'm looking for somebody to help me with a new site design. I've had a few people help me in the past but, they always seem to fall off the face of the earth before it's complete. If you can help me with a new site design, logo, banner or graphics, please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated.

• Changed all the demos to lowercase so they can be downloaded from the new linux box at BW. For those that were having problems downloading, please try it again. I apologize for the inconvenience.
• The new messageboard is up and running. Please take a visit to the site and post your thoughts.

More Frag3 Stuff
You can find lots of news from The Frag3 tourney all over the net. After all, it was the largest game tourney ever held. You can find great news coverage at The Frag3 Home Page, Truegamers, CHEU, sCary's plus, many more. If you look hard enough, you can probably find an interview with nearly every top player from the tourney.

Sujoy's Round-Up
Not wanting to be left out of the the Frag3 limelight, Sujoy has posted a commentary of his exploits in Dallas. I'm not sure I found this one as good as his last one but, it's certainly interesting to read.

"GroundZero, a few months earlier, was my first CPL event and so my first taste of what the World's premier competitive gaming organization could accomplish. And I was impressed. The smooth running, professionalism and just the scale of the event left me gaping in awe. 

Each aspect of the event in GroundZero that impressed me, was improved upon at the Frag3 in Dallas."

Hmm, I get the feeling that he enjoyed himself. Make sure you go and read the rest of Sujoy's Frag3 report.

What's Johnny Up To?
Here we go again with my take on John Carmack's .plan file postings. For the past week, here are the changes that John has implemented with regards to gameplay.

* CD check in single player
* Force skins on spectators in team games to prevent having a default waste memory
* Fixed grenade-disappearing-at-floor bug when about to explode
* Draw reward medals during gameplay
* Added "humiliation" feedback for gauntlet kills
* Removed grapple from give all
* Fixed pick-up-two-healths-even-if-you-don't-need-the-second bug
* Different menuback for ragepro
* Teamplay rule mods: less MG damage (5 instead of 7), weapons always have a full load of ammo, don't drop powerups
* When a vote is tied with all votes in, immediately fail it
* Play chat sound during votes
* Made "vote" and "callvote" completable
* Don't flash attacker when damaging self
* Display capturelimit instead of fraglimit on score tabs in ctf
* Fixed bug with follow mode spectators
* Adjusted value to prevent missed launch sound on accelerator pads
* Dropped LG damage to 160 pts / sec

Well, all this seems normal, CD check, Grenade bug fix, humiliation taunt for gauntlet kills etc. Nothing much here to talk about. Hey, what's this thing about the LG?

John Carmack, in his infinite wisdom has lowered the damage of the Lightning Gun from 200 pts / sec to 160. This change was done in direct response to the LG performance of Hakeem and others in the Frag3 tourney. If you ask me, I think this is a bush league move by the folks at id Software. Here are my reasons for thinking that this is a dumb move.

• The Lightning Gun dominated on the Q3Tourney map because the map is designed (unintentionally) for it to happen that way. It's the same as Q3test2 is designed to be dominated by the Railgun but, I don't see id doing anything about that.
• The 30-40 maps that they are releasing with the final product are suppose to be "much larger maps than those in Q2" (direct quote from id) so, the LG will be less affective on most maps. Lessening the power will not only lessen the usage but, it will lower the strategic value of the weapon.
• I'm not sure why but, Carmack doesn't hesitate to lower the speed and damage of all weapons (GL, LG, RL, MG etc) except for the Railgun which will cause more damage than all of them.

Instead of always cutting back, why not give the weapons more "oomph". Then the gibs will really start to fly and we won't have to worry about one weapon dominating the game so much. I hope that some of the hardcore Q3A players can let me know their feelings on this. It would be interesting to hear them. Am I way off the mark on this or do my comments have some merit? If you have something to add, please send me your comments.

Methos Quake Has Moved
Oh damn, you found me. Actually, I'm not here anymore. Methos Quake can now be located in the luxurious new offices at www.methosq.com. If you want to get in touch with me, you can send e-mail to my new e-mail address, which is methos@methosq.com. For those of you that want to contact Spookie, his new e-mail address is spookie@methosq.com. The Barrysworld address should take you to the Methosq address for a while to come but, please update your bookmarks.

Silence Isn't Golden
I had a few questions to ask the Frag3 staff which I never got answers to. I was inquiring as to who was in charge of selecting the rankings for the final 32 players. I was contacted by Mike Wardell who told me, 

"I head a small player committee that gives input and helps me decide the final seeds". 

I sent him a reply asking him two questions. The questions were...

1. In the ffa prelims, Hakeem finished with the highest frag total and biggest amount of victory of all the finalists. Why / how would he end up being ranked 12th?
2. There were 8 European players in the final 32. How is it that 6 of them had to play each other and then 2 of those winners had to play each other in the very next round?

I never got a response.

Methos Site Stuff
DBs and Cro from Barrysworld were able to get the new site addy (www.methosq.com) setup (thanks guys) and I should have a messageboard up and running soon.

Nothing much happening with me these days, I've been buying tons of "older" movies on DVD's (bought the Tom Clancy, Clint Eastwood and Steven King trilogies). I spent most of this past week with my "gorgeous blond neighbor" which is always nice. I was able to try Quake2 on a Sony Playstation. It was good compared to games like 007 but, PSX games don't excite me at all. And how was your week?

Hakeem Wins Frag3
Congrats to UK QuakeWorld player, UT player, Q3A Test player and probably Pong player, Hakeem on winning first place in The Frag3. Not that he had to work that hard to win, all he had to do was get through the preliminary rounds with about 1,000 players competing, make it to the final 32, then defeat R1msh0t (13-6), Sujoy (16-15), Batch (21-12), K9-Moonsh1ne (23-8) and STX-Wombat (12-11 in extra time) to win the $10,000 first prize. Other than that, it was an easy tournament to win. (note: this comment is sarcasm)

Wombat, who was ranked #1 in the tournament, made it to the final match by defeating [xeno]Dy-Syng (23-4), a|method (16-4), 1134-Demerol (10-9), Xenon (1-0) before losing to Hakeem (11-12). Since the last three matches were all won by 1 frag, you can bet there were some pretty tense moments. For his troubles, Wombat will be paid $5,000 (US) for his second place finish.

Here is the list of how the players faired in the winners bracket of the final 32 competition. Obviously, since it was single knockout, all players will have one loss except Hakeem. Players are listed in order of their ranking in the final 32.

This chart shows who knocked each player out of the winners bracket. There were some very competitive games involved in the matches, as shown by the 7 matches that were won by 1 frag. For interest sake, the biggest margin of victory in the final 32 was 31 frags in the quarter final match where K9-Moonsh1ne defeated Gemini 37-6 and the semi-final from the losers bracket where nB.Fatality beat Gemini 35-4.

Here are the "official" final results. The 5th to 8th place finishers were the top players from the losers bracket. Players that finished 9th through 16th also won $200 US.

Congrats to Hakeem and all the players in the tournament. You've given Q3A a great head start into the gaming industry by making The Frag3, the largest Lan tourney ever held. Not bad for a beta version of a game that can only get better. 

On a personal note, I had a feeling that Hakeem would do very well in the tourney after he had the highest total and largest spread of any victor in the FFA preliminary matches. I didn't think he would win but, top 5 wasn't out of the question. Congratulations Hakeem, well done. I suppose the next step will be the CPL $100,000 tourney in which, I'm sure he'll be a seated player.

I haven't been able to find demos yet but, when I do, I'll post a few of the better matches. For complete coverage of the tourney, head over to The Frag3 Home Page.

The Frag3 - Bang? Or Bust?
After an incredible week of matches in Dallas, lets figure out what we've learned. Here are my thoughts on it.

• The first thing is that Q3A will be a huge success. With over 1,000 players at the tourney, the numbers don't lie. It's pretty impressive when a beta version of a game can cause enough interest that people from European countries will travel thousands of miles to compete. Of course, the $27,000 in prizes may have something to do with that. 

• Sponsors will pay for big tourneys. Having said that, I wonder how Babages feels about paying out the $10,000 first prize to a player that isn't from the USA and therefore, probably won't be spending any of the money in their store? Will this cause concerns for future sponsorship, I certainly hope not.

• The gaming world has gotten much smaller. In the final 32, there were 9 players (28%, 6 from European countries and 3 from Canada) that weren't from the USA . This says a lots when you consider that only 4% of all players at the tourney weren't from the USA. This will change even more when people like Lakerman, Reload and other players from around the world get into playing Q3A and get the sponsorship to travel to more events.

• Much like Sujoy has proven in the last month or so, the Lightning Gun will be the weapon of choice for 1on1 battles in Q3A. In the final game alone, 10 of the 12 frags by Hakeem were done with the LG.

• Quake / QW players will dominate Q3A. Did anybody happen to notice that in the final 32, only a few of the players had even played Quake2? Of those players, none of the them were considered the elite players from Q2. Time will tell but, I can imagine that only on maps that are dominated by the Railgun will "most" Q2 players exceed. The players that were considered elite (l33t) in Quake / QW ruled in Dallas.

There you have it. As always, if you have an opinion on this, you can leave me a comment.

Methos Quake Moving Err, Sort Of
Methos Quake will be moving to a new domain address soon. The new address will be www.methosq.com . This transfer was suppose to be done last week but, Tony from Barrysworld decided to take a week off and spend time with his family (wtf? How dare he! :). As soon as they have everything in place, I'll pass along the info for the e-mail addresses etc. The existing address "should" automatically take visitors to the new address for a period of time.

What's Johnny Doing?
In what has turned into a weekly type of posting, let's take a look and see what John Carmack has been up to with regards to the Q3A game we all know and love. Okay, it hasn't even been released yet so, we can refer to it as the "upcoming" Q3A game that we will all love.

* New bfg sound (w00p!)
* "sv_pure 1" as default, requires clients to only get data from pk3 files the server is using
* Graphics for scoreboard headers
* Show colored names on attacker display and scoreboard
* Count a disconnect while losing in tournament mode as a win for the other player
* Fixed running with jump held down runs slow
* Draw "connection problems" in center of screen in addition to phone jack icon
* Fixed console dropping on level start

As you can see, other than the "Fixed running with jump held down runs slow" fix, there aren't any changes / fixes that will affect gameplay for the users. However, it does seem that they are now in the "tweaking" stages and that most of the engine programming is done. Now we just have to wait for the maps and addons to be done and interpolated into the game. This should mean that the release time is coming closer which can only be good news. That is, as long as it won't be released "unfinished" like Q2 was. :)

Methos Site Stuff
Sorry about taking more time off from writing. I'll be getting back into this on a more fulltime basis very soon. As I write this update, the Barrysworld webservers are down and have been down for the past day or two. Hopefully, that will be cleared up soon.

• Did a rather large update (at least it seemed large) on the Methos .plan page. Make sure you take a visit

Methos Return Is News?
Thanks to all the people that sent their "welcome back" wishes. Either by e-mail or a post on their web sites. The ones I noticed were on Truegamers (Hi Izn0), Quake3 Germany (Hi Giant), The Dome (Hi Guys) and a bunch of messageboards. Thanks again for the warm wishes.

Methos Complaint Department
OMG, I'm back for one day and already I've started a controversy. It seems that a few people were upset about a paragraph that I wrote in my previous post. The offending statement was...

"C'mon people, get a life, at least wait until Q3A is released. Let's make id Software show us what a real game is like before we start flogging it around the world. With all the shortcomings with the Q3A test, we need a proper game. Aren't you people sick to death of the three levels yet? I'm waiting to see 30 or more excellent DM levels (both 1on1 and clan maps) from id and they'd better not disappoint us like they did with Quake2.  :)"

It is interesting that even though many people complained about this, I'm actually not sure what bothered them about the post. All people agreed that Q3A still has some bugs that need to be fixed before the final version is released. Nearly everybody is sick of the three levels and are waiting for lots more (and better) levels in the final product. Most people agreed that the Q2 levels were disappointing for on-line play.

So, I guess they were upset that I told them to "get a life". Now, I can understand them being mad about this. If I stayed in the house all day playing a beta product for 12 or more hours, I wouldn't want somebody to think that I didn't have a life. :)

John Carmack Interviewed
SlashDot has posted the most interesting John Carmack interview that I have ever seen. The questions were from the general public and Carmack goes into some incredibly personal answers during the questions. He even goes as far as to tell us the following...

"I was sort of an amoral little jerk when I was young. I was arrogant about being smarter than other people, but unhappy that I wasn't able to spend all my time doing what I wanted. I spent a year in a juvenile home for a first offence after an evaluation by a psychologist went very badly."

Since this comment is obviously out of context, I strongly suggest that you go and read the entire question and answer session. He talks about everything from his schooling, to games, to his 1,000 horsepower Ferrari Testarossa. It's a great read.

No Nine Inch Nails
Todd Hollenshead confirmed (to nobody's surprise) that Trent Reznor and / or NiN will not be part of the Q3A soundtrack music. I guess PlanetQuake made an "oops" when they erroneously posted on Oct. 15th that Reznor will contribute "2 or 3 tracks for the Q3 soundtrack".  :) 

Also, there is a very good Todd Hollenshead interview located here. Most of the interviews I've seen with TH are boring at best. This one talks about everything from his start at id to Doom2000. He also mentions the following which is a bit of irony that he may not realize affects id.

"The Q3A tracks are really good and you don't get lagged by the game calling on the CD drive because the music isn't Redbook audio anymore."

Here's the ironic part. If my memory serves me correctly (that's a big if), id's Graeme Devine was a part of the group that originated Redbook audio when he worked on The Eleventh Hour game with Trilobyte. At the time, it was a huge step forward in gaming.

Q3Atest Hits The Air
I was surfing the TV stations on Sunday and I watched part of a movie called "Time Shifters". While the movie was okay, the thing that perked my interest was that they showed Q3Atest in the movie. For interest sake, the guy that was playing looked pretty lame. :)

GeForce Vs TNT2 Ultra Benchmarks
Riva Station has posted some "real" gaming benchmarks that compare the new Nvidia GeForce video card against Nvidia's TNT2 Ultra card. The reason why I say they're real gaming benchmarks is that there's no winstone, dhrysone, wheystone or other silly numbers, only Quake, Quake2 and Q3A benchmarks. For those that remember, I purchased a TNT2 Ultra a few weeks ago. (grrr)

Barrysworld Game Guides
Not to be confused with Girl Guides™, S.A.S. has setup the new Barrysworld Game Guides site which will have gaming guides for most of the popular games. Included in the plans are guides for Quake2, Quake3, CTF (all flavors I suppose), Tribes, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life and Tiberian Sun. Good luck to S.A.S. with his endeavor.

Mouse Help
I've been considering ordering one of the new Intellieye Optical Sensor mice (no mouse ball) from MicroSoft. They now have 5 button mice and the USB flavor has better response than any mouse ever made. Now, I have two questions that I didn't see answered in any review I've seen.

• Does the mouse still react to mouse movement when it is not on a surface? This would be detrimental to playing any 1st person shooter. 
• What happens if you change your central point of navigation? IE, if you turn your view to another direction, does the mouse have to be recalibrated? This would also cause havoc to many people. 

Other than that, the mice look great. I hate cleaning my mouse and the thought of not having to do it, pleases me immensely. If anybody has answers to these two questions, please let me know. Thanks

Methos Site Stuff
While perusing through the various gaming sites, I became aware of a couple of things. First, there are tons of new games on the horizon that I've never heard of before and second, there are a ton of new Quake2 mods out there. I was under the impression that Quake2 wasn't as popular anymore and that people had started playing the Q3A test. Obviously, there is still some interest in Q2 out there.

• Made a slight addition to my last post on Methos .plan page

Well, Well, Well
Now that was a long break. Nice to be back after my hiatus. What have I been up to? Lots of work, lots of spending money, lots of Quake playing and lots of real life™ stuff.

What has been happening in the Quake world during the last couple of months? Q3A is still on test v1.08. Daikatana still isn't out. Unreal Tournament isn't out. Hmm, not much new. People are still playing QW. People are testing the UT Demo. There are a bunch of serious Q3A Test tourneys. 

C'mon people, get a life, at least wait until Q3A is released. Let's make id Software show us what a real game is like before we start flogging it around the world. With all the shortcomings with the Q3A test, we need a proper game. Aren't you people sick to death of the three levels yet? I'm waiting to see 30 or more excellent DM levels (both 1on1 and clan maps) from id and they'd better not disappoint us like they did with Quake2.  :)

Carmack Makes Changes
Have there been any positive changes made to Q3A in the last couple of months? Let's see what Johnny has been up to. Here's a list of what I feel are pertinent changes by John Carmack in the past month or so.

10/14/99
--------
* ignore network packets when in single player mode

10/11/99
--------
* colorized railgun muzzle flash, impact flash, and mark
* fixed grenades sticking to steep slopes

10/7/99
-------
* removed identical pain sounds

10/4/99
-------
* allow cg_thirdPerson and cg_thirdPersonRange in games

10/1/99
-------
* 10 crosshairs to select from (cg_drawCrosshair 1 - 10)
* cg_crosshairx / cg_crosshairy adjustment. I'm not convinced these are a good thing, because
the crosshair is accurate in Q3 at the default position (unlike Q2, which had an offset firing position)
* join as spectator in all team games
* fixed +button4 not causing footsteps
* do personal pain sounds on health transitions so they can never be missed
* fixed footsteps playing when walking backwards

9/28/99
-------
* weapon switch animations at 20hz instead of 15hz cuts switch time from 600 msec to 450 msec
* fixed walking underwater friction problems
* reduced machinegun damage
* sarge as default model
* com_blood 0 option for no gibs and no blood on hits
* mouse click aborts cinematic
* show tourney scores in all games, add fraglimit
* removed triple bunny-hop protection, it was too arbitrary and didn't accomplish it's goal
* fixed lightning bolt drawing too far
* pause when menu is up in single player

I'm sure you get the gist of all this. There haven't been many serious changes. The weapon switch is down from 600ms to 450ms (anything is an improvement). The bunny-hop limitation has been taken out and the machine gun doesn't do as much damage. These three changes will be welcomed by most players. Now, if we could only start getting the other shortcomings worked out.

Methos Site Stuff
Thanks to all the people that have sent me e-mail or contacted me to ask if I was coming back. To let you know, there was never a time when I wasn't coming back. Also, thanks to all the people that sent me birthday wishes on October 13th.

• Updated Methos .plan file

I'm Back
No updates in quite a while. For those that were wondering, yes, I'm still alive. After taking a much needed vacation, my cable modem service going tits-up for a week and a half, then having a week from hell at work, plus, the Barrysworld servers going down for a weekend, I can now start posting again.

Another Q3 "Test" Coming
John Carmack announced the other day that there will be another Q3test around the middle of September. In this release, the bots will be included. Here's an edited version of his latest .plan that shows the gameplay changes.

"The current plan is that we will have another test release around the middle of next month. This version will be running game/cgame/ui with the virtual machine, and will include single player play against bots. No new maps.

The map editor and tools will not be released until after the game hits store shelves. To be completely clear: you are not legally licensed to create or use addon maps with the test.

Some people have been mistaking memory swapping in 1.08 for network problems.  We did controlled, back to back tests against the previous versions, and the networking is identical if you have enough memory.

The addition of the new character model and all the new menu code and graphics has caused the game to begin to have some swapping problems on 64mb machines if you have all the quality options up high or are running other things.

I am looking into what I can do to reduce memory consumption for the next release, but in the meantime, you can turn down sound quality, geometry, or texture detail to get rid of it.

If you have less than 64mb, go buy more memory! The final game will have an option to run in less memory, but the graphics and sound quality will be a lot lower.

----------

* Fixed players getting stuck together
* Fixed lerp-through-world when changing teams
* Show ping and netgraph for spectators
* Changed minimum cl_maxpackets to 15
* Fixed can't-respawn-when-someone-is-on-your-body
* Added fogging of triangle objects"

Only two things perked my interest in his .plan. First, why is id so adamant about stopping people from making / converting maps for use with Q3test? It seems a bit silly to me, especially when they'll be releasing an editor after Q3 is on the shelves so, people will be able to make as many maps as they want. Second, the new minimum or 64 megs ram. Wasn't id suppose to be gearing this game for use with the "family PC"? Having 64+ megs as a minimum is a bit high.

Sujoy's QuakeCon Review
Although this is old news, if you haven't already seen it, make sure you go over to Sujoy's site and read his excellent review of QuakeCon. For those that don't know, Sujoy managed to pull out a top 16 finish (with hundreds of players competing) and ended up losing to Diehard who went on to win the whole thing. Not bad for somebody who hadn't practiced much prior to the tourney.

Congrats to Sujoy for doing well even after "losing your cool" on the first day.

AMD Athlon 800 Benchmarks
I don't usually post any kind of benchmark testing but, I found this one to be pretty interesting. Pete's Hardware Domain has run comparison tests with the Athlon 800 against a few other chips including the P3-660. I found the Q3test benchmark to be interesting as it was the only test they didn't compare to the other chips.

You'll notice that even with all the power available with the Athlon 800 and a TNT2 Ultra card, the FPS at the highest quality is only 53.7. It jumps up to 111.5 fps with everything turned off. This goes to show just how cpu dependant Q3test is (with the TNT2).

Methos Site Stuff
Only a short update today, not much happening in the Quake world. In my next update, I have another QuakeBabe™ to post so, you can look forward to that. Until then, have a great day.

Stacking Update
Earlier, I mentioned that I was invited to a stacking party last Tuesday evening. I now have the demo from that err, umm, event. If you've ever wondered what 50 bored Quakers do on a server, here's your chance to find out. I found it kind of cool when we were able to get the stack of players higher then the quad platform on the q2test2 map.

Quake 3 Stacking Party Demo (1.89 MB) for v1.08

This demo is for Q3test v1.08. If you don't have the crack to run demos yet, download it here. Once you run the crack, rename your "demoq3" directory to "baseq3". Then make a directory called demos off the baseq3 directory (ie: c:\q3a\baseq3\demos) unzip the demo to the demos directory. In the console, type  demo stack2 (or use DemoPlay)

Slow, Slow, Slow!
Since there is almost nothing as far as Quake news, it seems as though I picked a great time to go on vacation. I'll post a few notes then I'm leaving again for another vacation until next week.

Diehard Wins QuakeCon
Canadian Quakeworld player and member of Clan R3volution, Diehard has won the QuakeCon event in Mesquite, Texas this past weekend. Congrats to Diehard on winning the event against so many other players (over 1,000 attended). You can head over to Shugashack for a Diehard interview and more QuakeCon news.

Not to take away from Diehard's victory but, does anybody besides me think that it's a bit silly to have a large tournament with a beta version of a program that won't be released for months? The point I'm getting at is... why not wait until he game has been released and then have players show what they can do with the finished engine?

Stack Party
Speaking of silliness, I was invited to a "stack" party the other day. What's a stack party you ask? It's where a bunch of players get together and stand on each others heads. The previous record for stacking was 23 (I think).

By the time we finished our vertical stack (after the reverse pyramid and the Q3 symbol), we were able to get about 28 players standing on top of each other. How high is 28 players, when completed, we were stacked above the Quad platform on Q3test2. That is until somebody decided to shoot the guys at the bottom and we all tumbled down. I'll try to get a silly demo for you as soon as I can.

Spookie Updates Again
For the second time in less than 8 days, Spookie has updated "The Spookie Side" with his latest banter. This time, he talks about Lakerman, Xenon and Quake2 demos (wtf?). Make sure you visit his lovely page.

Another QuakeBabe™
I have posted another picture on the Methos QuakeBabes™ page. Her name is Carolyn and she threatened to beat me up if I didn't post her picture. :) Also, I don't have to send her my typical marriage proposal as she is already engaged. Carolyn says that she's 5'7" tall and into Blur, Garbage and Quake although she doesn't play too much these days. Make sure you take a look at her pic or she'll come after you too. :)

Oh, and a special thanks to SW-Infernal for busting (no pun intended) the Tina scandal wide open. :)

Methos Movie Reviews
For some reason, people are always asking me what I think of the latest movies. Here's a quick rundown of the movies I've seen lately with my 1-5 rating (5 being the best).

Methos Site Stuff

• Spookie updated "The Spookie Side"
• Posted 11 demos to the Quake Demos page. Yes, that's 11, not including the 8 EU/NA matches from Rapture99 and the 3 demos I posted for Spookie's page. This time, the demos are from Canada, Russia, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, England, USA, Sweden and Italy. (huh?)
• Posted another picture on Methos QuakeBabes™ page
• Archived this news page from July 1999.

Quake 3: Arena Test v1.08 Released
I haven't had a chance to do much testing on the new version of Q3ATest. I noticed a couple of changes in that they added more player colors and a real pretty config menu. They've also added a new model called "Sarge". To change to the new model, just type "model sarge" in the console.

Here are the changes that are listed in the readme file.

You MUST delete all previous versions of Q3TEST for the game to run properly!!!!!!

• Fixed marks fading properly in fog volumes
• Show weapon in fov >90, adjusting position down as needed
• Update scoreboard info while at intermission
• Print "waiting to play" for tourney spectators
• Fixed tied rank with 0 score and spectators
• Return to roaming spectator when a followed client quits or spectates
• Release windows cursor when running windowed and the console is down
• Log all client transitions, item pickups, and kills
• Changed joystick axis to act just like arrow keys so they can be bound in the controls menu for strafing. Yes, this does remove slow walking from joystick movement, but it makes everything a lot cleaner.
• Fix up PantherXL trackball support
• Tournament queuing of spectators to enter the game
• Track wins and losses as long as you stay on a tourney server
• Spectators are now in fly mode instead of noclip, and use teleporters
• Pass serverTime instead of msec for command timing, prevents timescale cheating
• Fixed rcon

Here are the download links for this hefty 33.5 MB program...

• id Software
• Barrysworld
• Gamespy1
• Gamespy2
• Stomped
• BluesNews

Romero Returns to Level Design [BluesNews]
John Romero has returned to designing single player maps. Up until now, Romero's role was simply as the game's designer, overseeing the production of the game, but not making any levels himself. Here's what John had to say:

"I am now involved in designing single-player maps. I get to the office around 10:00 a.m. and stay until 1:00 in the morning most days. Last night, I was here until 4:30 a.m.” Additionally, he is still involved with his supervisory role, something else that no doubt contributes to the long days during the current crunch mode."

I can only think that this is either a great move for ION Storm or a desperate one.

Why Kane Demos Suck
I mentioned last week in my .plan that I was less than impressed with QuakeWorld demos by Kane. The comments had nothing to do with his talent as he is a very talented player. I expected to get hit hard with mail saying that Kane demos were great to watch. Oddly enough, I received approx. 30 e-mails regarding Kane demos and every one of them agreed with my comments. The good news is that with all the suggestions, I think I've found out why I find Kane demos boring. Here what the consensus of the mail had to say.

Let's compare Kane's style of play to Thresh and Lakerman.

• With Thresh, you have arguably the smartest player in the world (my opinion). Thresh will play his matches and when he goes from point a to point b, he will do something very smart along the way. Then he will kill his opponent.
• With Lakerman, you have one of the fanciest players in the world. Lakerman will go from point a to point b and make one or two fancy moves or jumps along the way and then kill his opponent.
• With Kane, you have a killing machine. Kane will go from point a to point b but, he does nothing very fancy or very smart along the way. He just goes and kills his opponent.

I'm not sure if this is the whole reason why I don't care for Kane demos but, these comparisons seem logical to me. Send me e-mail and let me know what you think.

Spookie and Gobo Editorial Updates
When it rains, it pours. Both Spookie and Gobo have updated their pages with some cool stuff.

• The Spookie Side - Spook updates with lots of talk about the Rapture99 tournament and a picture slideshow of his recent move from LosAngeles to Ohio with his personal QuakeBabe™, JeZeBeL. (who still won't send me a pic for the page)
• Gobo's Gibbage - Gobo has an interesting update with his thoughts on the Village2 and Rapture99 tourneys. He also comments (negatively) on my posting of QuakeBabe™ pictures and more specifically, Tina.

Make sure you read them both.

QuakeBabe Tina Causes A Stir
Other than Gobo, everybody seems to be quite happy looking at pictures of Tina on the QuakeBabes™ page. All of the e-mail I've received (and there has been LOTS) regarding Tina have been positive and say that I should keep her picture on the site. Gobo, on the other hand, feels that it is exploitive to show women in this light. He says that I am focusing on their "ample chests". I do agree that this was the case with Tina but, it was not the case with any of the other QuakeBabes™. Then again, it has since been found that "Tina" is not the Quaker we all thought she was. Umm, you did think she played Quake didn't you?

Gobo feels that if we're going to make the Quake world a happier place for both males and females, we have to treat the female Quakers in a less exploitive manner. Gobo also thinks that we're acting like teenagers (I agree with that one). I have spoken with Gobo and related my thoughts to him regarding this.

The first is that all the pictures on the QuakeBabes™ page are there voluntarily. I didn't go out and force these women to send in a picture (except JeZeBeL). All of the pictures shown on the page are / were available from other sites on the web. Most of these were posted by the women in question.

The second comment I had was that since the Quake world is 98% male, if you were to have 98 male Quakers in a room and two women walked in (especially if they looked like Tina), most of the men would stare and show them added attention compared to more guys walking into the room.

All this means is that (for now), the QuakeBabes page will stay. I have only had 2 people contact me and ask me to remove a picture. One of them was "Smoke" and the other was "Zoid".

More Tina, Err, Much More
My legion of investigative reporters have been scouring the Internet in search of Tina. One of my Turkish affiliates has come up with a clue to help "uncover" more clues in this scandal. I must warn you that this case is not for the timid. This is turning out to be like a Hollywood movie that keeps digging further into the seediness that life has to offer.

The evidence that was "acquired" is what I consider "R-rated". So, I won't be posting it for all to see on this page. If you're a) Underage, b) Offended by semi-naked women or, c) Gobo :P, do not visit the link below as it will only corrupt your mind. :)

Okay mothers, hide your children. Click here to see more of Tina and be careful you don't poke an eye out.

Ode To Cata
Did I happen to mention that I thought Cataklysque was very cool at Rapture99? Being the contact for the North American team, the Captain and one of the original members, he went to Scotland and didn't get to play in any clan matches. He was happy to be there and help coach the squad and didn't whine about it once. He also did fairly well in the 1on1 matches until he was hit by a train called, Kane. Good job Cata. It's nice to see that kind of coolness.

Methos Site Stuff

• Spookie updated "The Spookie Side"
• Gobo updated his "Gobo's Gibbage" page
• The work on the new site design is going well. I'm hoping it will be done soon and I can get it posted. I think it only needs some tweaking before it should be ready to go

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