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Rapture99 Aftermath
Now that all the dust has settled, people are giving their thoughts on how the tournament went. I'm not sure if I've ever seen more sites writing about a single event. There are sites popping up all over the place with features and editorials on Rapture99. To show you just how many people are talking about it, there was even a mention on Bluesnews (shock, Blue talks about a Quake tourney).

Many people were happy with the event, many more had complaints about nearly everything to do with the event. Their complaints ranged from the tourney admins getting drunk to the poor sportsmanship by some players and much more.

Go visit some of these sites and read some of their comments on Rapture99. Rapture99, QuakeNation, FPSGamers, Challenge-EU and Challenge-AU. If I've forgotten some, please forgive me.

Gemini Speaks
FPS-Spectator has posted an article by USA player EG-Gemini who played for the North American team at Rapture. Gemini tells us his very honest thoughts on the entire tournament. Make sure you take a look as it's a very good article (not including the typos). Since Recluse ask that I only post a link to his main page, you'll have to scroll down a whole bunch to get to the article.

Gemini also had some less than flattering things to say about Docsnyder from Germany in an "Open Letter" (OMG) that has been post on FPSGamers. Here's an excerpt from that letter.

"Docsynder,
After reading your very misinformed information on Rapture99 I have come to a conclusion, you're an idiot. You weren't at this LAN and I don't care how many "first hand accounts" you may have.
For your and the rest of the people's information the USA team members dropped out of the 1on1 tournament because of lack of playing time to practice both 1on1 and teamplay. So please take your "lame American" "Gemini precaution" shit and shove it."

It goes on to say quite a bit more about the tourney.

Kombat Teams Beta Testers Wanted
Cenobite has sent along word that he is working on the latest Kteams mod and would like some beta testers to help him out. If you're interested, you can send Ceno e-mail and let him know you want to test it. You can read about the latest version here.

QuakeBabe™ Scandal
The Quake investigating reporter Ben from Oxygen Tent is on the case again. You will remember that he was the first to let us know that Brandon James had left id Software and now he's back with an even bigger scoop. It turns out that our lovely QuakeBabe™ Tina, may not be what she has represented to us. While scouring pr0n sites, err I mean, while investigating the situation, Ben came across some "other" pictures of Tina. As proof, he sent me this file.

More Tina

Being the professional investigator he is, Ben wouldn't reveal his source or tell me where he found the pictures (bastard!). I'm sure we'll be revealing more of Tina, err I mean, this story in the near future.

Now, just because Tina has scantily clad pictures on the internet, it doesn't mean that she's not an avid Quake player, right? RIGHT? C'mon, work with me here. No matter whether she plays games or not, she's still a babe. I'll leave it up to my faithful readers to decide whether or not I should remove her picture from the Methos QuakeBabes™ page.

Make sure you send me e-mail and let me know what I should do with her picture or any future pictures I receive. Oh, and for those that are interested, I have another QuakeBabe picture to post next time.

Methos Dates Britney Spears
Speaking of babes, I had the chance to have dinner with Britney Spears last week. Okay, that's not exactly how it happened but, I did meet her in a restaurant. You can read all about that and a few other things on Methos .plan page which I updated today.

Thresh Does Q3ATest v1.07
Thresh has posted an informative article in his review of Q3A Test v1.07. Make sure you head over to Firingsquad and take a look. As always, Thresh finds things that most players don't find in games.

Methos Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file for the first time in two months with talk about Ettu, Hellrot, Kane, Hatti and Britney Spears
• I have another QuakeBabe™ to post on the Methos QuakeBabes™ page which I'll probably post tomorrow.
• I have a shitload of demos to upload to the demos page which I'll do in a couple of days

Rapture99 Over: Euro Selects Win
All the games are now complete. They were close matches but the Euro Selects team managed to hang on and beat the North American team, 5 games to 4. In the finals of the 4Nations tourney, Ireland defeated England by winning the final best of three games by 1 frag. In the Elite 1on1 tourney, Kane was victorious over Timber be a count of 2 games to 1. Congrats to all the talented players involved in the tourneys.

Now, on to the EU Vs NA matches. The matches themselves were pretty good and they became more tense as the tourney continued. Here are the scores and stats for the games.

They say that "stats are for losers" and in this case, that statement is true. The game stats are very one-sided in favour of the North American team. This is due to the one-sided victories in games 4 and 7. As per normal, you can also tell that there was some sloppy play involved in the tournament. A good example is DOOMer who had the 2nd highest frag total but was killed a whopping 341 times in the 9 matches (almost 38 times per game). Then there's Batch who had 31 self / team kills. Also, Cable had the distinction of finishing with a -102 frag ratio. 

To clarify, here is what these silly things mean.

• Toughest Enemy = Opponent that killed player the most time
• Easiest Enemy = The opponent that was killed the most by that player
• Kills = Total kills
• Frags = Total kills less self and team kills
• FPG = Average Frags Per Game
• Victim = Total times killed by opponents
• VPG = Average Times Killed (Victim) Per Game
• +/- = Kills less Self/Team Kills less Victim (or Frags minus Victim)

The second days games went along the same lines as the first day. Lots of computer problems, server problems etc so the games started later than originally planned. The proxies were as lame as most of the tournaments I've seen, with no help from me using Qizmo for the first time and trying to setup a proxy (failing miserably). The Barrysworld end of the proxy was fine but the isdn lines at Rapture99 had their challenges.

B0rkFM had a shoutcast, which was a radio type broadcast through Winamp. Aside from their poor choice of Eurotrash music, I thought the commentary was very good and at times, very funny. UK Quaker Afterglow was particularly entertaining and Devore's comments were intelligent. We were also able to hear a female version of Paul2 as a woman was on there and she swore constantly while "on-air". Not sure who she was but, I understood what she was saying because she only used small 4 letter words. All in all, it was nice to be able to hear live commentary which I hope can continue in the future for larger events.

The #rapture99 irc channel was very busy on both days. It was also one of the most well behaved groups I've ever seen in a large irc channel. Everybody was very supportive of "most" of the players. The only time the channel got really loud was when some Americans started arguing with Europeans about all the games being on DM3 and the never-ending "we're better than you guys" argument. For some reason, all the Euro supporters and the people reporting on the matches kept referring to the North American squad as "US". I'm not sure why this is because the North American players used "NA" as their team name when they were playing.

The on-line coverage of the event was great for the first day and poor for the second. Izn0 from FPSgamers explained this by saying there was no computers for the reporters on the second day. Both Quakenation and FPSgamers were covering the event live.

In the end, I didn't get too excited about the EU Vs NA matches. This doesn't mean that I thought they were bad, it just didn't seem to have the excitement of the DRvs9 or the TGI tourneys. I'm not sure why this is, as the games themselves were well played. Perhaps it was the lack of superstars playing in the EU / NA matches with the exception of Kane and possibly DOOMer and Pure. Maybe it was that Lakerman, Xenon, Thresh, Reload, sCary and other popular players didn't attend. Oh well, there was still enough talent to go around. Good job to all the players in all the tourneys at Rapture99.

Rapture99 Demos
Most of the demos are available on the Barrysworld FTP server. For your convenience so that you don't have to download 72 - 4 meg demos, I've posted the top scoring demos from each match except for Pure in Game 8 which is not available at this time.

Game 1: Top Scorer - Blitzer DM3 3.75 MB
Game 2: Top Scorer - Kane DM3 3.77 MB
Game 3: Top Scorer - Kane DM3 3.96 MB
Game 4: Top Scorer - Gemini DM3 4.18 MB
Game 5: Top Scorer - DOOMer DM3 3.86 MB
Game 6: Top Scorer - DOOMer DM3 3.53 MB
Game 7: Top Scorer - Batch DM3 3.47 MB
Game 9: Top Scorer - Kane DM3 3.93 MB

It's interesting to note that, out of the 9 games played, there were 6 different players that finished as #1 scorer. This shows just how close all these players are in talent.

Rapture99 - Day One Over
The matches for day one of Rapture are over. Needless to say, everything did not go as smoothly as planned. The QuakeTV that was planned never happened so, spectators had to connect to proxies (thanks Alphane) which are pretty lame at the best of times (just ask Hoony). There were 2 - 32 client connections to the main server and a 64 client connection from there. That means that only 128 connections were available for all the people that wanted to watch.

For some reason, the people in charge scheduled the matches to start at 5 p.m. local time. For anybody that has been to a large LAN, this means it will be about the same time that a 5 p.m. flight leaves the Los Angeles airport. (about 4 hours later)

I wasn't able to see any of the 1on1 or 2on2 matches that were held. I do know that except for Cataklysque, the rest of the North American team pulled out of the 1on1 and 2on2 tourneys. Cataklysque made it through his division of the round robin and had the unfortunate luck of playing Kane in the prelim round of the finals. Needless to say, Kane is a monster and Cata is out of the tourney.

The four finalists in the 1on1 tourney are Griff, Nikodemus, Timber and Kane. I have no idea who is still in the 2on2 tourney. As for the 4Nations tourney, I saw one game which was Ireland beating Scotland. I know the the team from England won 3 games and tied 1.

On to the North America Vs Euro Selects matches. These are the matches that most people outside the UK wanted to see. I was able to see all 4 games that were played so far. Even though they started more than 5 hours late, they were very good games. Here's the rundown.

The lineups for all games were as follows.

North American Team - Batch, Gemini, Genocide and Pure
Euro Selects Team - Blitzer, Cable, DOOMer and Kane

• Game One: EU 107 - NA 79. This game was not a great game and I might go as far as saying it was a sloppy game. Most players didn't play together as a team. This was probably due to some nerves at the start of this tourney. Both teams exchanged control for most of the game until Team EU took over with about 4 minutes left.
• Game Two: EU 105 - NA 96. A much better game than the first game. Very tight, very nerve racking and well played. Good games by nearly all players. The NA team got out to a 22 frag lead but EU were able to get nearly every pent and charged back to take the victory. Once all EU players had RL's, they controlled the center area and the RA.
• Game Three: EU 94 - NA 87. Easily the most tense game so far. No team was giving any ground. All frags were hard to come by and well earned. At this point both teams were getting used to each other and learning strategies. The Euro team had a sizable lead with 5 minutes left until NA got the final pent and all of the remaining quads. Gemini went on a great streak and made the game incredibly close.
• Game Four: NA 173 - EU 79. Total domination in this one by the NA squad that took the lead right from the start and never lost it once. I'm not sure if this was because the NA team figured out the strategy of the EU team or if the EU team was tired by this time (it was almost 3 a.m.). Although this was a one-sided victory, it could've been more one-sided if the NA team would have covered the bridge area better and not given up so many RL's.

Final for Day One, Euro Selects 3 and North America 1. The total frags are EU - 385, NA - 435. This total is significant in the fact that if the games finish with 4 wins each and a tie, it will go to total frags.

I spoke with a couple of people in the irc channel #rapture99 and here's what they had to say.

Caustic: EU seemed to have the edge on skill and quads, mostly through Kane. NA didn't attack powerups well enough till the last game. In the last game, NA locked up ra very early and unlike last 2 games didn't miss powerups. NA look strong now, EU will have to sort themselves out a bit tomorrow.

Sleepie-Pixie: Well, US played better than we (UK players) expected, they have sound tp for a team just pulled together, but some individual stuff was a bit dodgy, specially the boomsticking. It's not as accurate as the Euro standard, its better than the DR sg'ing against 9, but its still a little off perfect. In the forth game, from what I spotted, NA had a better start, they got first pent + rl + quad, and it really is kinda hard to blow that. The games were very scrappy all round though, no team ever seemed to get to that TOTAL lockdown stage.

I'm sure that things will run a bit smoother on Sunday. The schedule says that the first games start at 1 p.m. local time but, I would hold my breath waiting for that to happen. Once again, Good Luck to all players involved. Demos should be available soon.

For more coverage of the tourney, take a visit to QuakeNation and FPSGamers.

Rapture Is Upon Us
Ahhh, Scotland, one of my favorite countries in the world. Everything is in place for a great weekend of Quakeworld on Lan. All the players have worn their team tartans and let me tell you, some of those guys have very sexy knees. I'll update throughout the day when some news comes through.

To all the players at the event, have a great time and kick some ass.

Cataklysque On Rapture99
With Rapture99 approaching this weekend in Scotland, I had the chance to speak with North American team captain, Cataklysque and find out his thoughts on the event. He had some pretty bold predictions which I'm sure you'll find interesting. Okay, let's get on with the shoddy reporting.

Methos: Who are the members of the USA squad and what was the decision behind choosing them?
Cataklysque: Pure-r3v, EG-Genocide, nB-Batch, EG-Gemini, and myself(none). Gemini was an initial choice because of his growing popularity, and the fact that everyone I know thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Batch was chosen because he's the only RA whore that came to mind when I thought about someone covering the eyes ledge and surveying Quad. Pure was chosen because he is definitely the best bridge support out there. Gemini tipped me off on choosing Genocide, and after watching him play, I couldn't agree more.

Methos: Since this was suppose to be a USA Vs Euro Selects, what was the thinking behind choosing 2 Canadian players (Pure and Genocide) when the USA has a huge player base to choose from?
Cataklysque: Actually, the Rapture99 admins suggested that we get some Canadian players. And I don't know how we'd have a chance without Pure or Genocide on the team :) Of course we could find 5 USA players, but when we're given permission to get other players, BETTER players, why shouldn't we not take that?

Methos: Fair enough, speaking of better players, Thresh and sCary were initially asked to join, what happened that they're not on the team?
Cataklysque: Well Thresh eventually just stopped replying to us. He told Vanish later that he couldn't go. sCary had just went on vacation, and he felt there wasn't enough time for this to work.

Methos: Has the North American team been practicing together for the tourney?
Cataklysque: Yes actually, we scrimmaged the England team on a USA server, pings were pretty even, most of the England guys at around 130 or so (except for Oppy). Gemini had a 200 ping, Genocide had about 40 pl. in short, we won the first game by 1 friggin point, second game they won by about 8 and the last one, I don't remember the score, but I had 52, Gemini had 40 something, and Geno had about 35, no one on the England team had over 10 (it was a 3on3). Timber, Aerotus, Raggy/Oppy played for them. The reason we won the last one so easily is because they substituted Oppy for raggy, oppy's ping was worse than Geno's.

Methos: Now that Lakerman and Xenon have decided not to play for the Euro Selects, how do you think the North American team will do?
Cataklysque: We're very confident, everyone is in tip top form.

Methos: What are the weaknesses that you'll be working on before the matches?
Cataklysque: The only weakness I've found in my team is that we haven't had time to practice our new strategy. This will be our main focus this Friday (day before tournament).

Methos: What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the Euro Selects squad?
Cataklysque: They're definitely very strong when it comes to tactics, aiming, and all that. A weakness I say is that I'm sure some of them can't elaborately describe things that go on to each other in English.

Methos: What maps will be played in the tourney?
Cataklysque: That's being decided, the Euros want to play e1m2, we sure as hell don't. that's what's being debated ;)

Methos: Is there any player on the Euro team that worries you?
Cataklysque: Right as you say that, my immediate answer would be Kane. But I think DOOMer is more a threat to us, as he can turn a game around very quickly.

Methos: Okay, time for a prediction. Assuming all the games will be played on DM3, (please, please please) how do you think the North American squad will do?
Cataklysque: I think we'll win. We've worked very hard for this.

Methos: How many games dammit?
Cataklysque: 9

Methos: You sure you want me to say that? That will make some eyebrows go up.
Cataklysque: If you really want to I guess, but I'll be bashed all to hell.

Methos: With this being billed as the last big QW event, how do you feel going into the tournament?
Cataklysque: Very lucky to be a part of it actually. Best way to go out :). The rest of the guys are just ecstatic. I've never seen anyone in North America so happy to play quake. They're definitely feeling just as lucky as I am to be a part of this.

Methos: Saturday, Scotland, sitting in front of a PC. How do you think you'll feel when the 10 second countdown to the first game begins flashing on your screen?
Cataklysque: God, I don't think my body has enough adrenaline for this event actually. I may pass out. I hope someone wakes me up tho.

As usual, I wish good good luck to both teams. If you have feedback you'd like to give to Cataklysque for his comments, you'll have to go to Rapture99 and see him in person. Damn, I really hope they only play DM3 (Sorry Beef) and don't have matches on other levels that aren't played very much outside of Europe.

Bigfoot Laments USA Quake Choices
UK Quakemeister Bigfoot, has updated his Barrysworld column with an interesting article about the Rapture99 tournament. More specifically, the differences between American and Euro clan matches.

American Quake clans have never been fond of custom maps such as the UKCL maps which are good maps but, not widely accepted outside of the UK. Whereas in the UK, they seem to avoid DM3 in their league games.

I don't have a problem with either of these methods of thinking. The easy way out is to play DM3 because a) it's well known by nearly every player and b) it's an original Quake map that comes with the game when you buy it. This makes it an easy choice for an international match. If you were to ask most American players to have a game on UKCLDM2 or Titan2, they would give you a quizzical look and say "huh?".

In the upcoming Rapture99 tournament, there has been discussion over which maps should be played. The choices are the usual fair of DM3, E1M2 and the more uncommon (in some areas) DM2. I have always said that the Euro players tend to have more talent and a good reason why is that they practice so many different maps.

In the case of the 9vsDR matches and this tourney, I believe that only DM3 should be played. The biggest reason for this is a) why not beat the opposition on their best map? and b) the victory would seem quite hollow if you beat your opponent on a map that you know they don't play or practice.

Although I don't think that the Americans should only play DM3 on their servers, I do believe that only DM3 should be played in the North America Vs Euro Selects matches. The victory will be that much more convincing and "It's the right thing to do".

Sujoy Does Q3A
With Sujoy being a smart cookie and knowing what he's talking about (something that is never said about me), he has done a write-up on Q3A Test 1.06. Sujoy looks in-depth at some of the new features in Test2 and has some intelligent things to say about them. Make sure you check it out.

Sujoy's intelligence does come into question when you read the nice things he says about me on the link to my page and no, I didn't pay him to say those things. :)

Hoony's Medical Update
For those that are interested, Hoony is out of hospital and back bothering people on the net. He phoned me last night to say "Stop talking to my wife!", err I mean, that he's doing well. Hmm, I guess I can cancel the insurance policy I bought as it looks like Hoony will be around for a while to come.

On a serious note, I'm glad to hear that he's back at home and doing much better. Keep well mate, we want you around for a long time.

Site Seeing
A couple of new sites for you to visit on a daily basis.

• Challenge-EU - SK-Griff has started a new site that will concentrate on coverage of on-line gaming in Europe. Not sure what the link is to Challenge-AU but, I hope we don't see more Hoony postings all over the place. :)
• FPSGamers - Our buddy Izn0 who you'll remember from the incredible TGI tournament has started a new, sharp looking site called FPSGamers. Make sure you take a visit.

Calling Recluse
Okay, what gives here? Recluse has been having problems with his site for a month now. Recluse says that the "sysadmin" is working hard to get things sorted out. I've got news for you Recluse, any sysadmin that takes a month to fix a site, isn't doing a very good job.

Methos Site Stuff
Do you believe in Rock n' Roll? Can music save your moral soul?

• Archived the news page from June, 1999

Quake 3: Arena Test 2 Released
It's finally out. Thirty eight days after the first "test" was released, id Software has released Q3test, version 2. A nice shiny new 31 meg package that is sure to entertain millions.

What is my opinion on Q3Atest2? Glad you asked. Here, for your mocking pleasure, are my thoughts on the new version.

• Skin Colors - Excellent! Not since Quake have I been able to tell skin colors apart so easily. The blues actually look blue and the reds look red. In Q2, I couldn't tell any of the colors apart. Give a big sloppy kiss to whomever made these colors the way they are. I appreciate it, most of the players I've talked to appreciate it and my future clan mates will certainly appreciate it when I don't frag them all the time.
• Rocket Launcher - It's a bit faster and works well on the new tourney level and q3test1.bsp It's still to slow on the Q3test2 map and it still has a wimpy explosion and sound.
• Lightning Gun - Nice to finally see that they included it in the new level. I do have a couple of concerns with it. One is that the damn thing requires perfect aim but, the glow fills up approx 75% of my screen. The other is that they give you 100 shots with it by default. Compared to the skimpy ammo you get with the other weapons, this was a bit surprising.
• Railgun - Is it just me or does there seem to be a delay when firing? Not the time in-between shots but, a delay after you click to shoot before it fires.
• User Interface - Mostly aesthetical differences this time, but it still looks nice.
• Crosshairs - This seems to be a bother to everybody I talked to. Funny thing is, even though you can't change them in the test, the docs (yes, I read them) say that there are 4 types in the test. I mentioned this fact to Zoid and his response was "neat".
• Air Movement - Umm, did they remove it? It seems the only time there's air control is when you're on the jumping pads. I haven't been able to use it at any other time. This must be fixed before the final release.
• Q3Tourney Level - When you only have two levels in a game, it's always nice to get a third level to play on. I'm not sure what kind of tourney this is designed for but, I certainly hope it's not a clan tournament. Perhaps a 1on1, a 2on2 or a small free for all map.
• Deathmatch and Teamplay - Unlike Quake2 where id decided it would be a great idea to have Q2 released without teamplay or dm maps for three months, deathmatch and teamplay have been included include in this version of the test. I'm sure they'll smarten up and remove it before Q3A is officially released. (/sarcasm) The dm mod is great to see. The only thing I can't understand is why the person with quad is blue, no matter what team he's on? Why not have him glow with the team color?

Here are the brief thoughts on what a few others thought of Test 2.

XP-Spookie (USA): Q3test 1.06 still has that same rubbery feel to it much like version 1.05. The built-in internet game search is very nice. The Railgun, RL and Shaft still need tweaking in my humble opinion. I wonder how them bots are coming along?

Randemarr (Germany): Rockets seem to be faster and I have a bit more fps (not sure yet). The interface has changed a bit which is also good. Still doing tests with a weaker res and less graphic stuff enabled.

[9]Xenon (Sweden): The crosshair is totally gay. If ID are going to stop people from modifying things like crosshairs, they could at least put a GOOD one into the game. Not some circle with a dot in it... :P Seems like the same game to me...a bit faster rocket launcher though...

Gobo (Australia): Default rail trail sucks ass, but looks way better when narrowed; id wasted time trying to make the test restricted, patches are already out; zoomswitching is now fucked - stupid; new tourney map is very impressive; rockets are still too slow; rail doesn't do enough damage; new machinegun seems faster; and please fucking lose the change delay; thankfully pak files reducing smoke still work; too much respawn health.

HBK (Canada): I love it so far... minus the damn smoke and lighting crap. I really like that 1 on 1 map as well

Jimbob (Scotland): I don't like the 2 jump pause thing as it really makes it feel disjointed. I seem to get better fps now in the 2nd test, which is helpful, seeing as I'm still Voodoo1. I don't think I've really played it enough to comment on the new level but I enjoy the odd game of test2 for a laugh. :)

[9]Paralyzer (Sweden): Feels nice, needs Air Control tho. I don't like the "lag" on the railgun, it should go off when u push fire button .. not half sec after. Also the gibs are lagged I noticed. When u kill someone it takes awhile before u get the score and the death animation is done. Also when I tried out team .. red vs blue, the quad guy is still blue even if a red guy takes it. The shaft is really nice too but it needs a very good aim to deal damage with it. The crosshair is kinda sucky too.

R7-Zombie (Russia): I like the new map, but anyway, i think that it was good for 1v1, not for tp matches. Im glad do see shaft, its cool. Graphics is nice again, but I play q3test with r_picmip 10. Increasing RL speed was good change, but it does less damage! WTF is that shit?

Quake 3: Arena Test 2 Released
Go and download Q3A Test 2 (31 Megs) which was released yesterday. Here are the links (compliments of ShugaShack)

• ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/idstuff/quake3/win32/q3test_1_06.exe
• ftp://ftp.barrysworld.com/Quake3/test/win32/q3test_1_06.exe
• http://www.quakecity.net/files.asp?dir=QUAKE3&file=Q3TEST_1_06.EXE
• ftp://ftp.stomped.com/pub/quake3/updates/win32/q3test_1_06.exe
• http://www.q3arena.net/files/q3test/q3test_1_06.shtml
• http://www.bluesnews.com/files/q3test/q3test_1_06.shtml
• http://www.clanworld.org/download/search.asp?searchstring=q3test_1_06.exe&autofile=yes
• ftp.warzone.com/pub/quake3/win32/q3test_1_06.exe
• ftp://qftp1.heat.net/pub/win32/q3test_1_06.exe
• ftp://ftp.q3arena.com/pub/q3arena/q3test/q3test_1_06.exe
• ftp://ftp.golsyd.net.au/GolSyd-Public-FTP/quake3/win32/client/q3test_1_06.exe

Most of the servers were pretty busy so don't expect terrific speeds.

Hoony Has A Challenge
Everybody's favorite Aussie web pimp and self-proclaimed nice guy, Hoony has taken ill. As of this writing, Richard is resting in a hospital bed. Showing my great concern, I did the only smart thing to do, I took out an insurance policy on him. So, if Hoony croaks, I'll be heir to the vast Challange-AU empire. :)

Seriously, I spoke with Richard's wife and she told me that Richard was doing better and should be out on Monday. Next time you see Hoony around, give him a tip of the hat to let him know that we all wish him well. You can always send Hoony e-mail letting him know the same thing.

Rapture99 Teams Set
Okay, Thresh is out, Lakerman is out, Xenon is out, Cable is in. Damn, it would be easier to get The Beatles together for this tourney than the USA and Euro squads. Here are the teams as they stand now.

Euro Selects: Cable, Kane, Griff, Blitzer and DOOMer.
USA Team: Cataklysque, Gemini, Genocide, Pure and Batch

Now, I know what you're saying, "Methos, Pure and Genocide aren't from the USA". If you said that, you would be correct in knowing that Pure and Genocide are from Canada. Does it seem odd to anybody else that the USA team couldn't get 5 players that were from the USA?

Methos Quake 3 Arena Server Up
Once you finish the massive download of Q3ATest 2, you can connect to "Methos - Dick O' Rama" Q3Test server running the Q3Tourney map.

Methos - Dick O' Rama Q3ATest Server - 207.161.188.89 (default port)

Methos Site Stuff

• Spookie update his "Spookie Side" page with his views on Q2DQ2 and other topics.
• Spookie changed his midi file to the theme from "Escape From New York" which was written by John Carpenter. He was trying to find the theme from the movie "Escape From L.A." but was unsuccessful.

Quake II Done Quick
I installed Quake2 yesterday for the purposes of watching those incredible guys who made Quake Done Quick. Well, they're back with their latest speed run called "Quake 2 Done Quick Too" (Q2DQ2). They complete the entire Q2 in just over 21 minutes at the "hard" level. Make sure you grab the demo.

More Quake II Demos?
The EDL Quake2 finals were held this weekend in Sweden. The finals came down to Shub beating Blue to win the championship. After that, USA player Makavelli was to play the EDL champion. Makavelli decided he would play 2 games against Blue and then a best of 5 against Shub. You can get the complete story at the FPSGamers site.

I had the honor (and I do consider it an honor) of being the only person not at the tourney to be given permission to connect to the server to watch every game of the finals and the matches with Makavelli. (Thanks oWo)

I was able to record all the games I watched. Here are the demos from the matches with Makavelli and Shub. They're all from Makavelli's POV.

Game 1 - Makavelli Vs Shub - Q2DM1 - 521KB
Game 2 - Makavelli Vs Shub - Q2DM3 - 439KB
Game 3 - Makavelli Vs Shub - Q2DM1 - 429KB

Recluse Lives Up To His Name
Our buddy Recluse from FPS-Spectator finally came out of his seclusion to let us know what the scoop is. Having not updated his site since June 21st, I'm sure he'll have tons of news when he finally back to ranting.. err, posting news. Here's what he had to say in his letter.

"The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.

Let me tell you a story about a guy who was in the process of moving and tried to update his web page one last time to tell people to hang tight, then couldn't connect. Oh yeah, it's a sad tale.

Anyway I won't bore you with the tedious details other than to say that I'm still around and so is my site, it just went out of commission for a few weeks while I got moved and settled in. My plans on communicating this fact didn't exactly get executed like I had hoped. I'm -still- having problems connecting to my webserver though so I can't even make an update to inform the world. Bummer.

Could you tell people that FPS Spectator will be resuming normal operations soon?

Recluse
FPS Spectator"

While I won't comment on his poor wording of historical quotes, it's nice to see that Mike (Recluse) will be back in action soon.

Another One Bite The Dust...
Map designer, Brandon James has quit id Software. Ben over at the Oxygen Tank stumbled across an innocent piece of information that turned out to be a gaming news scoop. He noticed that there were three names missing from the id Software bio page. Disruptor, Graeme Devine and Brandon James. Disruptor's bio isn't there because he's contracted to work for id (similar to Zoid), Devine's isn't there because he's too lazy (or busy) to make a bio page, then the shocker.

Brandon "Killme" James contacted the Oxygen Tank and gave Ben the news that he has quit id Software due to the ever popular "personal reasons". Here's some of what he had to say.

"Why did I leave id Software? I'm not going to answer that. However, I will say that I really needed time to get by myself, to pick up the hobbies (music, gaming, etc) that I had put aside for far too long. As for any other reasons, I will not talk about or answer those now or in the future."

He goes on to say...

"I'm not a very public person. The only explaining that has/had to be done is between id and myself."

In what could only be described as a public relations blunder, id Software did not announce Brandon's resignation until after they were questioned about it. One of the rumors I've heard is that id wanted James to take a while off and then see if he would come back after a while.

Here's what Paul Jaquays had to say about it on Shugashack.

"We didn't mention Brandon James' departure from id because that was his news to tell or not to tell; and to tell in his own words and timing.

Why did he go? I don't know. That was his personal decision. But he wasn't fired or anything even close to that. Let's make that clear. Frankly, we we're all pretty stunned by both his decision to leave and the timing of the decision. I didn't find out until the following Monday. Brandon has alot of varied talents and I wish him well in whatever he chooses to doin the future.

How will this affect Quake 3? Brandon James's incomplete maps and other responsibilities will be divided up between us. It does mean a bigger work load for the rest of us, but that's what we get paid to do."

I find it interesting that id Software (and other gaming companies) usually announce when people quit but, Mr. Jaquays now says that it's up to Brandon James to mention it. With that being said, this is something that id Software didn't need at this time in the project. Let's hope they can pull through and deliver a great product. Go to the Oxygen Tank for the whole story.

QuakeBabe™ Makes Headlines
The latest QuakeBabe™ Tina drew a huge reaction via e-mail and hits to the site. Not since I posted the pictures of Morticia (exactly 1 year ago) have I seen that kind of response. Most of the comments were expected. Here are a few of them.

• "What a Babe!"
• "No way does she play Quake2" (my original comment)
• "If she doesn't accept your marriage proposal, give her mine"
• "Tina makes me think of one thing... Lunch"
• "She is like every gaming geek's wet dream" (agreed)

I spoke with Tina last night and she told me to tell everybody "Thanks for the support". My immediate thought was that she didn't need any more support than she already has. :)

DBs from Barrysworld (my host site) was quoted as saying "Christ!" and then went on to say in his BW column...

"Ok, this one is a little rant I guess. How come Methos can get all the QuakeBabe`s and I don't?

There must be some UK lasses that play online gaming and would appreciate a Hall Of Babes area here on BarrysWorld. I ask (no, make that beg) you to email me those piccies of yourself and a short description of yourself (body stats, home phone number etc) and I will see what I can do."

Carmacks .plan Returns
Either John Carmack sent a hit man out to get the mail hacker or he just wanted to be nice and let us know what is going on. A few days ago, Carmack started posting his work logs and general work related items in his .plan. Here are "some" of the many Q3A changes he has made over the past while. These changes are the ones that affect general gameplay and not the "internal only" changes.

• Fixed tourney restart
• Fixed reliable sequences on restarts and demos
• Allow maxclients to change between levels
• Display attackers head after every wound
• Remove smoke and blood puffs when you run through them
• Set cheats to 1 on disconnect
• Fixed door open timing
• Fixed bug with personal shadows not being setup properly
• Shrank sound mixing buffer for better caching
• cg_simpleItems now draws sprite items
• Replaced 1280*960 mode with 1280*1024
• Implemented Michael Gold's SMP patch
• New reliable command transport
• Added a delay before moving everyone to intermission spot
• Fixed bug with regibbing of gibbed body ques
• Blood trails behind gibs
• New item pickup code, fixed silent item pickup on grazing hits, and expanded the pickup range by 20% without changing the physical bounding box
• Allow a single "quick jump" without delay
• Stabilized cg_showfps
• Fixed guantlet firing action
• Fixed sticking on stairs on very fast framerates
• Fixed sticking on stair when jumping
• Fixed sticking in corner while falling physics bug
• Fixed slide down steep slope physics bug
• Fixed warnings after demo playback
• Changed "stopdemo" to "stoprecord"
• Fixed phantom windows on task bar after exit
• Fixed the snap-down-look-up bug with very high sensitivities
• Reduce inflicted damage by handicap

In his latest update, Carmack does a review on the new AMD K7 (Athlon) chips and how well they tested with Q3A. You can read his .plan by clicking on the "Quake Finger" button on the left menu.

Rapture99 Update
Received word from Vanish that, in the next couple of days, he should be announcing the members of the USA team that will play against the Euro Selects team at Rapture99. I'm not sure who will be on the team but, I hear there are some sCary choices to be made.

On a related note, I had quite a few people ask why Cable (from Clan Z) wasn't included in the Euro Selects team. I asked the Euro captain SK-Griff this question and he told me that they had tried to contact Cable a few times with no success.

New Methos QuakeBabe™
It's been a long time coming for me to post a QuakeBabe™ but, as you can see, it was well worth the wait. This is Tina. The first thing I thought of when I saw her page was, "no way does she play Quake". Her bio says that she's a huge Quake2 and Half-Life fan and that she's looking for a women's Quake clan. I'm sure she has the assets to help most clans. I was thinking of putting on a dress and inviting her for a tryout with a new clan I'm starting but, I'll just extend my usual marriage proposal to her and see if she accepts. (heh, I wish)

Tina - USA (Click To Enlarge)

Being the professional journalist I am, I only have one comment for this picture... Vavoom! I didn't post a link to her bio page because I haven't gotten permission to do so (yet). You can see Tina and other QuakeBabes™ here.

Top 10 Games You'll Never See
Saw a very funny posting on GamesCenter called "The Top 10 Games You'll Never See". It's very well done so make sure you take a look. For those of you that are too lazy to surf through the 11 page article, here are the winners.

1. Daikatana (Action)
2. SimPimp (Strategy)
3. Sid Meier's Siliconization (Strategy)
4. Poacher (Sports)
5. Dating Life Tactical Simulator (Strategy)
6. Day In The Life Of A Civil War Soldier (Action RPG)
7. Pub Fighter (Arcade)
8. Real Golf 99 (Sports)
9. SimDictator (Sim)
10. Exxon Valdez (Sim)

Kingpin In Stores
Spookie's new favorite game is now in most stores. This game is for mature players only although I think that many teens will play it. So, what are you waiting for? Go get it you honky-mofo!

I Don't Understand
Confused when somebody comes on-line and says "ROTFLMAO" or calls you a "Jobber"? With PlanetQ3's Quake Dictionary, you'll know exactly what they're talking about. Go read it and then you'll have lots of snappy comebacks like "Yes Sir".

Q3A Classes
Over on CGO, they have a quote from an "unnamed source" from id Software that players classes won't be included in Quake 3: Arena. Here's the quote.

"One thing that will not make it into the game is a character class structure. The team toyed with the idea, but eventually found it to be unworkable in a deathmatch environment."

The only comment I have on this is "Hooray!"

Methos Site Stuff
A few interesting (and some not) tidbits.

• Is anybody else wondering what happened to the latest Q3Atest that was suppose to be out a week or two ago? Me too.

• I had the pleasure of seeing some unreleased shots from Q3A. Although I rarely get excited by pre-release pictures, these happen to show some levels that we haven't seen yet. The good part was, in a quite a few of the shots, the maps looked like the gothic maps from Quake and not the candy-ass type of maps we've seen so far in Q3A.

• Yesterday (July 4th) was the USA's birthday. On a site I visited (don't remember which one), they had a poll asking Americans this question. "How many years old is the USA?" Of the 900 people who answered, only 17 had the correct answer. How sad is that. For those that still don't know, the USA is 223 years old.

• I asked my boss to get me a copy of Win98se so that I wouldn't have to pay for it. Just to show that he's as cheap as I am, he gave me a link to a warez site. :)

• Did I mention that Tina was a babe and I want her to marry me?

• Somebody tell Recluse that I miss him and want him to start posting again.

• Still working on the new site design. I have some other projects going on as well so, please be patient.
• Darkened the background colors (grey and maroon) on the Java menu so they didn't look so "washed-out". The darker colors seem to look a bit sharper.

NZ Vs AU Statistics
Here are the stats from the 4 final matches of the Dust 2 Dust from New Zealand and Clan Reborn from Australia matches. NZ won the Village Challenge 2 by a total of 3 games to 1 (and not 3-2 as I previously reported).

The stats are sorted by +/- ratio.

To clarify, here is what these silly things mean.

• Toughest Opponent = Opponent that killed player the most time
• Easiest Prey = The opponent that was killed the most by that player
• Kills = Total kills
• Frags = Total kills less self and team kills
• Victim = Total times killed by opponents
• +/- = Kills less self kills less victim (or frags minus victim)

You can visit the Challenge-AU demo section for all the demos.

Rapture99 Euro Selects Team Announced
In light of Lakerman not being able to attend the Rapture99 tournament, the new team captain, Griff has chosen the new players to represent the Euro Selects in the upcoming event. The players he has chosen are Xenon, Doomer, Kane, Blitzer, and himself.

There is still no word on who will represent the USA squad.

Thanks to the 10 million people that wrote to me and told me that the reason Lakerman won't be attending the Rapture99 tournament is because he will be in Spain at the time of the tourney. I've also heard that he has hung up his Quake boots until Q3A is officially released.

Thresh Is THE Boss
Michael from Clan World Network sent along word that the winner of the CWN/Hive Quake3 tournament will play against the ultimate game boss, Thresh.

I think that beating Thresh (if you can) would be a better prize than winning a video card or similar type of prize. Over 700 (American) players have signed up for the tourney so, it should be interesting.

Methos Site Stuff
Hmm, I was going to post a couple of other articles. One was an article that Hoony posted throwing a challenge out to the entire Quake world. He even went as far as saying some nasty words in his reverse psyche rant that got him a big response from a lot of players that couldn't understand what he was trying to say. However, when I went to post a link to it, Hoony had already removed the article.

The other article I was going to post was a posting by Jack Mathews on the Evolution of Quake Technology which was very cool. As it turns out, his site has the wrong link posted.

Ahh well, dems da breaks in the world of news journalism. Not that anybody would confuse my site with actual news. :)

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