Current News

Q3Atest Delayed
While most gamers were expecting the Q3A "test" version to be released in the next couple of days, Graeme Devine from id Software has confirmed that it will be released in a few weeks. Here's the scoop from his .plan file.

"I know a lot of you are looking at the end of the month as a fixed date for q3test, but we're probably looking to be within a few weeks of that date rather than exactly on it. We're working on it; I just want to keep expectations in line with reality."

Well, as much as we'd all love to have the game in our greedy little hands, we're quite used to gaming companies (well, all except LucasArts) delaying releases. Just as before, we will wait patiently until it's released. (Methos starts tapping his fingers on the desk)

Truegamers Invitational Update
After getting the news that sCary wouldn't be attending the TGI 1on1 tournament, Izn0 has enlisted the services of long time UK Quake star, Sujoy. I spoke with Sujoy briefly today and after I had congratulated him, he made the comment "I bet I wasn't one of your three choices" (I had mentioned that there were only 3 obvious choices to replace sCary). My answer to this is, no, he wasn't one of the three choices but, that was only because Izn0 mentioned that he was hoping to get a player from a country that wasn't already represented at the TGI.

If you think back about 4 months ago to when Spookie and I actually thought up the idea of a world invitational 1on1 tourney (mentioned in Spookie's 12/6/98 update) before it was actually put into action by Izn0, out of the list of 10 players I chose, Thresh was #1 and Sujoy was my #2 choice. So Sujoy, I'm not hopping on your bandwagon now, I was there from the very start.

TGI Rules Amended
One of the things I don't agree with in the TGI is some of the rules that are in place. Now, I don't have any say in the rules and I wasn't invited to play in the tournament so, these are only my opinions. The players are the ones that have chosen the rules but, it was done by majority vote which means that players from certain areas of the world will all vote for the same thing. Since more than half the players are from the Scandinavian area, the votes would most likely be in their favor. Here are a couple that I don't agree with.

• QuakeWorld Instead of Quake - I know many are tired of hearing about this but, it still rubs me the wrong way. The QW mod was made to help modem players on the Internet. I feel that it takes away from the real game and It should never be used in Lan tournaments. I know that a lot of the western European countries (and Scandinavia) prefer QW but, most of the world prefers regular Quake.
• DM Mode 3 - Here's another one that really bugs me. Mode 3 (dmm3) was added to Quake for free for all matches so that more people could have a powerful weapon. It was never designed for 1on1 or clan matches. The TGI players have voted the modes by level. Their decision was to have DM2 and DM4 played as mode 3 and DM6 to be mode 1.
  Originally, each player would pick a map and mode and they would play those two matches. Then the third match (if required) would be played on mode 1 unless both players agreed to mode 3. This seemed to be the fairest way to decide. There are players in the tourney that you want to play dmm1 against and others you might want to play dmm3 against. For some reason it was changed.

As I mentioned previously, I'm not playing in the tournament (most players would be scared to play me :) so, it's not up to me to decide the rules. If "all" the entrants are happy with them, so be it. However, if there are a few players that just aren't used to playing dmm3, this would be an unfair advantage to the other players.

Reload Gets A Sponsor
Lots of news posted about Reload on Challenge.AU yesterday. It includes news of his Intel sponsorship and a small but, informative interview of the Aussie Quake star. You don't have to read the interview because when he thanks people at the end of it, he doesn't thank me for all the playing tips and support I gave him. Damn, this is a thankless job! (/me changes TGI voting and puts Reload in last place)

Apparently, Reload will get a billion dollars over the next 10 years to play games. Umm, or he can settle for a P3 chip and flog them for the next 6 months. :) Hoony mentions that this is the first time (other than Thresh) that a player has been sponsored by a major company to play games. This isn't true but, he's certainly the first Aussie to get this honor. Congrats to Reload on his sponsorship and good luck to him at the TGI.

Rapture99 Clarification
A team of European players will be playing a team from the USA at the Rapture99 tournament in July. In my last update, I gave the (current) rosters for both teams. Okay, for the 500+ people who e-mailed me asking the question "Why isn't Pure on the USA team?", here's the simple answer.

The reason why Pure isn't on the USA squad is because he's not American. He's a Canadian Quake player from Edmonton, Alberta.

Clan 9 Vs AMD
Sweden's Clan 9 has defeated Russia's Clan AMD by a total of 9 games to 1. I was going to do a nice update on these matches but, I couldn't find anybody that had info except for the first days matches. I'll do some more in-depth reporting once I find more info on how the tourney went.

Here are the scores from the matches. The 2 demos listed are courtesy of Truegamers

Day 1 - Quake
Game 1, DM3 : 209 - 57 for Nine
Game 2, DM3 : 211 - 78 for Nine
Game 3, E1M2 : 230 - 115 for Nine
Game 4, E1M2 : 240 - 84 for Nine (Demo: Para´s POV)
Game 5, DM3 : 153 - 128 for Nine (Demo: Xenon´s POV)

Day 2 - QuakeWorld
Game 6, E1M2: 286 - 59 for Nine
Game 7, E1M2: 263 - 88 for Nine
Game 8, E1M2: 262 - 54 for Nine
Game 9, DM3: 157 - 74 for Nine
Game 10, DM3: 128 - 97 for AMD

I watched the demo from Game 5 and there were a couple of things I noticed.

• Both clans killed team mates a lot. Matter of fact, there were 20 team kills and 20 self kills throughout the match. In most matches, total self kills are normally triple the team kills.
  • DOOMer from 9 was the only player not to kill himself in Game 5 but, he did have 3 team kills.
  • Spice from 9 was the only player not to kill a team mate but, he killed himself 5 times.
  • Devil was top scorer for AMD but, he also had 10 team kills.
• Xenon seemed a bit sloppy for most of the match by shooting team mates many times & missing many jumps across the center of DM3 and in the RA room. He still finished as top fragger so, he made up for the mistakes.
• Xenon gets a lucky shotgun frag with less than 1 second remaining to tie the match. The server mod automatically adds 5 minutes and the players kept on playing (never seen this in an actual match before). This seemed to take everybody by surprise. In the 5 minutes overtime, Nine went on to win by 25 frags.

Congrats to both clans on a job well done. Many people (me included) didn't expect AMD to perform as well as they did. Once I get all the demos, I'll post stats on how everybody did.

New Diamond Virus 550 Drivers
Err, make that "Diamond Viper 550". Diamond had the misfortune of including a virus with the drivers that they posted on their site last week. The virus was a Word Macro virus called W97M.Class and was contained in the documentation. The newly posted drivers on their site do not contain the virus.

Of course, this means little to most gamers as I don't know any gamer that actually reads the documentation. :)

Quake.AU Back On-line
Malby sent along word asking me to mention that Quake.AU was back on-line. Nope, I won't give shameless plugs for web sites. It's never gonna happen!

More Suckage For The TGI
I'm starting to hate these official announcements. The much anticipated Truegamers Invitational 1on1 tournament has suffered another setback. USA Quake stud, sCary "officially" announced to me last night that he would NOT be attending the TGI tourney. He cited "personal reasons" as the reason for not attending. This sad news comes just 3 days after Thresh officially announced he wouldn't be attending the tourney.

Strange thing about this is that I feel just as bad or worse about this news as I did about Thresh not attending. Even though very few people expected sCary to win, he is certainly a huge celebrity in the Quake world and it would've been great to see him attend.

RiX also mentioned that he wouldn't be attending the tourney. I talked to Izn0 who is running the TGI and he said that at this time, he didn't know who would replace sCary in the TGI line-up. In my opinion, there are 3 good choices but, obviously it wouldn't be proper to mention names at this point.

Methos Site Addy Fixed
I was finally able to get the Barrysworld gang to fix my site address. Apparently, they did some dodgy moves previously to make it work. Now they have given me what they call a "virtual domain". While this won't mean much to most people, it does enable me to do some things I couldn't do previously on the BW domain.

The addy http://methos.barrysworld.com is the only address that will connect people to this site. The http://www.barrysworld.com/methos won't work anymore.

Methos' Ultimate Quake Poll 3
One of the things I can do with the "virtual domain" is have polls on my site. Therefore, I'm "officially" announcing Methos' Ultimate Quake Poll 3. After the incredible success of the Ultimate Quake Poll 2, this will be the biggest, best and final Quake Poll.

The questions this time will be more streamlined and will cover the entire Quake history and future. It will truly be the "Ultimate" Quake poll. I will give more info on the poll as soon as I can. I'm expecting the poll to be posted early next week. I may hold it off until the week after, that way, the TGI will be over and some of the votes may change.

If you have any questions you'd like to see added to the poll, send me e-mail and I'll consider them.

A Cool, Calm, Quake Player
Make sure you download this MP3 of Scottish Quake player Skinner. It was recorded without him knowing while he was playing a game on DM6. It is absolutely hilarious. You'll get to hear how Skinner remains calm under pressure, errm okay, maybe he gets a wee bit excited. :)

Rapture99 Tourney Taking Shape
The tournament that will have the most high profile players in the world will be Rapture99 and will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland on July 3rd and 4th, 1999. There will be a 4 Nations tourney with teams from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales. There will also be 2on2 and 1on1 tourneys too. There should be many great Quake players in Edinburgh that weekend.

The biggest event (imo) that will take place at the Rapture99 tourney will be the USA Vs Euro Select clan matches. Here are the line-ups for the two clans.

I have spoken with most of the USA players and they have confirmed their attendance. When I spoke with Thresh, he said that he was confirmed as long as the sponsors come aboard.

Leaving, On A Jet Plane...
Clan [9] from Sweden has taken the big jet to Moscow to play Clam AMD this weekend. Good luck to both clans in their 10 match showdown. In my opinion, I think Clan [9] will win handily but, I hope there are some great games.

TGI Voting Update
Lakerman is still ahead. Haven't received too many votes lately but, the pack is getting closer. You'll notice that due to sCary not attending, there are now only 9 players listed. I will add the tenth player when he is "officially" announced. The voting is open until the start of the tourney so, keep sending those e-mails and vote for your favorite who you think will win.

Thought For Today
"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you"

Methos Site Stuff
Lots of stuff with the site these days. I've started work on the Ultimate Quake Poll 3.

• [R2]Cataklysque updated "Cataklysque's Corridor". For those that don't know, Cata is one of the captains for the USA squad that will play at Rapture99. Make sure you check out his posting. It shows what the USA players are really worried about.
• Uploaded another incredible clan demo to Methos Quake Demos page. It's "a must see".

No Thresh & Blood For You!
After I spoke with Thresh today, he gave me the "official" word that Thresh will NOT be attending the TrueGamers Invitational 1on1 Tournament. This is indeed sad news for Quake fans around the world. Although the TGI will still have many good players there, for me, it just won't be the same without Thresh.

Thresh cited his current workload as the main stumbling block in attending the TGI tourney. I'll try to get more info from Thresh soon.

I've always considered Thresh to be the smartest Quake player in the world and certainly one of the toughest to beat in any "big" match. It's just a shame that everything couldn't have fallen into place for this particular tournament.

Thresh, if you happen to change your mind, I'm sure the door will still be open for you to attend. If not, perhaps we can convince you to attend the Rapture99 tourney representing the USA in clan matches against some of the world's best.

Clan Nine Goes On The Road (Again)
Seems that half the Russian Quake players and Xenon want me to mention that Clan [9] will be heading to Russia to face Clan AMD (America Must Die) in Moscow on March 27th & 28th.

They will play 10 games, 5 on normal Quake, 5 on QW. They will alternate between DM3 and E1M2 (grrr). All matches will be 20 minutes long and DM mode 1.

What? Methos Wrong?
Yesterday, when I posted my thoughts on "The Edge" (Q2DM1) map that was converted to a Quake map, I mentioned the following...

"The hole that you drop down to get the lower RL, you can rocket jump back up there. You couldn't do this in Q2."

Well, apparently, it's only me that can't rljump up the hole on Q2. I don't have Q2 installed so I didn't go back to try it. I was told that, although difficult, it can be done. Okay, I stand corrected. I apologize to all the Q2 people I may have offended with this comment. :)

Recluse Talks About EA
Recluse from FPS-Spectator has posted his thoughts on the Extreme Annihilation tournament. Even though he's a Q2 fan, he's able to see through the BS that the CPL had to offer and post his honest thoughts.

While the CPL has been known for some dodgy moves in the past, this tourney was thought to be done properly. In Recluse's article, he mentions the following:

"When my group inquired about the seedings, we were told that they were based upon reputation rather that performance in the qualifications."

I won't comment on this but to say that these remarks pretty well sum up the CPL. Make sure you check out the rest of the article.

Spookie Returns!
Geezus, I thought that the original "On-line Casanova" (© Gobo, 1999) had left us for good but, he has returned in fine form. It must have been the 3 month break he took from writing. :)  Anyway, make sure you check out "The Spookie Side". Spookie talks a lot about Q3A and the TGI.

Hoony Strikes Again
Hmm, this man is too busy. In between his real life™ job plus, breast feeding his new daughter plus, spamming us on Challenge.AU plus, forcing us to watch Reload demos all day long, he now adds more to his plate. Hoony has posted his second article for "The Hoon House" which is an editorial section he has on Truegamers. Make sure you read his thoughts and opinions on Q3A level design.

Hoony and I had a conversation about this and although we don't completely agree on this topic, it's a great article to read.

Methos Site Stuff
There wasn't many votes for the TGI in the last day so, I didn't post a poll update today.

• Updated Methos .plan file with lots of ranting about EA & Q3A
• Spookie has updated "The Spookie Side". It's been 3 months, make sure you take a gander at it.
• Uploaded an incredible clan demo to Methos Quake Demos page. It's "a must see".

New "Edge" For Quake
Tim Willits from id Software has remade a version of Q2DM1 (The Edge) for Quake. Here's what Tim had to say about the map.

"This map was originally built for the Quake 1 arcade game, a conversion of "The Edge" for Quake2. I added some teleporters to it in hopes of speeding up gameplay and help prevent camping."

I was able to try the map and it was actually quite a lot of fun. Being one of the very few Q2 maps  that I thought was half decent, it's interesting to see how it holds up in Quake.

There were a few things of note I found interesting about the converted map.

• Since there's no double jumping in Quake, it took forever to get up to the red armor without rocket jumping.
• The only way to get the 100 health was to rocket jump.
• The hole that you drop down to get the lower RL, you can rocket jump back up there. You couldn't do this in Q2.
• If you time it right, you can put a grenade on the elevator, get off and it will explode when the lift reaches the top.
• Adding the new teleporters to speed up the map was a mistake. What this does is change the map from what might have been a decent Q1 clan map to a 1on1 or 2on2 map.
• There's a bug in the map. Try strafing up the stairs from the middle to the yellow armor along the wall. You'll end up inside the wall
• Most maps that are converted from one game to another always tend to be "off" in one way or another regarding size, weapon placement, textures etc.. This one is perfect as far as the conversion.

Having said all that, it's nice to have something new and "official" from id to play with for a bit. You can download the converted Q2DM1 map here.

Updates Galore!
Well, it must be a full moon out there. I've received no less than 2 updates from my writers with a third promised for tomorrow.

[R2]Cataklysque has updated his "Cataklysque's Corridor" with some interesting news from the Rapture99 tourney and his meeting with ex-Methos Quake writer, the infamous Paul2.

Gobo has updated his "Gobo's Gibbage" with another intelligent article about a wide variety of topics regarding the Quake scene.

Spookie contacted me and mentioned that he would be sending an update for "The Spookie Side" on Friday night. Damn, just when you thought he was dead, he rises from the preverbal Quake ashes. :)

Make sure you read these updates, they're very informative and funny.

Internet Explorer 5 Released
Not wanting to turn into something other than a gaming news site, I will take the chance and mention that Microsoft has released v5.0 of their Internet Explorer. It has some nice features and easily the best cache indexing of any browser released by anybody.

You can visit Microsoft to download it.

Daikatana Getting A Second Chance?
I've had a whole bunch of e-mails saying that after playing Daikatana for a few days, people are starting to like it. Oh oh, sounds like Quake2 all over again. :)

Recammed EA Finals Demo [Bluesnews]
Tourney Control System has posted a re-cammed version of the final demo between RiX & immortal from the Extreme Annihilation tournament. (good, this was a very boring demo)

New Q3A Movie
Avault has posted a second Q3A MPG movie. This one shows the updated weapons and other goodies. Make sure you download it here.

Thresh Talks About GDC
Thresh has posted his thoughts on what he saw at the Gamer's Development Conference. He includes his latest thoughts on Q3A, TNT2 and many other cool things.

"I love the look of the SSG and RL! They're not fancy, animated doo-dads like Quake II, but rather beautifully solid, shiny thick metal gun-barrels - simple but elegant"

Mmm, doesn't that sound refreshing.

TGI Voting Update
Lakerman is still ahead. Received a few votes for Thresh but, I won't include them until he announces that he's attending the TGI. The voting is open until the start of the tourney so, keep sending those e-mails and vote for your favorite who you think will win.

Thought For Today
"If you land with a thud, don't do it again"

Methos Site Stuff
Went out and bought a bunch of computer stuff today. I'll be updating my .plan file tomorrow along with Spookie's update. Did I mention that sCary rulz?

• Gobo has updated "Gobo's Gibbage". Another very good and intelligent article about the Quake scene and many more things of interest
• [R2]Cataklysque has updated "Cataklysque's Corridor" with some cool news about the Rapture99 tournament featuring some of the world's best Quake players

Daikatana Demo Released
Although it wasn't quite the wait we had for Unreal, it has been a long time coming for ION Storm's Daikatana demo. Weighing in at a hefty 34 megs, you can download the Daikatana DM Demo from this page.

Daikatana Reactions
What did you think of the game? Keeping in mind that it's only a pre-beta and will be changed a few times before releasing it, here's what myself and a few others thought of the game.

Methos:
The Good - Nice user interface, Rocket jumping was a blast, system requirements weren't too bad, Air acceleration was great.
The Bad - The two levels sucked, weapons seemed a bit silly, had a Q2 feel to it, I found it hard to see other players, Mplayer (nuff said)

XP-Spookie:
Only thing is is when fighting and getting up close seemed like PL was a factor, not sure if something is up with the netcode or what. It's kinda' hard to see the other player too. Levels are nice, Weapons are cool and it feels a li'l bit like Quake not q2

D2-B2:
I can't really have an opinion on it yet.. I only played if for like 10 minutes. I didn't really like it to tell you the truth.. It's just one of those "Unreal" type games to me, where you really can't tell whether you're hurting your opponent or not. Plus the levels are so darn big it's boring. I expected it to be a much better game since they've been under development for almost two years now..
I like how they don't have too much stuff in terms of control.. u know how the new games out now have like 'alternate fire' and stuff? I hate that :P

[R2]Cataklysque:
The weapons are all the same colors, and they're all a lot more technical then they really should be. The air movement is pretty cool, but it doesn't make up for the overall BAD feel of the Q2 engine.

DieharD-R3V:
Umm well, the fact that I wasn't able to play it online really got my upset. Well, the maps were pretty good. I really liked very responsive controls, air acceleration, fast weapon switch. From weapons, RL was very impressive. Grenade launcher was not bad too. Other weapon was neat but I wanna see how it works on someone. The maps were ok, not super good. I'm sure they're saving all the good stuff for the final release.

SK-Hakeem:
I only played it briefly, I have to admit. Hmm I don't think the weapons or the levels are very good at all, but the controls are at least very responsive. Like I said tho...I didn't play it that much

D11-Thresh:
Quite honestly, I haven't had time to play it yet. I just watched a couple of dudes (Kenn/Bob) play a little and it didn't impress me in the least bit. Just from quick impressions it's certainly not the "next big game," and certainly not the quality that we'd expect from a game that has been in development for such a long time.

Well, there you have it. Some early impressions of the Beta (can I stress that enough?) Daikatana DM Demo.

Extreme Annihilation Ends
The big Quake2 1on1 tourney was held in Dallas, TX this past weekend. The results were pretty much how most people expected them to go. You can read all the results on AVault's Coverage Page. The top 4 finalists were as follows...

Congrats to Immortal and all the players in the tourney. For interest sake, I was talking with sCary before the tourney and he was hoping to make the final 16. Unfortunately Steve was only able to make the top 32.

Daikatana Multiplayer Crack
Not a big fan of Mplayer? I'm not sure how dodgy this is but, AGN3D has posted a Daikatana DM Patch so you can play over the Internet or on Lan. (How cool is that!) You can download the patch here. (1.4 MB) Have fun stormin the castle! :)

TNT2 Will Rock
If you're thinking of purchasing a 3D card in the next while, hold off for a month. The RivaTNT2 will be released near the end of April. For more info on this card, check out the Sharky Extreme comparison of the TNT2 Vs Voodoo3. No word on how it compares with the ATI Fury but, it blows away the V3.

TGI Voting Update
Lakerman is still ahead. Received a lot of votes for some of the lower ranked players in the last few days. The voting is open until the start of the tourney so, keep sending those e-mails and vote for your favorite who you think will win.

Methos Site Stuff
The reaction to the Thresh interview was amazing. It's even more amazing when you consider how rare it is that Thresh gives interviews. Thanks to all the sites that posted links to Methos Quake.

• Gobo has updated "Gobo's Gibbage". Another very good and intelligent article about the Quake scene. Damn, if I'm not careful, this guy is gonna get hired by a real internet site. :)
• Added the February .plan page to the Archives menu

What's Thresh Doing These Days?
Over the last couple of days, I've been talking a lot with Thresh. I've always been a huge fan of Thresh's Quake talent and I still believe that he's the smartest Quake player around. I was happy to see that he could transfer his Quake (and Doom2) talent over to win the PGL Q2 1on1 championship a while back.

One thing that all Quakers admire about Thresh is that he's a true quaker. He plays Quake for the love of the game. The fact that he's been very successful playing Doom2, Quake, Quake2 and Starcraft comes from his dedication and many hours of studying the games he plays. Thresh doesn't just play any game, he learns the games inside and out so that he can be a master at whatever game he's playing. Even the world's best players learned many little secrets from reading Thresh's Quake bible.

Although it was very cool talking to Thresh about many things, the following questions were limited to Thresh and the Truegamer's Invitational 1on1 tournament. It should give you a good insight to what Thresh has on his mind.

Methos:
What games have you been playing lately? Playing any Quake?

Thresh:
Since the end of PGL season 3, where I played in all three categories (Quake teams, Quake 2, and Starcraft), I haven't been playing much of anything. I put in a lot of time and effort for Season 3 and had to deal with a lot of the problems involved with switching between Quake and Quake II during the finals. Afterwards I found myself really burnt out in competing altogether so I took a two-month break from Quake/Quake 2.

We, as clan Death Row, decided the PGL finals were going to be our last "hurrah" for Quake... to be able to finally put a close to that chapter in our lives.

Roughly two months ago, I started playing a little bit of Quake again. I messed around in Quakeworld a bit, dabbled in some Clan Arena action (that game rocks BTW), and played a handful of clan matches for fun.

Methos:
What takes up most of your free time these days?

Thresh:
Most of my days I spend working on my website, Firingsquad.com. A lot of time is involved in obtaining hardware and games, reviewing them, and so forth. Free time, if any, is spent with my girlfriend or at the very least away from the computer. (God knows I spent enough time on it as is :/ )

Methos:
Have you been following the progress of the upcoming TGI tournament? What are your thoughts on it?

Thresh:
I've followed the TGI rather loosely recently, mainly because there hasn't been much news about it in the recent month. I only heard about it roughly a couple months ago. It sounds like an awesome idea, though I wish people could have put it together a year earlier, when Quake (and consequently most well-known players) were at their prime.

Methos:
People have been asking you since the tourney was announced whether or not you're going to attend. What the scoop?

Thresh:
I would love to attend the TGI. This is the first event to ever bring so many top gamers from around the world all in one place, and I'd love to be a part of it. But there are several issues I really need to iron out before I can really give a definite answer.

I haven't played in nor have there been any competitions in Quake 1on1 (in the USA) in well over a year. In reality, I retired from Quake 1on1 competition a long time ago.

With so many things going on in my life right now, I'm certain I won't be able to devote the amount of time required to get me up to snuff for a tournament, and certainly not a tournament full of top-ranked players. :)

But I don't want to pass up this likely once-in-a-lifetime chance of meeting all of these great players from around the world. So my alternative is to go knowing full well I'll be out of practice, and just have fun.

And really that is where the issues arise. Since I announced I was considering attending on Front line a while back, I've received all sorts of messages, most of them very encouraging. (Thank you guys for the awesome comments - you know who you are :) ) But, some of them were not. Some messages stated things like "I hope you go so that <insert name of player here> can show the world who's better." or something along those lines. Or other messages like "You don't want to go because you're scared."

And that's really what I want to avoid. As of right now, there are many players that are better than me in Quake, I'm sure. And I'm certain that the small amount of time I have free to devote to practicing is not going to be near enough to bring me back up to the level I was before... what people expect of me, and what I expect of myself in a competitive tournament.

In reply to the people who feel I am "scared" to go... no way in hell bub. :) I've never been afraid of any player, I don't look at the game that way. I've seen some demos of the players going, and they're all extremely bad ass. Great aim, great reflexes, great all-around games. They wouldn't be in their position if it were otherwise.

But my mentality going into games has always been to try my best and whatever happens, happens. It may sound like a cliché, but it's really the way I feel. I don't worry about what my opponent is doing, who he is, how good his aim is, or what tournaments he's won. Because when it comes down to it, if I play my best and I lose, my opponent is better than me. That's it. All I only focus on putting in my best effort.

The reality of this whole event is that I know I won't be able to put in my best effort. I'm in no competitive shape, and this tournament is in Quakeworld, which while cool, is a platform I'm not accustomed to playing on. The pace of the game is much different (i.e. a lot faster) than the NQ style I'm used to.

Methos:
I have a big date this weekend, do you still have the Ferrari and can I borrow it if I promise to fill the tank?

Thresh:
Yes, I still have the Ferrari. You can take it for a spin if you come visit me in California and if you know how to drive stick... :)

Well, it certainly sounds like he's interested. Let's try and convince him to go. The question that arises is.. "Why do we want to see Thresh at the TGI?". Is it because we want him to win? Do we want to see him lose? I don't think either of these are the answer. The reason why most "real" Quake players and fans want Thresh at the TGI is because we want to see the best Quake players in the best Quake tournament.

How cool would it be in Quake's final days to say that the best gathering of Quake players had a chance to show their great talents in the same tourney? To me, this is what Quake should be about. We've all waited for this since Quake began. It's time to "seize the moment" and make it happen. Can we be cool enough to do this? I think we can.

Gib O' The Year
Turns out that the "Da Gib Of The Year" demo should've been called "Da Gib Seen Around The World". The reaction to the newest "Spotlight Demo" on Methos Quake Demos has been awesome to say the least. I can't recall any recent demo I've posted getting this kind of reaction. Recorded by Nutcase from the Swedish Chefs clan (yes, same as Lakerman's), it's an amazing demo to watch. If you haven't already seen it, make sure you check it out. It's only 63k.

TGI Voting Update
Lakerman went on a tear in the last couple of days and pulled out well ahead of Reload and the rest of the gang. Hmm, I wonder when those Thresh votes will start pouring in. :) The voting is open until the start of the tourney so, keep sending those e-mails and vote for your favorite who you think will win.

Methos Site Stuff
Finally starting to feel better in the last couple of days. I can't tell you how cool it was talking to Thresh over the last few days. Make sure you send him word and let him know that win or lose, we want to see him at the TGI.

• [R2]Cataklysque updated Cataklysque's Corridor, make sure you take a look at what he has to say.
• Finally reviewed the 7 demos on Methos Quake Demos page. No good demos these days? Well, from the new ones, there's Blitzer, Nikodemus, sCary, Gemini x2 & more.

id Software Gets Devine Intervention
I forgot to mention this cool news a few days ago. Graeme "Zaphod" Devine has been hired to the ranks of "designer" for id Software. As most of you will know, Zaphod was the driving force behind 2 of the early 3D games, "The 7th Guest" and it's sequel "The 11th Hour" while working at Trilobyte in the UK.

Some of you may not know that id Software had a lot to do with the 3D engine that was used in the making of "The 7th Guest". Graeme was also part of changing the way "live action" is used in games by helping to design a video compression that compressed live video by more than a 20-1 ratio. Thus being able to put a game like The 11th Hour on 4 cd's instead of 20 or more.

In my opinion, the hiring of Greame Devine is a great move for id and it will help them immensely having another talented mind to bounce ideas with.

Gobo's Gibbage Updated
You have to read this update. In part 2 of Gobo's ranting about "the on-line quaker", he takes a poignant look at two of the most unusual types of Quake enigmas. These being the Quake Casanova and the Quake2 returnee. With some humor splashed in, it makes for a great read. Everybody should check this out.

Hmm, looks like I may have to stop posting Gobo's Gibbage. His articles are getting much too intelligent and deep for me and my regular readers. :)

TGI Voting Update
Lakerman and Reload are tied again. At one point, the votes for Laker and Reload totalled 70%. Now days, they total aound 54%. This means that the rest of the gang is closing in. For the first time in the voting, sCary has dropped to last place. The voting is open until the start of the tourney so, keep sending those e-mails and vote for your favorite who you think will win.

Methos Site Stuff
I've been trying to upload demos for the Quake demos page but, something keeps screwing up the connection. I'll try to get them uploaded by the end of this update.

• Gobo updated Gobo's Gibbage with part 2 of his on-line quaker review
• Updated Methos .plan page
• Uploaded 7 demos to Methos Quake Demos page. I was only able to review 1 of them, I'll do the others tonight.
• Archived Methos News and Methos .plan pages from Febrary 99

Nine Vs ClanUK Demos Posted
The demos have finally been posted on Barrysworld's FTP site. I downloaded them from there earlier but, now they have a password on that directory. However, in a seemingly dodgy move by the guys over at Quake Nation, you can download them here. The first two demos listed are from Xenon's pov. He was the top fragger in every match. The first game that they played was a dandy. Thanks to Abards and the gang at QN for getting them posted.

Nine Vs ClanUK Stats
They say that "stats are for losers" but, we all enjoy reading them. I'm no exception to this rule so, I decided to waste some time and put together the stats for the 3 matches of the ClanUK Vs [9] tourney. I left out the 4th game because the server crashed in the middle of the game. I put the stats for Niko and Spice together since Spice played 2 games and Nikodemus played one.

I find some of these stats amusing. The fact that even though [9] dominated the last 2 matches, they had 28 team kills and 17 self kills in the three matches. ClanUK was only slightly higher with 29 teammate kills and 19 suicides. While watching the demos, it seemed that everytime Timber got a frag, it was against Xenon. Same as DOOMer's frags on Hakeem.

Methos Site Stuff
I'm still sicker than a dog. I've been staying at home this week being bored out of my skull. My favorite pastime this week has been watching movies and watching the video channel waiting for the next Shania Twain video to come on. :)  

I heard from Gobo, who does the Gobo's Gibbage page here and he told me that he had a system crash. He'll send an update tomorrow.

I have a bunch of demos to post plus, some reactions (good and bad) to my latest ranting on my .plan page.

Thresh Reviews Quake3Arena
Thresh was one of the handful of lucky players to visit id Software and get to test Q3A. He has now posted his review of the weapons in Q3A. Most of the stuff was similar to what RiX had posted on Avault but, it was still interesting to read.

One of the things I found very cool was the fact that he was sitting with John Carmack and whenever he made a suggestion, JC could immediately implement them, if needed. Here's an example from their discussion about the Q3 rocket launcher.

"One particular thing I'm extremely proud of (sorry if I sound boastful) is that after debating with Carmack, we managed to figure out why the Quake 2 RL felt "lagged" as compared to the Quake 1 RL. I tried explaining the feeling to him, that the Quake 2 RL felt like it was firing the rocket slightly slower than the original's.. but he couldn't quite figure out what I was trying to say. So I loaded up Q2, asked him to fire the rockets a few times, then immediately loaded Quake 1 and asked him to do the same.

After a little thinking and more description from me about what was going on, Carmack suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, I know what it might be!" He proceeded to load up the Quake and Quake 2 code... and found that Quake's rockets had an additional 50ms of prediction added on top of it. Meaning, as you hit fire, the rocket actually comes out 50ms ahead of you... and not directly out of your body. In Quake 2 and Q3 (at the time), it came out of your body... which attributed to the more "lagged" feel. Carmack then changed it, and there was an immediate difference in the way the RL felt. All of a sudden I could do a lot of the "strafe around a corner, fire a rocket quickly then duck back in" maneuver that I used to do in Quake, but couldn't quite manage in Quake 2."

There was no mention in his entire article about the 600ms weapon change speed. (how could he forget this?) I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens with that.

Daikatana Demo Soon
John Romero announced that ION Storm has finished the pre-beta and it will be sent to Mplayer for final testing. It will be available for public download a few days later. Here's the word from John.

"The modem interpolation bug was fixed just a couple hours ago.  We're finishing off some remaining polish and sending it off to MPlayer for their final testing phase.   We will be releasing the demo in the Practice Area of MPlayer first (limited release), then into the Tournament Area when Practice is through with their testing.    When it gets into the Tournament Area, everyone can download it and try it out.

About a month or so later, we will put up the Internet Deathmatch Demo release so you can play over LAN as well and start up your own servers.  Just remember: this demo is only for the first episode of Daikatana's deathmatch.  Each of the remaining 3 episodes have their own different deathmatch feel because the weapons are all different.  It's like 4 deathmatch games in one.   (And one single-player game in one. :)

We've been working hard on getting this demo together and I hope everyone likes it.  Sure, it's taken us a little longer to get polished, but it will be worth the wait.  No use releasing a shab demo."

Hmm, wonder what he meant by that last comment?

Quake3Arena "Leaked" Review
Since I don't want to seem that I'm promoting a non-legit version of the leaked beta of Q3A, I've posted a few comments on Methos .plan page. The comments that I've posted are more generic comments than anything else but, I'm sure you'll get the point.

ClanUK Vs Nine Demos?
It seems that the demos from these matches are MIA. I tried to contact Rauper who was suppose to be in charge of the EuroQuake tourney but, he was nowhere to be found. I asked Xenon what the deal was with the demos and he said "all the q2 demos are up, but they are working on the qw demos". Hmm, not sure what "working" means but, they haven't been posted yet.

Methos Loves Quake2!
I actually installed Q2 again the other day. No, not because I wanted to play it, nor did I install in to test benchmarks (which seems to be all it's good for these days). The reason why I installed it was because the guys over at SDA (Speed Demo Archives) have released a bunch speed demos for Q2. While the players are more limited because it's Q2, it is kinda neat to see them double jump off enemy heads. If you're a speed demo or QDQ fan, make sure you check them out.

TGI Voting Update
Lakerman is back on top today, Reload still continues to get votes. Timber, Blitzer and Sectopod received quite a few votes also. The voting is open until the start of the tourney so, keep sending those e-mails and vote for your favorite who you think will win.

I was looking at the results of the Ultimate Quake Poll 2 the other day and I was surprised by how many of the players listed in the poll are in the TGI tourney. Here are some examples.

• Best DM2 Player
  1st - Lakerman, 4th - Reload
• Best DM4 Player
  1st - Lakerman, 2nd - Kane, 3rd - Sectopod, 4th - Timber
• Best DM6 Player
  No TGI player in top 4
• Best Aim
  2nd - Xenon, 3rd - Lakerman, 4th - Sectopod
• Smartest Player
  2nd - Blitzer, 3rd - Lakerman
• Best 1on1 Player
  2nd - Lakerman, 3rd - Sectopod & Kane (tie)
• Best All-Around Player
  2nd - Xenon, 3rd - Lakerman

Do any of these results surprise you or is it just the fact that the poll is 5 months old? While we expect to see the Lakerman and Xenon names, a few of the other names stick out. How about Sectopod finishing 3rd on DM4 and 4th for Best Aim? How about Blitzer finishing 2nd (behind Thresh) for Smartest Player? Even if it's not surprising, it's certainly interesting to see.

Methos Site Stuff
Back to using FP98 for this update. It sure beats using notepad. I've been sicker than a dog so, please forgive the short updates.

• [R2]Cataklysque updated Cataklysque's Corridor
• Updated Methos .plan page with info about the leaked Q3A beta plus, an open letter to id Software

Big Oops For id
As the Quake world has been teased with screen shots and editorials from the few lucky souls that have gotten to actually see Quake3Arena in action. There was some exciting news for those that visit those dodgy warez sites. A hardware testing release has found it's way into the public. Here's the word from id Software's Anna Kang:

"A version of the IHV (independent hardware vendor) test has been leaked. The leaked version is used for the sole purpose of internal testing and contains no real levels. It serves no purpose other than for hardware vendors to test and optimize features such as multitexture and compiled vertex array implementation. It contains no playable maps. Some maps are specific for testing oversixed textures, extreme texture aspect ratios, and high polygon outputs (much higher than normal maps). We hope the public is aware that this leaked test is useless to them and illegal to have in their possession. This material was given under NDA and its sole purpose for distribution was for hardware vendors to test out various features. We're flattered that so many people are interested in getting their hands on the game, but what is out now is not a game, nor is it the test that will be out in about a month. Trying to play the IHV test will only lead to frustration."

Even though it's not a legit release, I don't remember this much excitement about an alpha version of software since Windows 95 was first released. On that same note, even if this was a mistake, it may end up helping id Software more than they realise.

Oh, just incase you're not aware, if you have this dodgy version, don't call id for any support. :)

Clan 9 Victorious Over Clan UK
Not sure what happened with the way this mini tourney was run but, from what I have heard, there were more than a few problems. Just to give you an idea, Clan 9 was flown to London to play 5 games over a two day span. Now, to me, that seems like lots of time but, apparently, it wasn't nearly enough. They were only able to get 3 1/2 matches played over the two days before Clan 9 had to catch their plane. The Q2 Euroquake tourney was going on at the same time and the UKvs9 matches didn't get a high priority. There was no QTV or similar so that people could watch over the net, etc..

Anyway, here are the scores for the games that were played.

• Game 1 DM3 - Nine 117 vs ClanUK 101
• Game 2 E1M2 - Nine 171 vs ClanUK 140
• Game 3 DM3 - Nine 180 vs ClanUK 40 (approx by Xenon)

Clan Nine were leading the forth game when the server crashed. Xenon was the top scorer in every game played. When I asked about the demos, he told me that they weren't allowed to take them off the machines they were playing on. Hopefully, they'll be available soon.

I spoke with a few of the players after the tourney and the most common response was "disorganized is an understatement". Hopefully, things will get better in future events.

EuroQuake Tourney Ends
At the same venue as the 9vsUK QW matches, the EuroQuake Q2 tourney was taking place. The clan finals was won by Clan MM (Memento Mori) by defeating Clan 7th Chapter. MM boasts a couple of popular players from QW in Mastah Killah and Sectopod. Sectopod is also in the upcomming TGI tournament.

For the whole story, you can visit PlanetQuake EuroQuake coverage.

TrueGamers Opens It's Doors
After what seems like years, the TrueGamers site has finally gone live. Make sure you check it out. It's very cool and has TONS of stuff including the TGI 1on1 tourney info and an interview with American Quake player, RiX.

Methos Site Stuff (please read this)
There are two things I want to mention that are of significant importance. Please make sure you read the follow two items. One is great news, the other is a part of life most of us can do without.

• A huge congratulations to Richard and Nicole on the birth of their baby daughter Julia last night. Most of you will know Richard better as Hoony from Challenge.AU. Both mother and daughter are doing very well (Hoony fainted). Make sure you all send Hoony some e-mail and congratulate him on a job well done (for 3 minutes, nine months ago :).
• I would like to send my sincere condolences to UK Quake player QL-Pundit. Pundit's father passed away a couple of days ago. Pundit is one of the nice guys in Quake and I wanted to make sure my best wishes are with him. I'm sure that the visitors to Methos Quake also send their wishes.

I'll do a proper update tomorrow when I have my regular html editor working. Doing this stuff in notepad really sucks.

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