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Gemini Interview Posted
I have posted my interview with American Quake player EG|Gemini. Gemini talks about his Quake career and his hopes for the future of gaming. Make sure you read some of the interesting things he has to say. You can read the Gemini interview here.

The "Letter", Final Words
With the hoopla from the "Open Letter To id" getting way out of hand, I found there was only one way to deal with it in a semi-mature manner. A UK Quake2 player named Durzel has been my biggest opponent along the way to world peace so, the best way to do this was through legal channels.

Durzel and I have battled it out in a court of law. For the full transcript of the long court trial, you can read it on my .plan err, I mean, my legal correspondence page.

Note: If you don't have a sense of humor, don't read the .plan file update.

Hoony Does Quake 3: Arena
Well, it's not the 650 page novel he promised us, but it's pretty long. Hoony from Challenge-AU reviews Q3A (test) and concentrates on the important issues. Most of his review is based around weapons, gameplay and the future. Make sure you take a look at his well written article.

Rapture99 Still Happening
I received word from Vanish that the Rapture99 sponsors have come through and the tournament is ready to go. I'm not sure what is happening with the USA vs Euro Selects matches. I talked to Thresh a couple of days ago and he told me that he hadn't heard from anybody regarding the tourney. Cataklysque and Gemini both received word that the tourney was "a go". Rapture99 has the chance to be one of the best Quake tourneys ever as there will be some awesome talent at the event.

Spore Spawns Again
The Australian Quake site called Spore's Den has resurfaced after being gone for a couple of weeks. Make sure you take a visit.

Methos Site Stuff
I was going to post all this stuff a couple of days ago, but my cable company had a router problem. So, I didn't have internet access and I was force to spend time doing "real life™" stuff like watching Shania Twain videos. Ya know, this country music is starting to sound better every day. LOL

• Posted the EG|Gemini interview. Make sure you take a look
• Updated Methos .plan page. Before going to the page, take this warning. If you can't take a joke or you don't have a sense of humor, please don't read it.

A Disturbance In The Force
Oh my, I've ruffled some feathers. The "Open Letter To ID" has certainly caused a stir among the Quake world and especially in the Quake2 corners. The intention of this letter wasn't to get anybody's panties in a bunch, it was only to ask id Software to add the three changes to a future test version and see what people's reaction to them would be. If Q3A players don't like them, they can certainly remove them before the game is officially released.

The response to the "letter" has been amazing, to say the least. I have received over 700 e-mail from all parts of the world. A lot of these mails came on e-mail accounts that I've never use and I'm not sure how they got the addys, but that's okay.

Of the 700 e-mails, 61 (9%) of them were of the negative variety, 122 (17%) were just general comments and 577 (74%) were very positive. Of course, not everybody wrote and mentioned their feelings on the subject and there was quite a lot of talk on every Q3A messageboard so, these e-mails are only a portion of the reaction that the "letter" has brought out.

There are some things I'd like to clear up about the letter to id Software.

• The letter does NOT speak for the entire Quake community. However, it does address a couple of the concerns that "a lot" of players have voiced about the test release.
• The letter does NOT speak for anybody in the Quake2 community. I'm sure they can voice their own concerns to id Software should they desire to.
• Who actually wrote the letter? At this point, it doesn't matter who wrote it. I posted it and mailed it so, I will take the heat for it.
• The actual letter that was sent to id Software was not signed "The Quake Community" as it has been widely reported. Nor was the "Quake Community" mentioned anywhere in the letter.
• The concerns specified in the letter have nothing to do with the never-ending Q1, QW, Q2 argument. They only have to do with Q3A suggestions.
• Should I have been the one to send the letter? Probably not, but somebody had to say something. Next time, we can have an election to select the person to send it. My vote would be for Paul2.  :)

On to the feedback. Here are some of the reactions (both negative and positive) I have received from readers. Since I didn't get permission to post these, I will not print the authors name. I will put in the country where applicable.

"Please we don't want another Q1. If you love Q1 so much then by all means keep on playing it but this love is not shared by all. Q3a rocks!! I can see where it's going and I like it. It's not perfect but it obviously will be the best thing out there...and it's not finished." (UK)

"We DO NOT want the changes you cite in the open letter and request that in the interest of fairness, you also post a similar open letter from "the rest of us" (such as this one) to stand alongside the original open letter." (USA)

"I agree 100% with the letter :) Great writing." (USA)

"Your letter to id was a cool idea, but I have one suggestion. In order to make id really listen, I suggest ALL (and I mean ALL) of the famous quakers (from Thresh, sCary, Xenon to Lakerman, SK, Ocrana, UK,...) should write their own thoughts and suggestions and these writings could then be combined into one huge letter, which would be then published on news sites worldwide." (Slovenia)

"Just want to add my voice in support of your letter to ID, spot on. I would also have added a 4th point, in that they should tone down the FX and make the players a LOT easier to see, because at the moment with more than 3 people it's impossible to tell what's going on! Anyway, let's hope they listen because at the moment, I won't be playing Q3A if it stays like it is."

"Is the term 'evolution' really that foreign a concept? Here are my thoughts on your open letter. All you are really saying is speed up the rocket launcher to it's q1 speeds, and that you want the game as a whole to be more like Q1. End of story. This is exactly what happened when q2 was released, with people complaining about how slow movement, rocket launcher were etc. Progression is a wonderful thing...." (UK)

"You really nailed the apparent issue with q3a. If they want to unite the "community", they should take the best features out of each game, not make a compromise (although in rare cases this may be needed). They (id) certainly did a real good job at taking out the intensity of q3a." (Australia)

"All I have to say is thank god someone feels as I do :). I think your open letter to Carmack was right on the money and hopefully it makes a difference." (USA)

"Agree 100% Just hope JohnC listens. We are three Clans here in Sweden (who almost only play Lan), All have the same concerns, still play QW, skipping Q2 and hoping for Q3A to be the game. We've all been waiting for, finally something to move on to ... if they just tune the game the way we all want it to be." (Sweden)

"Agree about rocket launchers - the comment on footsteps is rubbish though. They force you to walk if you want to be quiet, which gives a bit more variety to gamplay styles. If you played Halflife's TFC with a 4 speaker system, you'd appreciate footsteps more. Also I quite like the air physics - it works really well on the space map (2) - great fun whizzing through the air blasting as you go. My biggest gripe is that all the guns are too slow and too much like Unreal's - all (painfully slow) effects and no BANG."

"Glad to see someone took the initiative to write to ID and give some feedback about the Q3A test.  I particularly agree with your feelings about the rocket launcher etc. Perhaps if some sort of petition could be organized ID would take our advise more seriously - I'm sure a couple of hundred hardcore online gamers would carry a lot of weight in their argument." (UK)

"I knew that if anybody would take charge and not stand by watching quake3 go down the drain it was you. Way to go man! I'm giving you my grateful thanks and keep up! If id doesn't listen now the can't be id. I can't imagine that they wouldn't listen to this. So thanks for giving all quakers a bright future." (Sweden)

"Just wanted to say "WELL DONE" , this is exactly what we want!" (UK)

"You're the best! Just lets hope that Carmack listens. Thanks for taking this up to the higher level of discussion, 'cause I don't really believe id has taken much notice of my mail :(" (Sweden)

"Right with you. Q3 is graphically impressive, but the gameplay is too limp. Nothing - repeat NOTHING - yet beats the sheer visceral rush of a good game of QW esp. CTF. We all have high hopes for Q3, and your early feedback to ID can only help realize these." (UK)

"I don't know if this had anything to do with the open letter or not, but Carmack changed the (RL) damage radius from 120 to 150 units." (USA)

Well, there are "some" of the many reactions. Approx. 75% of the negative mail was because I apparently tried to speak for the entire community without getting everybody's opinion. This is a valid comment and I suppose that could've been worded a bit different in my posting.

Now that everybody has had their say in whether or not the letter should have been sent, let's get to the real point of the letter. No, it wasn't designed to make Q3A a newer version of Quake or Quakeworld. The point of the suggestions in the letter is to try and make Q3A an even better game than it might be without our input.

If there are players out there that think Q3A will be the best game it can be without our input, that's cool. Just sit back til the fall and play the game when it comes out. I feel that the combination of the Q1 Rocket Launcher and the Q2 Railgun will make for some awesome gameplay. Hmm, gameplay, that is the point of on-line games isn't it?

One of the things that did bother me with the reactions is that everytime somebody mentions a Quake / QW feature or weapon, that person is considered "old school" or "living in the past". Let me make this clear. I don't want another Quake or QW. As far as I know, besides the Lightning Gun (which we haven't seen yet), the slight air movement and the original 3D concept, there isn't anything in Q3A from Quake. The ONLY thing I want is for Q3A to be a great game. Nuff said.

Reactions and Reactors
Since we've seen a few of the reactions, let's see what a few of the "reactors" had to say. The comments were wide-spread throughout the world. The "hot spots" seemed to be messageboards in the USA, UK, Sweden and AU. Very few of these comments actually dealt with the suggestions contained in the letter, they were more concerned as to who has the right to send such a letter.

On the Quakenation messageboard, they didn't ask the question as to whether the suggestion in the letter were valid, they asked "Was Methos right to post a letter on behalf of the Quaking community?". I found this a bit surprising as I've always considered Quakenation as "The" place to go in the UK for grassroots gaming news.

On the Barrysworld Editorial pages, it was interesting to see the different responses. On Bigfoot's page, he defended me rather well and dealt with the suggestions in the letter, instead of any made up inference.

RobertJ took the "community" idea to a new level and wrote a very funny article which was well written and a joy to read. No flaming, no rude comments or personal remarks. He made his point and dealt with it.

On the other hand, a Barrysworld Quake2 writer named durzel decided to spice up the topic by disagreeing with not only the suggestions in the "letter", but he pretty well disagreed with every word written in the letter. Let me preface this by saying that I don't know durzel, I've never spoken with him or read his Q2 page prior to yesterday. Since (I think) durzel is a Q2 player, the "letter" I posted certainly didn't speak for him.

Durzel decided to dissect the letter and add his commentary while finding something outlandishly wrong with everything that was written. During his description of the letter, he managed to say the following things about me...

• Lord Methos
• Blindsighted
• Methos` desire to constantly suck up to id software at every oppurtunity
• Stubborn and arrogant
• Spokesperson for the UK Quake (QW and Q2) community
• Incapable of accepting anything new
• Methos shows the depths the man will sink to to achieve his pitiful goals
• Some big fucking `playa` (sic)

These were just a few of the comments he made regarding me, not the letter, but me personally. As I mentioned, I don't even know the boy and have never spoken with him. The things he commented about weren't even written by me so, that should give you an idea how far he went to research his posting.

As for the above comments made by durzel, I won't worry about the personal ones, but anybody that has read my page once or twice knows that I never suck up to id Software. If anything, it's completely the opposite. I do think that "Lord Methos" has a nice ring to it though. :)

I only have one suggestion for durzel. Go out, get drunk, have an enema and relax. No need to get so excited about the speed of the rockets in Q3A. (Whether or not it's me that says that they're too slow or others that say they're too slow)

On the FPS-Spectator messageboard, the Q2 players hit hard and fast (much different from Q2 gameplay :) with their comments. Most were expected as they quickly jumped into the "they just want QW back" and the "nobody asked me what I thought" arguments. For the people on the FPS messageboard, don't give Recluse a hard time. You can direct your comments or complaints my way.

Let the flames begin :)

If you'd like to comment on these postings, feel free to send me e-mail.

Methos Site Stuff
I was going to post the Gemini interview today, but in light of all this bruhaha about "the letter", I decided I would wait until tomorrow. The main reason I was going to post it was because Tuesday was Gemini's 18th birthday. Happy Birthday Gemini. If you happen to see Gemini on IRC, give him a big sloppy birthday smooch.

An Open Letter To id Software
While some people may be thinking, "oh, here we go again", this certainly isn't the case. A few of us in the Quake community feel that something must be said to id Software so that they are aware of our concerns about Q3A. Here is a letter that has been sent to id Software.

Dear Mr. J. Carmack

This letter is being written on behalf of the many fans worldwide of the original Quake.

We have collectively been playtesting Q3ATest since it was released and while we have high hopes for the game Quake 3 Arena, we also have some concerns, which we would like to make you aware of.

The original Quake has attained a status among the hardcore first person shooter player base as the best game on the market that is solid and consistent enough in its design to be played on a professional tournament level. We also feel it is the speed and fluidity of Quake's design which has sustained it as the King of first person shooters for such a long time and which has made it the most fun game in this genre. While Q3Test is fantastic in it’s engineering and graphical rendering, we feel that some of the gameplay choices will take away from what originally made Quake so superb.

As veteran players, we are the people who have played your games the most, written about them on our web pages, promoted them to friends and evangelized them to newbies. We are the ones who organize tournaments and teach new players how to play effectively. We are your biggest supporters.

However, we do have one request for the benefit of all players worldwide. We would like to request a few gameplay changes be made in the next version of Q3Atest.

The changes we are requesting are:

1. Increase Rocket Launcher speed and splash damage to the levels they were in the original Quake.
2. Increase air movement to levels closer to Quake/Quakeworld
3. Remove audible footsteps as the default setting.

The Rocket Launcher speed and splash damage contributes to the intensity and fast paced gameplay that we enjoyed immensely from Quake. The air control puts the player back in charge of learning escalating levels of skill and simply feels better from our perspective. Audible footsteps, we think only slow the game down and take away from the suspense and strategy we loved from the original Quake.

If these changes could be made for the next release and player feedback solicited, we feel it will only make an even better game in which the fans had a choice in the gameplay features present. We realize you are very good at listening and garnering player feedback so we offer this letter as our humble request.

Thank you for your consideration

With the above suggestions submitted, we can then see if the Quake RL and air movement would help save the intense gameplay we are used to seeing in Quake. The Q3A test has not impressed everybody, that goes without saying. Since quite a few people are still playing Quake and Quakeworld, the changes offered for Q3A will only help to bring these players into the fold, along with the Quake2 players.

This wasn't done only for the benefit or Quake players, it was done for the benefit of Q3A players. Since id is so concerned about the "newbies" playing Q3A, this will help give them the best game possible.

Every Quake2 player that plays their first game with the original Quake or QW, has the same reaction, "Holy Shit". People never heard that reaction from Quake 2 but, id has a chance to bring that reaction to Q3A. Let's hope id Software can take this letter as seriously as the people they are selling their games to.

Should you have comments on this posting, please send me e-mail.

Gobo Shows His Face
It's been about 3 weeks but, Gobo has finally updated his "Gobo's Gibbage" page with his thoughts on (surprise!) the Q3ATest. He has a lot to say so, make sure you take a look.

Christian Antkow Interview
Mobius sent along word that Q2Center has posted an interview with Christian Antkow from id software. It's a short and mostly technical interview but, Xian did have the odd tidbit to say.

"Druel: What part of Quake 3 Arena most makes you think "WHOA! COOL!" when you play it?

Xian: The "space" maps."

Wtf? I really hope he doesn't mean that there are more of those silly Q3test2 type maps?

Methos Q3ATest Server Still Running
I have setup a Q3ATest server (ffa, Q3test1) on one of my computers. The local machine is a P2-450 w/256 Megs ram and a cable modem connection. I'll leave it running for the weekend. If you get a chance, go and play for a while.

Methos "Dick O' Rama" Q3ATest Server is available at 207.161.188.89

Methos Site Stuff
I received an "Open Letter To id Software" that will be posted on this site and many other sites tomorrow and will be mailed to John Carmack asking him to make some changes to Q3A on a test basis.

• Uploaded a couple of demos to the Quake Demos page. I still have a few more to upload
• Posted reviews on the Quake Demos page of the 6 demos that I linked on this page a while back. These include the ones from the TGI
• Gobo updated his "Gobo's Gibbage" page
• Finished an interview with EG|Gemini that I should be posting tomorrow

Methos Is A Slacker
Hmm, I've been getting kinda lazy with my updating lately. I guess I'll have to stop taking those web-pimping lessons from Spookie. Actually, "real life™" has kept me busy lately. It's almost as if my boss wants me to put in a whole day's work. Oh well, I'll try and keep on top of things a bit better.

Q3ATest Reactions
I'm not sure if I can remember a time where I've received so much e-mail from a posting I've done. The reaction to my Q3ATest thoughts was amazing. I received tons of responses from Quake and Quake2 players and every one of them was intelligently written and expressed.

Most of the people who sent me mail agreed with nearly everything I said. Some agreed with most of the things I said and of course, there are always those few people that disagreed with everything I had to say. Thanks to all who wrote and expressed their feelings on Q3A.

Does anybody remember that before the "test" was released, the biggest thing that we were worried about was the weapon switch times. The switch times seem to be a minor issue now that we've seen more of what the game has to offer.

My biggest fear has come true. Q3A will be an extension of Quake2 and not an updated collaboration of Quake and Quake2 as we were lead to believe. Now, I know what many people are saying, "Methos, why would we want a rehashed version of Quake?". My answer to that is "Why would we want a rehashed version of a slower, less popular Quake2?". (less popular in the fact that it's popularity wore out long before it should have)

There are some good reasons as to why Quake is still popular for 3 years. Number 1 on the list is gameplay. There has never been another game released where the gameplay has been so intense and exciting. For Q3A to be successful, this has to return. I've always been under the impression that if Quake2 would've been made by another company and billed as the next "Quake Killer", it would've failed miserably. Because Q2 was made by id, we gave it waayyy too much credit for being a great game.

id Software's greatest talents since Quake was released have been in the programming and artistic areas. Nobody has ever suggested that John Carmack isn't a great programmer, on the contrary, he is excellent. Nobody has said that the id guys don't know how to design beautiful levels & models, again, they're very good at it. However, when you're making the latest, greatest game with the latest technology and fanciest graphics, it takes away from the gameplay.

The bottom line is, who cares about all the fancy graphics when nearly all "true" Quakers will turn them off to get better performance. Because of their past history and the fact that Q3A is being designed as an on-line game, the one thing id should know is that graphics mean nothing and gameplay means everything.

I still have my fingers crossed that id will wake up and smell the carnage. Here's a quote from the interview I did with John Romero about a year ago. I was asking him what made Quake so popular after all this time.

"John Romero: Intense, blood-pumping shotgun blasts and rocket fire and dark, scary, fearful places with moody music and awesome sound effects."

Now *that* sounds like a good game. May I have some more, please?

Q3ATest Expansion Pak
Playdevil has released an expansion pak for Q3ATest. It's not really an expansion pak but, it has altered Q3test1 and Q3test2 maps that contain the Grenade Launcher and the BFG10k. After speaking with a few people regarding this, the general response is that the Grenade Launcher "REALLY sucks" and the BFG "Rocks". I would have to agree with their statements. You can download the expansion pak (3.9MB) here.

Fusion99 Results
Last weekend, Fusion99 took place in the UK. I couldn't find much live coverage at the time but, you should always check QuakeNation for all your UK Quake news.

The winners were as follows:

One on One Winner: Kane
Two on Two Winner: Kane and Griff
Clan Winner: UK Team

Congrats to all the winners. You can check out the Fusion99 Results Page for full details on all the games

E3 Award Winners
Rumor has it that there are other games besides Quake. I personally don't believe that but, E3 was held last weekend to showcase some of the news ones. The E3 Awards have been handed out to many companies for games in many categories and platforms. Here are the 10 winners in the PC category and the winner for the "Best Of Show".

Best Of Show
Freelancer - Developer: Digital Anvil (PC)

PC Award Winners (In alphabetical order)
Deus Ex - Developer: Ion Storm
Diablo II - Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Dungeon Keeper II - Developer: Bullfrog
Hidden & Dangerous - Developer: Illusion Softworks
Nocturne - Developer: Terminal Reality
Prince of Persia 3D - Developer: Red Orb
System Shock 2 - Developer: Irrational Games
Team Fortress 2 - Developer: Valve
Ultima IX: Ascension - Developer: Origin
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption - Developer: Nihilistic Software

There you have it, run out and buy all these games immediately. Oh, wait, I don't think any of them are released yet. Okay, go back to your solitaire game. :)

Spookie Talks To A Monster
Spookie decided to kick himself in the butt and get some work done on "The Spookie Side". He even went so far as to post a new picture of himself and Jezebel on his "Spookie's Info page".

Now, back to his update. Spookie has posted an Interview with Canadian Quake player EG|Monster. Monster isn't short of things to say and has some interesting comments about the TrueGamers Invitational tournament held a couple of months ago. I suggest you read this interview. Not only are the answers decent, the questions are an adventure also. :)

/\/\ethos Site Stuff
As always, if you wish to comment on my postings, please send me e-mail.

• Spookie updated "The Spookie Side" with his thoughts on Q3ATest and an Interview with EG|Monster

/\/\ethos Q3ATest Review
Now that I've had a chance to play the Q3Atest for a bit. It's time to give my thoughts about it. I'm trying my hardest to look at the test from a "game player" point of view as well as a Quaker point of view. Okay, let's go...

Q3ATest Weapons: Overall, I found the weapons felt like Quake2 weapons. It's hard to describe but, they don't have a solid feel to them. The RL doesn't have the same "ka-pow" (thanks Jim) that it had in Quake.

All the weapons have some sort of smoke trail. The smoke trail for the RL and SG are ridiculous. The Railgun trail is wider than most weapons. The Plasma Gun trail is huge and will fill the screen if it's being aimed at you.

I've noticed and also heard from many people that the Shotgun and the RL tend to look the same when using them. Hopefully, the weapons that weren't included in the test will be a bit more impressive.

Machine Gun: The default weapon in Q3A is decent enough to give a newly spawned player a chance to do a bit of damage and a chance to escape.

The Gauntlet: Not much of a weapon. It causes a bit more damage than the axe. Might be good for knocking opponents into the lava. Having said that, it's better to have a melee weapon than to not have one.

Q3ATest - Powerups and Items: Most of the items have been seen before in previous games so, there's not much new here other than the personal teleporter.

Q3ATest - Maps: Since there are only two maps that the public has seen so far, I can't be too critical as there might be some great maps in the final release. The maps are "nice" but, not very good for 1on1 or clan matches.

The texturing is quite colorful, perhaps even too colorful. The graphics in the Q3Atest are "over the top", similar to the way they were in Unreal. If you don't have the latest, greatest processor and video card, you won't be playing up to the capabilities of the game. I played the game on a P2-450 with a Voodoo1 (4 meg) and also a P2-333 with a Voodoo2 (16 meg). Neither of these cards could support the highest graphics detail (comfortably), nor could they support 32bit color.

Q3ATest Overall

The Game: The game itself played decently but, not great. I wasn't too worried about the network code because there's no better company anywhere that makes a network code as good as id Software. Although I've only tried it via cable modem and lan, it was extremely smooth. I'll have to test it out on modem but, I hear that everything runs pretty good on any connection.

Gameplay: After listening to what sCary, Thresh, RiX and others had to say, I expected much more than I saw. To a man, they all talked about how much it reminded them of QW. To me, Q3Atest played like Quake 2 with some (not much) air movement. It still had that inherent laggy feel even when playing locally. This was the thing I was worried about the most for the past few months. I just knew that it wouldn't feel like QW.

Models: The models were pretty much as I expected. I keep wondering why id and other game companies have to make really fancy player models where the skins are really hard to define between each other. Even though the original Quake had a very simplistic player model, at least you could easily see which ones were blue, yellow, red or any other color.

Overall Impressions:

• Heavy System Requirements: This was expected as soon as id said that it would require a 3D card.
• Nice Graphics: The problem here is that great graphics does not equate to great gameplay but, I'm sure id already knows this. (don't they?)
• Maps: The maps were cute but, they weren't 1on1 or clan maps. I'm praying that we see some of these type and not have to deal with the kind of crappy maps that were in the infamous Q2 point release.
• Audible Footsteps: What is with this? Even Q2 players were mixed on whether or not they should've been in Q2. They should be removed.
• Network Code: Very nice, very smooth, excellent job. Lan and server settings are as easy as I've ever seen before.

Okay, I have to make something clear. Yes, I understand that this is only a test and id is working to make this a better game. In my opinion, they'd better work pretty hard to make the game enjoyable for everybody. Then again, I don't think it will ever be enjoyable for everybody.

The good folks at id Software have lost a lot since Quake was released. The 2 most important thing they lost were John Romero and American McGee. Among the things these two did were made Quake into the best on-line and lan game ever. From the maps to the gameplay, they had it all. I want to see Q3A get that back.

I was talking with a guy I work with who plays Quake2 with the name HBK. He decided to play Quake 1 to get prepared for the added speed in Q3A. He downloaded a demo (random choice) from my demo page so that he could see how the better players played. The demo he happened to download was Reload vs Tim on DM4. With him being an avid Q2 player, I asked him one question. The question I asked was "have you ever seen any Quake2 demo that was as intense as the Quake 1 demo you downloaded?". His response was "Not even close!".

This is what I'm hoping to get back in Q3A. I want blood pumping, intense action that make you nervous when you see the game. id Software, I'm asking you to bring that back for the gaming world to see. Can you do it? Time will tell.

If you've made it this far (congrats) and you want to comment on this posting, please feel free to send me some e-mail.

Q3ATest Impressions
Now that the Internet has been brought to a screeching halt thanks to the 22 MB teaser that id Software has released, it's time to get some opinions on the Quake 3 Arena test. Here are what some of the more well known players thought of the beta preview.

Diehard-R3V (Canada): Loved it! Hmm well, I really don't like the crosshair, its hard to rail with it since it's so fuckin big and has no center. I don't like that it uses OpenGL ICD for drivers with my v3 and not 3dfx minigl. The idea of ICD is good but its about 40% slower than a minigl.

I really like the Rocket speed, I even think its been slightly increased since the 1st linuxq3atest. Railgun is a blast. The 1st weapon is a joke, dunno what's it for really.

I don't like that on q3test1 map, quad is on random timer and on q3test2 its every 60 secs. Those bouncy pads are great, they add some much more speed to the game. I really like the fact that I can bounce ppl around with rockets.

Oh ya and in general, weapon switch is just fine, not slow at all but when you fire with a rail and try to switch to RL, it waits till rail reloads and only then switches, that makes it very q2 wep switch like, feels very bad.

Walter.311 (Canada): It's not so bad, weapon switching is fast enough.. only thing I don't like is the slow rockets. The footsteps are not so bad because movement is fast. I think people have a bit too much health when spawning. The rockets are quite a bit too slow. Other than that not to bad, at least for a test.

LQMS-JeZeBeL (USA): "I think I need to go back and learn how to play Q2 before this game comes out!" was one of the first things I said when I was on a server. To me the test felt better than Q2 when we first played it.

Positives: Loved the jump pads, plasma gun, Quake Dude looked pretty cool, nice looking quad (that isn't really quad), name coming up with the crosshair, player colors brought back.

Negatives: Laggy, shotgun was lame, rockets were slow and didn't do much damage (except to me of course ;), armor shards :P, sounds mixture of Q2 and Q1 (new ones please!), armor countdown.

All in all I really think Daikatana was a much better showing and felt better all around than this test. I am not counting it out as a good game, but will it be great?

D11-Thresh (USA): Doesn't work on my system, not sure why, it just doesn't work. I've spoken to everyone and their mom about it, even Zoid and Brian hook, no go so far :/

Jimbob (Scotland): As I feared, doesn't feel solid and crisp like QW. Looks real nice, I got a voodoo 1 and 33.6k here so.. it's not as good as it could be.

I can't see anything for smoke and coloured lights:) RL impact feels squidgy a bit like q2 and not "kapow" as it should be. The gauntlet sux, machine pretty good starting weapon, nicely thought out with ammo amount etc. Rail effect ain't as good as q2 imo..

The levels look cool, curves n stuff but, I don't think you'll ever find a better teamplay game than QW imo and I cant get any air accel.

SK-Hakeem (I think it's still SK): Well, it feels very laggy, much like q2 did. The air control is also nothing like QW. Very hard to see players. Machine gun and SG are pretty useless, but the RL is cool :)

The netcode seems a little suspect. I thought that was one of the things they sorted first. I was playing on a server which QW was 28-35. Q3A was more like 65-100. I even thought the q2 Railgun was better :/

Overall, I can't get over the feeling of lag. It's better, but disappointing. Maybe by quake 5 they'll get it right again :)

XP-Spookie (USA): It's no where near as good as quake2. This Test has some serious issues however, I know there is a lot of work left to be done.

Quicker rockets and nicer looking graphics were good. On the bad side, the rockets don't pack any punch and the fancy graphics make it very difficult to see your opponent. Also, the Railgun doesn't feel quite right.. yet.

Quake2 is very solid compared to this early q3test. This test feels like a work in progress, which is just what it is.

EG-Gemini (USA): The good - jumppads r fun and speeds up gameplay (rather than having to go up a ladder ala q2) RL has a nice speed, Q1 players will be content with it, physics are more QW like.

The bad - plasma gun. blinds your screen when u shoot it and get shot at with it. Q3 netcode is a lot weaker than QW's and more like Q2's. Test is a CPU hog almost felt like I was running Unreal (granted my v2 isn't the best card anymore), jumping sound sounds like hiccups. Oh, and the gauntlet is a joke :)

Overall, its better than Q2 ever was :) It has potential and I had fun playing it :P

DBs (England): I like it. It's a bit manic at the moment, hard to see whets happening in close fights with all the weapon trails on.

sCary-R3V: A few minor complaints, nothing majorly bugs me though. I like it overall.  The framerate is surprisingly good. The Railgun is ass (after checking the dictionary, ass = bad), the effect and the way it seems to predict. I don't like the x-hair much either, dunno wtf they didn't include extras.

D8-Reptile (USA): Well, it's too flashy and flarey and effectish. I can't see half the shit I'm doing behind all the light and smoke and stuff. I feel like I'm at a magic show or something.

Makaveli (USA): It's good except the RL isn't powerful enough and the mgun spawn sucks in ffa. In 1on1 and smaller games, it's not that big an issue. I think they should tone it down a bit.

Speed is good, I like the physics. Effects need to go, smoke trails and stuff. First chance I get I'm gonna edit it out. Rockets could be faster also and more powerful. Oh, and they should have put the damn shaft in the game.

Pure-R3V (Canada): I think its pretty good. The maps are well designed. The air control is a tad to much, for my liking anyway. Footsteps is a big bad. I like the RL and the shotgun. The RL doesn't do enough damage.

I enjoyed the Railgun from q2 so, it's automatically an a+, but I don't use it as much in the test. I use the RL and the shotgun more. Start off w/ the RL, maybe 1-2 shots at their feet and then finish em off w/ shotgun or machine gun.

I've turned down the detail all the way and I'm playing in 512x384. When you do try and RL jump (w/ no armor), it only does 30 damage compared to 50 in QW.

Stayne (USA): I think the only thing that I'm disappointed with is the damned Railgun. The effect is weak even with a tightened r_railcorewidth. But the thing is, the rail was already weakened by the fact that with the faster movement, it's easier to dodge and harder to make the shots.

Q3test2 is a gimmick level than a competitive one, but fun as hell. Gauntlet is dumb. I still think id's map making skills have taken a serious nose dive since American left.

There you have it. The experts have spoken. What does all this mean? I'm not sure, but the most common complaints I heard were, the Railgun, the smoke and weapon trails plus the crosshairs. I'm sure id will look at these things so that the official game will be better.

For more views on Q3ATest, you can visit FPS-Spectator and see Recluse's full write-up plus thoughts from a few other players. You can also stop by Sujoy's site and read his thoughts.

What did I think of it? I'll post my thoughts on it in a few days. I'm sure I'll start up some controversy but, I'm becoming well known for that. :)

Q3ATest Released
In keeping with their tradition, id Software has released a product at the stroke of midnight. Even though Graeme Devine's .plan says it's 22:05, it wasn't posted til midnight (CDT). It's 22.2 MB and most servers are *VERY* busy.

The sites I have seen it on are:

• BluesNews
• 3DFiles
• Quakefiles.

You can also download it from these ftp sites:

• ftp://209.1.115.11/idsoftware/q3arena/q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://216.81.151.27/quake3/q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://chips.barrysworld.com/../q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://ftp.barrysworld.com/../q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/../q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://ftp.golsyd.net.au/../q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://ftp.q3arena.com/../q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://ftp.stomped.com/../q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://neville2.barrysworld.com/../q3test_1_05.exe
• ftp://qftp1.heat.net/pub/win32/q3test_1_05.exe
• http://download.ign.com/pc/q3test_1_05.exe

There you have it. Most of these sites will be fairly busy but, I'm sure you'll be able to connect to a couple of them. Thanks to Quakefiles for the list. Happy downloading.

Q3ATest on Monday
The latest word from id Software is that Q3ATest will be released on Monday if they're able to get the bugs worked out. Here's the word from Graeme Devine's .plan.

"We're getting closer, but I think it'll be tomorrow before we're out.

Internally we're bashing on the new maps, code, servers, and clients. There is a lot of new stuff in there and we want to bang on it for a bit before we release.

We are building installers, pak files, and so forth, so our confidence level is good, but since it's only been 15 minutes since the last bug fix (which was a doozy of a find BTW) and the new maps are still being bsp'd. All of this makes a release tonight seem like a bit of a risk.

If all goes well we will bash on it tonight and tomorrow, and once John gets in tomorrow we'll be ready to go."

Like I've said all along, they can keep it as long as they want. Yes, I want to see it but, I want all the bugs to be fixed before it's released. Then again, John Carmack announced that he has put audible footsteps back into the Q3Atest. (grr)

New 3DFX Drivers for Q3ATest
3DFX has released new Voodoo drivers designed especially for the Q3A test. Here's where you can download them.

• Voodoo3 Windows 9x Drivers (AGP-PCI)
• Voodoo2 Windows 9x Driver Kit
• Voodoo Rush Windows 9x Driver Kit
• Voodoo Graphics Windows 9x Driver Kit

I'll assume from these new drivers that 3DFX was the company id Software was waiting to register the new drivers with MicroSoft.

Carmack Says Q3ATest on Sunday
id Software boss, John Carmack has updated his .plan file with the news that there are only a few things left to do before the "test" can be released on Sunday evening. Here's what John Carmack had to say:

"There is one must-fix issue and a couple smaller issues remaining before the release candidate build, then we have to do a lot of testing on it. I made a lot of significant changes in the last week, and I'm sure there are some things we still need to sort out before we inflict it on the general public.

We are aiming for Sunday, but understand that that means Sunday evening, not Sunday morning.

If Saturday night / Sunday morning testing on the release candidate turns up significant problems, we will put off the release until they are fixed. That could be later Sunday night, or it might not make it until Monday night.

The previous release delays for win32 were issues out of our control, but this release rests squarely on me. The content and other issues are ready, but we still need to make sure all the new code is solid."

There you have it, the much anticipated pre-beta test version might be out tomorrow if there aren't too many bugs.

Q3A Compatibility List
Brian Hook from id Software has updated his .plan with a complete list of compatibility issues from the Q3ATest. It is very concise and covers what most people would have on their systems in terms of video and CPU. Here's the whole scoop on what Brian had to say.

"Here's a quick run down of accelerators we have tested and that we find acceptable or better for Quake3, assuming the most up to date drivers are installed (note: up to date drivers for nearly all of the following accelerators will be available when Q3TEST is released).

3Dfx Voodoo Graphics
3Dfx Voodoo2
3Dfx Voodoo2 SLI
3Dfx Voodoo3*
3Dfx Voodoo Rush (tested out of house, but supposedly stable)
3Dfx Voodoo Banshee
3DLabs Permedia 2 (ugly, some serious visual artifacts)
ATI Rage Pro (4MB and 8MB)
ATI Rage128*!&
Intel i740
Matrox G200 &
NVidia Riva128
NVidia RivaTNT*!&
NVidia RivaTNT2*!&
Rendition V2x00 (not very fast, but it works)
S3 Savage3 &

* = high performance
! = supports stencil volume shadows
& = 32-bit rendering

We have not done significant testing on the following boards simply because they were not undergoing full shipment at the time we were wrapping up Q3TEST:

3DLabs Permedia3
Matrox G400
S3 Savage4

However we do not anticipate any problems with any of the above, since they
are newer, faster, and should be real nice.

Note that ALL of the above boards are supported through a complete OpenGL implementation, NOT through minidrivers of any kind. And with the  exception of Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo 2, and Voodoo Rush, all of the above accelerators are supported using the standard Win32 OpenGL ICD driver interface (because of limitations in Microsoft's WGL OpenGL specification, 3D-only cards must be supported by direct loading of their DLL instead of using the standard GDI interface).

CPUs that we have tested on and support include:

AMD K6-2
AMD K6-3
AMD K7
Intel Pentium and above

So here's the scoop: if you have a pimped out PIII/500 w/ a RivaTNT2, you're gonna be stoked with a sweet looking game running at a very fast clip. If you have an $800 AMD K6-2 w/ a 4MB ATI Rage Pro, we got you hooked up too, but it'll run slower and not look quite as good. But you'll still be able to play, and I'm not talking "it'll load up, be happy" -- you'll seriously be able to PLAY the game on a $1000 machine. Q3TEST runs fine on a first generation Voodoo Graphics w/ 4MB (remember those?), and it doesn't look
half bad either.

Dig this: Intel i740 boards are available at Fry's Electronics for $49.95, which is about what a new game costs. The Intel i740 plays the game VERY well, albeit with 16-bit rendering and some other minor visual artifacts. For $59.95 there were some some white box Riva128 boards, and those play the game at VERY high performance, but look quite a bit worse than the i740. For $99.95 there was the Creative Graphics Blaster w/ RivaTNT, which has to be the best bang/buck ratio in graphics accelerators
right now.

So that's three boards under $100 that run the game extremely well, for those
of you looking to upgrade on a budget.

If you've bought your desktop machine in the past year, odds are that you
will be able to play Q3TEST once you have up to date drivers installed.

Compatibility Issues:
We have seen a lot of problems with some AMD chipsets (specifically, ALI) and also the Intel LX chipset used with a lot of PII/333 machines.

These problems are not specific to Quake3, but are usually problems with the chipset drivers or design. They manifest themselves as just strange system hangs, and it can happen regardless of the brand accelerator installed.

There was an internal miscommunication here that resulted in the unintentional propagation of incorrect information (gee, how is THAT for convoluted?!). So I'm here to clarify.

In a nutshell, Q3TEST/Win32 WILL support 3Dfx! There was some internal confusion about the matter as we've been wrestling with driver stability and distribution issues (across all chipsets, not just 3Dfx). 3Dfx, especially Marty Franz and Rob Wheeler, have been highly responsive to our needs when it comes to driver robustness, performance, and availability.

So to reiterate: there will be support for 3Dfx, and I believe 3Dfx will be posting Q3TEST compliant drivers on their Web site over the weekend in anticipation of Q3TEST's release.

As an aside, during testing we've found that most of the OpenGL drivers have performed quite well and have shown a remarkable amount of stability. We are getting excellent performance on low end boards such as the Intel i740, NVidia Riva128, Voodoo Graphics, and the ATI Rage Pro. We're extremely encouraged by the solidity of the OpenGL drivers we've seen, and we're also proud that Q3TEST scales so well from low end hardware all the way up to the biggest and baddest new accelerators such as TNT2 and Voodoo3."

Now that's the kind of update I like. Very informative and very concise.

Unreal Is Still Fixing Bugs
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a game with more long time bugs than Unreal. Epic Megagames had been working on patch v2.24 for what seemed like ages. After the release of v2.24, they have have found lots of serious errors. Here is the latest status on their next patch from Tim Sweeney.

"All the known server-crashing problems in 224 have been fixed and are in internal testing now. Stability has improved quite a bit. There is still significantly higher server CPU usage in 224 compared to 220 on heavily populated servers, and I'm still tracking this down.

The Direct3D code has been cleaned up and optimized a bit, giving a few FPS improvement on the Riva TNT, with support for detail textures now enabled.   225 will include the new D3D driver, and the 225 public source release will include the source."

Obviously, they still have many bugs to work out before the game is finally finished. Does this lead me back to the same thing I was ranting about a year ago regarding gaming companies A) Not testing / programming games properly and B) Making the consumer pay for a product that hasn't been completed yet? You betcha!

France Vs Belgium
Marie sent along word regarding the 150 player Lan match this weekend in Paris. Most of it is Q2 but, there'll be some QW (wtf?) clan matches between France and Belgium. They are also having some Q3ATest matches (umm, I don't think so). If you want more information, you can visit this site (in French).

/\/\ethos Site Stuff

• Archived the news page from April, 1999
• Removed the "Quake's Best Players" list

Happy Birthday Wolfenstein
It was seven years ago yesterday that the shareware version of Wolf3D was uploaded to a BBS (remember those?) for the world to drool over. Being the first FPS game, it changed the way we have played games over the past 7 years.

John Romero updated his .plan with words about the release of Wolf3D.

"Happy Birthday Wolfie! Seven long years ago, the shareware version of Wolfenstein 3-D was uploaded to Software Creations BBS. It was very late at night (in fact, I think it was 5am) and all our exhaustive testing was done, so we uploaded the final ZIP file and crashed. Scott Miller and Bobby Prince were there for the shareware upload since they were just as excited about Wolfie as everyone else.

We were running id out of a 1-bedroom loft apartment in Mesquite (La Prada Club) and the company had a grand total of 6 employees: Tom Hall, John Carmack, Adrian Carmack, Jay Wilbur, Kevin Cloud and myself. The next couple months were spent finishing the last 3 episodes (6 in total) and Tom, Kevin and I wrote the Wolfenstein 3-D Hint Book using NeXT hardware for layout. That was the first and only hint book id would ever write. Things got *very* busy after that point."

I remember playing the game and thinking how weird it was from a first person perspective. Little did I know that I would still suck at FPS games 7 years later. :)

Cata Says Goodbye
Cataklysque has posted his final update for "Cataklysque's Corridor". Cata will be taking up a new residence with the guys from Truegamers once they setup their new site. Oddly enough, I think this is (by far), Cata's best update so far. Thanks for contributing to Methos Quake and good luck in your new editorial home.

TGI Player Thoughts
SK-Storch decided to send out some questions to all the players involved in the TGI tournament and get some of their opinions. There are some interesting results from this nice idea. Make sure you read the article here.

Site Seeing
Zombie sent along word that the Russian site Quake Zone has added an English version as well as their Russian version. To celebrate the opening of their English page, they have posted a couple of interviews. One with DeathRow member B2 and the other with some llama named Methos. Make sure you take a visit.

Paul Jaquays Interview
Druel has posted a short interview with id Software map designer, Paul Jaquays on Q3Center. There are a few interesting tidbits about Quake 3 Arena in there so, make sure you take a look at the interview here.

Gemini and Cataklysque Interview
Gobo has posted an interview with my two buddies Gemini and Cata. Both are on the USA squad for the Rapture99 tournament (that may or may not happen). The interview is your typical irc type of fare but, there are a few interesting comments included. You can read the interview over on Challenge-AU.

Now That's TeamPlay!
Trixter sent along this .mov clip that shows what kind of Quake sportsmanship they have down under. Here's what he had to say about it.

"The clip shows what happened when Jaxx took a quad that Mercury wanted during the final of our TeamDm league."

Make sure you download it, I nearly pissed myself laughing when I watched it.

Methos Site Stuff

• Cata updated "Cataklysque's Corridor" with his final posting on Methos Quake. It's a good one so, make sure you take a look
• Added the popular "MethosCam" page to the ever popular Site Menu :)
• Updated the Demoplay link on the Quake Demos page

MethosCam On-line
I've had this webcam sitting around for a while so, since I now have a decent Internet connection, I figured I would put it to some use. You can find the MethosCam here. It sends a new picture every minute so, you'll have to reload your browser.

More Columbine Shooting Stuff
I've been reading a lot of the articles regarding the horrible shooting that took place in Littleton, Colorado. Some of the better articles I've seen are by Gobo, Hoony and of course, Recluse, who lives approximately 5 minutes away from where it all happened. These articles are well written and the authors seem passionate about what they're writing.

The problem I have, is how much people are blaming adolescence, teachers, schools and parents. The deal is that being a teenager in any era is / was very tough. It's the first time in most people's lives where they're expected to be independent and start to live their own lives. Along with this responsibility comes great pressure from all around. Whether it's from parents, teachers, friends, enemies, the local bully or the girl next door, it's still tons of pressure for most people to deal with.

Then you can add-in the society pressures of don't drink, don't smoke, don't steal, don't lie, don't do drugs, sexual orientation, good grades, aids, plus many others and you have that much more pressure to remain on the good side of life. When I think about it now that I'm older, it's a wonder more people don't have a harder time making it through their teen years.

We've all watched movies like "Pump Up The Volume" and "The Breakfast Club" that depict teens struggling through their adolescent years. Even though these movies were made over 15 years apart, they still have the same message. There are other movies that go back 50 year that have the same message.

There was a song written by Neil Young in the 1970's called Helpless. The song was about life growing up through being a kid until he made it big in his 20's. There was a line in that Neil Young song that describes his high school days:

"The punches came fast and hard, lying on my back in the schoolyard"

That particular high school was called Kelvin High School and it's the same school I attended. The school is in a middle class area of the city but, not much different than most other schools around the city or the world. The point is, it doesn't matter where you live or what kind of neighborhood you live in, you're going to have the type of problems that come with growing up. If you happen to be able to avoid some of these problems, I'm sure there will be other problems that arise to replace them.

For the people who work at CNN and other media outlets, let's try and stick with the problem. Let's not start blaming things and people that shouldn't be blamed. All the problems I mentioned above have been there for decades and shouldn't be blamed. If the two teenagers played Doom, who cares? I used the analogy last week about people that read Playboy don't turn into rapists, this still applies.

If a person decides to kill innocent people, there's something wrong with them. Could society be better? Of course it could but, until I can find a place like the movie "Pleasantville", we're stuck with what we have. Let's deal with what we have and try to make it better.

Perhaps the media people should concentrate more on the fact that the two (or more) teenagers were able to get their hands on so many guns, sawed-off shotguns and many other illegal weapons. Also, the fact that their parents didn't know about the 300 pounds of explosives in the garage and the fact that these two were fucking wacko.

Keep in mind that the two killers didn't do what they did because they were pissed at something or somebody, they did it to prove a point. Let's stop worrying about Doom2, trenchcoats, goth or heavy metal music and get down to the real problem.

Kane Interview
Griff sent along word that he has posted an interview with Kane on the SK Home Page. Make sure you take a look at what this talented Quaker has to say.

Game Explorer Released
Our buddy Maverick has sent word that Game Explorer is now available for download. Here's what he has to say about it:

"The first browser for Windows that supports Quake3 is now available. Game Explorer has been in development for well over 7 months and includes full support for QW, Quake2, Half-life and Tribes servers. It also supports the latest test version of Quake3: Arena. Using the familiar Explorer-style  interface ,Game Explorer offers the most intuitive and flexible interface available to online games players today.

Game Explorer is completely free and and can be downloaded from the Game Explorer Home Page."

Maverick also wanted me to mention that his clan (Demonic Core) were the undefeated UKCL Champs for the second season in a row. Sorry, like Blues, I never mention Quake clans. :)

Methos Site Stuff
I don't know how some people do it. It's like they spend their life searching for neat web pages. After I posted the webcam, I had 3 e-mails within one hour commenting on the cam. The first thing I thought of was, "how did they know it was up when I didn't mention it to anybody?". I checked the traffic for the MethosCam and it had a couple of hundred hits. It boggles the mind.

I'm getting lazy. Once again, I have uploaded a demo without reviewing it on the Quake Demos page. This one is a dandy DM4 demo from ValOr. For those that don't remember, ValOr was my choice for the player that should of replaced sCary when he backed out of the TGI. Make sure you watch this demo and see a very good player.

ValOr vs Dekhengst (DM4, QW2.3, 1.4MB) - Just watch it! :)

• Posted the test version of the "MethosCam". You won't see much unless I have my gorgeous blonde neighbor pay me a visit. :)
• Spookie has updated "The Spookie Side" with his thoughts on Q3A for Mac release and the Colorado shooting.

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