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Quake 3: Arena - Is It Worth Your 40 Bucks?
So you haven't bought Q3 yet? You've decided to rebel against id software and you're going with UT? You've heard Q3A sucks and that UT is superior. Well, I can't tell you much about UT because I don't own it but, I can give you my "personal impressions" on Q3A and maybe change you opinion a bit or re-enforce it. Now that I've coughed up my hard earned cash (I didn't get a free copy from id software like Methos did! :p ) for Q3A here goes my own personal experience with the game:

I'll start with the things I don't like about the game..  in other words the things that I consider "bad"

1. When Q3A first came out it was very pricey. It was about 50 bucks or more at most places. Initially, I had heard the game would be priced around the 30 dollar mark..  that didn't happen in stores.

2. Q3A needs at least a p200 MMX and 64 megs of Ram. The 64 megs of Ram being key here..  you can probably get Q3A to run on a p166 by turning down all the graphics but if you have only 32 megs of Ram you'll be waiting a VERY long time in between level changes.

3. Q3A requires a CD Key which is somewhere in your Config file. I understand the whole CD Key idea but to put it the Config file is what I don't understand. If you make any major changes to your Config you'll be asked to re-enter your CD Key # and GAWD forbid you give out your Q3A generated Config to someone else..  bingo, they get your CD Key #!  What do you do if someone else gets your CD Key #? Good question, I don't know and since Q3A validates your CD Key # with id's Master server when you play online you could have some major problems.

4. Q3A is Laggy in regards to online play and my computer's resources. Now there are many people out there playing Q3 with 300 pings who swear by it.. and many people playing Q3 on slow computer systems that say it runs fine. But the deal is it's laggy online. I play with about a 100ms ping and I've seen players blink in & out and have been killed by Rockets or Plasma blasts I've never seen. My PC is a Celeron running at 500mhz with a Voodoo3 running at 180mhz so it's no light weight. Quake2's netcode seems better when compared to Q3A's in my opinion, at least that's my experience. My best ping while playing QW/Q2 is about 50ms with Q3 it's about 100ms I'm not sure why this is but, I did expect an improvement over Q2's netcode so, I don't think id software scored there.

5. Q3A's gameplay is unspectacular. Outside of q3dm6, q3dm7, q3dm17, Tourney3 & 4, Q3's Maps are somewhat lacking. Generally speaking, almost none of the maps enchant me with a unique style of play & strategy required at such places like "Claustrophobopolis, The Bad Place, The Abandoned Base & The Dark Zone" and other very good Quake Maps. I'm not sure if this is a result of balanced Weapons (bleah) or Decaying Armor (double bleah) or what, but something about Q3 lends to a very bland style of play. Another thing I don't understand is why there aren't many levels featuring the Rocket Launcher (doesn't pack enough punch), Lightning Gun (laggy shaft) & Railgun (where's the cool spiral effect from Q2)? If weapon balance has been achieved then how come all  3 of these very cool weapons aren't featured on every or at least half of the levels? All of them can be found on Q3dm12 & Q3dm14 but that's it.

Ok, enough about that, I could go on to talk about Q3 Players spawning with 125 health making it impossible to kill them with a single deadon Railgun shot or the shortcomings of Q3A's Bot AI (Dummies who don't miss on Nightmare skill) but considering the Bots work fairly well on all levels I won't.

Now that I've probably discouraged you from buying Q3A I'm gonna see what I can do to encourage you to buy this game. Let's get on to the good stuff or the stuff I like about Quake3Arena:

1.  The Graphics are simply gorgeous at high resolutions.  Remember when Q2 came out and we were pretty impressed with the graphics then Unreal came out and made Q2 look kinda' stinky? Well from what I've seen so far id software has caught up to the people of Epic and Q3A's visuals take a backseat to none! After I got through the breath taking opening cinamatic I turned the graphics all the way up and just walked around many of the levels, oohing and ahhing at the floating Armor, Health spheres and weapons..  even the ammo boxes look sexy! The Player models look fantastic too, Doom, the Quake Marine & the Q2 Grunt are all back and looking better than ever. All new cool models like Uriel, Xaero & Slash add to the experience, id software has created player models to suit just about everyone's taste.

2.  There is something in this game for everyone, whether you're a diehard Quake Player or a Quake2 Junkie or if you just want a new experience. Weapons from Doom, Quake & Q2 are included with Q3A along with the same player models I mentioned above. The SSG feels much like the original Doom weapon and the Plasma gun is back. The BFG is back but this time it's much like a Super Powered Plasma gun. The Railgun, Shaft & RL are all back so Quake & Q2 players need not feel like they are charting uncharted territory. All the weapons have been balanced but overall the Rocket Launcher seems to dominate. The Rocket Launcher has been the bread & butter of all DM'ers world wide and that isn't about to change in Q3A.

3.  Now that Quake & Q2 have paved the way, Q3A is being openly embraced and is being widely accepted as the standard current DM game. The CPL & PGL seem to be going with Q3 so if you've got the skills to frag with the best and you wanna get paid you better start playing more Q3!

4. It dosen't take a whole lot of bandwidth to run a Q3A server. When I'm not doing stuff online I'll lend my cable connect to the fraggers online and set up a server. I can hold 6 clients comfortably or about 10 if they don't mind fraggin with 500ms pings. Which surprisingly many obviously don't. From the HPB's perspective it seems that Q3A's netcode is very much a success.

5. Q3A is being embraced by the Mod community. We can expect all sorts of really neat Mods for this game. As far as popularity goes Q3 is gaining on Half-Life and will probably soon eclipse it as the #1 FPS game online. Mod's have done many wonderful things for Quake & Q2 and I'll bet the same will happen for Q3A. I've dabbled with a few early mods such as Merc's Teamplay, QW-Fix & Railwars which are all very nice and enhance the Q3A experience.

I've also downloaded some custom Models such as Dungeon Keepers's Horny & the Clan PMS Model which adds to the beauty of Q3. My overall take on Q3A is this. As a finished product, it's very good and worth 40 bux which you can now find it for. What excites me the most about Q3A and the investment I've made is the potential both from the professional gaming aspect and the mod making community. We're talking lots of fun here and some good cash payoff's if you're so inclined.

So in closing Q3A is a Very Good game but Map Makers, Mod Makers and Professional Gaming will make Q3A a Better Game, in my opinion of course ;)

Thanks for Reading!

Congrats to The Rams!!

I'll begin this update with some online stuff I found to be disturbing.

I'm sure most of you have read Mark Leibovich's article at WashingtonPost.com entitled, "Thresh Rules Online Subculture of Gamers". The article, in a nutshell, talks about Thresh's history & success as an online Gamer, and talks a bit about the evolution of Gaming and where things might possibly go. I found out about the article at sCary's and decided to read up on some comments people were making about it. I was taken aback by many of the comments which were very negative towards Dennis Fong and his accomplishments:

By: Anon@cache1.avtel.net [Dec 23rd 1999, 04:07 pm]
thresh is such a ####ing has been. unless he starts competing and shit again or something. he DOES have a lot of skill, he just needs to start using it if he plans on maintaing his status as our "ruler". so #### you thresh, if you still wanna be mr big shot pro gamer start playing some games! btw, i dont hate thresh or anything, im just sick of the media focusing so much on him at deeming him our king and #### like that.

By: Anon@conr-ddas9-a22.txucom.net [Dec 23rd 1999, 04:27 pm]
might as well just say "all gamers must bow down to thresh, king jackass." tired of hearing of his punk ###

By: Anon@HRFRB210-09.splitrock.net [Dec 23rd 1999, 07:00 pm]
Tesh is a fool. If he was smart he wouldn't have funked out of community college. I dare him to play with a ping above 150 like a man. Buy the way Miss Chinatown "94 is fat now! hehe

By: Crusty Love [Dec 23rd 1999, 06:20 pm]
Come on #62. We just haven't bashed Thresh in a while. Join in it's fun :)

Most, if not all, of the negative comments were written by people under "Anonymous" or using an Alias.

I think it's important to note that Thresh did not write that article and any correspondence or rebuttal should go to Mark Leibovich of the Washington Post. There were many facts stated in terms of Dennis's success and accomplishments and those can't be disputed.

Now I'll give you my take on the many negative responses. Don't say anything online to somebody that you wouldn't say to them in person, do you think these people follow the same code? How many of those people who posted personal attacks on Dennis would simply bite their lip and stay silent if they had the chance to meet him in person?  If you want to be respected try acting respectable. Two Faced Hypocrites don't garner much respect in the Quake world or real world.

Ok, on to more pleasant things..

PingSlave Does Quake Maps for Q3A

PingSlave has created a nice set of map conversions for Q3A, not that there is anything wrong with Q3A maps (I like about 5 of them) but if you're a nostalgic Quaker like me then you'll wanna journey back to familiar territory too. What I like about PingSlave's maps is that they're very close in dimension to the originals, barring the lifts that don't seem to work to well they're very nice to play. 

Helluva' Job with the Maps, PingSlave! These maps come is 2 map paks. You can Download Pak1 here (5.3MB) and Download Pak2 here (3.3MB).

Back by popular demand (CaliGirl ::wink::) Mousie!

Mousie: Spookie, tanks, feels GREAT to be back!
Spookie: uh..

Mousie: Spookie you still playing QW?
Spookie: Not so much anymore, Mousie..  the server admins of DROW have taken down their QW servers due to all the cheating and hacking going on.  :\

Mousie: Oohh, dat sux!
Spookie: Yeah, it does suck, I wish Carmack wouldn't have released the source. Now I've actually started fooling around with q3 & q2.

Mousie: Q2!!??
Spookie: Yeah, q2 for Railgun practice and diversity.  q3 for Railgun & fun.

Mousie: So no more QW at all..  ever?  :(
Spookie: Actually Mousie I'm gonna try to play a li'l bit of all three of those games and experiment with q3 server stuff on the side.

Mousie: You're gonna set your own kick-booty q3 server?
Spookie: Heh, I dunno if it'll be a kick booty q3 server, people are sure to lag since I'm only on cable but I'll set up the server here & there.

Mousie: Why don't you set up your server to run PingSlave's custom maps?
Spookie: Ack, I will..  as soon as enough people download them!

Mousie: Why don't you call your q3 server "The Groov.."
Spookie: "The Groovy Ghoulies!"

Mousie: You took the..
Spookie: Words right out of your mouth? I know, thanks Mousie, it's a wrap, thanks Everyone for reading, cya next time!