Quake 4
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| Quake 4 {{#if:{{{image|}}}|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image|}}} | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Raven Software {{#if:{{{publisher|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher|}}} |
| Release date(s) | October 18, 2005 Image:XPlogo.png October 20, 2005Image:Tux.png November 22, 2005 Image:Small360logo.JPG April 5, 2006 Image:Finder icon.png |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer {{#if:{{{ratings|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings|}}} |
| Platform(s) | PC (Linux/Windows), Xbox 360, Mac (Mac OS X) {{#if:{{{media|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media|}}} |
Quake 4 is the fourth title in the series of Quake FPS computer games. It was developed by Raven Software and distributed by Activision. Raven Software has collaborated with id Software, the creators of and usual developers of Quake games in the past, and for this game, id Software supervised the development of the game as well as providing the Doom 3 engine upon which the game was built. Quake 4 went gold early October 2005 and was released on October 18, 2005 for the PC and later for the Xbox 360. A special DVD Collectors Edition also exists, including promotional material and the game Quake II with its expansions.
The story of the series jumps from Quake II to Quake 4 because Quake III Arena has an unrelated plot to Quake II; it is focused on online multiplayer and a very limited single player mode that is essentially the multiplayer played against computer controlled bots. It, like its predecessor, is not related to the first Quake in any respect other than name and logo.
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Gameplay
Single Player
The Quake 4 single player mode continues the story of Quake II pitting the player against a cyborg alien race known as the Strogg. The game follows the story of a marine named Matthew Kane. (Kane is the first directly named protagonist in the Quake series; in the Quake II intro the Marine in the craft is referred to as Bitterman in the line before launch and the name is also written on the crashed craft. The protagonist of the first Quake was codenamed Ranger in Quake III.) Kane is a member of a military unit known as Rhino Squad. The marines' mission is to secure the planet Stroggos, homeworld of the Strogg but their ship is shot down and that is when the action begins.
Gameplay features include vehicle based combat with several vehicles introduced throughout the game and squad based combat on occasions where Rhino Squad fight alongside you, including medics and technicians in your squad which can heal you or repair your armor. Around a third of the way through the game events lead to Kane being captured and then partially "Stroggified" — that is, turned into a Strogg — but the process is interrupted by marines and is not completed so that Kane retains his free will. This turn of events allows for more gameplay changes including the ability to understand Strogg communications as well as advancing the story.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer modes are Deathmatch, Team-Deathmatch, Tournament, and Capture the Flag. Players at Quakecon reported the multiplayer gameplay to include elements similar to those in previous Quake and Doom games. Notable new additions to play are the ability to send shots through the teleporters and the advancement of the game physics provided by the new technology including the ability to bounce grenades off of the jump-pads.
Like the previous Quake games the multiplayer has a client-server architecture. The network code has been altered from Doom 3, allowing for larger numbers of players on each server (Doom 3 has a four player restriction, whereas Quake 4 has a standard 16 player limit). One of the changes to the network code is a move from the per-polygon hit detection system used in Doom 3 back to using hit-box system like most other online first-person shooters such as other Quake games and Counter-Strike.
Bots
Quake 4 came without any bots for multiplayer play. User-made bots for practicing offline for users with only a dial-up connection or filling LAN servers are being developed by many dedicated fans of the game. Two prominent bots are Jarad "TinMan" Hansen's SABot (a.k.a Stupid Angry Bot) and Alpha Omni-bot, which perform very well on the retail multiplayer map packs as well as user-created custom maps.
Weapons
The following weapons are included in the final version of Quake 4. All of these weapons appear in at least one of the other Quake games (except for the Dark Matter gun) and are for the most part similar to their counterparts in those games.
- Gauntlet
- Very short range melee weapon consisting of a spinning saw blade. (Available in multiplayer, replaces the Blaster)
Image:Strogg harvester patrol.jpg
- Blaster
- Low damage pistol, can be charged up to do more damage; not very powerful, but has a flashlight attached to it. (Available in single player only)
- Machine Gun
- The starting weapon in all multiplayer maps, a full auto rifle. The Machine Gun has a flashlight attached to it. (The gun will be upgraded throughout the game [double clip size])
- Shotgun
- A devastating close range weapon (will be upgraded throughout the game [faster reloads and increased clip size])
- Nailgun
- A slow firing yet high damage weapon (will be upgraded throughout the game) (rate of fire, larger clip size and target lock-on capability [when target is locked-on, the nails will guide themselves to the target])
- Grenade Launcher
- Launches grenades which blow up upon impact or after three seconds
- Rocket Launcher
- Launches high damage rockets at a quick rate (will be upgraded through out the game [laser sight homing rockets])
- Hyperblaster
- Fires blue plasma balls at a very high rate of fire (will be upgraded throughout the game [plasma balls can bounce off walls and hit the target by ricochet])
- Railgun
- Shoots a high damage, ultra high velocity slug (leaving a beam-like glowing trail). Recharges about every 2 seconds, has a zoom mode so it can act as sort of a "sniper rifle" (will be upgraded through out the game [increases power output allowing slug to penetrate multiple targets])
- Lightning Gun
- Continuously fires a medium-damage stream of energy at target (will be upgraded through out the game [can damage multiple targets])
- Dark Matter Gun
- Hurls a slow-moving yet incredibly high damage and large radius dark matter ball. In its trajectory, the dark matter ball sucks enemies inside the ball and destroys them. Weaker enemies won't be sucked in, but simply vaporized into bloody gibs. This is widely seen as a replacement of the BFG10K from Quake II, and some fans have reacted negatively to it.
Competition
Quake 4 has been chosen by the Cyberathlete Professional League as the official 1vs1 game for their upcoming 2006 World Series event. The first Quake 4 tournament for the CPL was held from December 14 to 18, 2005 in Dallas, Texas. 256 competitors will meet up in this epic World Series qualifier event. Many top names such as Johnathan Wendel (current Painkiller champion) and Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager (Second Place World Tour Finals) will be in attendance. Coverage of this tournament and the World Series will be exclusively by The CPL's Official Media Partner, GotFrag.
Reviews
Reviews of the game have mainly been positive. Websites and magazines such as IGN and UGO praised its single-player campaign, graphics and Hollywood voice-acting, but complained that its multiplayer — the Quake series' biggest selling point — was far too similar to that of Quake III. Nonetheless, a few days after release the majority of reviews gave Quake 4 scores of 80-90%. EGM gave a mixed rating to the Xbox 360 port, claiming that the single-player campaign was not creative enough to compete with other games such as Half-Life 2 and Halo 2.
Ports
Quake 4 was released at the launch of the Xbox 360 and is Xbox Live compatible. There have been major issues with frame-rates for the console adaptation, earning it the award for Most Aggravating Frame Rate / Best Slideshow in the GameSpot.com Best and Worst of 2005 list. Fortunately, the XBOX 360 version did contain the special edition features of the PC version at no extra cost.
Aspyr Media published and released Quake 4 for Mac OS X, on April 5, 2006 as a universal binary, compatible with both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs.
External links
Official websites
- id's official Quake 4 site
- Raven's official Quake 4 site
- Activision's official Quake 4 site
- FAQ for the Linux version
- Aspyr Media (Macintosh version)
Community websites
- ESReality - The leading eSports community, news and coverage site with a heavy focus on Quake.
- Q4max — Q4 Max - Official Competition MOD site chosen by the CPL 2005.
- X-Battle - Quake4 competition modification, useb by Clanbase for TDM
- GotFrag eSports - Quake 4 eSports, coverage and News portal
- Quake 4 at Ravengames.com
- Quake4World - Wiki-based Quake 4 community.
- Quake 4 Portal — Quake 4 - Fansite.
- PlanetQuake
- Quake 4 at Jolt.co.uk - Worlds leading online gaming server provider for Quake 4.
- Q4players homepage and forum for the popular quake4server.com DM server.
- Rocket Arena4 Popular mod remade for Quake 4
- q4replay - Popular demo-playing program for Quake4.
- own3d.at - News, eSports and coverage site
- Quake 4 Mods and Tutorials - at the Mod DB
Competition websites
Custom Maps
Information websites
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