- Joined
- Jan 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,067
Yeah, I know, I didn't do one of these last months like I said I would but I was busy. As I promised I was going to step out of the N64 territory, and actually take a look at a few PC games. I felt these games were rather similar, but at the same time different enough that in some ways it would mean you'd have to look under the hood more to see whats different between the two. As always a poll is open and comments are welcome too. Normally I'd do this in chronological order but they both came out in the same month of the same year 10 years ago, and I'm not sure which one hit the market first.
Quake III: Arena
Back in '96 when Quake first hit the market, it made almost as many waves as Doom did. While it didn't create as much controversy as its predecessor, it made a HUGE leap forward in two areas: 3D Technology and Internet Multiplayer. Doom had a limit of only 4 player Deathmatch, even though the community had already found a way to break that limit. Quake had 16, which was massive at the time, and by using an advanced Netcode to connect to servers, Multiplayer was no longer constrained to a LAN or early Dial 'n' play services such as DWANGO. Quake was massively played, and never truly beaten until its sequel. The guys at ID Software noticed that Quake was quickly becoming more of a multiplayer based product, so they decided to make the 3rd iteration based around internet competition completely, while introducing another brand new engine. Like any ID software game, when it first hit the market it was stunning visually. ID's first party work always introduces new tech, and The Quake III engine would be the most celebrated and long lived of any of their engines, it was used all the way through to 2004. I don't think I've ever seen an engine as licensed as the Q3 engine, although Unreal Engine 3 is catching up. It was also the first big game to force the user to get a 3D card, not supporting software rendering. The game was blazing fast, if you weren't running around the board at accelerated speeds grabbing every item and shooting everything else, then you weren't playing it right. Many maps were built with weird, platform based laylouts that had tons of jumps to keep you moving at faster speeds and constantly shifting altitudes. What this all added up to was a very visceral gameplay experience. If you had vertigo or a fear of speed, Quake III is not the game for you. Its dizzying how fast the game is, yet that is what made it fun. Yet when you strip this away, you may be disappointed to find a very shallow game. Why? Well, the modes weren't very varied, each one was a variation of Deathmatch, and nobody seemed to care about CTF at the time. The gameplay is great, but under scrutiny, it doesn't have much more to it than Deathmatch.... If you missed out on Quake III, it is being remade into a free, browser based game called "Quake Live." Check it out. Since QL is free, there's not much point in buying the game again, unless you care THAT much about having blood, the only thing missing in Quake Live.
8.5/10
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament was a spinoff of the game "Unreal," while Unreal certainly had a cult following, it never really took off in the market. Quake II and Half-Life easily beat it out. The only thing Unreal did to stand out was introduce an array of bizarre weapons and use a game engine that was considered the best looking of its time. The netcode was broken, so the multiplayer community wasn't there until almost an entire year later, but the easily accessible modding tools kept the game afloat. Yet when its multiplayer focused spinoff, Unreal Tournament, hit the market, it was hard not to pay attention to the franchise any longer. It kept the array of bizarre weapons, but made them look and sound different to appeal to more of an audience, and then added in a bevy of multiplayer modes. For the time, the game still looked great, even if Quake III looked better. Much like Quake III, there was no single player "Adventure," SP consisted of ranking matches against bots in the games various modes. Yet Single player was a lot more fun in Unreal Tournament, because the bot AI was about a thousand times better and the game had much more variety. The maps had greater variety, the weapons had more variety, and most importantly, the gameplay had more variety. The modes weren't all just deathmatch variations and had modes such as Domination which was a point based tug of war, Assault which had teams struggling against objectives, a beefed up CTF mode, and Double Domination which was basically Domination for bigger maps and points. The single player mode was surprisingly addicting, and it of course worked as a training simulator for the real deal. The biggest difference when playing UT and Quake III in the standard deathmatch mode is that UT isn't nearly as fast and visceral as Q3 is. That's not to say its slow paced, but whereas Q3 had you flying around maps, bouncing off walls, and rushing for the rocket launcher or BFG, UT gave you more time to read your enemies movements and at the same time, give you more time to think and memorize the maps. Q3s maps rarely required much memorization, but UTs maps had many various nooks and crannies that would encourage exploration to find the big power up and the big gun. In Q3, the player usually just hopes he'll stumble upon a power up while dashing around bullets, but in UT you had to know your way around. The weapons also offered up more strategy, and you'd find yourself finding different use for each weapon, and at the same time each weapon offered something unique to each player. You'd find yourself growing attached to certain weapons, and training skills with your weapon of choice. Its one of the few bloodsport/arena type games where someone can be a complete newbie with one gun, yet dominate with another. I've even seen people who could dominate an entire server with just the enforcer, but fail to get a single kill with a rocket launcher or pulse gun. Unreal Tournament did the unthinkable though: It knocked the king off his throne. As dedicated to ID software as I am, Unreal Tournament is the superior game in my mind. Quake III, while fun, simply could not compare. Unreal Tournament was the more complete package, and offers twice the entertainment. Even to this day, I love booting up the original UT and playing on the still running servers (You know a game is good when it still has servers 10 years later, and more servers than its sequels...) and even against the bots, which still put up a helluva fight, and with millions of fan made maps, thousands of mutators, and infinite numbers of mods, Unreal Tournament will always live on as a masterpiece, and if you are a multiplayer shooter fan that doesn't have this, you should grab it NOW.
9.6
So the winner this round is UT. I want to continue doing these, but I'm not going to stick to any sort of monthly regiment like I planned. I'll just do 'em whenever I feel like it and when I have time. As always, vote in the poll and leave comments. If you guys have any suggestions for a pair of good ol' games to compare, feel free to drop them in your comment. The only rules being that they can't be part of the same series and they can't be too different in style/genre - We're never going to compare something like Chrono Trigger to StarFox.
Quake III: Arena
Back in '96 when Quake first hit the market, it made almost as many waves as Doom did. While it didn't create as much controversy as its predecessor, it made a HUGE leap forward in two areas: 3D Technology and Internet Multiplayer. Doom had a limit of only 4 player Deathmatch, even though the community had already found a way to break that limit. Quake had 16, which was massive at the time, and by using an advanced Netcode to connect to servers, Multiplayer was no longer constrained to a LAN or early Dial 'n' play services such as DWANGO. Quake was massively played, and never truly beaten until its sequel. The guys at ID Software noticed that Quake was quickly becoming more of a multiplayer based product, so they decided to make the 3rd iteration based around internet competition completely, while introducing another brand new engine. Like any ID software game, when it first hit the market it was stunning visually. ID's first party work always introduces new tech, and The Quake III engine would be the most celebrated and long lived of any of their engines, it was used all the way through to 2004. I don't think I've ever seen an engine as licensed as the Q3 engine, although Unreal Engine 3 is catching up. It was also the first big game to force the user to get a 3D card, not supporting software rendering. The game was blazing fast, if you weren't running around the board at accelerated speeds grabbing every item and shooting everything else, then you weren't playing it right. Many maps were built with weird, platform based laylouts that had tons of jumps to keep you moving at faster speeds and constantly shifting altitudes. What this all added up to was a very visceral gameplay experience. If you had vertigo or a fear of speed, Quake III is not the game for you. Its dizzying how fast the game is, yet that is what made it fun. Yet when you strip this away, you may be disappointed to find a very shallow game. Why? Well, the modes weren't very varied, each one was a variation of Deathmatch, and nobody seemed to care about CTF at the time. The gameplay is great, but under scrutiny, it doesn't have much more to it than Deathmatch.... If you missed out on Quake III, it is being remade into a free, browser based game called "Quake Live." Check it out. Since QL is free, there's not much point in buying the game again, unless you care THAT much about having blood, the only thing missing in Quake Live.
8.5/10
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament was a spinoff of the game "Unreal," while Unreal certainly had a cult following, it never really took off in the market. Quake II and Half-Life easily beat it out. The only thing Unreal did to stand out was introduce an array of bizarre weapons and use a game engine that was considered the best looking of its time. The netcode was broken, so the multiplayer community wasn't there until almost an entire year later, but the easily accessible modding tools kept the game afloat. Yet when its multiplayer focused spinoff, Unreal Tournament, hit the market, it was hard not to pay attention to the franchise any longer. It kept the array of bizarre weapons, but made them look and sound different to appeal to more of an audience, and then added in a bevy of multiplayer modes. For the time, the game still looked great, even if Quake III looked better. Much like Quake III, there was no single player "Adventure," SP consisted of ranking matches against bots in the games various modes. Yet Single player was a lot more fun in Unreal Tournament, because the bot AI was about a thousand times better and the game had much more variety. The maps had greater variety, the weapons had more variety, and most importantly, the gameplay had more variety. The modes weren't all just deathmatch variations and had modes such as Domination which was a point based tug of war, Assault which had teams struggling against objectives, a beefed up CTF mode, and Double Domination which was basically Domination for bigger maps and points. The single player mode was surprisingly addicting, and it of course worked as a training simulator for the real deal. The biggest difference when playing UT and Quake III in the standard deathmatch mode is that UT isn't nearly as fast and visceral as Q3 is. That's not to say its slow paced, but whereas Q3 had you flying around maps, bouncing off walls, and rushing for the rocket launcher or BFG, UT gave you more time to read your enemies movements and at the same time, give you more time to think and memorize the maps. Q3s maps rarely required much memorization, but UTs maps had many various nooks and crannies that would encourage exploration to find the big power up and the big gun. In Q3, the player usually just hopes he'll stumble upon a power up while dashing around bullets, but in UT you had to know your way around. The weapons also offered up more strategy, and you'd find yourself finding different use for each weapon, and at the same time each weapon offered something unique to each player. You'd find yourself growing attached to certain weapons, and training skills with your weapon of choice. Its one of the few bloodsport/arena type games where someone can be a complete newbie with one gun, yet dominate with another. I've even seen people who could dominate an entire server with just the enforcer, but fail to get a single kill with a rocket launcher or pulse gun. Unreal Tournament did the unthinkable though: It knocked the king off his throne. As dedicated to ID software as I am, Unreal Tournament is the superior game in my mind. Quake III, while fun, simply could not compare. Unreal Tournament was the more complete package, and offers twice the entertainment. Even to this day, I love booting up the original UT and playing on the still running servers (You know a game is good when it still has servers 10 years later, and more servers than its sequels...) and even against the bots, which still put up a helluva fight, and with millions of fan made maps, thousands of mutators, and infinite numbers of mods, Unreal Tournament will always live on as a masterpiece, and if you are a multiplayer shooter fan that doesn't have this, you should grab it NOW.
9.6
So the winner this round is UT. I want to continue doing these, but I'm not going to stick to any sort of monthly regiment like I planned. I'll just do 'em whenever I feel like it and when I have time. As always, vote in the poll and leave comments. If you guys have any suggestions for a pair of good ol' games to compare, feel free to drop them in your comment. The only rules being that they can't be part of the same series and they can't be too different in style/genre - We're never going to compare something like Chrono Trigger to StarFox.
