Quake 4 (PC & XBox 360)

[in5ane]

Does noone remember Q3's launch? PCs incapable of playing it properly, poor netcode/physics inconsistencies, non-existent single player experience (botmatches). Quake games are long-term, not first week games.

I remember it working fine on my PC, and the multiplayer was fun even on a modem right from the demo test days. The single player was brilliant, as it was actually relevant to online. You could cut your teeth on the levels, learn them, and get generally get a feel for the game without getting your ass kicked. But then again, the CPU provided a very enjoyable alternative to actually playing online. Sure, there was no story, but Q3 single player was great in different ways to the way Q2 and Q1 were.

I don't see any improved netcode in Q4, it seems to get very jerky with anything more than 12 players- i know its not my 8mb internet thats slowing things down!

And anyway, the single player in Q4 isn't ****, just average- let's not carried away here. Very similar experience to Doom 3, just little faster paced.

[eastyy]

I have grown bored with FPS games..I just think its beginning to feel a bit stale.
Particulary when you have many games that use the same engine it just breeds to much familarity.

Really want more games like deus ex where there is much more to it then just shooting

[squidman]

I have grown bored with FPS games..I just think its beginning to feel a bit stale.

I was starting to feel that when I was playing FEAR a couple of weeks ago. I knew the game was top quality, but i'm in no rush to play any more FPS games for a long time.

I'd say the genre was far too saturated right now, and engine regurgitation surely can't help.

[babs]

The jerkiness with 12 players is due more to the rendering hassles than the netcode.

Modem days were one thing with Q3test etc, but with the arrival of broadband the problems reared their heads. People intentionally setting rates too low, BB users spamming plasma to flood modem users' connections. Sadly bots are still nowhere near good enough in AI terms to replicate playing online. The other problem you get with games where the engine is already pushing a PC to the limit is that adding 10 bots to the fray has a seriously detrimental effect on the CPU and often offline play is jerkier (in terms of FPS) than online.

8Mb may be all well and good, but latency is the king here, not bandwidth

[djtickle]

Playing through single player of the game now and loving it. Its not gripping me like F.E.A.R did as i loved that but i keep coming bk for more!

[MonkeyWrench]

Been playing this quite a bit on the 360 since launch. Despite the fluctuating framerate it's been great fun so far. This is how I wanted DOOM3 to be, lots of coming 'atcha with plenty of meaty guns to mow them down with.

[phillai]

Quake 4 is utter ****e on the Xbox 360. The frame rates are sooo poor.
I was expecting much better than my PC version of Quake 4 considering it's a next gen console. Then again I do have a P4 3ghz, 2gb ram and 6800 Ultra PCI-E set up though.

Anyway, there's no real excuse why Quake 4 is sooo poor on the Xbox 360 considering Call of Duty 2 looks gorgeous on it...

[John Beaulieu]

I disagree - on my machine playing the NTSC version Quake 4 has never been anything less than a joy. The framerate dips at times, but the tightness of the control system more than makes up for that (this is quite possibly the best 'mapped to controller from keyboard/mouse' game I have ever played).

Its exciting, its varied, and whilst not giving a stern test in AI (at least in the early stages) it throws enough enemies at you to at least keep you honest.

I haven't tried it online yet - will report back on how that is - but single player this is at least the equal of PDZ.

ps it comes with a bonus disk which contains Quake 2

[phillai]

Yeah I agree the controls are good for a 1st person shooter but visually it's poor compared to a decent PC setup.
And the console controls will never better than a keyboard and mouse setup...

[MonkeyWrench]

AFAIK it's exactly the same game as the PC version, so are you just judging this on the graphics? Or is the PC version utter ****e too?

Quake 4 is utter ****e on the Xbox 360. The frame rates are sooo poor.
I was expecting much better than my PC version of Quake 4 considering it's a next gen console. Then again I do have a P4 3ghz, 2gb ram and 6800 Ultra PCI-E set up though.

Anyway, there's no real excuse why Quake 4 is sooo poor on the Xbox 360 considering Call of Duty 2 looks gorgeous on it...

[phillai]

No offence but on my setup it's so much nicer... I wish I could physically show you!

[MonkeyWrench]

Still, it's exactly the same game right?

[marcus]

Im loving this game up to now, and it just got a whole lot better...

->Open Spoiler<-

Playing Quake 4 last night - theres a bit in it where you 'become' a Strogg, basically you get caught by a massive boss and put into this holding machine on a conveyor system. You can see a man in front of you on the conveyor also, and what happens to him, theres no way out so you know its going to happen to you as well.. first they stab an implant into your body, then these two round saws cut off both your legs, then the next one welds Strogg armour where your legs are, after that they put more Strogg armour onto your body and finally this machine stabs out your eyes and replaces them with Strogg's. All the while your man is screaming in agony, you have a limited view around you, but what makes it so bad is knowing what happened to the poor sod in front of you is also going to happen to you. It went straight to my bones, I could barely watch!

Gruesome in the extreme!

[capcom_suicide]

Funny really. I hadn't thought that this game was going to be much good. I think I had read quite a lot of negative stuff on the interweb, and so just dropped it. I really didn't enjoy Doom3 very much, and was not looking to repeat the "2 monsters jumping out from behind" game.

As per the bargains thread, Play.com has this game in for ?9.99 delivered. My local Norsk shop has it in for kr450 (40 quid) so I thought why not! The game came yesterday and I spent 3 pr 4 hours with it last night.

First things first. Eye candy. I have a mid range PC. No SLI or uber CPU, but an OK spec: XFX 7800GT, 2GB DDR2 533Mhz RAM, P4 3.0Ghz with 2 GB Cache. Nothing spectacular but still some good grunt for gaming.

I like to have all settings at "Max", and I prefer that at lower res. So I have "Ultra Quality" (The extra 2GB Ram allows this, as it buffers the GPU DDR3 Ram for the extra 200MB) 16x AA and all settings On. This is choppy at 1280x1024, but smooth as silk at 1024x800.

This techno crap is important for evaluating PC games graphically, as without that understanding, you can't figure out how the gamer is seeing things, and their subsequent opnions.

In general, I would say the game looks absolutly stunning. It has the best animated Torches I have ever seen in a game. Character Models and clothes are pretty much up to the "Final Fantasy" CGI film of some years back. Explosions, particles, light effects and smoke are done well, and the Doom3 engine feels familiar, but the open level design is far far superior. I am getting lots of Halo flashbacks! It's all good!

But is odd about the graphics is the really blocky and low res textures of the environment, walls and space ships. I don't understand this. Why does a hole in the top of a wlak way, seem to be made up of 4 polygons and a 24x24pixel BMP? COnversly when zooming into the "Friendly" soldiers Platoon Badge, the resloution seems infinite! I.E I can't get it it to look blocky at all.

I find the contrast a little Odd. But it must still be said that the game doesn't suffer too badly from this, it just seems so weird! The big space ships also looks very bad.

Gameplay then! Well I must be a shallow gamer. I am loving it! Simple tasks, a wonderful automatic sniper rifle, with plenty of Star Wars over the walkways shooting action. AI both friendly & Enemy, seems really great. This game could have been wonderful CooP. A missed oppertunity.

The game mechanics are mini mission based. Blow up something, find something, protect something. But these are all just the wrapping for getting you to the soul of the game. Good honest shooting! I am playing on "Hard" (The one below the hardest) and the enemy are good shots and take a lot of killing, but crucially, head shots count. This game is a head shot kings paradise! Moving through the levels with my squad, and taking out the far enemys with sniper, then pulling out the shotgun up close, is not exactly "redefining gaming" but it is great fun! (Remember the game only costs a tenner from play! Bankshot Billards cost more on my 360!)

Having played the 360 demo, I have to say, the conversion does not do this game any justice graphically. I hadn't downloaded the PC demo, and so didn't know what to expect. But now I can see why the others with both versions were so dissapointed. So if you have an OK spec PC, then try this one out, sell the 360 one for 30 quid, pcoket 20 notes and buy the PC one for a tenner.

So these are my (Very late to the party) first play impressions. So far the game comes across as a balanced, attractive old school shooter with exciting level design and enjoyable combat. It has significant gameplay influence from Quake 2 & Halo. The graphics are clearly Doom3 inspired with large mechanical structures & objects manipulating & whirring in the background. Each one like a mini scene.org 64K demo! Also worth a mention is the use of colour, and environment to improve atmosphere. I was led to believe the game was basically just "Red dusty corridoors" Well that is not how I see it. For example, Massive vats of bubbly liquid moving through cold blue to deep orange light up some rooms. Red electrical cable lies strewn across the floor, almost making you subconsciencely step over them. Walkways spin and move into place with a satisfying "Clunk" that resinates in glorious 5.1 sound.

9.99 well spent.

C_S

[eastyy]

I tried the pc demo for the first time yesterday.

I found it a lot more fun then doom 3.The major gripes that i had with doom 3 like to dark and enemys appearing behind you out of nowhere.I have not encountered them type of problems