The Art and Design of Quake 4

Gamespy has a feature discussing the upcoming first person shooter Quake 4. More details about the title are revealed in an interview and screenshots provided by some of the folks at Raven. From the article: "I think we have a lot of diversity throughout the entire game. We have some dark areas, and we have outdoor areas that are brighter. I think how diverse everything is will really go a long way. We didn't really set out saying, 'This game is going to be dark, this game is going to be light' -- we set out to make a cohesive environment where you go through different extremes and you'll see a bunch of different stuff."

I always thought

[TheKidWho]

Quake 2 was the best one single player wise.

Maybe this one will be as good?(although that's not saying much heh, better then doom 3 I hope though)

Cooperative mode needed!

[cmburns69]

Cooperative mode makes "single-player" games better!

I'm not a solitary gamer, and as such, never make time to play single player games. However, if I could have my wife (and/or our friends) play with me, it would make the game much more appealing!

I understand the difficulties in providing content that is achievable by both single and multiple players, but that's why I pay for games-- for innovation!

Am I the only one who thinks like this, or are there other people out there who have been disappointed by the lack of a coop mode in most games?

Re:let's hope it's better than Doom 3

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally, I felt that Doom III was a fine game, and an excellent example of high technology... to each his own!

Re:Better bring new gameplay elemenets...

[ezzzD55J]

Bring more stylized movement into the game, more theatrics and less of the old "run and hop" movement.

I think it would become boring quickly, if it's just eye candy and doesn't add to the gameplay. Counter-strike isn't much to look at but has good gameplay, and that is the reason it's still popular.

Continuation of Quake2

[KrugalSausage]

The best thing about quake2 in my years of playing it definitely has to be the movement:

Strafe jumping

double jumping

sliding around on ice and up ramps

and just the sheer speed of it all --if you can master it.

I don't expect Q4 to have these fun aspects though because I just can't imagine models like this : http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/article/611/61 1006/440Building_B_Marines06_1115438005.jpg [gamespy.com] moving around so unrealistically like in q2.

Oh, just what we need, another FPS

[Control42]

Seriously, i wonder wyh these games enjoy such great success. I remember getting my first one, Alien Breed 3D, back on the Amiga. I played it for a couple of hours, then switched back to something more interesting. Over the years, I've had a couple of goes at about ten or so more modern ones, but apart from the graphics, nothing ever changes. No FPS has ever been able to fascinate me like i.e. Civ I-III or a good RPG.

Boring

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't anyone else dead bored with the way computer games are now? The only innovative game I can think of in recent years has been Grand Theft Auto. Is anyone really hanging out for another first person shooter to throw their money away on? The only difference between first person shooters is usually the guns, that's hardly enough to keep me interested anymore. We need something that is original & most importantly FUN, games have gotten too serious and boring.

It's a sad day for games when I actually have to try and force myself to play through top rated titles like doom 3.

Gamplay

[zkn]

Am I really the only one thinking: "screw the lighting and effects, I'm turning them off anyway" For me Quake is about gameplay not graphics. Even when running the lowest possible graphicsmode(Wich I alwas do) it still fun. How are they going to change the gameplay? more open areas in the standart mappack isn't going to do it. People moved away from quake to Counter Strike because of the different and more tacticle gameplay. Will Quake4 try to be a little more tacticle and less "chaotic"? How is it different gameplay wise, that's the important question. Not if whether brighter or darker.

Re:Cooperative mode needed!

[Anonymous Coward]

After a while it gets boring to get banned from servers because of "camping". And I thought that hiding well and taking out your enemies by stealth was way smarter than a full frontal assault on your enemy? It sure works better, but then you get banned.

Re:Cooperative mode needed!

[mrmojo]

What makes you assume his wife is any worse at the game than he is? I play diablo II still with my wife, and I die more than she does.

I certainly agree with the need for more coop multiplayer. Teamwork can be far more fun than winning at the expense of others. Last night she said (somewhat ironically) "Isn't it great how diablo brings us together."

Re:let's hope it's better than Doom 3

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Maybe it depends on how you define hype, but I saw a lot of Doom III hype.

"Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion"

I'd say that Doom III qualifies. Especially as people were planning their computer upgrades around it and herding into the belief that it's going to be a good game despite never having played it or seen it in action.

I don't get why you say HL2 was highly hyped and Doom III was not, I'd say the hype levels were pretty equal between them.

Run 'n gun gameplay is obsolete

[Urusai]

...as Doom 3 so aptly demonstrated. We need more games like System Shock 2. I want cool 3D tech and great art, but really, deathmatch and rocket launchers are boring and inexcusable in this modern age.

I hated Quake 2 and Unreal; I didn't even bother with Quake 3 and UT (or whatever it is now). The fact that the developers are claiming they loved Quake 2 doesn't raise my expectations very high.

Re:One of my pals...

[Taladar]

I guess if you could spoil the game with telling people 5 sentences before they play it wouldn't be good enough to play anyway.

Re:Continuation of Quake2

[yakumo.unr]

I actually think Q3's the fastest, I've seen 3500+ ups done with default physics ;op

quake has fastest weapons, and probably run speed.

q2's really quite sluggish once you get used to q1 or q3, but it really was superb fun for years.

i really didn't like q3 movement, speed, weapons, net code, anything till I really figured it out, and since i've found the previous games relatively unplayable.

Q3's movement is superior in accuracy and speed to q2 imo, the only thing it lacks (unless you play promode) is the double jumps. The rest it's better at, and it adds plasma jumps and plasma climbing to make up for that :)

Re:One of my pals...

[Tim C]

It's not just that - even things like it being based on the Doom 3 engine rather than the Quake 3 one *may* be NDAd (yes, that was in the article, but it's an example of something that could be under an NDA)

I've worked on projects before where even the *existence* of the project was under NDA - I literally can't tell you what the project was about. (At the other extreme of course, there are open source projects.)

Bah

[oGMo]

One thing to note about Raven is that they're very art-focused. They concept out everything -- maps, levels, weapons, monsters, and so on.

I wish someone would hire some architects to design the levels, not your run-of-the-mill artists. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks level design has been subpar for years now. Bring back levels that are well-designed by people who know how to make them and think broad architecture, not what this scene or that scene will look like.

We play these games, you know---interact with them, explore them---we don't just watch them.

What about the music?

[WormholeFiend]

Who's going to score this game? NIN, I hope...

Re:I always thought

[FreakyLefty]

Quake 1 was a bit meh for single player - superb multiplay, but not great otherwise. Q2 seemed to go a bit the other way, pretty good single player, but that was about it.

Quake 3 on the other hand had a great multiplayer and the engine was taken to a whole new level for single player games. Even Wolfenstein, if you ignore the annoying zombie bits...

MOD PARENT DOWN

[drsquare]

There are no nipples in Duke Nukem 3D. All the strippers have these tassles over the nipples, and they don't take them off no matter how much money you give them. No wonder all the aliens were pissed off.

Re:let's hope it's better than Doom 3

[Anonymous Coward]

Except in this case id specifically said that they were in it to write a game this time. That's what makes it sad; they failed so miserably.

Quake, Shamblers, and Vores

[clump]

Quake 2 was the best one single player wise.

I am afraid I will disagree about Quake2. Though I have every id Software 3DFPS, I would say the original Quake was the best and most revolutionary. It had both a medevil theme as well as a futureistic theme. The monsters were classy and diverse, and certainly the supernail was an amazing weapon.

The sound was also an amazing feat of its own. The music and sound by NIN had a very raw and interesting feel. The sound was very "brave". Now most games have an ultra-pristine and clean tone. Quake's raw sound better fits the world of violence and destruction.

I like everything id has done, and was just playing Doom3 a second ago. I will say that I really wish they would do something like Quake again. It really has magic.

Re:Run 'n gun gameplay is obsolete

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Quake 2 was OK as far as it went, but for me the peak of multiplayer FPS was still the original Quake, when the "clan" idea was first taking off and there were some excellent deathmatch maps where genuine tactics and communications were necessary to win a team game.

The problem with a lot of the more recent incarnations, at least those I've played, is that while huge, wide-open maps give a much more visually impressive game for the first ten seconds, they also mean lots of wandering around without seeing anyone, followed by a frantic game of shooting with every gun there is (since you picked five of all of them up since the last fight anyway), followed by the same again. There's no concept of controlling space and resources/power-ups, and team tactics basically come down to "two of us versus one of him is probably 1-0 to us". Booooooring.

Re:Aquaphobia for Quake 2

[__aaclcg7560]

Just open a tub of ice-cream and congratulate yourself for at least trying.

Why don't you work on your negavity? They say mean people live shorter lives. So I'll probably outlive you and I'll still be happy. :P

Re:Most architecture...

[cowscows]

An architect designing a museum or an airport is working under an entirely different set of restrictions than someone designing levels for a video game. There are plenty of architects out there who would be absolutely terrible at level design, but there are also plenty who would be very good at it, and bring to the table some extra talents. Things like a solid awareness of spacial qualities, good lighting (especially with the newest/future engines), and a developed understanding of the importance of scale.

If you grabbed a random architect off the street and asked him to design you a castle (responding to the same threats and functions that a medieval castle had to deal with) and didn't rush him/underpay him, I think you could end up with something close to equal to what already exists. Even better if you allowed for more modern materials/construction methods.

I guess the point is, ignoring the subset of celebrity architects who are living in their own world, the average architect is pretty smart, very flexible, and willing to learn and experiment. A whole lot of the problems with contemporary architecture are caused by financial/social/political limitations, not the skills and desires of the architects.