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Showing posts with label quake wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quake wars. Show all posts

Friday, May 30, 2008

Enemy territory - Quake Wars on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360


The alien invasion has begun with Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars published by Activision for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system has shipped to retail stores nationwide. Set in the year 2065, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars pits the armies of Earth’s Global Defense Force (GDF) against the invading alien menace, the Strogg, in an all-out struggle for the fate of the planet. Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is slated to arrive on European store shelves on May 30, 2008, Australian store shelves on June 4 2008.
"Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars raises the bar for next-gen console games with its variety and intense combat," said Kevin Cloud, Executive Producer, id Software. “Whether you’re playing online with fifteen friends, or playing a single-player campaign against amazing AI, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars delivers a new level of team play and combat strategy to the PS3 and 360.”
Set within the expansive QUAKE universe in the year 2065, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is the ultimate team and mission-based multiplayer warfare game offering console gamers distinct classes, vehicles and weapons to choose from, giving players countless ways to join the battle. Players work as a team to defeat the enemy and achieve objectives either online against other players or battle offline with surprisingly lifelike AI. Across multi-mission campaigns, players earn experience and promotions while stats are recorded globally for players to track their rank and prestige in the community at www.enemyterritory.com.

Based on the critically-acclaimed game from id Software and Splash Damage for Windows PC that has received over eighty awards and nominations, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars was developed for the Xbox 360 by Nerve Software.


Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars has been rated “15” by the BBFC.

Friday, November 02, 2007

QUAKE Wars games announced


9-Week Game Night/Ladder at 50+ Intel Program Centers $5,000 in Cash Prizes in the Balance, Including 2 Weekly Drawings for All Participants

iGames, the world’s leading game centre organization, today announced Xtreme Quest $5K Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Presented by Intel, a 9-week series of Game Nights and special competitions, beginning Thursday, November 1. The series will showcase id Software’s critically acclaimed team-based multiplayer in a variety of different contexts for gamers of all skill levels, from hardcore competitors to more casual players.

Format:

• 6v6 Ladder: One week of preseason; five weeks of regular ladder play, followed by a, 3- week post-season tournament.

• Weekly Match Play: Intel and Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars to be the featured sponsor and game on Thursday night each week with players having the opportunity to participate for 3-4 hours on that night. Match results will be entered into an ongoing ranking system that provides points for both winning as well as just participating. Players play as much as possible to accumulate ranking points with the goal of earning one of the coveted “top 8” slots for post season play.

Prizes:

• 1st Place (team total) - $1,000

• 2nd Place (team total) - $750

• 3rd Place (team total) - $600

• 4th Place (team total) - $450

• 5th-6th Place (team total) - $300

• 7th-8th Place (team total) - $150

In addition, there will also be 2 weekly drawing prizes of $50 for all participants.

For registration and rules, along with the event schedule and complete list of participating iGames centers, visit www.igames.org/xtremequest/ or contact the iGames events team at Events.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

QUAKE Wars Update soon with New features


We couldn't have hoped for better reviews for our first ever retail game - over 30 publications and counting have scored the game at 90% or over, while we've achieved thirteen more awards from those same reviewers which brings ETQW's award and nomination count to over 50! On the retail front ETQW debuted in the US and the UK and immediately snatched the number 1 slot in the PC game charts of both countries. We're delighted, but don't have much time to hoot about it - the entire Splash Damage development team is still completely occupied with ongoing support of ETQW for the PC. It is less than a month since the game's retail release and we're almost ready with the next feature-packed update. Here's an overview:

FULL VOICE COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT
The ETQW 1.2 Update features full voice communications (VoIP) support, allowing rapid and easy coordination with your team-mates. You can select the input and output devices independently of your speakers which allows you to use dedicated headsets and microphones, communicate on three separate channels, mute all VoIP, specific channels, or just specific players (which incidentally also cuts all bandwidth usage), set the volume and test your devices in-game. There's full hardware refresh support for connecting and using USB headsets while the game is running too.

BETTER GAME BALANCING
Aside from playing a lot with all of you on the public servers, we also continually analyze data from statistics, read and research your forum feedback, and continue to conduct extensive internal play-testing. This has resulted in a number of improvements in game balance: Various weapons have undergone subtle changes to make them fairer, including tweaks in damage fall-off (increases and reductions to damage over distance), weapon spread, firing rates, and accuracy. Highlights include the Pistol and Blaster being more accurate, increased firing rates for the Shotgun and Nailgun, and tracers appearing over all distances for the Sniper Rifle and the Railgun.

Experience points have been improved in many areas too, with level four rewards easier to achieve across all categories in the course of a campaign. There are also increases in experience points for certain classes such as the Medic and Technician when reviving and dropping health packs, and fixes to the Statistics and Achievements site. On the vehicles front, we've discovered and solved a number of bugs, but most noticeably the Anansi and Tormentor will take longer to repair.

REFINED FIRETEAMS AND STOPWATCH MODE
Another thing that a lot of you wanted is for Fireteams to stay together across maps instead of being disbanded at the end of a round. This is in the game now, so once you create a Fireteam on a server, it won't disappear unless you tell it to or switch teams, and this maintains your voice communications channel too. StopWatch mode now features a bit of added logic code to better deal with ties. If neither team wins the map outright, the team that progressed further through the objectives gets the win. While this is the only StopWatch improvement in this update, we have a separate push to add lots more features to tournament support overall. More on that in another Blog.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

"Orange Box" emerges as video game sleeper hit


What do you get when you throw together a 3-year-old video game, two sequels, a multiplayer variant a decade in the making and a quirky concept game involving a gun that shoots teleportation holes?

If you're Valve Corp, one of the best-regarded independent video game studios, you get "The Orange Box", which is winning rave reviews and emerging as a sleeper hit.

The main game is "Half-Life 2", a shooter set in an Orwellian future where aliens walk freely among us. The game came out in 2004 but is going strong thanks to two expansion packs, 2006's "Episode One" and now "Episode Two".

"We wanted to provide a mix of gameplay mechanics and environments," Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi said of the latest installment.

"We try to give you more of an epic scale than we've done before."

As Valve was putting the finishing touches on "Episode Two", it was also wrapping up "Team Fortress 2", an online multiplayer combat game. The original "Team Fortress" came out in 1996 as a popular free modification for the game "Quake".

"'Team Fortress 2' and 'Episode Two' were kind of on a collision course release-wise," Lombardi said of the decision to sell the games together.

"We said do we want them competing or complementing each other?"

More from Reuters

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Solo games live on in multiplayer world



Video game developers, eager to please all consumers, are increasingly including features that let gamers play with or against their friends.

With Microsoft trying to convince people to plunk down $50 a year for its Xbox Live service, and Sony eyeing the sale of movies and music over its fledgling network, developers are under more pressure than ever to include some sort of online component.

The best-known example may be Microsoft's "Halo 3", but last week also saw the release of "The Orange Box" -- a collection of "Half-Life 2" content from Electronic Arts that includes a long-awaited multiplayer-only title called "Team Fortress 2". The week before that had the launch of "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars" from Activision.

Yet for all the balanced play and refinement of a "Halo 3" or "Warhawk", sometimes you just want to dig in and work on a game by yourself.

Several recent and upcoming titles illustrate that solo gaming is still going strong.

More from Reuters

Later this month, owners of Sony's PlayStation 3 can get their hands on "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction", the latest addition to one of Sony's most popular franchises.

Although some past titles starring the furry protagonist and his robotic sidekick let gamers play against each other, usage data showed something unexpected: only three percent of players bothered to try out that part of the game.

"It's something that can appeal to anybody and a lot of people just don't enjoy multiplayer," Brian Allgeier, lead designer on the series, said of the decision to focus on the single-player story.

Review by Gaming Today - Enemy Territory: Quake Wars



Sitting down to play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for the first time, I must admit to being a wee bit excited. After all, I’d just spent a fair bit of time in the beta test, and knowing the potential that this multiplayer online shooter possessed, I was anxious to see how much of that potential was realized at retail.

As a gamer who spent countless hours immersed in the Battlefield series of games, I have been waiting for a successor to that series to emerge since Battlefield 2142 drove a stake through the series’ heart. Would Enemy Territory be that game?

Set in the years prior to the events of Quake II, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars drops players in to the heart of a war-torn Earth in the year 2060. The Strogg, cyborg soldiers of the evil Macron, have invaded Earth in the hopes of harvesting humanity for spare parts and protein food for their cyborg army. The Global Defense Force (GDF) is fighting for their very lives against the Strogg invasion.

Presentation (8.5/10)



ET:QW really shines on presentation. Weapons have a gritty, at-war feel to them. The game environments contain several examples of war-torn, futuristic landscapes that just seem to feel right for the GDF vs. Strogg showdown. Vehicles and deployables show damage, so that a player can simply glance at one and know if it is in need of repairs, rather than depending on a meter of some type. There’s no squinting into the distance to determine if that moving target is friend or foe, either. Thanks to some distinctive character models on both sides, and the radar tags, it’s fairly easy to determine who’s who.

The game’s menu system is intuitive, and simple to grasp for anyone that has played any of the myriad online shooters of the past. As an added bonus, the game incorporates a built-in friends list that allows players to add their friends, and follow them directly into online games, almost obviating the need for a third-party client such as Xfire. It also contains a great assortment of filters to allow you to customize your server list exactly the way you want it.

About the only downside to the presentation in ET: QW is that a lot of it has already been done. Sure it’s new to this game, but all of these features have been seen before, with the possible exception of a quality in-game friends tool.

Graphics (8/10)



Graphically, ET: QW isn’t groundbreaking, but it does look good. One extremely positive thing about this game is that the system requirements for it are actually quite manageable. This is due in large part to the fact that the game is built on the somewhat dated Doom 3 engine. However, it’s a pretty souped-up version of that engine. It utilizes what id is referring to as ‘Megatexture’ technology. In basic terms, this technology allows the battlefield to be rendered without the standard ‘foggy’ look in the distance.

Is it cutting edge? No. Will you truly notice? I doubt it. The graphics fit the feel of the game, and they look slick and well-rendered, even on a rig with a quickly-becoming-obsolete 7900GT sitting in it. Framerates at high detail were eminently playable.

Sound (8/10)



The game sound in ET:QW is solid. Not perfect, but quite good. The various weapons have audio that matches what gamers have come to expect from their shooters. In addition, the sound of an anti-personnel turret firing your way quickly becomes distinctive in your ears. “It’s the preferred weapon of your enemy, and makes a distinctive sound when fired at you.” Boy, does it ever. Larger weapons, like the GDF hammer missile, have correspondingly larger explosion sounds tied to them.

One area I felt the sound was a bit lacking was in the ‘voice chat.’ Like many games of its genre, ET: QW incorporates a number of pre-programmed voice commands that can be accessed through an on-screen menu. These commands allow players to quickly communicate with their teammates. Unfortunately, the recordings that accompany those commands are lackluster at best. In my first round on the retail game, I must have heard people spamming the “Owned” voice macro over a hundred times, and every time it sounded pretty blah.

Gameplay (9/10)



Sound and graphics are nice, but if you’re a fan of online shooters, you’re there for gameplay. I’ve got good news for you: ET:QW delivers in spades.

The first thing that struck me about the game was how much work had obviously gone into encouraging players to play as a team. As all of us are aware, gamers tend (at times) to act like lone wolves, each forging their own trail across the battlefield to glory. Well, that won’t work so well here. ET: QW utilizes an objective-based system that has players working through objectives to advance through the battle, all under a set time limit. Accomplish an objective, and you gain more time. If time runs out, you lose.

For example, the GDF might be tasked with repairing a bridge to allow their forces to advance to the next area of the map. At the same time, the Strogg will be tasked with defending the destroyed bridge and preventing its repair. These objectives are timed, and accomplishing them awards experience points to the players on these missions.

Another interesting facet of the gameplay is objectives tailored to certain classes. For example, a player may be assigned to hack an enemy station, which only the Covert Ops class has the ability to accomplish. Players who spawn as engineers can select a mission to deploy a defense turret, or mine an area. All these experience points you’re earning aren’t for naught, either.

Much like the unlock system in Battlefield 2, ET: QW awards players additional weapons, upgraded tools, or perk such as faster sprinting. Where this system differs is that these awards last only until the end of the round the player is participating in. At the start of each new round, everyone starts on equal footing. The plus to this system is simple. Unlike Battlefield’s unlock system, the fact that these unlocks are not persistent is huge. This means that new players have something to work towards, but they do not feel alienated by a horde of players with weapons that new players have no chance to access.

The objective system means that players must work together if they hope to win. One player can make a difference, but not the huge difference that was possible in previous titles of this genre. It is at once the most compelling and revolutionary facet of the gameplay of ET: QW.

Replay Value (9/10)



Can you say multiplayer? Good, I thought you could. There is no singleplayer campaign in ET: QW. While there is a pretty decent set of bots to hone your skills against, this game is meant for online play. Herein lies the replay value. Much like the Battlefield titles of the past, you can expect ET: QW to still be around in online ladders, leagues, and casual servers a year from now and beyond. If you enjoy the game, you’ll have folks to play this one with for quite some time.

Overall (9/10)



Is Enemy Territory: Quake Wars the next Battlefield? Well, I certainly believe it has the potential to be, but only time will tell. Whether it is or not is irrelevant, as it is certainly good enough to stand on its own two feet.

It carries with it the fans of the Quake series, as well as the legions of fans from the Enemy Territory mod for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. All I can say is that those folks are in good hands for the near future.

ET:QW gets pretty much all the big stuff right, and nearly all the little stuff as well. Sure, there are still a few balance issues with some of the weapons, but that’s to be expected in an online shooter that has just gone live. All in all, it was a fun experience that I plan to go back to quite often. In fact, I’m heading back there now.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Now Available For Digital Download At IGN


Award-Winning, Highly-Anticipated Multiplayer Shooter Available Immediately via Digital Download



Direct2Drive, IGN Entertainment’s digital retail store, today announced that id Software’s Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, is now available for worldwide digital download via Direct2Drive (http://www.direct2drive.com).

Developed by Splash Damage and published by Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars offers the ultimate in objective-based multiplayer action, either online or offline with computer controlled players. Up to 24 gamers can play online, electing to play as the human Global Defense Force (GDF) or alien Strogg in one of five unique character classes. Employing an arsenal of weapons, vehicles and deployable armaments, players engage in an action-packed test of skill and coordinated teamwork through a series of combat objectives. Persistent character growth and achievements reward gamers for teamwork, while clearly defined mission and class objectives guide new players to meaningful contributions on the battlefield.

“Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is a perfect fit for digital distribution with the experience of the online game maximized with a fast connection,” said id Software CEO, Todd Hollenshead. “IGN and Direct2Drive make for an awesome partnership because they are fans of multiplayer internet gaming just like we are at id and they know what it takes to deliver what customers expect and demand.”

Since launching in October 2004, Direct2Drive has allowed gamers to conveniently purchase and download the latest premium games from the world’s top publishers.

“Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is a highly-acclaimed title that we are excited to add to our expansive library and make immediately available to consumers worldwide,” said Jamie Berger, SVP Consumer Products & Technology for IGN Entertainment. “Direct2Drive is committed to offering the broadest library of AAA digital titles that can be found anywhere online”.

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars for Windows PC is rated “T” by the ESRB and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.