The year was 1999 and iD Software had just released their new game: Quake 3. Considered to be one of the best games ever for competitive play, it has far outlived any game. To this day, it is still being played in big name tournaments such as Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC).
But even though Quake 3 is still going strong today, iD took a step back and decided to release something new, something different. Instead of a new game that would be released in retail stores, or downloaded online via Steam or other online distributors, iD decided to release a free ad supported game, playable via a browser window with a bit of a graphics update. Personally, I’m interested in how this will play out in live competition since I’ve played a few games competitively already. We’ve all seen Quake 3 in nearly any video game tournament, but this could be a chance to bring death-match back to the competition scene without the use of console games or even Counter Strike.
First off, if you have never played Quake or any other first person shooter (without mentioning that you’re living in a cave), the idea is basically this – you go around the map collecting weapons, health, and armor while killing (fragging) the enemy. For first person shooter games there are three main game types – 1v1, where you and another person go head to head and who gets the most kills wins. Team death-match, usually comprised of two four-person teams and who gets the most kills wins. And last, capture the flag, with two five-person or so teams compete to capture the other team’s flag and the team who captures their enemy’s flag the most wins. It’s very fast paced and the movement alone is something that can take years to master let alone using the weapons.
Now when I say playable from the browser, you really do play from the browser. It downloads the files onto your hard drive and when you hit play it takes you to a page where it then runs. However, just because it’s played from the browser doesn’t mean it has features you’d come to expect from stand alone first person shooter games. It still has all of the settings you’d want plus more for the more advanced player. Surprisingly, there hasn’t really been much of a difference that I’ve noticed between the browser and stand alone game. The mouse doesn’t seem as smooth as a standalone game, but you can adjust the mouse sensitivity to help with that. They’ve even added lag support, which basically increases the hit-box of your enemy if your ping is too high so lag won’t be much of an issue. Pretty good for a browser based game.
Hopefully, Quake Live will breathe a breath of fresh air when it comes to competition. Death-match can make a much welcome come back. Quake Live is currently in development as a private beta with constant updates. No release date has been announced yet but here is a trailer from the E3 announcement:
Right now, I like what they’re doing with it. ID is providing constant updates and improvements. The only thing that can still really be improved upon is the addition of more servers. It seems that the game is operating on all of IDs servers, so it’s currently not clear if someone can make their own dedicated server or purchase one from a company that supplies them. Personally, I can really see this game going far. With the fact that it’s a free application, the presence of a ton of people can really open things up for some massively promising competition.