Pardon the complete lack of journalism in this column, I might get kicked off this PC at any moment.
So after arriving at E3 the first thing I did was head to the ET:Quakewars booth, excited like a little boy on christmas. I identified myself to the staff and was honoured that a few of them knew who I was.
I sat down, joined strogg and was ready to rock!!! Visually it was everything and more that we'd come to look forward to from QuakeWars previews. The class based system looked like an advanced ET/RTCW setup, and I was enthusiastic!
I ran around, with the initial lacerator weapon started shooting, it certainly was no MP40 and sucked in terms of long range shooting, considering this was the default SMG I was rather concerned. I tried taking on a vehicle with this weapon, and I would have been sitting there for 10 minutes taking out that little thing. I roamed around, picking up frags. I got myself into a tank and a mech warrior vehicle and headed over to the GDI spawn looking for panzer like spawn frags....
Ok so somethings never change, I can still find a big weapon and fire it at people when they spawn and arent expecting it. And roaming around in the mech warrior was a lot of fun, a nice novelty.
Then I tried to defend or complete some form of objective...The key to all things RTCW, objective based teamplay action, something that has never been replicated to the same effect. DoD tried, BF2 tried, Fortress tired, nobody came close. This test would define whether this was RTCW:ET:Quakewars or whether this was the negative aspects of ET teamplay that differed it from RTCW and made it ET:Quakewars.
Unfortunately, I was able to take out people left right and center and nobody could compete with my mech warrior, and I was able to work individually to win the game for Strogg. (Yes I got highest XP woot). The game lacked any dependance on teammates, it lacked the desire for a great defensive medic, or an engineer who can pull a construction outta nowhere.
The battles were great, they looked special, you felt like you were in the future and in fullscale combat. The sound was impressive and it was a FUN game. But then, Battlefield 2 was FUN in the purest sense. Its fun because it the easiest parts of point and shoot are present, its fun because playing video games is fun. Was it something that could sit me down for hours on end like RTCW did? Well, not really I was not overly upset when my various games had ended.
I could be wrong, the trade show atmosphere could have lead to different style of gameplay. However last year I played BF2 and won a Video Card at E3, and the game was exactly the same when retail.
The game will be fun, and the game will be a success, however the feature that makes RTCW so special, the dynamic that makes individuals redundant and teams oh so brilliant, I certainly did not feel.
ET Quakewars took on a mamoth task, limiting itself at a massive 24 players, requires 12 good team players. 12 People aware exactly of what they're doing and how to play with eachother. RTCW and ET requires just 6, and is far easier to get together as a team. It looks like we may be heading the way we feared.
In other E3 news, Prey looks like it could be the unexpected DeathMatch game to possibly rescue general interest in the genre. The trailer looked simply awful, however its complete gravity change, and the ability to go all over the walls, (literally, change your position from flat, to walking up the walls and the roof) whilst still fighting, in a relatively simple fashion, really has excited me, and Fox (Q3/4 pro) has echoed the enthusiasm, and infact was the only reason I sat down and played it. Expect a full report later next week.
Apoligies for the quality of this article as 4K^Grubby needs this station now :)
Toss
So after arriving at E3 the first thing I did was head to the ET:Quakewars booth, excited like a little boy on christmas. I identified myself to the staff and was honoured that a few of them knew who I was.
I sat down, joined strogg and was ready to rock!!! Visually it was everything and more that we'd come to look forward to from QuakeWars previews. The class based system looked like an advanced ET/RTCW setup, and I was enthusiastic!
I ran around, with the initial lacerator weapon started shooting, it certainly was no MP40 and sucked in terms of long range shooting, considering this was the default SMG I was rather concerned. I tried taking on a vehicle with this weapon, and I would have been sitting there for 10 minutes taking out that little thing. I roamed around, picking up frags. I got myself into a tank and a mech warrior vehicle and headed over to the GDI spawn looking for panzer like spawn frags....
Ok so somethings never change, I can still find a big weapon and fire it at people when they spawn and arent expecting it. And roaming around in the mech warrior was a lot of fun, a nice novelty.
Then I tried to defend or complete some form of objective...The key to all things RTCW, objective based teamplay action, something that has never been replicated to the same effect. DoD tried, BF2 tried, Fortress tired, nobody came close. This test would define whether this was RTCW:ET:Quakewars or whether this was the negative aspects of ET teamplay that differed it from RTCW and made it ET:Quakewars.
Unfortunately, I was able to take out people left right and center and nobody could compete with my mech warrior, and I was able to work individually to win the game for Strogg. (Yes I got highest XP woot). The game lacked any dependance on teammates, it lacked the desire for a great defensive medic, or an engineer who can pull a construction outta nowhere.
The battles were great, they looked special, you felt like you were in the future and in fullscale combat. The sound was impressive and it was a FUN game. But then, Battlefield 2 was FUN in the purest sense. Its fun because it the easiest parts of point and shoot are present, its fun because playing video games is fun. Was it something that could sit me down for hours on end like RTCW did? Well, not really I was not overly upset when my various games had ended.
I could be wrong, the trade show atmosphere could have lead to different style of gameplay. However last year I played BF2 and won a Video Card at E3, and the game was exactly the same when retail.
The game will be fun, and the game will be a success, however the feature that makes RTCW so special, the dynamic that makes individuals redundant and teams oh so brilliant, I certainly did not feel.
ET Quakewars took on a mamoth task, limiting itself at a massive 24 players, requires 12 good team players. 12 People aware exactly of what they're doing and how to play with eachother. RTCW and ET requires just 6, and is far easier to get together as a team. It looks like we may be heading the way we feared.
In other E3 news, Prey looks like it could be the unexpected DeathMatch game to possibly rescue general interest in the genre. The trailer looked simply awful, however its complete gravity change, and the ability to go all over the walls, (literally, change your position from flat, to walking up the walls and the roof) whilst still fighting, in a relatively simple fashion, really has excited me, and Fox (Q3/4 pro) has echoed the enthusiasm, and infact was the only reason I sat down and played it. Expect a full report later next week.
Apoligies for the quality of this article as 4K^Grubby needs this station now :)
Toss
