Enemy Territory Quake Wars had always excited me from the moment that I heard of the game.

I was, and still am, a dedicated Wolf: ET player, and I realize just as well as everyone else that ET is basically dead. With the conclusion of CDC3, we might have seen the last great ET LAN, and along with that the last great moment for ET. ET was without a doubt in my mind the greatest online game I have ever played, and that is why I still cling to it even though its end is near. As any ET player can understand, this game did everything right. It provided the perfect mix of combat, and there was something for everyone. If you wanted to show off your tracking skill you could use SMG. If you wanted to show off your timing, and spatial skills you could use rifle. If you wanted to show your battle sense you could use arty. If you were a master of being in the right place at the right time you could massacre with the panzer.

It never got old. Many times I found myself pubbing, and I got bored with the SMG, yet there was still many other different classes or guns I could utilize, and the whole game changed depending on that. I played rifle completely differently than I did SMG. Simply switching classes could create a whole new game.This alone separated ET from games like CS where you simply chose between pistols, rifles and snipers.

What was so great was that ET did this, while at the same time still keeping the game simple. There was so much to do, yet even someone new to the game could grasp the game within days.

The reason that I was looking forward to Quake Wars so much, was that I wanted a second Wolfenstein ET. I really did. Perhaps this was what disappointed me so much. Quake Wars has the same class system and overall theme as ET, yet it is vastly different. Unlike ET this game is complicated. Take all the classes, give them more abilities, and then add vehicles to the mix. It takes away the beautiful simplicity of ET, one of the things that made it great. Bigger is not always better.

The second thing it neglects is infantry combat. This is no longer a player vs. player game. This becomes a tank vs. player game. An automated turret vs. player game. A landmine vs. player game. The spam versus the skill in ET was very well balanced, where in QW the spam is over the top. A game where I can set up a turret and kill people without even doing anything is not fun for me. A game where I can get in a tank and one-shot kill people who can't even touch me by shooting me is not fun for me.

Sometimes I just find myself frustrated by playing QW. Maybe it is just the craziness of pub, but when I spawn just to be killed within seconds by a player in a tank, it just seems unfair. Perhaps I am not realizing the overall team aspect of the game and I should be counting on my team to take out the tank, but my mind tells me differently. My mind says that in a good game, it should not be purely rock-paper-scissors. If I am paper, I should still be able to have a chance against scissors even if the odds are against me. In ET, no matter what was going on, it came down to pure combat between one or more people. If someone was trying to panzer me, I still had those few seconds while the panzer was charging to kill them. Even if it was extremely hard to kill them in that short time of charge, I still had a shot. If I failed there was always next time.

In QW there is no next time. If a tank is pointed at you, you die, it's as simple as that. Turrets are another thing that take away that great player vs. player combat. If I get killed by a player, I want to feel like I was outplayed. If I walk around a corner and get shot up by some kid's automated turret, that feeling is not there. Instead I just feel frustrated that they were able to kill me without lifting a finger. A good video game should require skill to gather kills and not just a decent spot to drop your big metal aimbot gun. I want to feel like we had a fight, and they beat me fair and square. There is nothing more frustrating in a game than dying and not being able to do anything about it.

In the end, Quake Wars disappointed me. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Quake Wars is a bad game. I preordered it and I expect to play it, just not to the extent that I played ET. All I am trying to say is that QW is by no means ET. It is not even close. Maybe I am just biased against vehicles, and my argument has no basis, maybe on the other hand my argument is valid. You tell me.