Demo Reviews: Quake IV

Today we're pulling one out of the vault, as it were. Quake IV was released in 2005 for PC, and was later ported to the 360 and Mac. But, you can still download the demo on X Box Live, so that's why we're here today. I'm a big Quake fan, having played Quake II on PC back when we first got a home computer, and it was in fact the first PC game I ever finished. But enough about that, let's have a bit of background on the games themselves before we start.
Quake IV is a direct sequel to Quake II. Quakes I and III are not part of this story. The first game follows a similar story to fellow FPS (first-person-shooter) Doom, and the third entry is based heavily in multiplayer with little story. In Quake II, you follow a Marine stranded on the alien world of Stroggos. The Stroggs, a cybernetic race that uses prisoners and enemy dead to replenish and fuel it's massive war machine, have invaded Earth and you are sent as part of a counter-attack. Your character is alone throughout the game, and in the end you manage to destroy the Stroggs' security grid as well as the Strogg leader, the Makron.

Yeah, this guy.

The demo for Quake IV picks up with a human armada coming out of (warp speed/hyperspace/mass relay/etc.) at the planet Stroggos. There's a nice bit of exposition as your squad leader briefs you and outlines what happened in Quake II. Your landing ship is shot down and you spend the rest of the demo reuniting with your squad and heading out on what I assume is the first mission.
I had a lot of fun with this demo, not just because of the nostalgia factor (although familiarity with the story, enemies, etc. didn't hurt I'm sure). The graphics were very nice (for being five years old), while still having that "Quake" feel to them. As such, the enemies also got an update, while still recognizable to someone familiar with the game. Take for example the Strogg Beserker from Quake II (left) and Quake IV (right).



I also really liked how the opening cinematic for the game really sets the tone for what's to come (see it here ). It pulls no punches, and let's you know right away this is an M-rated game and it's going to hold to that rating. It's not going to shy away from all the brutal and gory bits as you wage war on the Strogg. In investigating this game I found another cinematic that shows you in unabashed and graphic detail what happens when someone gets captured by the Strogg. It may not be pretty, but it shows you what your up against and the price that all humans will pay if you fail. That is intense stuff and that's what I like to see. This game is already for adults and I like that it doesn't gloss things over, it shows you what the stakes really are. And keeping it in the first-person-perspective is a nice touch.
A difference, and I don't think it's a bad one, is having other humans in the game (at least for the duration of the demo). In Quake II you are alone, from the time you land till the end of the game. Here there are other soldiers, and medics who can heal you. This is a very interesting difference, and makes for a slightly different gameplay mindset than being a one-man army. I don't know if this persists throughout the game, but having some human interaction for at least part of it is a change I don't mind. The voice acting for the characters seems to be pretty good, especially since it seems a lot of first-person shooters have average-to-bad voice acting* (except you, Bioshock, we love you <3), and I would say Quake IV rates better than something like Turok, which was pretty good but often hit-or-miss.
But what about the weapons, you say? Well, I can only tell you about what was available in the demo, which was the blaster, the machine gun, and the shotgun. The blaster is your usual starting gun, limitless ammo, not terribly powerful, but gets the job done when you need it to. Next you have the shotgun. It fires eight rounds before reload, and is great for close targets (although a bit slow to fire and reload) but sucks at range. Finally, the trusty machine gun. This one has a forty round clip, a flashlight, and ability to use the scope to snipe. It's a jack-of-all-trades weapon that is very effective and my personal choice for early levels. Sadly, I didn't get to try out fun superguns like the hyperblaster, the railgun, or the nailgun, but I remember the hyperblaster and railgun from Quake II and I'm sure they are just as much fun this time around.

So, would I recommend this game, based on the demo? Hells yes! It's nice to have played Quake II first, so you have a better idea of what's going on, but I'm sure you can more or less put it together as you play if you haven't. In fact, there is a Collector's Edition of the game (for PC and 360) that comes with Quake II if you need it. I've read that Quake IV runs badly on the 360, with framrate issues and long load times, but none of that was present in the demo, so I don't know if that was patched or was just because it was the demo. I would still recommend this game on whatever your preferred platform. It's a fun, gory, Strogg-blasting good time, and there's nothing wrong with that. For anything familiar with the story from Quake II, this will give you a nice bit of nostalgia, especially during the opening briefing when you realize "hey, that was ME that did all those things in the last game!". So I say, go give it a try, it's lots of fun. And join me next time on Demo Reviews where I will do a more recent game, I promise. :D

The P.M.S




*I could be wrong about this of course. I don't play the war FPSs like Call of Duty so they might be great for all I know.

Game Announcements and Interesting Observations

Now anyone who watches our videos can infer at least one thing about the Cynic and I: we're big geeks/nerds/dorks/insert appropriate title here. As part of that, we're also big gamers. I won't get into a compare and such on our games of preference, as that's not what we're talking about here.

I play a lot of different games of different kinds. I really don't subscribe to one genre of game. Some of my favorites include Mortal Kombat, Diablo I/II, WoW, Portal, Legend of Zelda, and Dragon Age. There's more, obviously, but today I want to talk about Dragon Age.

Now I picked this game up on a whim, not knowing a damn thing about it. We'd gone to rent some games for New Years, for a fun relaxing evening. I had wanted to get Assassin's Creed 2 (which, to be honest, I still haven't played :P), but there weren't any copies left. Dragon Age caught my eye, and I figured "sure, why not?", swords, sorcery, and fighting evil? Sign me up!

And I was completely blown away. Now I won't say too much about the game itself here, but suffice to say, I found myself on the Dragon Age forums as a result. And I found, lo and behold, I stayed. So, I found out pretty fast when Dragon Age 2 was announced earlier this month. And I've come to notice a few things, which I am sure is present in every forum in a situation like this, but nevertheless, bears written observation of the behavior (or maybe it's the anthropologist in me talking).

First off, is the trolls. Now, trolling is nothing new to me, and shouldn't be to anyone who's been on the Internet for more than five minutes. There's something about a new game announcement that brings them out like vultures. A somewhat related group is what I like to call the "whiners" and the "doomsayers". Now, the First DA game got a lot of flak for its graphics, and so with the second installment, the dev team is looking to bring in a new style that is more up to date and is somewhat different from the first game. Cue the whiners. Cue the doomsayers. Every new development, every released piece of concept art, every new screenshot, every new detail, sends them into a frenzied declaration of the game's imminent "sucking" and promises of "I'm not going to buy this", etc., etc. This grows tiresome, even to a regular denizen of the Internet, or perhaps my patience for such things isn't what it was. That being said, I'm 45 pages deep in a thread about a new development (which is NOT A FUCKING RETCON, DAMMIT) for one of the races in the DA universe, of which you really only see one member of and doesn't completely change everything that has been established about them, which isn't much at this point. Given that DA is just establishing a lore, there isn't much of a problem. It's not like explaining the whole Eredar/Draenei thing, which was a more complicated maneuver than this.

Another feature is what I like to refer to as the "platform elitists". People whining about the fact that the game is being released for the Xbox 360 and the PS3, along with for the PC. Perhaps it's because I'm a multi-platform gamer that I can't understand the problem with the game being released for the consoles as well as the PC. I myself play DA on the 360, the so-called "worst" platform on which to play it, apparently. And you know what? I'm fine with that, even if I could play it on the PC and thus get mods and such (which I could if I wanted to, my PC would run it). I don't feel that the game is "dumbed down" or looses any of the RPG element for being on console, and I really don't see why it's such a big deal, but perhaps it's just cause I'm not a "PC-only" gamer and perhaps I don't understand what a "true/pure RPG" is. Y'know, when it comes down to it, I don't care how top-of-the-line your machine is, how games run so much better and look so much better on your PC than it does on my 360. You know why? Because I don't play games just to run them at optimum capacity just because I can. I play games for the story, for the fun, the action, for the characters. Dragon Age sucked me into an amazing world and story, with characters that felt like real people. I don't give a flying fuck about the graphics, or how it plays from platform to platform. Hell, I don't even care about beating it on the Nightmare difficulty, because it doesn't seem necessary. The game isn't about that for me.

So perhaps, dear readers, I just wanted to rant a little. Perhaps somewhere in that jumbled mess is a valid point. Dragon Age: Origins is a phenomenal game. The expansion, Awakening, is also a great play. In the end, isn't this what really matters? Yes, DA2 will look different from DA1, I won't argue that. But really, we know very little at this time. There hasn't even been a DA2 trailer yet (it comes out mid-August, the 17th, I think), everybody just needs to relax a little. There's no need for what I see on the forums, there really isn't. Some people just need to get their panties out of there arses and chill the fuck out. Seriously.

Anyways, I think I've ranted long enough for one evening. I am working on my debut video still. I ran into some snags with my original idea, it became too big for itself, so it has been simplified into something a little different, but hopefully entertaining nonetheless. So I will close this by saying thank you to the development team at Bioware for the wonderful story that is Dragon Age: Origins (and assorted DLC and xpac), and that I eagerly await the launch of DA2 next year, and whatever comes in between. And also to all the devs who are brave enough to venture onto the forums to explain, confuse, and amuse us. I love that you guys actually take the time to answer questions and such.

~the P.M.S

(ps. anyone interested, there are two DA books out so far, written by lead writer David Gaider: The Stolen Throne and The Calling. They are both excellent reads and I highly recommend them.)