Two's Company
"Q3A sux0rs! UT r0x!" Oh dear...
As the new millenium looms, a war is taking place on the internet. A war of words.
On messageboards, forums and news page comment systems across the world, people are making a stand for their chosen belief system.
Quake, or Unreal.
The Contenders
Quake 3 Arena is the latest game from id Software, the people who invented the first person shooter genre as we know it with games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.
It has probably the most advanced graphics engine of any game so far. It has the lineage of the previous two Quake games, which have become the de facto standard in online and professional gaming, the games that other companies have sought to match, the origin of the phrase "Quake killer", an accolade that dozens of games have reached for and fallen short of.
It has curves. Whether they actually add anything to the game is open to debate, but they do look rather nice .. if you have the hardware to handle them.
Unreal Tournament is a remarkably similar game from Epic, unveiled just weeks after Quake 3 was first announced, leading to accusations of bandwagon jumping and me-too-ism, though in truth both companies came up with the same idea independently.
It has a wide range of imaginative weapons, each with two different firing modes for double the fragging pleasure. It has a whole host of gameplay options and different team play modes like Assault and Domination.
It has great AI. It's hard to argue that Quake 3's bots are a match for Unreal Tournament's, although that hasn't stopped some id fanatics claiming that the ability to parse text and respond to keywords with (sometimes) intelligent responses somehow makes Quake 3 superior.
Two games, each with an almost religious following amongst hardcore gamers, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. So, which is better?
Bury The Hatchet
Who the hell cares?!?
Let's face it, we have two great games here, both of which are great fun to play and have a lot going for them. The only winners are the gamers, and the only losers are those who are blinkered enough not to give them both a chance!
If I see one more "Quake 3 vs Unreal Tournament" article, I'm going to run screaming through town brandishing an over-ripe banana.
You can argue over which is the better game until you're blue in the face, it won't change anything. The bottom line is that multiplayer gaming fanatics have never had it so good.
And the best part is that both games are intended to appeal to deathmatch virgins as much as to the hardcore gamers. If they have succeeded, next year should see a massive influx of fresh blood.
In the long run this means more players, more servers, more third party add-ons, more tournaments, more prizes, more clans, more websites, more games, more gamers, and more fun for everyone!
This community really is big enough for both games, and as they suck in more players it can only get better.
Online gaming is coming of age, so quit yer whining, and if you haven't already done so, buy both games!
Quake 3 Arena "first look" review
