Zero Punctuation: Quake

[Grey_Area]

Ahh Quake. The hours spent in multiplayer, chasing and being shot up by my flatmates, with the constant threat of spinning through a doorway as my weapon ran out of ammunition so it decided to automatically change to the fucking rocket launcher and I ended up fragging myself because I shot the bloody wall next to me.

Sniff. Good times, good times!

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Okay lets be fair. Yes, Quake could be said to be the progenitor of the bland gray/brown shooters, but the difference is that Quake isn't "bland". I feel that it was less a harbinger of FPS's to come, and more that it's a case study in the fact that a brighter color scheme wouldn't have fixed many of the shooters from the past decade or so. Obviously you can get away with a bland color scheme, otherwise Quake wouldn't be so fondly remembered by nearly everyone who played it. Heck, it took being reminded that Quake was actually kind of an ugly game (in your Clive Barker's Jericho review, I believe) before I realized that "Holy shit! He's right. Quake DOES have a very bland color scheme." Yet it's still a beloved classic despite that.

I think the problem is less the color scheme, and more that Quake wasn't using said color scheme in some vain attempt to pass-off as looking realistic. Quake knew its graphics were shit, but it also knew what kind of setting it was going for. Let's be honest, as much as you can make fun of Quake for having a lot of dull color tones, it would have felt like a completely different game if it used brighter colors.

 

[09philj]

Don't think Carmack had much to do with level design though. He is primarily their tech guy.

Also telling John Romero that no, that was a fucking stupid idea.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I feel like Yahtzee had fun with this one. Like, much more than normal. Maybe it's the enthusiasm and the wording

 

[Nurb]

This manages to explain why I was so bored with Quake when it was new.

Quake 2 didn't bother me so much.

Quake 3 Arena though, oh my, the months and months of playing that game were wonderful. Though with recent games trying to tap into that era of shooters are making them much too fast paced. Quake 3 and UT weren't nearly as frantic as people remember them.

 

[Vigormortis]

Oh man, that life cycle of shooters at the end. That was great.

Best joke of the lot, honestly. Actually made me laugh audibly.

Quake 3 and UT weren't nearly as frantic as people remember them.

They were if you played with the right (or wrong) people.

I was in a tourney group for Q3:A back in the day. The game escalates into a wholly different level of speed and intensity when you're playing against people who are good...really good...at the game.

 

[irishda]

I think we can all agree, though, that Quake 3 Arena was Goldeneye for the PC.

Something about when you landed a shot with a railgun on someone flying from a jump booster only to get sprayed with their guts as it landed.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Ahh Quake. The hours spent in multiplayer, chasing and being shot up by my flatmates, with the constant threat of spinning through a doorway as my weapon ran out of ammunition so it decided to automatically change to the fucking rocket launcher and I ended up fragging myself because I shot the bloody wall next to me.

Sniff. Good times, good times!

Back in MY day, we rocket jumped everywhere! And we liked it!

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

This is refreshing, like a fine wine aged for decades. Ignore the health warnings from your doctor and online, its totally fine to still enjoy insane level design from yesteryear.

 

[Bedinsis]

Wait a minute, he didn't actually review the level pack from Machine Games! What gives?

 

[discrider]

It's winter in Australia.
I don't get why Yahtzee's hiding in a fridge and calling it summer.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I do remember experiencing awe at the atmosphere and the character design as I played it for the first time years ago. "Okay, I'm barely alive, but I think I'll make it thr-AHHHH IT'S SOME KIND OF ELECTRIC POLAR BEAR BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE A FACE IT'S JUST A BLOODY MOUTH". And then I died.

After that I mostly spent my time in god mode, noclipping through walls. Oh, and looking at the graphics settings and wondering what kind of magical box could ever run that game at 1280x1024. Maybe one of those Pentium Pro 180 mhz computers could do it.

Ah, Shamblers...

Like Cyberdemons, but with 185% extra 'fuck you'. I hated those damn things.

OT: I look forward to next week's episode, when Yahtzee reviews more hot new releases like Dune 2 or X-Wing.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

'No new releases', missing the chance to tear into No Man's Sky. Oh well, maybe next week?

The thing that I remember best about Quake isn't actually the game itself (I actually enjoyed the sequel more due to much faster run speed, better weapons and high-tech environments that were gorgeous for the time). I remember someone writing a letter to Nintendo Power about how they were playing Quake when suddenly their house was hit by an earthquake, causing their TV to fall onto their console, destroying the former and leaving a big hole in the latter.

Let's hope he stays far away from GTA or Fallout.

 

[Stemer]

Quake

This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Quake.

Watch Video

Yahtzee you're not being fair to Quake

Some of the castles were blue

 

[Wilco86]

Damn how I loved Q1 zombies. The need to blow them to pieces to keep them down (and they still kept moaning, if I remember right) was freaky as hell. No instant-kill pistol headshots against zombies, no sir! (The reason why I didn't mind games like Thief also having undead.)

 

[JagerBombastic]

No but seriously that oger can get double fucked.

 

[darkrage6]

Just checking, but is "****" safe for public use now?

He's a Brit living in Australia IIRC, "****" is more like punctuation over there, not like in the US where the oversensitive pussies think it's the worst insult ever XD

No need to be rude. Every country has their own word they find unacceptable, for us it's the C word, for the brits it's Fanny and Spastic.

 

[darkrage6]

I personally don't get the hate for brown and gray color palettes', I think they look pretty damn good in their own right. Quake IV was actually the first M-rated game I ever played and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not big on the other games in the series as IMO they have not aged well(nor have any 90s FPS games). I'm disappointing in ID for selling out with Quake by turning it into a shitty looking Overwatch clone.

 

[Grey_Area]

Ahh Quake. The hours spent in multiplayer, chasing and being shot up by my flatmates, with the constant threat of spinning through a doorway as my weapon ran out of ammunition so it decided to automatically change to the fucking rocket launcher and I ended up fragging myself because I shot the bloody wall next to me.

Sniff. Good times, good times!

Back in MY day, we rocket jumped everywhere! And we liked it!

:-D Heh, I never got the hang of rocket jumping! I just ended up smearing myself across the skybox...
But the nail gun taught me how to lead a target!

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Jesus. I remember waking up right past nine o' clock to connect the modem (insert SKREE-BWUUUUM-SKREEEE-BLUBBLUBBLUB noises here) in the hopes that a single night would be enough to nab the Shareware version off of a 56.6K line.

Quake was - and still is - incredible. The less said about Quake II, however, the better.

Strogg? Cyborg alien thingies? Sci-fi bullshit straight out of Starship Troopers? Where's my Lovecraft at, Carmack?!